Social Media Round Up August 2019

It’s been a reasonably quiet month on social media.

People have been away on holiday and the push is generally towards changes happening towards Autumn.

However, there have been some interesting things cropping up on the channels, and we thought we’d take a look.

Twitter gets serious about attention

Twitter has always been the slightly manic alternative to other social media platforms, and it has recently decided to make things a little more focused when it comes to ads. Twitter thrives on ads, as do most other social media platforms, but now it seems to think that quality counts much more than brevity.

A new option is available for advertisers to bid on 6-second viewables. In plain English, this means that advertisers can bid on ads, but not pay until six seconds of that ad have been viewed.

The ads have to be 15 seconds or shorter, but advertisers will only pay for the ‘view’ if it is longer than six seconds. This allows advertisers to concentrate on creating ads that are more compelling, with the cushion of knowing that they will not pay for the ad unless the six second mark is reached.

The best and most successful videos are longer, and require the audience to engage in something like a story, rather than a blast of imagery and audio. We think this is a welcome change by Twitter, and it will encourage advertisers to work a lot harder and to bring the social media channel more long-term value.

Instagram Stories brings in money

Instagram Stories has just had its popularity confirmed. The platform is making a lot of money for Instagram, and as a potential ad revenue source it has jumped way beyond expectations.

A recent report by Kenshoo shows that it has just doubled year on year for ad spend. It’s settling down now, but it is on a par with Facebook (perhaps the first real ad spend legend in social).

There are a few reasons buzzing around online as to why this is happening. However, one of the most believable ‘reasons’ is that Instagram itself is pushing more ads on Instagram Stories feeds.

Whether this is the case or not, it’s clear that Stories is the place to be as regards ad spend. Even if it is petering out, it’s still responsible for lots of reach. If your brand isn’t involved, it is probably a good time to take a look.

Pinterest simply not going away

You may not want it to go away, but it’s hardly the biggest driver of most of the planet’s business.

Or is it? The second quarter results came in as regards revenue for the company, and there were a couple of huge surprises.

We found out this month that Pinterest actually saw its revenue skyrocket by $60 million in the second quarter compared to the first of 2019. More significantly, that means a 62% increase in revenue over last year.

On top of all that, it appears that Pinterest also has a large boost in Monthly Active Users (MAUs). The increase in MAUs has amounted to 30% year-on-year. That’s huge.

With regards to international users, Pinterest had 9 million more in the second quarter compared to the first.

It’s looking like a bit of a sleeping giant. However, before anyone starts throwing parties, it’s worth remembering that Pinterest is running at a loss. A huge $1.16 billion net loss was reported for the second quarter.

The rise of Reddit

If we said five years ago that brands need to be watching Reddit, it would not have been seen as very helpful. Reddit certainly isn’t the biggest social media channel for brands right now, and it may never be.

No one has told Reddit. It’s slow expansion on a geographical level reached Chicago recently. The channel is pressing the flesh with local businesses in what seems like an attempt to build out a bit of an empire.

It has 330 million MAUs. Just saying.

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