Nov 28, 2017: Insta Live welcomes guests, FB Messenger supports 4K photo-sharing, YouTube gets caught up in ad scandal & Jeff Bezos net worth soars.
Here’s what’s worth knowing this week:
Live, With Instagram
Get up, get dressed (with your trendiest new outfit), and get ready – to be featured on Instagram Live. On Tuesday, Instagram one-upped its Live feature – now users can request to join a live stream, and if the host accepts, can join the live stream as a guest. While going Live with friends isn’t exactly new, previously users were only able to join the live-stream if the host invited them. Now, users will find an option to request to join in the comments section of a live-stream. Tbh, everything’s better with friends.
What it means, IRL: More opportunities for audience engagement on the Instagram. For a while now, Instagram has been introducing tools that make users’ experiences more interactive (i.e. Polls, Stickers, etc.) – making it easier for brands and influencers to create engaging content in real-time (literally). This update allows followers to proactively join the conversation.
Make it work: Audience participation, FTW. In this new era of Messaging-As-A-Business-Objective (@Facebook), social media platforms continue to shift power to consumers. With Insta’s Live Guest feature update, brands should work with influencers to create an interactive conversations about relevant topics, and co-create experiences together with influencers and followers. Looking for inspo? With the holidays coming up, work with influencers to hold live-sessions where they share holiday gift ideas and encourage audience members to share as well.
Full Heart, Clear(er) Photos, Can’t Lose
Say hello to clearer photos on Facebook Messenger. On Tuesday, Facebook announced the Messaging app now supports photo-sharing at 4k resolutions, the ‘highest quality [photo] many smartphones support.’ With users exchanging more than 17 billion photos a month through the Messenger app, it’s safe to say this update will benefit many people. As Facebook steps into the content and entertainment space and people start to consume Facebook on any variety of 4k connected devices (i.e. Facebook Watch), having high-res images and video becomes a necessity.
With the update, the ability to share and repurpose influencer-generated content becomes a whole lot easier. Previously, when it came to repurposing influencer content, you had to request the originals from the influencers directly before posting – or risk compromising image quality. Now, look for the ability to share hi-res content seamlessly as soon as it’s shared.
For Your Friend Who Has Trust Issues
We don’t blame her. When considering the state of digital advertising, not much has changed over the past year – transparency and trust in programmatic advertising continues to be an issue. This week, YouTube is in the hotseat for the latest ad scandal around brand safety. The uncomfortable deets? Brand ads on YouTube being served next to content and comments that exploited children. In response, brands like Mars, Lidl, and Adidas are saying #SorryNotSorry and pulling their ads on the platform.
It’s no surprise marketers are prioritizing reach, scale, and transparency. In response, looking ahead to 2018, look for influencer marketing to continue to emerge as a go-to strategy as more platforms like Facebook and Instagram introduce tools that offer increased transparency to brand-influencer relationships, as well as new tools to scale influencer content to the masses.
Mo’ Money Less Problems
Why stop at being the richest man on Earth? Following Black Friday sales, Jeff Bezos saw his net worth rise to $100.3 billion. It’s safe to say business is booming over at Amazon – from launching virtual reality augmentation to Kindle makeovers, 2017 was a year for the books. Unlike Facebook & Google, Amazon isn’t dependent on ad revenue to survive – but you’d never know it by the sheer breadth of advertising options and programs available to brands and consumers. This Digiday roundup details 6 options – and that doesn’t even cover their word-of-mouth programs.
#Quoted
“Trust and influence now lie more with the people – families, friends, coworkers, even strangers – than with top-down elites, experts and authorities. [Today’s] an age where individuals matter more than institutions, and where customers are social influencers who define brands” – Rachel Botsman, Who Can You Trust? (2017)
Botsman has spent over a decade researching the dynamics of consumer trust, and how technology is driving the third greatest trust shift in our society – with massive implications for marketers.
Join our STC bookclub and check out the rest of Rachel’s Book here. Rumor has it, it makes a great stocking stuffer.
ICYMI
#LivingMy Best Life – What Really Matters
Less Is More – Unilever’s Use of Micro-influencers
