Amy Dugmore brings you this week’s social media marketing news, including Facebook’s sudden leap in video content, Twitter’s new Pages and Collections, and Instagram’s new Search and Explore
Facebook is now hot on the heels of YouTube for video content. Zuckerberg’s social network is expected to clock up an estimated two trillion video views in 2015, vs. YouTube’s three trillion, according to figures from Ampere Analysis.
According to Marketing Land’s Martin Beck, the soaring growth of video content on Facebook is set to make it “a more serious contender in the battle for share in the lucrative video advertising market.”
For now, Facebook is taking its step into video advertising slowly. It is not offering pre-roll ads and is only experimenting with post-roll revenue sharing partnerships with the NFL and Fox Sports.
However, that is likely to change. Content providers are already using the video platform for branding and awareness campaigns. Once Facebook harnesses the personalisation it can offer from its logged-in audience, there is likely to be no stopping it.
Twitter has been testing two new features to help users discover content about products and places: Pages and Collections. Page will take users to a dedicated page of images, video and detailed information about a specific product or place. Product Pages will also display prices and an option to buy.
The Collections feature will enable Twitter users to group product or place Pages together, curating them by theme. There are clear similarities with Pinterest in the curation feature, while the ability to buy products suggests that Twitter may be gearing up to launch an offering similar to Pinterest’s Buyable Pins.
Twitter users need to update their Twitter app for iOS or Android to make use of the new features.
A further update may be required in the coming months, as Twitter has said more new features are being tested. Amaryllis Fox, product manager, said in a blog: "This is just the beginning. In the coming months we’ll be testing more new experiences we hope give you the most personalised and relevant information about the places and things you want to explore."
As spotted by Social Times, Facebook appears to be testing a new feature that will reward Page Admins for responding to messages quickly.
The feature, which has begun appearing in some Admin panels, provides analytics on response rate and response time, which together measure the overall responsiveness of the page. According to a message within the admin panel, to continue to receive this indicator, Facebook Page Admins must respond to 90 per cent of messages within a five-minute response time. The reward? An icon posted to your page to show how responsive you are.
If the feature rolls out to all brand users, it will increase the emphasis on effective community management, encouraging brands to respond to user messages in a timely manner.
Facebook took the opportunity of the world-famous Cannes Lions festival to unveil a new concept for mobile video ads.
Chris Cox led the presentation featuring full-screen images, videos and 360-degree rotating product shots. The format certainly delighted the festival audience of ad industry professionals.
According to Kurt Wagner at Re/Load, the ads would give marketers a mini-version of their own website on Facebook’s app, taking the user “away” from the News Feed without them leaving the app.
The question is if, or rather when, the format will be developed into a full ad product. Facebook currently has no plans to test it.
Instagram has launched a revamped search feature. According to the platform’s blog, the improvements have created “a more powerful search that makes it easier to find the people, places, and tags you’re looking for.” Meanwhile, the Places search will help users to explore specific locations more quickly and easily than before.
Also new is an improved Explore page – with trending Tags and Places – that will help users to explore topics in real-time, seeing all the latest images and conversations related to their search.
The Explore page will also offer curated collections, which will be updated regularly, featuring new accounts and places on a wide range of subjects and locations.
The new updates to Explore are being rolled out in the US first, but are likely to reach the UK in the near future.
Read last week’s social media news roundup: US Politics Goes Social
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