The week in social: Snapchat earnings, Instagram web, and Pinterest Lens

Snapchat shows modest growth with latest earnings report

Earlier this week, Snap Inc. issued its first earnings report since going public as a company, covering the period of Q1 2017. The service currently has 166 daily active users, which represents a 5% growth, a decline from the majority of previous quarters. Presently the company is trading stock shares at the lowest amount since it has gone public.

Facebook is changing the new feed algorithm to reduce low quality content

Announced on a post on its Newsroom, Facebook is changing the way content is served to users to prevent more ‘low quality’ content from hitting the news feed. Facebook has received a large amount of complaints from users about clicking links that send them to sites with little useful content, filled with advertisements. The company did not go into detail about what exact changes are being made, but the post goes on to remind users about policies the protect the content consumption experience, such as preventing advertisers with low quality websites to use advertising on the platform that leads to site.

More information on Facebook News Room.

Instagram introduces new mobile web functionality

As part of its push for global expansion, Instagram now has a fully functioning mobile site that operates in a similar manner to the dedicated mobile app. The mobile web version of Instagram also includes a version of the app’s Explore tab. The mobile web version of the service is aimed at growing its audience outside of the United States where data speeds may be restrictive. Instagram currently has 80% of its users outside of the US.

More information on TechCrunch.

Pinterest updates its Lens feature

Pinterest’s Lens feature, which picks out individual images within screenshots or photos to highlight in Pins, has seen new upgrades as of earlier this week. Among the changes include the ability to focus on multiple items, support for QR codes, and an Android app shortcut to open up the Lens function instead of having to go through multiple steps by opening up the Pinterest app. Pinterest’s post on the update admits that there are still a few bugs being worked on, but the functionality is continuing to improve as more users try the beta.

360 live broadcasting is now available for Periscope on Android

A feature that was previously only available to Periscope users on iOS, Android users are now able to run 360 Live broadcasts. When a user goes live with a 360 broadcast, a special badge will be displayed to let users know that the format is being used as an easy reference. 360 live broadcasts can be watched on both Periscope and directly on Twitter, as well as across any web browser with the exception of Safari. Perspective can be changed while watching a 360 video in the same way it can across other platforms and services, by either using gyroscopic features on the future or tapping and swiping across the screen.

More information on AdWeek.

Snapchat offers unlimited viewing of Snaps

A feature requested by users, and also offered on competing services such as Instagram, Snapchat is now offering Snap creators the option to let viewers replay the Snap as many times as they want before moving on. The Snap will still delete after viewing as usual, but in case a viewer misses a bit of the action in a single viewing they can go back to it time and again more easily. In addition, a new loop feature has been introduced that lets Snap creators decide if a video Snap loops indefinitely or moves onto the next Snap after one play.

More information on Snapchat News.

Facebook ads offline conversion measurement to its Lead Ads

A new way to help measure the link between online and offline actions, Facebook is now allowing advertisers to connect their CRM and POS (point of sale), or call center systems to their Facebook ad campaigns. What this allows is for advertisers to see any non-digital results of advertising campaigns, such as if a user sees an ad, and then goes into a store to purchase the product. In order to use this ad type, advertisers must be managing their CRM with one of Facebook’s partners, be willing to manually upload the offline results of leads, or build directly into the Offline Conversion API That Facebook has set up to connect an advertiser’s CRM.

YouTube is introducing new ad-supported exclusive shows

What appears to be a shift in YouTube’s paid content strategy of distributing exclusive shows through YouTube Red, the company is now debuting new content that will be available to all YouTube users, but will be supported through advertising. Some of the shows include social influencers such as Casey Neistat and Jackie Aina, as well as more traditional celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, Kevin Hart, and Demi Lovato. YouTube has positioned these are opportunities for brands to get involved in YouTube content through advertising.

More information on YouTube Blog.

Facebook further automates the process of creating Canvas Ads

In its push to get more uses to try emerging types of advertising on its platform, Facebook is making it easier to create Canvas ads by offering automation for the creative elements featured in the ad. When an advertiser enters the landing URL in the Canvas Ad creation page, Facebook will automatically pull in imagery from the URL and lay it out in the ad for review. In addition, the individual destination links will also be pulled in as a reference point. Although the Canvas format generally allows for more creative features than just static images, this is one step that could make it easier for more advertisers to get on board.

Instagram offers Mother’s Day stickers

To make celebrating Mother’s Day easier for users, Instagram is offering brand new stickers that can be featured on Instagram Stories. The post announcing the feature did not specify for how long the stickers would be available, and the feature is stated to be available in ‘several countries’ around the world.