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Friday Social: Emojis, Ads Manager App & #YourJob

  • Social Media

Our Friday Social 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 / @nathanbrush #FridaySocial

Emojis from around the globe

Apple released a beta update to its OS X operating system this week with a new, racially diverse set of emojis. The Unicode Consortium, a non-profit organisation devoted to maintaining international software standards, teamed up with Apple to create emojis with a range of skin tones. Emojis will still come in the standard yellow (or jaundiced) variety, but also in five more shades. Not stopping there, the new clan also includes emojis in same-sex relationships and families with two mothers or fathers. Unfortunately, red heads are still unrepresented. We expect to see the emojis across all Apple platforms, and likely across social media, in the coming months.

Facebook Ads Manager App

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With now over 2 million advertisers on its network, Facebook has launched an Ads Manager app for iOS users this week. Users can create and edit adverts, monitor spend, review results and set alert notifications. Allowing advertisers to upload and scale images directly from the camera roll, the app will allow advertisers to reach their target audience with real-time content even when they’re away from their desk. As expected, iOS-using American advertisers are the first to have access with access for other territories and Android users to follow. Only time will tell if Twitter will make the same investment.

Twitter payments

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As of next week, Twitter users will be able to send money to individuals and businesses’ Twitter handles via an app developed by Barclays called Pingit. Users simply link their Twitter and Pingit to enable the service, which is not exclusive to Barclays customers. The app also allows Twitter users to request payment from others, an exciting development as the online customer-journey becomes ever shorter. The service will be available to iOS and Android users in the UK from Monday 2 March.

Facebook suicide prevention

After consulting with a series of top mental health organisations, Facebook has launched a new suicide prevention feature to make the platform a safer community. A new option will be added to the report process, where users can flag friends’ posts which concern them. The reported posts will be reviewed by a third party and if deemed necessary, when that user next logs on they will be offered support and resources and the option to reach out to a friend. The feature will roll out in the US first, and internationally later this year.

 #YourJob

Twitter launched a European Job Fair on Tuesday around the hashtag #YourJob. Fifty UK businesses, including Boots and British Gas, took part, advertising careers opportunities, and job hunters’ questions were answered by the National Careers Service, who partnered with Twitter for the first fair of its kind. In conjunction, Twitter released survey data which revealed 77% of people thought the social network could help them with their career, and 67% of employers thought it was a good place to advertise vacancies.