The Week in Social: new campaigns, News Feeds, and livestreaming stars

Twitter data shows that Prince’s death has completely dominated social media

Not that it’s a competition by ANY means, but, in case you were wondering, Prince’s death has eclipsed David Bowie’s (though many are citing the two events together as proof of this year’s heartbreaking “musician rapture”) on social. The legend’s death kept social media abuzz for the 24 hours after the news broke, and still today, including some beautiful tributes from brands (as well as some truly bad ones – we’re looking at YOU, Cheerios!). To find out how much chatter the death of the music icon generated on Twitter, social media analytics company SocialFlow tracked popular keywords associated with him over the past 30 days, with just the word ‘Prince’ along garnering 11,582,731 mentions.

Snapchat now lets users face swap with pictures from their camera roll

Perhaps the most entertaining of Snapchat’s features, face swap (which lets users swap faces with someone or something else in real time) can now be used with camera roll images on both iOS and Android apps, ladies and gentlemen. After the update is downloaded, the new camera roll version shows up in a row as a separate option next to the original face swap lens. Snapchat then sorts through your camera roll and finds images with faces that you can swap with. Let the creepy face swapping begin! Thanks Snapchat. Thanks.

Food Network looks to influencers help grow its Snapchat Discover

As Food Network works to grow its Snapchat Discover audience by overall size and audience type, it’s looking to social media stars to create new content for them. It all kicked off Sunday on Food Network’s Discover channel with a video series starring beauty and wellness aficionado Hannah Bronfman. “Feel Good with Hannah” has three pilot episodes of four minutes each, in which she whips up recipes for tasty treats. VP of content development, Deb Puchalla said: “We’re looking to work with more influencers and fresh faces that can introduce our brand to new fans. It allows us to stretch the definition of the Food Network family and do more in food-adjacent categories”

Facebook’s News Feed is changing again to prioritize sites you actually read

It seems every time you start getting used to the way Facebook presents its News Feed, it goes ahead and changes it again – this time to highlight links to sites it thinks you’ll actually spend time on. The update is part of the social network’s “Feed Quality Program” – a much bigger effort to better every users’ News Feed experience – where the company surveys a couple thousand users every day and uses the data to adjust its algorithms.Today’s adjustment is inspired by Facebook’s realization that the amount of time people spend reading or watching content they clicked on is a strong indicator of what types of content they like. Seems pretty obvious, no?

Sean Parker relaunches Airtime, a video chat room for watching – together

Darling of the tech world, Sean Parker is back to give social networking the personal breath of fresh air it needs. Four years after it fell flat, his Airtime app is being revived to be a mobile chat room where friends can share photos, music, and videos so they all experience them simultaneously. Launched this week on iOS and Android, Airtime is about simulating what it’s like to be in the same room with your fave peeps, rather than divided by impersonal News Feeds where the closeness extends about as far as a thumbs up. Parker says that with Airtime, “people can have the expectation of privacy, intimacy, and closeness – a kind of humanity rather than everything having to be some form of theater or performance.”

WeChat breaks 700 million monthly active users

Hot on the tail of fellow messaging giants Messenger and WhatsApp, WeChat is racing toward 1 billion monthly active users, last month hitting a not-to-be-sniffed-at 700 million.

The hugely popular Chinese chat app is up 29% year-over-year from the same period in 2015, according to data from Quest Mobile. China’s social app of choice for quite some time, WeChat is best known for being the first platform to offer users access to a broad array of capabilities from within its app, including the ability to order a cab, make a doctor’s appointment, and make peer-to-peer payments.

Flipagram now lets users natively capture photos and video within its app

Flipagram is shifting gears and changing its tune (well… kinda) in that where before the media curation app made users import content from their camera rolls, the updated app allows users to capture content the moment it ‘appens from within the app. With the update comes more spontaneity and an easier workflow, and all media can be compiled the same way it normally would once been captured. CEO Farhad Mohit said: “Rather than sharing a single highlight photo or short video clip, people increasingly want to tell a whole story with many photo and video moments. Our new Flipacam makes it incredibly easy.”

Getting to know the top stars of livestreaming platform YouNow

A new generation of young influencers aged 15 – 22 are sidestepping Snapchat and Periscope, and heading directly to livestreaming social network YouNow. According to founder Adi Sideman, more than 70% of the platform’s audience is under 24, and the influencer community has been quick to embrace the platform. Marco Hansell, founder of influencer agency Speakr said: “Newer platforms present talent the opportunity to make their mark and consolidate their presence. They may never been able to catch up to the mega-influencers on platforms like YouTube and Snapchat, but they can take the lead on newly emerging ones.”

Facebook considers letting users add tip jar to make $$$ from posts

If you’ve been thinking for quite some time that you should be paid for your witty Facebook commentary, then your time to shine may very well be upon you. Facebook is exploring new ways for individual users to profit from their posts. The social network distributed a new user survey this week, which hints at a number of ways users could make money or fundraise, including a tip jar, branded content, and taking a cut of the ad revenue Facebook earns from posts. Cha-ching! (Though don’t go counting your chickens just yet as it’s unclear whether Facebook is considering making these options available to all users.)

YouTube adds 360-degree livestreaming and spatial audio

Just yesterday, YouTube announced support for 360-degree livestreaming and spatial audio for on-demand videos. Neil Mohan, chief product officer for the video streaming giant, made the announcement in a blog post, saying that it debuted the technology on weekend one of the Coachella music festival, and also added that spatial audio is available for on-demand YouTube videos. The changes meant that spectators from around the world were able to experience Coachella in 3D. YouTube is working with companies to ensure their software is compatible with the two new features.

Facebook is promising publishers live-video in-stream ad options

You may know that BuzzFeed made their Facebook Live debut a few weeks ago with their exploding watermelon trick, but did you know that it earned them nothing in ad dollars? Today, a number of publishers are reporting that Facebook is telling them the money will come, and that it is considering testing commercials right in the live stream. According to these publishers, pre-roll video is still not an option, but a commercial that plays during broadcast downtimes could be a go-er. As seems to be the norm, Facebook has built a powerful media platform, but left the money making out of it.

Airbnb’s new campaign urges travellers to “put down the selfie stick” and live like a local

Airbnb’s aim to make everywhere home for everyone is well and truly underway, bolstered by their latest ( and largest) “Live There” marketing campaign.

“Don’t go to Paris. Don’t tour Paris, and please don’t do Paris,” the narrator advises over footage of selfie sticks and packed tour boats. “Live in Paris,” is the alternative she suggests. The idea came from data that suggested 86% of its users pick the platform because they want to live more like a local and less like a tourist. Airbnb CMO Jonathan Mildenhall said he wanted the brand’s latest work to push back against the modern tourism industry and capture the idea that people shouldn’t simply go to a new place, but they should live there, even only if for a night.