This Week in Social and Digital (Week of October 23)
This Week in Social is a weekly digest of some of the biggest stories in social media marketing news. These stories are the show notes for the Brave Ad World Podcast. Each story is discussed at a deeper level on the podcast.
Facebook Testing Separate Tab for Publisher Content
Facebook is making some publishers nervous thanks to a test its running around its News Feed. The test separates the News Feed out into two different areas: one dedicated to posts form friends and family and the second being content from publishers. If a publisher hopes to make it into the friends and family feed, that publisher will need to pay.
The test is currently limited to six countries: Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Slovakia, Serbia, Guatemala and Cambodia. Publishers in those markets have reported a sharp drop in traffic since the test went into place.
It’s worth noting that this test is separate from Facebook’s explore tab, which is being rolled out. That tab is meant to expose people to content from Pages they haven’t liked but Facebook’s algorithm thinks they might.
While this is still a test, it understandably has publishers concerned. Facebook has not been the most reliable partner for publishers even though it has relaxed some of its Instant Article monetization policies.
This also should be on the radar for brands. Organic reach has been barely holding onto life for some time. This would effectively kill it. Brands would need to pay no matter what to have their content seen. Yes, users have the option to go to this other tab, but the majority will not as we see with the test currently being run.
Twitter Takes Steps to Align with Media Rating Council
Amidst a push for independent ad measurement, Twitter has taken a step toward gaining Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation. Twitter formally submitted key measurement metrics, the first phase of the accreditation process, which will be followed by an audit of how accurate Twitter reports KPIs like impressions and video views.
There’s been a major push led by big brands like P&G for greater accountability from online ad platforms, which includes the Facebook and Google duopoly. For its part, Facebook has been under increased scrutiny when it revealed that it had been misreporting some key metrics to advertisers. Facebook is currently in the process of an MRC audit, and Google has stated its intentions of applying too.
All of these moves follow an outcry from brands that want to know how their ads are being served to users and ensuring that those impressions are indeed by humans and not bots. While no measurement is perfect, digital has been a ray of hope in measurement with its ability to target users specifically and measure outcomes. As more reports have come out, it’s become apparent that digital still has some major issues to figure out. MRC accreditation is part of resolving those issues.
Snapchat Allows for Link Sharing
A new iOS update for Snapchat is allowing users to share links through Snapchat from the iOS share sheet. When a user taps Share in iOS, they are presented options for how they’d like to share a link or piece of content. Now, Snapchat is one of those options, which also include Gmail, Messenger, Facebook, Notes and others. Once a user chooses Snapchat, they can private message a link to one ore more people.
The update included some other features like a more limited Ghost Mode, which lets you hide your location from Snap Map for three or 24 hours.
Link sharing is a small step, but it’s a big one for Snapchat, which has been one of the most walled gardens of all the walled gardens out there. The move opens up Snapchat to being a place for sharing news stories, commerce links and more. Snapchat has made it easier for users to attach links to Snaps and Stories, but this is yet one more step to encourage users to share content they discover outside of Snapchat with their friends.
Instagram Lets Two People Go Live at Once
Instagram Live is rolling out a feature that’s been in testing for some time. The feature allows two users to go live at once.
Once a user starts a live stream, that user can invite someone else to join. If they accept, the screen splits into two, and the two users go live at once. The person added to a stream can be removed, re-added or swapped out with someone else.
Brands, influencers and users are still experimenting with live, but this update offers some potential for brands. They could, for example, go live and invite an influencer to join, or they could invite one of their loyal customers to go live with them to view the unveiling of a new product. The update allows brands to be more dynamic with their live streams.
News Quick Hits
- Facebook is testing a Pinterest-like sharing option called Sets. Sets allow users to create collections of status updates, photos, videos and links that can be shared on the social network. Users have the option to choose a theme for their sets as well as edit privacy settings.
- Twitter has released a calendar on its safety blog that provides updates on how Twitter is handling safety concerns on its platform. It also clarified factors that are being implemented as Twitter addresses these concerns including, establishing guidelines for reviewers to enforce policies across millions of tweets, testing with samples of tweets that violate new policies and training global review teams. Twitter has a long list of issues to address, but this latest round of issues has been approached with a level of transparency Twitter has not shown in the past.
- Facebook Messenger users can now pay each other using PayPal thanks to a new agreement between Facebook and PayPal. PayPal’s also launching a customer service Messenger bot that will help users get support with payments and their accounts.
- Amazon will be accepting takeout orders from its app next month. Amazon Restaurants has been rolling out as an offering meant to compete with GrubHub. The feature is only rolling out in some select markets at the moment.
- AI’s making its presence felt nearly everywhere, and one of the latest places is the LinkedIn inbox. A new feature called Smart Replies provides users with three suggested replies to messages they receive in their inbox, such as “what time” and “sure.” This is just the beginning, according to LinkedIn. The company plans to make these more personalized over time.
- Gmail is getting productivity apps to help users get more done without leaving Gmail. Apps from Trello, Asana, Docusign, Quickbooks and others will be accessible from within Gmail, allowing users to be more productive. The updates are more for businesses than users, but they follow other apps from Google like Docs and Sheets being integrated into the inbox. Users can find the extensions by clicking “Get add-ons” in their settings.
- Twitter reported a pretty serious reporting error, especially according to Wall Street. Twitter’s been misreporting its user number for the past three years as it was inadvertently counting users of third-party apps in its total monthly active users. This means Twitter’s user base shrank last quarter and was not flat as it previously reported. That means it has 326 million users and not the 328 million it originally reported.
- Amazon Key has launched from Amazon. It’s a service that uses Amazon’s Cloud Cam and a smart lock to let Amazon delivery couriers drop off packages in purchasers homes. The process requires couriers to use a specific barcode to gain access. Customers will receive notifications and video confirmation of the drop-off.