Quick Bites: News Snippets from the World of Startups & Social Media

Is this a cool tool or something nobody needs?

Video-conference technology can now tell you when you are talking too much in a virtual meeting. Read.ai raised $10M in funding to create a dashboard showing when one or more people are dominating an online conversation.

The dashboard uses artificial intelligence, computer vision and natural language processing to measure engagement, performance and sentiment among participants.

“Read provides real-time graphs and meters that show if one or more people are dominating the conversation, if people seem bored, not paying attention or if people seem happy or sad about what is being said. For example, on a sales call, Read can show if what is being said is trending negatively quickly so you can either stop talking or pivot to another topic”, said CEO David Shim. The startup was founded in May 2021, and Shim is the former CEO of Foursquare. — Tech Crunch

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Facebook is facing the music…again. However, users that indicate they are aware of the recent whistleblower’s testimony, say they’re unlikely to delete the app (62%), according to a survey done by the Harris Poll and Ad Age. That said, over half (55%) say that they do want corporate advertisers to pull the plug on Facebook.

Over three-fifths (63%) were aware of Haugen’s assertion that Facebook prioritizes “making money over the well-being of its users” — and three-quarters (77%) of the public agrees that Facebook is more interested in its bottom line than protecting users.

Facebook has one of the worst corporate images among highly visible companies, ranking #98 in the Axios Harris Poll 100 for 2021. “Takeaway: As Facebook’s reputation continues to decline amid scandals, brands may follow public opinion and take note before spending so much of their marketing budget on the platform.” — The Harris Poll

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TikTok has launched a new global ad campaign this week featuring their new tag line: “You have to see it.” So, let’s have a look. Here’s the first ad released.

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The New Instagram (because it seems they’ve lost their way): “Instagram is getting rid of IGTV, sort of,” writes The Verge. Adam Mosseri got attention in July when he said Instagram is “no longer a photo-sharing app,” noting a shift into video in response to significant competition from TikTok and YouTube.

However since the update, there’s been frustration – the original “influencers” who make their living on primary photo sharing are now scrambling and losing engagement and are having to switch gears to create more video content. Also, small businesses are having to produce more content to maintain any visibility. Now, IGTV is rebranding as “Instagram TV,” and they’re getting rid of the exclusive IGTV video format to combine the long-form video and Instagram Feed videos into a new format called “Instagram Video.”

“IGTV was introduced in June 2018 and was essentially meant to become a mobile equivalent to YouTube, creating a space to discover and watch longer videos. But the longer format never caught on. And just two months later, an app called TikTok launched in the US.” — The Verge

Facebook is testing cross-posting of posts to Instagram. Users can cross-post Instagram Stories and Reels to Facebook, but the platform is rolling out an option to post in the other direction, too. The change is another way the company is touting Instagram to younger users amid increased competition from apps such as Snapchat and TikTok. — PR Week.

Instagram is adding scheduling and ‘practice mode’ for live creators. Users will be able to schedule live videos 90 days in advance, sharing news on Instagram to generate audiences. It’s also launching a feature allowing creators to join their guests ahead of the scheduled event to prepare for shows before going live. — PR Week

No Under-age Instagram (for now): Announced in March 2021, plans to create an “Instagram experience” for under-13s, “Instagram Kids,” have been paused. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri, writes, “We believe building ‘Instagram Kids’ is the right thing to do, but we’re pausing the work.”

(Well, this statement was published a week prior to the Facebook whistleblower news bombshell, so we’ll leave it there…)

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Twitter has announced an update to its Carousel Ad format. The main change is a new option to add custom headlines and landing pages into each frame of your Carousel Ads, which will provide more options to build responsive ads for variable audiences within one campaign.

Twitter explains it like this: “Website Clicks: Introducing Multi-Destination Carousels — Last year, we announced the launch of Carousel Ads. We are pleased to share that we are now launching multi-destination functionality for Carousels driving to a website. With Multi-Destination Carousels, advertisers can now customize headlines and landing pages to help drive the right actions for their audiences. 

Advertisers will have greater flexibility to diversify their message with unique headlines and URLs per Carousel Card. With just a swipe, people can engage with multiple images or videos, and click through to land on different destinations.”

Twitter says that it’s been testing the new option for the past few months, with beta advertisers seeing a 25% lift in click-through rates, on average, for campaigns that optimize for site visit conversions (relative to single-asset ads). — Social Media Today

Twitter eCommerce: Twitter is releasing a slew of features that will push forward its commerce initiatives connected to business profiles in the app. A while back, Twitter announced its Super Like and Subscription feature which allowed users to pay for more premium content.

Recently they added a Purchases tab for users to track those subscriptions. In company profiles, businesses will also be able to highlight products for purchase in a panel display within their profile feed. There is ongoing testing for in-Tweet shopping options with a button allowing users to explore products from businesses. While these are huge steps for Twitter, they have a long way to go to catch up with Instagram and even TikTok, as these platforms are expanding their capabilities.

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