This week in Digital and Social...

We hope you weren't huge fans of February, given that it’s almost over! As we continue to power through 2017 you may feel that it’s all going a bit too quickly, but fear not, your favourite agency are back with a weekly round up of the most important digital and social trends that you can catch your breath over. And, if you need another reason to smile this Friday, check out this photobombing stingray. 

Stories from the week: 

1. Instagram will now let you upload sets of up to 10 photos and videos 

Almost two years ago, Instagram introduced the ability to upload multiple photos at once, letting your followers browse them by swiping on a carousel of images. It was an obvious solution to one of the Instagram feed’s most persistent problems — users who spam it with seven or eight photos at a time. Which made it all the more inexplicable that Instagram restricted photo carousels to its advertisers. The company said it might bring the feature to regular users eventually, but has made no promises.

Yesterday Instagram announced via its blog that users will now be able to upload 10 photos and videos per post, telling more complete stories. “You no longer have to choose the single best photo or video from an experience you want to remember,” the company said. “Now, you can combine up to 10 photos and videos in one post and swipe through to see them all.” The impact of this functionality will see more users uploading their own ‘albums’ and in turn interact with branded album carousels more than they had previously. 

2. WhatsApp is the latest Facebook product to clone Snapchat stories

WhatsApp has cloned Snapchat’s popular stories format and is using it to replace its old text-based status messages. The feature begins rolling out to WhatsApp’s billion-plus users today on Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone.

As on Snapchat, WhatsApp stories are posted from an in-app camera. Once you’ve taken a photo, you can adorn it with drawings, text, and emojis. Once you post your story, it appears in a new “status” tab, where your contacts can view it for the next 24 hours. You can reply to friends’ updates directly from the post.

From Facebook’s perspective, adding stories to WhatsApp represents a strategic effort to blunt Snapchat’s growth in markets where the ephemeral messaging app has yet to take root.

3. ‘Buy buttons’ falter on social channels 

Just because an ad product makes a lot of sense, it doesn’t mean it won’t fail.

Twitter squashed its buy button a month ago. Facebook had previously killed its own buy button and Instagram and Pinterest have struggled with theirs as well. Sources told Digiday that buy buttons have struggled on social platforms because transactions have been clunky, inventory has been mismanaged and consumer intent was never properly understood.

“Users don’t buy on social networks currently,” said Forrester analyst Jessica Liu. “Users are much more likely to discover and explore brands, products and services on social media than they are to buy.” This insight will thus have a massive influence on how brands approach their content and platform strategy more broadly. 

4. Chat bots utility set to soar as Facebook’s Messenger Platform is now open for standard messaging  

Facebook’s Messenger Platform is now open for standard messaging, with business and developers having a 24-hour window to respond to messages initiated by users of the social network’s messaging application. Facebook’s Product Manager, Seth Rosenberg, announced the update in a blog post, saying that subscription messaging is still being tested.

Rosenberg stressed that Messenger users will not suddenly find themselves bombarded by messages from brands, saying that all conversations must be initiated by users, and those users can mute or block businesses at any time. He added that more information on those controls is available here. The news signals that the increasing use of boths by brands on the platform is not only set to step-up, but will become standard practice for brands over the coming months. If this is something you’d like to discuss with us check out a case study of our bot-build here and get in touch with your Account Director! 

& finally

Snapchat’s ‘Spectacles’ are now available for anyone to buy (in America!)

Following their limited availability earlier this year, we are thrilled to announce that Snapchat’s innovative glasses are now on the market for all to by, provided you are in America. Spectacles are souped-up sunglasses that record video, via an integrated camera, from the wearer’s eye-level perspective. Users can then upload 10-second video clips to the Snapchat platform via a smartphone synced through Bluetooth or WiFi. 

On a much more personal (and frankly exciting note) we here at Impero have utilised our international network and will have a pair of these swanky glasses in the office from the end of March - when you are in through April ask your Account Director to get them out so you can have a play around with them!