This Week in Social (Week of February 29)
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.
Snapchat Brings Oscars Live Story Online (Read more at The Verge)
The Oscars took place last Sunday, and users for the first time ever were able to watch a Snapchat Live Story online. Snapchat used the Oscars to update its website and allow users to tune into a Live Story covering the Oscars, and this marks the first time people have been able to view snaps outside of the Snapchat app without an account.
The experience took users to a Live Story page that showed a curated series of snaps playing one after the other. Users could skip different photos or videos as well as pause the snaps, which they cannot do through the app.
It’s unclear what this means for Snapchat’s future. We don’t know if this is going to be something Snapchat does for future events, or part of a larger plan to make Snapchat Live Stories viewable online all the time.
Snapchat’s move makes has a lot of potential on paper. It allows more users to get exposed to the platform than would otherwise because it doesn’t require an account or even an app. But it also allows Snapchat to become a shareable part of a cultural moment. Users can share links to the live story with each other and bring others onto the platform.
Curating content, specifically video, is a competitive environment. Twitter has always been the leader in this area, but even Instagram has taken steps to curate videos organized around specific events and holidays. It appears Snapchat is taking steps to be a key platform for accessing content around cultural moments moving forward.
Live Video Emphasized in Facebook News Feeds (Read more at AdAge)
Facebook has introduced another update to its algorithm. Thanks to a new update, Facebook will display live streaming videos much higher in user News Feeds than other types of content.
Live video has only been available to all users in the last few weeks, and Facebook says that it plans to emphasize them because they “are more interesting in the moment than after the fact.” One note that Facebook did add is Pages will not see a significant change as a result of the update.
Live streaming is Facebook’s latest big product update, and it makes sense why they’d want to promote it in news feeds. Live content is better live. Emphasizing that content in user news feeds will expose more users to the feature, building awareness and potential usage. This is part of Facebook’s bet to be the platform for live video streaming.
Meerkat Pivots Away from Live-Streaming (Read more at Recode)
One year ago, Meerkat was the darling app of SXSW, but not only has mobile video live streaming failed to gain mass adoption, the competition has heated up with the launch of Twitter-owned Periscope and Facebook Live. Meerkat quickly went from being the early frontrunner to being the underdog. So the platform is pivoting away from live streaming to create a new social network where “everybody is always live."
The company is unclear on what this means, but it will likely include small, group video chats, similar to Google Hangouts. It will be about intimate live streaming over mass.
This is one example where an app received so much hype it was supposed to be the next big thing, but hype from the press doesn’t always translate to user adoption. It also shows the power of established players like Twitter and Facebook. Twitter acquired Periscope, so it bought its way into the market, while Facebook only recently launched live streaming features for its users. Those powerhouses are able to not only drive mass adoption among their existing users but almost squash out competition by favoring their own products on their own platforms, which are essential fro content distribution today.
News Quick Hits
- Facebook has updated its Moments app to integrate video into the slideshows the app helps users create. The move coincides with Facebook’s overall focus on video. (Read more at SocialTimes)
- Snapchat has hired Sriram Krishnan, the founder of Facebook’s mobile ad network, to help build Snapchat’s growth and revenue team. Krishna was responsible for building Facebook’s Audience Network, mobile app engagement ads and deep-link ads for Facebook. The move signals a continued focus by Snapchat on helping advertisers leverage the platform. (Read more at AdWeek)
- LinkedIn has launched Account Targeting. The new service allows advertisers to target a list of companies they hope to reach. LinkedIn then can reference that list against the 8 million businesses that are on the platform. Previously, advertisers had to do company-targeting manually with a limit of 100 companies. This allows advertisers to optimize their targeting based on learnings from more businesses automatically. (Read more at AdAge)
- Spotify has come to Facebook Messenger. Users who integrate it can choose songs from the service’s entire catalog and share it with friends on Messenger. (Read more at The Next Web)