This Month In Social Media: July 2016

July was another great month for social media. We received some pretty awesome user experience improvements from our favorite platforms. We also watched (and maybe jumped in) as the world swooned over the most groundbreaking AR app thus far: Pokémon Go (duh.)
Snapchat Introduces 'Memories'
The popular platform is transitioning from rookie to powerhouse faster than ever. This month, Snapchat introduced a new feature: Memories. Now, photos and videos taken outside of the platform's interface can be posted to your Story. You can also save snaps to a searchable, smart camera roll. Old snaps can be re-shared and embellished.
What does this mean for brands? More control of content. Before, all photos and videos uploaded to your Snapchat Story were forced to be captured in real time. Now, brands have the opportunity to share pre-developed content. It's still important to understand the fun, playful tone of the platform, but it makes content creation much easier and more comfortable for conservative brands not so fond of live snapping.
Twitter helps brands improve social listening (for free)
Twitter introduced Dashboards, "a powerful tool designed to help businesses connect with their customers and community." Through Dashboards, you can now create custom feeds to easily distinguish conversations happening about your brand, schedule tweets within the platform, and even receive tips for tweets tailored to your business. The new feature is available on an IOS app, as well as desktop. While most of these tools are already available through third-party softwares, it looks like Twitter is making an effort to improve the native experience on the platform, making it more functional for business users.
Olympic Committee gives us the Dikembe Mutombo

You know that huge sporting event that happens every 4 years? Yeah? Did you map out a super timely content marketing strategy around it? Yeah? Did you plan on tagging your post with the official hashtags to tap into the viral conversation? Too bad. You can't use the hashtags-- If you're an advertiser that is. The Olympics Committee announced restrictions of the use of trademarked hashtags by commercial entities who are not official sponsors due to intellectual copyright restrictions. This includes #Rio2016 and #TeamUSA.
Trademarked hashtags? I didn't know this was a thing! While there are loopholes to tap into the overpowering social media attention the Olympic Games will undoubtedly receive, you're going to have to bet on something OTHER than hashtags to help include your brand in the conversation.
Pokémon Go
Do I really need to expound here? If you don't know what Pokémon Go is, I'm surprised you even know how to use the internet to read this blog post right now. Seriously, this thing has taken off to astronomical levels! It's everywhere we go. And now, brands are taking advantage of the hype.
Last weekend I was browsing Yelp for suggestions on finding the perfect spot to enjoy some afternoon libations. Even here, I was not safe. You can now add 'PokéStops' to your search filters.

Big brands, like Walmart, have also optimized their social media ads to take advantage of Pokémon Go's popularity. Kudos to their paid social team:

Oh, and for the more hardcore, here's some input from the style gods themselves:

And after all, Pokémon Go for one can get a little lonely....
