Month: April 2018

Social Media Rundown: EU to Regulate Tech Companies, Snapchat Considers Unskippable Ads

Perhaps you’ve been getting lots of emails and other notifications about privacy policy updates or a new terms of service doc to agree to? You can blame new regulation from the European Union for that. More specifically, you can blame Facebook, but none of this seems to be hurting the company’s bottom line.

Animated GIF: Americans Say They Want Privacy, but Act as if They Don’t.
From a 2014 NYT article “Americans Say They Want Privacy, but Act as if They Don’t.”

In other social media news, Snapchat seems to think unskippable six-second ads are a good money-generating option and YouTube has been running ads on extremist channels, unbeknownst to its advertisers.

Finally, be sure to check out the learning section for ideas to improve your social media strategy and a look at the future of social media marketing.

Social Media News:

  • Will the US Regulate Facebook? Europe is about to do Just That (CNN). The European Union is preparing to enforce a new data protection law that gives consumers more control over how their personal data are used. Ah, so this is why I’ve been getting so many privacy policy and terms of service updates lately.
  • Facebook Promises in New Ad that Everything’s Going to be OK (Mashable). It’s actually a very excellent ad. How could you not fall in love with Facebook all over again?
  • YouTube Ran Ads from Hundreds of Brands on Extremist Channels (CNN). Ads from over 300 companies and organizations ran on YouTube channels promoting white nationalists, Nazis, pedophilia, conspiracy theories and North Korean propaganda. Be careful where you place your ads.
  • Viacom and Snap are Eyeing Snapchat Stars for Shows (Digiday). Unskippable six-second video ads? This could be the true beginning of Snapchat’s demise.

Learn:

  • 6 Effective Elements to Add to Your Social Media Strategy (Social Media Today). Want to stay ahead of the curve? This article suggests adding a Messenger bot, using more video, investing in paid ads, and using Stories on Facebook and Instagram.
  • 10 Ideas Driving the Future of Social Media Marketing (Mark Schaefer via Medium). This list debuted at Social Media Marketing World in March. This is a much better retelling than the simple notes I took. Ideas range from AI and smart speakers to government regulation (see aforementioned news headlines) and challenges of getting through all the content clutter.

Did I get everything? Please let me know if you have something to add.

Social Media Rundown: U.K. Pub Chain Deletes All its Accounts; 5 Tips for Running Facebook Ads

Besides even more shady news coming from Facebookland, it’s been a relatively slow week in the world of social media. While the #DeleteFacebook trend gains steam in the U.K., even a chain of pubs gets in on the action — deleting all its social media profiles (story below).

For this week’s learnings, be sure to check out the tips on running Facebook ads and the handy guide on how to make GIFs (because everyone loves a good GIF).

Animated GIF of The Breakfast Club's Anthony Michael Hall being cool.
Even The Breakfast Club’s Anthony Michael Hall is cool with GIFs.

Social Media News:

  • GOP accuses Facebook of censorship but conservative media flourishes online (NBC News). “There are more than three times as many conservative publishers than liberal publishers on Facebook, and they receive more than 2.5 times the engagement on the social media platform than those who push opposing viewpoints.” Also, the recent string of Facebook scandals doesn’t seem to be hurting the company’s bottom line.
  • Fed up with social media, major U.K. pub chain deletes all of its accounts (Digital Trends). Interesting move. As a social media pro, it would definitely be against my recommendation, but perhaps it’s best for this particular company. It cited concerns over the misuse of personal data and the “addictive nature of social media.”
  • Facebook Tests Out New Video Format to Boost Communal Viewing and Engagement (Social Media Today). Called ‘Premieres’, the new feature would give approved publishers the opportunity to broadcast pre-recorded content through what’s essentially Facebook Live. Thus, allowing viewers to interact with each other in real time.
  • Barack Obama And Jordan Peele Urge You Not To Believe Your Own Eyes (Fast Company). This is sort of on the fringe of social media news, but it’s important to keep up with this emerging trend. Though this article didn’t mention it, digital voice manipulation is also on the rise, which would make the development of 100% fake, yet realistic videos all the more possible. As The Atlantic reports, we’re not so far from the collapse of reality.

Learn:

  • 5 Advanced Tips for Running Ads on Facebook (Sprout Social). Whether you’re looking to start running ads on Facebook or you want to learn a few tips, this is a good look at the basics you need to know. From refining your target audience to running split tests, this is an awesome guide to running Facebook ads.
  • How to Make a GIF: The Complete Guide (Hootsuite Blog). If you’re like me and think animated GIFs are the greatest thing on the internet, then this is for you. Creating a GIF really isn’t that hard so long as you know which tools to use. This is the guide with said tools.

Did I leave out some important news? This week’s edition was heavy on Facebook. Surely I missed something important from LinkedIn or Twitter?

Social Media Rundown: Zuck Apologies, LinkedIn Adds GIFs to Messages

Things got real for Mr. Zuckerberg this week when he testified before Congress during two grueling days. Barely making headlines in Facebook news was the CNN report that the largest Black Lives Matter page on the social networking site was a total fraud.

In non-Facebook news, Instagram and LinkedIn have either tested or added new features to their platforms. Check out the best social media news of the week, plus a few learnings worthy of your time below:

Social Media News:

  • Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologized — again (The Washington Post). Quote of the week: “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry.” -Mark Zuckerberg.
  • The biggest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook is fake (CNN). The Facebook page had almost 700,000 likes and was tied to online fundraisers that brought in at least $100,000; at least some of that money was transferred to Australian bank accounts.
  • Instagram tests scannable Nametags, taking another page from Snapchat’s playbook (Marketing Land). Similar to Snapchat’s Snapcodes, Nametags will allow users to create a scannable image that makes it easier to gain followers. Could be handy for promoting an Instagram account.
  • LinkedIn Adds New GIF Access Within its On-Platform Messaging (Social Media Today). I don’t know about you, but I’ll definitely be using GIFs in LinkedIn messages for the next person I congratulate on a new promotion. (Actually, I’ve already been using GIFs in LinkedIn messages).

li_gifs2

Learn:

  • How does social media impact SEO? (Redwhale via Medium). Short answer: Website rankings and social media indexing.
  • How to Use Instagram for Social Media Marketing [Infographic] (Social Media Today). Where was this handy infographic when I was presenting Instagram strategy at work a few weeks back?
  • 21 Simple Ways to Get More Instagram Followers (Hootsuite). Speaking of Instagram marketing, this post is loaded with ideas to make sure your Instagram feed is engaging. Many of the ideas are applicable to other social media sites.

Did I miss an important piece of news or a cool ‘how to’ article? Please let me know!

The Social Media Rundown: Facebook Adds Info Button to Articles; Reddit Gets a Redesign

It’s been another busy week for Facebook as the Cambridge Analytica saga carries on and it continues to fight ‘fake news.’ Meanwhile, Twitter has purged more terrorist-related accounts, and Hell has frozen over, er, Reddit gets a redesign (coming soon).

All this and more in this week’s Social Media Rundown. Plus, I bring you not one, but two worthwhile learnings. Check it all out below:

Social Media News:

  • Facebook: ‘Malicious actors’ used its tools to discover identities and collect data on a massive global scale (source). Facebook admits that Cambridge Analytica obtained user data from 87 million users and that most of its 2 billion users likely have had their personal information scraped and shared by third-party developers without their explicit permission. Meanwhile, Facebook has shared an update on its plans to restrict data access to its platform.
  • Facebook will give all US users helpful context about articles shared in News Feed (The Verge). In a bid to make it easier to determine if something is legitimate news, Facebook has added a little ‘about this article’ icon to shared links. Once clicked, users are presented with information about the publisher (pulled in from Wikipedia), a map of where the article is being shared, and which of your friends shared the article.
Example of Facebook's new 'About This Article' function.
Facebook recently added an ‘About This Article’ button to shared news stories so users can better tell the legitimacy of a source.
  • Twitter says it removed 274,000 terrorist-related accounts in the second half of 2017 (Fast Company). The company suspended over 1.2 million accounts for terrorist-related content in the last five years – including 274,460 that were removed in the last six months 2017.
  • The Inside Story of Reddit’s Redesign (Wired). This one’s for all the web designers out there. It’s the first visual refresh of Reddit in over a decade. A welcome update if you ask me.

Learn:

  • How to Ignite Your LinkedIn Marketing Strategy [Infographic] (Marketing Profs). This handy infographic has tips on writing attention-getting headlines, the ideal post length (keep it short), and a few ideas on running LinkedIn ads and sending InMails.
  • How to Optimize Facebook Ad Bidding: Clicks or Impressions? (Social Media Examiner). Here’s a nice article on how choosing bids for ads affects your Facebook ad campaigns. Choosing between link clicks or impressions is not always easy; this article has a list of the pros and cons of each.
  • 5 Reasons Why Nobody is Engaging With Your Social Posts (and How to Fix it) (Kissmetrics). If your social media strategy isn’t getting the kind of engagement you want, the author (Neil Patel) suggests you may be committing one of these five self-sabotaging social media sins:
    • Denying what people want
    • Forgetting to make room for new (older) users
    • Skipping movie day
    • Letting little errors cripple credibility
    • Talking without listening