With Autumn before us, also comes the holiday season. Whether you’re a small business, corporation, or somewhere in between, this means campaigns, content, and craziness for marketing departments alike.

Luckily social media changes quarter to quarter too, and we deliver the big changes in our quarterly report. Check out what’s new:

The Death of Click-Bait Content

If you have been paying attention to the evolution of content over the past year, you’ll know that click-baiting is a big issue on social media. Led by websites such as BuzzFeed, Elite Daily, and much more, this content utilizes lists and attractive calls to actions to get users to go to websites and help a company gain ad revenue. On August 25th, Facebook said that they will begin putting an end to this by lowering the distribution amount for pages that violate this.

• What this means for your business: If your business is content and writing titles that are catchy and click-bait oriented are part of your business, your days are numbered. If your business isn’t this and you write titles that are click-bait oriented your days are numbered as well. The death of click content means that emphasizing on long-form content is going to be a norm, and that other types of content such as photos and video should be emphasized.

Instagram Releases Hyperlapse

Want a new way to show off store traffic on your social media channels? Want to show off what its really like to go over the hill and through the woods to grandmother’s house? Instagram released Hyperlapse this last quarter  as an addition to its already engaging offering of photos and filters.

• What this means for your business: If you’re looking for another way to create real-time content, consider Hyperlapse. Unlike other apps which require a photo every few seconds, Hyperlapse is an ongoing video that you can choose to share at a variety of speeds. It’s a great way to get your audience engaged.

The Death of Google Authorship

First introduced in 2011, Google Authorship was meant to aid search users in helping them associate content with a specific writer at a publication. Earlier in August, they got rid of it due to the fact that they felt it was distracting and not as useful to the search process.

• What this means for your business: The impact on this lies in the arena of personal branding. Discovering an individual writer is now difficult as search users no longer know who is writing what before they read a particular article. This places a greater importance on building social media relationships through relevant social networks, and requires a dual content-relationship strategy.

The Recognition of “Too Soon”

August saw the untimely death of Robin Williams, whose popularity and subsequent mourning ruled social media for several days. Along with the mourning also came untimely messaging, where companies sought to explore the lessons that Williams lost behind. Some of this messaging however, was met with disdain since many felt that it had been too soon since Williams’ death to say anything. Edelman was one such example, and experienced immense backlash as a result. Similar reactions have also been experienced with the passing of Joan Rivers as well.

• What this means for your business: It’s important as a business owner and marketer to be cognizant of the situation at hand. Though it’s not really a rule, social media professionals tend to stray away from posting content when events such as celebrity deaths or disasters (like the Boston Massacre bombing) occur. The best suggestion out of this firestorm is to agree to mourn with your audience, but stay away from trying to glean lessons that stars left behind with their passing until much later.

The Curatti Takeaway 

The lessons this quarter are many, from doing the right type of content to personal branding to understanding what to recognize in a contextual situation. Social media can be like the wild, wild west, so do your best and keep pushing. The holiday season is almost here!

 

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