SOCIAL UPDATE

Snapchat is expected to nearly triple its worldwide ad revenues over the coming year to an estimated US$935.46 million in 2017, according to an eMarketer report. While Snapchat offers video ads, sponsored geofilters and sponsored lenses, next year, the app’s Stories feature is expected to become its dominant ad revenue source.

Facebook video ads are more likely to be viewed right to the end if they run longer than 30 seconds, according to a recent study. Kinetic Social reports that 44 per cent of video ads running 30 -to 60-seconds on Facebook were viewed to completion compared to only 26 per cent of ads running 30 seconds or less.

Twitter is relaxing its 140-character limit so that it no longer includes such things as @names in replies or media attachments (jpegs, GIFs, videos and polls). That means Twitter users can now devote all 140 characters to discussion and creative messaging.