Social | Page 57 of 182

Snapchat Ready To Go After Celebrities

July 8, 2015, 12:00AM

Snapchat is no stranger to its unique but nevertheless successful business strategies, from its untargeted ads campaign to several other popular influences. So what’s next on the company’s list for greatness Celebrities.

DigiDay has recently reported that the company, which already has big names on board its mobile platform like Justin Bieber and Kylie Jenner, that it’s focusing on bringing other celebrities on board. Rob Gregory, chief revenue officer for WhoSay, a social platform that caters to superstars, said that Snapchat is “aggressively courting celebrities with a big C and a small C. Everyone knows that’s where the millennials are and the celebrity audience is. The Snapchat audience is so enthusiastic and engaged with that content, this is a natural move for them.”

Although Snapchat didn’t confirm this business strategy, a number of observers, including Gregory, stated that with the app, it’d be easier to discover celebrities, alongside friends and other users.

This is the latest move by the popular disappearing-message app to entice users with content, including articles and videos from the likes of CNN and the Daily Mail, through its Discover page. In addition, it’s been looking for ways to bring live sports to the app, along with creators from YouTube and Vine to create an exclusive series for the app, although no results have been posted from that just yet.

Sites have become more and more involved with getting celebrities to use its social media pages. Twitter has a number of big name celebrities with a growing fanbase; Facebook has a Mentions app, where people can interact with some of their favorite celebs; and Reddit hosts plenty of Ask Me Anything (AMA) Q & A’s, where hundreds of questions pop up.

With celebrities on board, Snapchat could handily pick up a new audience to use its platform, thus boosting its userbase – and more possibilities for advertisers. Eric Dahan, CEO of Instabrand, said, “It gives them a backstory they can’t share with other mediums. If you think about Instagram, it’s usually images, and they tend to be more manicured. Snapchat really allows celebrities to give a backstory. It makes celebrities more attainable.”

However, that’s not to say the process would be smooth, as DigiDay believes some hindrances would get in the way when it comes to brands working alongside personalities. “It’s very, very manual and very high touch,” said Ted Murphy, CEO of influencer-brand connecting company Izea. “I think one of the biggest challenges is having the content disappear. Even with a Vine video, there’s something to send the client at the end of a campaign. With Snapchat, it’s ‘Trust us, it appeared, and it was great.'”

We’ll see just what kind of celebrities Snapchat is able to reach in the weeks ahead.

Robert Rodriguez Promotes DIY With The People’s Network

BY VideoInk

July 6, 2015, 12:00AM

by Todd Longwell

Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez is the embodiment of what can be accomplished by embracing the DIY aesthetic. Armed with a $7,000 budget, he made the full-length movie “El Mariachi” (1992), serving as writer, producer, director, cinematographer, editor and special effects rigger. The film scored a distribution deal with Columbia Pictures, and he parlayed it into a high-profile Hollywood career, accumulating a long list of credits that includes “From Dusk to Dawn” and the “Sin City” and “Spy Kids” franchises, while continuing to wear multiple creative hats, including sound re-recording mixer and visual effects supervisor.

Now, Rodriguez is doing his part to bring that type of opportunity to the masses with The People’s Network, a new digital platform launched last week by his English-language cable entertainment channel El Rey Network. Designed as an outlet for people to showcase their talents through artwork, ideas and short films, it kicks off with The Epic Summer Movie Contest, sponsored by Corona Extra, which calls on fans to design the ultimate movie poster, illustrating how they embrace summer.

“For years, young creatives and filmmakers have been approaching Robert, asking for a way into ‘the system,’” said Kurt Volk, VP and creative director of El Rey Network, in an email to VideoInk. “These are people who don’t know anyone in Hollywood, who have no connections, but who have fresh, creative ideas and just need a way to get their foot in the door. The People’s Network was Robert’s way of connecting these people with more established creators and providing a platform for their work to be seen.”

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This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

Social Video App Beet Isn’t A Snapchat Rival; Its Goal Is To Save Moments

BY VideoInk

July 2, 2015, 12:00AM

by Jessica Klein

At first glance, social video app Beet, created by Sean Thielen and Jonathan Miller while they were still attending university, looks like Snapchat. It lets users take quick videos that they can share with their friends in the form of “stories,” a montage of all the footage taken throughout the day. However, Beet comes onto the social video app scene with a much different goal–that is, to save these moments in a photo album-like collection (many of its users are new parents compiling videos of their children). Thielen and Miller describe how Beet users aren’t exactly after amassing a huge following, but about capturing meaningful footage for themselves. They took the time to tell us a bit about their vision and how they set out to fill an empty social video niche, one that isn’t focused on gaining fans.

What is the main idea behind Beet—what’s the point of the app How are people meant to use it

Sean Thielen: The idea behind Beet is to offer a more genuine and authentic view of someone’s life. We noticed that there is a lot of disconnect between who people are in real life and the personalities they present on social media. It’s hard to portray a real picture of yourself on social media, just because the nature of those platforms encourages people to pick and choose only those moments that will get the most likes, and we often miss out on sharing the things that matter the most.So we made Beet to minimize the distance between our real selves and our social personalities. By compiling all of these candid clips into an ongoing video montage, Beet shifts the focus away from just individual moments and instead shows your journey.