This Week in Social and Digital (Weeks of May 22 and May 29)
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.
Instagram Launches Stories Search and Archive
Instagram just launched Location Stories on its Explore Page. The goal is to aggregate stories from a certain location for the past 24 hours. The move comes after Snapchat launched Stories Search, a feature that allows users to search for and view snaps based on a specific topic.
These Instagram Location Stories can be found in the Stories section of Explore as well as in search. Beyond just using what’s featured in Explore, users can search for location or hashtags to see a Story made up of submissions and posts from multiple people. It does this by looking for people who used the same location sticker, hashtag sticker or hashtag in the caption. Users can opt out of having their content featured in search by tapping the ‘X’ on their Stories' view counters, which is different than Snapchat, which asks users to opt-in by submitting to “Our Story.”
Overall, it’s a move that’s very similar to Snapchat’s Stories Search.
To take things to another level, Instagram also launched Archive, which allows users to move posts into a private Archive section of their profiles. They can make them public again later if they choose to.
Instagram didn’t blatantly copy Snapchat, but it certainly took plenty of inspiration. This move really positions Instagram to make Stories into an even more powerful feature. First, it could really compete with Twitter for following current events on the ground from users who are there front-and-center. Second, it gives Snapchat users a choice. Use Snapchat Stories to be part of their current peer groups. Or switch to Instagram and potentially reach larger audiences and be part of a larger conversation.
Twitter Now Has Direct Message Ads
In an effort to continue to encourage brands to use Twitter as a platform for developing one-to-one connections with consumers, it just launched Direct Message Cards.
Direct Message Cards allow advertisers to include creative images and videos and then allow users to select one of four custom, call-to-action buttons. Once users choose their response, they’re pulled into a direct response dialogue with a bot.
Patron is using the feature to allow users to select what kind of party they’re having. From there, a bot provides the best cocktail for the occasion.
The cards are currently only available directly through Twitter for select advertisers.
As the social web gets more intimate, social platforms are looking for ways to get advertisers to take their users into more one-on-one settings, and much of this is enabled by bot technology. Facebook’s done this to a degree with ads driving to Messenger, and now, Twitter is following suit. While the future of bots is still being defined, ads like these offer a way for advertisers to direct users to the technology as they test and learn what works best for them and their audiences.
Pinterest Improves Food Search Capabilities
Pinterest is focusing on food. Pinterest Lens now offers “full dish recognition” in addition to its ability to recommend dishes based on ingredients. This means, you can go into a restaurant, take a picture of a dish and get a decent idea on how to make it all using Pinterest. Beyond that, Pinterest users can now search based on dietary preference such as gluten-free, paleo or vegan as well as by cooking time.
Pinterest’s visual search capabilities are getting incredibly powerful, and it has the potential to become even more of a go-to source for how-to food, inspiration and planning. And now that Pinterest has tied Promoted Pins into Pinterest Lens, that means brand content has the potential to make its way into that visual search behavior more and more users will adopt.
Pinterest is no longer just a place to collect ideas. It’s a place you can act on inspiration you see in the real world.
Google Takes Aim at Last-Click Attribution
Google wants to kill last click attribution, the practice that gives whatever a user did last before making a purchase full credit for the conversion.
At Google Marketing Next the company announced a new approach to multi-touch attribution that it says will be more accurate and faster than existing multi-touch measurement products. It calls the offering Google Attribution, and it relies on machine learning to evaluate all the touchpoints along the way to purchase in an effort to evaluate channels based on their role in the journey rather than what a consumer interacted with last.
Google is hardly the first company to try such an approach, but it does argue that it can do this role better, faster and more accurately than competitors. Currently, it’s in beta, and brands will be able to upload first-party data from AdWords and DoubleClick to inform the platforms results.
At this point, it’s mostly talk, but it is a problem that severely needs solving.
Instagram Testing Direct Response Ads in Stories
Instagram Stories are getting monetized a bit more thanks to a test being conducted by Facebook. Now, it is testing the waters with direct response ads living within Stories, which will allow users to take immediate actions including signing-up for a service or installing an app.
This is an evolution Facebook and other platforms have adopted in the past. The initial ads on Stories were meant for reach. Now, we’re seeing ads meant to drive immediate action, and this evolution will continue until ads in Instagram Stories offer the same objectives as ads within News Feeds.
Instagram Stories have been a resounding success for the platform, and allowing advertisers the ability to use the ads in more ways than pure reach allows Instagram to compete more directly with Snapchat.
There’s power in the Stories format. That power being a full-screen, immersive ad experience. This comes at the cost of allowing users to skip the ads quickly.
Pinterest Rolls Out Auto-Play Video
Autoplay video ads have made their way into more parts of the Pinterest app. Up until this point, they were only available within the “Explore” section of Pinterest. Now, they’re showing up in search results as well as users’ home feeds.
The ads, which were originally introduced in August of 2016 still play without sound, and they can be up to 30 minutes long. Pinterest recommends vertical or square videos. Advertisers will be charged by the impression, so even if a user moves past the video after one second, the advertiser still pays.
Pinterest is still getting its advertising offering established, and video was one area it was sorely lagging behind. That’s not necessarily the case with this update, especially because the ads will be a available within Pinterest’s ads manager platform.
Google Chrome Coming with Ad Blocking Technology
Google’s Chrome browser is going to come with tech that will block ads that are scored as delivering “annoying experiences.” Given that it’s only blocking certain types of ads, Google’s positioning it more as a filter than a blocker.
Publishers can understand if their sites are delivering such ads by looking into a tool Google has launched called The Ad Experience Report. Ads Google plans to block include popups, flashing ads, color changing ads and ads that force a wait before accessing content.
Google also wants publishers to get paid. Chrome will enable publishers to force users who are running ad-blocking software on top of Chrome to either disable it or pay a fee to access the content. If they turn off the software, only what is pre-installed on Chrome will block any ads deemed invasive.
“We realized solutions like ad blockers punish everybody, including publishers who develop great content and are thoughtful about the ad experience they put on their website,” stated Google’s VP of ads and commerce.
The approach was built in collaboration with brands ranging from P&G and Unilever to Facebook, The Washington Post and the Interactive Advertising Bureau. This group is called the Coalition for Better Ads.
Ad blocking is a problem, but so are intrusive ads. Google is working to find a balance, and given that it is in the advertising business, it has good reason to. The fact that this has been built in collaboration with brands, publishers and ad industry organizations, brings comfort. But this move certainly gives Google a degree of power, since it controls Chrome, the world’s most popular browser.
Google and Facebook already control the fast majority of online advertising. Now, Google is creating a filter for what is and is not acceptable.
News Quick Hits
- Facebook is testing a new button in its main Web and mobile app that allows users to place food orders for delivery or pickup. The service is connected through Delivery.com and Slice. From the button, users can see all the participating restaurants in one place. It is only available to select users.
- Facebook’s watch and scroll feature is available on mobile and desktop. Now, users can keep watching videos as they scroll through their News Feeds. They enable the feature using icons that appear on the videos. When the video is done, users briefly have the option to replay it before it disappears.
- YouTube announced that ads can now include information such as store hours, product in stock and directions. This feature will likely be put to use mostly by chain restaurants and retailers.
- Facebook is beta-testing Audience Direct, a new self-service tool that will allow publishers and advertisers to buy and sell video campaigns on publisher websites. The test is currently limited to a handful of publishers, including ESPN, Scripps Networks Interactive, A&E and others. The tool is meant to help publishers and advertisers better target video impressions since they have access to Facebook’s demographic information through the tool.
- Snapchat has enabled custom Stories that allow uses to collaborate on their creation with friends. People who are in a shared location can collaborate on a story. Users start by outlining a geographical area they want to collaborate with friends or friends of friends within. Once that’s been created, friends in a specific area will be able to contribute. Users also have the option to only share their Stories only with specific groups of friends.
- Facebook just launched Live Chat with Friends. The feature lets you and your friends watch and chat about a live stream in a private conversation thread not open to the public. Users simply invite friends into a separate area while they’re watching a broadcast. There’s also a Live With feature that lets user Profiles and Pages bring others into a live stream in a FaceTime-like interface.
- Google is expanding Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP from being just about news articles to being available for brand advertising. What this means is when a user taps on a search ad that has opted into AMP, that landing page will load much faster than a brand that has not opted in. That comes out to less than a second.
- Facebook has updated its Trending feature in a test for iPhone users. In the test, users will be presented with a carousel of stories on a topic from multiple publishers. The goal is to make it “easier to see what other news outlets are saying about each topic…”
- Instagram has not been link-friendly in the past, but now it’s changing that, at least a bit. Instagram is now allowing users the ability to share links within Instagram direct messages.
- Reddit users can now tag locations in their posts. This optional feature is powered by Foursquare’s location data. The goal is to add a bit more context to Reddit posts shared by users through their mobile devices.
- Twitter is testing features to promote live streaming content on its platform. Currently it’s allowing users to tap reminder buttons embedded in tweets. These create alerts for users to watch a live stream when it starts via push notification.
- Users with Vimeo Business accounts will now be able to take advantage of features that have been available on YouTube for some time. Vimeo is getting cards and end screens to provide viewers more information as well as drive them to external websites when applicable.
- Skype is joining the inspired-by-Snapchat train. After a huge update Skype can now integrate with third-party services like YouTube. It also has easier photo sharing and updated group chat features. Users can draw over photos and add them to Highlights, which are basically Snapchat Stories. Beyond that, Skpye will be getting chat bots. It is currently avialable on Android with updates to iPhone, Mac, tablets and Windows PCs on the way.