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.

Facebook Releases Continuous Video API and Other Updates for Live (Read more at TechCrunch)

Facebook has released a Continuous Video API that will add the ability for Facebook Live broadcasts to run indefinitely. The offering makes it possible for users to host nature video streams, event streams or other streams users would rather have going on an ongoing basis. This API removes the standard 90 minute limit, but it also doesn’t allow users to save the broadcast.

The API will allow other platforms and apps to integrate the continuous streams into their services. Along with the API comes the ability to geogate videos, meaning only people in a particular location can watch it, or age-gate videos to limit certain users by age. Content creators can also add expiration times to their videos to create urgency or if the video will not be relevant after a certain amount of time.

Another update allows users to skip to the portions of a saved live stream that drove the most reactions and comments. The update comes along with the revelation that two-thirds of Live video views are replays after a broadcast is over.

The marketing implications for continuous video are relatively low as this will be best suited to stream major landmarks, high-profile events and things happening in nature. All of this makes Facebook Live an effective platform for more types of content creators, however. Getting nature and event streamers onto the service will attract more users to watch live videos, which will eventually bring on more advertisers and publishers.

The updates like age-gating, geogating and Facebook Live replays offer more implications for marketers to not only ensure their videos are targeted to the right people but also show them the best parts, making that video content as effective, enjoyable and relevant as possible.

Google Expands Mobile Ads to Maps (Read more at AdAge)

Google has unrolled several new features to compete with the likes of Facebook and Instagram in the mobile space. The updates improve user experience, but they also open up more potential for advertisers.

The biggest update is related to ads that will now appear within its Maps app. The ads will display when users open up Maps and search for locations. For example, a user may search for a coffee shop and see ads for specific shops at the top of the results list. In addition, pins will show on the map screen of advertisers, allowing users to navigate to them.

Advertisers who participate will be able to share offers, promotions and other information in the search results, such as store hours. The move comes at a time when Google has reported mobile search growing 50% faster than all searches.

This update leans into Google’s micro-moments philosophy of targeting users with specific information at their precise moment of need. And Google faces some pretty stiff competition in the mobile space. This move allows Google to use its Maps popularity to do what competitors like Facebook can’t do in the space. The challenge for Google will be not letting ads get in the way of user experience because there are plenty of navigation apps available on the market for users to defect to.

Twitter Launches Major Updates to Tweets (Read more at SocialTimes)

Twitter’s been tinkering with its platform over the past several months, and it recently launched several new updates to how people will be tweeting. The goal is to make tweeting easier without sacrificing Twitter’s signature brevity and speed.

Now, @names in replies will no longer count toward a character limit, so users will be able to mention other users without giving up the content they want to share with them. In addition, as recently rumored, Twitter is not counting characters related to sharing a photo, GIF, video, poll or quote in character limits, giving users 23 extra characters when sharing that content. Users will also now be able to retweet and quote themselves using the retweet button. The update allows users to share content a second time that they feel is especially worthy of an extra share.

Finally, users no longer need to do a “.@“ when replying to a user with a tweet they want to be seen by everyone. Previously, those tweets only showed up in the timelines of the user being @replied to as well as mutual friends of the sender and recipient. Now, new tweets with just “@“ at the beginning of a reply will be seen by all followers, but tweets that are replies to a user will still only be seen by users and mutual friends.

Twitter’s made several incremental changes to its platform, and all the while, it’s been able to do so while maintaining its core points of difference. The platform has changed, but brevity and speed still remain core to the platform. It’s been impressive. Now, we’ll see if these moves incrementally are enough to bring in new users and please investors.

Facebook Shutting Down FBX (Read more at AdAge)

FBX is being shut down by Facebook. FBX was the social networks’ desktop ad exchange that allowed marketers to to use their own data to bid in real time on Facebook inventory and retarget audiences. It was limited to desktop, so Facebook is switching everything over to Facebook Audience Network, which extends across the web beyond Facebook as well as on desktop and mobile.

On top of that, Facebook is expanding its Audience Network to be able to reach people who aren’t signed into Facebook or even have Facebook accounts. Previously, it was limited only to signed-in Facebook users, which helped it be so targeted. But as Facebook has continued to gather information about non-users visiting sites with Facebook technology, such as Like buttons, it’s been able to learn more about them. This move is in direct competition to Google’s AdSense network as Facebook says it can better target all users than the competition.

The move is no surprise by Facebook, which has seen increasing revenue coming from mobile. The biggest players hurt in this will be ad tech partners who were still relying on FBX on their platforms. Facebook’s decision will certainly benefit Facebook, but it also points to the need for campaigns to have mobile in order to be effective. Facebook Audience Network allows advertisers to target consumers across devices, and advertisers can use custom audiences to augment some of the offerings from FBX to use their own data for real-time bidding.

Facebook Continues Testing of News Feed Redesign (Read more at Mashable)

It’s looking more and more like a redesigned Facebook News Feed is on the way. Facebook is currently testing a desktop and mobile News Feed in Australia that allows users to see a stream of stories focused on specific topics like Animals & Pets, Politics, Travel, TV & Movies and Relationships.

Default topics will depend on your behavior, but users are given the option to remove or add different topic options for their feeds, and Facebook is also giving users the options to select niches within broader categories. So an Animals & Pets feed can be further broken down to include “animal facts” or “animal rights.”

Content from pages that a user has not liked may appear in some of these sections along with other public content from people, but these feeds also include content from friends and friends of friends. What is still unclear is whether or not pages can edit the topic that Facebook assigns to their posts.

This update to News Feeds has been rumored since last year, and from a brand perspective, it really doesn’t change things. If fully rolled out, it will further segment users into content categories making them harder to reach organically, making paid Facebook ads the best way to ensure reach and garner user attention. This would be a major update to Facebook’s News Feed, so we can expect the feature to be in testing for awhile longer as it looks to make the feed stickier and more valuable for users.

News Quick Hits

Snapchat Discover is getting a redesign as soon as June 7. The update includes a new layout that moves away from circular icons to tiles that resemble Instagram. The move should increase Snapchat video views, which could in turn bring more advertisers and publishers onto the platform. (Read more at Venturebeat)
Facebook has updated its approach to choosing Trending Topics following reports that it may have been filtering out conservative media outlets. Now, it will not be using other websites and media outlets to determine what stories to highlight. In other words, it will discontinue use of the top-10 list of news outlets, the Media 1K list and the RSSfeed. Facebook says it still has found no evidence of systematic bias, but it’s still implementing changes. (Read more at Mashable)
After digging into Instagram’s code for soon-to-be-launched business profiles, there are a few more hints about what may be coming for marketers, including: the ability to boost post reach to followers, the ability for regular users to get more data on their post reach without being advertisers, the ability to convert user profiles to business profiles, and the ability to measure reach, impressions, views, engagement rates, clicks, likes and comments. (Read more at Medium)
Lyft, the ride-sharing platform, is testing a feature that allows users to schedule rides up to 24 hours in advance.The feature’s only in testing in San Francisco, but it’s showing how Lyft is pivoting to compete with Uber. (Read more at CNET)
Google has launched responsive display formats for ads, so they adapt to match the look and feel of publishers and apps part of the Google Display Network. Along with the update, Google is also allowing longer headlines and text in AdWords as well as the ability for advertisers to make AdWords bids by device. (Read more at AdAge)
Just in time for E3 in June, YouTube has launched event pages for YouTube Gaming. The event pages will serve as content hubs for gaming events, particularly, eSports. The pages will allow users to view all videos related to an event in one destination. (Read more at The Official Google Blog)
Foursquare has launched Marsbot, a new app and chatbot that specializes in giving users restaurant recommendations. The goal is to make the recommendations personalized and proactive, so the app will attempt to text users suggestions when near locations they may like. The app is rolling out slowly and is limited to New York and San Francisco. (Read more at Mashable)
320 stickers are now available to Snapchat users thanks to an update to the app . The stickers are in the folded paper icon next to the “T" icon in the top-right-hand corner of the app interface. The stickers can be added to photos or even attached to moving objects. (Read more at Mashable)
Spotify is now allowing brands to sponsor its owned playlists, many of which have millions of followers. Previously, brands were limited to creating and curating their own sponsored playlists, but now Spotify is opening up some of its most popular ones. These playlists can generate more than 1 billion streams per week. Sponsorships will be sold for a week at a time. (Read more at AdAge)
Twitter is now allowing users to listen to 30 second song previews of Spotify tracks through Twitter cards. Users can then tap to listen to the full song by opening Spotify. Spotify integration follows integration with SoundCloud and iTunes. This has the potential to help marketers promote sponsored playlists they may have on Spotify. (Read more at The Next Web)