Success and failures are a part of life and both teach us incredible lessons valuable to making us better. While many look to social media to be totally figured out before it becomes public, often social media platforms are learning right along with us. In this week’s In The News, we see Instagram and Snapchat both learn from mistakes and take steps toward making the user experience better.
IGTV Supports Horizontal Videos
Remember when Snapchat and Instagram stories hit the scene, and you still have people shooting horizontal video? Nothing seemed more inconvenient than having to turn your screen to the side, which conditioned us to solely use vertical videos. When Instagram added Instagram TV (IGTV) the platform didn’t gain the success it had hoped. Although authentic, on-the-fly content was being shot vertically for IG Stories, many professionals still chose to shoot horizontally which wasn’t readily compatible within the app and therefore, not being posted to IGTV.
This week, Instagram announced that horizontal videos are now an option for posting to IGTV! This is an exciting update for businesses with a smaller film budget to be able to replicate their videos on YouTube, Facebook, and now IGTV. This smart move is expected to help more businesses and users utilize this part of the platform.
Spotted: IG Stories Newest Potential Sticker
Over the past few months, Instagram has been adding new ways for users to engage via IG Stories, however a new sticker was leaked to some account without explanation: Order. This sticker is in addition to the “Product” sticker in which a company can tag a product in the stories – supporting Instagram’s new shopping initiatives.
The order sticker was spotted by users such as Matt Navara, but an Instagram spokesperson responded, saying that there are no current plans to roll out this feature or how it would work with the product sticker.
Snapchat is Still Trying to Stay on the Radar
While many businesses have strayed from the idea of using Snapchat, the company still persists in trying to gain momentum of users and businesses and this time it is using something everyone loves: music. This week the platform had meetings with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and a few more companies to try to gain licensing rights to the music. The app saw great competition and lost with the addition of Instagram Stories, so Snapchat is trying to take a step toward another platform: TikTok.
While KWSM would probably agree Snapchat isn’t a great strategic move for businesses, this growth could be what the app needs to revive its reputation and gain back the lost momentum.
Did you know 75% of Snapchat users are under 34 years old?
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