The Rundown: August

The end of August has arrived, and that means another month of the biggest updates and trends in social media. Without further ado, here’s the latest edition of The Rundown:

1: Rio 2016 – Highs, Lows, Lochte & Beyond

The excitement of the 2016 Olympics has finally come to a close, and along the way (besides brands facing some Olympic-sized marketing hurdles) there were certainly some standout statistics:

• Facebook reports 277 million people had 1.5 billion reactions to the Games.
• On Twitter, there were over 187 million tweets (and 75 BILLION impressions) related to the 2016 #Olympics.
• Swimmers, drama and more! From Katie Ledecky breaking records and Michael Phelps celebrating an Olympic milestone (and announcing his retirement which, with nearly 4 million views, coincidentally, was coincidentally the Games’ most-watched Facebook Live video) to the bizarre and confusing post-Games Lochte-Gate coverage, swimming dominated social conversation.
• Simone Biles + Zac Efron. TOO CUTE. And according to Twitter, Biles’ video was the most retweeted athlete tweet of Rio.

2: Instagram Stories: Brands Approve (For Now)

While Snapchat may still remain supreme in the timed-content battlefield, Instagram Stories debuted to some fairly staggering big-brand acceptance. Heavy hitters like Mercedes-Benz, J. Crew and Starbucks have all created their own unique, sorta-unfiltered visuals using the new feature. Instagram Stories offers users and brands both large and small a simple way to communicate authentic-feeling visual narratives, from behind-the-scenes clips to sneak previews and more. Kay Hsu (Global Lead for Instagram Creative Shop) says, “It’s fun to see businesses’ personalities shine through their stories.”

3: Facebook v. Ad-Blockers, Ad Infinitum

It’s no surprise that Facebook and ad-blocking companies inevitably butt heads over policy change. Facebook made some tweaks earlier this month (including increasing the control users have over their ad preference settings), believing that “these expanded controls give people a better experience with advertising on and off Facebook.” Within 24 hours of implementation, both Adblock Plus and Facebook had exchanged words and re-circumvented the other’s efforts – multiple times.

4: Snapchat Purchased… Who?

Snapchat left everyone scratching their heads upon announcing they had purchased the social… messaging… ahem, ‘mobile search app’ Vurb for $110 million. Vurb is known primarily for its collaborative take on search and mobile decision-making. Using shareable ‘cards’, the app would pull in data from partners (such as Yelp and RottenTomatoes) to create personalized recommendations for users and their friends. While ‘Vurbing’ may never become as verbally ubiquitous as, say, ‘Google,’ keep an eye out for this acquisition to provide significant expansion to the social capabilities in Snapchat’s feature set.