This Week in Social and Digital (Week of June 20)
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 Instant Articles Get More Brand Friendly (Read more at Facebook Media)
Facebook has updated Instant Articles to make them work better for brands. Instant articles can now include brand logos at the top of articles as well as be further customized by color, text and spacing. All of this will be available later this month.
In addition, publishers can add custom bylines as well as kickers, a feature that’s been available for some time. Both The Atlantic and The Washington Post have put the new features to the test.
In a world of ad blockers, native advertising is gaining a foothold. And in a world of time spent on Facebook, Instant Articles are growing in popularity among publishers. Those two things coming together make this update to Instant Articles an attractive proposition for marketers who want to get their native content out there while also providing as optimal experience for users as possible.
Facebook Expands Canvas to Organic Posts (Read more at TechCrunch)
Facebook Canvas is going to be available as an organic post for brand pages starting June 22. A brand simply needs to create a Canvas and select the “Create Page Post” option to publish to the page.
Canvas was introduced by Facebook in February as a way for advertisers to deliver full-screen immersive ads to users. The ads, once tapped on by a user, take up a user’s full screen and create a microsite-like experience on the user’s screen, except the ads load up to 10 times faster than a typical mobile web page. The only difference now is brands have the option to post the Canvas ads organically.
It’s unclear why Facebook is making this move or why a brand would want to embrace it. After all, Canvas posts require creative resources to make the experience as impactful as possible. That investment in creative resources should have paid support to ensure people see the content. But one reason could be Facebook wants brands to become more comfortable with the unit since it doesn’t require an investment and then eventually move to investing dollars in the posts.
Twitter Giving Users More Seconds of Video (Read more at Engadget)
Twitter isn’t just giving users more room in tweets by not counting @mentions, photos and links in character counts, it’s also giving users more seconds of video. Twitter is now allowing everyone to share video up to 140 seconds in length. Some publishers will actually be able to share videos up to 10 minutes long that can also be viewed in full-screen.
Pushing even further, some Vine creators are also being given the reigns to expand outside of Vine’s six-second limit. The feature is called Beyond the Vine. It allows some content creators to share shorter six-second clips as trailers for longer videos up to two-minutes in length. Users get to the longer videos with a “Watch more” button. These longer Vines can also be viewed in full-screen.
Twitter is upping its focus on video, something that has been a hot topic among all the major players. The update gives users a much wider canvas, and because Twitter is such a news source, the longer videos will help it become even more useful in conveying information.
As for the clips up to 10 minutes long, that may be an olive branch to publishers, which have been getting feature like Instant Articles from Facebook and an update to Snapchat’s Discover. Twitter’s giving them features that will help their Twitter presences be all the more valuable for followers.
What’s really interesting is what Twitter is doing with Vine. Influencers have expanded beyond Vine with some going to Facebook, Snapchat, Periscope and so on. This move gives them a larger playground to experiment with and could bring more attention to the platform.
All of these features are optional, so we’ll see a combination of users, publishers and influencers embracing them, while others maintain the status quo.
Tumblr Gets Live Streaming Video (Read more at TechCrunch)
Tumblr is joining what’s already becoming a crowded landscape—live video. It will be competing against Facebook, Periscope and YouTube to encourage content creators and brands to share live video, but it’s doing so on its own terms.
Tumblr’s taking its own approach to the offering. It does not have a video player, so it is actually going to plug into existing services, including YouNow, YouTube, Kanvas and Upclose. The move positions Tumblr to be the place where live video is shared no matter where it was originally created.
The feature works pretty seamlessly. A user clicks a button from the video app and once shared to Tumblr, a notification will be sent to people to open Tumblr to watch. Live video will remain at the top of user dashboards, which also house photos, GIFs and other videos, and the live videos can be saved as regular videos once the stream is over.
Mashable, The Huffington Post, MTV and other publishers are already going to be using Tumblr to share live video content.
Tumblr’s less about creating a competing product and more about making sure it’s a place where people can share live video content, no matter where it originates. That’s a smart move because the landscape is growing more and more crowded by the day and a new platform isn’t what’s needed. One place that houses all of the content, however, may be.
Facebook Brings MSQRD Integration to Facebook Live (Read more at The Next Web)
Facebook is now letting users live stream to Facebook from the MSQRD app. Streaming from the app allows users to wear different masks and filters and add an element of fun to their broadcasts, which can be to either friends or public.
In addition, later this Summer, users will be able to go live with another person, meaning influencers and users will be able to broadcast live to specific friends or fans versus a large group. Beyond that, broadcasters will also be given the ability to schedule live videos, so potential viewers are given a heads up that a broadcast is on the way. Users can sign up to join a waiting room as they wait for a broadcast to begin. This feature should alleviate broadcasters who don’t want to actually start the core pieces of their video until a certain number of users has had a chance to join because everyone will join at once instead of trickling in.
The ability to schedule broadcasts as well as have more intimate live sessions makes Facebook Live a much more useful platform. As for MSQRD, it’s clearly a move designed to respond to Snapchat, which offers a similar feature called Lenses. It’s interesting to see that MSQRD and Facebook are becoming more integrated. Beyond that, Facebook continues to place an emphasis on Live, and everything it’s announced is intended to create consistent content that is compelling every time a user logs in.
YouTube App Gets Live Streaming Capabilities (Read more at Venturebeat)
The YouTube mobile app is expanding its live streaming capabilities. Previously, live streaming was limited to verified channels through Creator Studio, but now it is available for all through the core YouTube mobile app. The move puts YouTube in direct competition with Periscope and Facebook Live, which have both been growing in popularity.
The functionality is pretty simple. Open the app, snap a photo to serve as the video thumbnail and then get right into broadcasting. Broadcasters will be given the option to notify subscribers when a broadcast begins as well as enable users to chat within the live stream. Finally, broadcasters can choose if the stream will be public or private.
YouTube’s been slow to catch up with the quick moving live streaming market, and it’s allowed some new players to entrench themselves in the space. Still, YouTube is all about video and always has been, so the equity it has in being synonymous with video may give it a leg up.
News Quick Hits
- Twitter has acquired Magic Pony Technology, a machine learning tech company with a focus on visual processing. The acquisition came with a price tag of $150 million, and the role of Magic Pony for Twitter is unclear. But Dorsey did say the acquisition is intended to help Twitter “continue to be the best place to see what’s happening and why it matters, first.” Magic Pony can help Twitter do things like clean up pixelated images as well as improve video streaming. (Read more at AdAge)
- Instagram has reached a new milestone. It now has 500 million monthly active users, up from 400 million in September. 300 million of those users use the app every day, and 80% of its users currently live outside the United States where it’s seeing it’s highest level of growth. (Read more at Mashable)
- Twitter has launched a standalone analytics app for power users and celebrities. The app is called Engage, and its intention is to help creators better interact with fans as well as grow their audiences. Information like post-by-post performance and the ability to follow conversations around content they put out there aims to help them do just that. The Engage app is available for iOS users, but only select accounts can actually use it. (Read more at TechCrunch)
- Twitch has a new Friends feature that allows users to add users and friends and view their online statuses. In addition to viewing their friends, they can have private conversations. The feature is available on mobile devices. (Read more at SocialTimes)
- Instagram has announced that user bios, comments and captions posted in foreign languages will be automatically translated to a user’s native language. The news comes at the same time Instagram announced their global audience is seeing dramatic growth. (Read more at CNET)
- Pinterest has acquired shopping app Tote in an acquihire bid. The founders will be joining Pinterest’s monetization team and shutting down Tote. (Read more at SocialTimes)
- Facebook is bringing Reactions to virtual reality. Users of Gear VR headsets will be able to choose between Facebook’s reactions when viewing 360-degree videos, while also seeing the Reactions of others float into view. The move comes from an effort to bring more social features to VR. (Read more at The Verge)
- Uber is expanding its upfront fares globally. This means all users will know the price of their rides before they request them. The fares are calculated by looking at time, distance, local traffic, nearby drivers and the number of riders. This will work with and without surge pricing. (Read more at Mashable)
- WhatsApp is now delivering more than 100 million voice calls per day. This follows the expansion of voice calling to Android in February of last year and to iOS the following April. (Read more at SocialTimes)