We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #283
The data behind Instagram’s organic reach and growth decline
A new study from Locowise has revealed the undeniable fact that the good times of organic reach and growth on Instagram are over. The organic growth decline from April to October this year is at 86.67% and total engagement decline from April to October came in at 51.43%, with a 23% drop from September to October alone. One thing of course that is increasing is the amount of ads you’ll be served on the platform and the curation of content surrounding specific live events in the style of Twitter Moments.
Facebook cuts traffic to top publishers by 32% since January
According to a report by SimpleReach, a distribution analytics company, some of the biggest publishers using Facebook are seeing a massive drop off in traffic to their websites, with the most reliant getting hit hardest with a cut of up to 42.7%. A couple of theories are being bandied around as to why this is happening. The first: that Facebook is trying to complete the circle and keep users in its grasp at all times and so only giving traffic to instant articles and videos that have been uploaded to the site, and not links that take people to publishers’ own websites. The second: that Facebook is trying to encourage users to post more of their own content, after reports that we’re become more passive on the platform.
Facebook makes a LOT of money in Q3 from ad sales
Facebook has reported in its Q3 earnings report that advertising sales have increased 45 percent year over year to a tidy $4.3 billion. Mark Zuckerberg said:
We had a good quarter and got a lot done. We’re focused on innovating and investing for the long term to serve our community and connect the entire world*.
*muhahhahhhha
Total monthly active users have also reached 1.55 billion in Q3, a 14% increase compared to the same time last year. The platform has also reported that it is getting 8 billion average daily video views, up 4 billion just since April. This increase is attributed to a few factors; it’s testing a Suggested Video interface and a dedicated video feed, where people can browse just videos shared by friends and ones that are trending. It is also testing picture-in-picture viewing, so people can browse their newsfeeds while watching a video and the option to save videos to watch later.
Facebook’s new product lets merchants target audiences that are nearby
After revealing staggering advertising profits, Facebook is now looking to capitalise on local businesses by creating two new products to a) let merchants learn more about their local audiences and b) target location based ads to these audiences. A new insights tab is launching so business owners can learn more about the people up to 1,500ft away from their shops, and the percentage of those people who have seen their ads. Ads can now include dynamic copy that changes based on the stores’ locations, and the CTA button can offer directions to users nearest store.
Facebook launches “Music Stories” – a new way to share music
Welcome Music Stories! Users can now post links from Spotify and Apple music in their status fields and a 30 second preview will generate, which can be played directly on Facebook. Friends can then buy or stream the tracks on their own devices. In other music news, is Bieber cool now? I’m confused. – Discuss.
Twitter changes favourites to likes
In a move that has been done to encourage users to show more love on Twitter, the star-shaped ‘favourite’ has been replaced with a heart-shaped ‘like’ button, with the former being labeled as ‘confusing’ for users. Jim Coleman, Managing Director of We Are Social in the UK, said about the change:
Thanks to Facebook, people are familiar and comfortable with the concept of a like and I think Twitter hit the nail on the head when it said “You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favourite” – it wants to see users engaging with content that resonates more regularly.
Twitter gears up to launch ‘Moments’ UK with new journalist hires
Twitter is on the hunt for journalists to work on its Moments service in the UK, before it’s international launch following its US launch. Moments curates the top news stories across different topics from celebs to hard news and is updated live. Snapchat is also on a hiring spree as it looks to open its first European office in London, with senior staff joining from, Twitter and Buzzfeed.
Snap views have increased threefold since May
Snapchat has been whipping out the new features this year and it seems to be paying off with snaps and videos being viewed over 6 billion times a day, a three times the figure it was in May. The huge increase could be down to the introduction of Snapchat Stories, which now showcases content from live events and is Snapchat’s most popular feature. You can also play with replays, rewinds, stickers and create selfies where different things just endlessly pour out of your mouth, who can resist that!
Pinterest roll out Buyable Pins to Android and the ‘Pinterest Shop’
Buyable pins are now available for Android users, following their initial launch for Apple’s iOS devices only which will increase their potential reach to an additional 1.4 billion devices. The pins are a way of bridging the gap between people seeing something like and actually buying it. Not available on desktop yet, Pinterest have chosen to concentrate their main efforts to mobile first as 80% of all Pinners use mobile to access the platform. There are 60 million buyable pins currently on the site and Pinterest now automatically captures location data from its 100 million members who use its Place Pins service which could mean more revenue generation down the road through on location-based targeting and selling.
It also announced the introduction of the Pinterest Shop, a section that features a collection of Buyable Pins trending among its users. Items range from popular denim shirts to sweaters and scarves…
Dove re-balances hair discrimination with wavy haired emoji keyboard
As part of their Love Your Curls campaign, Dove has launched a special emoji keyboard featuring curly hair. It was noticed by the brand that even though one in three women in the US has naturally curly hair, all of the current emoji have straight hair (or no hair! 😱). Dove has also partnered with Twitter, so that each time someone shares a #LoveYourCurls hashtag, a custom curly-haired emoji will appear within the tweet.
Fifteen becomes the first Periscope horror movie
Created by the team behind Paranormal activity, Fifteen is the story of fictional serial killer who has a penchant for live streaming. Blumhouse Productions are not unfamiliar with radical new ways of presenting their stories, as earlier this year the production company also released Unfriended, a horror film that took place entirely on the screen of a young girl’s computer screen.
LIVE on #Periscope: Watch me kill 🔪👣🎃#Halloween https://t.co/uwLTXb1ExS
— Blumhouse (@blumhouse) October 30, 2015
Sprite wants you to get more Snapchat friends via its cans
Snapchat has gathered 100 million monthly users, despite not being that old. So, brands are flocking to the platform, and Sprite is one of them, jumping on the bandwagon for its recent campaign.
In Brazil, Sprite is inviting Snapchat users to place their QR ‘Snapcodes’ on millions of its cans in an effort called RFRSH Na Lata (meaning “refresh on the can”). Consumers of the soda can submit their Snapcodes on a microsite, and winning accounts will be chosen by the brand in December. This is designed to help people on the platform gain more friends, and is being promoted through online videos. Already, 15 Snapchat users who had big followings have got their Snapcodes printed on the soda cans and the campaign reportedly drove over 2 million Snapchat views in just a few days.