Facebook makes its way to the big screen (and your workplace), Periscope unveils high-quality broadcasting options and Snap Inc. forms as the parent company of Snapchat. (Oh, and we won some #USSearchAwards.) Learn more — watch Social Marketing Cluster Facts!
Transcript:
Hey, we’re back from Pubcon and we are stoked to share that AIMCLEAR brought home the hardware from the #USSearchAwards, including top honor: Best Large Integrated Agency. Other honors include Best Use of PR in a Search Campaign and Mitch Larson, @MitchPerClick, won Young Search Professional. Congrats Mitch and the rest of the AIMCLEARians.
And in Pinterest news, users are up! The company reported this month that it has reached 150 million users, up from 100 million a year ago.
Last week, Google acquired FameBit, which they describe as “a technology platform company that helps creators and brands find and work with each other through sponsorships and paid promotion.” In short, FameBit’s technology will help find more relevant brands and ads to couple with creator content in hopes to drive more buys for brands, and more cash for creators. With these two powers combined, hopefully they can summon even better couplings of ads and content.
Love to watch video content on Facebook on your phone while chillin’ on the couch, sippin’ on some Boones’s Farm, but then your eyes start to get a little blurry, so you feel the need to watch it on a bigger screen? Well you’re in luck. This past summer, Facebook was testing compatibility with video casting products such as Google Chromecast, Roku, and Apple TV. It was a success. You’d think the next logical step would be for it to release on iOS. Which is kinda what happened! In the future, this feature will be rolled out to Android and iPhone users alike so you can watch videos of your friend’s cat licking self… ON THE BIG SCREEN.
By now you’ve heard about Facebook Workplace, the platform’s latest effort to wiggle itself into the business world… The ad-free platform allows group discussions, one-on-one text, voice and video conversations, personalized work-related newsfeeds… Wait, it sounds a lot like LinkedIn meets Slack? There’s now speculation that Facebook’s platform could put up some strong competition for Microsoft, which purchased LinkedIn earlier this year in a move to become more integrated with businesses. We’ll see who ends up winning over the corporate crowd, eh.
More rumors of Snapchat going public have been circulating. Snap Inc., the newly formed parent company of Snapchat, is expected to potentially go public as soon as March 2017 with an IPO of $25 billion.
It’s also worth noting that Snap Inc. doesn’t label itself as an app company, as their website proclaims “Snap Inc. is a camera company. We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate.” The first hardware product offered will be a pair of $130 sunglasses called Spectacles. “Spectacles are sunglasses with an integrated video camera that makes it easy to create Memories.” Once the memory is captured, you can of course share the memory with friends on Snapchat.
Snapchat has also thrown users a curveball by changing up the Stories feature… again. Now, instead of auto-playing all stories, users select which stories they would like to see, which are then played back-to-back. If this upsets you, don’t worry. You can still select a play all function, so don’t get yer panties in a bundle.
Periscope wants better high-quality video and Thursday announced “Periscope Producer,” which allows broadcasters to live stream any video feed to their Periscope followers and use editing software to add graphics, additional camera angles, etc. It’s pretty tight and should be an easy adaptation for media companies already taking advantage of the live Facebook and YouTube options.
And that does if for this episode of Social Marketing Cluster Facts. Check back next week, and subscribe to our blog for more social scoops and inside snoops.
Sources:
Pinterest passes 150 million monthly active users, up from 100 million a year ago, Venture Beat, @thekenyeung
Facebook Enables News Feed Videos to Display on Televisions, eWEEK, @editingwhiz
Facebook’s New Challenge To Microsoft’s Long-Term Success, Forbes, @Ewan
Snapchat reportedly gearing up for £20 billion IPO, WIRED, @mattburgess1
Snapchat investors are buying into a camera company, CNBC, @levynews
Snapchat just changed how you watch stories — but there’s a way to autoplay them the old way, Business Insider, @alexeheath
Introducing Periscope Producer, Twitter Blog, @LewisWiltshire
