It’s hard to declare only one item as the social media/digital marketing “news of the week.” For the past few days (6.21.2016-6.22.2016), the announcements have come so fast, we’ve lost track. But we do know one thing: That news had something to do with “social video.” To help break this down, we turned to our friend and expert on topics like this, Chris Thilk, to provide us an overview of what took place and how it’s going to affect marketers — both the big corporate kind and those of us at small businesses.
A rundown of the social media/video-related announcements
Twitter expanded the length of videos anyone can shoot and share to 140 seconds. That’s almost a 5-time increase from the previous 30 seconds everyone has had access to, though certain brand partners and advertisers can upload and share videos up to a few minutes in length.
| Vine
Vine lifted its six-second limit and bumped it up to 140 seconds. (Twitter owns Vine so there’s a bit of synergy here.) You can still do just six-second videos but now those six-seconds can act as teasers for longer videos. They’re positioned in the post as being like trailers for a longer movie, but my sense is they’re more like an excerpt of a longer story you’re being asked to read. Some partners will have access to videos of up to 10 minutes and Vine is finally doing something creators have long asked for, opening up monetization options for those loyal creators.
| Tumblr
After a few days of teasing things, Tumblr announced live video is coming to the social blog platform. It’s not native live video like on Facebook, Snapchat or Twitter. Tumblr worked with YouTube, YouNow and other video partners to make it happen. Live videos get posted to your blog and show up in people’s dashboards just like any other post and is archived just like any other post. There don’t seem to be any time limits on live videos here.
While it wasn’t a product announcement, while touting hitting 500 million users, Instagram mentioned that it has expanded video length from 15 to 60 seconds as one of the reasons it’s continuing to see such strong user growth. And it says it’s become a breeding ground for a whole new group of up-and-coming talent that’s attracting brand sponsor and other attention, a clear shot at Vine.
So what does all this mean?
It means that lots of companies want to be competing against Facebook Live, which itself is competing against Snapchat. Video is it when it comes to social networks. It’s the field everyone wants to be playing in.
But what we’re losing is any sense of permanence. All of these videos are here and then they’re gone, thrown down the memory hole either of disposability – Snapchat – or of lousy search features on Facebook and elsewhere. All of these are gone…like teardrops in the rain.
Despite all that, there are now even more options for marketers to take advantage of in terms of social video. This shouldn’t be the first time anyone is thinking about video tactics but it does add more considerations and options to the toolbox.
via | ChrisThilk.com
Photo: Apple.com