Breaking Technology: Discovered by Kids, Capitalized by Business

Instagram - Stories

Last month, photo sharing social media company Instagram launched a new feature “Stories” to its platform. This enables users to now share real time videos and photos with their followers on Instagram. As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear chronologically in a slideshow format called a “story”. You can forget about fear of over posting because your story only lasts for 24 hours. Seems like a game changer right? Only time will tell. They weren’t the FIRST to add this feature however, admittedly knocking off Snapchat. Even so, if they can manage to bring the most value to the consumer, they will win.

To use this feature, check out the new navigation bar at the top of your screen. You’ll see pictures of other users you are following in small circles that you can scroll through to see their various stories. The new feature takes the pressure off adding that PERFECT Instagram post. With the more laid back “Stories,” feel free to write text, draw on your image, or share a video of the sunset last night; whatever! Create as much as you’d like to share and connect. That is the value in this feature. It connects a circuit in the platform that didn’t previously exist. Before stories, most users did not frequent Instagram Direct, a feature letting a user send private “direct” messages to another user(s). A single post to Instagram fares many comments, and many many more likes, especially when you have thousands or millions of followers. Now, as your followers scroll through your story, you will find them interacting and talking more via direct message commenting on your story.

But wait, Snapchat already did this?! Why is it different?! Why should we use it!? Will it be a successful feature for Instagram? Good questions. First off, the feature differs very little from Snapchat. Also, for now it doesn't allow Geofilters, the rewind and speed up functions, as well as many other filters and interactive filters that Snapchat allows. Updates may roll out to prove different, but as of now keeping things stupid simple to help users adapt is a smart move for Instagram. They do not want to be Snapchat. They want to be a photo sharing platform that allows users to connect constantly and express their creativity.

It is a little early to tell what success the addition of “Stories” on Instagram will bring, but one thing is for sure: Posting pictures and videos for your following to promote your brand, yourself, or to highlight an emotion through a long lasting visual is not going away.

Pokemon Go - Augmented Reality

Pokemon Go came out in July. Within the first week of this new mobile game, it had more active users than Twitter. The game hit a niche that was previously undiscovered: new technology, augmented reality, paired with a nostalgic market fit. Nintendo was behind the new Pokemon game, and after a few past flops from more recent products, they have once again put themselves back on the leader board of innovation. Nintendo sought help from Niantic to develop the game and support the community, but the concept was thought of in 2014 by Satoru Iwata of Nintendo and Tsunekazu Ishihara of The Pokémon Company.

An April Fools' Day collaboration with Google, called Pokémon Challenge, catapulted a day of Pokemon popping up around the map, to a full blown game of augmented reality Pokemon being able to be caught, trained and battled between gyms and other players. This now brought what used to be a video game in a screen, to a very real life pop culture and tech trend. Look in your nearest community park, I bet you will find a bunch of people, ranging in age, staring at their phones and walking around searching for their next catch. You've “Gotta Catch ‘em All,” train your new caught Pokemon to evolve them to higher levels, and battle at your nearest gym to be the top trainer in the area. Ishihara liked Niantic's previous transreality game, Ingress, and believed its concept would be perfect to map out the Pokémon series newest product. Niantic used data from Ingress to choose the locations for PokéStops and gyms, and data from Google Maps to spawn specific Pokémon on certain terrain or environment.

Now, both kids and adults are actively hunting for Pokemon. Think on a deeper level what that means for our society, foolishness aside. It means Pokemon are as real as  Facebook, or maybe even more real. The technology that encompasses the game is what’s really exciting. Augmented reality has not been tested in many other places in the marketplace, but I guarantee we shortly will be seeing many companies and industries getting into the space.

Take this example of an auto-mechanic school. What is typically extremely costly to have a car, or multiple cars in a shop for students to learn on, the school may now have the possibility to save on that expense. Imagine a car they can fix time and time again that is present through augmented reality, the students will learn how to fix and build a car or engine with real time thoughts and action, without actually needing a car to be there. Although Pokemon may not always be a “Go” this opportunity is just one small example of how business, schooling, and our society may be affected by augmented reality.

Facebook - Live

Facebook brought a new feature to its users, the ability to go “Live.” This enables any user with an account to live stream video at any point in time they may feel it necessary to broadcast their daily activity. Maybe they are making a speech and want more people to see it, possibly a music performance, or maybe a grandson’s sports game so the rest of his fans can be there without really being there. It is a fascinating feature, that although it is seemingly easy to use and self explanatory, a lot of people are still scratching their heads about its purpose. The most common objection I get is “What is Live?!” People do not realize the feature was added, especially the older Facebook crowd (40 and over). Explaining it to them is not hard, and then it seems to be their most popular feature!

After you end the live stream, the video you just took turns to a video that can be watched shared and commented on your timeline for friends to see if they missed the live session. I believe Facebook Live to be the most undervalued feature that they offer. Everyone is hungry for the newest and next content that will be trending. Live now lets you be the anchor to your own TV station that anyone can tune into. Bringing this to business, personal brands and other organizations is HUGE. In a world where branding yourself is becoming first and foremost, this tool will let you put your brand and face out in front of the masses and community at all times. Doing something cool? Go Live. Have a new product? Demo it on Live. Holding a conference? Go Live. Extend your audience through Facebook Live WHILE getting live feedback from your digital audience. Priceless.

For more information, or a crash course in use for these new technologies, contact me at lholzman@omnesolutions.com for a free consultation and demo.