Facebook charges subscription fees, Instagram will host video up to an hour, and Salesforce integrating Google Analytics in this week's news round-up.
Facebook Lets Group Admins Charge for Access
Summary: As a test, Facebook is allowing some group admins to charge for access to their content. TechCrunch reported the fees will range from $4.99 to $29.99 per month.
Opinion: Although I don't want to have to pay for access to another service, I can appreciate why this is happening as a way to monetize content and allow for creators to profit from their work. Currently, Facebook has built its entire model on ad-support, and this is a way to diversify the revenue stream. It also allows the people creating the content to share in some of the revenue, which currently doesn't happen.
Instagram Announces Long-Form Video
Summary: Instagram announced IGTV, a platform that will allow users with 10K+ followers to post content up to an hour long. Everyone else will get 10 min, which is up from the previous 60 second cap. IG doesn't plan on producing its own content and is relying in its celebrity users to popularize the function. It will launch without ads.
Opinion: At a billion active users of Instagram, that's a lot of video to be had! Once it's popularized, I can see this being another ad sales platform. It's also a way for Instagram to steal views from YouTube.
Salesforce-Google Analytics Integration and What it Means for Marketers
Summary: Instead of building its own web analytics, Salesforce will be integrating Google Analytics into its service offerings. The partnership will allow for seamless (their words, not mine) integration of Google Analytics 360 through Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It was doable before but not without cumbersome challenges. Now, "A marketer from a consumer goods company can, for instance, view imported metrics from Analytics 360 on the Marketing Cloud dashboard. If they see certain products are getting frequently viewed, but not purchased, they can create an aggregated and anonymized audience of those users in Analytics 360, and then publish it to Marketing Cloud with a few clicks."
Opinion: As a marketer, anything that consolidates info onto one platform would definitely make life easier. This goes a step further in being able to analyze data from customers who take a certain action on a website and track for future improvements.
