#SocialSkim: All You Need to Know About Facebook's F8, Plus 13 More Stories in This Week's Roundup

Let's talk Facebook. Because that's what this week was all about, as the social giant held its annual F8 conference where we learn about all the shiny new things the company is working on. This week's 'Skim is a Zuckerberg extravaganza, so we'll jump into the company's big announcements, what they mean for brands, and how other platforms are reacting.

We'll also discuss Periscope's latest move to take on Snapchat, dive into why social video might not be able to save struggling digital publishers, and share 25 hacks to help you get the most bang for your social media buck.

Skim for all the latest!

Facebook's F8 event: Messenger Bots, Facebook Live, VR cameras, and Internet for all

Facebook continues to look less like a social network and more like a Google-esque tech goliath. During this week's developers conference the company revealed its 10-year road map, and a trove of new features, updates, and inventions that we've wrapped up with a nice bow for you below. Go ahead, stay Facebook-savvy!

• Messenger bots: Bots became official and (some) launched on Tuesday. Brands that develop them can now automate customer service support, guide e-commerce, and provide interactive experiences to users. CNN is already providing news, and Spring is sending personalized clothing recommendations with buy buttons.
• Facebook Live: Live streaming was previously relegated to its mobile app, but the social network opened up its livestreaming API so that users can build the ability to stream video to Facebook live from any device—drones, GoPros, and the like. We see more interesting content on the horizon.
• Surround 360: The company introduced an open-source, 360-degree virtual reality camera that looks like a flying saucer and is capable of producing 8K resolution footage! It's likely to attract more of a Hollywood crowd for now with its $30,000 price tag, but means more 360 video is coming!
• Internet for all: Facebook continues its endeavor to bring Internet to underserved regions with two new connectivity projects—Terragraph and ARIES—meant to blanket cities with Wi-Fi and beam connectivity capabilities long distances, respectively. Whoa.

1. But will the bots take off?

Facebook's foray into bots took off this week. But in the aftermath of Microsoft's disaster when its AI bot—named Tay—turned into a racist, genocide-promoting Twitter user, companies will likely wade into the bot swamp carefully, noting the risks of automated, artificial intelligence-powered "representatives."

Facebook certainly brings a new level of legitimacy to the bot crazy with its 1.6 billion users, but it could be that the AI elements don't catch on with consumers, considering humans' predisposition to hate talking to machines for customer-service purposes. The success of bots will likely depend on developers' ability to make them useful for users, as well as brands' ability to control them.

2. Facebook Messenger reaches 900 million users, adds suite of tools for businesses

Messenger reached 900 million users last week, and now Facebook is welcoming the business community to Messenger with open arms and a new set of business-friendly tools meant to help synergize communication with customers.

First, Twitter handle-like usernames (e.g., @CornerCafe) derived from the page's vanity URL (e.g., Facebook.com/CornerCafe) will soon appear directly on a brand's page; companies that haven't claimed such a URL so that consumers can easily reach a page may want to do so immediately.

Facebook will also introduce new ways for users to start conversations with businesses. The first, Messenger Links, will enable consumers to quickly open a chat with the desired business by clicking a link in the form of short URLs with the format "m.me/username". Codes will serve the same purpose, but come in the form of unique, Snapchat-like codes that users can scan in Messenger using their phone's camera. The same codes can be used by businesses in ads, websites and other marketing materials. Messenger for business is about to get serious.

3. Telegram messaging app revamps UI, launches "Bots 2.0"

In the days leading up to Facebook's developers conference, competing messaging app Telegram bolstered its bot offering and redesigned its user interface to encourage more media sharing.

The messaging platform's 62 million monthly users can now interact with bots in new ways, including a @music bot that lets users send tracks to other users directly form the input field, as well as a @foursquare bot that uses location data to send addresses of places and venues nearby.

Telegram says it's happy to welcome Facebook to the bot game, but we think the internal struggle is just heating up.

4. Facebook testing ads for Messenger bots

That was fast. The social network is already looking for ways to use its new bots to monetize the platform, currently testing Sponsored Messages. They serve as a way for businesses to re-engage consumers who have previously started communications with them.

Another ad type, Click To Message, would appear in a user's News Feed and act as a call to action to start a conversation with a brand in Messenger. Here, the brand could personalize its offering based on the user's bot interactions on a platform the customer is already familiar with, rather than sending the user to an unfamiliar e-commerce site where he or she might find difficulty navigating.

5. Periscope giving some the ability to live-stream doodle

The social media emulation game is still strong, this time with Twitter's Periscope testing giving streamers the ability to doodle over their broadcasts in real time. Beta users can doodle in three colors, but the markups disappear in a few seconds, indicating they'd most likely be used to highlight specific objects or people in a broadcast.

No word whether the feature will make its way to the app so that everyone can give it a shot, but it appears to be an effort to make the platform more interactive, and it's oddly reminiscent of Snapchat's more permanent doodles that have become an integral part of the platform.

6. Facebook adds Video Chat Heads, Dropbox support

Facebook introduced two new features even before taking the stage at this week's F8 event. Users can now use Chat Heads while video calling friends, so those talking are no longer limited to a full-screen chat and can instead multitask. If you're an Android user, you can also switch between apps, all while keeping the conversation going.

The social network also added support for Dropbox to make it easy for users to drop files from the platform directly into Messenger conversations by selecting the "More" button on the platform. Images and videos will appear instantly, and other files will appear as a Dropbox link.

Two steps closer to a better user experience...and more time on Messenger.

7. Despite the hype, video probably can't save struggling digital publishers... for now

Social networks and revenue-starved publishers are prioritizing video, and big brands are investing heavily in it in an effort to reap the benefits of a medium that works well on both big screens and mobile.

However, big barriers stand in the way of video's saving the day: It's costly and time-consuming, and it's incredibly difficult to scale.

In a lesson for big and small brands alike, both barriers go to show that video made for video's sake is a losing strategy, and that value-adding content—whether text, photos, or video—has a better chance of succeeding.

Facebook might provide scale, but until the company's video ad products provide a source of revenue for publishers, brands must weigh the costs and benefits accordingly.

8. Facebook now lets publishers and celebrities share branded content

Facebook-verified pages can now share any type of sponsored content they'd like (text, photos, videos, Instant Articles, links, 360 videos, and Live videos) on the platform, so long as a sponsor is tagged.

There are still some notable exceptions to the rule—persistent watermarks, pre-roll ads, and sponsored profile pictures or cover photos are still forbidden—but the change gives Facebook's heavyweight publishers a new way to make some cash as they increasingly host their content on the social network.

9. Social media hacks from the pros

Twitter might say you're limited to 140-characters, but what if we told you there was a workaround? From muting trolls on Facebook without deleting their comments to verifying the effectiveness of an influencer, we've got 25 largely unknown tips and tricks that will help you get the most out social!

10. Ticketmaster, Eventbrite to sell directly on Facebook

Planning a night out via Facebook just got a little bit easier, with the two ticketing giants announcing plans to begin selling tickets to a select events directly on the social network.

Facebook will collect an affiliate fee, and the Ticketmaster initiative set to launch by the end of the month, but buyers will still have to claim their purchase on the Ticketmaster website or app. Eventbrite purchases and retrieval will be completed within the app itself, with users receiving a QR code for easy entry.

Will people feel secure enough to buy concert tickets directly on Facebook?

11. How to improve engagement using Twitter Analytics

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our social media analytics software of choice that we forget how valuable a tool a social platform itself can be.

From using the Twitter analytics dashboard to tailor content for custom audiences, to using it to analyze pasts posts and replicate key characteristics of high-performing tweets, you've got four indispensable tactics for brands to maximize their Twitter potential.

12. Facebook revamps app to highlight live streaming, adds video search and trends

The company revamped its mobile app last week, adding a dedicated Facebook Live tab at the bottom to push users to consume and broadcast live video streams on the platform. Now, it's stepping into YouTube territory by incorporating a video search engine whose results will show both Live and other videos based on keywords and trending topics.

In a plea to attract Snapchatters, Facebook is also introducing a set of five Live Filters, soon to be followed by the ability to draw and doodle on a video while broadcasting. Shots fired!

13. We'll wrap with the exploding watermelon Live video with more viewers than TV shows

Buzzfeed took to Facebook Live video last week, and its results could have Hollywood shaking in its boots. In true Buzzfeed fashion, the social news and entertainment company used Facebook Live to show the world how many rubber bands it takes to blow up a watermelon (nearly 700, it turns out).

The results? The broadcast peaked at 808,000 viewers—more than the average number of viewers for TV shows, including TBS's Conan, HBO's Girls, and AMC's Halt and Catch Fire!

TV's certainly not dead, and live video might not be the next great shift in media consumption, but remember that it's all about where the eyes are. And, right now, it seems that Facebook and Buzzfeed have all eyes on them.

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2016/29738/socialskim-all-you-need-to-know-about-facebooks-f8-plus-13-more-stories-in-this-weeks-roundup#ixzz45uCjufUC

How the News Feed Algorithms Work on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram

You're connected with hundreds of people -- maybe even thousands -- on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But when you log in to each of these social networks, it's likely that you don't want to be bombarded by every single update from every single connection. That'd be pretty overwhelming, wouldn't it?

That's how the folks from each of these social networks feel -- and they've done a ton of user research to validate that feeling. In fact, that's exactly why the news feeds -- and the algorithms behind them -- exist.

All three of today's most popular social networks have gravitated toward an algorithm-based feed in the effort to create better experiences for their users. It started withFacebook in 2006, and then Twitter nine years later in 2015. In the coming months, Instagram will join the other two in switching from a chronological feed to an algorithm-based feed, too, according to an official announcement.

Trouble is, each algorithm works differently. What's worse, they're constantly changing, making it hard for marketers like us to keep up. To help get it all straight, we've put together this simple guide on how the news feed works on the three most popular social networks: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Let's dive in. 

(Note: Keep in mind that the algorithms are constantly changing. We'll continue to write about major social algorithm changes as they happen.)

Facebook's News Feed Algorithm

“Our goal is to build the perfect personalized newspaper for every person in the world,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a public Q&A in 2014. “We’re trying to personalize it and show you the stuff that’s going to be most interesting to you.”

That's what Facebook's News Feed has been about since the very beginning.According to Zuckerberg, each of us gets exposed to more than 1,500 stories each day, but an average user only gets to see about 100 stories a day on their News Feed.

To give these users the best experience possible, Zuckerberg and his team of engineers are constantly learning user behavior and picking up signals that show what kind of content each user is most interested in. (And if you're curious to learn more,read this blog post for 20 fascinating things you probably didn't know about Facebook's News Feed.)

How It Works

The Like button has always been the epicenter of Facebook's user experience -- not only because we see it on everyone's posts, but also because it allows us to personalize our own experience (and influence everyone else's). Since it was first introduced in November 2007, it's helped Facebook's engineers figure out which posts were delighting users, boring them, offending them, and so on.

Nowadays, the algorithm that governs Facebook's News Feed has grown to be much more sophisticated. It isn't just about the Like button anymore -- and not just becausereaction buttons are now in the mix. In fact, Facebook's algorithm is by far the most complicated of the three social networks covered in this post.

Here's a quick rundown of the most important things Facebook's algorithm takes into account.

Relevancy Score

When picking posts for each person who logs on to Facebook, the News Feed algorithm takes into account literally hundreds of variables -- and can predict whether a given user will Like, click, comment, share, hide, or even mark a post as spam.

More specifically, the algorithm predicts each of these outcomes with a certain degree of confidence. This prediction is quantified into a single number called a "relevancy score" that's specific both to you and to that post.

Once every post that could potentially show up in your feed has been assigned a relevancy score, Facebook's sorting algorithm ranks them and puts them in the order they end up appearing in your feed. This means that every time you log in, the post you see at the very top of your News Feed was chosen over thousands of others as the one most likely to make you react and engage.

Ads are given relevancy scores, too, so that Facebook can show users only the ads that could matter most to them. Again, this is supposed to give users a better experience -- but it's also helpful for the businesses that are paying for the ads. It's calculated based on the positive feedback (video views, conversions, etc.) and negative feedback Facebook expects an ad to receive from its target audience. (Learn more about relevancy score for Facebook ads here.)

Prioritizing Friends

Before 2015, Facebook was predicting what users want to see on the News Feed based on more indirect signals, like Likes, comments, and shares of others. Eventually, they added options for users to filter out posts they don't want to see. But what about helping boost the posts users do want to see?

Through studies and surveys, they found that many users were concerned they were missing important updates from friends they cared about the most. In response to these concerns, they began changing the News Feed algorithm to give more control to the users themselves.

It started in April 2015, when they began giving priority (in the form of higher relevancy scores) to posts from friends over the Pages they follow and promotional posts. Later that year, in July, they introduced the "See First" feature, which lets you actually hand-pick which accounts -- whether friends or followed Pages -- you want to see first at the top of your News Feed.

Now, when you select a person or page to "see first," their posts will appear at the top of your News Feed. (Note: Selecting people to "see first" is different than selecting them as a close friend: When you select a person as a close friend, you'll just receive notifications when they post something new.)

To select people or pages to "see first": First, click the downward facing arrow in the top-right corner of any Facebook page and select "News Feed Preferences."

In the window that appears, click "Prioritize who to see first." Then, select the people or pages you'd like to, see first on your feed.

Time Spent on a Post

Starting in June 2015, Facebook started monitoring how much time users spend viewing certain posts. Of course, the time you spend on a post can vary depending on your internet speed, the length of the post, and so on -- and the folks at Facebook are aware of that.

However, they have found that if people are spending a lot more time on a particular post in their feed than the majority of other posts they look at, then it's a good sign the content was relevant to them.

How does this play out in the feed? If you spend more time on a particular post,Facebook is more likely to show that post on your friends’ News Feeds.

Video Engagement

In summer 2015, Facebook surveyed users on how they interacted with video on their News Feeds and found that that many people who were interested in a given video didn't necessarily Like it, comment on it, or share it with their friends. Since engagement is one of the primary ways Facebook measures people's interest in posts, they had to come up with other ways to figure out whether people enjoyed the videos they were seeing.

To help do that, they started monitoring other forms of video engagement -- like turning on the audio, switching to full-screen mode, or enabling high definition. So if you turn up the volume on a video or make it full-screen, the algorithm will interpret that as you enjoying the video, and will show you similar videos higher up in your feed.

The update doesn't mean users will see more videos in their News Feed -- only those who already engage more with video-related content.

Facebook's algorithm is very, very complex, but we hope that gives you a good idea of what it considers important. Now, let's move on to Twitter.

Twitter's Timeline Algorithm

Whereas Facebook makes most of the decisions for you on what will show up in your Facebook News Feed, Twitter's historically taken a very different approach with what they call the "Timeline."

Your Timeline is the stream of tweets from the users you follow that shows up on your account home page when you first log in. It used to be that your Timeline was made up of every single tweet from every user you follow, in chronological order. But the folks at Twitter found that, similarly to what was happening on Facebook, users felt like they were missing all the best tweets from the people they care about most.

"We wanted to change that feeling of missing out," said Twitter Product Manager Michelle Haq, "which is why we decided to go after that problem."

The changes they made to the algorithm aren't nearly as platform-changing as the one Facebook has made, but it is a departure from the real-time element that has defined Twitter from the beginning.

How It Works

The engineers at Twitter have attempted two different approaches for surfacing the "best" tweets first on your Timeline: the "While You Were Away" feature, and the even newer "Show me the best Tweets first" feature.

The "While You Were Away" Feature

This feature was added in 2015 as a first attempt to rid users of whatever FOMO (fear of missing out) they may have been feeling from the chronological nature of the original Timeline. 

Basically, it's a recap of some of the best tweets you may not have seen otherwise. How do these tweets make the cut? According to TechCrunch, it's determined by "user engagement" -- although they don't get any more specific than that.

You can't turn off the feature, but how often you see it depends on how often you use Twitter. The recaps pop up more frequently for users who check the app "only once in a while," according to Twitter Product Manager Paul Rosania in the official announcement.

"Our goal is to help you keep up -- or catch up -- with your world, no matter how much time you spend on Twitter," wrote Rosania. "With a few improvements to the home timeline we think we can do a better job of delivering on that promise without compromising the real time nature of Twitter." 

The "Show Me the Best Tweets First" Feature

The "Show me the best Tweets first" feature, introduced in February 2016, is a little more similar to Facebook's News Feed. Why? Because it actually changes the content on your Timeline based on a tweet's relevancy, rather than listing tweets chronologically.

By default, Twitter's algorithm puts the tweets it thinks you'll find most interesting at the top of your Timeline, still recent and in reverse chronological order. These tweets are chosen based on accounts you interact with most, tweets you engage with, and much more, according to Twitter's Support page.

The rest of the tweets will be displayed right underneath, also in reverse chronological order. Unlike the "While you were away" feature, these "best tweets" won't be highlighted or indicated in any way -- so you won't be able to tell where the "best tweets" stop and the rest of the tweets begin. According to Wired, while there’s no limit to how many "best tweets" will be out of order at the top, Haq says the average is about a dozen.

There are two ways to remove these "best tweets" from the top of your Timeline. One is a quick fix: You can always refresh your Timeline to see all new tweets at the top in the totally live way you might have been used to seeing in the past.

But if you want to always see your Timeline live, then Twitter does allow you to opt of this feature if you'd like -- unlike Facebook's News Feed.

To opt out of this feature: Go to your profile settings. In the "Account" tab, scroll down to "Content" and look for "Timeline." Toggle the box next to "Show me the best Tweets first" to change the setting.

 

Is Twitter Moving Away From Real-Time?

Do these changes mean Twitter's moving away from an emphasis on real-time updates? Twitter CEO Jack Dorsay says no. Check out his tweet below, where he assures customers that real-time Twitter is here to stay.

But many users are still concerned. For reassurance, I like the way David Pierce put it in his article for Wired: "Facebook asks you to trust its ability to surface everything you want and need; Twitter’s been a more understandable haven. It’s certainly possible (though exceedingly unlikely) that Twitter could switch to a fully algorithmic timeline in the future, but this is not that."

This is something we'll have to keep an eye on.

The Instagram Feed's Algorithm

Of the three social networks in this post, Instagram is the newest to an algorithm-run feed. Although Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012, it didn't fiddle with catering content to specific users until April 2014, when they tweaked the "Explore" tab to display posts specifically tailored to each user. Before that change, the "Explore" tab had only showed the most popular posts across all Instagram users instead of specific users.

Even more recently, there have been rumblings about an impending change to Instagram's algorithm that'll alter your Instagram feed pretty drastically. A post to Instagram's official blog on March 15, 2016 said, "To improve your experience, your feed will soon be ordered to show the moments we believe you will care about the most."

As with Facebook, the goal of this change is to improve user experience. After all,Instagram reports that people miss 70% of the content on their Instagram feeds on average.

How It'll Work

The folks at Instagram say they want to focus first on optimizing order. In other words, all the posts will still be there, just in a different order. The algorithm will likely order the content on your feed based on the following factors:

1) The number of Likes and comments a post has.

An Instagram spokesman told Tech Insider that it won't be a popularity contest. That being said, the number of Likes and comments a post gets will be given some weight.

2) Your relationships with the user posting.

If you tend to Like photos from certain accounts, or regularly leave comments on pictures from those accounts, then Instagram will likely show you more posts from them.

3) The timeliness of the post.

To maintain some emphasis on chronology, the time at which the photo was posted will have some determination of where it shows up in your feed so you're seeing timely posts.

4) What you share directly with users (and who those users are).

What posts you share directly with other users -- and who those users are -- will make it more likely that you'll see posts from those users in your feed.

When Will These Changes Roll Out?

How soon are we talking, here? According to Instagram's blog post on March 15, 2016, the change will roll out to users over the next few months.

Here's a tweet update from Instagram's official Twitter account on March 28, 2016:

Again, it's likely that the first sign of a change will be a change in the chronology of posts, so keep an eye out for that as you scroll through Instagram over the next few months.

It's All About Content Quality

The key takeaway for brands and individuals alike is this: At the end of the day, it all comes down to the quality of your posts.

These algorithms are meant to filter out the irrelevant and the poor quality posts so that the highest-quality stuff is what gets through and gets shown to users. Control over what users see and don't see is shared between the social platform and the user -- some more equally than others.