Facebook, which has long relied on other people to provide it with content, is going to start paying for its own stuff, too. Facebook is starting to talk to TV studios and other video producers about licensing shows, with the hope of boosting the social network’s video efforts. The talks, which include discussions for scripted shows, game shows and sports, seem similar to Facebook’s attempt to boost live video earlier this year, when it struck deals with various publishers, including Vox Media, to produce live content exclusively for the company. So much for not being a media company.
When it comes to measurement errors, the third time is even less charming than the second and first. Last week, it was reported that Facebook had been miscalculating how often users react to live videos and how often users like and share links posted on Facebook. Because the error is the third of its kind since September, some marketers are questioning Facebook’s maturity. BLITZ’s director of social, Kevin Wright, says “given the frequency and severity of the errors being discovered, Facebook should be proactively reaching out to their partners.” Proactivity is key.
The aftershocks of Facebook’s measurement errors continue to ripple across the advertising industry. While Facebook has emphasized that the flawed figures — such as average watch time, organic reach and video completion rates — did not affect how much money it charged advertisers for their campaigns, that doesn’t mean advertisers and their agencies haven’t been affected. Just ask BLITZ’s Director of Social Media, Kevin Wright, who shares how some marketers have been shook up. Years to build, seconds to destroy.
Facebook wants to completely remove the barrier between you and games on its platform, and it is using HTML5 to accomplish that across mobile and the web. Instant Games are a new feature from Facebook that enable you to immediately start playing a game on Facebook’s service without having to install a game or an app. The games may show up in your News Feed when you’re on a desktop computer or even when you’re browsing on Android or iOS — but no matter what, you can click on the game to boot it up for on-demand action. Stay and play.
Facebook’s Instagram is stepping up its features to better compete with the dancing ghost. Yesterday, Instagram announced live video in Instagram Stories and ephemeral photos and videos for group and one-on-one messages. Now, there's little to differentiate the two platforms for marketers, according to Justin Celko, our own Associate Director of Social Media at BLITZ. To him, the difference lies in Instagram's history. One more reason to skip Snapchat.
Facebook is opening itself up to more third party measurement in a bid to stop the spread of negative sentiment among advertisers that’s building in the wake of its admission of more miscalculated metrics. Concerns that the social network can’t continue to ‘mark its own homework’ have come to a head after trust in it appeared to have been knocked following this week’s revelations. A problem not Facebook's alone to solve.
The social network is absolutely crushing the competition online, new information from the Pew Research Center shows — in case you needed more evidence. Seventy-nine percent of American adults who use the internet are on Facebook, and 76 percent of them say they use it every day. The next-largest social network is Facebook-owned Instagram, with 32 percent of online adults. Welcome to Facebook's internet.
Facebook will soon display more graphic content including violence and nudity that would normally violate its community standards as long as they’re newsworthy or important enough. The move comes after criticism of Facebook’s temporary censorship of the famous “Napalm Girl” nude photo of a child from the Vietnam War, which was shared by a Norwegian journalist and later by the newspaper he works for. The art of sex and war.
Whether they’re anxious about being at the whim of Facebook’s endless algorithm changes, eager to game Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages initiative or just recognize they can’t leave a stone unturned when it comes to drilling for traffic, publishers are turning to search, again. Looking good, search.
Facebook has a long, fairly embarrassing track record of trying to clone Snapchat's features and core appeal. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, is actually doing a pretty decent job at it, but Facebook has been through a number of failed attempts over the last several years. It's not giving up, though. The company has quietly launched another effort to clone a big element of Snapchat's formula: stories. Yes, with filters.
