The digital download: Periscope in your Tweets and apps in your Uber

This week’s news includes Twitter’s integration of Periscope, The White House’s new Snapchat account and Uber’s updated API program.

This week almost every major social network –  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Snapchat – had something new to share. Here, we rounded up their major updates to help you keep abreast of what’s going on in the digital marketing space.

Twitter integrates Periscope into news feed

A year after purchasing Periscope, Twitter started allowing the live-streaming platform to silently autoplay in both timelines and individual Tweets. Videos will begin to play sound when users tap on them.

This in-line Periscope feature came with the last update of the Twitter for iOS app. It will soon be available for Android and the Web, as well.

It seems that Twitter is becoming Facebook’s twin. Aside from the integration of Periscope, which functions like Facebook’s autoplay video, Twitter plans to go beyond its 140-character limit.

Twitter has always been associated with its short messages. With all these platform changes, will Twitter gain users or lose its identity?

The White House joins Snapchat

Obama’s White House is known for utilizing social media. Not surprisingly, The White House joined Snapchat, as well, just a day before the President delivered his final State of the Union address on January 12.

The White House posted 25 videos to on Tuesday, such as Michelle Obama’s greetings, in hope to connect with young adults.

Snapchat has around 100 million daily active users and is reportedly looking to gain more of the older-than-35 crowd. As Snapchat goes more mainstream, political advertising on the platform has been ramping up over the past few months. Some of the 2016 presidential candidates using the platform include:

• Carly Fiorina: carlyforamerica
• Lindsey Graham: LindseyGrahamSC
• Martin O’Malley: GovernorOMalley
• Rand Paul: SenatorRandPaul
• Rick Perry: GovernorPerry
• Marco Rubio: marcorubio16

I'm officially on @snapchat – governorperry! Add this code & stay tuned for behind-the-scenes moments from the road. pic.twitter.com/dsrvd4hEq6

— Rick Perry (@GovernorPerry) June 3, 2015

I'm now on @Snapchat. My username is marcorubio16. Please add me.

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) April 13, 2015

Uber connects riders with third-party apps through Trip Experiences

With a new program called Trip Experience, third-party apps and services can access Uber’s application programming interface (API) and then serve riders customized content. Everything looks ideal in Uber’s blog post, such as 10-minute playlists for a 10-minute trip, turning on the heat when you’re headed home, and insights and offers at your destination.

But will riders be bombarded with ads and promotional content? Uber explained in the post that if users don’t find the content useful, they will be able to turn off the feature on an app-by-app basis.

Pinterest to personalize its email campaigns

Through a partnership with SparkPost, Pinterest is going to move beyond batch emails. In the New Year, the platform wants to execute an entirely multichannel strategy, customizing messages for each channel based on individual behaviors.

The collaboration with SparkPost could help Pinterest extend its personalized feeling of the website to email.

Facebook expands Mentions and Live to Android

Facebook also had news this week, making Mentions and Live available to public figures using Android.

Mentions, an app available for public figures using iOS back in 2014, allows celebrities to stay in touch with fans by posting updates, sharing photos or videos, or hosting a live Q&A. Live is a live-streaming feature within the app. For now, only users with verified pages can access Mentions, but many in the industry predict that Facebook will open the app to the public at some point. By then, the social giant will have more video inventory to advertise on.

In addition to the updates from major social networks, this week PayPal added Bitcoin veteran Wences Casares to its board; Taco Bell named Marisa Thalberg as its new chief marketing officer (CMO); and Dennis Crowley, chief executive of Foursquare, relinquished his title and will become the company’s executive chairman.

We will provide more details on these new hires and promotions in our next People on the Move column.