So-Called Social: Week of March 26

Your weekly dose of social news.

HAPPY. FRIDAY. Y’ALL. What a week. Summit was a wild success and I fully anticipate sleeping this entire weekend. I’ve got a ton of stuff to share with you this week. From Insta making a return to the chronological feed (ish), to a boat load of Summit stuff, I hope you enjoy. Read on.

Social nets update stuff

It’s not quite a return to Instagram’s chronological feed, but it’s a start. If you recall, last June, Insta changed their feed from being chronological to algorithmic and everyone pretty much hated it. Now, it looks like the platform is tweaking its algorithm to help ensure newer posts appear closer to the top. IG is also testing a “New Posts” button, which enables users to choose when to refresh their feeds, instead of the feeds refreshing automatically.

Facebook has quietly removed an ad filter in Custom Audiences that allowed advertisers to create campaigns targeting users based on their relationship preferences (which basically enabled advertisers to build campaigns around a person’s sexual orientation). At first glance, this seems like “duh.” But there’s been some push back from groups like The Trevor Project which helps save suicidal LGBT youth.

Well, this is an interesting turn of events. Snap has reportedly bought its very own 3D game engine, PlayCanvas. While many of Snap’s recent acquisitions have focused on bolstering consumer-facing features, PlayCanvas seems to be focused squarely on developers. The most obvi integration of this tool would be within Snap’s Lens Studio where developers can build their own AR Lense effects. TBD.

Take note! Companies can now run native video ad campaigns and include video within their Company Pages on LinkedIn. The native video ads appear in the news feed as standalone, sponsored posts and auto-play on mute when in view. Both video products are rolling out now and will be available to all businesses in the coming weeks.

Adobe does stuff

The Experience Cloud social team had a wildly successful #AdobeSummit this year. Here are a few highlights.

We kicked off the week with a Think Tank — bringing together industry luminaries to discuss how they envision the Future of Experience Makers. And we kept that momentum going by hosting 30+ interviews with more industry thought leaders throughout the week in the Summit Tank (which were all livestreamed on the Experience Cloud FB page!). And I would venture to say they were pretty dang successful.

Our #HackTheBracket activation was a big hit. Not only were people super into shooting hoops in the middle of the Community Pavilion, the cool tech behind each shot was impressive. We generated player cards, videos, and photos of each participant. We live-streamed from the sports desk and actually had multiple live streams going on the Experience Cloud Facebook page at the same time (Think Tank, too!) — an Adobe Summit World First.

Our Summit Insider programs rocked this year. I got to meet Chelsea Krost (one of our Summit Insiders), who I’ve had a Twitter ladycrush on for years.

Other brands do stuff

HBO is just crushing it lately. Now, “Silicon Valley” is drone-dropping free pizza just for tweeting. The show partnered with Gofooji, an emoji-based food delivery system, to reward fans for tweeting about Sunday night’s Silicon Valley premiere. No really. It happened.

Interesting stuff

There’s a new advertising prediction in town: By 2020, digital advertising will command 44.6 percent of total ad revenue. Mobile will be the largest single contributor to ad revenue growth, with TV a distant second. Search will be the dominant channel, followed by social and video.

Influencer marketing is evolving as it grows, brands are ramping up their influencer budgets, and bringing influencer marketing in-house, treating influencers as marketing partners. And influencer contracts are starting to eerily resemble those for traditional talent for TV ads or billboards. Honestly, this makes sense. Influencers are the new “celebrity spokesperson.”

Fun stuff

(IT ME.)

This girl totally deserves a puppy. The daughter of economics writer Brendan Greeley knew exactly how to get her dad’s attention. She wrote her puppy request at the top of his copy of Financial Times. Brilliant.

This porcupine is seriously on the struggle bus. I feel you, little dude.