Socialcam is hailed as the next Instagram for video, but it also acts like spam. Socialcam has about 63 million users so the chances are you have seen it pop up on your Facebook ticker, on your wall or news feed with a catchy linkbait or clickbait headline. The headline is eye-catching and it gets you curious so you click on the socialcam link–then you have to install the app to watch the video and now it is ‘spamming’ your Facebook ticker too, now all the friends are going to see when you watch a video, which may, or may not be embarrassing.
In the technical sense of spam/virus– socialcam is neither; it is just an annoying graduate of the prestigious Y Combinator, it is a great product but their spamming ways to build an audience seems to be is working- but it is also getting a great deal of backlash up to the point people genuinely feel that Socialcam is a Facebook virus.
If you haven’t joined Socialcam, the fact is that you do have the option to choose who sees your post, but it is not exactly obvious with the big ‘Go To App’ button glazing at you. T controll who see’s your Socialcam feed- scroll down the page that ask you to join the app Socialcam and choose ‘Only Me’ or ‘Custom’ if you don’t want to show it to everyone.
I will write a more in-depth post on how to get rid of Socialcam with screenshots and what not. But for now here is a quick how to from Quora on blocking Socialcam:
1. Go to Facebook Privacy Settings.
2. Scroll down to “Blocked People and Apps” and click “Manage Blocking”
3. Scroll down to “Block Apps” and type in “Socialcam“. It should pop up a list as you type. Socialcam is the one with 75 million users. Click it to block it.
That should do the trick.
The battle for the new video sharing app craze is between Socialcam and Viddy, and it makes you wonder if Socialcam’s shady ways is a necessary evil because Viddy is losing the battle:
The data shows that Viddy’s daily active users base is around 2 million with short-lived growth spurt for about 2 weeks.
Socialcam’s shady ways may give it an edge but the difference between it’s monthly active users and daily active is possibly an indication that it’s spammy linkbait method doesn’t always translate to user retention. According to the appdata.com, Socialcam has monthly users base of about 78 million, with a daily active users less than 4 million. This shows a lot of its users are not returning to watch videos because there is no value, when it comes down to it.
It is still a good product at its core, it is an easy and efficient way to share videos with friends etc but it’s business practices it what I have a problem with.
Check out this video of the shady ways Socialcam operates:
[...] shady ways of sharing what you watch on Facebook or your iPhone. This post is a follow-up on my previous post discussing how many people feel Socialcam is Facebook spam or a sort of virus. The young [...]