Friday Social: Dog Selfies, #THEDRESS and Animated Pins
- Social Media
Our #FridaySocial is a weekly round-up of the key social media news stories from the previous seven days. Let us know your thoughts in the comments or via Twitter – @Umpf
1. Dog Selfies
Heading to Crufts this year? You’ll get to see the world’s first ‘Pet Selfie Mirror’, launched by pet food brand Canidae. Dogs attending the event will be able to take a selfie by standing on a pressure-triggered mat, which then tweets the dog’s picture from Canidae’s Twitter account and also posts on Facebook.
Canidae’s Managing Director, Steve Brown, said: “We’re giving both Crufts visitors and participants the chance to take away a fun keepsake of their time at the show and we can’t wait to see the entertaining and creative photos dogs, and their owners, take using the props on-hand.” Say cheese!
2. Google+ to be phased out
Google is gradually pulling the plug on its unpopular social network, Google+. It seems as though the next phase is a rebrand into two new products: Google Photos, for all picture uploads, and Google Streams, for more text-based status updates.
In a Google+ post (ironically), Google Product VP, Bradley Horowitz said: “Just want to confirm that the rumours are true – I’m excited to be running Google’s Photos and Streams products! It’s important to me that these changes are properly understood to be positive improvements to both our products and how they reach users.”
3. Instagram’s ‘Carousel’
As of Wednesday this week, Instagram has now changed how its ads are presented within the app, making the links clickable. The new ‘Carousel’ ads now enable brands to generate additional information with a left swipe, with the aim of increasing the interactive nature of their posts.
In a statement, Instagram said: “We’ve received feedback from the Instagram community that they are interested in learning more about a brand or product after they have been inspired by a sponsored photo or video.”
The new format is also purported to give brands the chance to bring multi-page print campaigns to mobile phones with the additional benefit of a clickable website link. Note, the new feature has been launched on a limited basis, to be rolled out more widely in the coming future.
4. Animated Pins
Pinterest is now upping its advertising game with the testing of a new ad format – attention-grabbing animated ad pins that move as users scroll. The company’s head of partner marketing, Eric Hadley, confirmed to Ad Age that testing will begin in the next few months, without giving specifics on when the service will launch.
As well as this update, Pinterest is also bringing in more precise audience targeting. This will bring the ability to drill down into more specific interests and target groups, such as “outdoor enthusiasts”.
5. #THEDRESS
The dress divided opinion across the world and spread like wildfire across social media, causing a whole lot of brands to jump in to the conversation on Twitter. Essentially an optical illusion, it sparked a total of 1.5 million online conversations, went viral last Friday with four separate hashtags in the UK: #TheDress, #DressGate, #WhiteandGold and #BlackandBlue.
Check out the infographic below from 1000heads for a breakdown of the event
