Ephemeral Media Is Not Ephemeral

Isn’t it funny in a way? Something ephemeral that looks like it’s here to stay? This is the case with ephemeral media right now. Looking at the ongoing success of platforms and services that are built around ephemeral — like Snapchat, Periscope or Yo — it’s obvious that we as communication professionals have to deal with it not as a trend topic but as a sustainable new way to interact with a lot of audiences.

First: Let’s take a little step back to look at the phenomenon and what it means for the web.

If I look at the web today, I see three webs to be honest. Three ways of accessing content and interaction, that are quite different and to a growing degree unconnected to each other.

First there is what I call the “search web”. In Europe this means: Google. There is a web, that is accessed mainly via search. And more and more on smaller touch interfaces. This is where structured data is needed, content optimized for search, a lot of long tail content. Not exactly engagement or discussion, but easy searchable and valuable content.

It’s interesting to see that search still is — and in my prognosis will always be — a major touch point for brands and companies to their audiences. The rise of social did not affect search (as user behavior) as heavy as the budget shift in our industry would indicate.

The second web — and to a ever growing degree separated from the search web — is the “social web”. Although this web often refers to similar resources as the search web, the way people are accessing content is totally different from it. The social web is not exactly a pull-web but more or less a push-web — with social signals leading to traffic and navigation.

While search is more active, lean-forward, social is more lean-back and consuming. It’s a bit contra-intuitive as social was said to be about engagement and such — but in fact and looking at user behavior this is not true. The interaction with my social connections on the web only forms the algorithms that deliver content pieces to my screen.

I bet one core reason social was embraced so deeply by the communications industry was exactly this: it’s as near to traditional push communication as anything on the web could be (besides banner, but who has seen a banner lately). The cluetrain approach to the social web always was kind of a misunderstanding. Kind of a collateral of using social signals to push the message out.

Nevertheless we need to keep in mind that mechanics and access to content in this second, this “social” web are quite different from search. The power of coming along our audiences more accidentally must not be underestimated.

Both webs have one thing in common: they are kind of permanent and searchable — and not oral

Social and search are both possibilities to access and navigate permanent content. They are part of a sustainable brand building and brand planning system. If played strategically right they both have their role in targeting broader or smaller audiences online.

From a user perspective both the search web and the social web have in common that they are part of the permanent, so to say “written” communication. Far away from the intimacy and instant expression of oral communication. In fact I’m convinced that this was a problem for a lot of people during the first 15 years of the internet.

The new services, apps and platforms I use to summarize as “ephemeral web” are answering exactly this need and fix this problem — the need of “oral” communication; the problem, that until now nearly all forms of the web accessible for the average web citizens have been permanent and searchable in one way or the other.

The desire for instant expression and non-permanent communication online must have been there before — this is the only explanation why Snapchat is so successful today. Try to find a — let’s say — 17-year-old kid that is not using it or at least familiar with the concept.

What has evolved as what I call the “third web” is this “ephemeral web”. A not-searchable, non-permanent web that is made and used for instant expression and entertainment. No need to dress up or check your make-up. The video or picture is gone within 5 seconds to 24 hours. And it’s not accessible through search. Snapchat has no inbuilt search and is not searchable through third-party (until now). Same with Periscope, same with Yo — to mention only the three services that I think are most promising right now in this ephemeral web.

This web is here to stay

The deep desire for this kind of communication, the obvious and ever need for such a-synchron oral-like services online, and the new forms of entertaining instant expression they provide — all this is too “natural” as a human behavior to go away soon.

Real engagement, a real lean-forward mode for ephemeral social interaction is a new web inside the internet. Not visible to those not engaged there. Extremely targeted as — like on Snapchat, but as well on Yo — it’s nearly impossible to find anyone whom you don’t know before or don’t hear of.

Although the interfaces of these new ephemeral services often are not exactly intuitive, they spread like nothing before among younger audiences. One famous Snapper in my home market (Germany) is a 11-year-old girl with more than 40.000 followers — more than on Instagram or YouTube where she is huge as well, especially given her age. Lots of successful YouTubers use Snapchat today to engage more closely with their subscribers. They often encourage the followers to comment on their latest Insta, e.g. — what leads to tons of comments there.

So what to do with it as a comms pro?

We are acutally tapping into these services to experiment how they work and how it feels. Most people of my age inside ephemeral media today are communication professionals exploring. What is ok and normal — as I would not call anyone a professional in this industry who is not exploring this right now.

But I see some things coming soon. I’m pretty sure we will see the first bill board ads that include a snapcode — like in this mock-up. As long as the brand has a Snapchat channel and some idea what to do there and what stories to tell.
Note: it’s a real ad but the Facebook Button and the snapcode are fake and done by me as an example.

Whoever is on Snapchat will know what to do with the snapcode. Who isn’t will have no clue. Find out yourself what it might trigger…

Or — just another fake to explain the possibilities — tapping into the possibilities the Yo-API opens to brands. Why not informing the followers that there are some seats at their favorite restaurant?
Note: this is a complete mock-up with no real case or technical evaluation behind.

I’m sure we will see more and more brands worldwide to be ephemeral. What is the next natural step after the success of “planned spontaneity” anyway. And becoming ephemeral with all the challenges it includes is a great field for real strategic, insight-driven creative work right now. The fun part of our job so to say.