This Week in Social and Digital (Weeks of November 21 and November 28)
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.
Facebook Testing Ads to Drive to Live (Read more at Digiday)
Facebook has been initiating a huge push around Facebook Live, and now, it’s even clearer why. It’s setting it up to be monetized with real-time ads brands and publishers can launch to drive people to watch their live broadcasts.
The effort is part of test, but up until now all publishers and brands could do is promote their live videos after they’ve ended. With these new live ads, the videos will appear in users' News Feeds while the live stream is happening, driving people to watch.
A live stream is best viewed live. That’s when it’s most interesting, exciting and most interactive as users can post and react during the broadcast. Brands that want to live stream their content are investing time and resources in making the content as compelling as possible, so these ads would undoubtedly be useful in terms of making the most out of that preparation. And if brands know how many people they can potentially reach through a live investment, they’ll be more likely to use live and make the experience as great as possible moving forward.
Instagram Launches New Features to Go Live and Be Ephemeral (Read more at TechCrunch)
Instagram’s added some new features to Instagram Stories.
The first is Instagram Live, which lets users live stream what they’re doing at any given moment, but unlike parent company Facebook’s live feature, Instagram only allows users to watch while they’re streaming. The video content is not saved, but users will see an aggregated collection of live streams on the Explore tab, allowing them to drop into the most popular streams at any given moment. Viewers can comment on a live stream and tap to share hearts, and broadcasters can comment in response. They can also hide comments altogether.
The second new feature is ephemeral messaging, which allows users to send messages to friends that can only be viewed twice before disappearing. This is a big shift for Instagram, which has shown it aims to become a more intimate social network with spur-of-the-moment, unplanned, unpolished content being shared by users. Up until this point, Instagram was all about beautiful photography.
This move removes hurdles for sharing content on Instagram. Now perfection is not the expectation. Personal sharing is, which is something that Snapchat truly capitalized on. It also gives brands access to Snapchat-like features without building a presence on Snapchat. They can experiment with features like ephemeral messaging on a platform they already have a presence on, Instagram, versus shifting gears to another platform, Snapchat, which many brands have been hesitant to adopt.
All of this underscores the fact that Facebook more and more is looking to Snapchat for innovation. Snapchat will soon be going public, and that influx of cash is undoubtedly going to give Snapchat more money to continue to innovate. Facebook needs to figure out what it can do stay ahead because copying-and-pasting features from Snapchat isn’t a long-term strategy.
CNN Starting New Media Brand with Casey Neistat (Read more at AdWeek)
CNN announced that YouTube celebrity Cesey Neistat will be joining a team at CNN to launch a new media brand dedicated to telling stories to a younger audience. The goal is to “future-proof” CNN with Neistat, whose YouTube channel has amassed 6 million subscribers.
Neistat’s role will be to serve as executive producer of the new brand, and he’ll bring along with him the engineering team and chief technology officer of his mobile video app, Beme, along with him. Beme will no longer exist as a standalone app but will be folded into the new media company.
More than anything, this is a talent acquisition. CNN’s looking to align itself with a content creator that’s proven he knows how to engage an audience. What will be the true test is if Neistat can lead CNN into reaching a new generation, a test other media companies have tried but few have succeeded. But this also points to larger trend of where talent is being incubated.
People like Neistat know how to build communities and how to give their audiences what they want, but they do so by playing to their niche. Now, it will be up to Neistat to scale his efforts and not only engage his existing audience but to bring others onboard as well.
Pinterest Updates Business Profiles (Read more at Internet Retailer)
Pinterest business profiles have gotten a big update that brands can use to rotate in and out some of their best pins, highlight specific boards as well as Buyable Pins, and create a more consistent feel across Web and mobile experiences. The updates are rolling out over time starting this past week to Pinterest’s 1 million active brands.
First, the update allows brands to showcase some of their best pins in a rotating showcase at the top of business profiles, creating a great first impression and a way for brands to introduce themselves. Beyond that, businesses can choose up to five boards to feature, and Buyable Pins can be allocated to a “Shop” slot. These featured boards can be switched out by season, brand initiative or any other cadence chosen by the brand. Lastly, the Web experience will be consistent with the mobile one, creating a more holistic experience for users across devices.
Pinterest is having a moment of ups and downs as it works to generate revenue and potentially file for an IPO. Courting businesses is obviously core to that effort, and this update gives brands a great deal of control over the experiences they create for users. Still, most of businesses’ interactions with users are going to be relegated to the feed or search, so this update to business profiles has intriguing, yet limited, potential to really improve brands’ efforts on the platform.
Amazon Getting into Header Bidding (Read more at AdAge)
Google and Facebook may have a serious competitor in ad tech with Amazon preparing to launch a header bidding solution. Amazon’s offering will be integrated with its cloud services and will handle any requests on the server side without relying on consumer browsers, leading to less lag time as pages load.
It’s an attempt others have pursued, but none have executed well. Beyond that none have ever truly offered a server-to-server solution. Still, Amazon has something that others haven’t and that’s a very robust set of cloud computing services for businesses.
This could be a big deal because right now online advertising is dominated by the likes of Google and Facebook, which are doing everything they can to tap into the double digit growth expected for programmatic ad spending in the United States over the next few years.
News Quick Hits
- Facebook is testing a new feature for its iOS app that allows users to locate nearby WiFi networks. It’s no surprise Facebook wants users to connect to WiFi as this test coincides with a significant push by the social network to drive users to publish to Facebook Live. (Read more at The Next Web)
- DirecTV has launched its DirecTV Now streaming service, which gives users access to 100 live channels through a set-top box or mobile device starting at $35 per month. It works across Apple and Android devices, as well as Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire and other devices. DirecTV Now will compete with cable providers but also Sling TV, Playstation Vue and upcoming offerings from Hulu. This is AT&T’s, DirecTV’s parent company, big push to go after cord-cutters. One aspect of it that will raise questions around net neutrality is accessing the service will not count toward AT&T customers’ data usage. (Read more at Mashable)
- Instagram has launched a Correspondents Program that encourages student ambassadors to use Instagram Stories to share their college experiences, especially when it comes to college sports. Schools select their own student ambassadors who will be able to use a sporting event to share their skills. The Instagram team will then select the official ambassador who will move forward. (Read more at SocialTimes)
- Facebook has launched Instant Games for Messenger. The HTML5 experience allows users to play lightweight games with friends within the Messenger app. The games are accessible through a game controller icon below the status update composer. The service is dubbed Instant Games, and it’s also available in the Facebook News Feed through an Instant Games bookmark. (Read more at The Verge)
- Facebook’s Creative Hub is now available to the advertising community after being in testing with about 30 agencies after being revealed at Cannes. Creative Hub offers a sandbox where agencies can view different ad formats for online and mobile to identify what works best and then share the creative with stakeholders for review. It also includes an Inspiration Gallery of successful creative for both Instagram and Facebook. (Read more at Facebook for Business)
- Netflix is making some of its shows and movies available for download and offline viewing. Netflix joins Amazon Prime Video in offering the service for users who want to keep watching even data service is limited. The feature comes just in time for holiday travel. (Read more at AdAge)
- Tumblr blogs are now SSL-enabled by default. It’s been an option since February 2014 but only recently became the default. (Read more at Tumblr’s Security Engineer’s Twitter)
- YouTube has announced 4K video support for live streaming standard and 360-degree videos. According to YouTube, “in 360 degrees… the clarity can truly transport you.” (Read more at YouTube’s Blog)
- Twitter users can now create Moments on mobile. Users choose a tweet to get started, add others, get the order just right and then choose a cover and title. Users have been able to create Moments on desktop since September. (Read more on Twitter)
- In a similar move of bringing a desktop feature to mobile, Twitter is bringing conversation ranking and direct reply counts to the replies section of its mobile app, a feature available on desktop since June 2015. The feature ranks replies in sub-conversations by what it deems a user will be most interested in. (Read more at Twitter Support)