Will IGTV be a Ratings Success?

Last week, Instagram rolled out IGTV – a new hub that spotlights long-form videos from Instagram influencers and people you follow. As the platform positions itself as a YouTube competitor, what IGTV features might marketers find useful?

1. Long-form videos: No longer are you bound to 15-second video snippets on your profile. IGTV videos can have up to a 60-minute runtime for verified accounts and 10-minute runtime for all users.
2. Creator channels: IGTV channels are available for users to follower your content on a separate IGTV app and also link your content to your profile when a new video is shared.
3. Calls-to-action: Users are already familiar with Instagram's "swipe up to learn more" feature. IGTV expands on that experience with the ability to include several CTAs throughout the video.
4. Share button: Viewers can share IGTV videos directly with other Instagram accounts. When broadcasting, asking your followers to share the video with someone who might enjoy it could prove to be a successful way to grow your following.
5. Facebook Watch integration: Since Facebook owns Instagram, they've made it extremely simple to share IGTV content directly to your Facebook Watch channel, even automatically if you wish.
6. Autoplay & continue watching: Much like Instagram Stories, IGTV also features autoplay. Once a user finishes watching your video, other videos (from various accounts) will play. They can pause videos and resume them later with the Continue Watching tab and, if they enjoy what they're seeing, choose to follow all content from that publisher.

So, what do you think? Are you ready to create an IGTV channel and start interacting with your followers in a new and exciting way? Let's connect to discuss the possibilities!

The QR Code Comeback?

Scanning QR codes has never really caught on in the US. The process is too convoluted. Users have to download a compatible reader, snap a photo of the code, then open the link in their mobile browser. But that hasn't stopped social networking sites from making use of them.

Snapchat has Snapcodes, Twitter has account codes, Instagram just unveiled Nametag codes, and now Facebook is rolling out Page QR Codes.

So what's the difference? Users may actually take advantage of Facebook's latest feature since the codes can easily be scanned within the native Facebook app or within Messenger. And with the ability to produce codes that lead users to take certain actions such as: 

• Automatically liking your page
• Checking users in to your business location
• Connecting users to a recommendation screen
• Connecting users to your ‘View Offers’ listing
• Prompting users to leave a review

We may actually see businesses use them. Will you?

What's The Impact of This Facebook hubbub?

Since the Cambridge Analytica story, I'm sure everyone has noticed one of our favorite social networking sites dominating headlines around the world. At this point, the number of changes being made at Facebook are equal to the number of news stories being written about them.

Most of these changes are related to the privacy of individual accounts, but there are a few that will affect business pages and how we advertise.

• While under scrutiny, Facebook is being extra cautious about the ads running on their platform. There's a team of people manually reviewing ad content and targeting options and they've noticeably slowed down in recent weeks. If you're submitting a Facebook ad, try to schedule it at least one week in advance to ensure there's enough time for it to be approved and still run during your specified timeframe.

• As punishment for causing all of this chaos, Partner Categories are being removed from Facebook ad targeting altogether. Partner Categories are the targeting options provided based on data collected from third party sources (i.e. most of Facebook's Behavior Categories such as purchase history or frequent travelers).

But rest assured, Facebook remains the most cost-effective social advertising platform. A combination of detailed interest targeting and geo-targeting options will still yield terrific results for most ads. And that #DeleteFacebook movement? The platform says there's been zero noticeable drop-off, so your audience remains fully intact.

We'll be sure to keep you up to date with further changes as they develop, but if you have questions or concerns in the meantime, please don't hesitate to reach out. We've answered a few of the most common below.

• Is Facebook tracking your calls and texts? If you have an Android, yes.
• Are they storing video and photos you never got around to posting? Yes.
• Are they reading your Messenger chats? Yep.
• Are they listening to your phone conversations? No.
• Is this conversation about big data and the election almost over? Not even close.