THE SOCIAL SCOOPAugust 2015

WHAT YOU MISSED IN JULY, 2015Facebook

• Auto-play video ads beyond Facebook

• “Donate Now” button for nonprofits

• GIFs are allowed in (some) ads and Page posts

• ‘Live’ for ‘Facebook Mentions’

• Monetizing Messenger and WhatsApp

• “M” will be your new best friend

Instagram

• Ads API has been activated

• Instagram and Hootsuite come together

Snapchat

• New Data-Saving Feature

Twitter

• Keeping users engaged with new DM notifications

• Platform offers promoted tweets & videos beyond

Twitter

• Testing, testing: funky new photo and video edition

tools

YouTube

• Google wants more control over ads

FACEBOOK: AUTO-PLAY ADS EXPAND BEYOND THE NEWS FEED

WHAT IT IS

Facebook’s video ads will now start appearing beyond the

News Feed. In April last year, Facebook launched

Audience Network, an ad platform to rival Google’s

AdMob and Twitter’s MoPub. It has evolved since then to

include auto-play video ads, which has now been made

available to 3rd party publishers that plug into its mobile

ad network.

Get the deets

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

With this opportunity, brands will be able to have

lucrative ads that are available to their users across

different channels (at a price). In addition, they won’t

have to worry about users feeling overwhelmed by

noise because it reduces the need for multiple types of

ads on the platform itself.

FACEBOOK: “DONATE NOW” BUTTON AVAILABLE TO NONPROFITS

WHAT IT IS

Facebook added a “Donate Now” Button to their call-to-action

options for nonprofits to include on their company Facebook

Pages and link ads.

Get the deets

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

This is wonderful opportunity for nonprofits who are active

on Facebook to further engage with supporters. The new

call-to-action button also gives donors direct access to a

donation page, which is a step forward for nonprofits to gain

more charitable contributions.

HOW IT WORKS

All nonprofits have the opportunity to select the “Donate Now”

option on their Facebook call-to-action list, making it easier for

donators and supports to give back directly from Facebook.

When users click on the button, a disclosure note will appear that

confirms that this donation is not endorsed by or affiliated with

Facebook. Should the user choose to continue, they will be

directed to a donation page from the 3rd party site.

FACEBOOK: GIFS ARE COMING TO ADS AND PAGE POSTS (MAYBE)

WHAT IT IS

Facebook started supporting GIF media in user posts back in May,

but has recently starting rolling out GIF ads to brands/businesses.

Get the deets

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

Any new capability to advertise, is a new opportunity for

brands. GIFs are very loud and in your face, so you have to

be careful about the message you're sharing so that it's not

too "annoying" to users. If Facebook receives negative

feedback about GIFs in News Feeds (hindering the user

experience), they will be removed. But they are exciting and

open a new door to creative adverting, something that all

brands should be interested in exploring.

HOW IT WORKS

GIFs are being tested for posts and boosted posts for a small

percentage of Facebook Pages. They will not be supported as

Facebook ads in the sidebar, but only as part of a brand's News

Feed post. Facebook is evaluating the user experience with GIFs

before rolling it out to all Pages – which it may decide to pull them

altogether and not move forward with this new roll out.

FACEBOOK: ‘LIVE’ IS A STEP UP IN INFLUENCER ACTIVATION

WHAT IT IS

Facebook recently revealed ‘Live’ for Facebook Mentions, a new way for verified public figures

to share live video with their fans directly from their smart phone. With this new feature, public

figures can take their fans/the Facebook audience behind the scenes, host live video chats,

share announcements, and then some.

HOW IT WORKS

It’s fairly simple to start a live broadcast from Facebook Mentions

• Click on the Post and then select the ‘Live’ video button.

• Add a description to your broadcast (this is very important so that fans

understand what you’re sharing), then select ‘Go Live.’

• Once the broadcast is up, you will be able to see how many viewers are tuning

in and you can comment directly on the stream to questions as they surface.

Should you want to hide the comments, you can do so.

• To end your broadcast, select the ‘Stop’ button

• Once your video has ended, it is automatically saved to your Facebook Page for

fans to view later. If you choose to remove the ‘Live’ video content, that is an

option as well.

Get the deets

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

While brands themselves are not public figures, it’s a great opportunity for those that

you endorse and partner with to optimize on ‘behind the scenes’ moments at your

branded event, visits to the office, photo shoots, during campaign awareness

initiatives, etc. Brands should keep ‘Live’ in the back of their social strategies when

partnering with public figures to help encourage engagement and promote every

branded opportunity. Note – this feature is only available to verified public figures.

FACEBOOK: “M” WILL BE YOUR NEW BFF

WHAT IT IS

Facebook introduced “M” to select users in San Francisco, a virtual

assistant that will roll out as a feature within the Messenger app. “M” can

make you a dinner reservation, purchase a gift for your best friend, and

book your last minute weekend getaways. In addition to using artificial

intelligence, “M” is backed by actual people, dubbed “M” Trainers.

HOW IT WORKS

Facebook users can tap the small button at the bottom of the Messenger

app to send a message to “M.” The software will decode the message

and ask follow-up questions to the user in the message thread, and

send updates to the user as the task is completed. Users will not know if

a human or software has helped them. “M” has no gender. Right now

“M” doesn’t pull in social data from Facebook to help complete the tasks,

but Facebook reps say this could change.

Get the deets

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

It’s no surprise that Facebook plans to capitalize on this one day soon,

but how can it help businesses? If Facebook sees that one

business/brand is getting a bunch of inbound requests, it can partner with

the business to provide a more direct service over the Messenger app.

Businesses could have a presence inside the app directly, boosting the

transparency in customer service with consumers. Might not be a bad

idea to start thinking about revamping your customer service strategy on

social media…

INSTAGRAM: ADS API HAS BEEN ACTIVATED

WHAT IT IS

Instagram officially switch on its advertising API and now it's ready

for business. In most recent times, brands were required to contact

an Instagram marketing sales representative directly in order to

advertise on Instagram - which was also very rare to get approved

and only those willing to spend an arm & a leg were investing.

HOW IT WORKS

Starting soon, (all) marketers will be able to build Instagram ads and

promote their posts on the platform. Instagram campaigns will launch

alongside other digital ads and brands will be able to cross-promote,

plan and monitor their Instagram activity (including photos that aren't

promoted through paid) using third-party platforms.

Get the deets

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

Brands can now use the same advanced campaign tools that they are

using to monitor engagement on Facebook, which is a huge move in the

right direction for Instagram. Brands will be able to deliver relevance-

driven ad campaigns that increase ROI by reaching/targeting the right

audiences.

INSTAGRAM: THINKING OUTSIDE THE SQUARE

WHAT IT ISInstagram announced that in addition to square posts, users can also

share photos and videos in portrait and landscape orientations. Square

format has always made it a bit tricky for users to confine their photo into

the strict space orientation, prying users to download other apps that

“insta-size” photos and videos, to then upload to Instagram. They’ve now

moved away from this, because while square made them a bit of who

they are, they know that the visual story and freedom to express

creativity should come first.

HOW IT WORKS

When selecting a photo or video, users can tap the format icon to

adjust the orientation of the frame to portrait or landscape. Once the

photo is live, the full sized version of the image will appear in the feed

as planned.

Get the deetsWHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

With this new visual freedom, all users (brands included) can pay less attention

to the size and cropping of their images, and focus more on the actual story that

is to be told through imagery. With video too being more widescreen for viewers,

this opens up a new door to cinematography on the platform. Additionally,

brands will have more freedom with the orientation of their Instagram ads, which

will enable them to capture more of the overall message they aim to convey.

INSTAGRAM: WHAT’S THIS PARTNERSHIP WITH HOOTSUITE?

WHAT IT IS

Instagram is quite against letting users schedule posts ahead of

time, but Hootsuite rolled out a feature that almost lets users

schedule content to be posted to the social platform.

HOW IT WORKS

Instagram doesn't allow for uploading via an API, which is why it's

very challenging for users to schedule content. What Hootsuite has

done is allow users to schedule content for Instagram, however it is

not published from Hootsuite - it is essentially a reminder to post

content at a set time and Hootsuite will send a push notification to

the user at the time they have set to schedule the content and they

will be directed to he Instagram app (the image carries over too) to

publish the post manually.

Get the deetsWHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

The feature is great for brands because it allows marketing teams

to effectively share the same Instagram account (with multiple team

members running the channel), as well as managing Instagram

campaigns in a more organized manner within a scheduling tool.

With everything under one dashboard, you can better schedule,

view and engage on social media.

SNAPCHAT: DATA-SAVING MODE FOR THOSE ON A BUDGET +

PLACEABLE EMOJI!WHAT IT ISSnapchat’s newest feature allows users to save on data usage by turning on a “Travel

Mode” setting. When enabled, all Snapchats, Stories and Discoveries will only be

available if users tap them, rather than automatically loading them when users open

the app. This is just another way for the platform to connect and appeal to their

younger audience who may be on data plans. Additionally, Snapchat also introduced

placeable emoji, making it easier to users to add emoji to their snap stories.

HOW IT WORKS• Travel Mode

• Users can go to their ‘Settings’ tab and select ‘Manage’

• Under ‘Travel Mode’, users can choose to turn on/off the

feature to allow Snaps to automatically load

• Placeable Emoji

• Users can tap the post-it note button towards the top right of the snap

screen, which will bring up all of the available emoji to be placed

directly onto the snap. Emoji can be resized and dragged to all

directions of the screen and there is no limit to the number of emoji

that you use.

Get the deets

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDSThe happier people are with Snapchat, the more time they will spend on the platform and

the more interested they will be in the content that is being shared. If your brand has a

Snapchat or plans to add a Snapchat account to your social strategy in the near future,

consider this as another opportunity to engage with fans who are using the platform.

Keeping users happy will entice them to spend more time exploring Stories and hopefully

following brands on the platform, which is good for you. Additionally, with the new emoji,

brands can be more conversational and creative with content sharing on the platform.

TWITTER: KEEPING USERS ENGAGED WITH WEB NOTIFICATIONS

FOR DM

WHAT IT IS

Twitter introduced a web notification feature, alerting users via a

pop up window in the upper right hand corner of the desktop

screen, that they’ve received a Direct Message (DM) on Twitter.

HOW IT WORKS

Upon clicking on the pop-up notification, the DM will open and let

users read and reply directly, even when they’re in a different

screen on their web browser. The company also noted that they’re

making a change to their mobile app for Android, making it easier

to DM people.

Get the deets

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

This update is Twitter’s attempt at keeping users engaged on Twitter.

Brands will benefit from this notification window because it is a way

of staying on top of DM messages from followers, so as not to miss a

private message when community managers are not directly

monitoring Twitter at that time.

TWITTER: PLATFORM OFFERS PROMOTED TWEETS, VIDEOS &

MORE, BEYOND TWITTER WHAT IT ISTwitter is offering marketers the opportunity to advertise their promoted tweets and videos with

ads that appear in other apps. This update comes in conjunction with Twitter’s purchase of

MoPub last year, which allowed marketers to buy mobile app-install and app-engagement ads

on Twitter.

HOW IT WORKSTwitter marketers can use MoPub’s network of thousands of apps to extend their promoted

tweets and videos beyond Twitter during campaigns, using new ad formats as well which

include video, native ads and banners. Marketers can participate in real-time bidding to buy

promoted tweet and video ad inventory through MoPub. This new landscape allows for

marketers to reach their audience outside of Twitter, but directs them back to their stream for

additional messaging, content, and amplification.

Get the deetsWHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDSCurrently, when marketers run an ad on Twitter, they reach an audience of 300 million monthly active

users – with the new offering, they can potentially reach over 700 million users by running the ad

through the Audience Platform. Twitter has made this process very easy for marketers – all a brand

needs to do is provide one image or video and then Twitter will handle the placement of the ads on

the back-end. While this is just a beta-test right now, the ability to reach users outside of Twitter

allows brands to market more strategically and reach their audience in many more avenues. This will

also force brands to prioritize a strong mobile approach to paid advertising to reap these benefits. As

the testing continues, additional apps will join and open up the market visibility to reach the right

users in corresponding apps.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR USERSWhen a marketer promotes a tweet or video on an app in MoPub’s network, the user will be able to

see the promoted tweet and video and then can retweet that promoted tweet by clicking on the tweet

within the app, which takes the user back to Twitter to actually share the update from their account.

TWITTER: TESTING, TESTING…FUNKY NEW PHOTO & VIDEO

EDITING TOOLS

HOW IT WORKS

Photo editing is limited to filters and cropping (for all users) right now, but

it looks like stickers, doodles, text and more could be coming soon. It isn’t

clear if this new Twitter update will be a standalone app or something that

users will see rolling out to their Twitter accounts.

Get the deets

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

We already know that photo and video updates are rolling out left and right, and

we also know that people love filters and stickers. This move from Twitter is a

great way to keep people engaged on the platform, instead of opening their

photo sharing apps for this type of content sharing. This would be a solid

opportunity for brands to engage with their audiences in more unique ways via

multimedia sharing, especially customized content for different (targeted)

audiences during campaigns or events. More to come on this!

WHAT IT IS

Twitter is testing funky new photo and video editing tools in an effort to

give users more creativity with their media sharing. A few celebrities (who

were present at MTV’s VMA Awards) appear to have access to the

unreleased editing feature from Twitter.

YOUTUBE: GOOGLE WANTS MORE CONTROL OVER ADS

HOW IT WORKS

Advertisers, who previously purchased YouTube ads through the

software's programmatic network, will now need to go through Google's

AdWords or DoubleClick Bid Manager. DoubleClick AD exchange goes

through Google's third-party ad tech firms, and Google decided they want

more control over how advertisers buy YouTube ads.

Get the deets

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

Google's intention of gaining a tighter grip on how marketers advertise on

YouTube will allow the social mogul to invest more in creating the most effective

advertising and buying experiences possible. The problem here for marketers is

that ad-tech vendors depend on YouTube's technology to power ad campaigns

for brands and agencies and in return of this, brands get better metric data on

how well their ads are performing on Google. Now the third-party tech vendors

will have to look elsewhere to find video inventory.

WHAT IT IS

Google wants more control over how marketers buy ads on YouTube,

revealing in early August that they will remove ad buying through

DoubleClick Ad Exchange (or AdX) before the end of the year.

WHAT ARE YOUR NEXT STEPS?

Michael

Brito

Silicon Valley

Naimul

Huq

Austin

Jess

Vanner

New York

Alysse

Esmail

Silicon Valley

Samantha

Hershman

New York

Matthew

Heinrichs

Silicon Valley

Jenny

Laurello

Washington DC

Colleen

Hartman

Austin

DL-INT-W2O-SharedMediaTeam@w2ogroup.comContact the Media & Engagement team with upcoming client projects & questions: