May 2017 Digital Media Updates

Krista Neher

May 08 2017

Facebook Top News – May 2017

• Facebook F8 Recap– Facebook held their annual F8 Developers conference in mid-April. There were tons of updates and announcements. Check out this post for the 10 most important announcements. As features go live we will also cover them in our Digital News Brief each month. The trends fall into three categories: Advertising, Messenger, and Innovation. Augmented reality is key and it’s a way for you to combine something real and something not real at the same time, typically done through a mobile phone camera.
• Facebook Causes allows personal fundraisers and Donate buttons for live pages– Fantastic for non-profits and individuals. You can also add a Donate button to live events on Facebook.
• Messenger has over 1.2 Billion users– This would make Messenger the second biggest social network (almost twice as big as Instagram at 700M). Facebook continues to innovate in Messenger – expect this to continue.
• Messenger 2.0 debuts at F8– It allows you to do more through Messenger. Facebook wants it to go beyond messaging between friends. They likely want it to replace email. They’re creating an interface where you can find things like a search engine. They also have chat extensions that allow you to integrate a chatbot to help share an experience. Think grocery list, song list, etc.
• Messenger launches Live Location – You can share your location live with people so they can see where you are. Say you’re meeting friends at a restaurant and you’re running late, you can share your location so they can see where you are. This is NOT recommended for those who say they’re “almost there” but haven’t left home yet. Busted! You can thank us later!
• Messenger now has group payments – You can split the bill within Messenger now! Order pizza with friends and everyone can chip in their $2. From a business standpoint, Facebook wants Messenger to be THEE place where you can do almost anything.
• New Insights includes omnichannel and automated insights– These features are in open beta and omnichannel analytics allows you to see the interactions on your Facebook page, but also on your website, on your app, and bot. It tracks conversions and purchases. It connects on-Facebook and off-Facebook behavior. If you get a ton of questions about ROI on Facebook, this is something that will really help you answer them. You’ll now be able to see if there is a correlation between Facebook activity and the results you want. Automated insights moves the data beyond based Facebook analytics and dives into Facebook activity and if it drives other things like purchases.
• New Camera, Direct and Facebook Stories– They’ve introduced interactive filters (augmented reality) It feels like SnapChat, but it’s well beyond the functionality that platform offers. Facebook also introduced Stories. Stories is a way for you to share content that will delete within 24 hours. You can also create a story that you share only with specific people. It’ll live in Messenger, not on your timeline. Facebook Direct is similar to SnapChat which allows you to share something specific, with specific people, for a specific amount of time.
• Notice Likes dropping? Facebook removes spam accounts – Facebook announced on 4/14/17 that they disabled tons and tons of spam accounts, which results in a drop in “like” numbers.
• Facebook Workplace announces integrations at F8 – Facebook Workplace is a way for larger companies to take the functionality of Facebook and create an internal Facebook experience for their employees, privately. There are a number of changes announced at F8, but the main takeaway is that they’re now integrating with several other services.
• A free version of Workplace will be available for all businesses–A free version of WorkPlace is coming soon.
• Facebook tests split screens for live streaming– More than one person can participate in the live stream. It allows you to do interviews, for example similar to Google Hangouts. Initially it’ll release just to personal accounts and will roll out to business accounts later.
• Facebook rights manager allows creators to claim earnings– One of the biggest complaints content creators have with Facebook is that other people will download their content and share it on other Facebook pages. That cuts out the potential ad revenue for the creator. If you upload your own content, you now have options on how to deal with that. You can block the content from being shared. You can claim the ad revenue. You can monitor it, or you can manually review each instance and decide how you want to proceed. This is similar to the set-up on YouTube. The goal here is a friendly environment for content creators without fear that their content will be stolen.
• Camera Effects Platform allows users to harness augmented reality– This turns your smartphone into augmented reality. Check out the videos on this link to see some truly cool stuff!
• Ads now include split testing feature– Allows you to choose a single variable you want to test and it’ll set up A/B testing for you.
• Pixel will mine more information giving you better ad performance data– Facebook Pixel is a code you put on your website to give Facebook data. At Boot Camp Digital, we run an ad that if someone looks at our 2-Day Boot Camp page, they see a video for that product on their Facebook page. Facebook is now looking to increase the amount of data they get so they can learn how effective their ads are and what results they achieve.
• Facebook is testing video cover images– This is only in testing, but could be interesting if it is rolled out. You can see an example on the Narcos Page. We admit that this is a cool feature and it can be fun, but you have to ask yourself if you’ll get enough ROI on the customization. The answer is maybe yes and maybe no. Not much Facebook interaction is done on a brand’s page. Most people keep up with the page via their news feed.
• Cool Facebook Report: Why Creativity Matters in the Age of Mobile – Facebook has produced a cool guide that’s essentially about creativity in mobile. It details how behavior is different in mobile and how it applies to you.

Instagram Top News – May 2017

• Instagram now has 700 Million users– This makes Instagram one of the largest social networks (even bigger than LinkedIn) and it is growing quickly.
• Instagram adds Collections to make it easy to organize and save photos– This feels a bit like Pinterest. From a business context, you can create collections based on what others post based on your own objectives.
• Save Live Instagram video to your phone– The downside is that it will only save the video stream, not the comments/like/interactions.
• Instagram changes Direct (which now has 375 active monthly users) –Instagram Direct is very much like SnapChat.

LinkedIn Top News – May 2017

• LinkedIn now has 500 Million users– We don’t talk about it much, but LinkedIn continues to grow. While this is a big number, it’s not as big as the other networks. Keep in mind, however, it’s geared towards business/professional social network. We’d never expect LinkedIn to be as big as Facebook or Facebook Messenger because there’s a limiter on the demographic.
• Matched Audiences give new ad targeting options– This gives advertisers three new targeting tools: website re-targeting, account targeting, and contact targeting.
• Leadgen forms make it easy to use LinkedIn for leads – They’re now streamline and will generate leads for you based on the ad.

Pinterest Top News – May 2017

• Pinterest removes Like button (replaces with save button)– Saving was more relevant than liking.
• Pinterest launches Propell to help advertisers (if you spend $100/month) – Propell gives you access to support if you spend $100 a month on advertising.

Twitter Top News – May 2017

• Twitter Lite provides faster load times to grow Twitter users– A fast and data-friendly way to access Twitter. The goal is global growth. In developing markets this allows those with slower connections to enjoy Twitter.
• Twitter helps brands measure the impact of their advertising–The focus is on reach influence and actions. They’re also working with advertising partners to measure better and up transparency.

Snapchat Top News – May 2017

• Brands can now buy Geofilter ads automatically – You can now buy geofilters, which are incredibly popular, as part of an ad package on Snapchat.
• Snapchat will link ads to foot traffic by measuring ad views that drove store visits– They’re now working with advertisers to connect the dots between their SnapChat ad and whether or not it drives the results they want – such as walking through the door of a store.

Mobile Marketing News – May 2017

• Mobile now accounts for 70% of digital media time– Whoa! If you’re still on a desktop for strategy, you’re missing out big time. You MUST optimize for mobile.
• Mobile accounts for 50% of digital ad spending (for the first time)– Make sure you’re matching your time and effort with where people are spending their time and effort.

Digital Advertising News – May 2017

• Google has 3 updates for dynamic search ads– A dynamic search ad changes based on what someone searches for.
• Chase Bank changes the way they advertise by cutting placements without impacting results–They evaluated all of their online advertising spending (400,000 different sites), what they found was that 5,000 were generating the results they needed. They were able to cut out 395,000 without a negative impact.

Google Analytics News – May 2017

• Google Optimize is now free for all allowing A/B testing and more– The positive feedback it received while in beta prompted the push towards a free Google Optimize platform for everyone.
• Analytics with Remarketing will now track across devices–Remarketing is where I send an ad to someone who had already interacted with my brand.

Google Search News – May 2017

• New Shopping features turn search into shopping tool with image search and style ideas – Google will show you style results when you search for a purse, for example.
• Moz releases local search factors study – They do research every year to understand what factors impact search engines. This study will tell you what impacts your search ranking.

Video Advertising and YouTube News – May 2017

• New study shows pre-roll ads are least intrusive and have the best recall– Pre-roll is less intrusive, less annoying, and promote the best recall.
• YouTube removes ads from accounts with under 10K views– You can only make ad revenue if you have 10,000+ views.
• YouTube kills annotations editor and encourages brands to use cards and end screens – Annotations are gone and now you can use cards and end-screens. It allows you to drive people to other videos.

Other Google News – May 2017

• Google is building a jobs platform for recruiters –Google Hire is worth noting because Google is trying to play in LinkedIn’s backyard.
• Google launches verified customer reviews and retires trusted stores– This only applies to e-commerce website. A verified customer review means that Google can verify that the person bought the product from the store.

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