Social Media trends change weekly – we get the craziness of trying to stay up on what’s happening. In our first monthly report, we try and highlight the biggest shifts and compile them, (sometimes directly from the respective source) for our clients and site visitors. Please enjoy October’s reporting.
Snapchat Brings Bitmojis to Life with New AR Update: Animated Bitmojis may be the coolest new social trend out there. Doesn’t everyone needs their own personal avatar? According to Snap Inc., more than a third of their 173M users are actively using AR camera features on Snapchat every day. Fun update for daily users and a creative way for brands to show their personality on Snapchat.
Snapchat Announces New Deal with NBCUniversal, Adds NBA Lenses: Snapchat is teaming with NBCUniversal to bring scripted programming to mobile screens. Snap recently announced a deal with NBC to create a daily Snapchat program called ‘Stay Tuned’ which covers the latest news in 2-4 minute segments.This type of short,TV-like programming is similar to Facebook’s new ‘Watch’ platform – it’s TV, but for the younger generation. It’s built for mobile, on-the-go consumption. Snapchat wants digital advertisers to take note of their shift towards more video content. This could allow for a range of new opportunities for TV-style ads. Similar to Snapchat’s “Dancing Hotdog,” the platform is also launching a new, NBA-themed dancing foam hand Lens and will only be available in and around the arenas where each team is playing.
Instagram’s Changing the cLook of Their Ad CTAs to Better Merge with User Feeds: In a subtle change that is projected to have big impact, Instagram has made the call-to-action bar feel like more of the photo or video. The CTA button will change to the main color of the ad’s photo or video, better integrating into the look and feel of the content.
Audio on Instagram Autoplay Videos Works a Little Differently: A slightly annoying new feature, Instagram updated the way it presents autoplay videos. As an Instagram user opts to turn on the sound for a video, the sound will remain on for all subsequent videos – organic and ads – in the Instagram feed, Explore, Stories and users’ profiles during that session.
3 Ways to Retarget Your Instagram Audience with Facebook Ads: Be sure to check out Facebook Custom Audiences for Instagram. Retargeting is instrumental to conversion and this new tool allows advertisers to reach everyone who has engaged with your Instagram page, posts and ads; people who visited your Instagram business profile; people who engaged with your posts or ads on Instagram; people who sent you an Instagram message; and those people who have saved any of your Instagram posts or ads. Thiscool feature should help the 2 million plus advertisers using Instagram to reach the 800 million users.
6 Instagram Poll Sticker Ideas for Your Brand or Business: A new feature which rivals a Twitter feature: Instagram Poll Stickers. A fun tool that allows you to add a question, with two answer options, to your Instagram Story image or video. Your followers simply tap on the answer they’d like to choose. Advertisers win in a variety of ways including using the poll stickers as a way to introduce quizzes, for fun or general feedback, letting your consumers in on making choices, capturing consumer insight or just adding an interactive component to your campaign.
Facebook Is Testing Out Image-Based Search for Related Products: Apparently Facebook likes to mimic features found in Snapchat, Linkedin, Houseparty, Pinterest and Slack. According to the article a Facebook user discovered that Facebook is testing a new tool which would enable users to search objects in Facebook’s Marketplace via an image.The strategy seems to align with Facebook’s ongoing development of their image-recognition technology.
Facebook’s Testing a New Subscription Option in Instant Articles: We’re not sure how consumers will feel about the subscription based models on Facebook, but testing is underway on Androids delivering Instant Articles. Facebook is predicting the Instant Articles will drive 20% more clicks, and 30% more shares than regular link posts.
Facebook’s Dynamic Creative Matches Brands’ Assets with Their Target Audiences: A new Facebook feature allows advertisers to automatically match the best combination of creative with the audiences they are targeting. Algorithms can determine the best creative for specific target audiences by using dynamic creative and learning which combinations perform. This will eliminate the need to manually create ads with different audiences and creative combinations.
Facebook Is Testing a Way for You to Share Your Instagram Stories Directly to Facebook: Facebook really wants Stories to be viewed on their main app…the problem is that many Facebook users are not quite sure how to use Stories. A test is underway with Instagram to vet a new option to share photos and videos created with Instagram’s in-app camera to their Facebook Story, as well as their Instagram Story. Let’s see if user’s take note.
Facebook Moves to Block Ads on Fake News, Offensive Videos: This has to be the biggest obstacle for Facebook right now and the company is adding new standards that will keep advertising off of fake news videos and objectionable content. The 5 million Facebook advertisers will be watching and monitoring their progress as the company starts to put ads inside video and articles instead of separately on the news feed.
Twitter Adds New Video Website Card to Provide More Immersive Ad Experience: Need a more immersive brand experience in your Twitter feed? Twitter unveiled their Video Website Cards, which allow advertisers to connect their video ads to a website. When clicked on mobile, the video shifts to the top of the screen, while the website opens below.
Twitter Is Adding a ‘Happening Now’ Module to Highlight Real-Time Discussion: Although growth has stalled just a bit, Twitter continues to innovate in an effort to capture new users. “Happening Now” has launched, which is another way to highlight news events and real-time discussion within the app. Personally, I’m glad to see that sports-related events will be the first to be highlighted.
Pinterest Adds Search Ads to Their Self-Serve Platform, Providing New Opportunities: Advertisers may want to think about adding Pinterest as part of their social strategy. Pinners come to the site with a high intent to make a purchase, thus making search ads a key consideration. Search ads were added to their platform earlier this year. The option is available to all businesses by adding search to their self-serve ad platform. Auto targeting was launched a few weeks back through their branded “Taste Graph.” According to Pinterest,“Thanks to the Taste Graph, we have insight into what people are looking for on Pinterest and why. It’s informed by the style, textures and shapes that make something unique, the many ways people on Pinterest choose to categorize things, and so much more.” This is a significant benefit to their social platform.
Please connect with us below and let us know if we can help have an impact on your social media performance. More updates to follow next month!
