It has been a busy couple of days in the world of social media. This week has already brought a new media measurement partnership, users renouncing a popular app, and a potential new format for Facebook advertising.
The Nielsen Twitter TV Rating
Social media buzz is now being taken seriously as Twitter is becoming part of a legitimate ratings system. Nielsen has announced a partnership with Twitter to create the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating, a social measurement of TV program popularity. The metric will be entirely based on Twitter data and is intended to complement Nielsen's existing TV ratings. According to TheNextWeb: "As television viewing has moved from the box to our ‘second’ screens like tablets and phones, it has become more difficult to extract an accurate rating of TV popularity. These kinds of difficulties have only compounded those that were incurred when time-shifting via DVR became a major way that a lot of us viewed TV. Now, it’s not enough to install systems in DVRs to see what Nielsen households watch and when they watch it. Any kind of modern ratings system has to look at other indicators, including social ones."
Instagram's New Privacy Policy
For the first time since their acquisition by Facebook, Instagram edited its privacy policy and revised language claims rights to users' photos without permissions. Reaction across the web was initially harsh, with many using services like Instaport to export their Instagram photo library, cancelling their accounts, and moving on to other photo-sharing outlets. Unless users delete their accounts before a noted January deadline, they will not be able to opt out of the new intellectual property policy. CNET notes that under the new policy, Facebook claims the perpetual right to license all public Instagram photos to companies or any other organization, including for advertising purposes. The Verge offers a calmer perspective on the changes, noting the policy hasn't changed drastically and that Facebook and Instagram aren't going to be directly selling user photos.
Coming Soon - Facebook Video Ads?
According to a report from AdAge, Facebook is set to unveil a new video-ad product in the first half of next year in its largest attempt to date to attract big swaths of ad dollars from TV advertisers, according to several industry executives who have been briefed on the company's plans over the past few weeks. The executives reported that Facebook will offer video advertisers the chance to target video ads to large numbers of Facebook users in their news feeds both on mobile and desktop by April of 2013. Facebook is rumored to be limiting video content to 15 seconds, which may mean brands will have to cut their 30-second spots, and other web advertising platforms may shift to offer more 15-second opportunities.