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Facebook Unveils New Brand Pages Video Tools

Facebook has announced that new brand admin tools centered around video content will roll out by the end of the month. Facebook’s video offering and updates for brands have been fast and furious, and these tools should give marketers added flexibility and control over branded content. The updates include “secret videos,” which are specific clips accessible only via a direct URL, restricting viewer audience based on specific demographics, and the choice to allow or prohibit video embeds on third-party sites.

Why This Matters: Facebook managed to combine two of our latest priorities and concerns - video, and organic post reach and capability - into one round of updates. The updates give marketers additional control over who can see, search, and embed videos, while also encouraging a shift away from Youtube as a brand’s primary video content housing and promotion vehicle.

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Twitter Adds Easy Targeting Around Big Events

Agencies and brands spend readily on Twitter ads targeted around large major events. The platform has remained king of real-time marketing, and its integration with sporting events, TV premieres, and award shows has been integral to its place in the paid social mix for big brands. Now, Twitter is looking to make the picking and targeting around big events even easier for brands. Now, brands and advertisers with a twitter ads account can simply review a calendar of live events, and pick it off the shelf based on desired demographics  with the targeting built in. Not only will Twitter’s new offering make it easier for brands of all sizes to target, but Twitter’s methods include users searching for content around the event without necessarily tweeting.

Why This Matters: Twitter’s rule over real-time has been challenged and questioned, and this update represents a series of moves by the platform to retain its reign. But it will also make things much easier for brands, while giving access to data and targeting not previously available. Now, marketers can spend more time making sure their content around the events is relevant and engaging, and less on targeting and choosing.

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Facebook Continues Video Transformation, Tests “Live” Brand Q&As

Facebook’s relentless assault on Youtube as the dominant video publishing platform is being helped along by BumeBox, a social platform tool that can post directly to Facebook. It has been used recently by brands like iHeartRadio and Sony to promote celebrity projects, by hosting real-time Q&A sessions on Facebook through the platform. Celebrities respond to fan questions (based on popularity and likes, not chronological order) with short video clips instead of text answers, giving fans multiple chances to share short pieces of content. The uploads also contain a custom branded logo, and can be saved and uploaded to the brand’s page for later viewing.

Why This Matters: BumeBox is not an official platform feature rollout, but it does add a very distinct weapon to the social giant’s arsenal: brand/influencer real time video. Twitter’s acquisition of Periscope cemented them as the main player in real-time marketing, but you can bet Facebook wants a piece of that action. Stay tuned.

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Burberry Garners 100 Million Impressions On Snapchat, Periscope

Brands and marketers have approached Snapchat, and more recently Periscope, with varying degrees of excitement and hesitation. Both apps represent newer and distinct mobile behaviors, and where fleeting short form content and live streaming fit into brands content mix can be daunting. The benefits of reaching engaged, more organic feeling applications (and the tech savvy millennials that dominate them) are many - confidence in impact on brand KPIs is still lacking. But legendary fashion stalwart Burberry might change that. In a recent case study, the brand revealed they saw over 100 million impressions through Snapchat and Periscope in one quarter. The culprit was likely the posting and broadcast of the quarter’s biggest moments: a fashion show in LA, and the unveiling of their new menswear. The brand’s new dedication to mobile sales and engagement was a deciding factor in its Snapchat and Periscope adoption, and the sheer number of impressions proved it to be a smart bet.

Why This Matters: Both Snapchat and Periscope have had an even harder uphill battle with brand adoption than other straight forward platforms, like Instagram. The new consumer behaviors occurring within both apps mean they can be seen as testing grounds instead of investments. But Burberry’s first quarter impressions report tell a different story - brands with meaningful stories to tell can make a real splash in the increasingly vital mobile space. 

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Facebook Teases “Floating” Video Player

Twitter has never been shy taking cues from it’s platform peers, so when users began asking for floating video players (a la Twitter, Youtube) social giant had to take action. Facebook will introduce a button to its native video player that minimizes and places the video to the side of the window, and follows the user as they scroll and browse. Facebook also mentioned this week that they are actively tracking which videos users are viewing, and incorporating the data when serving ads. Video continues to be a primary focus for Facebook’s evolution.

Why This Matters: Along with a highly publicized entry into the media publishing space, video domination is Facebook’s new mission. It is one of the only platforms with the reach to challenge Youtube - and recent updates have made that intention very clear. This feature would also likely increase the view time of served video ads, as well as improve the multi-tasking content browsing users are comfortable with.

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Video Previews Now Playing On Twitter’s App Download Ads

Twitter’s “Download” button has helped immensely to drive huge sales and awareness for developers advertising on the platform. Despite this, there was an immediately apparent issue. Other CTA buttons on Twitter’s ad products are naturally much easier for consumers to decide on. Some text and an image done well can go a long way in convincing someone to click to a website - but what about downloading an app? In order to bridge the disconnect, Twitter has introduced a video preview that plays within the ad card, which serves as a short trailer for the game. Twitter hopes the new format can help drive even better downloads for app developers who depend heavily on the ad product for new users, including heavy hitters like Lyft.

Why This Matters: Brands and marketers rely on apps often to connect with consumers and fans around products, lifestyle, contests, sponsored events and more. For the hardcore brand advocates, a download is an easy call. But for other consumer targets, the task of effectively marketing your marketing tool, can be a huge headache. The video preview allows brands and marketers a much more powerful way to drive downloads quickly, as well as another creative space to grab consumer attention.

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Instagram Goes “Viral” By Introducing Trending Content

As users explore Instagram content outside their feed with a desired tag, content is quickly buried as fresh batches of content rises to the surface. But outside of their specific searches, there’s been no real “news” function to the photo sharing platform - until now. Instagram will unveil a revamped explore tab that features trending content in real time. In addition to trending tags, locations users have checked into will appear as “trending places.” The explore tab can break out trending content into those separate views, or as a consolidated trending snapshot.

Why This Matters: By revamping their explore tab, Instagram has done more than increase its usefulness for users. The photo sharing app is now officially in the trending news business, taking a page from twitter and using their location services as a point of differentiation. For brands, this means that the same trend-jumping social media creation that’s prevalent on Twitter now holds value on Instagram. It also means that the users perusing content will have a powerful explore tab to keep them scrolling, which brings additional value as brands make use of its newer flexible advertising options.

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Facebook Addresses Organic Reach Concerns, Allows Users To “See First”

With over 94% of revenue coming from advertisers, Facebook’s success is largely due to its endless firehose of targeting data, allowing marketers to reach their ideal consumers with content, deals and more. The platform has unveiled feature after feature to boost the power of their paid ad offerings - but has much less frequently updated the way brands perform through organic posting. Largely in response to these qualms, Facebook will begin giving users the ability to prioritize the posts that show up in their news feed. When looking at a page, a user can click “See First” under the “Follow” tab. This will allow for greatly improved visibility on posts from pages that matter - from friends and family to their favorite brands.

Why This Matters: Social media marketers user and appreciate the power of paid media on Facebook, and enjoy access to targeting data galore. But the organic connection between brands and their followings has been diluted over time as ads and bloated news feeds dilute the signal to noise ratio. Now, brands will have be ability to not only be liked, but to be “seen first” by their follower base, leading to increased engagement and increased incentive to make great organic Facebook content.