Podcasts continue surge into new audiences

Welcome to the wrap of the week in social media. Plenty of news to analyse: 

Podcasts 

If you’ve been keeping up with the news of the media world you would have noticed podcasts mentioned more and more each week. Let me make it clear - we are at the very start of a huge new trend and it is podcasts. It’s not that podcasts are a new concept, they’ve been around forever and commonly thought of us a slower, more boring form of media targeted at the older generation (no offence to our ‘older’ readers). It’s that podcasting has slowly captured the interest of the younger audience and gained their trust through the quality and variety of content, as well as now having the full attention and distribution power of Spotify. Fast-forward to now and influencers like Logan Paul (who now hosts the No.1 podcast in the world), are joining the party and suddenly podcasts are all the chatter. Don’t just take my word for it either, in the news this week a recent study revealed a significant change in the behaviour of people who use social media and podcast listeners. Not only has the gap between the two closed, but social media usage has plateaued and podcast subscription and listeners has increased 6 per cent - the largest year-over-year gain in that statistic since it began being measured. The most promising sign of this trend taking off is the 33 per cent surge in podcast popularity in young people aged 12-24. What can you take from this? Expect to hear more about podcasting this year, even take some time to explore some podcasts yourself. But if you’re a business reading this, think for a moment and see where podcasting might work for you and how you can capitalise before the big boom. Contact us today if you want to discuss your options. 

Facebook becomes private?

In an ongoing effort to rebuild its damaged reputation, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled the latest strategy to help repair our trust with the social media giant. The solution: encrypted messages. What this means is that Facebook wants to hand us more control over which of our data is stored on the platform, particularly their chat platform Messenger. What’s been proposed is letting users control the permanence of the content they share and encourage (allow) more private and natural connections, which means that messages could automatically disappear after a set expiration time/date or archived. We’re familiar with this most commonly in SnapChat. Facebook also intends to reduce the friction in sharing by allowing Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to be used in conjunction with one another. I’m not sure this will be enough for users and I don’t suspect this will be all we hear from Zuckerberg as he attempts to slowly clean up his colossal mess. If you’d like to read all 3,225 words of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook note detailing all of this, then I salute you: https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-privacy-focused-vision-for-social-networking/10156700570096634/

Huawei vs America  

Huawei have fired back filing a lawsuit against the US Government over an unconstitutional equipment ban; ie - Huawei argues that the unlawful ban of Hauwei in the US is backed by no legitimate evidence (according to Huawei), and is preventing them from engaging in fair competition which ultimately harms US consumers. Huawei concluded confidently saying they trust the court's verdict will be delivered in their favour which ultimately benefits both Huawei and the American people. But how did this all start? America and China remain locked in a trade war and whilst this particular ongoing issue is believed to be a result of this, it’s actually the result of an ongoing Tech struggle between America and Huawei - the Chinese tech giant, over National Security. Huawei is now the No. 2 smart phone player in the world shipping more units than Apple. The friction isn’t recent - it dates back to 2011 where the US believed that Huawei’s hardware had a backdoor to the Chinese Government increasing the fear of information leaking across, particularly to spies. The US were so adamant that the House Intelligence Committee issued a report that accused Huawei of stealing intellectual property from American companies and supporting espionage efforts. This led to President Donald Trump banning government use of Huawei and this effect was felt far beyond just the US Government. Now with the release of 5G looming, Huawei wants to be a major player in this telecommunications revolution, but America has asked all its allies to block Huawei from being a part of their 5G projects to which New Zealand and Australia obliged. It’s becoming a very convoluted situation and it’ll be interesting to see how this latest lawsuit transpires. 

International Women’s Day 

Whilst it’s easy to take shots at Facebook, we’re not about bias here at 55 comms. Today in particular is a day to recognise the wonderful women in the world and Facebook, partnered with the World Bank & OECD, have done just that. Information on Facebook across 95 countries have found that 39 per cent identifying as owners or managers of small businesses are women. A particularly empowering insight from the report shows the importance of women mentoring other women with more than 2 in 3 female business owners saying they have a role model and 70 per cent serving as mentors to other women. Facebook also revealed that International Women’s Day events increased 30 per cent from 2017 to 2018 which is a brilliant acknowledgement to the awareness and empowerment this important day allows for. 

55 comms would like to acknowledge all women on this International Women’s Day and wish that the awareness and support towards women in all industries only strengthens. 

That’s it for this week!

Feel free to leave a comment on Facebook about any thoughts you had on any of the topics. 

Have a great weekend.

Netflix confronts problem of free viewers

Welcome back to another issue of our regular social media blog. Here are some things to know to stay updated in this rapidly changing world:

  • Netflix has realised a revenue problem – 1 in 5 people are watching Netflix through a family or friend's account. It sounds stupid because it’s been happening for a long time, but the estimated loss for Netflix in 2019 has them looking for a solution. Netflix estimates that 24 million people worldwide watch Netflix off someone else’s account. At an average monthly cost of $7.99, the monthly loss of revenue is a whopping $192M, and a staggering $2.3B annually. Personally it’s a tough fix because if people aren’t paying a subscription, they’re pirating elsewhere for free. Content is accessible in so many places, I’m interested to see how Netflix tackles this issue.

  • Tik Tok (formerly know as Musical.ly) has paid a $5.7M fine after it allegedly stored data from underage children (under 13 years) using the app. The data included full names, email addresses, and, for a period of time, user locations. To me, this record breaking settlement (under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, 1998), is a big warning for any other apps whose user-base is largerly made up of adolescents. No longer can companies turn a blind eye to young children using their services.

  • After Facebook’s donate button raised over $1 billion, it was only a matter of time before its counterpart Instagram would receive its own. But it’s a touchy topic among users who now feel that their trust in social media and the perceived risk of identity/monetary theft is a little wobblier than it was when Facebook introduced the donate button back in 2013. The chatter at the moment looks at Instagram placing a ‘Donation’ option in the form of a sticker for Instagram Stories. The button will link to a list of charities associated with Instagram as well as those whom the user follows and act as a direct donation portal to that charity. The catch though is that your card information will be saved and stored within the Instagram app which Instagram hopes you will use later for purchases as you scroll through your newsfeed. Mark Zuckerberg commented on this saying ‘there is a big opportunity to basically enable transactions and make the buying experience good’; ie: fewer abandoned shopping carts. But perhaps this is a positive tool that can bring some benefit to the world? Facebook’s donate button has raised well over $1 billion for countless charities all around the world - I’m seeing my friends use it more often on Facebook in place of a birthday event. If the result is positive, are you on board?

  • Facebook recently announced a $5M investment in the Walkley Foundation to bring the Facebook Journalism Project News Accelerator to Australia. What is it? In short, it’s a program that will provide training, coaching and project funding for news organisations, to help them connect with and monetise their audiences both on and off Facebook. The world of Facebook and Google is one that news organisations have struggled to grasp. This new initiative will launch in Australia later this year, hosting teams from newsrooms who will build on the expertise and best practices developed during the pilot US accelerators in 2018.

  • The big news from last week came out of the YouTube camp which experienced aggressive kickback from big brands affiliated with the company. It was discovered that a paedophile group had been targeting monetised videos containing young children and adding inappropriate comments pertaining to scenes where the child is less clothed, as well as commenting time-stamps so other people within this ‘group’ can see the mentioned scenes. The problem with this is advertisers working with brands are now being associated with paedophiles and so, not long after the first reports became apparent, companies were withdrawing all ads from YouTube quoting they wanted no association with any such behaviour. YouTube is still investigating the issue but has removed and managed the bulk of the issue so far, so it seems.

 Here are some other quick items you might want to read: 

Here are some useful Tools for the week:

Apple set for launch: The week in socials

The week in social media

Whilst we celebrated Valentine’s Day it’s been less than ‘hugs-and-kisses’ in the media world this week with some major news reaching the surface. Outside the main channels of news, however, there’s also been some important news which I’ll also shed some light on.

  • Apple this week made two major announcements regarding their rumoured news subscription service and video streaming service. The news service is expected to be unveiled at an event on March 5. The subscription service will apparently provide readers with all-you-can-read access to all pay-walled news publications for $10 per month. However, anticipate a delay due to Apple seeking 50 per cent of the profits. Expect to hear more in the coming week.

  • The Apple video streaming service, set to be unveiled at a March 25th event, will ‘include TV shows and movies either acquired or funded by Apple. The company has created dozens of original programs so far’ but has yet to package it into a subscription-based service. The other big news alongside this is that the service will NOT include Netflix which implies that we can expect some competitive marketing campaigns from Apple when it finally does enter the video subscription market.

  • LinkedIn is finally testing LIVE video! The social platform is among the few that hasn’t already offered this feature. It’s currently being tested as part of a pilot program which has been offered to a select group of broadcasters. The company plans to eventually roll this feature out to regular users but there’s been no timeframe given. This live service follows the introduction of native LinkedIn video only two years ago and a partnership with Vimeo last year and is aimed at users looking to broadcast for specific purposes like product launches, professional question and answer sessions, conferences and similar.

  • Did you notice your personal or business Twitter and/or Instagram accounts likes and follower numbers (respectively) fluctuate drastically in the last 24-48 hours? Don’t be alarmed, people don’t suddenly hate you. Both Twitter and Instagram fell victim to a bug in the last 2 days which resulted in Tweet likes numbers dropping upon a refresh and Instagram followers being lost – as high as the millions for some celebrities. Twitter and Instagram both released statements addressing the bug and for most users the bug has been fixed so most accounts should be back to normal.

Other notable news mentions for this week: 

  • GrokStyle an Artificial Intelligence (AI) retail app has been purchased by Facebook. The app, which has since been taken off the App Store after the purchase, would help users’ product purchasing by placing the item in the frame of your camera view. Items like a table could be artificially placed in your living room so you could see how it would look. What Facebook has planned is unknown

  • YouTube is suffering a phishing problem where it’s everyday users are receiving direct messages from their favourite YouTube influencers. Unfortunately, this is a phishing scam which YouTube is investigating.

  • Google Maps have allowed testing of their augmented reality maps which will add a visual element to the live maps directions. Soon you’ll be able to see directional prompts via your phone camera looking at the real world – think street view mixed with maps.

  • Instagram is currently testing a web version of direct messages.

  • Facebook finally lets brands and publishers join Facebook groups which is a really great tool for companies to engage with groups with mutual interests.

  • FYI: Google now snares 1 in 5 dollars of ad spend, Facebook takes 1 in 10. Think about that

  • YouTube beats Apple and Netflix as the most trusted brand among millennials.

Links to click on:

See you next week

Facebook, trust and the evils of data

Facebook is in the news again – and this story is one of its most controversial. Facebook has been collecting data from countless users aged between 13 and 35 through a research program disguised as an app. In order to use this app, you had to give Facebook unfiltered permission to access your entire device, including messages, emails, internet activity and general usage. To sweeten the deal for users, Facebook was paying up to $20 a month for this access.

Does that sound a bit creepy? You bet. Apple has since deleted the app from its App Store.

This episode has serious trust implications for Facebook. And we know the importance of trust for any company.

I can draw on my own experience here, back to when I first heard the name Facebook. It was 2009 and I was in Year 9 at school and it had just become the most popular talking topic in the school yard amongst the Year 10 students.

The fear of missing out at such a young age was overwhelming and before dinner that night I was a Facebook user. I didn’t understand it but I felt like I had to be a part of it.

Fast forward 12 months and Facebook filled almost every vacant moment I had. I was in constant communication with friends, constantly viewing photos of friend’s parties on the weekend and viral videos by UniLad.

Almost every year from then Facebook forced a significant change in how I’d use it, and as a loyal user I adapted without question. At such a young and naïve time in my young life I developed this unbreakable connection with the social media. It was the same for everyone I knew.

Snapping back into reality, almost 10 years later and the unwavering trust I once had is now jolted.
The news of Facebook’s mining of data of young people was done with the user’s permission. But when you’re young and money is tight, $20 a month can be valuable. So what about privacy?

So, what does this mean to me? How do I feel? How is everyone else likely feeling?
To me, it’s another hole in the mainsail for Facebook’s trust among users.

Trust in a company is difficult to judge but it’s perhaps better understood with my reluctance to share my information in the way the app wants me to share.

Is there any other data mining methods we don’t know about?

Facebook is too big to fail on this point and it’s too valuable for many users.

It’s still a powerful platform and one that can help people and businesses spread messages for good. It’s a platform that can be the lifeblood of many businesses.

Used right, Facebook is a key part of a successful social media strategy.

But remember to keep eyes wide open and to ensure that you’re doing what you can to control your data.

Super Bowl ads target reality, technology trends

Another year, another Super Bowl for the New England Patriots. While you’ve seen that story before – that’s six Super Bowls for Patriots star Tom Brady – the 2019 Super Bowl commercials were new, exciting but still expensive. 

With a starting price of $US5 million for a 30-second spot and only so many spaces to fill, Super Bowl commercials are a hot item for advertisers. With well over 110 million people were expected to tune in this year, so it was a massive opportunity to send a compelling message or plug a new product. This year saw a lot of the usual contenders like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Verizon (to name a few) as well as featured a few debutants like Washington Post, Olay and Expensify. Overall there were a few trends that stood out:

  1. Appealing to the real: A number of commercials this year were emotionally evocative and tried to appeal to human empathy. The Washington Post did this well referencing ‘fake news’ and linking it the real dangers reporters face to deliver the facts. It all came together with the commercial highlighting some of the recent journalist deaths. Whilst the theme was dark the message was impactful. Still, it’s not easy to get the public to feel sympathy for journalists. The impact of this ad will be worth watching.

  2. Technology dominated: The majority of commercials this year revolved around technology providing a solution or benefit. Serena Williams partnered with the dating app Bumble which focused on empowering women to take control of their future and specifically love life. Expensify app Partnered with 2Chainz and featured a world-first reimbursable receipt music video. Yes, the ad ran as if it were a music video before being interrupted by someone on-set who explains they need to keep their receipts to be reimbursed for all the props. The point of difference here is that the ad shows a receipt on-screen and users were able to download the app and scan the receipt and were entered into a prize to be reimbursed (win) an amount of money – a really innovative concept.

  3. Nostalgia, again: Nostalgia is enjoyable but also predictable with Super Bowl and 2019 is no different. Dorito’s took the crown this year featuring an ad with Chance The Rapper and 90’s boy-band heartthrobs The Backstreet Boys. The ad features the well-loved song “I Want It That Way” as Dorito’s unveil that their original Nacho’s flavour is now ‘Flaming Hot’, so a new flavour essentially. Hungry Jack’s also took the nostalgic route but took the crown for probably the most basic ad where they had Andy Warhol opening a burger and eating it. The ad was concluded with the hashtag #EatLikeAndy in an attempt to ignite a social media campaign.

Yet again, the Super Bowl commercials did not disappoint, in fact, they were probably more interesting than the game (according to social media commentary). Now we wait until next year!

Which ad was your favourite?

Can The Bachelor spawn social influencers?

Will the cash start raining down on the women who have made their dramatic exits off The Bachelor? Nick – the Honey Badger – Cummins decided last night on the Channel 10 show that there was no perfect match for him in his self-proclaimed “House ’o lurve”.

So marked the end of a dramatic series of The Bachelor in which no one found love.

At times, it seemed the women were after social media followers. This seemed to matter more than love.

So how audiences react to them on social media will be fascinating in the coming weeks.  There’s still plenty to play out in terms of how much sway an influencer has in building brands via social channels.

For instance, our Federal Government has just cut ties with their influencers. 

They dabbled in the marketing fad and got burnt. The axe fell on the tax-payer funded foray into influencer marketing once an audit uncovered these people actually added “little or no value” to campaigns targeted at growing awareness around key health and fitness policies.

The discovery that one influencer was plugging alcohol was a bean too far for the auditing boffins.

It is a rare move to blacklist influencers as a means to raising brand awareness but signals there are some rising doubts in the marketplace. If used correctly, influencers can be powerful tools for reaching audiences.

Here’s some of our tips on making the most of them to build your brand:

Do your research

The majority of all influencer campaigns are dismantled by the discovery of negative information about that influencer. This could be anything from sharing racially inappropriate material to being sponsored by a competing or contradictory brand. 

Assess the risk.

Based on your research data, ask yourself: is this person a risk? It’s important to assess whether or not this person is likely to negatively impact your campaign by their behaviour, their past, and anything else that could negatively impact your campaign. Put simply, there’s a reason why no one wanted to touch fallen AFL star Ben Cousins.

Is this influencer REALLY relevant to your target market?

It seems like common sense but it’s often done poorly. Make sure the influencer you are looking to use is highly relevant to your target market. What this influencer says will resonate and encourage purchasing behaviour far better this way. A key ingredient to this step is authenticity. Authentic sells, fake is spam.

Is the engagement (value) really there?

Similar to assessing relevance, assess the value – looking at the data available (likes, shares, comments, sales etc), is this influencer converting the way they say they are/the way you think they are? If you’re going to invest the big money, you want to make sure this box is ticked.

If you decide to engage with influencer marketing, make sure your goal is the same.

If you decide to go ahead with influencer marketing then it’s paramount you ensure you’re both working toward the same goal. That could be any of the following: increase brand awareness, generate leads/boost sales, position yourself as a thought leader, reach a new audience, remain relevant among your target audience.

You definitely don’t want to be paying an influencer for relevance among the younger market while your influencer is coming from a follower’s generation approach.

Lastly, don’t go for quick wins.

Influencer marketing is incredibly powerful but it won’t increase your sales 200% overnight. You’re attempting to cause a behavioural change in an audience who mostly hasn’t purchased yet, and they’re going to need some time to warm up to it. The fact that you’ve got a perfectly selected influencer is already making that process go that much faster – so be patient.

Is Facebook on the downhill slide?

Everywhere you look at the moment Facebook is in your face. But not for the right reasons.

Talking to you via your TV, at the bus stop, in your newsfeed even – Facebook is desperately begging for your forgiveness and trust.

On the share market, Facebook recently experienced the worst stock drop in US history losing $120 billion in market value despite revenue increasing.

So, is Facebook worried?

On face value, yes.

A genuine blow for Facebook was the very public case of the Cambridge Analytica data breach, which is still ongoing, that caused worldwide concern about users’ data privacy online.

Online security has always been a lingering thought for most but when it was revealed that your data could have been taken without the need to grant permission, the resulting betrayal was irreparable for many.

But Facebook is part of most of our lives; our work, our communications, family, so it was far from a mortal blow for Facebook.

However, there were reports that up to 1.8 million Australians deleted their accounts.

The same effect has been had all around the world. In America, for example, 9 per cent of the population reportedly deleted their Facebook accounts.

For other social media networks this has opened the door for opportunity. 
Facebook remains the top-contender boasting 15 million monthly active users in Australia as of last month, matched only by YouTube.

Visual content has been a consistent trend the last few years and particularly within the last 12 months in Australia. Longer format videos in the form of 'vlogs' makes up the large majority of time spent on both platforms as they complement each other well.

Operating within the visual content trend and relishing in the Facebook scandal, SnapChat saw tremendous growth in the last six months growing from 4 million monthly active users to 6.3 million.

The younger audience (18 and below), have little interest in Facebook but plenty of interest in SnapChat as well as Instagram.

It’s important to note that Instagram has remained steady with its 9 million monthly active users over the last six months – perhaps SnapChat is set to re-enter the limelight? 

Moving ahead to LinkedIn, an additional 300,000 monthly users in Australia joined over the last six months, a trend that’s emerging out of the millennials who are now entering the workforce and used to a social media-style layout in order to find work and create industry connections.

So, despite Facebook experiencing potentially It’s most threatening crisis yet, it is still simply too large and involved with our lives to suffer too greatly – yet.

For the other social media platforms, it’s been an enjoyable period of growth in the Australian market and an even better opportunity and reminder for competitors to encourage online security and to reassure their users that they are safe on their platform.

But for now we sit and wait as the Facebook woes takes their slow, natural course.

CEOs not prepared for public speaking

In the business world, 2018 has been the year of the executive under pressure.

The Royal Commission into the banking industry has been the latest to show business leaders fidgeting, mumbling, shifting and squirming under the pressure of a public grilling. 

Most of those executives are used to a life in which they're almost always right, their views rarely questioned to their faces.

But this is the modern day and the Hayne Royal Commission has underlined this simple observation - just because you may be an excellent executive doesn't mean that you're going to perform well in a public situation. A business record counts for nothing in public performance.

Some of the executives who have appeared before the Hayne Royal Commission should have studied Mark Zuckerberg's recent appearance before US Congress. There are varying views on Zuckerberg's performance but most agree on one element - he was at the very least competent.

Much of that came down to Zuckerberg's non-verbals. And that's where a lot of CEOs get it wrong - they spend so much time thinking about their words that they forget completely about their body language. And that can say more than words.

Everyone has a nervous habit. We worked recently with an international-level athlete who spoke very well but his nervous reaction was to fidget with his hands below the desk at a media conference. You can imagine how that looked.

Another high-profile athlete we work with scratches his neck when he speaks with media. It's simply his coping mechanism but it's distracting. He has worked hard to overcome that.

Here are some simple tips for executives who will present publicly:

  • Where will you place your hands? It's not a silly question. Most executives don't think about it.

  • What's your nervous habit? You have one, even if you don't realise it.

  • Warm up your face. That sounds weird but it's far better than the emotionless, tense look that many executives bring to public performances. We carry a lot of tension in our face. Warm it up.

  • Warm up your voice. It's important. And it's simple

There are a bunch of other simple methods to get ready for public speaking. At 55 comms, we work with our clients on the "OnStage Toolkit" - borrowing methods from actors about warming up and focusing before they go on stage.

If you think it doesn't matter, ask the executives whose excellent business careers have been tarnished by woeful public speaking engagements. There are plenty out there.

Is your social media account safe?

Last week #deletefacebook was among the top trending topics on social media. It’s started a discussion around online privacy. If you’re on social media, should you be worried?

We’ve heard so much over the last week on Cambridge Analytica and their use of detailed, personal Facebook data for political campaigns. There are so many layers to this story but, essentially, Cambridge Analytica is a company that specialises in data analysis. For them, Facebook is a goldmine.

You may be like many others who think: “My privacy settings are strict so only my friends can see what I share.” That may be true so how did Cambridge Analytica get a hold of so much user data? Have you ever used a third party app and taken advantage of the convenience of the Login With Facebook button? There is the loophole. As soon as you give permission to that third-party app, you’re granting them access to a certain level of your Facebook information.

A Russian-American psychology professor created a third-party app called “thisisyourdigitallife” which utilised Facebook’s login feature and collected data on 270,000 individual accounts. The data was collected in the form of a ‘personality test’, which became a psychological survey. So, people were not only handing over psychological assessments of themselves but also their complete Facebook profiles, to which Alex Kogan set about analysing both data sets to find correlations between people’s personality results and their social media behaviour.

At the time this app was created, Facebook’s user terms allowed for third-party apps using Facebook to access your personal Facebook data as well as anyone on your friends list whose privacy settings allowed it. So, using a predictive model they created by comparing people’s test results and their Facebook activity, they applied that model to the profiles of your friends to predict those people’s behaviours and opinions. Thus, this process compiled data across 50 million Facebook users from the 270,000 accounts who used the app originally. Cambridge Analytica then bought the data.

Recently, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica and a media investigation revealed the methods and tactics used for political campaigning purposes. Facebook has since suspended the groups suspected of offending from their social media platform.
People are now asking what apps they have provided their Facebook information to? You can check and you can cancel them. Simply go to Facebook, find and select ‘Settings’, and then scroll down to ‘Apps’. Here you will find a list of every app currently allowed to access your Facebook profile. To remove the apps, simply select the apps concerned and click the ‘X’ to remove.

If you wish to turn off all ability for apps to use your Facebook account, scroll further down on this apps page and find ‘Apps, Websites, Plugins’. Click that and select, ‘Disable Platform’. What this will mean though is that for any app you’ve signed up to using Facebook, you will now have to go back and create an account with that app – the choice is yours.

Should you be worried? Yes and no – my advice is to be cautious.

If you haven’t updated your privacy settings in a while (or ever), take 10 minutes and review them because it’s likely there are new criteria you weren’t familiar with. Aside from that, consider what you share on social media – the rule I grew up on: if you wouldn’t want your mum to see it, then don’t post it. Social media is great for keeping in touch with friends and sharing moments of your life, but companies want that information. Are you okay with surrendering it?

Maybe it’s not time to #deletefacebook, but perhaps it’s time to tighten up our security.

Best free apps for exciting content

In the world of social media, it’s a constant battle to be seen through the mass of digital content that crowds our newsfeeds.

But think about the last piece of content that caught your attention – what did it look like?

Why did it grab your attention? Did you ask yourself: ‘how do I make something like that?’
There is good news – it’s easier than you think. Here is a list of the best content creation apps to help add some competitive and creative edge to your social media marketing. The best part – they’re all FREE.

1.    Spark Posts

If you’re familiar with Canva then you will be LOVE Spark Posts. If you aren’t familiar with Canva, well there’s an extra app for you to check out. 

Spark Posts is essentially a graphic (image) creator with the added capability to add subtle animations to text. When you first open the app, you’re greeted with stacks of user created content of which you can actively select and edit however you like. If you’re set on creating something unique to you then you’re able to begin a creation with a blank canvas. Add in whatever images you like, whatever text you need and style both the image, text and other elements to your perfection with the easy-to-use tools. The point of difference is the ability to add animation to your text which ensures your creation is more attention grabbing. Take a look at a few examples below.

2.    Splice

I’ve always been a loyal user of iMovie on my iMac but when it came to editing videos on my iPhone, I didn’t enjoy the iMovie app the same way. Thankfully, I came across Splice, which is a GoPro-created app whose primary reason for being released was to allow GoPro users to edit their videos on the go. Splice has the same simple and easy feel that iMovie on the iMac does and also allows you to export videos in HD. Simply import your video and configure the basic settings to suit you. Once done, you’ll be taken into the editing area where you will be able to cut, slow down or speed up, or add music to your video. The app even offers their own library of music which is copyright free. You can of course use your own iTunes library to add music to the videos. Take a look below at a sample video below.


3.    Flyr

If you enjoy the textual animations of Spark Post but want to incorporate videos as well as images, then Flyr is the app for that. This app is presented very similar to that of Spark Posts so you won’t have to stress over opening up something completely foreign. Simply browse the preset templates available or create your own and edit them however you like, there is no limit to your creativity.


4.    Cinemagraph

If you don’t know what Cinematography is, it’s simply the combination of camerawork (film-making) and photography. The end result is often a still photo with a specific element of that photo made to animate. The final product is always extremely attention-grabbing as it’s a form of media the majority of consumers are still getting used to. Don’t mistake that for ignorance either, they certainly get drawn in to this particular kind of media and certainly, if you use it well, it can be a really great tool to separate you from competition. Take a look at how it looks and works below.

Cinemagraph.mov

5.    Arrow

Augmented Reality is essentially a computer-generated image that can be placed into the real world as you view it through your phone. It can be moved and looked at as a 3D object and often portrays every minor detail.

When you open the Arrow app you’re met with user-submitted content which you can view and engage with (liking/commenting). To create your own, simply hit the create button down the bottom of the screen and go through the wide selection of AR objects. You can take a photo or video in real time with the AR objects in the frame. You will notice the complexity of these AR objects once you start to record videos. Once you hit “record”, the AR object will lock to the section it was placed and you can view the object at any angle on its plane – it’s truly impressive. Look at an example I made below to understand what I mean.

Arrow2.mov

So, there you go! Five great free apps you can use to create exciting and engaging creative content. If you have an app that you use that wasn’t on this list, let me know.