Every week brings us fresh social surprises. This week, we'll show you the latest offerings and campaigns from Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram; a gorgeous kickoff video for the launch of BBC music; and a bevy of tools to help you create social media images with ease. Skim to slide happily into the weekend!

God only knows how catchy this is. BBC Music launched with a cover of The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows," featuring a group it calls the "Impossible Orchestra": Everyone from Pharrell Williams to violinist Nicola Benedetti and Elton John are involved, not to mention the BBC's own concert orchestra. At just over 3 million views, it's rising fast in the viral video charts—likely because fans of each artist can't help but watch and share. Still, the pull you feel in your heartstrings is hard to resent: Far from feeling like a cheap celebrity shot, it's a proper romp into the fantasy world of music.

Because who doesn't miss Hogwarts? Author JK Rowling of the Harry Potter series started tweeting clues to an upcoming spin-off film, based on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a textbook in Harry's magical world. The first clue was an anagram, often used in the Potter stories, and is shown below. The anagram's answer can be found here, along with a fuller description of Rowling's teaser tweets. How can you cultivate social engagement with creative play?

Share that photo for a scare. Halloween's around the corner, and movie ticket vendor Fandango's launched the Scare-Off (#FandangoScareContest), a contest inviting movie fans to Instagram re-enactments of scenes from horror flicks. The winner gets a walk-on role in an upcoming film by Blumhouse Productions, the fine people who gave us Paranormal Activity and Insidious. But to attract great content, you need great content: To drive participation, Fandango partnered with MovieClips to create videos like this supercut of cinematic screams (slide your volume knob down):

No PhotoShop skills? No problem. To maximize social engagement, it helps to use strong imagery. But not everyone's a graphic designer (or has funds to hire one), so Buffer put together [23 tools for creating social-media-ready pictures. Goodies include Canva (see below), a super-simple design program for those who lack PhotoShop savvy; Skitch , which lets you capture and annotate Web screenshots; and CloudApp, which lets you share images internally, take screenshots, and make GIFs.

You don't need to follow to be interested. Mary C. Long explains Interest lists, a little-known (and little-used) feature on Facebook that lets people group public pages and brand pages into interest groups so they don't have to scroll through their News Feeds to see those updates. Though it's too much work for a brand to try convincing fans to add the brand to their Interest lists (assuming fans use them), it's handy for brands who need to keep an eye on inspiring public pages or publications... and to track competitors, since you don't have to follow them to add them to an Interest. To create Interest lists, look at the left side of your Timeline and scroll way, way down to "Interests." From there, create lists as you see fit.

Need some local love? Facebook's launched its Local Awareness Ads. Slated to launch in the US in the coming weeks, and globally in months to come, the service lets brick-and-mortar businesses target people based on how close they are physically. To make an ad, visit your Ads / Create section, hit "Local Awareness," and choose the Page of your business. You can then select your radius of ad coverage on a map. You'll then be asked to enter your ad text and image, as well as a call to action. Use Local Awareness to target people who live near you, or those just strolling through your 'hood.

Trending on Facebook. Some iOS mobile users may have noticed that when they run a search on Facebook, a Trending module appears below search results. Think of it as Facebook's version of Twitter's Trending Topics. The feature's still in test mode, but its imminent rollout means you'll more easily keep your finger on that ever-changing pulse—especially if you want to jump on trends like the #IceBucketChallenge while they're still hot.

When John Doe will have to do. In deference to people seeking anonymity on the world's most popular social network (consider Ello and Snapchat), Facebook's quietly developing a standalone app that will let users interact without having to reveal real names. The hope is that the project—due to roll out in coming weeks—will empower people to discuss topics they don't feel comfortable talking about under public scrutiny. It isn't yet clear whether the app will interact with Facebook itself.

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#SocialSkim: Facebook Interest Lists, Pinterest Picks, Socnets Teens Like, More!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Angela Natividad
Angela Natividad is a social media strategist, copywriter, and journalist based in Paris. A Bay Area native and lover of vending machine candies, she co-founded AdVerveBlog.com and is a frequent guest on marketing podcast The Beancast. You can follow her on Twitter at @luckthelady.