09 Aug Facebook Bans Like-Gates, Snapchat Pitches Marketers | Social You Should Know
Facebook Bans Incentivized Likes
In their latest attack on marketers Facebook has banned incentivized likes. Stating in its recent blog that the move is “to ensure quality connections and help businesses reach the people who matter to them, we want people to like Pages because they want to connect and hear from the business, not because of artificial incentives. We believe this update will benefit people and advertisers alike.” Artificial incentives apparently include special offers and exclusive content created by brands. These types of content are commonly listed among the top reasons certain demographics interact with brands. Brands will have to undergo a major shift in strategy to adjust to this change.
Snapchat Selling to Marketers
Snapchat says that their average user (50% of whom are 13-17) check their app 14 times a day and view stories 1 billion times per day. Given this volume, they are now offering opportunities to marketers. Their differentiators: Messages that disappear, meaning users feel pressure to review them right away and messages that can’t be read without explicit user interaction. That assurance that a marketing message was actually read is very compelling, although it may be difficult to compare prices with other platforms selling CPM. Take a look at their (formerly confidential) pitch deck here.
The New Foursquare is Getting Strong Reviews
Foursquare, the check-in app that has struggled to monetize for years, has just launched their new version 8.0 app. Completely gone is the “check-in,” which is now in a sister app called Swarm. But Foursquare is using years of check-in and review data to serve up places to go along with recommendations on what to get. Both Mashable and The Guardian give the app high praise, with the Guardian saying it “should be on everyone’s phone.” If they gain that sort of usage, monetization opportunities abound.
