Friday Social: News Feed Updates, Apple’s Big Buy and Naughty or Nice?

Our #FridaySocial is a weekly round-up of the key social media news stories from the previous seven days. Don’t forget to let us know your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter – @Umpf / @Allllliiiii

1. Apple buys Topsy

Apple has bought social media analytics firm Topsy this week for a reported $200 million. Topsy is one of few analytics companies that has access to Twitter’s full data ‘firehose’, and the purchase suggests that Apple is looking at dipping into social once again – following its failed attempt with music-sharing network Ping.

Founded in 2007, Topsy is one of Twitter’s biggest partners and is capable of searching through the 400 billion+ tweets sent since Twitter launched.

2. Facebook makes News Feed changes

Facebook has just updated its News Feed algorithm, making changes to ensure that users see the ‘right content’ at the ‘right time’.

In a Newsroom post, Facebook noted that more and more people are receiving their news via Facebook, stating that in October it was found that average referral traffic from Facebook to media sites has increased by more than 170%. Taking this into account, Facebook is changing its News Feed algorithm so that users see more ‘high quality content’ – such as news about relevant events or interests – and less content such as memes hosted on other sites.

Similarly, if you read an article via Facebook, the site will now begin showing you up to three related articles below the News Feed post to continue to push news content. And to ensure that users don’t miss out on conversations among friends, Facebook will begin pushing stories with recent comments up the News Feed. These newest changes might benefit users, but will they make it harder for brands to create long-lasting content?

3. Star Wars Selfies

Patience you must have no longer – Star Wars joined Instagram this week. Two years ahead of the launch of Star Wars: Episode VII, the Instagram was launched with a post on the StarWars.com website.

The very first image posted by the account, in true Instagram style, was a Darth Vader selfie – complete with #selfies and #GPOM (gratuitous picture of myself) hashtags.   The profile already has more than 81,000 followers.

4. Naughty or Nice?

Have you been Naughty or Nice on Twitter this year? 10 Yetis has created the SocialSanta app, which analyses each user’s tweets to determine how many swear words they’ve used on Twitter this year. The user then gets a Naughty or Nice result, and can share this online. According to SocialSanta I’ve only swore 12 times this year – what about you?

5. Site protects your digital self from beyond the grave

In quite morbid social media news, Perpetu is offering social media users the opportunity to control what happens to their online profiles from beyond the grave. While Perpetu currently lets users control Facebook and Twitter for free, it’s just launched its premium service that – for $15 per year or a one-off $100 – lets subscribers manage LinkedIn, Gmail, Dropbox, Flickr and GitHub. Founded by a lawyer and banker, the site was created following a number of well-known cases where social media became an issue following a death. Different to its competitors, Perpetu lets you choose specific files or folders to send to specific people.

Co-founder Ryanne Lai says: “I have a Tumblr. I have a fan Twitter account used specifically for tweeting to Adam Lambert. These are things that I want to keep and that my family wouldn’t understand.”