Twitter’s New DM Feature, Pinterest Promoted Pins, and Facebook Causes Controversy by Allowing Violent Videos: Social Media News
Over the past fortnight we have had updates from Twitter and Pinterest that could offer new ways of marketing on their networks. Facebook has also been involved in another controversy that even Mr Cameron has had something to say about.
Twitter’s new DM feature
A new option now exists in Twitter settings to allow users to let anyone who follows them send them a direct message (DM), regardless of whether they follow back.
This update was made on October 15 and has caused a bit of a reaction on the social media sphere. The general consensus is that this update will be good for brands, good for spammers and bad for consumers. For brands, this could be another avenue that can be utilised to provide direct, private customer service, and take a complaint out of the public eye quickly, and easily without the consumer needing to share their email details.
With this update, spam could become an issue, but as it’s an opt-in feature this will not affect you if you choose not to allow it.
It is not likely this update will have an extensive impact on marketing across the board, but it could be beneficial in some instances. For example, a brand could use this feature to send an exclusive coupon to a valued customer privately as part of a CRM campaign.
Pinterest Promoted Pins
Image source: blog.pinterest.com
Facebook causes controversy by allowing violent videos
Videos involving decapitation gained media attention in May 2013 when they appeared and were subsequently banned on Facebook, but the BBC has since reported that Facebook revoked this ban.
This report sparked controversy among users and caught the attention of David Cameron who tweeted that Facebook was “irresponsible” and should explain its actions.
It's irresponsible of Facebook to post beheading videos, especially without a warning. They must explain their actions to worried parents.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) October 22, 2013
Facebook initially responded by adding a warning statement to the video. However, on Tuesday 22 October, Facebook removed the video again and released a blog post explaining its graphic content policy. The end of this post states:
“Going forward, we ask that people who share graphic content for the purpose of condemning it do so in a responsible manner, carefully selecting their audience and warning them about the nature of the content so they can make an informed choice about it.”
Facebook has carefully shifted the responsibility to the user in an attempt to defend its current and future actions.
Social stat of the week
“Over 5 million Facebook users are under the age of ten.”
Source: socialmediatoday.com 2013
Infographic time
Social commerce can help marketers overcome challenges like creating trust and influence with their customers. Find out the types of social commerce marketers are using to interact in this infographic from StartupsFM.
