As I opened the Messenger app today I saw a friendly face of a friend in a rectangle on top of all messages. I clicked on it and it was another Snapchat cloned feature. The same “story” feature we already know from Snapchat, Instagram, and most recently WhatsApp.
Where is Facebook going and why are they implementing this feature in each and every product they have?
WhatsApp Feedback
Just recently Facebook added the same feature into WhatsApp. They called it “Status”. Like Snapchat and Instagram, it allows you to share a photo or a video in a timeline which is visible to your friends. I don’t have that many phone contacts (let’s say 100) but nearly all of them use WhatsApp. It was quite awkward that I was the only one (at least of my contacts) who ever posted a story on WhatsApp. The Feedback was disastrous (just have a look at the Google Play ratings), my mom was completely confused, and in the end, it seemed to be a bad move to implement this functionality into WhatsApp. But is this true? What is Facebook’s real intention of implementing this feature into all their products?
Stories on Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger
Let’s be honest. When Instagram introduced Instagram Stories in August 2016 it was already a pain in the ass to post the same content on both platforms. It stole me a tremendous amount of time. Today I use Instagram stories most of the time and I use Snapchat pretty rarely. Now it’s March 2017 and now we have already 4 platforms where we may and maybe should post our content.
Just imagine how hard it is to contribute the same content to 4 different platforms:
1. Take a photo/video within Snapchat
2. Add some filters and share it.
3. Open your camera app and take the same photo/video once again
4. Alternatively, you can download the Snapchat photo but this is a pain in the ass as it requires multiple steps
5. Open Instagram
6. Look for your recent photo, add some filters and effects, add it to your Instagram Story
7. Switch the App and open WhatsApp
8. Look for your recent photo, add some text and add it to your WhatsApp status
9. Switch the App and open Messenger
10. Choose the same photo once again, add some effects, filters, and text and post it to your Messenger Day.
Congratulations you successfully wasted 20 minutes of your time to post a single photo to four different platforms.
What Gary Vaynerchuk would Say
Gary Vaynerchuk would say: “You need to hustle, sleep less and post the content on all platforms, you never know which platform is the next big thing.”
And if your intention is to earn money as an influencer, become famous on social media, or sell your stuff through social media he is right. You will make a big mistake if you miss Messenger Day if this is what’s the next big thing. And as you are posting your content of several platforms you will see different metrics. This has been the case with me as I posted on Instagram and Snapchat. Instagram simply turned out to be more open and effective. As a result I ended up posting more frequently on Instagram than on Snapchat. That is the intention of Facebook.
Facebook Wants to Take Away Snapchat’s Users
When the official Facebook-App is going to add a story functionality in the future their mission will succeed. If you have 800 Facebook friends, posting a story will probably bring you 600 views. That’s a lot compared to your 80 views on Snapchat. What will happen is that in the end we will use Instagram and Facebook more frequently as this is the place where our real friends, followers, and customers are. Hey sorry, I’m right now not talking to everyone 22 years and younger.
Facebook is successfully on its way to steal Snapchat a small margin of their daily active users. The probability of people preferring one of Facebook’s product is higher the more products offer this feature. Now you can choose to post either on Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and soon on Facebook to post your story. It is quite likely that in the end one of Facebooks products will win. Social media will still be in the hands of a big giant: Facebook. So please Snapchat: Innovate.
