the social scoop - w2o group · here. this new update brings changes to facebook’s algorithm, in...
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THE SOCIAL SCOOPJuly 2015
WHAT YOU MISSED IN JULY, 2015
• ‘See First:’ Good for users. Bad for marketers?
• The Floating Video Has Arrived
• Taking Another Step Forward In E-commerce
Snapchat
• Talk About Updates!
• ‘Stories’ Has a Whole New Look
• Are Your Tweets being Indexed on Google?
• Say Hello to Auto-Expanded Link Previews
• What’s With All the White Space?
YouTube
• Mobile Videos Are Lookin’ Good
FACEBOOK’S ‘SEE FIRST’: GOOD FOR USERS, BAD FOR
MARKETERS?
WHAT IT IS
Last month, Facebook announced it was launching a new feature called ‘See First’ in
which users can select who/what they want to see at the top of their News Feed. The
concern for brands, is will your Page be on users’ ‘See First’ list?
HOW IT WORKS
• 'See First' allows users to prioritize up to 30 Pages, friends, and/or groups they
want to see first in their News Feed
• Everything is set up through the user's News Feed preferences, where they can:
• 'prioritize who to see first’
• 'unfollow people to hide their posts‘
• 'reconnect with people you unfollowed’
• 'discover new pages'
Get the deets
WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS
While this new feature is great news for consumers, it’s not so great for brands.
Quality of content is always key, but brands will have to revisit their social strategies
and step up their game in order to avoid falling by the wayside. Getting content in front
of your followers will be the challenge, but once your brand has made it into your
followers ‘See First’ list, you’ll know that your content is impacting the right people.
While brands cannot tell their followers to list their Pages as ‘See First,’ there is a twist
here. This new update brings changes to Facebook’s algorithm, in which Facebook’s
“Discover New Pages” will choose similar pages as suggestions for users based on
the Pages they have liked. Brand recommendations are based on user experience
now, so targeting the “Discover New Pages” section should be part of your strategy.
FACEBOOK: THE FLOATING VIDEO HAS ARRIVED
WHAT IT IS
Video, on video, on video. Facebook understands the power of the
video and they're letting everyone know. This month Facebook is
testing out a new feature that allows users to detach a video from
their News Feed and move it to a different location within the browser
to view while scrolling through other content or to save for later. This
is only available on desktop as the feature rolls out to some users.
HOW IT WORKS
• The option will be built into the video player so that when users
click the icon, the video will detach from it’s original source, and
allow users to drag the video to a different/preferred section of the
website browser
• Users select the small box, within the larger box on the
video screen in the lower right corner to detach the video
and enable it’s relocation
Get the deets
WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS
Users can watch more videos at one time, as they can continue to
scroll through their News Feed, and pull out the videos they want to
reserve for later viewing. This feature encourages users to view longer
and remain on Facebook “video” for all of their video viewing needs, so
the more video content you produce and share on Facebook, the great
chance you have that consumers are watching all of your content.
FACEBOOK: TAKING ANOTHER STEP FORWARD IN E-COMMERCE
WHAT IT IS
Facebook is building shops within Facebook Pages that allow
brands to showcase their products directly on their Page. This is
another part of Facebook’s push into e-commerce, which also
includes money transferring through Facebook Messenger and the
buy-button, introduced earlier this year to increase the online
experience, from discovery to purchasing on one platform.
HOW IT WORKS
Within the “Shop” section of the Facebook Pages, businesses now
have the opportunity to showcase their products directly on the
Page. Users can make their purchases without leaving the site.
Get the deets
WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS
This new feature gives brands a secondary platform to connect
with its primary audience. Users spend roughly 80% of their time
on mobile apps, smartphones, tablets, or computers and
Facebook has created a way for brands to utilize this by putting
buying options on the Pages platforms.
SNAPCHAT: TALK ABOUT UPDATES!
WHAT IT IS
Snapchat is making a LOT of moves (at once)! The days of 'hold-to-view' is a
thing of the past, users can now "Add Nearby" friends (in bulk) to their snap
contacts when in close proximity of others, and a new two-factor security
authentication feature makes it harder to hack another user’s account.
HOW IT WORKS
• Viewing: Users can simply tap on a snap they want to view without
holding down on the picture for the entire viewing time. Users can also tap
through snaps or swipe down to close the story.
• “Add Nearby:” Under ‘Add Friends’ there is now a tab called ‘Add
Nearby,’ which allows users to add contacts (either one at a time or in
bulk) who are in close proximity to that user.
• Security: The newest security feature can be enabled from the ‘Login
Verification’ menu in the app’s main settings.
Get the deets
WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS
This new update makes it easier for users to view content on Snapchat. Again,
content is key – advertisers don’t want to worry about their ads being skipped
over because users can tap through or swipe down to exit their content without
actually viewing it. The ‘Add Nearby’ is a nice opportunity for brands that are
using Snapchat to connect with users who are in close proximity to their
businesses, and in return, users can discover brands that are on the platform
that they may not have realized have a Snapchat presence. Additionally, the new
security authentication should be built into a brands social strategy and required
for all community managers and admins to keep accounts safe and hack-free.
SNAPCHAT: ‘STORIES’ HAS A NEW LOOK
WHAT IT IS
Snapchat has redesigned their Stories section, prioritizing
content from media partners over pictures from a friends.
Get the deets:
WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS
Now media content very hard to ignore. Snapchat is continuing
to find ways to monetize its app and this is their way of boosting
engagement without disrupting the activity from it’s core user
base. Surfacing content in more areas of the app will help with
ad revenue (more viewing opportunity) as well as boost user
interest in branded content.
HOW IT WORKS
• When users open Snapchat, the updated Stories ‘tab’
features (in this order) personal stories, ‘Discover,” ‘Live,’
recent updates and all stories
• Users will still see friend content, but they will have to
scroll down to find it
• “Discover’ content still exists on its own tab
TWITTER: ARE YOUR TWEETS BEING INDEXED ON GOOGLE?
WHAT IT IS
In May, Google and Twitter announced their partnership,
enabling tweets to show up in Google search results on mobile
devices. Since then:
• Stone Temple conducted a study that looked at several
factors which may be influential in Google’s tweet selection
• The data showed that tweets from profiles with higher
follower counts were appearing more often in Google search
results
• Tweets with higher social authority based on Followerwonk’s
metrics for social authority also showed up more often
Get the deetsWHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS
Of course it wasn’t going to be as simple as just tweeting and
having your content show up on the top of Google search
results! Google has made it clear that a brand’s Twitter
presence and authority will provide major value to SEO. It also
means that handles with a lower following and less authority
may still be missing out on having their tweets indexed.
TWITTER: SAY HELLO TO AUTO-EXPANDED LINK PREVIEWS
WHAT IT IS
Twitter continues to strive for visual excellence, rolling
out auto-expanded link previews (to a small amount of
users) that will show content previews automatically for
links provided in tweets.
Get the deets:
WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS
Brands have a higher chance of engagement when
posts include a large image. Tweets with auto-
extended links will allow brands to tweet out richer
content that’s more visually appealing to followers, but
keep in mind, it’s going to cost you!
HOW IT WORKS
• Expanded previews are a new Twitter card
opportunity that the platform has rolled out to
advertisers (Summary card with a large image)
• Advertisers must enable the card in order for users to
see the auto-expanded links
TWITTER: WHAT’S WITH ALL THE WHITE SPACE?
WHAT IT IS:
Twitter has removed wallpapers from users' home and
notification timelines – everything is white. Users can
only see background images while logged-in and on
public pages (i.e., Tweet pages, list pages, and
collection pages).
Get the deets
WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS
By removing the ability to have user's change their
background, Twitter has taken away the uniqueness
of each user. They have essentially unbranded
everyone – so once again, your content is key. There
is nothing else that drives people to your Twitter Page
at this point, other then your content and brand
interest.
NEW
OLD
YOUTUBE: MOBILE VIDEOS ARE LOOKIN’ GOOD
WHAT IT IS:
YouTube is focused on ‘mobile, mobile, mobile’ and their
latest update reflects just that. They have redesigned their
mobile app to optimize a vertical video mode to display
better content. In addition, they have streamlined their app
to include tabs that focus on a user’s homepage, videos
users subscribe to, and account pages.
Get the deets
WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS
More than half of YouTube’s views come from mobile devices.
With this new update, brands have the opportunity to engage
more users with mobile friendly versions of their videos, keeping
users on their channels longer from their mobile phones, and
giving them the freedom to continue to explore brand channels
directly from their mobile device. YouTube (and the rest of the
video sharing world) has discovered that vertical videos better fit
the aspect ratio of smartphones and now brands have the ability
to utilize this to optimize video viewing. But just keep in mind –
you’ll have to size your videos to ensure they match the new
mobile sharing specs.
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
Chantelle
Patel
Silicon Valley
Contact the Media & Engagement team with
upcoming client projects & questions:
