As the development of new social media platforms has slowed, the development of new bells and whistles that existing platforms are using to distinguish themselves from the competition has accelerated. This week was no exception, and below we examine new functionalities all four major social platforms have added within the past five days.
Marketing Land: Facebook Ads Can Now Link to Brands’ Whatsapp Accounts
Yes, we know that this new Facebook functionality requires you to first build a WhatsApp account for your brand. Not only is that time consuming, it may not be advantageous for many U.S. brands, as 84 percent of the messaging app’s active users live outside of the U.S. But for brands trying to reach a younger audience, being able to simultaneously tap into the more established, legacy audiences on Facebook as you’re targeting newer, youngers audiences on WhatsApp within the same campaign could prove to be very worthwhile.
Bloomberg: Traditional Advertising Comes to Facebook’s New Video Platform
Facebook is going to start putting advertising before videos in its new shows product, called Watch, and this all represents a fundamental shift in the way the platform presents and utilizes video. Currently, most of the video views on Facebook happen in the newsfeed, which is a passive experience. With Watch, Facebook wants users to seek out its video content, eliminating some chances for brands to produce storytelling-based content to implement into a newsfeed, but adding chances for brands to produce ad-based content that will be used as pre-roll video.
AdWeek: 10 Things We Learned About Wendy’s From its Reddit AMA
When it comes to Twitter, few brands are doing it better than Wendy’s. So when their marketers took to Reddit for an “Ask Me Anything” session, many tuned in to find out the brands that Wendy’s has learned from, why they love trolling McDonald’s, how they handle the frequent pushback from the c-suite, how much of a mystery their ROI is on this platform and how they interact with customers.
Snapchat
Android Police: Lens Studio will Let Anyone Make and Publish Augmented Reality Effects
Does the world need more dancing hotdogs in the middle of Snapchat videos? Yes or no, we very well may be getting them now that Snapchat has made it possible for anyone to create an augmented reality effect on the app. And it’s not just for advanced creatives, either. Lens studio runs with both Mac and PC and comes with templates so even novice designers can create 3D objects.
Digital Marketing
NRPA: Groundfloor & Centertable Share Learnings From “Be A Smart Ash” Campaign
We’re happy to announced the Be A Smart Ash campaign we launched and now run with and on behalf of our clients at the Denver City Forester, a division of Denver Parks & Recreation, took home the 2017 Kudos Marketing Award from the National Recreation & Parks Association (NRPA). This week, we sat down with the NRPA to take part in a webinar on what makes this integrated campaign continue to spread significant awareness and spur action related to the impending threat that the emerald ash borer, the most destructive forest pest in U.S. history, poses to Metro Denver’s 1.45 million ash trees.
The Verge: Instagram Now Lets You Follow Hashtags
Your brand may have just a few dozen Instagram followers, but by grouping your posts through hashtags, your images can end up in front of thousands of viewers, all of whom tune in daily for hashtags about food, fashion and the like. Previously, there were two ways to interact with a hashtag: You could click through a hashtag on a post, or you could search for a specific tag in the Explore section. Instagram has now introducing a new way to interact with hashtags: You can “follow” them the same way you would follow an account.
On the Blog:
Pantone Looks to the Future for its 2018 “Color of the Year” – Ben Hock examines the evolution of Pantone’s “Color of the Year”.
Expanding Team with Digital Marketing Expert – We’re happy to announce the expansion of our CenterTable team with the addition of Clare Frey.
Reddit is Becoming an Intriguing Outlet for Advertisers – Jon Woods explains which brands are utilizing Reddit’s new ad capability and how they’re leveraging it.
Using Micro-Influencers is a Reasonable Path to Drive Sales – Jon Woods knows you’ve heard of influencers; now he wants to help you understand micro-influencers and the ROI they can drive.
Will Millennials Drive Socially Responsible Marketing Practices? – Amy Moynihan explores how the desire of Millenials to associate with socially responsible corporations is driving updates to corporate marketing strategies.
Everything You Need to Know About Media Interviews You Can Learn on “60 Minutes” – Need to brush up on your media training? Barb Jones explains how you can get a crash course by watching an episode of 60 Minutes.
Troubleshooting Your Facebook Link Preview – Due to recent changes, updating the images that appear in the link preview on Facebook has been difficult. Adrienne explains a couple hacks that can help.
How To Make Stock Footage Work for You – Because not everyone can hire a video production studio, Justin Szykowny explains how you can put stock footage libraries to work for your brand.
