The week in social: Instagram buzz, Snapchat interns, & the AP kills the Internet

Instagram adds 60 second video

Instagram is upping their game in the video consumption game by rolling out 60 second video capability. Along with the longer format, the social platform states that iOS users will be able to edit multiple clips together. The feature is reportedly being made available over the coming months, but some brands were ready to go within a day of the announcement.

Instagram to brands, “Use us like Facebook”

Instagram is reportedly telling brands to use them, “the same way you use Facebook”. While there could be several conclusions drawn from this advice, one should consider that Facebook has been down the monetization road before, and likely intends to drive Instagram down a similar path. What does this mean for agencies and brands? Keep your content top-quality, be ready for a steep decline in organic activity, and prepare to pay to get your message in front of the audience you spent the last 4 years curating.

On asking Instagram followers to enable notifications

Instagram’s announcement of switching to an algorithmic feed resulted in a rash of brands posting “please turn on notifications” these last weeks. Regardless of what the the future holds for Instagram’s newsfeed strategy, brands should seriously consider if begging their users to manually enable the brand’s relevance fits in the marketing message. Rather than attempt to defy Instagram’s pay-to-play future, smart brands will consider concentrating on quality of content, cadence and audience relevance.

Snapchat influencers on the rise

Brands hoping to use influencers to carry their message onto Snapchat should be ready pay a premium. Achieving meaningful follower numbers on a channel that has no suggested users, no promoted stories, and is natively ephemeral is a difficult feat. Those that adopted the platform early and have built an audience since its release are now commanding impressive sums per project, and leaving their day jobs behind.

Snapchat for an internship

A Minneapolis based agency touched new ground this week by using Snapchat’s geo filters to recruit interns. The agency added geo-filters to 29 college campuses around the country, which prompted the students to “create & submit the snapchat story” for the client of their choice. Though recruiting employees over social isn’t new, hyper-local targeting of this kind on this platform represents an interesting future for the next generation entering the workforce.

Users not using Facebook Reactions

Though they’ve only been with us for a few weeks, a study this week shows that most of us are still just “liking” posts, leaving behind the host of other reactions that Facebook launched earlier in the year. Conjecture abounds if the reason is the extra time it takes to produce a specific reaction, or if it’s simply that old habits die hard. Given the metric value to marketers, we’ll be watching to see if Facebook makes moves to encourage more varied reactions to content.

Periscope reveals their broadcast numbers

Periscope has reported over 200 million broadcasts in the span of its first year in operation. More than 100 million of those broadcasts were produced in the last three months, giving promise to brands and users interested in engaging in live, go-anywhere, do-anything experiences. Facebook is certain to continue with its own similar offering, and it remains to be seen if Twitter & Periscope can make the most out of their established lead in the live video marketplace.

Facebook withdraws from NFL streaming bid

If you could watch a sporting event on Facebook, what would distinguish it from watching the same on TV? Would the commercials be different? Would viewing something on an interactive device change the game? As reported by Business Insider, the NFL has no willingness to alter it’s advertising model, resulting in Facebook withdrawing from the bid to stream games. While Zuckerberg is reportedly obsessed with the success live video, the walk-away shows Facebook’s commitment to succeeding on their own terms.

AP Style guide has killed the Internet

Sharp eyed writers know that the Earth orbits around the Sun, so one may feel the sun on their shoulders and the earth beneath their feet. The Associated Press threw down the gauntlet in a long grammar battle this week by de-specializing, “internet”. Thus, the word should no longer be capitalized. You may proceed to find/replace in your PPT docs.