Every month, we meet with clients. Every month, we give them a report on results. And, every month we give them a Social Media News round-up of what’s news right now. Here are 21 social media news stories to start April 2017 with . . .

Facebook Social Media News April 2017

Facebook Branded Content Updates

Facebook announced three updates for branded content that are a direct result of feedback from our partners:

• Enabling more Pages to share branded content on Facebook
• Updating the branded content tag
• Simplifying our policy and enforcement guidelines

More via Facebook

How Local News Stations Cover Weather on Facebook

Facebook highlights how local outlets across the country covered extreme weather events including California’s floods, tornadoes in Texas and Louisiana and a New England blizzard. More via Facebook

Facebook Rolls Out Snapchat Like Features

Facebook Camera Effects = Snapchat Filters: According to a blog post, Facebook is rolling out “dozens” of special effects, like “masks, frames, and interactive filters” that users can add to their photos.

Facebook Direct = Snapchat Snaps: A new feature called Facebook Direct will let users share disappearing photos and videos with friends. Recipients can view the photo or video once and respond, then the original disappears forever. This is the functionality that originally made Snapchat popular (and led to the widespread assumption in its early days that it was intended for sending explicit photos).

Facebook Stories = Snapchat Stories: Facebook already added Stories — collections of photos and videos that are set to disappear after 24 hours — to Instagram last August. Now, the same functionality is coming to the main Facebook feed.  More on CNBC.

You Can Call Congress on Facebook

One of Facebook’s new tools, Town Hall, allows you to find out who your local, state and federal representatives are. You can get to it by visiting facebook.com/townhall; by looking under the “Explore” section of your news feed on desktop; or by looking in the menu of your Facebook app on your phone. More via DailyHerald.com

You Can Color Your Facebook Posts

Facebook’s latest enhancement is the ability to add a colored background to your text-only posts. It follows a 2016 change to make personal, text-only posts more prominent, which could in theory allow them to stand out from paid advertisements and posts from media outlets. More via Complex.com

Google Plus Social Media News April 2017

Google Plus Removes Location Sharing Feature

One of the lesser-known features found in Google+ was the ability to share your exact location with people in your circles. Now, with the wider rollout of the new location sharing feature coming to Google Maps, this functionality has been removed from the social network. More via 9to5Google

Influencer Marketing Social Media News April 2017

Amazon Launches Beta Influencer Marketing Program

Similar to the Amazon Affiliate program, the new program will offer influencers commission on products sold, but is not open to the public. One of the key things that makes the new Influencer program different from Amazon Affiliates is its exclusivity. More via TechCrunch

Instagram Social Media News April 2017

What it Means to be Instagrammy

FastCompany talked to Instagram cofounder and CEO Kevin Systrom about topics such as how the company came to have a broader view of its purpose; why it added Stories and what it’s doing to make sure they feel like they belong in the app; and what it’s like to run an enormous social network that’s owned by an even larger one.  More via FastCompany

Top 15 Liked Accounts on Instagram

Are you following any of these celebs?

Save Live Instagram Photos to Your Phone

After your live broadcast ends, tap Save in the upper right corner. You’ll only be able to save your video — not the comments, likes, number of viewers or any live interactions. After saving, tap Done and your live video will be saved to your camera roll but will no longer be available in the app. More via Instagram

Most Narcissistic Social Network?

Young adults, often the source of bewilderment and ire by their elders, rated the photo-sharing service as the most narcissistic social media service, according to a survey by student loan refinancing startup LendEDU. Instagram was cited by 64% of nearly 3,700 college students polled, followed by Snapchat with 15%, Twitter with 11%, and Facebook with 10%. More via Fortune

LinkedIn Social Media News April 2017

Guess Who Has the Worst LinkedIn profile photos? Shocking!

What is surprising is the ‘worst’ ranking, as photographers find themselves with the lowest average photo quality score. When shooting and editing their photos, these aesthetes may take creative liberties that don’t jibe with the science of what makes a good professional photo. More via snappr.com

LinkedIn Launches Trending Storylines

Storylines are daily curated interest-based feeds about the most important developing stories in your industry. They help you discover and discuss news, ideas and diverse perspectives from the largest group of professionals, publishers and editorial voices ever assembled.

Each storyline will also have a unique hashtag associated with it, making it easy for you to join the conversation and add your own take on the issue.

Pinterest Social Media News April 2017

Pinterest is Powering Visual Search for Samsung Galaxy

Users will be able to choose images from photos or screenshots they have taken, or from the web via the Samsung Internet application, and then tap the image search button in Bixby Vision to discover similar products and ideas. More via AdWeek

Pinterest Offers Propel Ed Program for Advertisers

A new program will make it even easier to advertise, thanks to one-on-one support from Pinterest ad experts. The program, Pinterest Propel, helps to teach, train and build campaigns alongside advertisers.

In order to qualify for Pinterest Propel, an advertiser needs to be ready to spend $100/day on ads, and the program is only for US and Canadian participants. More via MarketingLand.com

Rethinking Pinterest as a Catalog

Pinterest is a “catalog of ideas” that has a different objective than a Social Network site. Social Networks are used to share information with other people to like, where Pinterest is a site where you like and save things that are of interest to you and you alone, it is self-serving. More via BusinessInsider.com

Pinterest Lens Rolls Out

Lens, one of three visual discovery features introduced by Pinterest, rolled out to all of the social network’s U.S. iPhone and Android users, with some new tweaks, although the feature is still in beta. More via AdWeek

Social Media Public Policy News April 2017

Americans See Social Media Impact On Public Policy

Nearly 80% of Americans believe that social media has at least some impact on public policy outcomes, according to a new Finn Futures survey. More via HolmesReport.com

Snapchat Social Media News April 2017

Stories Search Makes Snapchat a Real-Time YouTube

Snapchat launched Search for Stories submitted to its public Our Stories. It makes Snapchat as deep as whatever the world is sharing, creating near-infinite rabbit holes to go down, and a stronger competitor for YouTube and Twitter. More via Techcrunch

Snapchat’s Data Plays Keep Away with Facebook and Instagram

Effective April 3, millennial  marketers will be able to zero in on Snapchat users who are most likely to download their brand’s app, targeting slivers or swaths of the platform’s 160 million users who have shown interest in either the brand or the functionality it’s offering. These app-install ads allow the marketer to set cost-per-download goals in a measure that’s designed to get app marketers of all budgets into Snapchat’s business client pool. More via Snapchat

Twitter Social Media News April 2017

140 Characters for Replies

It’s now easier to follow a conversation, so you can focus on what a discussion is about, and who is having it. Also, with all 140 characters for your replies, you have more room to participate in group conversations. More via Twitter.com

The post 21 Social Media News Stories to Start April 2017 With appeared first on wiredPRworks.