This Week’s Trends in Social Media Marketing
+Facebook Promises Mobile App for Video Producers, Basically an Expansion of Facebook Mentions App
“Facebook announced at VidCon last Friday that it’s working on a mobile app that lets its star video producers create live and on-demand streams for the social network, Marketing Land reported. The app will only be available to verified accounts, similar to how the Facebook Mentions app is limited to actors, athletes, journalists and other public figures.
The video app will have tools to create special intros and outros for clips, custom frames and stickers and a Community tab for celebrities to interact with their followers on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Facebook announced the app last week at the annual digital video conference in Anaheim, California, sponsored by Google’s streaming service YouTube.
Daniel Danker, a Facebook product management director, said existing Mentions users will be automatically upgraded to the mobile video app when it’s available. Danker demonstrated how the app will have an Insights tab for creators to track how their videos are performing, according to Engadget.” — Via Mobile Marketer
+Facebook Rolls out Product Video Ads as Mobile Shoppping’s Ascent Continues.
“Findings from Facebook IQ research announced in a company news post indicate reliance on mobile is on the increase for the upcoming holiday season, and mobile-first shopping is up 18% in the U.S. and 56% from 2015.
Because Facebook found 30% of mobile shoppers prefer to discover new products through video it is rolling out video for dynamic ads allowing marketers to upload product-level videos in dynamic ads instead of only static images through the Facebook API or the asset manager. It’s also introducing a new household audience targeting option that lets marketers deliver messages to family members in the same household to influence purchase decisions of products and services as well as new household measurement metrics.
In separate Facebook news, the platform has reached 2 billion monthly users as reported by TechCrunch. The user figure compares to 1.5 billion for YouTube, 889 million for WeChat, 328 million for Twitter and an estimated 255 million for Snapchat. Facebook’s other platforms include 1.2 billion for messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger, and Instagram recently passed 700 million users.” — Via MobileMarketer
+According to A Recent Study by Nielsen, 71% of mobile users add emojis and GIFS to their messages.
+3 SMS Marketing Tips Brands and Advertisers Need to Know
“SMS campaigns see engagement rates 6–8x higher than email marketing. What’s more, 48% of internet users say they would rather receive loyalty-related messages via SMS.
Although SMS marketing is preferred by some consumers and beneficial for retailers, it can be difficult to get right. When people see a message from an unfamiliar number, their first inclination might be to ignore it or treat it as spam. However, there are some practices that brands can follow to get a message across to its target audience.” — Via MobileMarketer
- Get to The Point. Keep messages short and sweet, under 160 characters. Focus on a clear objective, such as getting someone’s attention, opting someone in to your campaign, or providing an offer with a clearly outlined value.
- Know When and How to Contact Customers. There’s nothing worse than junk text messages clogging up your inbox. Limit SMS messaging to no more than four messages per month. Focus on the key times of the week and day as well. (For example, Mondays have low open rates, and sending too late in the evenings also lowers potential engagement rates.
- Provide an Opt-Out Option. Make sure your opt-out process is as obvious and easy as possible to ensure that customers have a good perception of the brand.
+Facebook Has New Ad Products for Retailers
“Facebook is continuing to woo fashion and beauty marketers with new ad and targeting options.
Positioning itself as the “new storefront for product discovery” Facebook introduced a series of new formats so retailers can cram more information into ads, basically turning them into catalogs. It’s also launching household targeting campaigns that allow marketers to reach entire families, rather than just individuals, based on information Facebook has that indicates its users are residents of the same home.
In practice, household targeting means that if, say, a couple’s teenage daughter had her eye on a particular beauty product for Christmas, advertisers can push the content to her parents.” — Via Glossy
+Snapchat Falls Farther Behind Instagram with Fashion Brands
“Snapchat’s days in the fashion industry seem to be numbered. As Instagram continues to co-opt and improve its premiere features, many of the brands who were experimenting on the platform — including Everlane and Cole Haan — have either scaled back their usage or stopped it altogether.
Fixing this does not appear to be a high priority for Snapchat. While Instagram has Eva Chen dedicated to ensuring fashion’s top brands and influencers are consistently using the platform and its latest features, the Snapchat team has no comparable position. Instead, that’s left to Rachel Racusen, Snapchat’s head of communications, who handles such relationships across categories.
“With Instagram replicating most of Snapchat’s capabilities, there’s no reason for fashion and beauty brands to maintain an actual account on the platform anymore,” said Kitty Tsang, a digital strategist at the agency Ready Set Rocket. “A brand’s owned audience on Snapchat is likely to be much smaller than it is on Instagram.”
Indeed, the number of people using Stories alone — 200 million per day — has already surpassed those on Snapchat, which attracts 161 million per day. And since Instagram launched Stories last August, Snapchat’s growth has slowed a whopping 82 percent.
“Stories is allowing users to give more access to their already existing audience,” said Gil Eyal, the CEO and co-founder of the influencer marketing platform HYPR. It’s an audience they’ve likely been building for longer and can now communicate with in multiple ways, from one outlet. “That’s where Snapchat’s real battle is,” he said.
Rent the Runway, for example, continues to use Snapchat for its two customer service–focused series, Virtual Try-On and Office Hours. In these series, similarly-sized customer experience associates try products on for shoppers and answer their frequently asked questions, respectively. However, they’ve been fielding similar requests on Instagram, too — which is where the bulk of their social output takes place.
“Our Instagram Stories strategy is about providing exclusive or behind-the-scenes access, brand advocate takeovers, and promotional highlights for new product offerings or special deals,” said Alyssa Bronander, the company’s head of social. All of these endeavors could technically be done on Snapchat, but the payoff on Instagram is more apparent.
For Rent the Runway, like many retailers, the ability to track traffic from Instagram’s swipe-up function (which can direct users to any off-platform website) to its e-commerce site — where any subsequent purchases are also accounted for — is significant. “It’s super compelling from a marketing standpoint,” said Bronander. “We can see more information around customer behavior once they leave the social platform than with Snapchat, where the analytics available are more about in-platform activity.”
Available Snapchat analytics are rudimentary, allowing users to track only the simplest of measures, like how many people viewed their stories and for how long. What’s more, you still can’t link out from the platform, forcing brands to include non-hyperlinked addresses for users to screenshot and then type into their web browser (which may be a few steps too many for most consumers).” — Via Glossy
+Apple Just Released iOS 11 to Everyone
“Are you excited about trying out the new features coming up with iOS 11? If so, Apple just released the first public beta of iOS 11 now available to download for everyone. You don’t need to pay $99 for a developer account to download it. But remember, it is still a beta.
While the company still plans to release the final version of iOS 11 this fall, Apple is going to release regular public betas over the summer. This way, the company can iron out the bugs and test new features on a large group of users.
Apple released the second developer beta just last week, so it’s safe to say that this first public beta is more or less the same build as the one in the developer channel.
But remember, you shouldn’t install an iOS beta on your primary iPhone or iPad. Some things won’t work while others might crash your phone altogether. Many developers will tell you horror stories about iPhones that simply don’t boot up because of a beta.” — Via TechCrunch
+Facebook’s Personal Assistant ‘M’ Now Suggests When to Make Video Calls or Save Content, Among Other Things
“Facebook’s intelligent assistant M has learned some new tricks, like how to suggest when to save videos shared on Facebook Messenger, when to celebrate a friend’s birthday, or when to make voice or video calls.
M makes suggestions by analyzing text used in conversation to recognize when you may want to do something like create a calendar event, hail an Uber ride, or make peer-to-peer payments. If someone asks “Where are you?” M detects the intent and suggests that you share your location. M suggestions first debuted in April.
New M features announced today will suggest videos, Facebook posts, and pages to save, or if it’s a friend’s birthday M may suggest you send them a sticker, card, or video.
Earlier this month, M learned how to speak Spanish for users in the United States and Mexico.
Facebook is also currently testing M suggestions with bots, beginning with Delivery.com.
The M personal assistant first debuted for a small batch of private testers in 2015 but reportedly had difficulty operating like other assistants. A report from The Information published in February found that 70 percent of M interactions still relied on help from humans.” — Via Venture Beat
+What the Head of Innovation at Nieman Marcus Does
“Five years in, Neiman Marcus’s innovation lab — or iLab, as it’s referred to internally — still employs a team of one: Scott Emmons, the head of innovation at Neiman Marcus.
In his role, Emmons has coordinated the company’s launches of new in-store and digital technologies through the iLab since he was assigned to run the experimental arm of the Dallas-based department store chain in 2012. During Future Stores Seattle this week, a conference focused on how retailers are updating their in-store experiences, Emmons said he’s watched many other retail innovation labs come and go. At Neiman Marcus, however — through a series of both successful and unsuccessful launches — customer-facing technology has become a corporate priority.” — Via Glossy
+E-commerce startup ThredUP launches ‘smart’ brick-and-mortar store
“E-commerce retailer thredUP on Tuesday announced the launch of its first brick-and-mortar “smart” thrift store in San Marcos, Tex., and plans to open four additional locations by the end of 2017, according to a press release emailed to Retail Dive.
The store, powered by data analytics, curates fashions by determining what brands and styles are trending in the region and updates inventory on a rolling basis, the company said.
Using mobile technology, thredUP said it will begin sending customers notifications when their favorite brands, styles and products in their size appear in store. Salespeople will also be able to personalize a store visit by pre-stocking a dressing room and selecting add-ons based on online browsing, the company said.” — Via RetailDive
