Flickr will be rolling out a number of changes in the coming months:
- A new photo stream design, Justified View
- A new uploading feature, Uploadr.
With user engagement as the companies main focus, Justified View, trades Flickr’s current white space-filled layout for something that looks a lot more like Pinterest. The new photo stream will first go live with your contacts (the people you follow). It showcases bigger photos and lacks text data. You can hover over photos to view tags and other information.
The new upload feature dubbed Uploadr, which will go live in late March, lets you drag and drop photos from your computer onto the site.
View more details on Flickrs new look at Mashable.
Youtube has amped up its Google+ usability on the site so you can now add the Google+ social media button on the Youtube channel you manage. You can also make your video or playlist submit to a feed so that all your video’s can be sent immediately to your subscribers.
Since the Youtube redesign this past winter, Google has been rolling out new features to improve the user experience. They recently added technical updates to their Video Editor, Video Manager, and the browse page. Now they are making the experience more social, and increasing your ability to annotate videos. Youtube will be increasing the different color options, a new timeline feature, and the ability to label different sections of a video.
Find out about all the new improvements at socialtimes.
Google seems to have created an updated version of their nearly forgotten application, Latitude. Combining the Maps application to its preexisting Latitude feature, they have created the ability for you to check-in at different locations. This new version means that you can earn points by frequently visiting certain locations, sound familiar? While there has been no official announcement of this new update, you can take a glimpse of the new feature below.
The Inbound Marketing Summit is coming to New York City, February 28-29th. This conference for digital, social, and mobile marketing features a mix of inspirational speakers and authors. Meet other media professionals and participate in sessions covering topics such as:
- Why leaders need to embrace social
- How B2B Marketers are using social media for demand generation
- What you can learn from media companies
Sprinklr VP of marketing Jeremy Epstein will be featured on a panel discussing How to go beyond e-mail Marketing.
Register here to attend, or follow the conference on twitter at #IMS12
The following is a guest blog post from Evol8tion’s, Joseph Jaffe
It is with great excitement and anticipation that I can share my latest venture: it’s called Evol8tion – pronounced Evolootion as in Evolution, but with an “8″ which represents infinity (or two “o” ‘s on their side). You get the drift…
Evol8tion is an innovation agency that puts brands back in control by reverse engineering the startup to create technology solutions to business problems. Let me explain:
Innovation Agency = Innovation is typically associated with product development and packaging, but not marketing itself. The traditional agency has morphed into the digital and social agency. Innovation is the next evolution. Evol8tion is an agent on behalf of its clients (the brands) as well as an agent in the classical sense i.e. that represents the startup community.
Put Brands Back in Control = Brands have had to resort to “renting space” via middlemen in the form of paid media. We believe that brands can move from being media dependent to media discerning, i.e. become owners or even landlords in the world of impressions, attention, time spent and engagement.
Reverse Engineering the Startup = Our mantra of “startups for brands” is essentially an attempt to reverse engineer the startup from the brand backwards i.e. begin with the brand challenge and consumer insight and then work backwards into funding (via brands) and development.
Technology Solutions to Business Problems = There are too many solutions to non-existent problems or tactics in search of strategy. A branded startup needs to address a brief and ultimately deliver against a key marketing (brand health, brand love, preference, loyalty, advocacy) or business (market share, revenue, sales, profitability) KPI.
Put slightly differently: we match early stage startups to blue chip brands to partner via mentoring, pilot programs and/or investment (way under 140 characters, so there!)
Huffington Post will be launching a social reading application for Facebook Timeline. Now the content the content you read will be featured in the newsfeed, and post the articles that your connections are reading. The application is customizable so you can out opt of this feature currently, or select the articles that you are comfortable sharing on your feed. However, you may need to edit these articles individually. There has been no date announced yet about when this update will be released on Facebook.
There were over 6 million comments last month in the Facebook’s Huffington Post Social News feature. Read all the changes at the Huffington Post.
Facebook is rolling out a new feature that could change the dynamics of creating events on the site. You now see Facebook suggesting friends to add to your next event.
This new module will pop up on the right side of your event page, with an invite button on the side next to that person. The people who appear will be curated by their listed interests or mutual friends for the particular event.
This could be helpful when trying to discern which friends might interested in attending certain concerts or sports events. Facebook can also gauge your interest from outside applications like Spotify to increase accuracy.
Facebook is planning to make its new Timeline format available for brands later this month, according to a report.
Citing “executives briefed on Facebook’s plans,” Ad Age is reporting that Facebook will use its Feb. 29 conference for marketers in New York to announce the initiative. Facebook will start in beta with a “handful of brands,” says Ad Age.
Opening up Timeline gives brands some new options for self-expression on Facebook. In addition to outlining their corporate history (something Lexus already tried via a Facebook app), they can also take advantage of Gestures that go beyond Liking.
Learn more about this new feature, and examples of what these brand pages will look like at Mashable.
Google continues to enhance Google+ and now they are focused on the most important factor, social. Google Product Manager Sean Purcell announced that Google+ has altered the site so it is now an easier left-hand navigation menu.
Additionally, Google is finally using its own strength as a search engine to find your friends or brands. From there, Google will now suggest similar friends or brands to help build onto your profile.
The circles on the site will now be smaller so it easier to see the larger picture, and all the varied networks you have setup.
Read about all the changes taking place and take a look at the site at The Next Web.
Facebook has started a very limited roll-out for their new Sponsored Stories advertising application, and its so limited they have not even involved its Ads API partners. Their is not an example of how this new ad will look, and Facebook has not even set up a timeline for when this will go live on the site.
This new ad structure will promote what users see their friends read, watch, or listen too on their news feed. The real question now will be if these entertainment channels see the benefit of investing in Facebook’s latest pay per click promotion that does not directly link to a monetizing structure.
