Mobile Applications, Social Media,
“Instant Articles” on Facebook
Facebook just set social media ablaze with its latest product update. On March 13th, Facebook announced the release of Instant Articles, a platform that will allow publishers to post content directly and keep 100% of the revenue generated from the ads in the stories.
Apparently, this move’s been anticipated for quite a while, and the product launch is underway with the following nine partners:
- The New York Times
- National Geographic
- BuzzFeed
- NBC News
- The Atlantic
- The Guardian
- BBC News
- Spiegel Online
- Bild
Pretty impressive list. Watch for initial content to come from the Times, National Geographic, the Atlantic, BuzzFeed and NBC.
What’s the Purpose of Instant Articles?
Since the average content-load time on the mobile app is 8 seconds, Instant Articles is positioned as Facebook’s attempt to provide a better, faster, more interactive user experience for their audience.
And of course, there’s the little revenue bit which is going to help.
This is what Facebook has to say about it.
“We designed Instant Articles to give publishers control over their stories, brand experience and monetization opportunities. Publishers can sell ads in their articles and keep the revenue, or they can choose to use Facebook’s Audience Network to monetize unsold inventory. Publishers will also have the ability to track data and traffic through comScore and other analytics tools.”
Product Features That Matter
- A full-suite integration of multimedia elements like image galleries, interactive graphics, embedded tweets and a lot more.
- Sponsored posts from publishers will be allowed.
- Content publishers will be able to use their own tools to create Instant Articles.
To read more about these features, you can read Marketing Land’s post.
What I Think About It
A new benchmark for content development? I’m all about it! And here’s why.
As an industry, we’ve been talking about heading towards interactive content for nearly a decade now, and depending on our budgets and geographic locations, we’ve made significant strides towards this vision.
Facebook’s Instant Articles – because of the nine launch partners who’ve signed up – is going to pave the way for brands and marketers to challenge themselves in developing stellar content. Content, content, content. That’s what we’re all about. And content isn’t going anywhere, folks – it’s just getting better with every generation.
Here’s the video from Facebook explaining their new product.
Introducing Instant Articles, a new tool for publishers to create fast, interactive articles on Facebook.
Posted by Facebook Media on Tuesday, May 12, 2015
As far as I’m concerned, this move from Facebook is just downright cool.
What do you think?
Additional Reading:
Is Facebook Still Relevant for Businesses?
Facebook Algorithm that Hampers Your Content Marketing
Facebook Updates Newsfeed, To Filter Undesirable Links
An Open Letter to Kirthiga Reddy – Why Does Facebook’s Client Servicing Fall Short?
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