This Week in Social is a weekly digest of some of the biggest stories in social media marketing news. These stories are the show notes for the Brave Ad World Podcast. Each story is discussed at a deeper level on the podcast.

Snapchat Launches Stories Playlists and Alters Discover’s Prominence (Read more at TechCrunch)

Snapchat’s made some big changes to the way its app is laid out and how it works.

First, Stories will no longer auto-advance. Instead, Snapchat’s launching something called “Stories Playlist,” which lets users choose which Stories they want to watch all at once by selecting several Stories from a feed and starting the playlist. The challenge for brands is ads were once given prominent placement between Stories, so now Snapchat will be doing “mid-roll” ads in playlists as well as at the end of single stories, known as post-roll.

Second, Discover content will appear below the Stories on a page, which is a change in direction by Snapchat a few months back to give Discover more prominence. Obviously, publishers are not going to be pleased with the decision, but Snapchat contends that the move is intended to keep users within the Snapchat app for longer periods of time and more often.

Snapchat’s taking a step back here and focusing more on its roots—personal messaging. Keeping that front-and-center, while also giving users the ability to customize the experience should keep users as or even more engaged than ever. Assuming that’s the case, the opportunity to reach users and deliver advertising remains strong.

What will be interesting is how publishers respond to this change to Discover, which they’ve dedicated time, staff and resources to. Metrics will tell the story of whether or not they continue to be committed to Snapchat Discover or step away from it.

Facebook Launches Standalone Events App (Read more at The Drum)

Facebook just launched a standalone app for iOS called Events. Events is designed to help users find nearby activities to attend and to see what friends are doing. The app provides recommendations based on time, interests and location, and it allows users to search for future events.

The app is intended to provide a separate, more focused events experience. According to Facebook, 100 million people use Facebook to look for things to do on a daily basis.

This isn’t the first time Facebook has created a standalone app, and those efforts have not been successful for the most part. Still, in an age of mobile search and planning, an app that offers recommendations on what to do and where could prove successful. Foursquare’s been taking steps to do something like this over the past few years, and Google just launched a similar tool that is more focused on travel called Google Trips.

Facebook’s played in this area and has tried to make the Events experience on Facebook more useful with features like Popular Nearby and Popular in your Network, but those features were largely buried. This app puts them front and center.

Pinterest Launches Retargeting Options (Read more at Pinterest for Business)

Pinterest has launched several new features to help advertisers retarget users based on Pinterest behavior as well as behavior on a brand website.

Now, brands can retarget users who click on Pins, comment, save Pins, like pins and view closeups of Pins. From there, advertisers can create audiences based on interest in specific Pins, advertise to them and drive site traffic. Beyond that, advertisers can target Pinterest users who have taken action on their own websites like browsing certain categories, signing up for services or adding items to a shopping cart.

This is all about relevance. Pinterest is a place where people show signals of intent to take action, so retargeting them with content based on those signals could make Pinterest a pretty powerful platform for driving conversions.

Facebook Updates Instant Article Advertising Options (Rea more at Venturebeat)

Instant Articles have gotten another update from Facebook with new advertising options. Now, publishers can place ads in new custom ad sizes up to a 2:3 aspect ratio. Beyond that, Instant Articles can also now include video and carousel ads.

Instant Articles have been embraced by some and avoided by other publishers. This update just makes them all the more attractive by giving publishers more ways to monetize the content they’re investing time and resources into creating specifically for Facebook.

Periscope Launches Periscope Producer (Read more at Forbes)

In an effort to give live streams a bit more polish, Twitter has launched Periscope Producer for Periscope. Producer allows broadcasts to use external cameras and software to improve their footage. Up until now, broadcasts were limited to phone cameras and Twitter software.

Media companies like ABC, Fusion, Walt Disney and others have expressed excitement for the update.

Periscope’s seeing serious competition from the likes of Facebook, so this move is one that could be great for attracting more pro broadcasters and social media stars who have a greater threshold for quality. Twitter has been pushing more and more in the realm of live streaming, and in it’s current position as the place where conversations take place when events happen, it makes a lot of sense. But with stiff competition, Twitter needs to move quickly, get the creators and establish a firm foothold because Facebook has shown it has no problem paying content creators to stream over its platform over others.

News Quick Hits

Facebook’s inter-office communication platform, Workplace, became available this week. The tool is intended to help employees communicate and collaborate. Employers are charged per employee for the service and opens up an entirely new revenue stream for Facebook, which will be competing against the likes of Slack and Microsoft. (Read more at AdAge)
Flipboard is launching a new ad product called Storyboard, which lets brands tell in-depth narratives by stitching together multiple pieces of content, including video, articles, images, GIFs and sound. Users, which typically scroll through content by swiping up and down, will engage with this ad content by swiping left and right. The goal is to create immersive experiences using a brand’s “best assets,” according to cofounder and CEO of Clipboard Mike McCue. (Read more at AdAge)
LinkedIn just updated its mobile app to give users the abilities to save articles to read later, search for content and control their feeds by indicating interest in topics, following leaders and publications, and unfollowing updates from specific connections. (Read more at SocialTimes)
In an effort to keep the News Feed as uncluttered by ads as possible, Facebook is testing ad placement in Facebook Groups. The ads are the same as what is displayed in the News Feed but are targeted by group topic as well as identity-based targeting. (Read more at TechCrunch)
Vine launched Soundboard, a new feature for iOS users that lets them take viral sounds and add them to their Vines. The feature is available when users can add captions and edit posts through a sound wave icon. (Read more at TechCrunch)
Pinterest announced that now has 150 million monthly active users up 50% over last year. 75% of its signups are from outside the United States, and more than 1 million businesses are now on Pinterest with “tens of thousands” of them being advertisers. (Read more at Pinterest’s Blog)