Dive Brief:
- Live events are big traffic drivers for Twitter and Snapchat, and Facebook is looking to join that party by enhancing its Place Tips features.
- It rolled out features such as friend’s photos, check-ins and status updates to coincide with the Lollapalooza music festival.
- Twitter recently added live events to its targeted offerings for marketers.
Dive Insight:
Live events are major social media bonanzas, and a major driver of traffic for Twitter and Snapchat. Facebook, looking to get into that marketplace, launched an enhanced Place Tips during Chicago’s Lollapalooza music festival. The idea was to combine public posts with friend’s updates from the festival for anyone who wasn’t actually attending. The key change to Place Tips for this event was Facebook making the information available remotely.
Taking advantage of live events is important for marketers, and Twitter recognized that launching a targeting feature for marketers based around a calendar of global events with targeting elements including device, language and gender.
“This Place Tips Lollapalooza experience is just one of the many ways Facebook is trying to help people get the feel of an event when they’re not there,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal.
The social network has made small changes to its News Feed algorithm in recent months, but did not indicate whether Place Tips would be rolled out more broadly, affecting a bigger algorithm update. At the moment it appears Place Tips is just a test tool.
