YouTube #RedOut, Snapchat ‘Speed Dial’ and Iceland’s Top Twitter Banter

  • Social Media

Our #FridaySocial is a weekly round-up of the key social media news stories from the previous seven days.  Let us know your thoughts in the comments or via Twitter – @Umpf

YouTubers fall silent in #RedOut

YouTube fans were in for a shock this week as their social media idols muted their channels for 24 hours to show their support for Red Nose Day.

35 influential bloggers and vloggers including Zoella, SprinkleOfGlitter and Marcus Butler got behind the #RedOut campaign on their YouTube channels, Instagram pages and Twitter profiles.

Fans were instead sent a link to the Red Nose Day website where they could watch a video about the issues young people face around the world.

However, not everyone was a fan and many took to social media to question how the campaign would help raise money for the cause.

Red Nose Day bosses have since said there could be more to come as part of the #RedOut campaign, so watch this space.

Red Nose Day takes place on Friday, March 24.

Donate your Twitter following for #OneBigTweet

A new charity campaign is urging people to donate their Twitter followers rather than giving cash.

The #OneBigTweet campaign harnesses the power of social influence to grow a donated following so big that Cafédirect Producers’ Foundation can auction it to help raise money for African farmers.

Once it has been sold, the #OneBigTweet will automatically be retweeted by everyone who has donated their followers, acting in a similar way to Thunderclap.

More than 1,000 people have already supported the cause.

To get involved, visit onebigtweet.com.OneBigTweet

Find your friends on Snapchat speed dial

Snapchat has launched a new shortcut feature that allows users to add their friends to their home screen or ‘Today’ screen using Bitmojis.

Fans can now start a chat without having to open up Snapchat or scroll through the interface to find their friend.

Snapchat acquired Bitmoji in March last year for $64.2million. It gives users the chance to make avatars that look like themselves, which they can send them as stickers in Snapchat.Snapchat

Facebook, Twitter and Google grilled by Parliament

Multi-billion pound social media giants could do more protect users from online hate speech according to MPs.

Facebook, Twitter and Google executives were asked by the Home Affairs select committee why they did not police their content more effectively, and were told they had a “terrible reputation” for dealing with problems.

The firms said they worked hard to make sure freedom of expression was protected within the law.

Nick Pickles, head of public policy and government for Twitter in the UK, said the company acknowledged it was “not doing a good enough job” at responding to reports from users.Apps

And finally…

Iceland scored some points for their top Twitter banter this week after jumping on the unfortunate hashtag bandwagon. The supermarket followed in the footsteps of Ed Sheeran’s headline-grabbing hashtag #edsheeranalbumparty with their own hashtag… we’ll leave their tweet here without comment.

https://twitter.com/IcelandFoods/status/841963124911669248

It’s almost as if poor old Ed didn’t learn from Susan Boyle’s #susanalbumparty trend a few years back…