Need-To-Know Q1 2017 Social Updates

Changes to social media platforms seem constant. Barely a day goes by without an algorithmic tweak, a new ad offering, or a new product to be tested. For most of us involved in digital marketing, the impact of these changes is negligible, affecting only the content creators and community managers working directly on social media. However, there are three big trends and changes that will impact every business owner, regardless of vertical.

LIVE-STREAMING (SOMETIMES IN 360 DEGREES)

For brands looking to connect more in real time – whether for a campaign launch, a product debut, or a thought leadership opportunity – live streaming offers an exciting way to entice and engage viewers. In the last six months, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have all debuted live video capabilities within their iOS and Android apps. While the functionalities in these three apps are similar, however, they differ in important ways that will help to determine which platform will drive the best results.

• If you want to share a live broadcast in 360 degrees, use Facebook or Twitter.
• If you want to share live content as part of a story, use Instagram.
• If you want live content to be available after the broadcast, use Facebook or Twitter. While it is possible to save a live Instagram story, it will not be available on Instagram once the broadcast is over.
• If you want to broadcast via desktop, use Facebook. 

VERTICAL VIDEO

Thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices and the popularity of social story functionality, vertical video is on the rise. In fact, forecasters explain that,

On average, 57% of consumers globally watch videos on a mobile phone every day, while 58% of consumers watch videos on their laptop/desktop every day. With 89% of US and 77% of global consumers saying they can’t live without their smartphone or always have it within arm’s reach, we are very close to the tipping point where mobile will soon be the number one video screen.

Facebook has even optimized its News Feed to share larger previews of vertical videos as users scroll through posts from friends and brands. What does this mean for business owners? It’s time to take a mobile-first approach to video creation and consider optimizing for vertically oriented screens. Even if Snap Ads and Instagram story ads aren’t in your marketing plans, bear in mind that vertical video is only going to get bigger. The time to perfect your mobile-first video strategy is now.

BROADENING THE DEFINITION OF SEARCH

When most people think of search, they think of typing words into a Google search bar and scrolling through a list of associated websites, but that’s about to change. Social media has been quietly transforming search into so much more. It started with Facebook’s 2013 updates to Graph Search, which allowed users to search posts and comments shared with them by their friends.

Now, Pinterest is allowing users to get more personalized results in their feeds through Instant Ideas, denoted by a small circle that appears in the corner of each Pin. When the circle is tapped, Pinterest will share similar Pins inspired by the original. Search also is taking on a more visual quality, thanks to Pinterest’s announcement of its new experimental technology called Pinterest Lens (BETA), which allows users to use the camera in the Pinterest app (or the desktop-based Pinterest browser button in Chrome) to discover ideas inspired by the objects around them. The platform explains: “Just point Lens at a pair of shoes, then tap to see related styles or even ideas for what else to wear with them. Or try it on a table to find similar designs, or even other furniture from the same era.” Capitalizing on these new functionalities – and those yet to come – will require beautiful, high quality creative assets that are optimized for user searches.

This post originally appeared on BrownsteinGroup.com.

Pinterest Messaging Makes Social Even More Personal

Earlier this month, Pinterest launched an in-app messaging service to allow its users to engage in private conversations around its content. In the past, when users wanted to share Pinterest content with their friends, they could only send a pin. Any additional engagement forced users to resort to email or other social channels to continue the conversation. Now, however, there’s no need for users to leave the platform in order to start and sustain a conversation on Pinterest. Users can now share individual pins, boards, other users’ profiles, and their own messages in chats with up to 9 other users.

Plan projects, swap ideas, share your best discoveries. http://about.pinterest.com/messages iTunes App Store: http://pin.it/VQ-xmlR Google Play: http://pin.it/bEYNSEA

Of course, social messaging platforms are nothing new. Facebook’s newly-separated Messenger app, WhatsApp, GroupMe, and even LinkedIn allow users to send messages back and forth with one or more users, but Pinterest isn’t necessarily looking to join their ranks. In fact, Pinterest Product Manager Michael Yamartino makes it clear: “We’re not a communications service. We’re not trying to be the place to say ‘What’s up?’ or ‘When are you coming home?’” Instead, Pinterest’s messaging capability is intended to enable focused discussion centered on products and projects showcased on the platform and to encourage collaboration around those products and projects between friends, family members, co-workers, and more.

More than anything, Pinterest is creating better opportunities for sharing. Initially, the platform focused on public boards and profiles, but has shifted over time to also allow for a more personalized experience. Two years ago, Pinterest began allowing users to create secret boards, but users clearly wanted even more ways to share privately. Since then, a lot has changed. This private messaging capability has created an almost Path-like experience with the opportunity to share pins, boards, and messages on a one-to-one or one-to-many (but not one-to-all) basis. It’s demonstrating that private collaboration is just as valuable to a social media platform as the outward-facing content being pinned and shared. In fact, that private collaboration often leads to the creation and sharing of new pins, better content, and more engagement for users and brands. How users take advantage of this capability will determine Pinterest’s next steps, but it’s clear that they’re already heading in the right direction.

This post originally appeared on the Advertising Week Social Club here.

Takeaways from PR News' #digitalpr Summit

On October 16, I joined two of my fellow LevLane-rs for a little learning about social media, reputation management, SEO, measurement, and leadership at PR News' Digital PR Summit in New York City. After searching the Grand Hyatt's digital agenda and map to find our conference location, we briefly considered trying to join the Super Bowl's planning meeting before grabbing a quick muffin and our seats in the ballroom. For the most part, the speakers had great experiences to share and insights from which we could all learn. The most important takeaways for me, as a Social Media Manager in an agency, can be found below, in both narrative and infographic. This conference recap is not exhaustive, obviously – I want to be "at the table, not on the menu," as American Traffic Solutions' SVP of Public Affairs and Marketing Communications Charlie Territo so eloquently put it. If you were in attendance for #digitalpr, I'd love to know what you found most valuable. Let me know in the comments!

How to Measure and Communicate Social Media ROI

In this session, EVP, BurrellesLuce Johna Burke cited a rather groundbreaking statistic from Nielsen: In the past, brands had to communicate messages 3-6 times in order for them to really sink in with consumers. Later, that number increased to 8 times. Today, with the message, platform, and product clutter that defines our lives, brands must reach millennials 23 times in order for brand messages to resonate. Whoa.

Get Your Messages in Front of the Right Followers on Twitter

One of my favorite quotes of the day came from Brooke Primero, SVP, PR & Marketing for the Academy of Country Music. She said, "The kiss of death in social media is being a 9-5, Monday-Friday brand." No matter what brand you're promoting, social activity doesn't sleep and it certainly doesn't stop because it's 6:30PM on a Tuesday. The Academy of Country Music's biggest push of the year is for a 3-hour awards event once a year. That's it. So they focused their efforts on building that brand during the rest of the year via social channels. In 2011, they announced their award nominees on TV, reaching 3 million people, according to CBS. In 2012, they took to Twitter to announce the nominees and reached 14.2 million people. Those are some pretty amazing statistics, but the Academy of Country Music didn't stop there. They engaged with key influencers to grow across Twitter and gave them behind the scenes access to content to take them from influencers to brand ambassadors.

How to Engage with the Internet's Passionate Communities

If there's one thing I learned during this session, it's this: some people just don't get reddit. Half of this session was spent listening to the great brand integration stories about reddit, and the other half of the session was spent trying to explain what reddit is. My life, in that moment, was r/reddit. Still, it was interesting to hear Marta Gossage, community operations manager, and Victoria Taylor, director of communications, distinguish reddit from other social platforms: Platforms like Facebook and Twitter show off your "frontstage behavior" (the way you want to portray yourself to the world), while platforms like reddit show off your "backstage behavior" (the way you think and feel when you're eating potato chips by the fistful in your sweatpants, reading the AMA with a guy who lost 300+ pounds through extreme starvation). reddit seems to be a much more authentic platform in that way – and redditors keep it that way. At the table we shared in the back, Gossage described reddit as having its own immune system. If there's a foreign body in there, the community reacts strongly to defend its territory (...er, place on the interwebz). Plus, if all else fails for you on reddit, you can always end a post with "...and here's a picture of my cat" to help you get your footing.

How to Use Instagram, Pinterest, and Vine for Digital Storytelling

If you've been trying to figure out how to build a brand presence on one of the more visual social platforms, this was a great session for you. Amanda Junker, digital director for Shape Magazine, spelled out how to drive better results and greater brand relevancy through SEO on Pinterest. Her tips? Display the "Pin It" button prominently on your web properties, verify brand accounts, complete the "About" profile section, name all pinned graphics appropriately, and create boards that capture long-tail searches. She also recommended infogr.am, which I used to create the infographic below. After her part was over, Allison Robins, Director of Global Public Relations at Zumba Fitness, stepped up to discuss Instagram's power and limits. According to Robins, Instagram is not the best platforms for brands focused on ROI, conversions, and sales. Instead, it's better for brand and relationship building. And if you've been wondering how to upload pre-recorded videos to Vine, Doug Simon, President & CEO, D S Simon Productions, was your guy. Simply edit your video in a program like Final Cut and convert it to an H.264 mp4 file, compress it, email it to yourself, then upload it to Instagram or Vine. It's that easy!

Building, Motivating, and Managing Your Digital Dream Team

Hands-down, this was the most valuable part of the day for me. Gemma Craven, EVP, NY group director, Social@Ogilvy, explained exactly how the growth of digital and social has shaped the creation and make-up of agency and client teams. Some of these teams may be as large as 20 people, handling digital and social creative, strategy, community management, analytics and listening, production, and more. More than metrics, more than C-suite buy-in, this is what I feel is the most important piece of the digital and social puzzle for agencies and brands today.

Did anything surprise you?