Welcome to another edition of Tuesday Newsday, where we give you the low down on what's happening in marketing and social. Keep reading for can't-miss updates to keep you informed in the coming week.
Snapchat Introduces Influencer Analytics
Last Wednesday, Snap, Inc. announced a long-awaited, full-scale Snapchat analytics feature.
The tool will provide a vast range of statistics designed to help influencers prove the performance of their social media content, including basic – yet essential – information, such as story views , view time, reach and subscribers, as well as various demographic insights, including viewer age groups and most popular regions.
Users with an Official Story, which is similar to verification on Twitter and Instagram, will be the first to gain access to the new tool. Users with “large audiences” will reportedly also have access to the tool, though no more details on the criteria Snap’s using to choose these users have been provided.
The integration of a more in-depth analytical tool marks a major leap forward for Snapchat, which has long been criticized for offering influential users very few measures by which to gauge social media content ROI, aside from the typical story view counter. This view was acknowledged in November 2017, when Snap CEO, Evan Spiegel, admitted that Snapchat’s influencers had been “neglected” and detailed plans to empower those influencers throughout 2018.
Instagram Tests Screenshot Alert Icons
Instagram stories haven’t been around nearly as long as Snapchat’s, but the Facebook-owned social media giant has already copied a great deal of its competitor's features. Now, that list includes sending users a notification when another account takes a screenshot of their story.
The implications may not seem particularly groundbreaking, but for brands, a screenshot is a clear sign of interest from another user. Businesses and influencers that are still refining their Instagram story strategy may find this sort of subtle feedback valuable in determining the social media content users actually want to see.
The feature is only available to a select number of users, and there’s no guarantee that it’ll ever see a universal rollout. But as the feature is nearly identical to that employed by Snapchat, it’s not unlikely.
Facebook to Give Breaking News a New Home
Recently, Facebook announced its decision to prioritize Facebook posts by friends and family members over news and social media content produced by brands. In spite of this, however, Facebook is preparing to offer content providers a new opportunity to entice viewers by adding a breaking news section to Facebook Watch.
Watch, which hit the Internet in August, is an on-demand video streaming platform designed to host original content, such as TV shows, created by Facebook partners. There’s currently little further information available about the News feature, and no clarification has been given as to whether it’ll follow the News Feed's new prioritization of local news over national headlines, but the feature’s implementation is sure to make a notable impact, as many users consider Facebook a major source of news.
Google Removes the “View Image” Button
For years, viewing and downloading an image via the world’s favorite search engine was as simple as finding the image in question, clicking “view image” and downloading the file to your smartphone.
But over the past few weeks, things have changed: Google has officially removed the “view image” button from the Google Images user interface. Why? As it turns out, there are a few reasons.
Upon Google’s first announcement of the move, Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, suggested that the move was intended to direct users to useful content rather than just the searched image.
Today we're launching some changes on Google Images to help connect users and useful websites. This will include removing the View Image button. The Visit button remains, so users can see images in the context of the webpages they're on. pic.twitter.com/n76KUj4ioD
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) February 15, 2018
But according to further explanation from Sullivan, as well as a statement from Getty CEO, Dawn Airy, the decision was affected, at least in part, by a recent deal between Google and Getty Images. Per Airy’s statement, Google and Getty are collaborating on features to improve attribution of photos contributed by Getty photographers.
However benevolent the intentions behind the move, it’s received its fair share of criticism, as exhibited by a host of replies to Sullivan’s initial Tweet that raise concerns about access, consumer data use and more.
That wraps up this week’s edition of Tuesday Newsday – be sure to check back next week for another roundup of the latest headlines in content marketing and social media.
In the meantime, explore these recent Virtucom Group blog posts for more in-depth insight into digital marketing, content development and more:
In The Long Run, Hiring A Copywriting Agency Is Less Costly Than Typos
4 Tricks For Clearly Communicating Complex Ideas On Your Insurance Blog
Context Is The Real King When It Comes To Content Development In 2018
