(Note: This post originally appeared on the PNConnect blog)
This Week’s Top Stories
News Feed FYI: Taking Into Account Time Spent on Stories
(Facebook Newsroom, 6/12/15)
PNConnect Insight – On the one hand, this makes a lot of sense. Just because you didn’t take an engagement action on a post doesn’t mean it’s not relevant to you, so “time spent” is important. On the other, everything Facebook is doing in regards to hosting native media — including Instant Articles — is designed to get readers to spend more time with a story and stay on Facebook itself. So, this change reinforces a system where the biggest benefits are felt by the media players who work with Facebook’s rules, which are designed to benefit Facebook more than anything else. Read more of our perspective on this news here.
Social Media
Meerkat Reimagines Live Video Branding With CMT and Mountain Dew
(Adweek, 6/10/15)
PNConnect Insight – Meerkat is obviously hoping some high-profile brand attention will help it keep growing as it competes against Periscope.
LinkedIn Has Fundamentally Changed How You Interact With People
(ReadWrite, 6/17/15)
PNConnect Insight – Whether you call it just dealing with significant growth, or trying to be more like Twitter or Instagram, LinkedIn is changing its model and is no longer requiring two-way connections. This is good news for any brand or thought leader who is publishing original content, as your content can now be accessed by a much larger audience. This move just makes publishing on LinkedIn a more attractive tactic for the brands and leaders whose audience is found on that network.
Pinterest Is Adding Verified Accounts And A Way To Narrow Your Search
(Mashable, 6/17/15)
PNConnect Insight – While the verified accounts are in “beta” right now (in that they’re not yet being offered to every brand on Pinterest), it’s only a matter of time. This should help brands with large and enthusiastic followings — which tend to get copycat accounts or tribute accounts created regularly — to stand out among the Pinterest crowd. The improved search is another indication that Pinterest is serious about becoming a retail channel.
Publishing
New IAB Report Spotlights Media Consumption Becoming Liquid Across Platforms
(Adweek, 6/14/15)
PNConnect Insight – The audience continues to fragment, and it’s not necessarily loyal to any brand or social network. Plan your content accordingly.
How Cards Are Taking Over Web Design
(The Next Web, 6/16/15)
PNConnect Insight – The card approach — packaging focused text and imagery in a rectangular container — has become a pervasive design approach and an interesting content form in itself. Cards may tease more substantial content, as in many Facebook and Twitter posts, or provide a discrete, compact piece of content, as on Pinterest or in Google’s cards that answer basic search queries. The article provides a helpful overview of this notable trend.
Media/Journalism
A Central Hub for Social Reporting: Why Hyper-Distributed Reported.ly Still Decided to Make a Website
(Nieman Lab, 6/16/15)
PNConnect Insight – Why did Reported.ly, a venture based on the idea of only publishing natively on social networks, decide to create a website? To provide context, add depth, and to maintain an archive — in other words, the primary reasons you should never go completely native on social networks.
Tools
Removing the 140 character limit from Direct Messages
(Twitter Dev Community, 6/11/15)
PNConnect Insight – When your platform’s original claim to fame was its character limit, this is certainly an interesting shift. But the end result is basic functionality you’d expect in email or any messaging app, only not packaged as a stand-alone app. With this news, it seems increasingly likely that a stand-alone experience is on its way.
A YouTube Built for Gamers
(YouTube Blog, 6/12/15)
PNConnect Insight – YouTube is obviously feeling the heat from Twitch, which dominates the livestreaming gaming video field. The video leader will need to flex its considerable muscle as it works to overcome engrained behaviors and prove its value in this growing niche market.
Introducing a More Seamless Video Experience with Autoplay
(Twitter Blog, 6/16/15)
PNConnect Insight – We all knew this was going to happen. Now it’s happened. Proceed carefully posting videos during these early days, as there’s likely to be strong initial backlash among Twitter users. For those brands who are using video on Twitter — whether Vine or directly uploaded to Twitter — this is good news, as the autoplay will go further in attracting users’ attention and drawing them in, ensuring that they actually pay attention to your content instead of just seeing it.
Customer Service
Study: Brand Managers Ignore 80% of Complaints on Twitter
(PR Daily, 6/15/15)
PNConnect Insight – The 100% standard is and always has been unrealistic, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. Stepping up responsiveness typically means realigning resources to direct more attention to inbound comments, including general feedback in addition to specific customer service concerns. As always, it’s essential to integrate social efforts with other customer service departments to provide the best possible experience.