Month: August 2018

Social Media Rundown: Election Meddling via Social Media; Infowars Gets the Boot; Facebook Considers Replacing ‘Share’ Button with ‘Message’ Button

Coordinated disinformation campaigns, GDPR non-compliance, and the removal of Infowars from social networking sites — all just another week in social media news. Plus, is Snapchat no longer cool? Asking for a friend.

Be sure to check out the learn section for some ideas on using social media to market your next event and a handy checklist for building out your social media marketing strategy.

Social Media News:

  • Hackers Already Attacking Midterm Elections, Raising U.S. Alarms (Bloomberg). Facebook shut down dozens of accounts and pages to stop a coordinated disinformation campaign. “Even as Twitter and Facebook launch new initiatives to stop such meddling, hackers are adjusting to avoid — or at least delay — detection. Some of the suspect pages Facebook shut down in July had been operating for more than a year.”
  • More Than 1,000 U.S. News Sites Are Still Unavailable in Europe, Two Months after GDPR Took Effect (NiemanLab). With two years to prepare for GDPR, about a third of the 100 largest U.S. newspapers have opted to block their sites in Europe. Among them: the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, and the Boston Globe. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • YouTube, Apple and Facebook Remove Content from Infowars and Alex Jones (CNN). Each social media platform said it had removed content from Jones or InfoWars because it had violated their policies, thus shutting down his key distribution channels. Infowars accounts are still active on Twitter. And unfortunately, there will always be another Alex Jones.
  • Facebook Tests Replacing ‘Share’ with ‘Message’ Option on News Feed Posts (Social Media Today). Let’s all hope this doesn’t pan out. “The new format would likely see a reduction in public post sharing, further shrinking already low organic reach numbers.”
Facebook tests a 'message' button.
To share or message?

Learn:

  • How to Drive More Event Engagement Using Social Media (Social Media Today). This is a nice rundown of ways to maximize event marketing before, during, and after an event. Some of these are obvious (i.e. send email updates before the event) while others are a little more creative (i.e. set up social media stations at the event).
  • 10 Essentials for Your Social Media Marketing Campaigns (PR Daily). Here’s a quick, no-thrills checklist of what you need to build out a social media strategy.

Chart of the Week:

Daily active user growth: Snapchat.

Has Snapchat already stopped growing? Sure looks like it.

Social Media Rundown: Toxic Speech on Twitter; Facebook Combats Political Influence Campaigns; WhatsApp Makes Business Push

Lots of social media news worthy of your time this week. And don’t forget to check out the learn section for a detailed look at how Gary Vaynerchuk turns once piece of long-form content into 30+ pieces to share on social media.

Also, here’s an interesting infographic to consider when thinking of how people will likely view your content on each social networking site:

Time spent on social networks in the US: mobile vs. desktop
See anything that surprises you here? Are you among the 2% who use Instagram on desktop?

Social Media News:

  • Twitter Is Funding College Professors to Audit Its Platform for Toxicity (The Verge). The researchers will investigate how toxic speech is created on Twitter. The team will also create algorithms to track whether conversations are “uncivil” or if they veer into “intolerant” in what could be hate speech.
  • Facebook Identifies an Active Political Influence Campaign Using Fake Accounts (The New York Times). Not much has changed since the 2016 presidential election. Although it does seem the company is doing a better job of getting ahead of things; Facebook detected and removed “32 pages and fake accounts that had engaged in activity around divisive social issues.” It’s a continuous game of whack-a-mole.
  • Snapchat’s New Voice-Activated Lenses Point to a Wild Future for AR Advertising and Commerce (Forbes). Snapchat’s latest Lenses react to a specific keyword instead of visual cues such as opening your mouth. The new Lenses animate after hearing a specific keyword, which Snapchat displays on the screen.
  • WhatsApp’s Making a New Business Push, Pointing to Significant Revenue Opportunities (Social Media Today). WhatsApp Business now offers businesses new options for connecting with customers, including request helpful information, start a conversation, and get support.

Learn:

  • The Garyvee Content Strategy: How to Grow and Distribute Your Brand’s Social Media Content (garyvaynerchuk.com). If you follow Gary Vaynerchuk, then you know he pushes out a ton of content. This post included a slide deck that breaks down how he took a recent 2-hour keynote address to create 30+ pieces of content to share on social media, blogging platforms, and audio & video sites.

What social media news or social media marketing tips caught your eye this week?