So-Called Social: Week of April 2

Your weekly dose of social news.

Hey, hey it’s the weekend! I have a bunch of updates for you this week — I hope you’re ready. Snapchat is full of surprises, Facebook is still in the doghouse, Adobe is full of jokes (of the April Fools Day persuasion), an exceptionally interesting interview with Zuck, and much more. Keep scrolling.****

Social nets update stuff

Snapchat is cutting more people out of their Story — this time, from the Advertising department. It’s the third layoff of the year (and it’s only March). It sounds like the reorg will structure the Advertising team into two buckets: the ‘direct sales organization’ will serve Snap’s biggest advertisers (think film studios and TV brands, for example) while the ‘global online sales’ team will zero in on all other advertisers, including small businesses and mid-sized brands.

Snapchat wants the olds to know what it is and why it’s useful. The social network’s first-ever television ad campaign kicked off during the NCAA’s Final Four last weekend, and frames the app as a different kind of camera. The 60-second spot focuses on demonstrating the various ways Snapchat’s augmented reality capabilities can enhance everyday mobile camera use. Guess it’s not just for the kids.

Brands just can’t seem to quit Facebook. Only seven of the top 1,000 advertisers on the platform stopped buying ads on FB after the Cambridge Analytica crisis a couple weeks ago. And it sounds like most brands don’t think this data-privacy debacle truly impacts them.

And now, brands will have to work a little harder to use Custom Audiences on Facebook. FB is introducing a new certification feature that will require advertisers to provide a guarantee that they have permission from consumers to use their email addresses to target ads on the platform. Facebook will also prohibit Custom Audiences data to be shared across business accounts. Watch this space for more info on this as it comes.

Adobe does stuff

You all know Gabby Douglas, right? Right. Well, in honor of Women’s History Month (March), the Adobe Students channels created a video featuring the Olympic gold medalist. It’s excellent. As are the other features part of our Future is Yours Adobe Students campaign, which connects our brand with relevant, inspiring people, and broadens the definition of creativity.

The Creative Cloud team introduced the next generation of visual artists by shining a spotlight on emerging Photoshop prodigy, Christopher Timmons. Last weekend, the team featured Timmons in an article on Create Magazine, and a video profile. The article also includes Photoshop technique tutorials from Timmons. Oh, did I mention Christopher Timmons is a cat?

In honor of April Fools Day, the Illustrator team played a super punny joke with an #AiFood release for starving designers everywhere. We created a fun video showcasing how you can use Illustrator to create any food item you want, and use machine learning in the app to get the food delivered to your doorstep. #AiFood. Illustrator food. Artifical Intelligence food. Get it? Well done.

Oh, and Japan’s April Fools post is apparently a drinkable version of Photoshop?!

Other brands do stuff

Smart, but sad. The World Wildlife Fund ran an Instagram campaign that initially included stunning photos of natural beauty spots across the world posted by influencers, before revealing a few days later that they no longer exist due to the effects humans are having on the environment. The campaign is encouraging millennials to push for environmental action using #TooLatergram.

Interesting stuff

So, I think we can all agree it’s been a hard year for Facebook. Ezra Klein sat down with Mark Zuckerberg (on the Ezra Klein Show podcast) and discussed the state of his company, the implications of its global influence, and how he sees the problems ahead of him. It’s a must-listen for anyone interested in how the main mind behind the Facebook machine ticks.

Fun stuff

ICYMI, some guy’s lunch got stolen at work and Twitter went nuts.

This usher and his dance moves def win MVP.

And this guy is a Jenga CHAMPION.