The Grudge Match of the Year

This week revealed one of the most surprising, yet greatest social media updates of 2016. Instagram Stories have arrived to compete with Snapchat’s ever-growing success.  Only time can actually tell us how much this will affect Snapchat, but as it currently stands, Snapchat’s willingness for change and innovation proves that it can (and will) respond and build upon its simple communication and raw material.

With the young Instagram Stories’ release, let’s take a look at how this affects Instagram’s overall experience and the competition it gives to Snapchat.

Brands

For brands, Instagram Stories is absolutely fantastic. According to Ad Age, “Nike, for example, generated 800,000 views in 24 hours for an Instagram Story that it posted on Tuesday, the first day the feature was available. On Snapchat, Nike’s best video got 66,000 views.” Receiving ten times more views than its competition, Instagram is simply able to utilize its built-in audience and keep them on the app longer as the article goes on to say: “Instagram updated its numbers last week, saying it has 300 million daily users, and Snapchat has about 150 million, according to sources familiar with the company’s internal figures.”

Secondly, stories from brands are more accessible on Instagram than Snapchat due to follower counts and how Instagram keeps the stories at the top of their timeline.

Users

For users, the impact may be smaller than expected. Currently, many of the stories have normal users posting their snapchat username in order to gain more followers and continue their usage of the snapping app. Confusion is strong as people play the knock-off card on Instagram and wonder why it would be used in such a way. Secondly, the issue for Instagram comes from only being able to horizontally access five stories at a time, having to scroll to see more. This is less accessible than Snapchat and might deter people from continuing their search for more stories. However, it takes away the less candid, more sophisticated aura that Instagram has touted for so long. This mish-mash of sophistication with realism is a nice twist for an app that intends to stay relevant thanks to its parent company, Facebook.

Something else that some people night not even notice is how much better the image quality is on Instagram (Especially for Android users). On Android, Snapchat doesn’t use your phone’s camera directly. It will grab a screenshot of what your camera sees rather than physically take it’s own photo leaving a much lower quality shot.

Snapchat's photo quality kinda sucks
Photo composed by user “pjmccartney” on Reddit

Who Wins?

As it stands however, Snapchat should be on its toes, but does not have anything to worry about in the short-term. As influencer Gary Vaynerchuk has pointed out: “Plenty of users will remain on Snapchat simply because they want to maintain their audience, they have a preference for Snapchat’s UX (user experience), or they’re spiteful about Instagram Stories being a ‘copycat.’ Snapchat has built a huge following and, while Instagram will probably take a bite out of it, Snapchat will still hold its own.”

Although this social media war should be interesting with willingness to change affecting the outcome, the real winner will continue to be brands.

 

The Unofficial Rulebook of Social Media

Y2K came and left in more or less a drunken murmur. Sixteen years and multiple “end of the world” warnings later, we have found ourselves in the middle of the Social Media Age.

If you’re reading this at all, you probably clicked on it through a link on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Crazily enough, those are the EXACT platforms that I’m going to cover today! What are the chances?

To begin, yes, you probably know plenty about each platform to make it through your day-to-day life happy and carefree. BUT what if you want to promote an event, a show, a business, or a random cat video? Knowing how, when, and where to share content like this is necessary in order to have a successful presence online.  

Think of it this way, your social media presence is an online portfolio (at this point, the word “online” is redundant) for your friends, family, and potential employers to view who you are, what you stand for, and what poorly landed jokes you think are actually funny. If anything, they know more about you due to this online presence than they know about you in real life, unless you’re constantly physically seeing all 1,038 friends you have on Facebook.

So without further ado, let’s look at each platform in more detail.

Facebook

Ahhh, the epitome and crux of the ever-changing digital media age. Oftentimes ahead of the game, Facebook evolves faster than the consumer wishes, changing preferences and layout seemingly on a whim without care for the angry user.  

Facebook is the foundation for everything else that occurs, linking the other channels together in one cohesive place.  Taking advantage of this opportunity is paramount to its usage and effectiveness, but understanding how to utilize it appropriately is way more difficult.

Many could argue that there is no right or wrong way to use Facebook, but those people are the same people that think the tomato is a fruit.

Facebook is the modern day scrapbook. For those who don’t know what a scrapbook is, it’s what couples in the ’90s sometimes made each other in a relationship to remember all the memories they had with each other breaking up, leaving a book of broken memories gathering dust in a rarely opened cabinet.  

As a scrapbook, it is a place for pictures, text, news, and trends to work together in a synthesized way. So don’t post just text. Don’t post just pictures. In fact, Facebook is much smarter than your scrapbook. It knows the difference between each of these posts and will give some more power than others (yes, not all posts are created equal). Videos have the most pull, as they keep users on the app longer than pictures and words do. Pictures have less of a say while simple text posts have the least power.

“So do I always just post videos on Facebook?” Absolutely not, self-rhetorical question. A variety of posts and interactions allow for a more synergized experience for yourself and your friends as they navigate the never-ending newsfeed and sneakily creep on your personal timeline.

As for businesses or those intrigued by selling their personal artwork on Facebook, think of it in the same way! As a community scrapbook, readers do not want to be seeing those ugly looking hot dog ads that cover half of your favorite magazine up. Annoying ads like that don’t belong in scrapbooks, even of the digital variety. Yes, ads are ever-important in building brands and selling services, but avoid clickbait in these scenarios that involve “Buy now, Click now!” promises. Those promises make people sad and we do not want to make people sad.

What this all means:

  1. Steer away from “Buy now, Click now!” posts.
  2. Use pictures and video as much as you can while keeping simple text posts to a minimum.
  3. Vary the types of posts and interactions.

Twitter

Say something meaningful in 140 characters or less…AND GO. Just the previous sentence was 60 of your maximum 140 characters! So how do you create the perfect tweet that will reach the far ends of the site through constant retweets and the freshly termed “likes”?

Be honest. Honesty is key. Your followers are followers because they already know you to some degree. At the same time, DON’T tell them when you’re making lunch or taking a walk. Instead…

Be funny. Take those monotonous moments and make them silly or add something you thought about that experience. It goes right along with honesty. The simple moments in life are often the funniest.

Be real. This goes right along with the first two, but must be reiterated more directly. Twitter’s voice is rawer than Facebook’s. Take advantage of that openness and interact with people who matter to you. And every once in awhile, take part in a “Twitter-rant”, which allows you to blow past the “140 character rule” and instead, post a string of related tweets about a single subject that holds mighty importance to you. #Realness

And finally…

Be trendy. Hashtags and trends are way more effective here than on Facebook as it currently stands. Follow the current trends and make a statement. You have a voice that can reach farther than it could just 15 years ago so do something about it. Let people know what you think.

What this all means:

  1. Use hashtags.
  2. Speak succinctly and with your own voice.
  3. Be trendy

Twitter

Instagram

Aww, it’s Facebook’s baby brother! Although the photo editing and posting application has been around for quite awhile now, it recently has been placed under the Facebook brand, thus leading to changes to the medium like the classic algorithm that shows the user what the site believes would rather see over pictures most recently posted.

While Twitter and Facebook are made for multiple posts a day, Instagram must be checked to one, MAYBE two, posts a day. Albums are for Facebook and memes are for Twitter. Keep pictures engaging, interesting, and most importantly, YOU, with a relatable or catchy caption that could only be found in the country’s best magazines.

If you’re a business, show behind the scenes moments here. Pretty those pictures up with filters and additions, but at the same time, don’t oversaturate it. Not only does that specifically deal with the “Saturate” feature on the app, but it deals with all aspects of the pictures. Setting “Shadows” to 0%, “Warmth” to 100%, and “Sharpen” to 100% on a Lo-Fi filter does not automatically make your picture better, but surprisingly gives your face a creepy “Donald Trump Orange” vibe to it (sending color idea for  “Donald Trump Orange” to Crayola currently — patent pending).  

Connect your photos to Facebook sometimes! Your friends on Facebook will learn you have an Instagram and you will suddenly gain followers!

Use hashtags and your location! There’s a nifty little button on your personal page that shows where you have been and how many photos you have posted from each location. It is the best.

What this all means:

  1. Show some behind-the-scenes moments for your followers.
  2. Use hashtags.
  3. Use filters carefully and sparingly.

Instagram

Snapchat

This is going to be big! I mean, it’s already beginning to take over the social media landscape in an aggressive way, but here’s a way to truly tell a story in the most literal sense.

In the same way that Instagram can give you the behind-the-scenes glance, so can Snapchat. With followers on this live video and picture application, you can make something so simple, fun and engaging. And now with geofilters taking over more and more, you can show off an event or a location or a business that you’re currently at! Snapchat is constantly involving from its humble and risque beginnings into a beautiful app of location sharing and puppy filters.

What this all means:

  1. Post interesting content with a variety of video and photos.
  2. Take advantage of filters and especially geofilters.
  3. Jump on this bandwagon NOW! It is only growing in its prominence so learn how to utilize it today.

Conclusion

Social media now, for better or for worse, defines us. You cannot escape it if you try. By ignoring social media’s presence in our lives, you’re ignoring a gigantic portion of what makes us human and how we communicate and interact with others.

No matter which medium you prefer, remember these simple tips and most importantly, don’t add your boss on snapchat. Don’t. Please, for the love of God, do not do it.

Instagram is adding an algorithm and IT’S OKAY!

Instagram has not only added 60 second videos to their feeds and view counts to promote a more aggressive approach to the mobile video movement that Facebook started, but now has also gone the ways of their Facebook overlords to implement a *gasp* algorithm! On top of all that, you might have seen a lot of “Turn me on for Instagram notifications” posts in the last 48 hours, and that is the same sort of people who went to beg people to turn on notifications for their business’s pages on Facebook about a year or so ago.

But what is really going on here?

Instagram is avoiding the same problem that Facebook almost hit, and the same problem Twitter is now trying to fix (which might be too late, but we will see). We as social media users are pumping out more and more content each and every day, and there is so much content being pushed out that we as consumers don’t even pay attention as much anymore. We just keep on scrolling.

Twitter currently is toying with possible algorithms and other new features like events and user specific notifications, and honestly people are being too skeptical. While the popularity and importance of Twitter as a platform can be discussed in a whole different blog post, the fact of the matter is that information saturation is a real problem we face, and it is time to streamline what we want.

How Facebook does it… (In simple terms)

Facebook saw the writing on the wall early, and uses an algorithm that places what it believes is most important to you at the top of your feed. They take in information such as your searches, who you talk to the most, what sorts of posts you like/comment/share, and what pages you like. All this information is used to provide you with the most valuable posts possible.

Think about it, if you were to see every post from every friend and page you like on Facebook you would never use the site. You’d be bombarded with Uncle Fred’s political rants, Aunt Sue’s knitting fetish, and tons of crappy “BUY NOW! 10% off ads” from pages who don’t know how to make a proper ad… And at the end of the day Facebook is in business to make money off of ad sales. If you as a user were to leave because you didn’t see any value in returning to the website, they are out of business, and no more Facebook.

So Instagram is doing this for you!

Don’t freak out here. All you will see is more things that you actually want to see at the top of your feeds, and the rest of it near the bottom. No need to freak out and set notifications for all your friends when they post their next Starbucks selfie.

If anything this promotes people to put more thought and effort into their photos and videos. Maybe we will start to see more natural beauty and less sushi pics, more street art and less duck faces, more real people and less latte art. Instagram knows that if they didn’t do something soon, they would be in the same position Twitter is in trying to fight for users to stay, and I can promise you this is for the greater good for all of us.

TL;DR: Watch this video from a good friend of mine Erik Zachary

For those who don’t have the time to deal with my lackluster writing, or would rather watch a video check this out:

#Hashtag

The pound sign. The number sign. Tic-tac-toe board. The “#” symbol has gone by many names throughout its 50+ year tenure, admired from afar as an arbitrary button on antique touch tone phones. As useless as it has been since its humble beginnings, the hashtag has recently solidified itself in pop culture and social media as an interactive tool to microscopically view the vast, infinite regions of the internet.

When Chris Messina, a simple Twitter user, suggested in 2007 on the website: “how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp (msg)”, the game was changed. Trends and news stories would skyrocket across the World Wide Web in record time, reaching audiences at the very moment that a story would break. It took a simple search of a hashtag to view its analytical results on engagement of fellow tweeters. Although Twitter founder Evan Williams thought it was too technical, he was quickly proven wrong as users found a way to create a more personal conversation on an impersonal platform.

Today, the hashtag ranks among social media professionals’ list of most religious symbols, right behind the holy cross and breadsticks. Marketers and advertisers intend to take advantage of this trend within a trend, as corny hashtags appear across every major television network as a plot twist strikes (ie. #WhoIsA, #OhNoJonSnow, #TrumpSomehowLeadsGOP).

A simple Instagram post proves the importance of the all-praised hashtag. With only just reaching double digits on Instagram, our account cannot be viewed as “Insta-famous,” the phrase self-coined by Instagrammers with 10+K followers on the app who live relatively normal lives but filter their lives with “Lo-Fi” or “Mayfair” or “Perpetua.” No one jumps at the chance to look at what a marketing firm does unless you’re creating provocative ads for Nike. However, the point is that we don’t pride ourselves in the number of followers we have, yet.

But with only 10+ followers on the platform, we turned over 60 likes on a single post. “But how?!” you ask, “I somehow skipped over the rest of this blog post so I have no idea how that could be possible!” One word: hashtags.

Eliix Chicago Instagram Test m
Ah, Chicago, she’s a beaut!

On top of simply being a perfectly edited and snapped picture taken by yours truly (#humblebrag) , this photo contains multiple hashtags that people across the country, NAY, the world would be interested in searching on the application. #Chicago, #WillisTower, #SearsTower, and #Business are all hashtags that garner interest among different groups of people. When people look them up, they see a colorful image that they then click on, enjoy so much, and go on to like it.

The most evident and important thing here is that knowing your audience is key. Understand what they want to see, show them exactly that, and engage with them afterward. These likes turned into several follows which grows that slowly moving presence and leads to better interactions down the road.

Similarly, though, it is necessary to mention that sometimes less is more. You don’t need 10,000 likes if only half of them care about your product or service, whether it be on a personal or professional account. Take the cut and market to the 5,000 who care because then you will have real relationships on a site that we sometimes try to sell something that isn’t truly there.