EMagazine July 2017

E-Magazine
July 2017 Edition

Sunday
Selfie Sunday (#SelfieSunday)
Sundays are not immune to social media trends. #SelfieSunday encourages sharing photos of
what’s happening in your world. Use this tag to share more about your business, your
employees or showcase a valued customer.
These social media trends are a way for businesses to engage with fans on social media using
common topics to start conversations. Using trendy hashtags tells followers you’re up to date on
the industry and enjoy conversing with them.

SNAPCHAT LETS YOU CREATE CUSTOM GEOFILTERS
STRAIGHT FROM ITS APP
A little over a week after Snapchat released Snap Map — a location-based feature that shows
users where their Snapchat friends are and events
going on around them — the company has
Why its matters?
introduced a new way to create custom geofilters.
Snapchatters can now submit tons of designs for
any event through the app on their phones.
Have an event coming up that you
will broadcast on snapchat? You can
now easily create custom geofilters
through the app’s settings tool to use
on photo.
Although custom Snapchat geofilters themselves
are not new to the app, the process has now
definitely become easier. If you wanted to create
one prior to the new feature, you had to go through
its “On-Demand Geofilters” website and submit the
design using one of the existing templates or one
you made yourself using an image editor like
Photoshop.
Instead of going through a web browser, users can now create the geofilters easily through
Snapchat’s built-in mobile creative studio that lets you add filters, text, stickers, and Bitmojis.
Once you are satisfied with the filter, you can choose where and when you want it to appear.

When you are on the app, simply tap on the left settings button in the top-left hand corner of
your camera screen. The option for On-Demand Geofilters will appear letting you choose what
the filter is for and the template you want to use. From there, you can edit the text within the
template or add your own text and stickers. After scheduling the filter and choosing the area you
want it to cover, you will receive a confirmation of approval from Snapchat.
The filters can cover an entire block or an event for as little as an hour and as long as 90 days
starting at $6. The price is calculated based on a number of factors like how long it will last, how
in-demand the location is at the moment, and how big the geofilter is.
Having this option available might make it easier for those who are not as savvy with image
editors or want to be able to create filters on the spot whenever inspiration strikes — without
having to settle for Snapchat’s pre-made templates if they are not near a computer. But if you
are set on a particular design that you created using a third-party program, you can still submit it
through Snapchat’s original site for geofilters.

INSTAGRAM NOW HIDES OFFENSIVE COMMENTS AND SPAM,
THANKS TO MACHINE LEARNING
Instagram is fighting back at offensive comments. In a blog post titled “Keeping Instagram a
Safe Place for Self-Expression,” CEO Kevin Systrom outlined a pair of new features based on
machine learning that aims to clean up responses to
posts and live video.
Why its matters?
Machine learning can change user
behavior on social media going
forward.
before or turn commenting off entirely.
The first is an optional filter that simply hides
comments automatically determined to be toxic or
abusive. It can be toggled on or off in the
settings and is launching first in English, with other
languages to follow. Instagram points out that if a
few comments do manage to slip through the net,
you are still free to delete and report them as
Another new feature uses similar technology to automatically block spam, and currently works in
a multitude of languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, German, Russian,
Japanese, and Chinese. This filter has actually been kicking around in some form or another
since last fall, according to Wired, which states that the success behind it inspired Instagram to
tackle the problem of hate speech using the same kind of algorithms.

As with anything dependent on machine learning, Systrom says these features will improve over
time as more users report certain posts and share others. The company considers these
measures a critical step toward fostering “kind, inclusive” communities on the network, though
admits its work is “far from finished and perfect.”
Instagram is aware of the pitfalls of inadvertently curbing free speech in the name of protecting
users, though the system is intelligent enough to take account of the context surrounding each
communication. For example, the algorithms are more likely to favor someone you have had
frequent and positive experiences with in the past than a stranger. In addition, a user who ends
up leaving a blocked comment on one of your posts won’t know their comment has been hidden
— preventing people from tempting the censors just for fun.
Comment filtering is just one of a number of new features that have made their way to the
photo-centric social network in recent months, with the ability to archive postsrecently
undergoing testing.
Earlier in 2017, Twitter set foot on a similar path to curb abusive behavior by hiding offensive
content and “less-relevant” replies that don’t contribute to a discussion. Unlike Instagram’s
approach, the posts are still there — they have just collapsed automatically and can be viewed
with an extra tap or click. Twitter also instituted a 12-hour probation-like system for users
behaving violently toward non-followers and taken steps to ensure banned individuals cannot
simply turn around and make another account to rejoin the network.