What’s MGHappening in Social Media: Sept. 24, 2019

The Verge – Facebook has officially released a new update for its Creator Studio, which lets business account holders schedule their Instagram posts and IGTV broadcasts without using the Instagram app. This ability was first announced last month, and is now being rolled out along with new capabilities for Facebook’s live streaming, watch party, and creator studio features. One of the biggest benefits to having IG scheduling available via a first-party tool is the ability to add multiple images to a single post, something that third-party tools have lacked. Other notable announcements include:

• A new “rehearsal” feature for live videos, which lets publishers broadcast privately to page admins to make sure everything is working. Live video will also be able to be trimmed after its recorded.
• Scheduling and the ability to replay Watch Parties.
• New analytics features in Creator Studio, giving publishers more info about their contents’ performance.

(Full Story)

CNBC – Facebook has released new details surrounding its upcoming “Supreme Court,” which will be an independent body responsible for making content moderation decisions, with the ability to overturn decisions made by Facebook itself. The board will eventually consist of 40 members with three-year terms, all coming from a diverse array of backgrounds. A minimum of 11 members will be required for the board to function, and panels of five individuals each will deliberate on the cases they choose to take. Facebook’s “Supreme Court” aims to be in place by early 2020 and will respond to high-profile user appeals and questions from the company itself. (Full Story)

Engadget – Facebook is rumored to have partnered with the parent company of Ray-Ban®, Oakley® and other optics brands, Luxottica to develop augmented reality (AR) glasses currently codenamed “Orion.” The release is likely a few years away, with Facebook remaining fairly quiet and analysts estimating a 2023-2025 arrival date. The project has more in common with Google Glass than with a smartphone-dependent product like Snapchat Spectacles since users will reportedly be able to take calls, view information and even go live directly on the glasses. Additionally, rumors suggest Facebook is also developing a pair of glasses codenamed Stella that would launch in the next few years and compete more with the likes of Snapchat Spectacles, helping to gauge public perception prior to Orion. (Full Story)

CNBC – Facebook is continuing its move into hardware by announcing a new Portal Device – Portal TV. The device comes with a camera and microphones and allows users to make video calls from their televisions over WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, as well as to stream video from Amazon Prime Video, Facebook Watch, Showtime, Starz and others. It will cost $149 and will begin shipping Nov. 5. The social aspect of Portal TV is what drives it home as a Facebook product. Users will be able to video chat, co-watch, and participate in Watch Parties with the device, which is connected to users’ existing TV(s). Addressing privacy concerns, Facebook provides users with options to cover the camera and disable the microphones when Portal TV is not in use. (Full Story)






The Verge – Instagram has unveiled a new policy that will restrict people under the age of 18 from seeing posts that promote weight loss products or types of cosmetic surgery. These two categories are prevalent, rapidly growing subsections of influencer marketing on IG, and the policy is not unlike one that already exists for paid ads across Facebook’s advertising network. When a post “makes a miraculous claim about certain diet or weight loss products, and is linked to a commercial offer such as a discount code,” it will be removed. Instagram is making this change as they work to make the platform “a positive place for everyone” and reduce social media pressures. (Full Story)

Business Insider – Reverse app engineer Jane Manchun Wong has discovered a new feature Instagram is working on called “Clips.” The new Story Camera addition seems inspired by TikTok, as it allows users to post videos on their Stories that are recorded as separate snippets and then spliced together, with music overlaid and speed/video length adjusted per segment. Instagram did not comment on the story and has not publicly announced plans to release this feature, but with TikTok’s rising popularity and Instagram’s history of incorporating features from other apps, this release does not seem unlikely. (Full Story)



Digital Trends – Snapchat is adding a new level to Snaps via the new 3D Camera Mode, which uses the depth data that can be obtained by some smartphone cameras to create a dimensional image, complete with AR lenses. Beyond a traditional selfie, this new mode will allow the movement of the smartphone to adjust the perspective of the image, making it so the selfie appears to pop out of the screen. At launch, the feature will be available only for iPhone X and above, though all Snapchat users will be able to view the end results. (Full Story)

Gizmodo – Snap is reportedly talking with media companies about a “dedicated news section inside the Snapchat app.” This concept is not new, as social media companies -- including Snapchat -- have worked to form these types of partnerships in the past with varying degrees of success. Publishers have been wary of forming partnerships too closely with the big tech companies as terms can be changed very suddenly, leaving many on the publishing side in a difficult spot. The suggested partnerships would be a “do-over of sorts for [Snap’s] efforts to present real-time, breaking news from a handful of trusted news partners.” The news tab would own its own real estate in “a distinct area within the Discover section of the social media app.” If all goes according to plan, this revamped news section will roll out early next year. (Full Story)



The Verge – The YouTube app for TV (not to be confused with the YouTube TV app) is getting a new ad placement: a video card spanning a significant portion of the homepage. YouTube refers to this placement as the YouTube Masthead, and a similar placement already exists when viewing YouTube on desktop. Ads in this section will “autoplay for viewers after a few seconds on all compatible devices.” Notably, Google says that people remember seeing ads on the TV app slightly more than they do on regular cable TV. (Full Story)




TechCrunch – YouTube is testing a new feature called profile cards, which will appear whenever a user clicks on a commenter’s name and would list all of their recent comments on the channel. This update is intended to give readers more visibility into how a particular commenter is interacting with the channel. It will not show comments made on other channels, nor will it show comments from more than 12 months in the past. (Full Story)