This much. Let’s get into it, shall we?

Life happens in 140 character bytes, so let’s start with Twitter:

Unfortunately, there's a lot of negativity around Twitter lately with recent leadership and native platform changes. They’re shaking up 307 million active users' lives. Some say they should capitalize on those avid, devoted users and really make something of the niche platform, but nevertheless, they have now breached the Facebook realm.

As of this week, they’ve opened their feeds to algorithms that prioritize some tweets over others. Yikes. We can no longer say that their feeds are organic and real-time. (Wait. Does anyone besides us actually say that?)

Remember the 10,000 character count announcement? Twitter promises to let the subtle floodgates begin at the end of Q1. WHEW.

Black Sheep is constantly looking for ways to balance organic vs paid promotion and even though Twitter may be dead to some, their ad game is strong. They've engineered the ability to turn ads into conversations, compelling you to engage. 

Speaking of creepin’, Periscope had some changes recently as well:

Remember when Twitter used to post the photos you shared from Instagram? Those were the days, right? Facebook just needs to call a treaty and let us live, but Periscope, owned by Twitter, has now hacked the ability.

Instead of sharing the Periscope stream via link, the stream itself appears! Ta-Dah! They call it a richer experience. (No shit.)

But here’s the real experience: Ever wanted to live stream your GoPro footage… mid-air? Periscope is working through the logistics to give GoPro-ers the ability to broadcast directly to Periscope from an iPhone. 

“We’ve seen people put their phones in some precarious situations—they’ve been taped to drones, tied to balloons, and submerged underwater. Creativity always finds a way, but we wanted to make it a little bit easier.”

And in the category of “also a win for Twitter,” Vine is tearing it up:  

Vine is three this year and has self-proclaimed to be the platform where the most popular trends begin. And rightfully so: They’ve made it easier for you to find those trends and dig a little deeper than six seconds.

Hey, remember Facebook? They’ve recently released Sports Stadium:

The idea is to simulate a digital experience mimicking the physical in-stadium spirit with friends and other sports fans. Clearly, we get it. But we would rather be in a baseball cap, eating a hotdog and drinking a beer.

Facebook also lied about that dislike button—and we agree with their reasoning: The dislike button promoted bullying and bullying sucks. No dislike button, but instead the mega platform will add emotions like anger, sadness and laughter. 

There is no better place for your emotions (and #OOTDs, travel photos and foodspotting) than Instagram:

You may have noticed the curated reeling web of footage under the "search" section of IG—or maybe you haven’t. Each reel pertains to a certain subject or event, mostly highlighting culture and promoting global awareness. You might even say it slightly reminds you of the national or local stories that appear in Snapchat. Right-oh! It's exactly like Snapchat, only the content is curated on Instagram.

Top ten list of best-days-of-life have just happened. Instagram now lets iOS Instagram users add multiple accounts. PRAISE HANDS EMOJI.

For the click-it-and-forget-it crowd, Snapchat is about to get a revamp: 

Last month is it was Peach, this month it’s ZCast.

Celebrity platforms are taking the app store by storm. No, they aren’t free, but TSwift is about to jump on that train. We will go ahead and bet that with enough money, anyone can have their own app, and eventually it'll be the "thing", and digital marketers will have to learn how to also be Apple engineers.

Digital Marketers, Social Media Managers and the like: If you aren’t into the Hootsuite game, now would be a good time to tap in. 

Hootsuite is racking up top honors. Don’t act like you’re not impressed.

And that’s the current state of social. Questions? Stuff we missed? Hit us up in the comments.

Regular

You might have seen a PSA (or three) released by Better Make Room this month. Powerful stuff, right? These student stories are compelling. These videos get right to the heart of what makes each student special and they make you want them to succeed.

Have no idea what we’re talking about? Catch up below.

Better Make Room Campaign!

#BetterMakeRoom for Kim

#BetterMakeRoom for Ignacio

#BetterMakeRoom for Tyrie

You saw the PSAs, now meet one of our partners behind them. Ell Creative, a long-time friend of the flock, was the storytelling and production team that created the Better Make Room’s powerful PSAs. Working in both Houston and in LA, they were able to capture the stories of local students and catapult them onto a national stage—even having the first PSA screened in the East Room at the White House.

"When you have an opportunity to work with the White House and celebrity culture, it's so easy to get enthralled with the environment, but the beauty of this campaign and this team is that it's not about any of us.” said David Saxe, partner and co-founder of Ell. “It's about Kim, Tyrie and Ignacio, and we're sincerely honored to tell their stories." 

Better Make Room For Tyrie, Kim and Ignacio