This Week in Social and Digital (Week of February 22)
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 Tries Again with WhatsApp Privacy Policy Updates
WhatsApp's updated privacy policy will go into effect May 15. Users who do not accept the new terms will basically be left with an unusable WhatsApp--being unable to receive calls and notifications for a short time and completely unable to read or send messages moving forward. Users who do not accept the policy can delete their accounts, download a report of the account and export their chat history.
WhatsApp once again explained that the data in the privacy policy is related to business interactions within WhatsApp, not personal messages. Confusion about the updated privacy policy drove an outcry from users, leading WhatsApp to delay the original launch date for the policy of February 8.
It's no surprise Facebook is continuing to rollout the policy, despite the backlash. It merely delayed the launch to explain itself to an increasingly skeptical public. Now, it sees a May launch date as enough time for users to understand the changes and what it is they're agreeing to.
The updated policy is likely fairly innocuous, measured by Facebook's standards of course, so take it for what it's worth. It does, indeed, appear to only focus on business interactions while peer-to-peer communication remains protected and private. This is an error in communication on Facebook's part, but the skepticism is more the sign of brand trust erosion than anything else. Facebook may not be trying to do anything under the radar here, but it has betrayed user trust to such a degree that that really doesn't matter.
Spotify Launches Ad Network
This week Spotify held its Stream On event, and it was full of big announcements, including plans to launch in 85 new markets, following the footsteps of Netflix in investing in international expansion and content. But marketers were focused on one other big announcement--the launch of a new Spotify ad marketplace.
The network will allow advertisers to reach a large amount of users on and off Spotify by tapping into an inventory of music, exclusive shows and independent podcasts. Along with the announcement came news that it's making improvements to its ad insertion technology by making it available to more podcast publishers, not just exclusive Spotify shows.
Spotify's made some major acquisitions to make this happen, including Anchor, which allows Spotify to tap into and insert ads into independent podcasts. We've seen Spotify really focus on assembling these individual pieces, and while there is still work to be done to make this network reality, Spotify is staking the claim that it is the way to deliver audio messaging at scale.
Twitter Announces Super Follows
We knew this one was coming at some point.
Twitter is launching the ability for users to charge followers for access to specific content. Super Follows will limit certain content to users who pay a subscription for things like bonus tweets, access to community groups, newsletters or badges indicating support for certain content creators.
The move is a way for creators to get paid for their content in the same way they do on platforms like Facebook and YouTube. It's unclear if Twitter will take a cut and if so, by how much.
Twitter wasn't done there either. It also launched a feature called Communities--groups formed around specific shared interests. Users who are part of Communities will see tweets about those topics, similar to how they can follow Interests. Facebook has proven the power of such a feature, and Twitter clearly sees this as a means by which to get new users onto the platform and receiving useful content quickly.
This is the biggest update Twitter's had in awhile, and both moves seem smart. Subscriptions have been staring Twitter in the face for a long while, having a trove of journalists, writers and thinkers with followers who want to hear from them. They're monetizing what is really their biggest asset. No timeline for the new features has been set.
News Quick Hits
Clubhouse is working to fix a security issue on its platform that allowed audio feeds from the invite-only app to be made accessible through third party sites. The vulnerability is especially harmful to Chinese citizens and dissidents using the app even though Clubhouse is blocked in China. Clubhouse is a new app, so there were bound to be vulnerabilities. In response, Clubhouse is rolling out additional encryption and protections.
After blocking news from being shared in Australia in response to a law that would require Facebook to pay all publishers, Facebook has said it "is satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concern," so news content is returning to Facebook. The agreement requires tech companies to reach agreements with publishers within two months, and it requires the government to consider whether or not such commercial agreements are in place before forcing negotiation and payment. This allows Facebook to choose which publishers it wants to ink deals with. The Australian government is satisfied Facebook is "committed to entering into good-faith negotiations with Australian news media businesses..."
It's been two months since the insurrection that drove Google to halt political advertising. Google has now informed advertisers that political ads are coming back with the lift of its Sensitive Events policy.
Facebook is expanding its Facebook Shops e-commerce initiative to Canada and the UK after launching in the US in August 2020. For its part, TikTok is extending a deal it has with Shopify that allows businesses to manage their TikTok campaigns within the Shopify dashboard to 14 more countries. Clearly, social commerce is seeing a major uptick, and moves to expand are accelerating.
Facebook disagreed with the Oversight Board for the first time ever. While Facebook agreed to take action on 11 board recommendations it declined to soften its stance on Covid-19 information as recommended by the board. The board's recommendations are advisory, not mandatory.