We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #401

Mashup
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Look out Snapchat, Instagram is coming for your ‘Discover’ audience
Instagram has released plans to launch a Snapchat ‘Discover’-style video hub. The videos will range from roughly five to fifteen minutes in length, and will consist of content similar to those from YouTube creators – less HBO miniseries, more teen Vlogger with a decent budget. Instagram will apparently eventually allow creators to monetise content, though they haven’t divulged more than vague details there yet.Instagram Stories Steals Snapchat Users

Instagram lets users instantly repost Stories they’re mentioned in
Instagram last week announced the launch of a new feature, @mention Sharing, which will enable users to instantly reshare a Story they’re mentioned in to their own Story. From now on whenever users publish a Story with a friend tagged, they will receive a pop-up that the other users will be able to reshare the post for 24 hours. The taggee will then receive a notification giving them the option to share – as well as being able to make adjustments to the new version of the post, such as adding stickers, text and more. This update only applies to public accounts and on Instagram’s v48 of its Android and iOS app.



Scroll all about it! Facebook nears deal for News shows
Exciting times lay ahead as Facebook nears closing a deal which will mean it will show news programmes on its Facebook Watch platform – containing content from CNN and Fox News, among others. The news programmes are financed by Facebook and will run solely on the platform.

Lip sync for your Live with Facebook
Thanks to a deal struck earlier this year with all three major labels, Facebook is now testing an update which will allow music-lovers to choose from millions of titles to overlay onto their personal videos. The update is planned to be rolled out globally, but with not set timeframe. In addition, the social network has launched a new feature, Lip Sync Live, in selected markets – which enables users to sing along to their favourite tracks in Live video mode. The new feature aims to be a competitor to existing platforms such as Dubsmash and Musical.ly, and already comes complete with a “With” option so friends can be brought into the performance. These integrations are the first of many planned by Facebook, with more details to be announced.



Facebook enters the gamer-sphere with Fb.gg
With young adult gamers spending over three hours per week watching other people play, it’s no wonder that Facebook wants a cut of that action. Fb.gg (from ‘good game’ – the post-competition courtesy popular amongst gamers) will show videos of popular gamers and streaming celebrities, based on their Likes and Follows. Because of Facebook’s personalised recommendations based on activity, YouTube and Twitch could lose the monopoly on gamer audiences to the social network.Fb.gg Facebook Gaming

Facebook Fundraisers to boost non profits
Facebook is putting the ‘fun’ back in fundraising with a new Facebook Fundraisers feature. Nonprofits can start fundraisers on their own pages, whilst brands can raise money for nonprofit causes, marrying the processes of promoting a cause and accepting donations. The social network has seen great success in personal fundraising on the platform over the past few years, so lets hope this feature does just as well!

Facebook Messenger Stories adds new ‘Poll’ feature
After the success of Instagram’s ‘Poll’ feature in Stories, Facebook has decided to adopt the feature too, allowing people even more avenues to get help on decisions from their peers. Facebook had widely acknowledged that Stories are the future of social sharing, however their own application of the Stories model has not been as successful as they had hoped. Will you be using the new feature on Facebook? [Yes] [No]

Snapchat sees ad prices drop
After years of its “ungodly’ ad prices being a repeated barrier to entry for many brands, Snapchat “today has the lowest ad prices for its peers” – which some attribute to the platform’s recent move from a direct-sales ad team, to a fully automated programmatic ad platform. The lower prices however can also be attributed to the fact that “its auctions are not as compeitigve as they are for ad space on Facebook”, which helps prices stay more reasonable for marketers looking to advertise on the platform. This comes as the social network looks to beef up its direct-response advertising and is rolling out Shoppable Snap Ads. Full details on Snapchat’s ad expansion plans can be found here.

New SeatGeek/Snapchat integration will result in a lot more impulse purchases (probably)
Snapchat users can now buy tickets to sports games and concerts directly through the app, thanks to a new integration with SeatGeek. The brand new feature is the first ticket-buying experience in Snapchat’s e-commerce expansions. SeatGeek co-founder Russ D’Souza paints the update as a kind of democratisation of ticket sales, claiming that “For too long, the legacy ticketing approach has been to make it difficult for teams to sell tickets in lots of places… Teams should want to sell their tickets in as many places as possible.” Your inner fangirl will love it. Your wallet won’t, but… swings and roundabouts, am I right?

SeatGeek Snapchat


Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Snapchat and DC’s AR challenge
Comic book fans who haven’t managed to get tickets to this year’s San Diego Comic Cons aren’t completely out of luck yet. Snapchat and DC Comics have created a challenge where fans can create a DC-themed lens featuring Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, for the chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to the world-famous comic book convention. The contest is open to the US only, so sorry international nerds, this one’s not for you.