So I suggest that those of you out there doing YouTube shows should start doing Facebook shows, too. Now, of course, the caveat here is Facebook video requires a budget. It’s worth it. The dollars go on a long way; with the precise targeting we have available through the platform, you are sure to reach an audience with an interest in your subject matter.
At the time this question was asked, in March 2015, I predicted that six months later my primary embed would be Facebook videos over YouTube videos.
I’m not saying you should give up on YouTube. It’s still extremely relevant and important. But if you’re creating content for YouTube, throw it up on Facebook as well. Not with a link to the video—you won’t get the reach you want that way. Remember, native is the way to go.
I actually think this will be good for YouTube. Competition breeds innovation, and YouTube has been pretty stale for half a decade now. It might be motivated to push for some quality innovation soon, which will then probably compel Facebook to innovate some more as well. Everyone could win, especially us marketers.
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Three seconds count as a view for Facebook video—moderately misleading metric, or incredibly bullshit metric?
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Marketers have got to stop valuing width over depth. Is three seconds of pre-roll view on Facebook more bullcrap than people buying views on YouTube as pre-rolls? Those on YouTube are actual ads whereas Facebook is putting them in feeds.
I don’t care about width metrics. Any brand start-up using the number of views it receives to gauge its success doesn’t realize that tech can game that game. I’m looking at the engagements, the comments, the click-throughs to the product. If I am paying attention to something like number of views, I’m taking the width at width value. If I want 800K people to see my face, and they do that, then I consider those three seconds I just got to be worthwhile. It depends what you’re trying to accomplish.
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My little sister has Insta and Snapchat but has no interest in Facebook. What do you think the future holds for Facebook?
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Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is an assassin. There’s a reason he bought Instagram and there’s a reason he tried to buy Snapchat for $3 billion—he wanted the teens. I doubt Facebook is going to get them, though. Instagram is going to become more like Facebook, but if Facebook keeps crushing it, it should be able to hold on to the thirty-five-and-older crowd, which of course is an enormous business. Over time the population will diminish, but I believe Zucks is going to keep going after that youth market. Facebook missed Snapchat, but it bought Oculus, and I’m sure there will be more. Don’t ever count Facebook out. It’s going to be the infrastructure for over-the-top TV, or free Internet, or the best phone we’ve ever seen. Just you wait.
eBay
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Do you think eBay will become irrelevant if they don’t innovate?
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My friends and I were predicting the end of eBay back in 2005, and it hasn’t gone anywhere. I think until there is an alternative to eBay in the world, they don’t have to worry. I loved the old eBay—I taught AJ to be an entrepreneur by going to garage sales and showing him how to sell his finds on eBay. Now eBay sells so much new product it’s more like Amazon, and people are frustrated with the new fee structures, but there really isn’t anywhere else to go.
There is a billion-dollar opportunity in a new eBay, one that exclusively deals in used product the way the old eBay used to.
Blogs
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Blogging doesn’t seem as popular as it was a number of years ago. Does it have a future when everyone is “renting” social media space?
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No one talks about email, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Same with blogging. It just goes without saying that if you’re in business, you’ve got a blog. If you’re putting out content on social networks, you’re blogging. Bloggers used to have to use SEO to get people to come to their blogs, but now they can simply bring their content straight to their readers. It’s a huge improvement over talking to yourself and hoping you can get someone to come along and pay attention.
Now, does that mean that personal websites are irrelevant today? Not at all, especially when a lot of brands are reassessing the idea of “renting” social media space after all. If you’re putting your content on a site that you cannot control, you lose ownership of that content. This has proven catastrophic to some brands when Facebook’s ever-changing algorithms wreak havoc on their carefully planned Facebook campaigns. So many are redoubling their efforts on their sites, and offering their social engagement as the gateway drug to get people there.
People’s attention is short and unfocused. They are more than willing to consume; they’re just not as willing as they used to be to leave platforms in order to do it. It’s perceived as too much trouble—until they spot something that makes it not. And that’s when you’ve got them. If you’re going to retain control over your content and drive people from social networks to your website, your storytelling, which may have already been good, has to get even better. You’ve got to get smart. Really smart. And that’s something to embrace, because raising the bar on one’s work has never hurt anyone. Ever.
Instagram
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Numbers of monthly users aside, do you think Instagram is actually a larger social network than Twitter?
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The media made a big deal out of the fact that in 2015 Instagram reached 300 million monthly active users, surpassing the number on Twitter. They made it seem like a platform’s number of users can predict its success and staying power. But while obviously the number of users is one indicator of how a platform is resonating with the world, it’s not the only one. And it’s not even the most important.
Instead of how many users are on a platform, we should all focus on how much attention its users are paying to it. Which platform is more valuable, the one that’s always on in the background but rarely looked at, or the one that has users’ full attention when they’re there? That’s the big difference between Twitter and Instagram right now.
Twitter has a serious noise problem. Six years ago, I had less of an audience on Twitter than I do now, but I could send a tweet and get more engagement because that audience was paying closer attention. The amount of information and users on the platform is so intense that it’s hard to make yourself noticed, much less engage. On the flip side, no social network in the world right now has more of its users’ attention than Instagram. When people are there, they’re 100 percent there, looking at each photo that passes by. In some ways it’s even got more depth than Facebook, because there aren’t all the distractions that can come with the emotional ties there, like spotting ex-boyfriends and avoiding family drama. Instagram isn’t winning because it has more followers; it’s winning because people are there to wholeheartedly consume content. It’s not just in the background.
When people want real-time information about what’s going on in the world, they still run to Twitter for the conversation and live updates. But until Twitter figures out how to control the fire hose of content that hits people when they’re there, Instagram is going to be a better place to engage with consumers because you have a better chance of being seen. That’s why I’ve moved so much energy toward Instagram myself. I still love Twitter, but survival of the fittest doesn’t just apply to the animal kingdom. If Twitter doesn’t evolve, and soon, it’s going to die.
* * *
How will Instagram evolve in the future?
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It’s evolving now; it’s just somehow it manages to do it in a more subtle way than Facebook does, and therefore elicits less angst from its users. One thing is certain: If Instagram were ever to layer Facebook’s targeting capabilities on its platform, it would become one of the great ad products of our time.
It wouldn’t surprise me if it transcended mobile photography and started developing smart photo tech, like the best ne
w smart camera or maybe contact lenses that could take Instagram shots. Why not? CEO Kevin Systrom is a thoughtful leader who cares not only about his product but also about his audience. I bet he’ll take the platform into an interesting new space, and without ruining it, too.
* * *
Facebook and Twitter make it easy to manage separate pages and accounts, but not Instagram. Is there a way to successfully use one account for all three things without it being shit, jumbled and ineffective?
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It’s easy to forget that Instagram is really, really young, and young platforms need time to work out their kinks. Before business pages existed on Facebook I had to use fan pages, and it was a pain in the ass. But I sucked it up because that’s what you do until the platform evolves or responds to its users’ needs.
* * *
People who write essays as their Instagram captions—what the hell are they thinking? We’re there to look at pics, not read endless shit.
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You are. But plenty of other people like the long form on Instagram. You do you and create your own experience. But don’t be surprised if you start to see more and more of this kind of thing. There is a growing opportunity, and if it works, other people are going to start trying it themselves. Platforms evolve; that’s just the way it is. In fact, as of this writing, I am finding myself more and more attracted to longer-form text on Instagram.
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Like, why is my dad following me on Instagram? Like, no, that’s unacceptable.
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I have bad news. You are going to see your dad following you on every social media platform that hits scale—for the rest of your life. That’s how this stuff works. The youth establishes the community centers, and then everyone else follows.
* * *
People ruined the artistic intention of Instagram. Like now people try to sell refrigerators on it. The fuck?
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What do I always say? Marketers ruin everything. People will try to sell on whatever platform has the public’s attention, and clearly it’s Instagram’s time. If it becomes oversaturated like Twitter, they’ll move on to the next one.
* * *
Instagram posted that they’re going to start advertising on the timeline in the United Kingdom. More than 6,300 comments protested that they’re going to ruin it and threatened to leave the platform. Your thoughts?
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Different strokes for different folks. A lot of video hosts wouldn’t let someone precede a question on the air with a nine-second self-promotion, but I do because I love to reward people’s hustle. Not everyone using Instagram cares whether ads show up or not. And of those who say they do, I’m willing to guess that they’re just venting, and will ultimately be too lazy to follow through on their threat to leave. Do you know how many Americans said they would move to Canada when George W. Bush was reelected, or Obama? The gap between what we say and what we do is pretty big. I’m willing to bet that if you went back to that Instagram announcement and clicked on the people who said they were quitting the platform, you’d find that most are still there. The number of things we say versus the things we do is pretty big. Go back to that post and look at how many people have posted pictures since swearing they were saying bye-bye to Instagram. My guess is quite a few. Instagram will find its rhythm the way Facebook did, and it will be a nonevent.
* * *
I am wondering what you think of Direct Message on Instagram. Is it an untapped resource?
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Don’t go where you’re not wanted. DM is like texting—it’s private, and a place where no one wants to be marketed to. I hear anecdotally that most of the conversations happening by DM are flirtatious and maybe even inappropriate. Few people are following anyone they don’t want to follow, either, so an unexpected DM from you would feel more like a spam intrusion than it might on a different platform. Stay away.
Podcasting
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What’s your take on podcasting? You’re playing in the space, but not all in. Not worth it yet?
* * *
The only reason I’m not all in right now is I’m too busy, but I think it’s a tremendous opportunity. People can consume your content while driving the car, jogging, or riding the train. They don’t have to stop what they’re doing and they don’t even risk getting hit by traffic while they cross the street because their eyes aren’t focused on screens. And podcasts are probably easier for more marketers to do well. Besides, I’m particularly strong on video, so it makes sense for me to put my energy there (focus on your strengths, remember?). Since video can make a lot of people self-conscious, podcasts are an excellent alternative.
Pinterest
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As a man I find it extremely hard to accept that other men use Pinterest. How do I get over this bias?
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Quit being a jerk. If you’re targeting 15–19-year-old guys to sell them sports equipment, then maybe you don’t need to be there, but if you’re a man who is trying to market or sell or storytell or create awareness to women, you do. Your BS bias is not helping you.
* * *
There is buzz around Pinterest advertising and they are slowly letting in business accounts. Are you optimistic?
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When this question was first posed, Pinterest had just launched an ad service called Promoted Pins, which not only serves pins featuring your product to people their demographic data tells them might be interested in buying it, but also allows you to target them based on items they have searched. It’s early Google AdWords all over again, which is a big, big deal.
I was the first person to sell against the word wine back when Google AdWords first launched. I bought it for five cents, and it was nine months before anyone bid me up. Google became huge, and I reaped the benefits. I saw similar results with Pinterest almost immediately.
With Pinterest blocking affiliate links and introducing a “Buy” button on pins, it’s positioning itself as a major e-commerce contender. Back when I answered this question, I predicted that eighteen months from that day I would come back with an update. But I might as well tell you now: For better or worse, nothing has really changed. At the time of this publication, Pinterest has moved fairly slowly, so there are no new major updates to discuss. I still feel bullish, though, and still confident that when people understand that it’s a search engine for visuals they’ll figure out how to use it. If, however, Pinterest continue to be as slow as they have been for another six months, I’m going to start to get concerned.
Kickstarter
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What are your thoughts on using Kickstarter to start a business?
* * *
Oculus Rift did it, raising $2 million to put out its first prototype, and later sold to Facebook for $2 billion. Lots of other people have tried to do it and failed. The difference? The founders of Oculus Rift built a great business. So yes, it can be done—if you’ve got skills. None of this stuff works unless you have the talent to execute.
Ello
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What do you think of Ello?
* * *
Hundreds of people have asked about this ad-free social network that promises not to sell personal data. It sounds so great, but what’s the business model? You can’t make a profit on free.
A lot of people say they resent social networks like Facebook selling their data. But you know what they hate more? Paying for them. From what I can see, people don’t mind ads when they don’t look or feel like ads and bring us some sort of value. I think that’s where Ello is going to have to go.
Listicles
* * *
What’s your opinion on listicle sites?
* * *
Many of my friends and contemporaries who loved growing up reading the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal bemoan listicles, but I think they’re great. The past is the past, and now people want their news fast, colorful, and pithy. BuzzFeed, Upworthy, and Gawker h
ave built tremendous businesses around listicles, using them to explore everything from racism to the challenges of motherhood to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The problem, as I see it, is they’re being overrun. Too many lists like “12 Things the Cat Did While It Ate Its Food” are crowding out the valuable content that people used to count on.
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