Google Trends Goes Realtime: You can now explore minute-by-minute, real-time data behind the more than 100 billion searches that take place on Google every month, getting deeper into the topics you care about. During major events like the Oscars or the NBA Finals, you’ll be able to track the stories most people are searching for and where in the world interest is peaking. Explore this data by selecting any time range in the last week from the date picker.Twitter Goes Editorial: The new tool will give the company a way to show the best of Twitter to both logged-in and logged-out users on a variety of platforms. It will have instantly loading videos and rich images, and will occupy a front-and-center location in an upcoming version of the Twitter app.Tumblr TV: Following the rollout of Tumblr’s GIF search engine earlier this month, the blogging platform is today launching another new feature aimed at helping users discover and share GIFs: Tumblr TV. The addition is a combination of a search and viewing feature for GIFs, which helps you find the animated images housed on Tumblr and then view them in a full-screen mode. The “TV” part of the feature’s title refers to the fact that the interface offers player controls, like play, pause, forward and backward.Pinterest Launches Verified Accounts: Verified users will see red check marks next to their names on their profiles; that way, you can be sure you’re not looking at a fake account. Pinterest is working with select brands for verification, but is not accepting applications to be verified right now (as Twitter does, for example).Twitter Introduces Autoplay Video: This applies to gifs and Vines as well as embedded links from YouTube. Also, advertisers will only be billed if an ad plays for 3 seconds in the centre of a users’ screenTwitter Launching Product Pages: Twitter is rolling out Pages for curated selections of tweets on particular things or places, or curated by particular people. There’s an opportunity for brands to tailor what people see when searching for a related item – such as links to buy and reviews.Here’s What Facebook Wants Mobile Ads to Look Like: “Imagine a mashup of all Facebook’s current ad products rolled into one: A post that opens into full screen images, videos and even product shots that rotate 360 degrees as you move your finger across the screen. The ads would essentially give marketers a mini-version of their own website on Facebook’s app, bringing the user “away” from the News Feed without ever taking them out of the app.”Facebook Trialing Lead Ads: Facebook is launching ‘Lead Ads’, which build data capture into the Facebook ad experience. Lead ads make the mobile signup process easier by automatically populating contact information that people have given Facebook, like email addresses. These would let people sign up for things like newsletters, price estimates, follow-up calls and business information, at the click of a button and without filling out forms. Just a few taps and people are done.Facebook Messenger No Longer Requires Facebook: With this update, more people can use all the features that are available on Messenger – including photos, videos, group chats, voice and video calling, stickers and more. all they need is a phone number.Facebook Upgrades Ad Manager: Ads Manager and Power Editor have been updated to make it easier to create, optimise and monitor ad campaigns. Both tools now have simplified layouts and new features, so advertisers can get more value with less effort on each campaign.The Facebook Studio Award Winners: The Facebook Awards celebrate the best creative work on Facebook, as chosen by some of the top creatives in the industry. Not only do they recognise excellence in execution, they set the bar for creative growth and evolution on Facebook. Worth looking through for ideas for your own campaigns.Nestlé Will Be the First Brand to Run a Sponsored Periscope Stream: Since Twitter-owned Periscope launched in March, brands have been curious about how to turn livestreaming video into ads. Twitter doesn’t offer Periscope ads yet, but a campaign from Nestlé this weekend shows how marketers can still work marketing into the app.Empower Mondays has the latest digital, social and content news from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest and more. Sign up by email to receive the latest edition – every update, every Monday, every week.
