Social Media

Instagram Officially Launches Quiz Stickers for Instagram Stories

The new Quiz Stickers provide another way to generate engagement with your Stories, and prompt feedback from your audience in a simple, interactive way. Instagram also has poll stickers, which it launched in 2017, and really, the quiz sticker option is pretty similar. But it adds more of a fun, competitive element, giving users an option to get the right answer and feel a sense of achievement, as opposed to just providing feedback. That could make it a good option for sharing insights into how your company operates, what processes or materials you use, tests on industry trends, and more.

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Byte, the Follow-Up to Vine, Begins Sending Out Beta Invites

Byte, a reboot of Vine from the same creator, has sent out the first 100 invites to its closed beta. The app is simply described as a “looping video app,” and is expected to function the way Vine used to. Vine has managed to maintain an avid fanbase since being shut town by Twitter over two years ago. The launch of Byte will certainly benefit from its built-in audience of former Vine users. However, since Vine was shut down, a new king has claimed the short-form video throne, Tik Tok. The momentum of TikTok cannot be understated, as it’s rapidly becoming the app of choice among Gen Z users. If Byte can attract older age groups then there’s a real opportunity to compete.

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Snap Inc. Reports Improved Usage and Revenue in Q1 ’19 Update

In its Q1 2019 update, Snap has reported a slight increase in active users, and an increase in revenue, which, at least in part, is attributable to its improved Android app. First off, on users – Snapchat is now being used by 190 million people every day, a slight increase on the previous quarter, though still down on it’s 191 million DAU peak. Snapchat officially launched its new, faster Android experience earlier this month, this is crucial because many people in markets outside North America use Android devices, and thus far, they haven’t been able to get the full Snap experience. The improvement in Android performance most crucially relates to India, a nation of 1.37 billion consumers, and currently Instagram’s second-biggest market. Android is the most used mobile operating system in India, holding around 90% of the Indian market. But more than just raw numbers, Snap continues to perform well in younger segments. Snap says that its core app now reaches “90% of all 13-24 year-olds and 75% of all 13-34 year-olds in the U.S.” Even with the increased competition from Instagram, Snap has been able to maintain its allure with younger audiences, a big tick in its favor. On other elements, Snap also says that it’s expanded is Discover content offerings to “more than 450 premium content channels worldwide”. Snap has also doubled the number of non-US partners it’s working with, and launched over 50 new shows and Publisher Stories in international markets.

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Marketing

Google starts showing more images in web search results

Multiple tools that track the Google search results have been showing an increase in the percentage of time that Google shows image results in the core web search results. The image search result box that is sometimes shown in the main search results is now showing up for 1/3rd of all queries according to some reports. Google has been hinting that SEOs should be focusing a bit more on image search over the past few months. Now with Google showing even more image search boxes in the main search results — Google Images may be another source of traffic to your web site that you don’t want to miss out on. Make sure to optimize your images for Google Image search!

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