In this week’s #MMSocialReport — Instagram is Facebook, Twitter is TV, and the world is a good place thanks to Social Media.
Metter Media Social Report, April 21st, 2017
Snapchat, Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook all announced new features this week. Find out how the four giants are changing social media with the week’s #MMSocialReport.
And, trust us, they are big announcements. They range from Snapchat filters that you can apply to anything around you all the way to Facebook wanting you to use the platform using only your thought. Yes, it was quite the week.
Metter Media Social Report, April 14th, 2017
In this week’s #MMSocial Report — YouTube and Snapchat announce new features that directly affect users, Facebook messenger can now have you and your friends rolling in money, and why we might be saying goodbye to the News Feed.
Facebook Stories: Imitation, But Not Flattery
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That may be true in some situations, but when you’re one of the most successful social media networks in the world, does imitating your competition help or hinder your success?
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Story — but when I want to post a Story, I go to Snapchat, because that’s what it’s for.
Working in the social media world, I spend a lot of time thinking about and posting content. But lately, I’ve been finding it difficult to decide which app to post to, because they all have overlapping features — and, frankly, overlapping audiences.
Metter Media Social Report, April 7, 2017
Social media continues to change: live streaming has taken over, Snapchat now has a search option for public stories, the Twitter egg is now done for…
Lucky for you, the #MMSocialReport brings you the top social media news of the week. Take a look and get caught up:
Metter Media Social Report, March 24, 2017
Social media keeps evolving. There’s always a new feature or a new app threatening to change the game. We keep up with them all so that you don’t have to. From Apple’s new video editing app to Instagram potentially competing with Yelp—here are the top five social media headlines for the week.
Metter Media Social Report, March 17, 2017
In this week’s #MMSocialReport – The North Face and Spotify team up to create a super cool playlist with a twist, research on Twitter bots and Facebook job posts, another Google App was released, and a tiny robot dog trained to monitor your social media accounts now exists.
Metter Media Social Report, March 3, 2017
The #MMSocialMediaReport is here to help you keep up with all things social media. This week, Snapchat’s parent company reinvents itself, flags in Facebook profile pictures, YouTube ads becoming more tolerable, and more…
Metter Media Social Report, February 24, 2017
In this week’s #MMSocialReport — Twitter is becoming the best method of getting in contact with CEOs, Facebook takes internet stalking to the next level, Disney’s research team is making sure your phone never dies again, and… just when you thought you’d heard the last of him, MySpace Tom is back with a vengeance.
The New Instagram Zen
Open the explore tab on your Instagram app and chances are, in the midst of personalized content, you’ll find the “Oddly Satisfying” section. You have to see these videos to understand their appeal, so I’ll just say the section features colorful, often viscous substances being played with in an alluring way. I know, odd…
These posts are also becoming massively popular. This one, for example, tallied over a million views a day after being posted:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQveXWhla-h/
The account itself dedicates itself to this sort of videos. It has accrued 100k followers merely six months after being established, according to the account’s bio. There’s an undoubtable charm to their videos. They have a quality both relaxing and abstracting. Like squishing a stress ball, only not nearly as tiresome.
They sell the stuff. Their bio links to an Etsy page selling the slime used on the videos. The posts, then, are brilliant advertising: they feature only the product and yet anyone would want to see them.
Indeed, most of the slime accounts follow that model. Another example:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQx5SsMB_NN/
But also notice the tags: #relaxation, #relax, #anxietyrelief, #stressrelief, #sleepaid etc…
They touch precisely on what makes these posts so “odd” against the typical Instagram post. They are not like landscapes, or pictures of food, or art, or even memes for that matter, in that there’s no meaning behind them. Their effect is more akin to listening to white noise. They are meant to lull you, to provide a respite from all that.
They can’t even be compared to abstract art. They are positively about the concrete: about the touching of the slime and the physical reaction you get from it. That one even has sound adding to the soothing effect.
These relaxation clips could be even more welcome on Instagram than traditional art. Take @annettelabedzki’s account. She’s a Canadian artist who gets most of her Instagram attention not from her paintings, but from her #oddlysatisfying paint mixing videos:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQyDHyAhp3F/
There’s no effort of interpretation in watching a paint-mixing video like there would be in viewing a painting. There’s nothing but the mindless pleasure of watching carefully-arranged paint merge into a solid color.
The Zen-like lack of effort they require might explain their allure.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQwQDDYhJqn/
Here’s a variation on the genre I particularly enjoy: the paint-mixing in the post below is reversed. It’s essentially the same process but there’s something more, dare I say it, satisfying about seeing the paint separating when you have no idea what the arrangement is going to look like. The less context the better—there’s even less to think about.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQY1CciDcdb/?taken-by=craftyslimecreator
What can you make of a video like that? And yet you watch. For a minute you phase out, more relaxed than satisfied and more soothed than entertained.
Previously in the Metter Media blog, we worried about how stressful social media has been of late. We had been feeling the effects of “trending news, trolls, and eco chambers.” Things were getting to be a bit too much.
I, for one, welcome the “Oddly Satisfying.” The not only aesthetically pleasing but purposefully soothing. A small place within endless content to just phase out and relax. Perhaps we’ve found a new, more therapeutic side to social media.
Metter Media LLC is a Boston-based social media management company that implements community-based, localized social engagement strategies for small businesses and corporations alike. Need help with your social media? Email Lauren today.