August 18, 2016
If you have been following the recent movements in social media, then you will know that no idea or concept is off limits when it comes to the social media world.
Facebook has long been the most popular social media platform among the recent generations. Although some would say Facebook would have possibly never existed without inspiration from Myspace and of course myspace Tom. But without the inventor of the wheel, there would have never have been the car.
But once the car was invented, it took innovators to make the automobiles what they are today. There was a point however when there as little difference between one car to the next. It wasn’t until the breakthrough of hybrid and electric cars that the industry truly changed.
The same could be said for social media, most platforms were focused on openly sharing experiences until privacy concerns forced the industry to tighten up its privacy policies.
The change in social behaviour allowed Snapchat to quickly rise among the ranks, in the world of social media world. Although it wasn’t just the need to share content in private that Snapchat had cracked. They had also nailed the format in which the younger generations wanted to share it.
It seems that Snapchat has a winning formula and all the social media big dogs want a slice, although Snapchat seems to have copied Facebooks 360 ad format.
Is it such a bad thing that all the platforms seem to be plagiarising each other’s ideas?
What you need to remember is that the core features of each social platform have built their core followings. Each platform has its own unique demographic and one of the reasons each platform develops similar features is to try and attempt to lever audiences from each other.
But for brands, this is a blessing in disguise, because the more the platforms copy each other the easier content can be re-purposed for each platform. This will mean that brands can not only save money in content creation but time and create truly synergised campaigns that have the same look and feel across multiple social media platforms.
Here are some quick wins for brands
- Snapchat discovery content can be adapted for Instant articles and Twitter moments
- Snapchat story assets can easily be reused with Instagram stories
- Periscope streams can also be broadcast on Facebook Live and Youtubes Stream now with the use of third party applications
- Facebook 360 adverts can be repurposed for Snapchat 360 adverts
- Twitter hashtags can be used on Facebook, to tie campaigns together across social
- Snapchat geofilter artwork and Snapchat Lense concepts may soon be re-used as Facebook rolls out MSQRD features on it’s platform