In an effort to cut down on misleading use of their Live video format Facebook is cracking down.
They’ve added a section to their Live API Facebook Platform Policy: “Don’t use the API to publish only images (ex: don’t publish static, animated, or looping images), or to live-stream polls associated with unmoving or ambient broadcasts.”
The types of videos in question and being targeted are simply a computer graphic with a looping background. These videos are considered undesirable and not true “live” video. They’re concerned that they reduce the user experience.
These types of videos are often used as click bait. Since Facebook alerts fans and friends when a Page goes live or a friend goes live, it creates a bad experience if the visitor then gets a repeating banner image video!
It’s a form of spam and people trying to “game” the system rather than use it as intended. Create high-quality videos for your viewers and you won’t have any issues.
Facebook announced 2 new features that will make it easier for you to connect in real time and share experiences on Facebook Live.
Have a private chat with your friends during a public live broadcast. This lets you talk privately as you watch corporately.
Go live with a friend! Select a guest from your live viewers and they can choose to join you or not. Go live in portrait mode for a picture in picture experience or landscape mode for a side by side experience.
So many possibilities for Marketing! This is a feature that has been in demand and is now here. Ideas:
Instagram Stories added a copycat of Snapchat's augmented reality selfie filters. They're called "face filters" and work just like Snapchat. The filters are easy to use but error-prone.
The face filters are the last Snapchat feature missing from Instagram. Now one can use Instagram just like they use Snapchat. I’m sure we’ll see these carry over to Facebook Messenger Day also.
This new feature, in beta testing, compiles publicly shared Instagram Stories posts, tagged with a location sticker. Users can then visit that business, landmark or the place’s Instagram page and watch a slideshow story of posts from that location shared by anyone, not simply those they follow.
People that may not have known about a business or event will now have access to learning about it with Location Stories. It’s a one-to-many feature that Instagram is hoping helps people spend even more time in the app.
In an effort to differentiate itself from Facebook, Snapchat expanded its ad products. These new ad features will take advantage of Snapchat’s lenses and geofilters. The new products will include World Lenses, Audience Lenses, and Smart Geofilters.
The update to SnapChat's ad products is the largest update to its Sponsored Creative Tools since the first branded Lens debuted in 2015. On average, 1 in 3 daily users plays with Lenses every day. Snaps with Geofilters are viewed, on average, over 1 billion times a day.
Will it work? Time will tell. Snapchat is needing to innovate and differentiate as Instagram continues to grow and take some of its market.
That’s a bit of the Social Media news from the past 14 days! Always something new, always something interesting.
