Here’s the thing about social media user numbers: They’re bananas.

Bananas

A million people doesn’t seem to mean anything anymore. 100 million? Meh. Facebook has Billions.

That’s the problem though – no matter who we are as brands, we’re never going to be communicating with that whole audience. In most cases, not even 1% of it.

The press focuses on user numbers, so we assume that they must be important, but they’re all but useless when making decisions about our own social media plans.

Snapchat has more users? Awesome.

How many of those users are creating and sharing real time content at the conference that you’re attending next month? Even if they are, how would you find it?

Twitter is making a strong move back into relevance with some real-time content units that have a shot at making it even more valuable for connecting and sharing around breaking news and events.

At the same time, there is no better way to tell a story online than with Snapchat.

Tech journalists make their living by making audacious claims like “Ello is the Facebook Killer” (Wired), “Instagram Hasn’t Made a Dime… Worth $1Billion?” (Time) “Twitter Is Dead Now, Apparently” (Esquire).

So what?

Snapchat is awesome. So is Twitter, for very different reasons.

When you’re making a decision about which network to use, please pay 0 attention to the big numbers. Instead ask: Are the people in my community active there, and can I do something that they’ll appreciate?

If you answer both questions with a yes, then it’s for you.
If not, then it’s not.

For this week, I’ve pulled together the most important updates from both of the real-time social networks – pay attention to that carousel unit: It could just be the Twitter saviour.

We Heard you Like Tweets, So We Put Tweets In Your Tweets So you Can Tweet More Tweets When you Tweet

You’ve seen the recent Insta-ads where you can swipe through to see multiple images and links, right? (Info here, if not)

Twitter’s been paying attention to the increased engagement and click-through rates that we’ve been seeing there, and they’re introducing something similar, except the Twitter version may actually be better.

Carousel Tweets aren’t just ads, they can be created as organic tweets as well, and they can include up to 21 pieces of all kinds of good stuff: Images, videos, even other people’s Tweets.

Imagine that you’re a brand managing a big release or event, and rather than retweeting all of your followers freaking out, you could curate the best dozen or so and Tweet them out at the same time.

That’s what the Twitter crew was thinking, and they did something about it.

Tweets on Tweets Here

 

The Only Thing Being Discovered on Snapchat Discover: It’s Not Working

Discover

The Discover feed is a great idea: Give news outlets a place to create ultra-premium, rich content for users bringing the news to your mobile device.

Every time I navigate over there I’m reminded just how amazing the content is.

The problem: None of us are doing it, so it’s a waste of really talented people’s awesome work.

To try to fix that, Snapchat is redesigning the top third of its Stories page – that’s the place where right now you find your friends’ stories right underneath the Live Stories that you sometimes watch, which is right below the Discover Stories that you never click on.

The speculation is that everything is going to start to mash together into a Facebook-like feed of content to be consumed. The skeptic in me immediately sees the opportunity for Snapchat to sell promoted content in that format, and worries that the magic may be tarnished, but let’s not put the bandwagon jumping in front of the horse.

Lost & Discovered


Briefed while placing bets in the Battle of Axl Rose vs. Google


Thanks for reading week 21 of the Social Brief. Do you know someone who could benefit from, or just be interested in the Social Brief in email-form? Have them sign up below:

Brief Me Every Monday

* indicates required