Opening up Moments to more creators (Twitter Blog, 8/9/16)

This is a great idea, one that I suggested several months ago. It may not be the silver bullet that saves Twitter, but opening up more creation tools to more people does give them additional ways to express themselves, which is a good thing and could make the network a bit stickier. It will be interesting to see how these get used, especially if they create that middle-ground between microblogs and full blogs that Twitter has yet to inhabit.

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A New Way to Control the Ads You See on Facebook, and an Update on Ad Blocking (Facebook Newsroom, 8/9/16)

Solid move and at least they’re addressing the elephant in the room that is ad blocking software. I don’t think this will amount to very much but now Facebook can say they’ve taken a position on the issue and given people some control over what they’re shown.

Snapchat Is Allowing More Brands to Run Ads Between Friends’ Stories (Adweek, 8/10/16)

It’s so unlike a hot social network to abuse its user base’s attention by shoving a ton of ads down their throat. Really unusual. Wow.

Facebook is adding new video metrics for publishers, including demographics and 360º heatmaps (Nieman Lab, 8/10/16)

Facebook wants to help publishers get better at video and these new metrics will not only do that but also show more of who’s being reached with the videos. That’s very useful information, the kind of stuff that was going to be hard to build into a native CMS so hey, let’s just give whatever Facebook is giving us because (starts crying uncontrollably).