Subscribers can also download the Social Quarterly Q2 for a more in-depth look at all the social media news from the past few months.

Instagram launches face filters

First up is the introduction of augmented reality face filters into Instagram’s Stories platform.

Hot on the heels of other Snapchat-style features like slideshows and disappearing messages, the eight face filters allow users to jazz up standard selfies with koala ears, nerdy glasses, and butterfly crowns.

Despite the almost-identical nature, early reviews suggest that Instagram’s effort isn’t quite as slick as Snapchat’s, with the filters failing to track user movements quite so well.

#Nuggsforcarter sets Twitter record

Early in May, a chap named Carter stole Ellen DeGeneres’ crown for the most-retweeted Twitter post of all time – all in aid of his one-man crusade for chicken nuggets.

Carter asked Wendy’s how many retweets he would need to win a year’s supply of nuggs, and while he failed to hit the fast food chain’s target of 18m, he still managed to beat DeGeneres’ former record with a total of 3,632,995 retweets to date.

Wendy’s has also given into his request for nuggets every day for a year (probably much to the dismay of his doctor).

Snapchat’s growth rate disappoints

May saw Snapchat announce its first earnings report since its public IPO. The results were rather disappointing, as the platform reported 166m daily active users in the latest quarter, with a growth rate of just 5%. Its year-on-year growth rate also fell to 36% – down from 48% in Q4.

Despite a slump in its growth, Snapchat did report positive earnings of $4.5m from its Spectacles and ‘other revenues’ in Q4 2016.

Dove’s personalised bottles

Dove is usually known for its positive and empowering campaigns, but its latest ‘Real Beauty’ initiative turned out to be disappointingly patronising.

The Unilever brand decided it would be a good idea to create limited edition bottles of its body wash, using six different shapes to represent the diversity of women’s bodies. We say no more.

On the plus side, the campaign resulted in some genius tweets.

Sweden lists its whole country on Airbnb

It’s not often a country invites you to stay in it for free, but that’s exactly what Sweden has done with its recent collaboration with Airbnb.

In celebration of the ‘Allemansrätten’ principle – a law that allows people to roam freely in nature – VisitSweden listed itself on the accommodation site in order to raise awareness of the country’s rugged natural beauty and freedom.

You can read more about why the tourism board partnered with Airbnb here.

Evian babies take over Snapchat

The end of the month saw the return of the Evian babies, with the ‘Live Young’ campaign this time transferring from television screens to digital, out-of-home, and social media channels.

The campaign shows the babies wearing oversized grown-up clothes, encouraging adults to remain young at heart. It also includes a Snapchat filter which is set to launch in the next few weeks, but that is already available via a Snapcode on millions of Evian bottles.

#StatusOfMind report reveals best and worst platforms for mental health

Also this month, The Royal Society for Public Health published a survey on the impact social media channels has on young people’s mental health.

The results suggest that Instagram has the worst impact, with respondents reporting a negative influence on body image, loneliness, and fear-of-missing-out. In contrast, YouTube was rated the best, ranking highly for its sense of community and access to emotional support.

Walkers Crisps campaign backfires

Finally, a spectacular Twitter fail to end the month, as Walkers Crisps inadvertently featured the faces of notorious criminals in its latest campaign.

For the chance to win Champions League Final tickets, users were asked to tweet selfies to be shown in an animated video featuring ex-footballer Gary Lineker.

As well as blindly trusting football fans, the brand also made the rookie mistake of automating the competition, meaning that the faces of criminals including Fred West and Rolf Harris appeared in public tweets.

Cue a hell of a lot of guffawing on social media.

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