Shares Become IG's Key Metric

This week on social

1. Shares become leading metric to impact reach on Instagram

Stand aside like counts. At a Q&A last week, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri was asked about the most effective ways to increase reach and what the key ranking metrics were to achieve greater reach. In his response, shares were the number one factor the IG algorithm is focusing on at the moment. Above watch time, views or any other type of engagement

“More important than watch time or like and comment counts is send rates, and generally, I think the rate is more important than the count. So the number of sends per reach, the number of likes per reach, the number of comments per reach. But sends per reach correlate more, in my experience, with overall reach than anything else, because we are looking to help people discover content they want to connect with friends over, and so sends is a great proxy for that sort of connection over creativity.”

The shift to video across all the networks in recent years has driven a firm focus on entertainment led content across social. And while we may not all be keen on commenting on the content we see, we often look to share it with friends, thus driving that feeling of connectivity and community.

So as marketers there is an opportunity to leverage post-share rates to amplify a brand's visibility and connect with their audience on a deeper level. By fostering genuine interactions and encouraging users to share content, we can drive meaningful results in today's competitive social media landscape.

Social Media Today

2. Snapchat shares it's 'three E's to improve ad performance

Execution, Experimentation and Evaluation are the words of the day from Snapchat if you're looking to improve your ad performance on the platform.

As the below shows, the three elements are designed to help marketing teams focus on the key areas which will more the needle when it comes to performance ads.

In many ways, this is nothing new. It's a cycle which we are all familiar with. However the evaluation element which is what is going to set campaigns apart. A global view of all the elements in a campaign; owned, earned, paid is key understanding the true impact on performance. Brand lift studies and A/B tests when used in partnership, can be critical in determining what works best for your channels and most importantly, what resonates most effectively with your audience.

Snapchat

3. YouTube drops new engagement driving ad options

Last week was Brandcast and in addition to announcing they will be broadcasting WNBA Friday night games, YouTube also gave an update on a few new ad options available on the platform.

According to Kantar, viewers in the US said if they could only watch one subscription service for an entire year, it would be YouTube. Further proof that not only is video King, but YouTube is it's Kingdom. The new ad options hope to capitalise on YouTubes base and their 8 million paid subscribers.

First up are Creator Takeovers by YouTube Select. 54% of people would rather watch creators breakdown a big event like the Oscars, rather than watch it themselves. So with Creators top of mind right now, the expansion of the creator takeover option will enable brands to collaborate with top YouTube creators and allow them to own a total share of voice on their channel. Driving engagement, reach and brand appeal.

Non-skips for video reach campaigns were also announced, while QR codes are also set to land, enabling advertisers to increase engagement across key campaigns.

Search Engine Land

4. TikTok tests 60 minute videos

With entertainment on the mind, TikTok is testing ultra long 60 minute videos on the platform. The Tok has been gradually increasing max length for content for some time but the move to 60 minute is double it's current max.

So, the question is will it land? Will users actually watch a 60 minute TikTok. According to the powers at be, there is a demand from creators for such an option. More time, gives them more moving room to build out narratives and creative outlets. There was also a call from TikTok to creators last year to post longer content in landscape format, further evidence that they want to make that shift.

When it comes to viewers however, I'm not convinced this is an in demand feature. The beauty of TikTok is short (c2 mins), snappy content in an endless supply. If I want to dive deeper, we all know YouTube rules.

Matt Navarra

5. TikTok tests collab feature

Sticking with TikTok, another feature they are testing (copying from Instagram) is the collaborator feature. As seen on the Gram for some time now, this feature allows you to tag a collaborator on a post which will then include them as creator of the post.

The benefits of this feature, means it allows both (or all) parties to drive reach into audiences they might currently impact. We've seen some great results of this at Three with collaboration posts with our partner Chelsea FC.

It looks like the new feature on TikTok will allow for up to 5 creators to be part of a collaboration post and the general logistics of it will be largely the same as IG. A user will have to accept, you can remove yourself and the content will appear on both the creators and collaborators profiles. Although you are limited to only 4 collaborator posts a month.

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