Welcome to this week’s Social Marketing Cluster Facts! Every week we dig into the social media marketing news scene and uncover the goods. What’s up this week?
YouTube creators accuse the platform of censorship, WhatsApp gets ready for brands to monetize and LinkedIn gets hashtags! Watch SMCF!
Transcript:
Twitter is paying its best video creators for content on both Twitter and (soon) Periscope. Creators have complained for some time that they were working for free and some abandoned the channel. Now, Twitter has decided to split the money 70/30, which is a sweeter deal than YouTube’s 55/45. Twitter expanded its video ad program, Amplify, by selling pre-roll ads before content uploaded by individual video creators, not just publishers. The best part for creators is they can now monetize content in multiple ways and generate revenue at scale without creating exclusive content for the platform to get paid.
On the heels of the Twitter announcement, YouTube is looking to generate more ad revenue by pulling ads off of some of its videos and preemptively notifying the creators that it has “non-advertising-friendly content” in an effort to make its inventory more attractive to advertisers. YouTube says this isn’t new. In fact, it’s been happening since 2012 — the difference is that they’re now better at telling creators that ads won’t appear on their videos. Creators are freaking out because if they say something wrong or discuss a “sensitive subject,” and in many cases it is the actual TRUTH of what’s going on, they won’t make money on the ads sold before their videos. This demonetization or withholding of money is viewed as a very strong form of censorship. The rules are so broad, YouTube may need to make some changes to its guidelines in order to keep its largest contributors.
Snapchat is set to introduce behavioral targeting to advertisers. To start, the categories will be broad and limited to information on how users spend their time within Snapchat, this will be a big selling point for advertisers.
Are you sick of taking photos at high school football games, and not knowing what the score is? Well now that problem is a thing of the past, since Snapchat introduced real-time sports filters that add the current score to photos taken at high school football games.
Snapchat is also making it easier to create your own custom geo filters with templates and a handy web interface. Now users can make their own designs without knowing any kind of advanced design software!
WhatsApp, which was purchased by Facebook in 2014, will start opening the doors for brands to interact with users through the platform. Soon brands will be able to deliver receipts, shipping information and messages, like if your flight is going to be delayed…
Facebook isn’t accepting slow mobile loading times. The platform will now consider loading times in its advertising bidding structure and reward those who are up-to-speed.
Extreme online coupon-ing just got easier. Facebook is updating its Offer feature, allowing users to save online coupons in one central location. Plus, bargain hunters will now get alerts when coupons are nearing expiration dates.
Facebook also updated its slideshow feature. Here’s a list of the updates: 1.) You can add music and text. 2.) You can build the slideshow ads from mobile devices… 3.) You can choose images from Facebook’s stock library… and 4.) Videos can be turned into slideshow ads for users with shoddy connection speeds.
To wrap up, here are three changes that should have already been a thing:
LinkedIn has hashtags. You know how they work — congrats to LinkedIn on their arrival to the hashtag game.
Pinterest added retargeting abilities for brands to reach people that use apps and visit sites and NOW brands can advertise to people who clicked on a pin or saved a brand-related pin. Hmmm…
You can zoom on Instagram! ‘Bout time, eh? The only problem is that you have to keep your fingers on the screen to see the close up… So close. So close to being cool.
Sources:
Snapchat is about to introduce something advertisers have been wanting for ages: behavioral targeting, @larakiara, Business Insider
Snapchat is bringing its real-time sports filters to high schools, @karissabe, Mashable
Snapchat makes it easier to create your own On-Demand Geofilters, @etherington, Tech Crunch
As WhatsApp starts sharing data with Facebook, some brands see dollar signs, @GCaffyn, Digiday
Facebook Cuts Down Loading Time Of Ad Links, Factors Speed Into Ad Auction, @Kchaykowski, Forbes
Facebook Has Created the Digital Equivalent of a Coupon Drawer for Users, @martyswant, AdWeek
Facebook adds new tools, capabilities to Slideshow video ads, @gsterling, Marketing Land
Tap Into Professional Knowledge with Content Search at LinkedIn, LinkedIn Blog
Pinterest will target ads to people who click on, save brand-related pins, @petersontee, Marketing Land
With pinch-to-zoom, Instagram takes a step towards fixing its photo, video size problem, @petersontee, Marketing Land
