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The week in social: Reddit, Snapchat and Alerts

16 Mar 2020 Javier de Guzman

The week in social

Reddit Trending Today

Social news aggregator and discussion website Reddit launched a new feature that lets brands appear in the site’s trending section. The ads, entitled Trending Takeovers, give brands 24-hour slots in the most visited areas on the site, the popular feed and search tab.

These ads, available on both mobile and desktop, differ from standard posts as the text “promoted” appears at the top in bold.

Facebook Local Alerts on COVID-19

Social media giant Facebook is aiding the dissemination of relevant information around the current COVID-19 pandemic by giving more local authorities access to its Local Alerts tool. This gives State and local public health agencies the ability to push out timely, accurate information to their local communities.

Facebook will also provide online tutorials on Local Alerts to ensure that they get the most out of the tool.

Instagram shares tips on COVID-19

Instagram is leveraging its most valuable piece of real estate on the app by sharing important information on COVID-19. In countries with many cases, a new call-out at the top of the homescreen feed appears that shares a link to credible information from the World Health Organization and local health ministries.

The app has also taken down the AR effects on Stories that are related to the virus, as this could limit the spread of disinformation or insensitive jokes about the virus.

Snapchat launches Lens Web Builder

Snapchat is stepping up its Augmented Reality game yet again by launching the Lens Web Builder : a tool that simplifies the creation of AR effects to help companies create more AR-centric promotions.

The app already introduced the basic forms of AR with “lenses,” filters that add digital effects to real-world scenes; the company has now taken it a step further with this tool that allows users to create lenses in minutes without any AR design experience. This means that brands can now create custom lenses which will be immediately available for use in Snapchat ad campaigns.

Facebook Stories tests cross-posting

In an effort to unify Facebook and Instagram even further – and to reduce watching Stories re-runs – Facebook is testing out the option to cross-post Stories to Instagram and not just vice-versa.

This test was first found by social media detective Jane Manchun Wong, a reverse engineering expert. When a user is about to post a Facebook Story, they can tap into Privacy and see an Instagram toggle that appears to turn on continuous cross-posting of that post and all other future Stories.