Social Media This Week

Find out the exciting developments that happened in the Social Media universe during the week of June 23 to June 29, 2014. These developments can change the way you use Social Media.

Facebook releases improved version of Page Manager App

Those who use mobile phones to make Facebook posts have a reason to cheer. Facebook has launched a new version of Facebook Page Manager — for iOS and Android phones — to make it easier for them to manage their Pages on the go.

Facebook users will now enjoy the following three advantages:

• Easier access to admin tools
• Quicker navigation to Page Activity and Insights
• More direct access to “action bar” to write a post, add a photo or edit your Page.

Ads to cost more on Facebook

Facebook ads are set for a makeover. Starting this week, Facebook is rolling out a more engaging creative canvas to display ads.

Facebook tests have shown a jump in clickthroughs, so advertisers should be happy. They can expect better response.

The bad news is that Facebook is shrinking the ad hole. There will be fewer ads, which means that advertisers have to pay more to buy space. But Facebook is confident; the higher costs will be offset with an improved response.

Facebook tweaks video use

Facebook believes in innovation, and improved user experience. To achieve this, it has once again tweaked its News Feed. This time the goal is to improve video experience of users.

The social media giant will now track every video that is being watched. More important, it will also monitor how long the video was watched to decide its value.

So far, Facebook measured likes, comments and shares to establish a video’s popularity. With this tweak, only the best videos will get promoted on Facebook.

People who tend to watch more video in News Feed should expect to see more videos near the top of their Feed. Conversely, people who tend to skip over videos without watching them should expect to see fewer videos.

Says Facebook: “This improvement means that videos that people choose to watch will reach a larger audience, while videos that people ignore will be shown to fewer people.”

Google Drive has a better, paid avatar

If you have been using Google Drive, you can now try an even better offering from Google. The service, Google Drive for Work, is a huge improvement on Google Drive that is currently used by 190 million people from home and office.

The premium service has been launched to provide users with unlimited storage, advanced audit reporting and new security controls. There is a cost to its use: $10/user/month.

In its announcement, Google stated: “Well, today, we’re taking bytes out of the conversation. For $10/user/month, businesses get unlimited storage for all their employees and can store files up to 5 TB in size .

Further, “ all files uploaded to Google Drive will be encrypted, not only from your device to Google and in transit between Google data centers, but also at rest on Google servers.”

The good news is that Google Drive for Work is available globally, and Indians too can upgrade their Google Drive immediately.

LinkedIn launches new Job Search App for iPhone

LinkedIn has launched a new Job Search app for iPhone that works like a one-stop shop for job seeking needs. Says Linkedin: “The next time you’re in a line for coffee or stuck waiting for a delayed flight, why not jump start your job search from your phone.”

You can use the app to learn more about the company and check out who you know that already works at the company to get the competitive intel you need to stand out.

The only limitation: the new Job Search app for iOS is available in the US only for now. You have to wait for it to become available in India.