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.

Instagram Business Profiles are Official (Read more at The Instagram Blog)

Instagram business profiles are officially on their way after being confirmed by Instagram, and along with the confirmation come the final details.

Business profiles will now have access to dashboards built into the mobile app, showing the impressions, reach and engagement of content with week-over-week comparisons. Content creators will also be able to see when their posts were seen. Businesses will be able to incorporate information such as their business addresses and methods of contact into the profiles.

Along with the dashboard and other updates comes the ability to boost posts to increase their reach and get in front of more people. Advertisers will be able to select their own target audiences or let Instagram handle the targeting.

Instagram is really offering businesses a glimpse in what they’re currently getting through analytics as a way to entice them to invest in paid advertising. And as Instagram’s algorithm continues to roll out, advertising will be more critical than ever for garnering exposure on the platform.

Periscope Adds Comment Moderation (Read more at The Verge)

Periscope has added an update that allows users to evaluate comments coming in over live streams as abusive. Periscope calls the process “flash juries."

When a comment is flagged as inappropriate, Periscope will select a random set of viewers to decide whether or not a comment is abusive or spam and ask them to vote with a single tap. Guilty comments will disappear and the commenter will be blocked from commenting for 60 seconds. If the commenter has a second offense, commenting privileges will be revoked for the rest of the broadcast.

Periscope’s had an issue, like any social network, with negative comments since it started, and this is certainly a novel approach to handling the issue. It seems they’ve put a lot of effort into making this as simple and seamless as possible. Although, the process seems that it could be rather slow. By the time a group of people votes and the comment gets removed, that commenter could still say a lot more. This is a test-and-learn approach and will likely evolve over time, but the move to moderation certainly makes Periscope a more welcoming platform for brands.

Instagram’s Algorithm is Here (Read more at The Instagram Blog)

Instagram’s previously announced and long-awaited algorithm is here. The algorithm was announced in March, and now it has been implemented as more and more users are seeing their feeds curated in an order that an algorithm feels will be more useful to them. Previously, posts were displayed in chronological order.

The posts are now organized based off of what the algorithm deems you’ll be most interested in, the timeliness of the post and your relationship with the person who posted it. According to Instagram, people miss about 70% of the content in their feeds, so they want to help users participate in a more engaging way.

It’s likely no coincidence that business profiles are rolling out at the same time as this announcement. Brands will soon be able to see just how much or little reach their content is getting, especially with the algorithm, which will make paying to boost posts all the more attractive. Instagram’s proven to be a valuable platform, and algorithms are one way for platforms to attempt to improve the user experience but also drive ad revenue. That’s exactly why Snapchat is considering an algorithmic approach of its own.

Pinterest Changes Pin Button to Save (Read more at Oh, How Pinteresting)

The Pin It button is no more. It’s been replaced by Save. The reason for the change is to help users outside the U.S., more than half of its user base, understand its meaning. Pinning doesn’t translate well around the world. Now, we have the name change to save.

The Pin It button is core to the Pinterest platform, so it’s a big deal that Pinterest decided to make this move. The platform is working to show its scale and ability to generate revenue, and part of that comes from growth outside the U.S. The move was undoubtedly intended to bring new users onto the platform and to help them use it regularly. That makes Pinterest more attractive for advertisers and investors, especially ahead of a potential IPO.

Twitter Brings User Tweets into Ad Carousels (Read more at AdAge)

Twitter is testing carousel ad units that do something a bit different than those of Facebook and Instagram. The unit is called Promoted Tweet Carousel. These allow advertisers to feature both user tweets and their now in a single carousel unit. Before users' tweets can be featured, however, brands need to get explicit permission from users to use their tweets in an ad. Users are not compensated through Twitter, but brands and users could work out a deal on their own, according to Twitter.

Beyond users tweets, brands can feature images, videos and text to tell a complete story while merging creative of their own with content from users. Volvo and Disney have already experimented with the unit.

These carousels could be interesting. They allow brands to put their messages in the same unit as social proof from users. Although, with the need to get permission, this ad unit could have problems related to scalability and speed of implementation. Still, the test is interesting because Twitter is experimenting with the units in a way that other platforms are not.

News Quick Hits

Just in time for Copa America kickoff, Facebook and MSQRD launched custom filters that people can use to “paint” their countries’ flags on their faces. Facebook acquired MSQRD a couple months ago, so this move should give MSQRD even more exposure as the world tunes in to watch the soccer tournament being held in the U.S. for the first time. (Read more at SocialTimes)
Instagram is considering a revenue sharing agreement with content producers. At the very least, they want to help content creators monetize their content. “We want to be a major distribution platform and we are trying to find different ways to help content producers monetize that content,” stated vice president for global marketing solutions at Instagram Carolyn Everson. (Read more at AdAge)
Facebook has added more than 100 new emoji characters to Messenger “to better reflect gender and skin tones.” Users have the option to select a default skin tone to populate their emojis automatically. (Read more at Mashable)
Facebook Messenger may soon be getting end-to-end encryption as an option in the coming months. This would ensure messages cannot be read by law enforcement or even Facebook. Activating the feature, however, will affect the ability for Facebook’s machine learning and artificial intelligence features to improve the user experience. (Read more at The Guardian)
Snapchat now has 150 million daily users, according to Bloomberg. This number surpasses Twitter’s daily active users which is somewhere around 140 million, and is a dramatic increase from the 110 million users of Snapchat reported in December. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has said that Snapchat is “very modern,” and Twitter can be confusing at times. (Read more at Bloomberg)
For some Facebook users on desktop, Facebook is testing a new font by replacing Helvetica with Geneva. This is only a test for the time being. (Read more at Mashable)
Premium LinkedIn Users now have access to Premium Insights. Premium Insights allow users to see company employee count trends, employee distribution by function to see how a company is structured based on department, intel on new hires, notable alumni from a company and total job openings from a company. These insights are available to Business Plus, Sales Navigator and select Talent Solutions subscribers. (Read more at SocialTimes)
LinkedIn launched its new ProFinder service, which competes with services like Fiverr and Upwork. It offers a way to match customers looking for freelancers. Users can search the network based on connections, view recommendations, filter by location and so on. LinkedIn’s benefit over competitors is the ability to research freelancers and truly understand how you might be connected to them. (Read more Inc.)
72 new emojis are coming to iOS and Android phones. The new emojis include everything from an avocado to a facepalm. The emojis will be coming later this year. (Read more at Fast Company)
Facebook’s 7-month-old app Notify is shutting down. The app let uses subscribe to push notifications from more than 70 different publishers, including CNN, Vox and Bloomberg. Notify’s tech will be merged with other platforms, including Messenger. (Read more at The Verge)