So-Called Social: Week of January 7

Your weekly dose of social news.

Happy Friday!! Is it just me or does winter break feel like it was ages ago? Hope you’ve been starting the new year off strong. I have some updates for you this week from the land of social media. See below.

Social nets update stuff

Fresh outta CES, Facebook says it’s cleaning up its ad platform. I know, I know, I’ll believe it when I see it, but some of the updates sound promising. The social network is considering some “privacy-safe clearinghouse-type solutions” to improve brand safety and data transparency. And in no new news, Facebook continues to confirm it’s placing greater emphasis on story ads for Instagram (and Messenger and Facebook itself).

Instagram now allows you to regram posts to multiple accounts at the same time. All you have to do is toggle the accounts you want to post to within the composer screen. This is available to all iOS users (for now), and could make it easier for businesses, influencers, and regular folks with Instas and Finstas to publish the same meme, promotional image, or other content across their profiles simultaneously instead of having to post one at a time.

Now that Imgur has 250 million monthly active users, it’s ramping up its pitch to advertisers with a soon-to-be-released native ad format that adds to its display ads, promoted posts, mobile and web video, and mobile banners. And the pitch is pretty great: “A place of positivity is much safer and effective for advertisers than other more stressful parts of the internet.”

Adobe does stuff

Phase 2 of our Creative Residency App promo is officially in motion! Now through February, 7, Adobe is accepting applications for the 2019-2020 program, which is open to applicants from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. Spread. The. Word.

Brand Social is testing out a few new advertising types. We put on our brave pants and have launched a paid campaign on Reddit! This campaign is focused on marketing content and is targeting very specific, high-relevant subreddits. We’ll see how it goes.

Other brands do stuff

ICYMI, the Golden Globes were last weekend, and there was an unexpected star of the show. The Fiji Water model. Yes, of course it’s important for all the celebs to stay hydrated, and Fiji has been a long-standing sponsor of the Golden Globes, but this promo took it to the next level (in the best way). The model holding the bottles on the red carpet essentially photo-bombed dozens of the celebrity shots being shared around the Internet and media. It was great.

Here’s a feel-good campaign to brighten up your Friday. Sprite is neutralizing the haters and the trolls with love in a diversity-filled campaign. The new spot shows real people responding to online abuse they’ve received from others on social media with one message, “I Love You.”

Interesting stuff

I guess it’s that time of year again. Gearing up for the Super Bowl! Unmetric analyzed Big Game-related activity by U.S. brands on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from 2012 through 2018. And it’s looking like IG has seen a steady rise in engagement with Super Bowl posts.

Fun stuff

This woman killed four hours in the airport by creating a hilarious dance video.

James Corden and Ashley Graham don’t want you to diet this January and they wrote a song about it.

Channeling this doggo’s energy all week long.