Thanks for Copying Snapchat, Instagram

August 16, 2016 by Taylor Wiegert in Instagram, Snapchat

Instagram Stories are here, and you may not be that excited for them because they kind of already existed on Snapchat as Snapchat Stories. Just like Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories allow users to create video and photo slideshows that disappear after 24 hours. And again much like Snapchat, users can add emojis, text and even drawings to the images in their stories. It’s a blatant copy and paste from Snapchat to Instagram, which Instagram’s Kevin Systrom freely admits. That doesn’t really matter though, especially when you consider the implications for marketers.

Making Instagram Actionable with Business Profiles

May 13, 2016 by Taylor Wiegert in Instagram

Instagram’s proven itself to be an excellent platform for brands to communicate their value propositions and ethos through visuals, and now it’s ready to pivot to help brands further with the launch of business profiles. They’re already in testing with a small group of users, and they have the potential to make Instagram a much more powerful tool for brands.

Brands and Instagram’s Algorithm

March 22, 2016 by Taylor Wiegert in Instagram

This means the reverse chronological order that organized the feed in the past will give way to push photos the algorithm thinks you’ll want to see most to the top of your feed. The feed will be organized for users based on timeliness, one’s relationship with the poster and the likelihood a person will be interested in the content posted.

The move is of little surprise. Facebook’s News Feed has been operating through an algorithm for some time, and even Twitter is adopting an algorithm with the feature “Show me the best tweets first.” These platforms win when users spend as much time on them as possible, and they spend more time when they are engaged with the content. So now’s the time for marketers to embrace the change.

Democratizing Conversation Data

November 03, 2015 by Taylor Wiegert in Data, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

Social conversation curation is hot again as everyone is working to figure out how they can take the conversations happening on their individual platforms and leverage them further. Every day, we’re all putting content out there, and most of that content is limited to our individual social connections and limited further by those that are online. That’s a lot of content being limited by the audience of a single individual.

Instagram to Advertisers: Come and Get It

September 15, 2015 by Taylor Wiegert in Instagram

When it comes to social platforms rising in popularity, it’s good advice to “get while the getting’s good.” Instagram would fall into this category. The platform has been delivering brands triple the engagement of both Facebook and Twitter as its user base has grown.

Now, Instagram appears to be close to making a big pivot. Armed with data from parent company Facebook, Instagram is predicted to bring in $2.39 billion in mobile display revenue, more than Twitter and Google. Instagram’s ad offering is going to be available to all advertisers starting September 30, which means more brands will be embracing Instagram as 2015 comes to a close and 2016 begins.

Social Ads with Substance

November 04, 2014 by Taylor Wiegert in Advertising, Paid, Instagram, Snapchat

There certainly isn’t a shortage of ways marketers can spend their paid social media budgets, and the latest ad units on the scene come from relatively new social media platforms: Snapchat and Instagram.

Snapchat has launched ads that appear within Snapchat Stories between photos and videos shared by users. The ads require users to engage with them by tapping them, holding their fingers on the screen and viewing the content. The ads have already been used to promote Universal Pictures’ Ouija movie, which included an animated GIF under the ‘Sponsored’ label within Snapchat.

Then there’s Instagram, which rolled out video ads that display within users’ feeds.

Both platforms' new units have something in common: targeting is rudimentary at best.