This Week in Social and Digital (Week of December 11)
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.
Twitter Videos Get View Counts
Twitter is adding video view counts to videos. The number will be affected by users who watched an entire video or just a few seconds of it.
This is a shift for Twitter, which never counted video views, at least not publicly, before this, but it may be a way to encourage users to spend more time on the platform watching a video. After all, if they know a lot of people have found a piece of video content compelling, they may see it as worth their time as well. It also serves as a way for publishers to have a badge of honor of sorts to show just how compelling their content is.
Advertisers always had access to view counts, and as with any platform, Twitter view counts are a bit suspect. Twitter subscribes to the Media Rating Council definition of a view being two seconds of play time with at least half the video on a user’s screen.
The move isn’t ground shaking, but it is another shift by Twitter to make changes to how the platform works in an effort to spark engagement. Data is showing that Twitter’s updated 280 character count has sparked more engagement from its users, and this could do the same by inviting them not just to turn to Twitter to engage with tweets but view video content as well.
Twitter Comes Out with New Feature for Tweetstorms
280 characters was just the beginning. Now, Twitter is making it easier for users to tweet ideas that can’t be encapsulated in just one tweet. These are typically referred to as tweetstorms, but Twitter’s going to call them threads.
Users who start a tweet cant tap a “+” icon in the menu to link to more tweets. Up until this point, tweetstorms could be difficult to follow. This simplifies the experience for both the person tweeting and those trying to follow a train of thought as the threads will be organized together and fully viewed by tapping or clicking “show this thread.”
Twitter’s always been good about taking user-created behaviors like hashtags and retweets and incorporating them into the platform. Now, it’s doing that with tweetstorms.
Twitter’s undergone quite the transformation this year. It’s done away with the idea of brevity and has really shifted from being about micro-blogging to being as much about full-on blogging. Twitter is no longer the place where you share small thoughts but could potentially be the place where full-on thought pieces are shared.
Snapchat Opens Up Lens Studio
Snap is letting everyone get into the augmented reality (AR) business with a new self-serve platform that gives creators tools to create their own AR assets for the Snapchat platform. The tool is called Lens Studio, and it allows designers to create, publish and share AR assets. Currently, the tools are only available to a handful of developers, but the idea is to give brands resources to create and run campaigns featuring AR assets.
The move follows Facebook, which opened up its AR platform that was announced earlier this year, to developers this week as well.
Snapchat’s handled all creation up until this point, which resulted in longer turnaround times. Now, with more vendors creating assets, it should be easier for marketers to get their AR campaigns off the ground. Even though some creative control is being given to outside parties, Snapchat will still handle all media buying on an $8 to $20 CPM basis.
It’s no coincidence that this is rolling out the same time as Facebook’s AR studio offering. It is becoming clearer that 2018 will be a year full of AR experiences for consumers, and the true power of AR has yet to be realized because of pricing restrictions and the power to create being held to a few. As it becomes more democratized, the barrier to entry is lowering and more brands will be able to participate. The power of such experiences lies in the ability for consumers to “play” with brands and experience them in an active way, rather than leaning back and absorbing a message.
Facebook Updates Its Approach to Video
Facebook’s shown once again that it’s not afraid to tip the scales to favor its latest offerings. Now, Facebook is updating its algorithm to help Facebook Pages that drive strong repeat viewership and are searched for by users. That type of video will most likely be episodic content created for Facebook’s Watch platform.
Facebook also made it possible for content creators to distribute all episodes of their content directly to anyone who follows their Pages. Beyond that, Facebook has updated the eligibility requirements for videos to have mid-roll ad breaks. Now, videos are eligible if they’re at least three minutes long, and the first ad can display at the one-minute mark. Facebook is also going to start experimenting with pre-roll ads alongside destination content sought out by users.
Facebook is seeking to be a destination for high-quality video content, which is accompanied by mid-roll ads. Publishers and advertisers have been keeping tabs on Watch as it has yet to make its mark, but like I said, Facebook is certainly tipping the scales in Watch’s favor.
This move is certainly geared more toward publishers than brands, which still need to be quick and concise in message delivery. But if Facebook can get more users going to Facebook to watch specific content, that opens up a potentially attractive avenue for advertisers to place pre- or mid-roll ads that viewers won’t only watch because they want to see specific content, they’ll watch with sound on and with focus.
News Quick Hits
- Facebook is pushing to cater more to video creators with some new tools. The first is Sound Collection, which gives content creators access to thousands of tracks and sound effects for Facebook and Instagram videos. It also has a new 360 Community Page that offers tutorials on 360 content creation, like editing workflows and spatial audio. This also includes a Camera Loaner Program, which will let some creators borrow cameras for projects.
- Facebook has removed the Ticker. The Ticker provided a real-time look at what friends were up to on Facebook, and it lived alongside the News Feed, which unlike the Ticker, is generated algorithmically. Facebook clearly wants users to rely on its algorithm for all their News Feed interactions.
- Instagram is allowing users to follow hashtags the same way they can follow user accounts. Once a user searches for a hashtag, they can tap the follow button. Top posts associated with a hashtag will then appear in their feeds. It’s worth noting this is top posts, so it will avoid the risk of certain users trying to capitalize on trending hashtags by hijacking them with content that benefits them but does not necessarily add to the conversation.
- Pinterest is making its self-serve insights tool being tested by a select group of brands available to all brands in early 2018. The tool shows audience top categories and interests.
- Facebook is now allowing brands to add a button to their organic boosted Facebook posts that allows users to message brands through WhatsApp. This move follows click-to-Messenger CTAs which launched last year. The move starts to show more signs of Facebook looking to monetize WhatsApp, which it acquired for $19 billion.