[00:00:00] Jeff Sieh: Welcome to Social Media News Live I’m Jeff Sieh and you’re not.

[00:00:04] Grace Duffy: And I’m Grace Duffy. And this is the show that keeps you up to date on the world of social media. And we’re doing something a little bit different with the show this week with both of us traveling, as you noticed, I’ve we, we’ve had all of our friends coming in to help fill in for my spot, we didn’t want to leave you this week, our loyal audience hanging.

[00:00:24] So we are actually prerecording this. We’ll be playing it back on Friday and managing the comments. So those of you joining us live at our lifetime, we are hanging in the comments. So please you know, drop your comments, drop your questions. We’ll still be here to answer them. But yeah. Tell us where else.

[00:00:39] So we’ll be on Facebook, LinkedIn. YouTube, of course. Where else are we going to? We are

[00:00:44] Jeff Sieh: also going right now we’re actually going live on one place to Amazon Live because I wanted to do that because one, if I don’t tell myself I’m Live, I’ll stop and say, I’ll edit it later. And then I won’t and it’ll look bad.

[00:00:56] Live right now on Amazon. So hello to everybody over on Amazon Live. Thank you for tuning in with us. And the other thing is that it is a podcast and we will be publishing that and our normal Saturday time over on it’ll be on your favorite podcast players, which is like apple Google, Stitcher, all those places you can find us there.

[00:01:16] So if you’re looking for us, just search Social Media News Live, and we should pop up. So this is going to be a fun show because even today there was some breaking

[00:01:25] Grace Duffy: news. Absolutely. So we wanted to do a prediction show where we’re in the fourth quarter now, and this is when people start rolling in their predictions.

[00:01:32] And so we wanted to take a look at you know, what people are looking at for 2020 or 2022, sorry, when it comes into when, as we’re planning our social media.

How Did You Get Started in Social Media?

[00:01:45] Grace Duffy: But I wanted to start this conversation Jeff off with like how did you get started in social.

[00:01:52] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So for me, a company I’m based in Longview, Texas.

[00:01:56] I started back in the day it was multimedia. I was doing flash websites. And if you remember that you remember those flash websites, you can thank me for that. Yeah. I did a lot of those. Did those start a little company then I got hired by a local firm here and became their multimedia manager. And I was still having clients, but I was telling all my clients how important it was to be on social media, because that’s when Facebook and all those other things started.

[00:02:18] And this is, this is way back in the day. And because I was actually making like CD ROMs, like I had a robotic machine that I would send to make them for clients and redo them. And You know, press them and all anyway it was back in the day. That’s the kid, that’s what this little silver thing, you stuck into your car and it played music.

[00:02:37] Grace Duffy: We are all right. I know we look eternally

[00:02:40] Jeff Sieh: youthful. I know, but yes we

[00:02:42] Grace Duffy: worked hard. I have in my closet.

[00:02:47] Jeff Sieh: So I started, so I did that and I said, Hey, I’m going to start telling my clients about it. And I then went well, if I’m doing my clients, I better do it too. So I got on it. Started doing that, got into Pinterest of all things did a big show on Google plus when it was the wild west.

[00:03:01] So I’ve been doing live videos since back in the Google plus days. And then it just kinda snowballed from there, got speaking gigs and doing shows and all sorts of things. And so that’s led me into what about you grace?

[00:03:13] Grace Duffy: Oh my gosh. I started, my career in advertising. I wanted to do traditional advertising TV radio.

[00:03:19] Use paper. Remember when those things, you stick this well, youngest person on the account, they’re just like, give her all the digital stuff like that doesn’t matter. That’s not going to amount to anything. So I started off with it was called new media at the time, new media, and I was doing a digital display ads for a semiconductor company and talk about exciting.

[00:03:41] Yeah. So from there I moved on to, I worked for Travelocity in their marketing space and I there was like five of us on the team. I was their online marketing manager, doing all of their, managing all their display ads, but we also launched this cool little thing. It was called the Travelocity gnomes MySpace page.

[00:04:02] Oh,

[00:04:02] Jeff Sieh: wow. Yeah. First of all, gnomes the notes. Yes. I remember those. And then my space.

[00:04:09] Grace Duffy: Yeah. Yeah. So I went from make the blue bluer on the ads to launching that. And then we I was also overseeing the launch of our company blog. And then it was like, this is all brand new. And I remember they were talking about podcasting and video and all this stuff and we’re just getting into it.

[00:04:27] And then from there, I was like freelance with a lot of different companies. And then I started doing live video not live video, but I started like doing flogging. Cause I would blog as a parent and tech blogger. So I started, gosh, I found my own YouTube channel where I was like blogging and I’m just like, oh, what?

[00:04:45] Jeff Sieh: Like the Disney blog thing? Didn’t you go with the mom blog thing. They had Disney that big famous thing,

[00:04:50] Grace Duffy: social media it was like the Social Media. Ma I forgot. What’s called Social Media moms. I think it was called, but yeah. So yeah, I had all of those kinds of opportunities that then eventually you know, just rolled into this opportunity.

[00:05:02] And suddenly now here I am doing this live show with Jeff Sieh. So

[00:05:06] Jeff Sieh: yes, it’s just the flood gates has just opened up for you. So I wanted to ask you you know, we talked about a little bit about the past Google plus how we got started.

What Social Platforms Do You Use Most?

[00:05:16] Jeff Sieh: But what platform do you use the most, these days?

[00:05:20] Grace Duffy: I’m a little bit omnichannel remember Molly came on to talk about the approach.

[00:05:25] So for work, I’m definitely on LinkedIn. If anyone wants to talk to me about anything come talk to me in LinkedIn, I will take you seriously. Like I will see it. I will follow up everything personal. I’m a Facebook person. I love Facebook. I know that there’s a lot of negativity and all this stuff, but I just love seeing people that I know, like in their day-to-day life.

[00:05:43] And it’s cool. I’m a little sad when people don’t post on there as much I’ve make it makes me miss them. But I do like doing, going to the information, definitely YouTube. Like I, yeah. I consume things that way. And this actually what their chapter features, everything, because it’s so much easier to find the answer I want really quickly.

[00:06:00] And then for entertainment, I’m just on TikTok. I could spend hours, many nonproductive hours, and I know that brands are on it and brands are getting on it and I should probably be doing something more with it, but I just like going there to break, like take a break.

[00:06:14] Jeff Sieh: So I think I, and I actually think that is probably a good breakdown when we get into the trends.

[00:06:20] We’ll talk about this, but I think your breakdown, I think Sieh things, we talked about omni-channel but broken down, like using platforms for certain things like Facebook is to talk to your friends that you hadn’t seen for awhile and YouTube is where you go find I need to figure out how to put this in the toilet because this part broke.

[00:06:39] I don’t know what it’s to where’s Roger Wakefield when we need him and he go to his channel and he’ll tell you how to. And then TikTok exactly for entertainment. I know there’s my daughter is like getting like financial advice. She told me dad, I gotta buy a carwash because it’s a great long-term investment.

[00:06:54] I’m like, did you hear that on TikTok? She goes, yeah. Yeah, it’s it’s TikTok, but for us, I think it’s mostly entertainment, but there’s some of those sub-segments in TikTok, like the FinTech TikTok and Live real estate TikTok for the younger generations. I think it’s segmented out a little bit too, but anyway, we’ll talk about all about that.

[00:07:13] I’m like with you, my thing is I’m really trying as much as possible is responding to people who I want to talk to on social media, but I’m trying to create content and not get sucked down into consuming as much content because there’s so much out there. Now. My daughter gives me enough TikTok.

[00:07:31] She, we have a. Like a text channel where she just throws TikTok. She wants me to watch that are funny. That’s where I get a lot of my entertainment from is from that. But I want to let you guys know before we get started this show is brought to you guys by eCampus. So even though we are recording this and going Live to Amazon, e-com is what makes it possible.

[00:07:52] And they just rolled out a brand new update. That is amazing. They got so many cool things on there. You’ve got to go check it out. If you are an e-comm user, go download the update. It’s amazing if you’re not using e-comm and you’re on a Mac, you need to check it out. It’s if you can dream a live show, you can make it happen any way you want with Ecamm.

[00:08:12] And so I want to play you guys this real quick video, uh, just 30 seconds and we’ll be. Wait. How’d, it was actually a powerful live streaming app for Matt because he can’t block. So you able to use your mirrorless camera as a virtual webcam, and you can tweak the colors right? In each cam, Live using their camera effects and then bring this video right into zoom, Google meet pretty much any other virtual meeting.

[00:08:34] You can even stream directly to Facebook or YouTube or LinkedIn and bringing comments right onto the video.

[00:08:44] Hi, so that is Ecamm they’re amazing. They’re a sponsor of the show. You can find out more about them at socialmedianewslive.com/ecamm it’s what we use to create the show. But that’s what they’re just talking about with that virtual camera. I’m using the Canon and I’m able to bring that into a Ecamm and before there are some issues with you know, the Canon being able to do that, it works perfectly.

[00:09:12] I can use my cameras for other things like zoom, like they were sharing in that video. You use it for your green screens. It’s not just for going live for great presentations and recording that virtual camera is amazing. So make sure you guys check that out. Social Media News, Live dot com slash Ecamm.

[00:09:29] And

[00:09:30] Grace Duffy: I have to tell you from the guest’s perspective, because Jeff is bringing me in as a guest, all he does is send me a link and I just click on it and boom, I’m here, right? Like I can mute myself, see the comments as they’re flood again. But for like, for your guests, it is a really streamlined easy experience.

[00:09:49] So while. I have the pro setting everything up for me. And I just show up.

[00:09:55] Jeff Sieh: It’s funny because back in the day, because we talked earlier about how Google plus and how we’ve been doing it for a while. Cause I, that was the wild west when we were, could do Google Hangouts and bring people in. And, but it was so much hassle to, to bring in and get the you know, the comments in and all that sort of stuff.

[00:10:09] But the cool thing is and we talked about this a little bit with Molly is now with this omni-channel thing where we can go live with Restream everywhere at once, but I can pull in all the comments and see those comments and where they’re from and what network they’re coming from. It’s just, if it’s just worlds where we were at Google plus to where we are now.

[00:10:28] So the technology is amazing. So

[00:10:32] Grace Duffy: let’s set up player cast for me. Oh yes. And every Friday morning I’d have to be like Jeff, where’s the Wirecast. I need the link.

[00:10:39] Jeff Sieh: We tried about every social media platform. Every video platform there was out there and. I am so thankful for e-comm and the amazing stuff that they can do and this new update, I’m sure I’m still diving into it.

[00:10:51] There’s so many cool things that you can do. New layouts. Like I’m going to, I’m going to redo the show. I’m just telling you right now, I’m going to redo it. It’s going to look similar, but there’s so many cool things you can do graphic wise now. Oh my gosh. I can’t wait to get my hands on it. So anyway, sorry.

[00:11:07] Nerding out about Ecamm. But anyway, Social Media, we’re talking about predictions. So we talked about the past. We’re going to talk about the future. So let’s talk about you know, what’s happening in 2022. It seems like we, we’ve been in a, you know, a time capsule last, not being outside, not seeing people.

[00:11:31] So it just seems 20, 22. That’s not very far off. I

[00:11:36] Grace Duffy: humbled earlier in the show and I said, 2020 and I met 20, 22. Like they’re like 20, 21 is already lost to me. Like here I am trying to deal with this almost November. And I just got over that. It’s almost September. So well, the top story and all these predictions and so talk walk, or, yeah, it was, Talkwalker came out with their report on social media predictions.

[00:11:56] And and this is what we’ve been diving into just to give us like a year a look a perspective on the last year, right? So of course the top story is TikTok becoming the top social media platform in 2021. And it’s going to continue in onto 22. So leaving rivals in the wake, according to this headline from the drum, very dramatic.

[00:12:18] So of course, it took the lead as a VidCon title sponsor, of course, VidCon was canceled. It was well not canceled. It’s actually postpone till June, but it unseated YouTube for that top spot, which I think YouTube had for about 10 years. And then the short term, a video platform is broken records quickly.

[00:12:36] I think I saw the stat where I think 1 billion people are on it now. So that’s one seventh of the world’s population is on now. And it’s quickly becoming the go-to app for connecting with current and future consumers. And so I think leading up into leading into the new year, they’re going to be working more on highly personalized content recommendation systems.

[00:12:55] That’s already, you’re talking about all the different different areas of TikTok that you could find, like your daughter’s going to FinTech and real estate. I got on some pretty sketchy ones. I’m not going to talk about them here because it’s a family show, but I was like, oh, get me back over to whatever else I was watching.

[00:13:14] But they’re like on point with providing content recommendations, like they’ll show you a little bit of something and see if you engage with it. And then they pull back and go back to your regular stuff. But that’s the I don’t think I’ve seen anything that has made such good recommended.

[00:13:28] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, no. The, the algorithm that they have in there actually selling that algorithm. We broke that News a couple, I don’t know, months ago when they were starting to sell it, because it was that good. It really does suck you in, and that’s why I have to stay off of it because it is very dangerous and you could lose a day very easily because they are fascinating.

[00:13:47] And then they’re also hilarious. And so there’s tons of stuff. And I agree with this prediction that TikTok is going to, it’s going to grow and I think everybody’s going to be playing catch up, but it’ll be just, it’ll be interesting to see how much it grows and how they’re going to start monetizing it even.

[00:14:05] Grace Duffy: And they’ve been really pushing the e-commerce focus last year. Around this time they were launching holiday shopping specials. So they’ve partnered with things like Walmart to do a shopping extravaganza. They’ve partnered with other big retailers to promote these Live shopping experiences.

[00:14:23] And as they’re looking to work with more brands, and that is the message when I was at vid summit and video marketing world this past week, that was the big thing. It’s we’re there to talk about video, but TikTok was part of it. And it was all about getting your brand on there and how to make it relevant and that you don’t have to go there and just do dances.

[00:14:39] You can just be yourself. Most of my favorite content on there is someone just staring at the camera and just talking and then they’ll maybe do add to the animation with their finger, point to something, but that’s it. That’s it. That’s the, like what, what are the kinds of things you like?

[00:14:55] Jeff Sieh: So it’s mostly funny animal videos, mine, cause that’s what my daughter loves and she sends them to me. And they’re very funny and there’s some, there’s some other stuff, but it’s amazing how much it’s gotten to the site. Geist of the, just the culture. I’m seeing Newsweek talking about the scary videos that went.

[00:15:11] It was today. Actually it went viral on TikTok because this dog’s collar popped off and there was a camera on it and it was like, there’s a ghost in the house. It was really, it was, and it got 8 million views. So I just think that it’s the place because it can serve up content so quickly and so relevant to what you want and how it learns that.

[00:15:32] It’s going to be interesting to see, the monetization has always been the issue for me now. Rachel Peterson is just amazing. And she’s, she’s figured out how to do it. Congrats to her, she just hit 10, a hundred K on her YouTube channel. I saw that was a, that she had done because she’s teaching on TikTok and other things.

[00:15:51] So I congrats to her, but she is like the content she puts out isn’t, she’s, she’s not old like me, but she’s older. She’s not the typical TikTok, user base, but she’s really succeeded over there and teaching people over there. So there are ways to do it. I think it’s going to become, it’s going to be more crowded, but it’s also the cream like does on every social media platform, it will rise to the top.

[00:16:13] So I’m excited to see that as well. Uh, some more News that we’re going to talk about is that. YouTube announced that a new series of livestream shopping events, and I’m all about shopping the livestream shopping. And that’s why I’m you know, bullish on Amazon because I just think it’s it’s really, really cool.

[00:16:35] Amazon Live. But YouTube, did a series of live streaming shopping events and they looked into tap into the rise and the shopper behavior leading into the holidays, which is pretty smart. So the YouTube creators are at the forefront of this shift. They’re sharing helpful, honest, and entertaining shopping content that cuts through the noise.

[00:16:53] And earlier this year, we, they started testing an integrated shopping experience that allows viewers to tap into the credibility and knowledge of trusted creators to make some informed purchases on YouTube. So they initially experimented with shoppable on demand videos. And now they’re testing shoppable live streams, which I think is the big deal for people that’s coming up because it’s already big Into.

[00:17:18] And so I think that this is going to be something we’re going to see more and more of a there’s going to be, I think celebrities and people who have become known on just shopping and we’ll be able to like, oh, since they’re big on Amazon Live, they’re going to go over and be big on YouTube or, and create brands out of showing people what to buy.

[00:17:40] I think they’re going to be the kind of the next level of not just YouTube creators, but they’re going to be just, there’s going to start in the creative space and move over to YouTube. And I’ll see a lot. I also see a lot of YouTubers move over there to supplement and monetize even more. So I’m excited the way things are going to go happen for a Live shopping.

[00:17:59] I just think we’re at the tip of the iceberg. I think it’s going to figure out a way to migrate into you, your, your television, even more, you can stream all this stuff on your TV, but I think it’s going to eventually be like, I’ll be able to go to a specialized shopping channel and see my.

[00:18:16] Shopping hosts, over there 24 7,

Live Shopping Predictions

[00:18:21] Grace Duffy: I think they’re already doing that over at Amazon. And I think that’s what Amazon has already. I think it’s already ahead of the game, because it allows you to put stuff on a feed on a carousel and people buy it immediately. And I think that is an extra level of functionality like over at Restream.

[00:18:40] We get this question a lot, like when are we going to do a shopping? That’s an extra level of functionality that is native to the platform itself. And so not everyone can just oh, I want to sell my camera and my microphone today. I’m just going to pop up. For shit like this, for sale button.

[00:18:57] And then that’s not a possibility, like that’s not something that’s available to just everyone right now. And I think as they’re experimenting and testing with these celebrities or these celebrity brands or these big retailers, the closer we’re gonna get to making it something where now you do have to get approval for Amazon.

[00:19:14] I’m not saying that anyone could just get on there, but it is more accessible. And they already have the tools and the infrastructure and the functionality and the, you don’t have to be a developer to create this like shopping experience. You just have to be entertaining. So I would like to, I think that’s where we’re headache too.

[00:19:31] So definitely if you haven’t figured out a Live shopping experience, even if it’s just doing live demos and product demos and, um, on boxings or whatever for your brand, I definitely think that’s something you should probably get it on.

[00:19:45] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So also on YouTube, I know you had some stuff about shorts that you’re going to talk about.

[00:19:50] Once again, was this a TikTok clone or was this something new or is it a blend of volts? So what are your thoughts? You know,

2022 Predictions for YouTube

[00:19:58] Grace Duffy: TikTok launched a year ago, so YouTube publish this article called a year in the making or something along those lines first after a year.

[00:20:07] And so they they’re talking about their key focus. And so in many ways, shorts is still far behind TikTok and reels, Instagram reels. they admit that they just recently released green-screen, which is something that’s already been available on the both apps for very long time. But here’s the advantage to YouTube.

[00:20:25] YouTube is the biggest search tool out there because of its connection to Google. And so when you’re creating YouTube shorts, it’s another way to grow your channel, creating this short content that gets people interested in you that helps them find you it’s a new Product on the platform that not a lot of people are doing.

[00:20:49] If you’re looking through shorts, there aren’t that many shorts as there are…I go on Instagram and there’s like a million stories, right? Like I missed one and it’s gone forever because people are constantly uploading. That’s not happening on YouTube shorts quite yet. So it’s definitely.

[00:21:05] Something that people, but people haven’t quite figured out yet. Like how does it work? and YouTube. Hasn’t been very transparent about how does it really feed into growing your channel. And so there’s been different strategies, but they did say that in the coming year, they’re going to focus on building a better creator experience that empowers anyone to create and find an audience, which is going to be super powerful.

[00:21:26] They’re also looking to help people find shorts or they’re working on discoverability, which is not quite a hundred percent there. So if I was there. looking for that FinTech content you’re talking about. It’s not necessarily gonna feed me more of it. It’s just going to, I’m not necessarily gonna get all that, like the same way that it is on TikTok.

[00:21:44] And then they’re also looking for more ways to support creators because you’re not going to have a platform unless you have creators and you’re not going to have really good creators unless you incentivize them or pay them or make it possible for them to devote as much time to creating great content.

[00:21:58] So those are the three things, creators discoverability, and then empowering everyone to create it. so it’s something definitely to watch and it’s something that they’re going to continue to grow. Obviously they are, putting in the time and investment into growing this because I see the value in that short.

[00:22:14] content

[00:22:15] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And I wanted, since we’re talking about TikTok and reels and some of that, what we would call you know, that vertical video, the cool thing is, and we talked about the virtual camera earlier that E cam allows you to have, but I can use my good, like Canon camera that I have right up here and have my teleprompter, my parrot teleprompter right underneath it.

[00:22:38] And I can record it in econ because they let you record in that, vertical, Instagram story, reels, TikTok format. And so you don’t have to go and crop it later on and all that kind of crazy stuff. You can do it all like in one take, especially with when you have the parrot teleprompter like I have.

[00:22:57] And you can just go and do that with your phone underneath there, and then you’re underneath your candidate 50. And it’s just amazing. Um, don’t forget to check out Ecamm especially if you’re in your markets, you can find out more about it at Social Media News, Live dot com forward slash Ecamm.

Pinterest Changes

[00:23:11] Jeff Sieh: So continue. On this amazing trend thing. Not trends, but predictions for 2020. Yeah. Um, one of the things is, uh, and this came out just today with Pinterest is because I’m a big Pinterest fan from back in the day is that it looks like in the, there, in the last rounds of talks of PayPal buying Pinterest.

[00:23:41] So Pinterest taught. Yeah. Yes. Pinterest stock like blew up 30% today. I haven’t checked it in a while and of course, and then PayPal went down cause they didn’t have to buy it. But this is a big deal and I was arguing with some texts, some what I think is going to happen and I may be on the minority of this.

[00:23:59] Cause I know people don’t like change. But Pinterest is the, we talked about YouTube being the second largest search engine out there behind Google, which there it’s owned by. But Pinterest is one of the biggest visual search engines. And Google is trying to copy it for a while. Never have done it.

[00:24:17] Other places have tried to copy them for awhile, but Pinterest, isn’t really a social platform. It is a visual marketing search engine. And so getting PayPal to do it because there’s now they have Pinterest. You have, you can click over and shop on Pinterest and all this stuff. I think that this is going to be a big play and we’re going to see Pinterest go deeper down the rabbit hole of e-com.

[00:24:41] I think, it’s already got an integration with Shopify and big commerce and all these other places where you can buy right from, if you see a sofa and you’re like, ah, I really want that. I’m going to save it and then can go back and you can actually buy it from Pinterest. Think of the integration with PayPal, they’ve already got the payment stuff set up.

[00:24:57] This is a big get for PayPal. Because you can just see that it’s going to have a PayPal button right there on all of their, buyable pins or whatever. So what do you think Grace am I crazy, but I just think it’s going to go even more e-comm than it, what it is.

[00:25:15] Grace Duffy: I think that’s going to be a powerful partnership because one of my biggest frustrations with Pinterest is that you’ll find something and then you’ll now have to go over to Google to go find where you can buy right now you have to search it.

[00:25:28] And then how do you do that? Like I have even gone as far as taking a picture with my phone, with visual search that’s looking.

[00:25:36] Yeah, yeah. So they won’t now they do have a lot of buyable pins on Pinterest. But it’s like that one thing. And so I think having that button allows me to just oh, I can just buy it right now, buy it and then go back to whatever I’m doing.

[00:25:52] So I think that’s what would be a powerful use case, but I can’t imagine what else Pinterest at PayPal would be doing together. Like the, just

[00:26:03] Jeff Sieh: there was even talks. There was a talk for awhile that Microsoft was looking at them too. You know, and it’s funny because one of their founders just left, so it’s just re yes, And he is just, it’s just really strange.

[00:26:17] So that’s why I’m wondering, it’s almost remember when the Instagram owners were still underneath the Zuckerberg and they finally just said, I just gotta go, when they started doing more monetization, so don’t know if that has something to do with it or not. It’s just very interesting that he left and then this news broke today and it was by Bloomberg.

[00:26:38] So it wasn’t just like somebody, at TMZ or something like students, it was like, this is a big thing. So very interesting. Not really sure what’s going to happen in if it’s going to go through or any of that stuff, but it’s real, I’m glad I hold it a little held onto my Pinterest stock.

[00:26:55] I’ll tell you that. Anyway, uh, so let’s talk, flipping the script a little bit from Pinterest over to Instagram. So talk about that because it’s, it’s still going like Ganga.

Instagram still in the lead

[00:27:09] Grace Duffy: Yeah. Instagram still has a strong hold. I know we talk a lot about TikTok is coming in town and taking all the, but Instagram still has a strong hold.

[00:27:17] People are still on it. Stories are still as powerful as ever and going into 2022 they are going to be looking at more e-commerce. if you are going to pick up on the theme it’s that everyone is interested and making retail easier and streamlined using Social. So they’re introducing new shopping features with they introduce new shopping features that allow social media users to purchase items without leaving the app.

[00:27:42] Similar to what we were just talking about with Pinterest. And they’re also looking at, helping brands, reevaluate their purchase paths as in what they offer and what they’re sharing on Instagram. So they definitely want people to take advantage of the social selling opportunities through posts, Reels,Stories And they said more, I don’t know what more would be, but I think that covers all of them. if you are a brand they are looking at like, how is, what is the best way to get someone into the path, get into the purchase path for you, right? Because account more about teaching people how to use your product?

[00:28:25] I know there’s a lot of brands that focus on that with their story content, or is it more of building brand awareness about it? So as, you’re going into 2022, if you are on Instagram, that’s something worth looking into,

[00:28:40] Jeff Sieh: so I want to ask you this. So I’m going to, this is where my. For 2022, I think they’re going to have to do a major app redesign because it was probably having at, towards the end of 2022.

[00:28:54] But I just think it’s getting too cluttered. Now that being said, remember, Snapchat did this and it was a big, it went bonkers, people were mad and they ended up going back. And I don’t know, but I just think the interface is getting really cluttered. And I want to know what you think. Do you think and let us know down.

[00:29:13] Do you think I’m wrong in the comments? Let us know if you think that that, you Instagram needs a UI or a refresh in the app cause it’s cluttered or is it just me? Is it just me? Maybe me who knows, but Grace, I want to know what you think about ITD. I G T V. Do you think it’ll stick around past 20, 22 or will it go into something else?

[00:29:35] Grace Duffy: You know what? I haven’t even, I haven’t even given IGT via thought. I know that they are well, the way that I find it is so for instance, our friend Jasmine star, right? So she does a lot of really great content and she will do this where you’ll be watching a post or a story and it’ll continue on to ICTV.

[00:29:53] And so then you’ll get to watch the rest of whatever. And that’s literally the only person that drives me over there.

[00:29:59] Jeff Sieh: It’s usually driven.

[00:30:01] Grace Duffy: Yeah. It’s driven over, but I’m not going to IGT V natively to go look for stuff. Um, I think that there’s real functionality. I know that they’re putting a lot of time and investment in it and its placement in the feed suggests that they really want people to engage with it.

[00:30:16] But it, I find that the algorithm on it is not a. Like there isn’t as much stuff on there. So I will see the same reels, like three days in a row. And it has nothing to even do with anything that I’m interested in. So, um, but stories, I think stories is where their power is. People love stories of stories.

[00:30:40] Jeff Sieh: I think the functionality of, uh, ICTV won’t go away because like you said, it drives things there. I think the name and the differentiator will silently, just quietly go away. They may roll it into reels or something or stories or something. But I think the name IETV will eventually die and it’ll just morph into the app.

[00:31:02] That’s just my thought. Let me know if I’m wrong. I’m sure plenty of you think I’m wrong, but I would love to know what you guys’ thoughts are of what’s going to be the future. For Instagram, IETV stories, all that stuff. Uh, it’s interesting things coming our way. So the next bit of news, we’re going to talk a little bit about everybody’s favorite social media platform to talk about that is Facebook.

[00:31:25] So there, there’s been a lot of talk that Facebook, the platform may be losing touch with younger audiences. I don’t know I’m young. What are they saying? But it also can, it continues to expand into markets, offsetting any major usage that any of the declines that they may have while it’s also continues to add new ad tools and business options, to build a complete platform and facilitate the next stage of brand connection.

[00:31:53] So they’ve got e-commerce focus. They’re going to do even more of that. There’s they’re doing social audio. I jumped in some, uh, some messenger rooms or audio rooms the other day. They’re really pretty cool. And they actually, the interface I liked better than Clubhouse. And they’re also, we’ll talk about this.

[00:32:10] AR and VR. Um, there’s, I, you know, when I talk to kids, they’re like, I deleted, I’m not on Facebook, whatever, but you got to remember the rest of the world. Like I, the internet is Facebook like places in India and some in, in, um, ah, I’m trying to remember the country, but anyway, that’s, that’s the internet, that’s what they use.

[00:32:33] And so that continues to grow. Even though we have our blinders on here in the Americas, that it’s, it’s, it’s going away, but they’re still have places to grow and people are still using it. And you got to remember the older demographic, it’s got some money. We do compared to, like, you your kid, your kids see something on TikTok, they got to come to you and ask for money, us, we just buy it right off of Facebook.

[00:32:59] So I think the social shopping is going to happen on Facebook.

[00:33:03] Grace Duffy: Yeah, definitely. It definitely had the two biggest areas that I get the most value of out of on Facebook, our groups. I love my groups. So Restream has a group of their community. I know E cam has an awesome community on there. Please.

[00:33:17] Side note, if you haven’t joined the Restream or extreme eCab community on Facebook, your gut, please do. Cause it is incredible. It’s such a supportive environment. I love it. Um, I was at a conference with a bunch of people and they were posting photos and everyone’s oh, I can’t believe you’re there.

[00:33:33] Like, oh, so it’s a super supportive community. And I see that a lot. The other place that I really value on on Facebook is marketplace.

[00:33:43] Jeff Sieh: Yes. A lot of people use it.

[00:33:45] Grace Duffy: Yes. Like I, anytime that I am buying or selling stuff it is on there. Like it’s a great searchability, they just added a shipping.

[00:33:54] So if you go on there and I’m like, I’m selling old kids costumes, there’ll be like you know, you can make more money if you ship it. And of course, they’re getting a little bit of coin for the, or you can handle it yourself. But like, they make it really easy to just like ship it, package it, send it out.

[00:34:10] So, um, yeah. And I think that those are the two places that I think the most. And I think as you’re you know, getting set in your life or whatever, those are the two most valuable places to me. But then there’s the feet. I love that too.

[00:34:24] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And I mean, we get a lot of engagement over in Facebook live, so I think there’s still some growth and stuff to happen with video on Facebook too.

[00:34:30] I know they really want watch to take off more than it has, but I still see value there. And I think continue. Get used to watching videos on Facebook, that’ll continue to grow. But there’s big news Grace today that is, we may have to change our, what we call it. So talk about that. Cause that is crazy.

[00:34:52] So what do you think?

Facebook Rebrand

[00:34:53] Grace Duffy: So this is according to our favorite source. It is a source with direct knowledge of the. matter that is the source cited for this information. Okay. and there was a, no comment from Facebook, but the news is that Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name.

[00:35:13] the coming name change is rumored to be coming on October 28th, CEO Mark Zuker plants to talk about the company’s annual connect conference on October 28th. So there is some sort of speculation that whatever is coming will be announced at the event, if not unveiled sooner. And this change has meant to unveil or reveal the tech giants ambition to be known as more than social media.

[00:35:41] Like I just talked about marketplace and groups, I know that they have messenger. There’s the AR and VR AR and the VR with Oculus, which of course you’d buy both. So there’s all in the social audio and then messenger. Like I find that I use messenger as a completely different function. Like sometimes I forget it’s even on Facebook.

[00:35:59] Okay. That’s just how I can reach certain people. So that’s where I go. And so, uh, but as I dug into this deeper, it seems to be more of a alphabet, Google situation where they’re still going to be Facebook. There’s still going to be the blue app with the app. But I think they’re bringing in under an umbrella company so that they probably can function more like alphabet functions with Google.

[00:36:22] I don’t even think about alphabet, but we all know that’s Google, that’s YouTube. That’s you know, their phone business, their that’s their gosh, their home D home device business. So, oh, and that reminds me like, remember Facebook has portal and like we just talked about Oculus and then it also has all these all these other things.

[00:36:43] Jeff Sieh: So I love Oculus. I think it’s great. And I think I know what I mean. I know Zuck wants to be ready. Players’ duck. I know that’s what he wants. He wants it to be that way, but is it too soon? You know, And is this going to, there’s tons of, if you go back and look at history when uh, a vision visionary gets something in his mind and won’t let it go.

[00:37:09] And then it destroys the company. Cause it wasn’t time yet other, but there’s other times you think about Walt Disney, they’re doing their 50th anniversary thing. Epcot was a thing that nobody, the whole Florida project was like, this is bonkers. This is the biggest construction project in the United States.

[00:37:27] What is he doing? And in swamp land. And uh, there there’s been other examples of, it really pays out cause they’re making bank over it to Walt Disney world. It’s going to be interesting to see if he’s a mad genius or he’s just mad. Um, that’s, that’s going to be interesting, but I love, I love the whole metaverse stuff.

[00:37:48] It’s little freaky. I go on my Oculus. I don’t get in rooms with people because it really is like the right there. I got on with my friend, Eric Fisher and we were talking and it was like, the dude was right there and it was really freaky talking to him as an avatar. And so anyway, who knows

[00:38:06] Grace Duffy: during one of our during one of our quarantines from last year my son he’s in high school and he had set up his Google classroom through the Oculus.

[00:38:16] So I just come in to our. Family room and it’s like minority report in there. He’s just doing this. And he’s what are you doing? And he’s just oh, I’m in class. And he was literally in his school had like the 360 cameras. So he could literally move around and be in class. It was just like, and to me that would have been a jarring experience.

[00:38:38] Like mentally and emotionally, but for him, it’s just yeah, I’m here now, but I’m also there. I

[00:38:44] Jeff Sieh: don’t know. When was the last time you jacked into the multiverse Grace, but now you can actually draw a. You know your tape, where your desk is and you can draw your couch. So I can stay plugged in, get in, do work with my keyboard in like the new Oculus horizon.

[00:39:01] I think it’s a Ryzen is what it is. And then get over and go sit on my couch and be, and go into the Netflix app and watch Netflix in my head. It’s bonkers. So I, I’m a fan of this stuff, but still it’s a little spooky, but anyway, let us know what you, what do you guys think? Do you really want an Oculus?

[00:39:17] Are you waiting to see, so you don’t look like a nerd like Jeff Sieh, but you know, what is it the price point? When is it going to be that what’s going to make you make the jump to VR? Or are you like, I’m not, that’s just stupid. Jeff. You’re nuts. So I would love to know what you guys think. So, so we’re coming to the end kind you know our predictions, but I want to know what we missed. What did we forget, guys? What did we not tell you about or predict that you think is coming? That’s like Jeff and grace, hadn’t you miss this? This is what’s going to happen is, electric cars. Isn’t really social media, but that’s coming.

[00:39:55] But what else? I wanted my flying cars a long time ago and that hasn’t happened yet. But do you have anything else Grace, that we didn’t talk about or we didn’t that we missed before we move?

[00:40:08] Grace Duffy: No, I think that’s, I think that it’s definitely at the e-commerce definitely, if you haven’t heard it yet, e-commerce in life.

[00:40:14] The connection between live video topping videos, and retailers are looking for ways. Businesses are looking for ways to find customers where they’re at and not just where they’re physically at, like where they’re at, like emotionally, mentally, like w how they want to consume content, how they learn about your product.

[00:40:35] And so I think the more ways that we are showing up on social media, the more ways that you’re showing up with your company, your brand, your personality or whatever else, the more you’re going to be that coveted, like known and trusted. So that is the path. Yeah.

[00:40:51] Jeff Sieh: So let’s look back into what we got, and what we got wrong when we did predictions for 2021. Um, what’s your first one. Great.

[00:41:01] Grace Duffy: Yeah. So we found like I went back and looked at all around this time of year, like what were some of the predictions that they, that, that had come out for this year and how they netted out. And so the first one was that brands will continue to take a lesser, more approach to posting.

[00:41:15] So it says this year brands spent less time turning out social media posts and more time producing only content that felt thoughtful, valuable, and in touch with the world around them. I will say that I think social media posting has become a commodity, right? Like you don’t need to spend all this time on a Facebook post necessarily.

[00:41:34] Like it’s not going to, unless you’re putting something super controversial, it’s probably just going to be part of a bigger strategy. And so I think people are taking a less, is more approach. And also we saw in 2020 and 2021 that. These high production values, that people were putting into commercials that we’re putting into as putting into posts, just talk.

[00:41:56] There are people were looking for real things, got a little grungier things, got, it was a little bit more spontaneous and the more that you could make it seem like I’m holding my cell phone and I’m talking to you and you can see like big advertisers, like you see these like million dollar ads and they’re putting like that cell phone camera shaking them right.

[00:42:16] To make it look like, and I’m just like, oh my gosh. And then here you are, you have that going on already. So I think when it’s less is more, it’s not that we’re seeing less content. It’s seeing that the production value is not. You don’t have to have this like film and cinematic quality to,

[00:42:34] Jeff Sieh: so that was one of them is that content value will beat production quality.

[00:42:37] And the thing was, is you’re right. And there was even like, I think it was Shalene Johnson was saying like, if you do a PR a produced story, it doesn’t do well. She says that she would use like the Instagram tools with the tech, you’re typing on screen and she was getting way more engagement and, juice out of that content by being that raw kind of an, and you see the same thing, I think that’s why TikTok hit perfectly at the time, mean there’s not really produced stuff.

[00:43:06] And I think, we talked about YouTube shorts. The same thing is there, there’s a, there’s this like middle ground between you don’t want to be like horrible but you, but it has to look raw and real to, and then, like you said, some of the places are, faking. And, and it’s interesting how different platforms are, the still the YouTube videos, like when you’re having a talking head, you can’t do that.

[00:43:30] You have to have a professional setup. You want to have the YouTube or background a thing, but those short clips and what they’re wanting to digest in that snackable content is, it’s that kind of, you don’t need to have a thousand dollar camera. You can just use what the phone in your pocket.

[00:43:46] So I think it’s cool. I think storytelling will always be when, no matter what you can, you can’t just take shaky video for a shaky video sake. You have to create a good story, tells, move somebody somewhere, give them some sort of, value for watching the content to succeed. So anyway, great stuff.

[00:44:06] And, oh I kind of talked about snackable content, but you had a little thing about that.

[00:44:11] Grace Duffy: Yeah I mean, it’s, it’s like that 32nd 62nd video that we were just talking about TikTok Instagram, Instagram, real stories. It’s, your YouTube shorts like that has taken you know, people keep saying that you know, people’s attention spans are shorter than that.

[00:44:28] I have no doubt that is true, but I also think that it doesn’t take as much. Yeah. Jeff, come back, come back, Jeff.

[00:44:37] Yeah,

[00:44:38] Grace Duffy: so I think that people are you know, it’s not that it’s like people’s attention is this are all because, you obviously talked about how you could sit a for an entire day and just watch TikTok.

[00:44:50] But just not, this is not a short attention span. What it is like people are getting things faster, right? We’re so used to getting information faster. And if you are not getting your story out there within the first three seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, like it’s going to be missed. And so we are looking for that snackable content.

[00:45:09] Because it doesn’t take that long to convince someone to listen to the next five minutes, you need three seconds. So for them to invest the next three seconds, you need 10 seconds in depth in the next 10, so forth.

[00:45:20] Jeff Sieh: So there’s an old saying like for speaking or performing, like you’re only good as your last gig.

[00:45:25] And I think that’s really true with this short snackable content. Cause you have to be consistently putting out that good short snackable content. And I think you’re right. We’ve seen that is what’s been happening, but you also have to be good at it and it’s hard get, so the other thing is that, uh, conversational marketing will change its tone.

[00:45:44] And I think we saw this because one of the quotes from the article was while past con conversational marketing tactics centered around promotions and making sales as quickly as possible, 2020 ones, conversational marketers might be more focused on helping a user with something, educating them about a product and nurturing them into a conversation with more thoughtful or empathetic tone.

[00:46:04] I think because of the pandemic, this happened because it had. And that’s why the groups, groups have been Facebook saving grace, like you mentioned before, grace that just because of people needed a place to go and you couldn’t come in there as a brand and start, Hey, buy my stuff that just doesn’t work.

[00:46:25] You have to build a relationship, do that conversational marketing in those groups. So I think that, that was something that really happened. And I think it happened more because of the.

[00:46:37] Grace Duffy: Talk to me too, because it says here, you said this quote, like users, you have to come at them with something useful, something to educate them, something to nurture them along.

[00:46:48] And that brings to mind again, that cam community that is so amazing. Tell us about, tell us more about that, because like I go in and I’m like, I don’t know you know, I know these people from seeing them at conferences and having them on the show and stuff, but then like you just see people on there, like help.

[00:47:05] I have a problem with this or is this the right camera? What do you think of the setup? Or I even saw in there a few days ago, it was like, I’m going to use this thumbnail. What do you think? And people like were going on and on about giving them like actual advice. And

[00:47:19] Jeff Sieh: It comes from the top down.

[00:47:21] They’ve done a really good job of getting people in there who really understand community. So doc rock, he we’ve had him on the show before and CR great guy, really smart about tech. He actually started in the community, helping people, and then they hired. I mean, it’s that kind of thinking where you take the people who are helping people already and then elevating them.

[00:47:42] And then they continue to do that. And th he’s paid to do it now, and it’s amazing. And then, but everybody in there is really helpful, but they fostered that from the beginning. They are really, when they come out with a beta version before we talked about this new one that just came out, they test it in the group and they let people play with it, try to break it, and they’re talking back and forth.

[00:48:01] And so Katie and the, the brothers over there are amazing you know, communicating with stuff and listening to their fans and their users and trying. Implement things, I remember before we could do interviews with Ecamm and I was like, guys, you gotta, and I even, they even had me come on a call with them and say, what do I need?

[00:48:22] And I was able to talk like, this is what you need to do for people who want to do interview shows. And so that’s the kind of things. And so we’ve talked about Ecamm and another e-camm user. And I always have to talk about him when we talk about community as Lou Mongello so he has this amazing group that he’s fostered about Disney, which you think wouldn’t be hard, but the whole parks were closed.

[00:48:43] Most of the pandemic, you couldn’t do anything. Yeah. And then his whole thing, he’d go live in the parks. Couldn’t do that, all this stuff. But the community gathered around him. They shared things. They, Hey, look what I found from when I was a kid, it was this great little Disney thing my mom gave me and the group would go around.

[00:48:59] That’s what happens when you have a great community and it’s really important for B, because you can, if you try to fake it, they’ll sniff it out so fast and that community will die. So I totally, yeah. I’m so I’m glad you brought up, he came cause they do have a great community. It’s a great community.

[00:49:14] It’s amazing.

[00:49:16] Grace Duffy: Oh yeah. And I have another use case when it comes to conversational marketing. So every other week Restream does a live demo and live Q and a it’s every other Wednesday. And so members of our marketing team and our support team come together and they answer questions that we, we advertise it, we send emails out and we just say, come ask us anything.

[00:49:35] And it is a rapid fire every week. Now we do try to center the topic around something. So we, you, you come and so today was on a branding, your live streams, right? So creating like overlays and really cool stuff and just how to demo the product. But I will tell you that is the best. Best way to talk to our customers directly because they’re asking us questions.

[00:49:58] We know exactly what it is that they want from us. We know exactly what it is like when we release a product, what may, they may not understand about it or what confuses them. And that definitely goes right into our product roadmap of what we prioritize. What do we need to adjust? What do we need to communicate better?

[00:50:15] What do we need to change? It is literally a 45 minute live stream talking head it’s on the Restream studio. So it’s like the two of us on there just talking to customers. And so that is another way. I think people are using live video to talk directly to their customers. And I see it almost daily over on Instagram when people are going Live, talking to people and getting comments and it’s real time usable information connection with you and your customers.

[00:50:42] They feel heard, like you, you send a tweet out, you send an email, you get, you send a phone call. You’re just like, oh, who knows that they’re ever going to get back to me, but this. The minute they ask a question, we answer it. So it’s

[00:50:54] Jeff Sieh: it’s like a, it’s like a focus group for the world. You know what I mean?

[00:50:58] You can just go out everywhere and find out what’s what’s working and all that kind of thing.

AR and VR Predictions for 2022

[00:51:02] Jeff Sieh: And the last thing that we’re going to talk about, looking about predictions, they talked about VR and AR, so virtual you know, augmented reality is like what you can hold up your phone to like, to a movie poster and something happens.

[00:51:14] Or even you could say that the Instagram reels and Snapchat filters are augmented reality. Also virtual reality. I don’t think either caught on as much as possible. I know that the Oculus sold out, like as soon as the pandemic started, because people were like, I need to get out, virtual stuff.

[00:51:33] And I think it’s really cool. It’s not as much as they wanted to. AR the stuff with apple, I think is coming. But and there, you’ve you noticed what their phones are, building it in already. Some cool, some cool features. I just don’t think it’s caught on as much as people want. VR is I’m in all the nerdy groups and it’s still going strong.

[00:51:53] And the Oculus and stuff that Facebook has done is really helped it. And I think it will continue to grow as the price point changes and new games come up. Like if there’s a must have game on a virtual reality, that’s going to help, the gamers get into it. And then that’ll go that way.

[00:52:13] But I don’t think it happened as much as.

[00:52:15] Grace Duffy: Oh I think it still has some ways to go and this could be part of their storytelling or the way that they showcase their use cases. But I don’t think that VR has become part of everyday life the same way Facebook has. So for instance, my kids schools have Facebook groups, and that’s our main way of communicating. So I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been like I’m going to quit Facebook, except I won’t know what’s happening at school or you know, my book club was on was, was like organizing on Facebook and it was just like, oh, I can’t, um, I want to quit Facebook, but I can’t, my book club is on there or you meet someone and they’re like, are you on Facebook?

[00:52:54] And then like you find them and you friend them, and that’s how you stay in touch for like decades upon decades. So I think that, and then the same thing with Twitter, the same thing with Instagram, same thing with LinkedIn. So I think once VR becomes more of a. Functional tool and how we run our day-to-day lives.

[00:53:10] And I’m not saying that it’s spot there. It’s I think it’s well on its way. I think it will start seeing more strides with it, but right now it’s cool. It’s a novelty. It’s really cool. They did sell out, like it took me forever to get our occupants. They

[00:53:23] Jeff Sieh: did. And I used them to watch movies.

[00:53:25] Cause you can watch it like you’re in a big, giant movie theater, which is amazing, but they have, they do have some really cool stuff. Uh, if you’re a star wars, nerd playing, a rogue, uh, squadrons in, VR with your handset and you’re inside of an X wing dive and a dive fighter. Oh my gosh.

[00:53:42] It’s so much, it’s it? Is it, do you strapped one in, you just have no idea. And I think until they get more people to test them and try them, you can’t really test them. Like you don’t want sweaty goggles, like when you’re in best buy during a pandemic. So it just, but if they can figure out ways to get more people to try it out, They’ll sell them at the spot because it is really amazing.

Final Thoughts

[00:54:03] Jeff Sieh: Anyway, speaking of amazing, do not forget our friends over at econ. We’ve been talking about them all day. They, their community, all the stuff and their brand spanking new, a release that they did. If you have a Mac and you want to go do any sort of visual presentation, you need to check them out.

[00:54:20] You can find out more at Social Media News, Live dot com slash Ecamm. It’s amazing. We love them. Thank you guys for all the stuff that you do over there. Grace work. Can we find out more about the amazing Grace Duffy

[00:54:33] Grace Duffy: I’m on LinkedIn? I will respond to you. I will find you I’m Grace Duffy on LinkedIn. I look like this, so find me, oh, so find me there.

[00:54:41] I’m also, we also have a very active Restream community over at Facebook. Just look up Restream community and then What I’m doing at Restream is growing our YouTube channels. So come visit our YouTube channel as well. Okay. I got a and subscribed

[00:54:56] Jeff Sieh: cause she needs the she’s needs all the mojo. So yeah.

[00:54:58] So don’t forget. We are also a YouTube channel. We’d love mojo as well, but also we’re a podcast. You can find us on all your favorite podcast players like apple, Google, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, all those places you can find us. We would love for you guys to leave us a rating and review. Our next show is on Friday, October 29th at 11:00 AM.

[00:55:18] That’s right. We’re getting close to Halloween, but you can find out what am I going to dress up is that we’re going to use? Yeah, I don’t know. It’s probably a lumberjack. I dunno. Um, you can find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Amazon Live. Thank you guys so much for watching today. We love for you guys to share it out.

[00:55:37] Leave us comments. We will respond. Thank you so much for being here with us and we will see you guys next time. Bye everybody.