Instagram Launches Dual Livestream: In the platform rat race, it often feels like one big game of “Who’s copying who?”, but with the company’s latest dual livestream update, it seems like Instagram’s continuing to hang onto its shiny object status. When users start a live video they’re now able to select one of their viewers to go live with them, and can swap users in and out throughout the duration of the stream. One natural extension this update enables is for podcast hosts to give their audiences a visual, but this also has our wheels spinning about all of the potential brand-to-brand and influencer-plus-brand collaborations. We’re excited. (LINK)
Facebook’s Reconsidering the Newsfeed (Again): We all remember the Great Reach Drop of 2012, and while we’re not quite ready to ring the advertiser alarm, we did catch wind that Facebook’s experimenting “with an alternate Newsfeed setup” which would remove page posts from the main Newsfeed and funnel them to the newly expanded “Explore Feed” instead. This experiment is currently running in Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Bolivia, Guatemala and Cambodia with News Feed Chief, Adam Mosseri, chiming in to say that it’s born out of Facebook’s user base wanting “an easier way to see posts from friends and family”. (LINK)
Thinking about a couple’s costume? Twitter can help with that! These ideas were a big thing on Twitter this week with ideas in every category—politics, pop culture, tech news and astrology. (LINK)
Stranger Things meets Machine Learning: October 27th isn’t just iPhone X day today; it’s also Stranger Things 2 day! Thanks to Reddit, a DIY superfan campaign of the Netflix show is making the rounds in social today. This site makes anything you take a picture of “Stranger Things-ified” using artificially intelligent machine learning to identify the object. The results are hit and miss, but it’s a signal that this kind of technology is quickly coming to mainstream marketing. Try it out! (LINK)
Viral Video Throwback: here are a couple of our favorite viral videos perfect for a snowy Minneapolis Friday… I’m a Stupid Cat (NSFW); “Shia LaBeouf” Live; Star Wars Kid; Sneezing Baby Panda; The Future. What are your favorites?
GREG SWAN 