Socialize: January 2014

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Update on Social Channels What’s New / What’s Different January, 2014

Transcript of Socialize: January 2014

Page 1: Socialize: January 2014

Update on Social Channels What’s New / What’s Different

January, 2014

Page 2: Socialize: January 2014

Facebook Set to Eliminate Sponsored Ads

Why This Matters to Your Clients: • If your clients currently sponsor story advertisements on Facebook, ensure that they understand that their money

will be transitioning to other advertising formats starting April 9. • Brands may way want to wait before purchasing a Sponsored Story advertisement, not only because they will

soon retire, but the algorithm of Facebook will most likely change once the transition takes place. Your client may want to see how affective these changes are before putting money towards something that may not have quick results.

Link: http://w.cg/LGtHTv

• Facebook announced that it will be retiring Sponsored Story advertisements beginning April 9

• Sponsored stories show users when their friends interact with a sponsored Page, app or event

• Advertisers can buy Sponsored Stories up until April 9

• After this point, all existing Sponsored Story ads will transition into other ad formats (i.e. – turn into a Page Like ad)

• The social context element (where one or more of your friends are featured in the ad) of a Sponsored Story ad will become a commonplace in all Facebook advertisements

• Facebook has said that the social context will become a larger part of the advertising strategy rolling out in June

• Page post and Page like ads will come with social context by default

Contents are proprietary and confidential.

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Facebook Improves Ad Targeting

Why This Matters to Your Clients: • Advertisers can now cost-effectively target Facebook users based on their behaviors, creating a more

defined target audience and increasing the amount of people that an advertiser can reach with each advertising purpose.

• This will also increase the amount of fans that purchase products and stay on your page, depending on the advertising message and purpose.

Link: http://w.cg/1fcdG0X

• Facebook announced a number of changes to its Ads API program, improving the logic of its ad targeting strategy

• When advertisers select two or more audiences to target, Facebook will now define those parameters to more specific target audiences, rather than making them two separate targets

• I.e. – “parents” and “photography” will now be “parents who like photography” rather than those who are parents and those who are interested in photography

• Facebook also has improved demographic targeting for a user’s workplace, education, job title, relationship status and life events

• Facebook began prompting users to add life events to their timelines, with the recently understood motive to be advertising

Contents are proprietary and confidential.

Page 4: Socialize: January 2014

Facebook Launches “Trending” Bar

Why This Matters to Your Clients: • The new feature will allow users to discover the best and most relevant content across Facebook. If your

brand is in the news or has engaging content that is heavily shared. Stay alert to see if your brand is trending.

• Will help boost engagement on the channel, causing users to stay on Facebook longer and explore brand Pages.

Link: http://w.cg/1mt3ljq

• Facebook launched a trending feature on the right side of the homepage, showing users poplar topics and hashtags that are being discussed on the site

• Allows users to tap into topics that are gaining buzz

• Surface interesting and relevant conversations

• Custom and tailored based on a user’s interest

• Stories will stem from people and Pages that friends have shared with an individual user or shared them as public

• Tending is not currently available for all users

• Being tested on mobile, but is not yet available

Contents are proprietary and confidential.

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Facebook Discourages Text-Only Posts

Why This Matters to Your Clients: • Community managers understand that photos, videos and rich links receive the most engagement from fans and

this push from Facebook makes it almost essential for brands to be posting more engaging content if they want to keep their fan base and numbers high.

• Brands should be using more Instagram pictures from fans, which not only offer a wider variety of FREE images and fan involvement, but also knowing that these photos will gain heavy engagement.

• A decrease in engagement for status-update posts can mean an increase in engagement for richer, visual content, which is important for community managers to consider when creating content.

Link: http://w.cg/LHGULO

• Facebook announced that they will be tweaking the algorithm that controls what users see in the Newsfeed, this time giving less prominence to text-only updates from brand pages

• The site understands that status updates from brands do not get the same type of engagement as photos and links, which is why they discourage text-only update

• Facebook has been running tests to see which types of posts gained the highest level of engagement so that they can focus more on what keeps fans interested

• When users see status updates from other users, they tend to write more updates themselves. When users see status updates from brands, the correlation did not add up

• It is suggested that brands focus more on Instagram photos, which will benefit in the Newsfeed algorithm, largely in part to the fact that Facebook owns Instagram

Contents are proprietary and confidential.

Page 6: Socialize: January 2014

Pinterest Experimenting with GIFS

Why This Matters to Your Clients: • Fans want to see visually stimulating images, especially those that are customized and relevant. With

the use of GIFs, brands can upload animated images to their Pinterest boards, attracting more fans and visitors, increasing engagement.

• This presents an opportunity to be creative and unique during campaigns, holidays, etc.

Link: http://w.cg/1f7sXSw

• Pinterest is introducing GIFs in a recent attempt to experiment with the feature

• A select few Pinterest users are able to pin GIFs to their boards

• Anyone who visits that board will be able to play or pause the GIF with a small play button that is located in the bottom left corner of the image

• Currently, when users upload a GIF, only a still image appears and visitors have to go back to the original source in order to view the animated image

• It is unclear whether or not the ability to upload animated GIFs will roll out to all users and when this will occur

Contents are proprietary and confidential.

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Twitter Redesigned Homepage, Keeping Mobile in Mind

Link: http://w.cg/1mOvd1z

• Twitter has redesigned their homepage for the desktop version of their site

• The new layout resembles the mobile version, showing a user’s cover photo behind the profile picture, adding a more visual element to the homepage

• The toolbar across the top is white, as opposed to the previous black color

• Font sizes beneath each users’ image have grown

• The new homepage also offers color customization

• User’s can change the color of features, such as the compose box and navigation icons (accessible via the “Design” tab)

• The new design should be available to all users (across desktop) within the upcoming days

Contents are proprietary and confidential.

Why This Matters to Your Clients: • With any new change, brands need to keep on top of how they are designing and formatting their content.

Brand pages must test out how content (i.e. – cover photos, background, fonts) look against the new layout and how the brand page will appear to desktop users.

• Color customization gives each brand the opportunity to be creative and take ownership of their brand identity.

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Twitter Ads: Now Based on Browsing History

Link: http://w.cg/1e7CYAB

• Twitter announced the introduction of ads, which will appear in a user’s stream based on web-surfing activity

• The overall program, called Tailored Audiences, had a soft roll-out in July

• With this program, advertisers are able to target users if they’ve (users) visited a brands website or showed interest in the brand’s category on or outside of Twitter

• The program comes in competition with Facebook’s “interest-based ads” in the News Feed, as these ads are also based on a user’s browsing history

Contents are proprietary and confidential.

Why This Matters to Your Clients: • It is now possible for brands to identify people who are in the market for a product via

Twitter • Brands can tailor their audience, making more personalized advertisements (which will

keep funding down and increase revenue overtime), increasing reach and engagement across Twitter pages

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Instagram Launches Photo Sharing Feature

Link: http://w.cg/1dOccXD

• Instagram launched a photo messaging feature, Instagram Direct, allowing users to privately share photos and videos with other users as opposed to an entire feed

• This feature shows great similarities to Snapchat in that communication is solely through photo and video sharing

• The difference is that users can filter and refine the media before sending it, implementing traditional Instagram capabilities

• Messaging permissions allow users to receive messages from people they follow (like Twitter’s DM) and collects messages from people users might not know (like Facebook’s Inbox), protecting users from spam, but also not missing new messages from people that users meet and wish to share media

• To add recipients, users tap bubbles next to a friends name, in which a counter tab will appear at the bottom, showing all friends that a user wishes to send the media

• When friends like the photo, a heart appears next to that users name

Contents are proprietary and confidential.

Why This Matters to Your Clients: • Brands can now message fans privately, say during a campaign, via Instagram which opens up private

two-way communication between brands and fans on the platform. • Brands can send free and targeted images to select users, without having to send it to all of their fans,

such as promotional items and personalized media.

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Questions?

Reach out to anyone on the Consumer team!

Contents are proprietary and confidential.