Harmonic Aftershock

2016: Instagram vs. Snapchat

Not all that long ago the it didn't seem any other social platform could dent the armor of Facebook or Twitter. But in the great words of Game of Thrones, "Winter is coming." In 2016, the darling social networks will be (if not already) Instagram and Snapchat.

Although Facebook-owned, Instagram is one of the top social media platforms for Millennials and has gotten very serious about ads (having just hired Twitter's former head of product who was responsible for Twitter's ad solutions).

And Snapchat is amidst a giant leap into the mainstream. Have you noticed more and more of your friends and colleagues joining it over the past month or so? (Even The Whitehouse). With an update that's rumored to make Snapchat even easier to use, the social platform will break away from its "kids only" stigma this year.

It'll no longer be Facebook and Twitter that we're all talking about. It's going to be Instagram and Snapchat where marketers become enamored with.

Internet trends...

As always, Mary Meeker's Internet Trends Report is chalk full of curated stats and analysis. A few things that jumped out at me:

• Apple's the only company in the top 15 Public Internet Companies to be on the list in 1995.
• Advertisers are not spending nearly enough on mobile when compared with time spent.
• Instagram continues to gain favor with teens while Facebook and Twitter decline.
• Tech innovation is conditioning us to expect everything immediately.

The other thing the caught my eye was this chart.

I was surprised to see desktop Internet usage hold steady over the past 7 years in the wake of mobile.

The (disappointing) reality of social media marketing today.

Today AdAge published a piece I wrote about how there's no more social media, just advertising.

And there's a bit more to the story as I cut out a few paragraphs before submitting it that compared some of the first company posts when Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat launched (and then launched advertising). I felt what I wrote started getting too in the weeds (and somewhat off a tangent)--but it's worth mentioning here. It was fascinating to see how these social networks' seemingly pure ideals "evolved' over the course of time (when under pressure to make $).

Here's what I edited out...

When Twitter first launched in 2006, Biz Stone described it as, “a new mobile service that helps groups of friends bounce random thoughts around with SMS.” Twitter was always careful not to compromise its roots as it grew. Even when it launched advertising in 2010 it maintained, “we’ve resisted introducing a traditional Web advertising model because we wanted to optimize for value before profit.” Unfortunately when a company goes public, the rallying cry of “increase shareholder value” gets drilled into the very bowels of the organization – Compromises are made. Dick Costello said last week that ideally ads will “make up about one in 20 tweets that the average user sees.” And that means a lot more amplified 140 character desperate witticisms from brands.

When Facebook opened up to everyone in 2006, the social network reinforced that, “we want to help people understand their world.” And when it launched Facebook Ads a year later, it said that, “Ads will be getting more relevant and more interesting to you.” But what is interesting about a glorified banner ad? That’s pretty much what brand’s Facebook posts have become. Posting an ad-like object onto a social network isn’t exactly social media marketing. And with organic reach in the crapper, brands are shelling out more and more media dollars to ensure their networks see their, um, “content.”

Snapchat is arguably the darling of social media platforms, right now. When it first hit the App Store in September of 2011, its vision was, “about communicating with the full range of human emotion.” Being the newest kid on the block, you’d think its foray into advertising would be more than old school spray and pray. Except it’s not. Brands who pay $750,000 get to deliver their untargeted ad to the network’s 100+ million users and hope they hold down their fingers. And when Snapchat launched Discover last month? It was quick to point out that “This is not social media.”

My point in writing the AdAge post wasn't to be bleak but instead to say that there is still time, hope, and promise for brands to prioritize servicing over advertising -- and that both can coexist.

Bring on the "micro-streaming" era of social media.

A few hours after Twitter's Periscope launched last week I wrote the following.

Why Brands Will Pay Attention To Twitter’s Periscope Over Meerkat.

This morning, Twitter launched Periscope—a live-streaming service it acquired and announced on March 13. Twitter is all about “now moments” and there’s nothing more now than instant live video. People turn to Twitter first in social media for real-time trends and breaking news which makes Periscope a smart move in Twitter’s evolution.

By now we all know that rival-app Meerkat beat Twitter to the punch to become the darling of SXSW. And while Meerkat has the early support of a vocal tech community, Twitter, as a company, has an inherent infrastructure and ecosystem already in place to ensure the blue bird trumps the yellow Meerkat bringing Periscope to the masses—from tech culture to pop culture.

In addition to national TV, big brand, and celebrity partnerships, Twitter’s real secret weapon is its recent Niche acquisition. As a result, Twitter now has over ten thousand content creators who will use Periscope and inspire their followings to use it too. And these are no ordinary content creators; they are seen as more influential by teens and millennials than Hollywood celebrities.

Periscope is a big opportunity for brands to legitimately connect with consumers in meaningful ways. While instantly published text, photos, and produced video is one way for a brand to communicate in social media, there is nothing more human and more intimate in the digital space than live video. Micro-streaming services like Periscope (and Meerkat) give new meaning to “now moments” and make creating them approachable, easy, and instant.

Brands will use Periscope for their runway shows, product announcements, press events, demos, and peek behind the scenes. Television networks will use Periscope to let viewers instantly connect with show talent adding a new dimension to social TV. And sports networks and leagues will use Periscope to bring players closer to fans.

But the real opportunity for brands is in the social business space. Brands should be using Periscope to transform online customer service. In the micro-streaming era of social media, it will become that much easier to show versus tell—and that’s the real power behind Periscope.

Out of the gate, Periscope is already a richer and more polished experience than Meerkat. This, coupled with the credibility, stability, and reach of Twitter, plus Periscope’s ability to archive streams, will be why brands will ultimately choose Periscope and not Meerkat.

And now 4 days after its launch--as expected--brands, celebs, TV networks, and Vinelebrities have all taken to the product. My personal favorite so far? Getting a birds-eye view of Jimmy Fallon's opening monologue rehearsal.

This is just the beginning of the micro-streaming era of social media. Stay tuned and see you live!

Marketing is (far) more than "promotion."

I had a fun interchange on Twitter with Augie Ray today. I've got a ton of respect for him through what he blogs about. And his post today was no different. 

He managed to eloquently sum up my own feelings about how the true power and potential of social media as it relates to brands is getting squelched out by superficial promotions.

It led to us bantering about the definition of marketing.

It's easy to forget that Marketing is also about Price, Product, and Place. But all too often it, unfortunately, just seems to be about (one-way) promotion.

It's not too late to change that.

“Oh social media.”

I seem to be expressing this more and more (said with a big sigh). When I started working in the social media marketing space in 2007, it was about having a direct and two-way connection with a brand’s customers. Dare I drop the word “authentic?” 

Yet today, we see far too many examples where a brand’s social presence is merely a dumping ground for innocuous and superficial content. And many in the industry are becoming disheartened and increasingly speaking out.

This feeling is certainly what led me to express my thoughts about social media & “RTM” a few months back. But more recently, someone published a piece on Digiday, “Confessions of a social media strategist.” While I don't agree with everything the anonymous author wrote, there's still a lot of truth in their post.

Social media is at a cross-roads and it’s important to remind ourselves, as digital marketing professionals, that we’re the ones who are letting this happen. I totally dig Hubspot’s response to the Digiday post. It’s a timely reminder that each of us is still in the driver’s seat. And there remains a great deal of hope and promise for social media marketing.

But as part of getting it back on the rails, we need data and insights. And I’m so proud of the piece my colleagues Brad Blake and Noah King published in AdAge today. They underscore an important tenant of social media: Quality over quantity – and they use data to show how Facebook’s much criticized News Feed algorithm changes may actually be a good thing.

Advertising can be meaningful. And it’s not too late for our social networks. As brands and agencies, we've gotta take a harder look at what we're publishing to people's personal newsfeeds. Social media marketing is so much more than merely “increasing engagement.” It’s about instant human connection.

"RTM" has great potential but we're heading down the wrong path.

One look at the Tumblr Real-Time Marketing Sucks and you get a very clear picture of the current state of "RTM." An increasing number of brands are hastily jumping onto Oreo's bandwagon hoping to have their "super bowl moment." But true real-time marketing is so much more than witty newsjacked tweets and not an easy thing to pull off.

I published a piece on AdAge today addressing how this narrow and misguided execution of RTM is killing social media's real promise for brands...and why it needs to stop.

[READ FULL ARTICLE]

 

6 ways Facebook is turning into Twitter.

A year ago, I could emphatically say that Facebook and Twitter were complementary social networks – each with a set of fairly distinct use cases – and that as such, the two companies weren’t really direct competitors. 

Today it’s become a lot harder to say that since with each new Facebook feature comes with it a giant Twitter déjà vu. Here are six ways that Facebook is turning into Twitter:

1. Follow
From its earliest days, Twitter was designed around the ability for Twitter users to non-mutually follow others. In September of 2011, Facebook launched the ability to “subscribe” to an individual’s public posts. And this past December it changed the name from “subscribe” to “follow” – the exact term Twitter uses.

2. Hashtags
For years hashtags and Twitter were essentially synonymous – When you’d see a hashtag, you immediately thought of Twitter. But then Instagram adopted the familiar tagging lexicon and three months ago, Facebook began supporting hashtags.

3. Instagram Video
In January this past year, Twitter’s Vine app was launched bringing short social video directly to the platform. Six months later, Facebook-owned Instagram began supporting video.

4. Embeddable Posts
In May of 2010, Twitter launched the ability to embed Tweets into third-party web properties. A month ago, Facebook launched “embeddable posts.”

5. Contests/Promotions
As a marketer, I can say it’s much easier to run a contest on Twitter than it is on Facebook. Historically, the only way to execute promotions on Facebook was on a separate tab. 5 days ago, Facebook loosened the reigns on promotions now allowing the use of their main platform functionality for contests.

6. Trending Topics
One of the most powerful features of Twitter is the ability to see “Trending Topics” – which have been credited for breaking news stories. Two days ago, Facebook confirmed its now testing out a “Trending” topics section on its newsfeed.

It’s doubtful that Facebook’s seemingly “copy cat” strategy will in any way have a negative effect on Twitter – as the latter platform continues with strong growth and to solidify its niche as the real-time social platform. After all, imitation is flattery, right?

The power of the backchannel.

With hashtags seemingly everywhere these days, it begs the question when it comes to television shows what value they’re adding? There’s, of course, the insights that can surface by mining the volume of Tweets generated – but Tweets are content too and the “backchannel” of television can absolutely compliment what’s on air.  

And that’s exactly what’s covered in the latest episode of The Pulse on Lost Remote – enjoy!

A very social wedding.

For whatever reason, I was thinking the other day how it could be cool for weddings to have a Twitter “backchannel” in place of the disposable camera trend that was once big.

Apparently this was so not an original idea as the wedding I attended last Saturday did just that...promoting it with a sign in the lobby of the reception hall.

While there wasn’t a huge amount of posts using the hashtag (it wasn’t exactly the Tweeting kind of crowd), I loved seeing the use of social media at what is inherently a very social event.

Next up? Twitter wedding vows – In Turkey, it really happened.