THIS WEEK’S DIGITAL NEWS ROUND-UP FROM CLARION

It may only be the middle of January but 2015 is already heating up to be one of the most competitive years on social media, with leading platforms all looking to take ownership of video. 

Twitter to increase video functionality    

2014 had seen massive growth for videos on Facebook and now Twitter is set to get in on the act by improving its video packages. As part of the drive, Twitter will offer its one-click play video unit to all advertisers in a bid to encourage more content on the site. In addition, Snappy TV, the live clipping platform that Twitter acquired in June 2014, will also be available for free to advertisers.  

Twitter Drives 18% of UK Cinema Ticket Sales

A study commission by Twitter this week highlights the impact the social media channel has on cinema ticket sales. Twitter claims to have directly contributed to 18 percent of UK cinema ticket sales over a three-year period - that is a pretty impressive statistic! 

Additionally 46 percent of respondents to the survey said that they had watched a trailer for a movie on Twitter. 

Google Translate gets smarter with language detection

They say Star Trek inspired the mobile phone with is communicator device. Perhaps the sci-fi series also inspired Google’s updated language detection tool, Google Translate, which through new ‘Word Lens’, instantaneously translates written text.

Facebook ‘likes’ prove to be more accurate gauge of personality than friends

Researche by Cambridge University’s Psychometrics Centre has found that Facebook ‘likes’ can determine a person’s personality more accurately than their own friends.

A specially coded algorithm created by the researchers trawled the social media interactions of volunteers and used this information to form a picture of the person’s character. Surprisingly this method was found to more accurately gauge personality than a work colleague.

And finally...

How soccer star Francesco Totti's famous selfie came to be

Granted it is only January but this may prove to be one of the most famous selfies of 2015. AS Roma soccer star Francesco Totti gained worldwide media headlines this week for celebrating a goal by taking the first on-pitch selfie.

The idea though, wasn’t as spontaneous as many may have thought. Totti had come up with the idea for a special celebration should he score a goal, according to Sean Foley, who runs the club's digital and social initiatives. The plan was simple: plant an iPhone 6 with goalkeepers coach Guido Nanni, who would be easy for Totti to find should he score. The rest as they say is history.