Social Media Spotlight: Flipagram, Video Content and the Death of Sponsored Posts
In December, we predicted that social media would scale back to the essentials and video would become a huge part of brands and company’s 2014 social media strategies. As the end of the year approached, we were excited to see what unfolded on our social pages.
Videos are everywhere.
It’s refreshing to see that instead of trying to completely reinvent the wheel again, social media teams, app developers and the big guys behind our favorite platforms are realizing the power of an old standby. There have been a lot of new developments on this front, and it’s allowing brands to explore how they create and use content in this format. Whether their navigating the newest app, working with slow motion capabilities, adhering to the 15-second time limit or something else, we’re only a month into the new year and there have been some fantastic video offerings out there.
We’re personally enjoying Flipagram, which re-launched in November 2013 with new functionality (all for the better!). Scrapbookers and kids with a love for creating nostalgic recaps of their high school sports team know the formula: take your favorite photos, add some music, put them into motion, and presto, a pretty great recap of the highlights from a major event or time period. The app saw a spike in downloads and use – becoming the top free app for the last week in December – for 2013 end of the year recaps (you know you probably did one, or at least thought about it!). Now that we’ve been exposed to the app, we can come to expect a lot more. Recaps of events, highlights of a spring runway or collection, your weekend food outings and more, all accompanied by your favorite hits at the moment. Read more at Apps Worth Downloading: Flipagram
Disclaimer: Remember to choose your song choices wisely, no one wants to look back at those memories and have Justin Bieber (who you just absolutely loved in that moment) mumbling his way through a track in the background.
The best part about all of this, it comes at a time when some of your favorite sites are making big changes. Facebook recently just announced that they will be doing away with Sponsored Posts/Stories after some privacy complaints and one big lawsuit. (Facebook to Sunset Sponsored Stores by April) The Facebook team’s solution for brands and social media pros? Be creative and engaging with the content that you’re posting on Facebook to drive more traffic to your page…. Thanks a heap for those words of wisdom, FB.
As we stressed in our end of the year blog, now more than ever, it will be critical for brands to know who they are and to own it. For their social media team to think big, while keeping content focused on the Fantastic Five (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube). We know, you know…and now we sound like the team at FB. But, what can we say, with less promotional tools or fan hatred for the ones that are still out there (Instagram ads, anyone? Which we all know are basically Sponsored Stories on a different Facebook-owned platform), we’re excited to see what brands come up with and how they use video, the newest apps, and site add-ons to their benefit. Word of mouth is totally back.
Happy 2014 and happy social media planning! Share any cool content ideas or apps you’re loving with our team on Twitter! DO IT www.twitter.com/zapwater
- Stephanie Poquette, Senior Publicist