Check out this week’s summary of all the latest social media news, including changes and new features for Facebook and Twitter:
- Facebook to buy Oculus VR, maker of the Rift headset, for around $2B in cash and stock – last week Facebook announced the acquisition of Oculus VR, “the leader in virtual reality technology;” initial efforts will focus on gaming, but will expand to other experiences as well (TechCrunch)
- Facebook expands Lookalike Audiences to let advertisers target people who use their sites, apps, or Pages – now advertisers using Lookalike Audiences can target users who visit their websites, use their mobile apps, or are connected to their Facebook Pages (The Next Web)
- Facebook takes another crack at read-it-later with “Save” button – Facebook is currently testing a new feature; the read-it-later ‘Save’ button on articles in the web News Feed allows users to create a section of bookmarked sites on their profile (TechCrunch)
- Twitter adds people tagging and multiple photo sharing to tweets – last week Twitter added the ability to tag up to ten people in a photo – without using up any characters – and also to attach up to four photos to a tweet, which Twitter turns into a collage; several brands are already experimenting with this feature (TechCrunch)
- Twitter quietly tests ‘share’ replacement for ‘retweet’ – last Wednesday on its iOS app, Twitter tested replacing the ‘retweet’ button with a ‘share’ button, which allowed the user to share the tweet with others, or add a comment before sharing it (CNET)
Foursquare
- Foursquare’s new ads tap Twitter and require $100K commitment – Foursquare’s new ad product, ‘Tap to Tweet,’ invites users to tweet marketing messages when they check into businesses; the product should be available in early April, and Foursquare is looking for more advertisers to join the beta test (AdWeek)
- LinkedIn launches Insights tool to help brands become better publishers – LinkedIn is launching new tools to help advertisers see how they’re faring as publishers on the professional social network; brands will be assigned content-marketing scores based on effectiveness, and advertisers will be able to see ‘trending content’ (Advertising Age)
Klout
- Lithium Technologies acquires Klout–ties social media influence to brand sentiment – social influence measurement company Klout has been acquired by Lithium Technologies (WSJ)
Any social media updates that we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
