Video continues to take over social media as the preferred mode of content. And live streaming has grown rapidly over the past year becoming a key part of many leading brands marketing strategies. Twitter ramped up their video effort this year. In May, Twitter announced it would be live streaming video 24 hours a day, 7 days a week inside its app and desktop site. This shift towards mobile means that video is now Twitter’s largest revenue-generating ad format partnering with key brands such as BuzzFeed, The Verge and Bloomberg.
This week Twitter partnered with the All England Lawn Tennis Club to live stream its Wimbledon Channel. Allowing tennis fans around the world to tune in and watch matches daily, as well as covering news and interviews.
While most wouldn’t typically consider Twitter to be a broadcaster, it’s certainly heading in that direction. Video will become an increasingly important addition to Twitter’s content and ad offerings, given that it accounts for the largest share of ad revenue. Find out more about why we think this is just the start of things to come for Twitter.
Facebook announced they will be rolling out a new 'Discover hub' within Messenger. Allowing "people to browse and find bots and businesses in Messenger". This feature was first announced at Facebook’s F8 Conference. According to Facebook, this new feature allows users to “browse by category, recently visited businesses and featured experiences and makes it even easier to get things done, from reading the latest articles, booking your next vacation, or getting the latest sports highlights, right in Messenger". This new experience is only available in the US, but hopefully will get rolled out globally soon.
At this Years Vidcon YouTube announced that it will be launching several new updates. They revealed that they will be launching a new video format called VR180. They said they wanted to make “VR more accessible and more affordable for viewers and creators”. YouTube also announced that in the next few weeks videos will be able to “dynamically adapt” to whatever size the user wants. This means that whether the video was shot vertically or horizontally, YouTube will adapt it to fill the screen.
Users will now be able to message from within the YouTube app instead of sharing videos across other social media platforms. Youtube wants to give users the ease of share videos from in their app. This feature will only be available in the US.
They also highlighted YouTube TV launched back in February. This will be expanding even further, going beyond its role of being an online video hub. Over the next few month, we are expected to see it expand into 10 more markets outside the US.
Lastly, they were pleased to reveal that 1.5 billion logged-in users visit YouTube each month, with viewers watching an average of one hour of video each day on their mobile phones alone.
Last week Facebook announced they will be rolling out 'Find Wi-Fi' everywhere in the world on iPhone and Android. Facebook had launched this is a few countries last year and found the feedback to be positive. According to Facebook:
Find Wi-Fi helps you locate available Wi-Fi hot spots nearby that businesses have shared with Facebook from their Page. So wherever you are, you can easily map the closest connections when your data connection is weak.
To find Wi-Fi hotspots, click on the “More” tab where you can locate “Find Wi-Fi.”You need to turn it on and then you can browse the closest available hotspots on a map. Easy so keep you eye out for this new feature and let us know what you think.
What do you think of Facebook's new messenger bot? Do you think any of YouTube's updates will impact you? Let us know what you think and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Don't forget to join us next week for another weekly round up.
By Jessica Wade
I was previously the Social Media Executive for Smart Insights and managed all of Smart Insights social media channels and social strategy. I love all things social, most of the time you will find me endlessly scrolling through Instagram. You can follow me on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.
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