General, This Week in Social Media
April 2017 Social Media Updates
Apr 03 2017
Businesses Pulling YouTube Ads Globally – Businesses are pulling their ads on YouTube because they’re appearing beside or over offensive content. This can happen with any form of advertising, but what makes this more problematic is how YouTube compensates for advertising. The video creator makes the money, so if Pepsi’s ad shows up on a terrorist recruiting video, the terrorist recruit makes money. As a result, we’re seeing business worldwide pulling ads until targeting gets better. We’re also seeing similar actions being taken by businesses on Facebook due to the same issue. Google and YouTube are trying to improve their brand safety controls so brands will have more say where their ads show up.
Save Live Videos on Instagram – Instagram continues to be one of the quickest growing social networks and probably has more advertisers than other networks that are older. Why? They’re owned by Facebook. Now you can save live video to your phone, which allows you to edit it and re-purpose it, therefore getting more bang for you content creation buck.
Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference – The annual event is coming up April 18 & 19 and is always a great source for announcements and to learn more about the future of Facebook. The event is usually livestreamed so you can join virtually.
Facebook Computer Livestream – Facebook now allows you to live stream from your computer, not just a device, which is often shaky. This means that live video is likely to continue growing in popularity. If you’re not doing it, it may be something you want to experiment with a bit. As Facebook tries to push people into something, they typically also support it in another way, such as an algorithm update.
Facebook Algorithm Update – Reactions Matter More – Facebook is now ranking “reactions” above likes. Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry are ranking above Likes, thus increasing the likelihood that what you post appears in someone’s news feed. Therefore, post something that will spark a reaction.
Facebook Tags Fake News – Facebook rolled out disputed news tags because, as we all know, not everything you read on the internet is true! They’re working to show that news posts are disputed and by whom, though the posts are not removed unless there’s another violation.
WhatsApp Looks to Monetize – The WhatsApp messaging app has an international following that’s huge. It’s the most common way people connect with each other, beating out text messages and phone calls. It’s owned by Facebook and they’re now testing different monetization paths within it. They’re testing business chat tools and other revenue options. This could mean that Messenger is the next to be monetized. Currently you can get updates and book appointments through Messenger. WhatsApp could give us clues as to what’s coming next for Messenger.
Facebook Enhances Ad Stats – Facebook s giving advertisers cross-platform statistics now, rather than stats separated by the networks on which you advertised. Previously only businesses with large Facebook advertising budgets could see these stats. Now, if you advertise on the Facebook Audience Network, they’ll incorporate more data to help you connect the dots between the ad platforms. You’ll get better measurements if you advertise on multiple platforms.
There’s a new Facebook 360 app for Virtual Reality! – Facebook is adding 360 video into virtual reality as a way to give people the opportunity to experience it with Facebook content. In theory, virtual reality is becoming more of a mass tool and something that could be of interest in advertisers. Google Cardboard is a great, inexpensive way to get started in VR.
Facebook Native Videos Get Results – A study was recently published that confirmed something we’ve heard over and over again. Native videos (videos uploaded directly to Facebook) out-perform videos shared via another platform, such as YouTube. In this study, native videos were shared at 1055% the rate of shared YouTube video. The strong takeaway here is that you’ll get better results if you upload your videos directly to Facebook..
Facebook Launches Stories (Copying SnapChat and Instagram) – Facebook Messenger now offers functionality similar to SnapChat stories in that you can share multiple photos to tell a story and employ cool features like filters, stickers, and more. If you use Messenger on your phone, you can now share stories to your phone. Be warned, it notifies your friends that you’re sharing your day.
Facebook Ads Launches Split Testing – Facebook advertising now allows you to optimize your ads with split testing. You say, “I want to test version one and version two.” Facebook will identify that best ad for your target audience and give you data on which worked better.
Twitter Sells Ads more like TV – Twitter has changed the way you can buy ads. Now they’re allowing you to spend a set amount of videos for a guaranteed set number of impressions, similar to the way television advertising works.
Periscope API – Periscope has launched an API for producers, which will open the offering of tools to use to get more from your LiveStreaming on the site.
Online Advertising Growth Projections – Digital advertising in the US will make $83B this year. Facebook and Google are, by far, the biggest players, which could impact your digital marketing strategies. If you have a big budget, Google and Facebook are where you want to be. If you have a small budget, you can likely spend less and really dominate a small space.
Google Data Studio – Google has made the Google Data Studio available to all for advanced reporting and data visualization around Google Analytics. If you want to learn more about Data Studio Click Here.
Apple Introduces Clips to Quickly Make Videos – Apple created the Clips feature/app for iOS that gives you cool ways to make animations and video clips. Features include speech bubbles, cartoons, and more. It’s intended to be a consumer app, but as a business there is potential to use it to spread your message or encourage users to do so.
Learn More about ChatBots – Facebook is investing a lot of money and effort in messaging. A ChatBot is a way to automate a conversation that mimics a real person. Thus far, millennials are early adopters. To this point, chatbots are only marginally successful, but they’re something that’s gaining speed and likely to evolve into an interesting way to connect with people. You can also see best practices on ChatBots here.
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