Social Media Digest – CNN BuzzFeed,Facebook vending machine and much more!

Social Media Digest

CNN and BuzzFeed launch new YouTube Channel

Buzzfeed and CNN have struck a deal to launch a YouTube channel in a move strengthening BuzzFeed’s position as a news source for 18-35 year olds. The channel is aptly named “CNN BuzzFeed” and will tackle serious news events as well as using archived CNN content to produce news shows.

It will be interesting to see how the two styles mix, with CNN being a well-established and respected major news broadcaster and BuzzFeed more commonly known as a creator of shareable, viral content. BuzzFeed plans to invest over the next two years in building the channel – if the correct formula can be found, this could be beneficial to both companies.

Facebook Verified Pages

Verified pages are common place on Twitter, the blue tick confirming to users that the profile is trusted and their identity has been confirmed by Twitter. Facebook has taken the lead from Twitter on this and added the same function, with a blue tick being added to pages deemed necessary to have one. Currently Facebook do not offer the ability to request verification, they will get in touch with the page if they believe it should be verified. The move is likely triggered by Facebook’s desire to muscle in on breaking news, an area that Twitter currently dominates, as many journalists have already received verification. A simple move by Facebook and one which probably should have been made some time ago.

Twitter expands list amounts

Twitter has announced changes to its list function by massively increasing the amount of unique lists users are able to create, as well as the volume of users that can be contained within each list.

“Update to Twitter lists: You can now make up to 1,000 lists (up from 20), and each list can include up to 5,000 accounts (up from 500)”

Lists are commonly used to easily monitor and stay up to date with specific users or those who specialise in tweeting on specific subjects, football journalists for example.

It’s all kicking off

Facebook has come under heavy criticism from consumers and campaign groups protesting that the site have their policies all wrong in relation to what they deem to be inappropriate content. Several brands including Dove and Nissan have been inundated with messages from customers asking them to remove and stop posting Facebook Ads to the site until they change their stance and remove offending pages. The campaign group sent screenshots of brands displayed alongside graphic content depicting rape and domestic violence.

The difficulty for the brands themselves is that they have no control over where the advertisements will appear. This is due to the specific way Facebook can target a designated demographic with advertisements.

Facebook has since vowed to crack down on offending pages and look at their internal policies for removing and suspending pages. This is likely to do little in easing the pressure from the campaign groups until Facebook actually start to forcefully remove and police against it appearing again.

Google Map Bike

Good news if you are a cyclist in one of the following countries – Germany, France, Poland, Ireland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein – as you can now get full cycling map directions through Google Maps. Users can add other cycling routes themselves as well as reporting issues with any of the pre-loaded content available.

You can even try and complete the Tour de France route if you have a spare few weeks.

Vending machines dispenses a can for a Like

Finally a worthy mention for Pepsi who have created a social media vending machine dispensing cans of Pepsi in exchange for a Facebook Like. A new way to go about sampling products, users are prompted by a touch screen attached to the vending machine to log in to their personal accounts and like the Pepsi Facebook page which rewards them with a can of Pepsi. Simple and effective.