Friday Social: Twitter Politics, Live Streaming & Tinstagram

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

Tweets that change it all

As election fever builds, a new study has revealed the impact Twitter could have on the 7th May. Commissioned by Twitter and run by Promise Communispace, it found that 37% of 18-34 year-old users would turn to the network for political information. More surprisingly, it reported that 34% of UK users have changed their vote from one party to another after seeing something on Twitter. That statistic seems a little high to us, but maybe even we’re underestimating the power of social here – only time will tell!

Snapchat drops Brand Stories

Just six months after the launch of its ad offering, Snapchat has reportedly pulled one its key elements, Brand Stories. They have been used in the past by the likes of Universal Studios to promote video trailers but are no longer available, despite demand from marketers. It’s likely that they could reappear in a different form, with a spokesperson commenting: “we’re always fine tuning to ensure we deliver the best possible experience for our community.” Branded content is still very visible on Snapchat, with Our Story ads (curated from pictures and videos at events) and Discover (curated news and entertainment content from Yahoo!, VICE and others) set to continue.

Twitter targets celebrity Meerkat-ers

Since its unveiling just a couple of weeks ago, Periscope has made big waves, with people tuning in to watch live streams from their friends and random others from around the world. Twitter is on the hunt for big names to adopt its new technology, reportedly approaching celebrities who have been broadcasting on rival platform Meerkat. The two apps are remarkably similarly, so it comes as no surprise that Twitter quickly removed Meerkat’s access to its social graph. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s a just a two-horse race though, upclose and YouNow are also after a share of the live streaming market. It’ll be interesting to see how the competition fuels the development of these apps over the coming months.

Tinder hooks up with Instagram

Great news for all the lucky singles out there – Tinder has updated its app to make it even easier to find true love. Users can now choose to integrate their Instagram uploads into their Tinder profile, ideal if you want to show off you culinary skills, trainer obsession or passion for smartphone photography. Additionally, interests are now shown as categories such as Skiing or Travel, not just ‘liked’ Facebook pages, and an extra level of connection is visible, with the app revealing mutual friends and friends of friends of the mates that two singles already have in common. Keep on swiping…

Hillary on social

On Sunday, Hillary Clinton announced she’ll be running in the 2016 presidential election with a rather slick campaign video. Shortly after the announcement Hilary’s Facebook feed was filled with Milestone Events, revealing photos from her childhood in Chicago, her marriage to Bill and even her summer jobs after univeristy. This simple but effective ploy amassed Clinton over 100,000 new likes in just a few hours. Twitter was also key to her announcement, with Buzzfeed using CartoDB to visualise the conversations.

Cover photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/quintanomedia