Welcome to Social Signals your weekly feed of curated articles and insights from the world of Social Media, Video and Content Marketing.
This week we push the boundaries of marketing with Augmented Reality, Podcasting, and see what Facebook’s latest version of Messenger has in store for businesses.
Meanwhile in New York with Fashion Week in full swing, we see how Refinery29 is fuelling creativity with Instagram and what marketers need to know about Dark Social.
To round things off our Video of The Week provides a glimpse of where Messenger and Whats App might be heading with How China is changing the Internet.
To quote internet pioneer Kevin Kelly from a recent article “We are still at the beginning of the beginning” so just think what will be possible in 10-15 years’ time when VR, AR & AI have fully disrupted the way we communicate with each other.
Major Brands Are Betting Big on Podcasts, and It Seems to Be Paying Off.
Ever thought about doing a podcast for your brand or on behalf of a client? this article looks at the growing trend and why brands including eBay, GE, and Netflix are betting on audio shows as the next great opportunity for customer engagement.
Read the article here
New Facebook Messenger: Enables more Ways to Share, More Ways to Buy, More Context.
Along with Facebook Live, Messenger is the big play for the Facebook platform this year which is enabling Businesses to sell products and services directly to customers in the app.
This is putting Messenger and What’s app firmly on the path of China’s We Chat which operates as it’s own mobile operating system. See our video of the Week
Read the article here
How Refinery 29 Turned Fashion Week into an Instagram Fuelled Experience.
With New York Fashion week in full stride Refinery 29 outline the importance for brands to inspire social creativity from events to generate brand engagement and reach. Meanwhile, Instagram underlines the importance of the platform to the fashion industry with an informative article on the company blog as well as announcing their new keyword moderation tool which allows brands to filter out inappropriate comments.
Read the article here
How the New Yorker Integrated Augmented Reality into the cover of their Magazine.
We had lots of fun in the evolve office with this one! Just download the Uncovr app & point at the image of the magazine cover & see what’s possible with Augmented Reality when it comes to life on your own phone! Watch the AR space closely, this is just the beginning!
Read the article here
The Instagram star who may not exist.
She is one of the hottest new faces on Instagram but her fans are trying to work out if she is a real person or not. The debate is raging about whether Lil Miquela is a model who relies on technology to create her distinctive look, or if she is actually 100% computer generated. BBC Trending tried to answer the question: filter or fake?
Read the article here
Explaining Dark Social and What 3 Things Marketers Should Know about it
Dark Social refers to the amount of link sharing that doesn’t get picked up via analytics on apps like Facebook Messenger & What’s App. It is important as this is where a lot of sharing & conversions take place so being able to track these conversions allows you to know the true value of your social media activities.
Read the article here
Video of the Week- How China Is Changing Your Internet
This great informative video courtesy of The NewYork Times explains how China’s isolationist policies have led to the development of their own mobile operating system with apps like We Chat leading the way in terms of its features and the huge array of services it offers all from the one mobile app that has left the west playing catch up.