This Week in Social (Week of September 14)
This Week in Social is a weekly digest of some of the biggest stories in social media marketing news. These stories are the show notes for the Brave Ad World Podcast. Each story is discussed at a deeper level on the podcast.
Google and Twitter Introduce their Own Version of Instant Articles (Read more at Recode)
Facebook may want to watch out when it comes to Instant Articles because Google and Twitter are working together to create their own version for mobile readers.
Later this fall, a small group of publishers will participate in a test with Google and Twitter. The test will allow articles viewed on a mobile device to display immediately when tapped on, instead of a few seconds later. It will do this, not by hosting the content but by having Google display cached Web pages, which will allow publishers to display the original ads they’ve sold next to stories. Google and Twitter are adding another piece to this. It’s all open source, so they’re encouraging other companies to implement the technology for themselves.
Facebook’s Instant Articles have been somewhat of a frienemy for publishers. It’s a great way to improve the user experience on Facebook, and Facebook does allow publishers to keep all of the revenue from the ads they sell against their content. Still, this gives Facebook quite a bit of control.
Google and Twitter, on the other hand, seem to be giving publishers a bit more control with their approach and creating another option to both get content seen and protect the user experience.
Twitter Steps Up Its Commerce Game (Read more at The New York Times and Upstart)
Twitter has officially partnered with payment processing company Stripe, which has a new tool that will allow brands to sell on Twitter. The tool is called Relay, and it allows brands to tweet out a product and then users to enter payment info and purchase all within Twitter.
According to Twitter’s head of commerce Nathan Hubbard, “Almost two-thirds of users say they bought something specifically because of what they saw on Twitter."
Twitter added another level to this by announcing that Twitter users will also be able to donate to political candidates thanks to a partnership with Square. Political candidates who enable the feature must go through a verification process. Once complete, they can tweet out a $Cashtag and donors can tap a contribute button to enter their payment information.
Both of these efforts are all about reducing friction between buyers or donors and businesses or candidates. Users who are on Twitter and are motivated to buy or donate don’t need to take another step. They can do it right there. The challenge will be seeing how many people are actually motivated to take action because donating or buying isn’t necessarily users’ intent when on the platform. That, however, could change now that they have the option.
Pinterest Hits 100 Million Users and Works to Attract Advertisers (Read more at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal)
Pinterest announced a new milestone this week. It now has 100 million users, exceeding expectations for user growth by a significant margin. This is good news for the company, which is working to justify its $11 billion valuation.
Pinterest is taking those user numbers to advertisers and trying to convince them to think about it the same way they do Google, as a way to reach users at the moment of intent. Pinterest sees its competition as Google and other search properties, not necessarily social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
But Pinterest’s challenge will be in proving results because Google is not only the market leader, but it also has impressive conversion rates, which have given it 72% of search ad spending in the U.S. To do this, Pinterest is partnering with Datalogix to help prove how effective it is in driving sales. This could start to help to show Pinterest’s potential in driving conversions.
Pinterest is at a pivotable moment. All the pieces are there to be very successful. It just needs to prove those pieces work to advertisers.
Facebook Working on Alternatives to the Like Button (Read more at The Next Web)
The Like button is inescapable on Facebook, but users have often complained that it’s not always appropriate. What if someone posts about the death of a dog? No one wants to like that.
Well, Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that a button alternative, which some are calling the Dislike button is in the works, but Facebook is working to make sure it won’t be a way to foster negativity.
"People have asked about the ‘dislike’ button for many years, and probably hundreds of people have asked about this, and today is a special day because today is the day that I actually get to say we are working on it, and are very close to shipping a test of it,” stated Zuckerberg.
The button will be focused on expressing empathy, so a button that is actually used to dislike something seems unlikely. That’s welcome news to brands, which certainly don’t want a button people to express negativity.
News Quick Hits
- Snapchat is going to allow users to buy three extra replays of friends’ snaps for 99 cents, ten for $2.99 or 20 for $4.99. (Read more at Digiday)
- Facebook is starting to display read receipts in event invites. Some Facebook users are understandably concerned because they no longer have the excuse that they didn’t get the invite if they don’t show up. (Read more at SocialTimes)
- Later this year, advertisers will be able to pay for ads only if 100% of the ads were viewed on a user’s screen. There is, however, no requirement for how long the ad needs to be viewed. This starts to address advertisers’ concerns around viewability but does not fully address the issue. (Read more at AdAge)
- Facebook has launched a new tool called Signal, which will allow journalists to discover content curated on the platform from Facebook and Instagram. The goal is to make gathering news easier. The tool will show what is trending as well as public posts related to a topic. (Read more at The Next Web)
- The NFL and Snapchat have partnered up to deliver NFL content within Snapchat Stories. The partnership will allow Snapchat to sell advertising on NFL content. (Read more at SocialTimes)