Brian Meert's Blog, page 114

Instagram Reaches Major Milestone of 1 Billion Monthly Users

June 28, 2018
Anna Hubbel

Instagram Reaches Major Milestone of 1 Billion Monthly Users. #instagram #socialmedia #advertisingagency
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Instagram has hit the big time. This month, the platform announced its milestone of 1 billion monthly active users. In September 2017, this achievement was foreshadowed with a milestone of 800 million. It was just a matter of time.

According to Tech Crunch, rival platform Snapchat saw only a 2.13 percent growth in daily user count in Q1 2018, bringing it to 191 million. Even Facebook’s monthly user count only grew 3.14 percent. Instagram surpassed its parent platform at 5 percent per quarter.

As we all know, great power comes with great responsibility. Now that Instagram has such a massive user base, Tech Crunch predicts the platform will be expected to take on a more prominent role in generating revenue for the Facebook family. Already, according to Emarketer, 28.2 percent of Facebook’s mobile ad spend comes from Instagram. Additionally, Tech Crunch says Emarketer predicts Instagram will account for $5.48 billion in 2018 US ad revenue.

Furthermore, Instagram’s new long-form video hub IGTV may become the focus of many advertisers who want to reach the platform’s audience of 1 billion users. Instagram recently launched the video space, which rivals YouTube and Snapchat Discover, as both an in-app feature and a standalone app. Nothing has yet been announced regarding monetization through IGTV; however, the growing popularity of Instagram all but guarantees the video hub will become a major source of ad revenue.

We must not forget that Instagram is a Facebook product. Any success for the former is a success for the latter. So although the Facebook platform is currently struggling to retain young users and recover from privacy scandals, Instagram continues to maintain a large following. Facebook is wise to foster more focus on Instagram because its visual appeal and separate branding appear to overcome any negative perceptions underlying the parent company. The biggest challenge for Instagram will be remaining diligent even in its success to avoid any privacy scandals on its own platform.

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Google AdWords Introduces New Creative Suite for YouTube Storytellers

June 28, 2018

Anna Hubbel

Google AdWords Introduces New Creative Suite for YouTube Storytellers. #google #adwords #youtube
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Telling a story that reels in your audience, captures their attention, and inspires them to take action is a great skill. It’s also hard. It’s especially difficult to also determine whether the video you spent a lot of time and effort on is performing the way you want it to.

You will be excited to learn that Google AdWords recently introduced a YouTube creative suite, which offers new tools for storytelling, testing, and measurement. That’s right: new toys! Let’s take a look at the suite and what video ventures await you.

Test Creative Using Video Experiments

AdWord’s new tool Video Experiments helps you test creatives to see how the creatives affect metrics such as awareness, consideration, and purchase intent. You can see results for cleanly segmented experiments in as little as three days, and the experiments can run at no extra cost on YouTube. Gone are the days of spending time and money on simulated ad scenarios to see what might work. Instead, spend it on something you know will work. Video Experiments will launch in beta this month.

Understand Performance Using Video Creative Analytics

Video Creative Analytics will make it easier to identify and read quantitative creative insights for your video creative. You’ll better understand how different audiences respond to different elements of your video. AdWords plans to expand this capability later this year to also tell you what percent of your audience views key moments (e.g. logo, a featured product, etc.) throughout your video. With this new resource, you’ll identify which elements are performing well and ultimately inform your creative efforts.

Create Multiple Versions Using Director Mix

YouTube Director Mix makes it possible to create multiple versions of a video. You can simply swap different elements for each version to see how they impact performance for different audiences or contexts. For example, you can see how your video works with two or more different images, changing only the image in each version. You can do the same with text, sound, and other elements. This tool is currently in alpha.

Showcase Your Message Using Video Ad Sequencing

Video Ad Sequencing offers a unique way to share the story of your brand or a product message in an ad series. You may choose to share these ads in sequential order or as scattered spurts of content within a randomized series. This tool is also in alpha, and it can drive deeper engagement, awareness, or consideration, depending on your campaign’s goals.

Who’s Using It?

Big brands are already taking advantage of YouTube’s new creative suite. Kellogg’s is using Director Mix to personalize different versions of its video creative for different audiences. The campaign resulted in a 29 percent lift in ad recall, a 15 percent lift in purchase consideration, and a 4 percent lift in sales and market share growth

Much like Kellogg’s, 20th Century Fox is also taking advantage, combining experimentation with Video Ad Sequencing to deliver storytelling intros for new films. The campaign generated a 149 percent uplift in consideration, a 33 percent uplift in view-through rate, and a 157 percent uplift in organic title searches.

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Why Is Instagram Advertising Important to My Business?

June 27, 2018
Anna Hubbel

Why Is Instagram Advertising Important to My Business? #business #instagram #digitalmarketing
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With Facebook currently fixing PR nightmares and Snapchat still proving its worth to investors, Instagram is the one platform that’s remained steadfast in its success. Instagram’s focus on stunning visuals makes it a hit among users, and its brand-friendly features a cash cow for advertisers.

Instagram advertising is a must for any digital campaign because it offers significant creative opportunities for photo, video, and Story formats and offers a massive user base that you can attract with stunning, hyper-targeted ads. But those are just a few reasons for using Instagram to achieve your digital campaign goals. In this article, I’ll talk about some specific reasons why Instagram advertising is important to your business.

Instagram Advertising vs Organic Reach

Instagram has over two million monthly advertisers fighting for the attention of over 300 million daily active users. With these kinds of numbers, competition for a spot in Instagram feeds and Discover are high. This competitiveness makes it extremely difficult to reach users organically. Even if you use hashtags, those hashtags are used in thousands of posts—your posts can easily be pushed down to the bottom of feeds by other users’ posts, making it harder for people to find your content.

Here are examples of popular hashtags used by millions of users, to name a few:

#throwbackthursday—42,005,489 posts
#catsofinstagram—82,491,794 posts
#instafashion—84,415,976 posts
#smallbusiness—13,327,413 posts
#empoweringwomen—1,599,182 posts
#instaquote—3,170,108 posts
#flashbackfriday—12,684,252
#socialmediamarketing—5,333,499

These, among countless others, are used not only by other advertisers but also by average users. So you’d be right to assume that reaching users organically takes a lot of work. But when you use Instagram advertising, your content will appear higher in feeds for as long as you want, exposing you to more potential followers.

Instagram Influences Users’ Purchase Intent

Instagram is influencers’ favorite platform to grow their fans. Influencers are people (often celebrities) with a massive social media following. Huda Kattan, for example, is an Instagram influencer who specializes in beauty. She has 25.7 million Instagram followers and has worked with brands such as Revlon and Sephora. Another influencer, one whom you likely know, is Kim Kardashian West. Kim has 112 million Instagram followers. Because of her popularity, brands such as Sugar Bear Hair work with her.

Brands often work with influencers because of their large followings and because of their influence on their fans (hence the word “influencer”). Because their followers admire and trust them, they are the perfect partner to have when promoting products or services. Influencers, unlike the brands that sponsor them, suggest rather than sell products they’ve tried. For that reason, they function as social proof for brands.

Working with influencers is a big advantage of Instagram marketing. Many influencers use Instagram to connect with fans and post their content. Partnering with influencers on Instagram is particularly effect because, as it turns out, users become more interested in a brand after seeing it on Instagram. Imagine how much more interested those users will be when they see that a brand is highly recommended by a famous influencer.

Instagram Makes It Easy to Grow Your Business

Although Instagram puts its users first, it never neglects the businesses that rely on its platform for profit. Instagram has proven its worth to businesses by rolling out features that help people with their business goals. For example, Instagram recently released Instagram’s Shoppable Tags to Instagram Stories, allowing users to make purchases straight from Stories. Previously, the tags were only available to posts in the feed.

Instagram also released Mention Sharing (great for brand promotion), Native Payments (simplifies the purchasing process in the app), and full-screen ads (for a more immersive experience). All of these features make it easy for businesses to grow using its platform.

Find the Right Audience with Instagram Advertising

No matter how beautiful your ads, no matter how much time you worked on them, all of your efforts will be for nothing if your message doesn’t resonate with your audience. Imagine creating an ad that promotes your summer dresses only for those ads to be seen by 40-year-old men who have absolutely no interest in women’s clothing. In that situation, your ad’s costs will increase, your relevance score will drop, and your returns will dwindle. Thankfully, Instagram has numerous targeting tools to help you send your ad to the right audience.

With Instagram’s targeting options, you can target users based on

Location (e.g. states, provinces, cities, countries)
Demographics (e.g. age, gender)
Interests (e.g. apps they use, influencers or brands they follow)
Behaviors (e.g. activities they take part in both on or off Instagram and Facebook)
Custom Audiences (i.e. customers you already have in a list)
Lookalike Audiences (i.e. users with similar attributes to your existing customers)
Automated Targeting (i.e. an audience Instagram generates based on who it believes will be interested in your business)

Instagram’s targeting options help you identify and reach your desired audience with ease.

Many Businesses Found Success in Instagram Advertising

If you’re still debating the idea, look to the success stories of major companies that achieved their goals by advertising on Instagram.

Frito-Lay’s Tostitos partnered with the Dallas Cowboys in 2017 to promote its Tostitos Yellow Corn Bite Size tortilla chips on Instagram Stories. With a target audience consisting of users in the 18 to 65 age range with an interest in the NFL or the Cowboys, the campaign achieved the following results:

A 0.87 percent lift in sales
A 1 percent lift in household penetration
A total reach of 14.7 million people

With a goal of converting website visitors, fashion footwear company Chinese Laundry launched an “Instagram-only” sale to deliver relevant ads to its Custom Audience. Specifically, the company used a fun Boomerang video to promote the sale. Here are the results:

Increased return on ad spend by an average of 32 percent
An overall 8.8X return on ad spend

Gymshark, a UK-based fitness wear brand, advertised with Instagram Stories to drive sales for its Flex fitness line. Specifically, the brand used bold and colorful photos over which “Swipe Up Now” text flowed to drive website visits and purchases. The successful campaign generated

Over 2,400 sales
A 9X return on ad spend
50 percent lower cost per acquisition

As you can see, there are many reasons why Instagram advertising is important for your business. It’s more efficient than trying to reach users organically, it’s more influential, it offers precise audience targeting, and it has a great track record.

Convinced yet?

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Facebook Lifts Ban on Cryptocurrency

June 26, 2018
Anne Felicitas

After months of deliberation, Facebook finally lifts the ban on cryptocurrency ads. Facebook announced the policy change today, which is effective immediately.

The ban lift, however, does not come without stipulations. Advertisers who want to run cryptocurrency ads must submit this application. The application will request additional public background information about the business including licenses and whether or not the cryptocurrency is traded on stock exchange.

Facebook will still revise the new policy over time based on feedback. Although Facebook lifts the ban on cryptocurrency, it did not lift the ban on binary options and initial coin offerings.

Why Facebook Banned Cryptocurrency in January

Facebook banned binary options, ICOs, and cryptocurrency earlier this year at a time of heightened interest in these types of alternative currencies. However, with heightened interest came bad actors, such BitConnect, a Ponzi scam, and Prodeum, a company that disappeared with investors’ money. Because of these bad actors and the negative reputation cryptocurrency gained, Facebook decided to ban cryptocurrency to protect its users from scams and deceptive ads.

“We’ve created a new policy that prohibits ads that promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional products, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency,” said Facebook’s product management director Ron Leathern in a statement in January.

Lifting the ban on cryptocurrency will add to Facebook’s more than five million advertisers. With this many advertisers in its platform, it will be difficult for the company to surveil all businesses and their activities. For that reason, Facebook encourages its users to report any ads that violate its policies.

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Don’t Go Live on Facebook without These 7 Essentials

June 26, 2018
Anna Hubbel

Don't Go Live on Facebook without These 7 Essentials. #facebook #videomarketing #business
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Starting a Facebook live stream video is daunting. You can’t edit it or control any unexpected occurrences. But with mobile video as one of the most popular forms of media consumption, live streaming offers major business benefits. It can also be a fun venture.

While some live stream videos work best as a spontaneous moment, when you’re going for a particular angle or message, you shouldn’t just wing it, according to Forbes. You should plan and prepare to leave a lasting impression and get the most out of live streaming.

To plan a killer Facebook live stream video, there are seven things you need to do:

Use Three-Point Lighting
Use a Tripod
Use an External Microphone
Use Facebook Pages Manager
Inform the Public Before Going Live
Don’t Panic While Streaming
Relax and Have Fun

1. Use Three-Point Lighting

According to Forbes, natural lighting works well in some cases, such as during a bright, sunny day outdoors. But depending on your subject matter and location, production lighting may be the better option for producing a professional live stream.

When live streaming, use three-point lighting, placing light in three different directions. Those three different lights are called key lighting, fill lighting, and backlighting.

Key Lighting: placed to the left or right of the camera, with the light angled and directed at you.
Fill Lighting: placed on the side of the camera opposite your key lighting. This lighting fills in the shadow cast by the key lighting, so both lights should be angled slightly towards each other.
Backlighting: placed behind you. This lighting highlights your frame so you stand out from the background.

2. Use a Tripod

A shaky camera can make viewers dizzy, even nauseous. Use a tripod to keep your stream steady. A steady camera also looks more professional and allows you to focus on the live stream instead of worrying about how you’re holding the camera.

3. Use an External Microphone

An external microphone produces clean and rich audio so your audience doesn’t have to struggle to hear while watching your stream. It also diminishes any disruptive buzz. Your audience is more likely to watch your live stream if your audio isn’t hurting their ears.

4. Use Facebook Pages Manager

Facebook Pages Manager is Facebook’s app that allows you to easily manage your Page from your mobile device. You’ll need this app to go live. Here’s how:

With Pages Manager open on your mobile device, select the post icon as you would for making any post.
Select the “Go Live” option.
Write a brief description of your video to generate interest.
Tap “Go Live,” which will start a 3-second countdown to your live broadcast.
To stop streaming, tap “Finish.”

As you’re live streaming, you’ll see real-time comments and reactions to your stream, as well as the number of users currently watching.

5. Inform the Public Before Going Live

When you have a specific date and time you plan to go live, share promotional posts or short videos about it to build anticipation and prepare viewers to tune in to your broadcast. Give them teasers or brief summaries of what to expect. This self-promotion will help build your number of viewers.

6. Don’t Panic While Streaming

Since you’re recording this video live, you have to accept that it doesn’t have to be perfect. You can’t edit it, and that’s okay. Audiences tend to enjoy spontaneous and real moments more than content that feels so planned that it’s stifled. If things don’t go as planned, don’t let your audience see you panic.

7. Relax and Have Fun with It

Audiences like videos because they’re fun. And when you’re having fun, your audience has fun. When you’ve planned your live stream to be as great as it can be, relax and have fun with it.

8. Examples of Things to Live Stream

Here are some examples of live streaming ideas you can use for your business:

Behind-the-scenes tour of your business or event
New product launches
Interviews
Q&As
Live online classes
Snippets of concerts
Product demos
Webinars

Now go out and go live!

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Build Better Chatbots Faster with Chatfuel’s New Template Marketplace

June 25, 2018
Anna Hubbel

Build Better Chatbots Faster with Chatfuel’s New Template Marketplace. #chatbots #business #chatfuel
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Bot building just got better. Chatfuel, a site where people with no coding skills can design full-featured Messenger chatbots, recently launched a template marketplace for creators to share their designs. Now, bot builders can peruse templates built by experienced creators to further improve their workflow.

Chatbots and Their Benefits to Businesses

Chatbots present several benefits to businesses. They provide optimal user experiences for modern users who dislike phone calls, helping businesses contact customers or present offerings at a quick, automated pace. They also help businesses create personalized experiences so users are more receptive to marketing messages, ultimately resulting in conversions. Most important, chatbots can sell products directly to users, bringing shopping to Messenger. Despite all of these benefits, businesses face the challenge of creating bots that perform optimally according to the business’s goals.

Chatfuel Provides a Solution to Inexperienced Chatbot Creators

That’s where Chatfuel’s new marketplace comes in. Experienced creators, now officially dubbed Chatfuel Creators, inspired the genesis of such a marketplace after generously sharing their designs with the Chatfuel community. The final result is a dedicated space for awesome bot-building artistry. If a business doesn’t know where to begin when building a bot, it can refer to Chatfuel’s collection of templates for inspiration.

“Because when it comes to Messenger marketing, we’re all in the same boat,” Chatfuel said in a mass email announcing the marketplace launch. “If bots are spammy or poorly designed, the industry will suffer. Our marketplace is a gateway for sharing experiences that lift up the industry as a whole.”

Automated chats are the future of content marketing. As more resources like Chatfuel’s template marketplace become available, workflows will become smoother and more business goals will be reached. And more goals reached means more happy customers who will return again and again for great user experiences.

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How to Build a Successful Amazon Page

June 13, 2018
Anna Hubbel 

How to Build a Successful Amazon Page. #amazon #amazonsellers #salsify
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Amazon is massive, complex, and full of exciting opportunities. It’s daunting to enter the Amazon selling realm. But if you’re going to do it, you need to set yourself up for success with the right knowledge.

Salsify recently hosted a webinar titled “Build a Best-Selling Page on Amazon,” in which Andrew Waber, data insights and media relations manager, and Josh Silverman, director of analytics and data science at Salsify, talk about winning strategies for brands selling products on Amazon. This article covers the webinar highlights to help you win on one of the biggest product search engines in America.

What Does It Take to Win on Amazon?

Selling on Amazon is extremely competitive. That means beating your competition is the key path to success. There is no safe period when you can be comfortable in your success. Your competitive edge must be ongoing.

Amazon Is a Conversion Machine

Amazon is a conversion machine. If your products convert at a higher rate than your competitors’, the products will appear higher in search results. A higher search rank will result in more sales, will result in more reviews and ratings, will result in higher conversion and higher search rank. As stated in the webinar, it’s a continuous feedback loop.

There are a few specific elements that power this feedback loop. First, there are the things you earn, such as trailing conversions, optimized copy, and availability. Next, there are the things you buy, such as promotion and advertising. Then, you have the things you supply, the copy, content, and imagery; and the things that you once again earn, the ratings and reviews.

How do you get those initial conversions? How do you improve your conversion rate? The webinar explains you are competing for search rank and conversion for every single product SKU. Competing on Amazon is like an ongoing war with ever-changing tactics. It’s difficult to define them in one cohesive strategy. But know this: winning involves improving the things you supply and the things you earn.

To Win on Amazon, Focus on Search

According to the Salsify experts, 81 percent of all product searches happen on Amazon and 70 percent of Amazon shoppers never go past the first page. Additionally, the first three products on that page get 64 percent of all clicks. So how do you place well in Amazon’s search results?

First, have the right product copy. It’s the easiest and fastest way for Amazon’s search system to associate your product with specific search terms. To make sure you have the right copy for your product, you need to do the following:

Identify priority search terms. Use the Amazon search bar to find key search terms your competitors use for products like yours. You can use the hashtag symbol to discover additional terms that you might rank for.
Research search volume of target terms.
Put the terms in the right place. Product titles matter the most for both buyers and search engines. Use the most important keywords and sell points in your product’s title. Over half of all Amazon purchases take place on mobile, so the title is the primary copy the buyer sees in search results.
Avoid duplication. It’s an encouraged practice to refrain from duplicating copy.
Avoid keyword stuffing. Your shoppers don’t like keyword stuffing because it makes it harder for them to understand what you’re selling. Further, if shoppers don’t like it, Amazon will place your products lower in search results.

Second, have products that, according to the Salsify experts, “loudly and clearly” boast its benefits. Amazon rewards product pages that convert better. But to do that, you have to fight for conversion for every single one of your product SKUs.

Third, be better merchandised than your competitors. Amazon will reward you with higher search placement if you are better merchandised than your competition. Successful merchandising involves deploying great content that is SKU-for-SKU better than your competition. Staying in stock, cultivating great reviews, and addressing negative reviews are all part of effective merchandising.

To further improve your product conversion, use the right product content. To do this, you need to start with battles you can win, such as identifying your best products, identifying the high volume searches that are most important for your products, and determining the competitors you need to beat.

Focus on the Things You Supply

Earlier I mentioned the things you supply—copy, content, and imagery—affect your search rank in Amazon. I’m going to discuss these elements in detail.

First, I’ll begin with images. Because buyers spend most of their time looking at your images on your product page, you need to showcase the key features of your product and key aspects of your brand. The best images are high resolution and reinforce key selling points. Buyers also look for key aspects and features in your product images. When putting together images for your product page, think about whether your images inform your potential buyers. If not, your competitors will out-compete you and outrank you in search results.

According to Salsify, 53 percent of the time, a listing with more images will convert at a higher rate and outrank its top competitor. Although there is not a specific number of images you should use, having a lot of high-quality and informative images is best. When in doubt, look at your competition and go a step farther than that.

Next, you need to carefully craft your copy, for example, your product titles. Does your title give potential buyers plenty of information? Are you conveying the most important purchasing information in the title? Your title should not just be used to leverage your brand. It should include useful information such as the product’s uses.

In addition to titles, think about your bullet points. Bullet points should both inform Amazon’s search about which terms to associate with your product and also inform buyers. The most important thing to remember when putting together your bullets is beating your competition. Fifty-one percent of the time, according to Salsify, products with more bullets will outrank their competitors.

Finally, you want to supply A+ content. This tactic involves the same pattern as images, title, and bullets. Optimize for informative content that gives buyers what they need and conveys to Amazon that your product is high-quality.

Focus on the Things You Earn

The things you earn include customer ratings, reviews, content in the Q&A section of your product page, and user-generated videos and images. According to Salsify, customer reviews are the single strongest factor that analyses have linked to performance on Amazon (outside of price). The number of reviews directly correlates with both conversion rates and high search ranking.

To encourage positive reviews, connect with buyers through social media and personalized outreach. You should also address negative ratings and reviews immediately to exhibit stellar customer service that counters any bad perceptions of your business.

Ready to Create a Stellar Amazon Page?

You may now officially feel overwhelmed by the overabundance of information about building a successful Amazon page. The key strategies discussed in this article will help keep your Amazon strategy focused. Build a positive feedback loop using the things you supply to generate more things you earn, which ultimately gives you conversions, the meat of Amazon success.

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It’s True—Facebook Is Testing a Subscription Service for Groups

June 21, 2018
Anne Felicitas

It's True—Facebook Is Testing a Subscription Service for Groups. #facebook #socialmedia #business
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Alex Deve, product director of Groups, announced in a Facebook newsroom post that the company is testing a subscription service for Groups.

The test is only available for a select number of group admins, whose groups are dedicated to a range of different interests. According to Deve, groups with access to the test include Grown and Flown Parents: College Admissions and Affordability, which helps parents of high school children prepare for college applications, and Meal Planning Central Premium, which helps people prepare weekly meals.

Deve didn’t release any more details on this lucrative version of Groups. There’s no word on how the subscription will work, how the subscription Groups will look like, whether or not they will resemble current Groups or contain features unique to the subscription version, and whether or not Facebook will receive a cut from the subscription fees.

As Facebook tests subscriptions for Groups, group admins with access to the test will give feedback. Depending on their feedback, the subscriptions for Groups may or may not roll out officially.

Facebook is testing subscription Groups to help group admins earn money from the services they offer in their existing Facebook groups. This isn’t the first time Facebook rolled out a feature that helped users earn money. In February last year, Facebook rolled out a Live feature that allowed users to earn money from the mid-roll ads that appeared in their live broadcasts.

It may take a few months, even a year, for the subscription version of Groups to roll out officially, if it does. But when it does, Facebook will undoubtedly post a press release announcing the product launch, so keep your eyes peeled.

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You Can Now Upload One-Hour Videos to Instagram’s IGTV

June 21, 2018
Anne Felicitas

Yesterday, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom announced the launch of a feature that’s got everyone excited: IGTV, a video hub that rivals YouTube and Snapchat Discover.

IGTV is a feature within Instagram that hosts full-screen, vertical videos, appearing as a TV icon next to Direct. Although a feature found on Instagram, IGTV also has its own standalone app.

How Does IGTV Work?

IGTV will immediately play videos soon as you click it. Much like Stories, you can swipe left and right to browse through videos. When you swipe up, four tabs will appear. You’ll see the “For You” tab, which contains videos curated by Instagram according to your interests. Next is “Following,” which contains videos by Instagrammers you follow. You’ll also see “Popular,” containing videos popular in Instagram, and “Continue Watching,” containing the videos you started but did not finish.

 

You can comment, like, and share all of the videos you see in IGTV. If there’s a new video from your favorite channel, IGTV will alert you as soon as you enter Instagram.

Anyone can create and upload videos to IGTV—Instagram influencers, publishers, brands, and even regular users—but only large accounts can upload one-hour videos to IGTV, according to Tech Crunch.

Instagram IGTV, a Place for Ads

Although Instagram prioritizes users, it never neglects the businesses that depend on its platform for profit. As history has proven, Instagram often monetizes its popular features. Just take a look at Stories, which now has Stories Ads and shoppable Stories, and the Instagram feed, home to single video and photo ads.

With Instagram’s habit of monetizing its app’s best features, it won’t be surprising if, a year from now, Instagram will allow advertisers to serve ads on IGTV. In fact, even Systrom addresses this possibility.

“There’s no ads in IGTV today…obviously it’s a very reasonable place [for ads to end up],” said Systrom in an article from Tech Crunch.

Systrom didn’t confirm whether or not the company will monetize the feature, but if IGTV proves successful in the next few months, bet your bottom dollar it will.

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You Can Jam to Copyrighted Songs Using Facebook’s Lip Sync Live

June 22, 2018
Anna Hubbel

You Can Jam to Copyrighted Music Using Facebook’s Lip Sync Live. #socialmedia #facebook #music
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Get ready for a dance off between Facebook and Musical.ly. Facebook recently made deals with major record labels and indie artists so you can upload videos containing copyrighted music. If this wasn’t exciting enough, the network is also testing Lip Sync Live, which allows you to lip-sync along to trending songs while broadcasting on Facebook Live.

According to TechCrunch, the new feature will start off with hundreds of songs, such as “Havana” by Camila Cabello, “Welcome to The Jungle” by Guns N Roses, and “God’s Plan” by Drake. Inevitably, Lip Sync Live will rival teen lip sync app Musical.ly, which has 200 million registered and 60 million monthly active users. Musical.ly is widely used by younger demographics sharing fun and spontaneous lip sync videos using popular songs. Lip Sync Live is different, however, because the videos are broadcast live.

Going forward, Facebook will notify you whenever you upload a video with music covered by the network’s deals with record labels. If the song is not covered, Facebook will inform you that the video will be muted unless you follow up with the appropriate copyright dispute and receive confirmation from the copyright holder through the Facebook’s Rights Manager tool.

Lip Sync Live is not a part of Sound Collection, which gives you the ability to add sound effects and no-name music to your videos. Additionally, the new feature will not offer a selection of popular copyrighted music from which you can peruse and choose.

The new music feature will inspire more original creations and sharing, as well as make stale clips more fun and interesting. Also, it will improve engagement and watch time. With younger users leaving Facebook for Snapchat and Instagram, Lip Sync Live could influence that demographic to return to the platform.

How to Access Lip Sync Live

Step 1: When creating a Facebook status, click “Live video.”

Step 2: Select Lip Sync Live.

Step 3: Choose a song.

Step 4: Commence lip-synching.

You can also add filters, effects, and friends to your video while streaming. After you finish streaming, you can then share the video to your timeline just like any Facebook live stream. Unfortunately, you can’t preview your video before sharing.

Based on this new youthful and fun feature, it seems Facebook is trying to bring back its teen users. With new fun features like Lip Sync Live, the network is headed in the right direction.

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