This Week in Social and Digital (Week of July 17)
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.
Snapchat Gets New User Features and Tools for Advertisers
Snap Inc. has been busy. It introduced new features for users and advertisers alike.
For users, a new feature called Multi-Snap will allow them to record up to six 10-second Snaps at one time. The feature works by holding down the capture button even after a Snap has completed. From there users can edit their Snaps as they see fit with the normal feature set. The second feature is Tint Brush, which lets users change the colors of and add colors to objects in Snaps.
Snapchat has been under the gun from Facebook, and these features allow Snapchat to continue to be an excellent creative canvas for sharing content with friends. While it may not have the size of a Facebook, it certainly has the creativity.
The next set of features is aimed squarely at advertisers. It now has a browser-based ad creation tool called Snap Publisher that allows anyone with access to Snap Ads Manager to create and implement vertical video Snap Ads.
The tool allows any photo or video to be turned into a a video ad, and if an advertiser doesn’t have assets, Snapchat has 13 templates with generic photos and videos that can be customized as needed. Basically, the tool allows advertisers to easily crop content to fit the platform, which is certainly welcomed by many. But anything that is templated or self-serve will almost certainly lack in quality and stopping power. Still, Snapchat’s had issues in bring advertisers onto the platform.
This makes it more approachable as advertisers warm to the idea of using Snapchat to reach their audiences.
Facebook Moving to Autoplay Ads with Sound On
Facebook may be on the verge of making drastic changes to the way it serves up video ads in its mobile app.
A handful of users have been seeing messages that say:
"Now, it's easier to enjoy video. We're always working to make Facebook a better place to watch videos. That's why videos now play with sound on automatically. Use the volume icon on any video to make the sound right for you.”
Users will have the option in their settings to turn off autoplay sound, but the move is not a huge surprise. Facebook’s hinted in the past that autoplay with sound may be coming.
This could clearly be a major annoyance for users, but given Facebook’s record in the past, it has few qualms in subjecting users to ad experiences they may not like. Users were supposed to be angered by autoplay video ads, and today, users at the very least tolerate them. In addition, they’re some of the best performing ads on the platform.
Facebook’s good at feeding its users experiences they may not prefer, and autoplay with sound may be just another example of such a rollout.
There’s one reason Facebook would do this: Snapchat. Snap Ads play with sound because they’re interspersed in Stories that are normally viewed with the sound on. Snapchat has an advantage there, so Facebook sees this move as another way to compete, and from an advertiser standpoint, sound is always better than no sound.
News Quick Hits
- LinkedIn decided to join the rest of the Internet with the introduction of native video uploads through its mobile app. The videos, which autoplay with the sound off, are being tested with a select group of users. The capability will be unrolled to all users “in the coming months.” Videos can run up to 10 minutes, but LinkedIn is recommending videos stick to a length between 30 seconds and five minutes. Beyond that, horizontal and vertical videos are supported. Other social networks have made video a primary initiative, but one thing that sets LinkedIn apart is it will give information on viewers’ companies and job titles, which could prove to be a valuable data set in video targeting.
- Messaging apps are all the rage, and it seems everyone has one… except Amazon. Well, that may be no more as it appears Amazon has a new app in the works called Anytime, a standalone messaging app that will let users chat via text, video and photos with filters. Users will also be able to play games, play music and order food. The app would enable users to connect with businesses and would likely tie in closely with Amazon’s ecommerce business.
- Alphabet is launching a tailored feed of news, entertainment, content based on searches, YouTube videos and other personal information in Google search results. The aim is to make Google search feel more proactive and personal to the user. The custom content will display on the launch page of Google’s mobile apps, which is a significant move as the simplistic nature of that homepage has been considered hallowed ground since Google’s founding.
- It looks like Facebook’s plans to allow publishers to sell subscriptions to Instant Articles is getting closer to fruition. Publishers will soon be able to set up paywalls to content they publish using Instant Articles. Users will still have the ability to sell ads against all content, including the content that is behind a paywall. Publishers have been disappointed in Instant Articles’ ability to drive revenue, so this is an olive branch to those publishers to encourage them to continue publishing content to Facebook’s proprietary product. In addition, Instant Articles have been shown to generate 20% to 50% more traffic than articles that drive users to the mobile web, so there’s certainly reasons in addition to these new monetization options to continue to implement Instant Articles.