The Week in Social: Women in Gaming, Mass Messages, and Going viral

Facebook users don’t want two feeds

In the category of things we already knew we didn’t need, Facebook announced the end of an experiment which pushed publisher content onto a second feed away from posts by family and friends. Facebook said it is discontinuing the Explore Feed bookmark. The company was running the experiment in six countries: Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bolivia, Guatemala and Serbia. “In surveys, people told us they were less satisfied with the posts they were seeing, and having two separate feeds didn’t actually help them connect more with friends and family.”

Women in Gaming

Facebook officially launched its Women in Gaming initiative, created to give women in the gaming industry a place to share their stories and connect with others. Users can visit the Women in Gaming website to view research related to gender and diversity in gaming, as well as to access links to companies and organizations that support changes in the industry. The company will also support women at multiple gaming events, including Gamescom and the European Women in Games conference. In addition, Facebook will host “Women in Gaming stories days” which will encourage women to share their experiences surrounding working in the games industry today.

Facebook for recruiting

Facebook announced it is expanding the job application tool, which launched in U.S. and Canada last February, to more than 40 countries. Users can access job posts through the Jobs dashboard, the Jobs option in the Explore section on mobile, the Jobs icon in Facebook Marketplace, and the Jobs tab on specific pages. Once a user submits their application, a Messenger conversation is opened between the applicant and the business page allowing direct contact. Page administrators for companies can post available positions directly to their pages. These posts can include details such as job title, job type and salary.

Mass Messages on Messenger

Facebook has announced that it has extended its test of the Messenger Broadcast feature to eligible small business pages in the U.S., Mexico and Thailand. The Messenger Broadcast feature allows brands to send mass messages using Messenger. The companies that are part of the test group can only send messages to users once a conversation has been initiated by the user. This feature will enable small businesses to reach their entire audience without having to build experiences on the Messenger Platform.

Snapchat downloads on the rise

According to a data company called Sensor Tower, Snapchat downloads increased in the U.S. from 41 percent to 76 percent a week after its redesign compared to the week before. Also, another report from App Annie shows that Snapchat went from No. 7 on the overall U.S. chart to No. 2 in the days after the redesign rolled out. Despite the negative reviews coming from Snapchatters about the redesign and the recent negative tweet from celebrity Kylie Jenner – which contributed to a $1.3 billion drop in Snapchat stock – it seems to have merely made Snapchat the center of conversation.

YouTube streaming updates

YouTube announced updates to its live streaming platform to improve its experience for creators and users.Starting with chat replays, users can now follow the conversation even after a live stream is over. Live chat replays will show up alongside the video, exactly as it appeared live. YouTube will also roll out English-language automatic captions for live streams in the coming weeks. The company added that 1 billion videos have been auto-captioned since the feature was launched. In addition, creators can now tag their videos with a location. Viewers can sort search results by location filter or view additional videos with the same location tag by clicking on a tag.

News accelerator for Facebook publishers

Facebook is trying to help local news publishers boost their digital subscription by putting $3 million behind the launch of the Local News Subscriptions Accelerator. The Accelerator program will launch in the United States and will work with 10-15 metro news organizations to help publishers build digital customer acquisitions on and off the social network. Participants in the program will meet in-person once per month, receive coaching from digital subscription experts, and take part in weekly training sessions covering digital subscription marketing, including how Facebook can be used.

What goes viral

Growista used the BuzzSumo platform to analyze 50,000 content pieces that received 500+ social shares in 2016 and 50,000 content pieces that received 500+ social shares in 2017. Studies found that text-based general articles received the most shares, on average, in both 2016 and 2017, and the average number of shares of videos increased significantly in 2017. Content from sites with higher domain authorities tends to receive more social shares, on average. Surprisingly, readers were more likely to share content 3,000+ words in length in 2017 than in 2016.