On December 14, 2015, DJ Khaled was “lost at sea.” He used Snapchat Stories to capture the experience.
Though DJ Khaled was not unknown at the time, his Snapchat story catapulted him into super stardom. The coverage of his misadventure also brought new attention to Snapchat and soon enough, marketers began to postulate that Snapchat had arrived as an essential business marketing channel.
I had something to say about that.
And also this. But don’t forget this.
Looking back…
In retrospect, DJ Khaled’s jet ski mishap wasn’t so much the beginning of Snapchat, as it was the birth of stories.
As you can see, Snapchat had pretty consistent growth from before the King of Major Keys went viral, to after he returned home safely to a chorus of marketers extolling the virtue of disappearing content.
However, Snapchat user growth on has slowed down lately. This is partly due to the inherent difficulties of using Snapchat…but if we’re being honest, it’s because Facebook and friends (Instagram and WhatsApp) have directly cloned the stories feature.
Enter Instagram, Facebook Messenger Day, Facebook, and WhatsApp Stories
Instagram Stories launched in August of 2016 and was immediately recognized to be a clone of Snapchat. Facebook would later follow with Facebook Messenger Day, and most recently Whatsapp and Facebook Stories.
Both Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, and Facebook have been open about copying the Snapchat format.
Facebook product manager Connor Hayes said during a recent Q&A with reporters:
“This is something that Snapchat has really pioneered, and our take on this is that Stories has become a format that people use to share and consume photo and video across all social apps.”
Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, while addressing Instagram Stories as a direct clone of the original from Snapchat, openly admitted:
“They deserve all the credit,”
then said
“This isn’t about who invented something. This is about a format, and how you take it to a network and put your own spin on it.”
Now, by “spin on it” he obviously meant that it’s different because it’s not on Snapchat. But I’m not here to rag on Facebook and Instagram for being unoriginal…well, maybe just a little. But only because they could’ve done something different…
If Stories is a “Format” then…
Why is no one thinking about it differently? If you’re observing the stories platforms that currently exist, they are each virtually identical to the original platform coming out of Snapchat. If it’s a format, why are they all identical? Why has no one innovated?
Shouldn’t we be asking, what’s so special about stories?
- The disappearing content?
- Vertical photos and videos?
- The ability to add text, pictures, emojis, and filters?
- Advancing the story by tapping on it?
What if someone took just 10 minutes to think about stories AS A FORMAT?
Facebook shoved the stories format into their primary platform, and by most accounts, it is an abysmal failure thus far. Perhaps part of the reason, is the obvious ripoff job being perpetrated against a competitor…but I think it’s something more.
The reason that Facebook stories, and Facebook Messenger Day are not successful, is that they are undifferentiated. They have no reason to exist, and thus are just digital clutter for an audience that was not clamoring for a new format. For those that wanted the stories format that Snapchat pioneered, they could just sign up for Snapchat, or as a fallback, use the Instagram version that is almost exactly the same. Anyone who wanted to use feature, probably knew where to go. So why use Facebook Messenger Days or Facebook Stories? It’s just more work and more fragmentation.
By contrast, what if Facebook, made stories different?
Facebook has an older audience than both Snapchat and Instagram. It also has more options for sharing and threaded dialogue.
- What if instead of making it disappear…it didn’t? There’s really no purpose of making it disappear, especially for an older audience and marketers. It would even be smart if it became an entry on your timeline so that people could go back in your profile and watch your days chronologically?
- What if instead of making it a separate feature that you had to learn to use (yes YOU mom, YOU have to learn this), Facebook just gathered up all of your posts from the day and bundled them into a story?
- And what if instead of making just vertical pictures and videos, you could use all of the different options Facebook already presents you, including Facebook Live, landscape videos, pictures, whatever those weird colored status updates are, etc
All of this would’ve made it something different. It would be the story of what you posted on Facebook. Furthermore, if Facebook were smart, it wouldn’t be fragmenting its own audience by having both Facebook Stories and Facebook Messenger Stories separate from one another.
Now…think about how marketers would use this (I know you were just wondering that).
Marketers–who keep Facebook in business–could now amplify stories/days from the past. Facebook could even make Stories the newest ad unit!
Where will they go?
At this rate, the stories feature will show up in everything, even when it doesn’t fit. And that’s fine I suppose.
But if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll see someone do a little thinking and create something a little different. (Hint, Hint: “hey Twitter, pay attention!”)