What Happened
After a five-month trial period, Facebook has officially launched Instant Articles today, rolling it out to all iOS users while announcing a beta version for Android devices. Though first announced in May, Instant Articles had a rather slow roll-out and has only started to pick up steam in the last month. With this wide roll-out, it will no doubt further impact the online publishing and content ecosystem.
In related news, Facebook continues to test a new form of full-screen, interactive mobile ads, which bear some design similarities to Instant Articles. Earlier this week, fast food franchise Wendy’s became the latest brand to experiment with this new ad product, touting out a mixture of text-layered images and vertical videos – a format often associated with Snapchat – to fully utilize Facebook’s new ad unit.
What Brands Need To Do
With over 60% of Americans now using social media as a news source, content discovery is becoming increasingly dependent on social. About 40% of Facebook users access the social network through mobile apps only, therefore it is important for media owners and brands alike to test Facebook’s new mobile publishing and ad products. With this official roll-out, it is time for brands to start publishing their Facebook content with Instant Articles to take advantage of the rich, quickly accessible reading experience it provides.
Source: Facebook Blog
