Is LinkedIn a Sign of What’s to Come for Social Media Networks? | Social You Should Know

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Microsoft and LinkedIn made big headlines this week, while social networks continue to expand their advertising features. That and more in this week’s Social You Should Know.

Microsoft Buys LinkedIn – A Sign of Things to Come?

By now, you’ve probably heard the news that Microsoft bought LinkedIn for a whopping 26 billion dollars. The price tag has many balking, but considering LinkedIn’s appeal to high-income networkers, and research that indicates 1 in 4 Internet users have a LinkedIn account, this was a wise move by Microsoft, in my opinion. Meanwhile, this article predicts that the sale is a sign of things to come for other social media networks. I don’t doubt that we’ll see this kind of purchase happen again – we’ve always warned that the hot social media network of today will be gone tomorrow. That’s why it’s not a channel strategy that marketers should hang their hat on – it’s the customer journey and the increasing role social media as a whole plays in it.

It’s All About the Video, Baby

Youtube released an app this week aimed to help all brands create video content on a small budget, which has created buzz among marketers eager to try it out. Meanwhile, Facebook announced tilt viewing of 360 photos, and now allows users to leave a video as a comment. Facebook is so passionate about video content that it also said in five years, there will be no written words in the channel – just video. While only time will tell whether or not we will witness the obsolescence of the written word, there’s no doubt that we’ll continue to see more brands producing video content.

Snapchat Grows While Expanding Ad Units

Snapchat will now put ads between stories when they auto-advance. Snapchat knows this won’t be a widely welcomed update and said that ads won’t be shown in between every story, so they are starting off slow with the intrusion. Snapchat is also expanding those able to create Expandable Ads. Expandable Ads allow users to swipe up on a Snapchat ad to install a promoted app, watch a long-form video or visit a website. Snapchat will be reviewing every one of these ads for approval. Meanwhile, it also released its ads API (for large scale campaigns) and announced its first ad partners. Seems like these deliberate moves could be a reason for its continued adoption. It is expected to grow by 27% this year, surpassing its rivals.

Finally, it seems that Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter are all rolling out new ad and targeting options this week. Keep an eye on our blog for updates on how these new features pan out.

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