Stories are on track to overtake our news feeds and it’s time for brands and organisations to take note. The stories format is growing 15x faster than feeds and behaviour must evolve. Since 2016, stories creation and consumption is up 842%. Users are starting to consider how every moment in their day can be glorified in some way. Platforms are recognising the shift and are redesigning their structure’s to highlight the camera and user stories. For brands now is the time to start embracing the stories format more frequently, as a lasting memory in today’s digital audience is worth more than an audience.

New Facebook Live update a win for Publishers and Creators

A new announcement by Facebook looks to assist publishers in using Facebook Live more effectively. With live content continuing to grow in popularity it is clear that Facebook wants to make its live video a key focus in the company’s future growth. The update will see new features such as the ability to use persistent stream key with an encoder when going live on the platform. This will give creators and publishers the ability to collaborate more efficiently with teams across various locations for live productions. In addition, publishers and creators can now post across multiple pages at the same time, increasing reach and exposure. Finally, live rewind is also an option following feedback from users in being able to watch important moments within the live format.

Snapchat holds its first Creators Summit

Snapchat hosted its first Creators Summit in a bid to win influencers back to the platform. The two-day summit saw 13 popular Snapchat dedicated influencers meeting with the Snapchat creator Evan Spiegel and other senior executives. The main purpose was to hear from influencers their thoughts and ideas to win users back to the platform. Snapchat is currently struggling to compete against Facebook and Instagram and is facing slow user growth. In order to change this, the company who formerly resisted support for influencers is now collaborating with them to make Snapchat competitive again.

Facebook hints at an ad-free paid subscription platform

Facebook has announced it is in the process of developing an ad-free and paid subscription version of Facebook. The idea has been in progress for some time, however, following the recent privacy data scandal there has been a significant push internally for the subscription version to be a reality. Despite previous hesitations about releasing a paid version, Facebook believes consumer sentiment is changing and may be more receptive to an ad free platform now more than ever. Either way, the idea could become a reality sooner than we think following Zukerberg’s recent comments at his congressional testimony in April, “There will always be a version of Facebook that is free.”