TWEAKS & UPDATES

Facebook is all about the Live Video, but understands if you’re not. Facebook users will soon be getting an option to ignore Live Video notifications. “…Facebook has revealed to Digiday that it’s working on a new setting that lets users disable all notifications for live video, to be rolled out in the next few weeks. While brands and publishers experimenting with the new video tool may not love the news, Facebook says it will prevent live videos from fading completely away from the News Feed after the fact.”

The Great YouTube, Twitch, And Possibly Facebook Video War of the 2010s continues with some updates from YouTube Gaming. “YouTube Gaming, the video network’s dedicated application for streaming and recorded game videos, and competitor to Amazon-owned Twitch, this morning announced an expansion into several more markets and a host of new features aimed at offering an improved browsing and viewing experience in its app.” Meanwhile, YouTube’s search options are still horrible.

Google is getting rid of PageRank. Danny Sullivan has an overview of how awful it was. It was pretty awful. “PageRank — the secret sauce that Google used to become the giant of the search world — is no more. No more for the public, that is. Google’s numeric rating of how important it considers pages to be will soon no longer be accessible to the public. Good riddance.”

USEFUL STUFF

Possibly of interest to all my prospect researchers out there: The Complete Social Media Guide to Holiday Marketing for Non-Profits. “Holidays such as Christmas, 4th of July, Easter, Black History Month, and St. Patrick’s day are the perfect time for non-profit marketing campaigns. Typically, people feel more giving on holidays or are more likely to join a cause. Considering what is possible with social media today, there are no limits to how far your marketing campaigns will go.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

AdWeek has a overview of how the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) worked social media for National Pancake Day last Tuesday. “While fundraising is the central focus of the day, social engagement is another top priority for the team—made up of four core social experts and a team from MRM//McCann. Tuesday, the social-savvy restaurant chain, which used everything from its own Snapchat filter to personalized Twitter GIFs, gained over 10,000 new followers, while the official #NatlPancakeDay hashtag was shared over 38,000 times.”

I am, alas, too old and too boring to go to Coachella. But this custom “Coachella Cardboard” sounds like a good idea. “When Coachella attendees receive this year’s Welcome Box containing the requisite wristbands and more, a special edition Google Cardboard headset will be in the package, too. The festival teamed up with Vantage.tv on a Coachella VR app that’s available for viewing on Google’s virtual reality accessory and the Samsung Gear VR. Inside the app, there’s plenty of 360-degree photos from previous years alongside interviews and performances from artists that’ll hit the stage at this year’s soiree.” There’s also a tour of the grounds so you can scope out the bathrooms ahead of time.

Twitter is apparently stepping up the perks to keep jittery employees. “Over the past month, the social media company has been offering additional restricted stock to employees companywide, extending from the upper ranks to junior-level employees, people familiar with the matter said….Since the fall, the company has also been doling out cash bonuses to some employees ranging from $50,000 to $200,000 as an incentive to keep employees around for another six months to a year, according to other people close to the company.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

The Attorney General of Rhode Island is pushing a bill that would criminalize a wider variety of social media posts. “Social media posts, sexually explicit or otherwise, that cause someone’s online embarrassment or insult, would become crimes under a set of bills being advanced by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin.”

A German court has ruled that a shopping site’s use of the Facebook “Like” button was not legal. “The Düsseldorf district court said that the Fashion ID clothing website, run by retailer Peek & Cloppenburg (P&C), failed to get the right approval from users before transferring some of their browsing data to Facebook. The case was brought by the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Association, who claimed the site transferred data to Facebook through the ‘Like’ button, regardless of whether they even used it or not.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Has social media been a part of the collapse of teen pregnancy in the UK? “Teenage pregnancy rates have almost halved since the birth of social media as a global phenomenon, official figures show. The rate of pregnancies among girls under 18 in England and Wales has dropped by 45 per cent since 2007 and now stands at the lowest level since records began almost 50 years ago, according to the Office for National Statistics.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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