This Week in Social and Digital (Week of May 8)
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 Inks Deals for Original, High-Quality Content
The battle for original high-quality content is heating up. Now, Snap Inc. is the one making deals with exclusive content partners, including NBC Universal, Discovery, ESPN, Turner, Vice Media and the NFL. All of these organizations are going to be creating exclusive, original shows for Snapchat’s new section Snap TV. Snap TV will live within Snapchat Stories, and each episode will be anywhere from three to five minutes long with new content airing every day by the end of the year.
This content is going to attempt to be TV-level in quality with scripted dramas, news, animation and all the trappings of TV. The goal is to generate more inventory space for additional advertising. It also helps that this content comes from traditional media companies known for producing very brand-safe content.
The exclusive video content space is hot as social networks are starting to look a lot more like television than social networks. Twitter’s been making live video deals with the likes of Bloomberg and the PGA, while Facebook’s been courting video publishers to create exclusive long-form video content for its platform in an effort to create space for mid-roll video ads. While the focus previously has been on features, especially around the camera, every platform at the moment is rallying around content to keep users coming back and to entice brands.
Amazon Launches Echo Show
Amazon has a follow-up to its Echo. It’s called the Echo Show, and what sets it apart form its predecessor is a 7-inch video screen. It brings all of the voice assistance features many people have come to put to use with their Echos as they ask it for news flash briefings, to play songs, to provide the weather forecast and even to read recipes.
The screen has the potential to do all of that and more. Amazon’s Echo has its share of competitors with Google launching Google Home and Apple being rumored to be working on a Siri-powered device. The screen could be a game changer.
First, the Echo often sends users to their phones to get what they need. Not everything can be communicated by voice. Beyond that the potential to deliver a wider range of content and services is exponentially increased through video. Showing users a recipe instead of just telling them, video conferencing friends while you’re in the midst of a project and more. Users who have an Echo Show in multiple rooms in a house could conference someone in another room to ask them a quick question or even ask them for their opinions on an outfit.
Without question, voice assistants have changed the game. Telling and showing could take what the Echo started to another level.
Pinterest Updates Lens to Make Searching Multiple Object Images Easier
Pinterest has updated its Lens tool within its mobile app. When Lens launched it let users look at images through their phones’ cameras. From there Pinterest would detect what they were looking at and then offer pins related to what is in the camera’s focus.
Well, that got an update. Now, when users look at a larger photo, a visual guide will display based on all the things in the photo. That guide will allow users to dive down in their search to more specific, relevant search results. It also can now read QR codes and bring up information related to those.
Pinterest Lens has the potential to be a very big deal, and it’s an area in which only it is playing. While Google has built its semantic search graph, Pinterest has a visual one. Users sometimes question what they’re looking at, and no platform is better positioned to surface results than Pinterest. It stopped being a social network awhile ago, but now it’s more search than ever.
Snapchat Launches New Features for Creativity
Snapchat too ephemeral for you? Well, that is no more. It now has “limitless” snaps. These allow users to view snaps for as long as they want, but once they view them, they’re gone forever. Snaps in Stories as well as Snaps sent to friends can apply the feature. Videos can also be played forever in a looping format.
Beyond that, Snapchat added emoji drawing that lets users take any emoji and use it as a brush. There’s also a “magic eraser” that will allow users to retouch images to remove certain parts of them.
It’s a pretty robust round of updates. Platforms are getting less precious about what makes them different. Instagram’s getting more casual. Twitter’s relying less on character count. And Snapchat here is relying less on being ephemeral. As these platforms look to expand beyond their core users, that appears to be a necessary move, and these features just make Snapchat an even more interesting canvas for sharing and creating content.
Instagram Launches Mobile Web App
Whether you download the app or not, Instagram wants you to use it. It just launched new capabilities for its mobile website that lets users do most of what they can do in the core app through a lightweight website.
This is a big step because users could previously browse Instagram, like photos, search photos and follow people from the mobile web. Now, users can share from the mobile website, and the Explore tab is also available. There are no filters, video uploads, stories or direct messaging, but those may be on the way as well.
Instagram aims to be Facebook’s next Facebook, and that means global expansion and having as many users as possible. Downloading apps can use up valuable data in certain parts of the world, so this mobile website opens Instagram to more users… even those who don’t tap download.
Snapchat Disappoints in First Earnings Report
Snapchat had its first earnings report since becoming a public company, and the numbers confirmed some initial concerns with the platform. The biggest concern for Snap Inc. when it went public was whether or not it could show growth in users with Facebook stealing many of its features. Snapchat reported user numbers of 166 million daily active users, only 5 million more since going public. That also represents the fourth straight quarter of declining user growth.
It also failed to meet analysts’ expectations in revenue. It reported $150 million, which mostly came from ad sales. And while up 286% over last year, it didn’t impress investors.
It’s hard to judge Snap over one quarter’s earnings alone. Facebook also failed to impress its first time out, and Twitter, only recently, impressed investors. But user growth is going to be a challenge for Snapchat, especially with Facebook basically saying it has Snapchat in its sights.
News Quick Hits
- Facebook is shutting down its Oculus Story Studio, its content arm tasked with creating VR content. This has raised questions around Facebook’s commitment to VR. That’s one interpretation, but another is Facebook views itself as a media company, which means its focusing on creating the medium for developers and brands to deliver VR content. Facebook doesn’t want to be the creator. It, instead, wants to be the medium in which VR content is delivered.
- Spotify just launched Spotify Codes. These codes allow users to share songs, artists, playlists and albums across social media by sharing scannable photos. These photos can be scanned using the Spotify app by tapping the camera icon in Spotify’s search bar. Once scanned, users can jump right into listening.
- Facebook’s push for long-form, high-quality video content is about to see the light of day. It will be making its premiere mid-June with two dozen shows, which are a combination of TV-level content and more lower-tier content about five to ten minutes in length. New content will be available every 24 hours.
- Messenger has added several new Chat Extensions that allow users to interact with app-like features within their Messenger chat threads. Users can do things like share an article from The Wall Street Journal, book a table with Open Table, share music through Spotify and more. The features are available by tapping the plus icon within an open thread.
- Yelp’s earnings report did not go well. It sent the stock down by 28% in after hours trading. The drop came after Yelp missed its sales forecasts and dropped its own revenue estimates for the rest of 2017. It also comes at a time when both Facebook and Google are working to become local business location resources themselves.
- Facebook Lead Ads can now tie into offline CRM, POS and call center systems thanks to a new feature called Offline Conversion. The offering allows advertisers to identify conversions from Facebook ads within these systems. Advertisers can also use the information to create Lookalike Audiences and retarget customers.
- Now, Facebook Page Posts can include a CTA to ask users to contact their government representatives. This won’t be an ideal feature for all brands, but media, non-profits and the more politically active brands could use it as a way to galvanize their audiences toward a cause.
- Artificial Intelligence is being put to work to help Facebook identify links to websites with poor ad experiences, including spam, fake news and sexualized content. From there, Facebook will lower those links’ visibility on the social network, which could result in more visibility for premium publishers.