For February’s social media roundup, we’ve got campaigns from Burger King, Yorkshire Tea, and Tesco as well as your usual dose of platform news.

Don’t forget to browse our social media reports and articles, or why not take some training and attend our Fast Track Paid Social course.

Tesco releases its #SkinTonePlasters

UK retail giant Tesco has released its first-ever set of plasters that cater to multiple skin tones.

To reflect the racial diversity in the UK, the retailer has produced own-brand plasters that come in light, medium and dark shades.

Tesco’s health, beauty and wellness director, Nicola Robinson said “As one of the largest retailers in the UK, we understand that we have a responsibility to ensure our products reflect the diversity of our customers and colleagues.”

The campaign has been met with a mixed reception, however many social media users have shared their praise for Tesco’s inclusivity.

Introducing ‘Here for You’ by Snapchat

Snapchat has rolled out a mental health resource for its users called ‘Here for You’.

The social media app announced that ‘Here for You’ will provide users, who may be experiencing mental health problems, an emotional crisis or those curious to learn more, with “proactive in-app support”.

Scheduled for a global rollout in the coming months, Here for You will provide safety resources from local experts to users searching for terms relating to bullying, depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts .

Snapchatters will also have new filters and Snapchat’s first-ever Snappable Quiz available to them, further promoting safety on the platform.

Burger King and The Moldy Whopper

Burger King made headlines this month with its captivating Moldy Whopper campaign.

The campaign is intended to highlight Burger King’s shift away from artificial preservatives in its food – which it aims to remove by the end of 2020, in all of its US restaurants and some European markets.

Data from Brandwatch showed that nearly 50,000 people took to social media to express their disgust at the video on its day of release – meaning around 60% of Burger King’s mentions were negative.

However, with close to 2 million views on YouTube, an array of mentions from fans, clever responses from other brands and over 21 million impressions on its hashtag, a case can be made for the campaign being a big success in terms of reach and engagement – no such thing as bad PR?

The ‘Dating Twitter Advice Bureau’

For Valentine’s Day 2020, Twitter opened its own dating advice pop-up, in Central London.

The ‘Dating Twitter Advice Bureau’ showcased tweets from users that offered humorous real-life dating advice , ranging from embarrassing through to impractical.

The pop-up created an opportunity for Twitter to entice people to join the platform or reengage and, as demonstrated above, it also gave Twitter UK some good user-generated content.

The World Health Organisation and social media companies combat Coronavirus

To combat misinformation about spread of Coronavirus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and tech companies are working together.

The WHO recently launched a Google SOS alert to make sure their own official information appears at the top of the search engine results page.

Furthermore, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Tencent have all taken steps to remove misinformation. The WHO has used Facebook to target specific populations with ads, and has also enlisted influencers in Asia to spread the word.

However, MIT Tech Review notes that “the sheer avalanche of content has overwhelmed the coordinated efforts to clear out all the noise. This in turn has created a breeding ground for xenophobic content. Racist memes and slurs have proliferated on TikTok and Facebook. Some teens have even gone about faking a coronavirus diagnosis to earn themselves more social-media clout.”

Snapchat adds new ‘Swipe Up to Call or Text’ feature

Snapchat is keen to attract more businesses to its platform with its new swipe up to call or text feature.

Snapchat’s new feature, which is available to advertisers through its ad manager, enables users to get in contact with businesses and brands with two simple actions; swipe to call or swipe to text.

The Swipe Up to Call or Text option will also enable advertisers on Snapchat to tailor their campaigns and content to drive these specific actions, giving them more ways to engage with the customer on the platform; which could prove useful for certain sectors, such hospitality, telcos and travel.

The Depart for Transport launches inclusivity initiative

The DfT has teamed up with disability groups to help launch #ItsEveryonesJourney, aiming to help disabled people “travel confidently, easily and without extra cost”

The Department for Transport is keen to champion equal access and fair treatment on public transport for all people, and the campaign conveys this by making people aware that small actions when traveling can impact disabled passengers.

The campaign microsite is also full of videos, more information and case studies.

Facebook and Reuters team up to tackle misinformation

It has been announced that news agency Reuters and Facebook will join forces to combat the spread of misinformation on social media.

Outlines of the agreement, which were released on Reuters’ website earlier this month, help to lay out how the partnership with Facebook will work and explain the purpose of the fact-checking initiative.

A fact-checking unit will allow Reuters to check the authenticity and validity of content posted on Facebook and Instagram.

Reuters stated it “will now assess the authenticity of user-generated photos, videos, headlines and other content on social media—in the run-up to the U.S. election and beyond—verifying for Facebook’s U.S. audience in both English and Spanish and publishing findings on a specially created blog.”

This agreement comes on the heels of $2 million in funding Facebook has pledged for research to better understand misinformation and polarization on its platform.

TikTok’s potential new Instagram-style user profile

TikTok is reportedly redesigning its user profile design to look like Instagram.

As reported by New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz, the video-sharing application will be taking inspiration from one of its contemporaries for its new look.

At this stage, this is only a test so there is no confirmation that this new design will be rolled out. The new design, however, would offer non-TikTok users a more familiar social media experience to what they are used to on Instagram.

Given the success Tencent-owned TikTok experienced in 2019, we can predict redesigned user profiles as being one of many updates from the social media app in 2020.

…and Yorkshire Tea went viral

Earlier this week, Yorkshire Tea went viral with it’s response to being the Chancellor’s tea of choice, and in particular for its back and forth with one Twitter user.

After Yorkshire Tea spotted Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak sharing what could be mistaken for influencer content, the brand took to Twitter to say that it remains an apolitical tea.

The brand’s response – “Sue, you’re shouting at tea.” – to Twitter user @sulaAlice was soon trending, though many other users were unsure if Yorkshire Tea could have been a little more forgiving in its response.