By Tony Schwartz, “The Social Media DJ”
So, earlier this year, I was one of the many who jumped on the “Snapchat is going to be HUGE!” bandwagon. And now, as the Summer of 2016 comes to a close, I’m already over Snapchat.
You read that correctly: one of the biggest pushers of Snapchat is admitting he is moving on.
And it’s not because Snapchat is doing - or did - anything wrong; it’s just that Instagram is doing everything right with their Stories feature. And numbers don’t lie: my Snapchat views are down, and my Instagram views are WAY up. And that’s only going to increase in the months to follow, especially as the “Explore” feature is rolled out and Instagram starts suggesting users follow.
That’s something Snapchat never implemented. And if one can figure out how to produce the right content and be “suggested” by Instagram to potential clients - like brides-to-be - that’s a game-changer.
Will Instagram put Snapchat out of business? No. Snapchat still has its purpose: silly, funny content to share with my friends and trusted colleagues for a quick, entertaining laugh. And in some circles, if Snapchat is still wildly popular for my clients and their friends, I’ll still create a custom filter with my logo at the bottom for a cheap advertising plug.
No longer one of my daily “must-use” social media apps, Snapchat is now merely a tool for my brand. And now, with Instagram serving not only as a place to share a quality photo and video content but also as the platform for creating a “virtual recap” of my day, it’s become an essential app in my book.
Question From A Reader:
Hey Tony,
Thanks for your insight, I enjoy reading your article each month. Question for you: How do you feel about Facebook detecting audio in live streams and videos and then immediately deleting the video and temporarily banning the user?
Thanks,
Darren
Darren, thank you so much for your readership; I appreciate it.
To answer your question: I don’t know what I should feel. I’m a DJ, not a lawyer, but I think it will be interesting to see what happens when this year’s brides post their First Dance videos to Facebook and said video is removed automatically. In fact, I’m rooting for that to happen this fall; during this constant barrage of political ads, it will be refreshing to see a live break-in to an army of pissed off Bridezillas storming Facebook HQ demanding answers from Zuckerberg on why their First Dance video was removed from Facebook.
In other words Darren: post your video content elsewhere - like YouTube or Vimeo - and share the embed link on Facebook.
