The Week in Social: Instagram Studio, Facebook Ad Breaks, and Periscope Producer

Vanity Fair’s Instagram Studio

Hollywood’s annual stock of after-Oscar parties promises to fill the social media sphere with plenty of selfies, snaps and livestreams. Following last year’s success, Vanity Fair’s after-party will feature an Instagram Studio run by photographer Mark Seliger. Winners and celebrities will pose for Vanity Fair’s Instagram page, for a more refined, less grainy content stream. We expect this simple, elegant activation to generate more than twice the average engagements of VF’s every-day content feed.

La La Land on YouTube

This year’s Best Picture nominees racked up 3 million hours of viewing time on YouTube. La La Land took the top spot for total trailer views. Less surprising, it also took YouTube’s top spot for users listening to musical scores. YouTube, Facebook and Twitter all continue to compete for video-view dominance. In 2018, we anticipate the social landscape will change like when, “for your consideration” campaigns begin.

Viber adds in-app shopping

Instant messaging app Viber is partnering with Macys to bring instant shopping to their users. Some may question the intersection of instant messaging and online shopping. However, like Google ads before them, the platform could provide contextual results based on the conversations it can see. For the moment, a click on a product will take the user to a third-party retailer. Viber has stated that they are working toward a full integrated shopping experience that will keep shoppers in-app for the whole experience.

Read more at VentureBeat

Snapchat Spectacles for everyone

Last November, Snapchat launched a series of pop-up Spectacle vending machines. This week, Snapchat announced the vending machines will be retired. The social-capture glasses which reportedly sold for $1,000 can be ordered online for a mere $130. Since scarcity is no longer driving value, Spectacle sales will be an important signpost as Snapchat continues to struggle toward an IPO.

Facebook Live Ad Breaks

To begin, Facebook Live gave brands and users the ability to broadcast to their followers. Then, the recently launched Facebook App enables viewers to watch videos TV style through a dedicated interface. Now, Livestreamers will be able to insert fully produced ad breaks into their streams. The addition could be a powerful new ad buy, or a reason that viewers might turn off. Brands and influencers will continue to need strong strategies for monetizing their broadcast efforts while delivering high quality content.

WhatsApp Status

Whatsapp is unveiling a new feature enabling users to share short collections of ephemeral content that can be decorated with custom filters. The new feature can be found in a separate content tab, so as to not to disturb WhatsApp’s cornerstone: encrypted peer-to-peer texting. Following the successes of Stories features on Snapchat and Instagram, the addition is a move to keep WhatsApp competitive. The addition will help WhatsApp in South America and Eastern Europe, where Instagram and Snapchat are not as popular.

Periscope Producer

This week, everyone can access to Periscope Producer. Previously, the app was only available to brands and media companies. Starting now, anyone with access to compatible hardware can broadcast content to Periscope and Twitter. The key value is the app’s ability to connect to high quality cameras and production gear. The launch gives all brands and users the chance to raise the quality and value of their live-streaming game on Twitter.

Read more at VentureBeat

Facebook & Baseball

Social channels continue to blur the boundaries between themselves and broadcast television. All platforms have gained some degree of exclusive access to sports and other event-oriented content. Facebook is talking with Major League Baseball to go one step further: live-streaming one game per week. This move gives Baseball access to a larger audience over social, meanwhile Facebook continues to establish capabilities and credibility as a broadcast partner.

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Transferwise: Messenger Payments

Venmo, PayPal and bank apps dominate the peer-to-peer payment app market. This week, Transferwise launched a Facebook Bot that will run on Messenger. The app enables users to transfer money internationally. All that’s necessary is to have a Transferwise account, and the bot will enable exchanges without ever having to exit Messenger. As Messenger is developed into a more robust commerce platform, it’s only a question of when Messenger will add its own built-in money transfer system.

Read more at VentureBeat

Twitter throttles abuse

Weeks ago, Twitter announced that they would adopt new measures to combat abusive accounts. The measure is part of how Twitter will address a lengthy history of abuse complaints. While this was rolled out, a high profile developer reported their account being suspended for 12 hours. The developer reported that they had made similar posts in the past. In its defense, Twitter has stated that the filters do not distinguish between the type, size, or affiliation of accounts.