Facebook Stories Coming to Brands: You know those empty circles at the top of your Facebook app where none of your friends are sharing stories? Soon they will be filled with Stories from brands, news publishers, athletes, entertainers and nonprofits. The feature is rolling out over the coming month to all pages, which Facebook sees as their strategy to drive adoption. With the extreme adoption of Snapchat and Instagram Stories, and the continued rise of disposable media messaging, we see huge potential in brands telling short-form, chronological stories. Adoption has been slow on Facebook, but this could be the tipping point. (LINK)
Snapchat’s Context Cards: This week Snapchat introduced context cards, which add contextual information to geotagged photos and images shared in public stories. Users can swipe up on any snap that displays the word “more” and they’ll see an interactive card pop up with options to engage with OpenTable, TripAdvisor, Lyft and more. Now you never have to leave the Snapchat app! Isn’t that great? (LINK)
Facebook, Bring Me Dinner: Speaking of never leaving the app, this week Facebook announced a new feature that allows users to order food from local restaurants using its app. Users can find the new option “Order Food” in the Explore menu in the Facebook app, where you can then browse area restaurants and click “Start Order” when you know what you want. Some early criticism is that Facebook is doing too many things and ordering food isn’t hard in 2017. But we’re watching for ad units that result in a “Like” for delivery. (LINK)
How Machine Learning Finds You New Music: Every Monday more than 100 million Spotify users encounter a hot new playlist created just for them, and it’s worth mentioning because people LOVE IT. Oh, and robots make the mixtape. It’s called Discovery Weekly, and it’s a playlist of 30 songs that are algorithmically tuned just to you. We’re geeking out on the science of their music recommendation engine: Collaborative Filtering, Natural Language Processing and Raw Audio Models. Sorry friends, we may never take a human-based musical recommendation again. (LINK)
#WomenBoycottTwitter: Sparked by Twitter’s temporary suspension of Rose McGowan’s account earlier this week after she and many others came forward with their Harvey Weinstein stories, women across the world are showing solidarity by falling silent on Twitter for one day. Today. Hundreds of women, including actress Alyssa Milano and model Chrissy Teigen, have said they will not post anything to the microblogging platform on Friday, “in protest of women’s voices being silenced.” Other influential folks like Ava DuVernay chimed in with another perspective, posing questions about which women we’re willing to back and if #WomenBoycottTwitter is truly intersectional. Questlove echoed her sentiments saying he’s on board to support women, so long as we remember that Jemele Hill is also facing backlash for her free speech. We’re watching, but more importantly, we’re listening. (LINK)
GREG SWAN 