10Yetis Insight - Social media Round-up - Instagram live video, Facebook Ads & Wi-Fi searches, and Google provides real-time footfall updates for businesses

Afternoon, Rhodri Here, Happy one month until Christmas everyone! It seems live video is a hot topic right now across the social-sphere. Read on for some of the latest updates in social media.

Instagram live video and disappearing messages launched, and so soon!

This time last week we mentioned how excited we were when the news broke out that Instagram was introducing live video soon; little did we know soon meant this week! Instagram launched their live video feature along with disappearing photos and videos in Instagram direct messaging. Users can now broadcast live videos to their followers via an extension of Instagram stories for up to an hour. They can also notify friends that they are going live and choose whether people can comment on the stream or not. The major difference with this feature when compared to other platform’s live video capabilities is that after the broadcast has ended, the video will disappear and be unable to be replayed.

As well as launching this feature, Instagram users can now send disappearing messages including photos and videos to each other using the direct messaging tool. These messages can be sent to groups or individual people. This feature is yet another that is VERY similar to the capabilities offered by Snapchat, bringing the two apps in an even tighter together in a head to head battle for dominance. Who will win? Who knows! But it’s pretty cool.

Facebook is testing ads for live videos

Facebook is really pushing its live feature in the attempt to make it the next big thing. They have recently been testing real-time ads that brands and publishers can use to tell people about live broadcasts that are happening. At the moment, those who want to promote their Facebook Live videos will be doing so via sponsored posts that take place before the broadcast or potentially afterwards. These new ads will begin to appear in user’s newsfeeds during the live stream instead, alerting people to the event while it is taking place. Ethelbert Williams, CMO for cosmetic brand InstaNatural, believes brands and advertisers would be willing to invest more in their live production if Facebook could guarantee the type of audience reach and scale brands could buy in to.

Facebook is helping you find Wi-Fi connections

Facebook is also testing another cool little feature at the moment. A tool designed to help you find nearby public Wi-Fi so users can always stay connected. The benefit for Facebook here is obviously, the more time people spend connected, the more they will hopefully be sharing content on the platform. The tool is currently available in the ‘Options’ menu on the smartphone application but it is not yet available to all users. For those who can use it, the option is called ‘Find Wi-Fi’. This option will then provide you with a map of the nearby hotspots. The feature has likely been designed to aid the Facebook Live push, providing people with a constant source of reliable Wi-Fi connections so that they can stream their content.

Google introduces a real time traffic guide for stores

When using Google to search for a business online, you may have noticed there is often information provided to show when the highest footfall occurs. Google gathers this information by using aggregated data from smartphones who have their location services operating. For example, if you were planning on going to a gym or a restaurant, you could check online to see how busy it is likely to be at that time or throughout the day based on previous data.

However, Google has now improved this feature so that you can check how busy a business is in real-time. The picture below is from a local gym, pretty cool and very useful! Google are also providing notifications for the average amount of time that people are spending at each location.