Social Media Weekly Roundup 18.12.20

John Lewis hosts live-streamed festive fundraiser

The John Lewis Partnership is hosting its first live-streamed online show ‘Give a Little Love Live’ today (18th Dec at 6.30 pm on the John Lewis website) as part of its broader Christmas charity campaign. The show will highlight members of the community who have shown kindness in the face of uncertainty and adversity this year, as well as live music and a quiz in which winners will receive prizes worth over £5000 each. Show attendees and John Lewis customers will also be encouraged to donate to their charity partners FareShare and Home-Start.

Read more about John Lewis’ charity efforts this Christmas as well as other brands giving back this festive season in our latest article.

Facebook ramps up criticism of Apple

Facebook is running newspaper ads criticising Apple for its new policy which gives iOS users the choice to be tracked by advertisers or not, an option which Facebook says will hurt small businesses. In its full-page newspaper ads in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post and in its blog post, Facebook says that it is “standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere” by publicly criticising the policy. A number of advertising industry groups have also criticised the policy, but Apple remains unlikely to change it, stating that the policy increases transparency and allows users to “know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites.”

Facebook temporarily disables some Messenger and Instagram features

In response to new rules for messaging services in Europe, Facebook has temporarily disabled some features on its platforms Messenger and Instagram. Though the social media giant hasn’t laid out a list of which features exactly it has disabled, according to reports polls on Messenger and Instagram, stickers on Instagram and personalised replies on Messenger are all missing. Facebook is notifying users of the temporary changes via a message which appears in both the Messenger and Instagram apps noting that some features aren’t available.

LinkedIn announces the rollout of Product Pages

LinkedIn has announced the launch of its latest feature LinkedIn Product Pages. Product Pages is a dedicated tab showcasing a company’s products which LinkedIn hopes will help businesses “nurture conversation and build brand affinity” with their customers and followers. The feature also spotlights product endorsements and testimonials by users, gathers ratings and reviews from current users, and generates leads through custom call-to-action buttons.

New Facebook Collab app lets you create music with friends

Facebook’s newest experimental music-making app Facebook Collab was launched to everyone with an iPhone or iPad in the US on Tuesday. The app lets users create music with friends, even when they cannot be together in the same place. The music clips, known as “collabs”, are made of three 15-second videos from different musicians and singers which are always playing in sync, even when the composition changes. Users can also record their own contributions for any song that is already on the app and, once uploaded to the app, other users can use these pieces in their own collabs too.

Apple launches its new app privacy labels 

On Monday, Apple’s new privacy labels began going live across all of the company’s App Stores, including iOS and tvOS. The new labels are part of Apple’s broader move towards greater transparency, aiming to make it easier for their customers to understand what kind of information an app collects across three categories: data used to track you, data linked to you, and data not linked to you. Even Apple’s own apps, which aren’t offered in the App Store, will have their own privacy labels published on the web.

You can now share tweets directly to Snapchat Stories on iOS

Twitter has announced a new feature that allows users to add tweets directly to their Snapchat Stories on iOS. The feature is a bid to drive Snapchat users, the majority of whom are Gen Z or Millennial, to its platform. You can find the new feature within Twitter’s sharing tools on iOS - to use it, just tap on the share icon and choose Snapchat as the destination. Snapchat users will then be able to tap on the tweet in Stories to see the full tweet and the conversation around it on Twitter.