Daily Minute Master Series – June 18, 2019

Social Media

Facebook reveals Libra cryptocurrency, with lofty goals

Facebook Inc revealed plans on Tuesday to launch a cryptocurrency called Libra, the latest development in its effort to expand beyond social networking and move into e-commerce and global payments. Facebook has linked with 28 partners in a Geneva-based entity called the Libra Association, which will govern its new digital coin set to launch in the first half of 2020, according to marketing materials and interviews with executives. Facebook has also created a subsidiary called Calibra, which will offer digital wallets to save, send and spend Libras. Calibra will be connected to Facebook’s messaging platforms Messenger and WhatsApp, which already boast more than a billion users. In recent years, cryptocurrency investors have lost hundreds of millions of dollars through hacks, and the market has been plagued by accusations of money-laundering, illegal drug sales and terrorist financing. Markus Feber, a senior German lawmaker in the European Parliament, called for the European Union to begin work on regulating cryptocurrencies. Facebook hopes it can bring global regulators to the table by publicizing Libra, said Kevin Weil, who runs product for the initiative. The Libra Association plans to raise money through a private placement in the coming months, according to a statement from the association. Partners in the project include household names like Mastercard Inc, Visa Inc, Spotify Technology SA, PayPal Holdings Inc, eBay Inc, Uber Technologies Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, as well as venture capital firms like Andreessen Horow.

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Facebook to remove ‘Company Overview’ and ‘Biography’ fields from Pages

Facebook is alerting Page owners that it is removing a number of fields from Page info starting August 1, 2019. The fields to be removed include Company Overview, Biography, Affiliation, Personal Interests and maybe more, according to a tweet from Matt Navarra. Anyone managing a Facebook Page will need to revisit information listed in the fields scheduled to be removed, and add the information they want to remain visible to the Page’s description. The fields being removed are listed under a Page’s “About” section and, most likely, will not impact a Page’s performance. SMBs and public figures whose primary online existence are their Facebook Pages may have important information in those fields. Editing the Page description to include the soon-to-be deleted information will make sure those details remain intact.

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Pinterest Announces New Third-Party Partnerships to Expand its On-Platform Shopping Options

Pinterest’s aim is to become a key hub for online shopping, with advanced product discovery and matching features that align with user needs, and help to guide them to relevant products. Pinterest has this week renamed its third-party partner program, and added new technology partners to facilitate expanded product listing capacity.  The new focus for Pinterest Partners is shopping, with a range of tools that will be able to help connect businesses direct to the platform, streamlining their product listing and promotion processes. This aligns with Pinterest’s broader push to integrate direct shopping options, including product catalogs, automated ‘Shop the Look’ Pins and the coming addition of ‘Complete the Look’ listings, which will recommend complementary products based on automated matching. These new partnerships will help Pinterest build upon this, and continue its ongoing growth strategy.  

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Facebook’s Working on a New ‘Preview’ Option for Page Posts

Facebook is currently testing a new ‘Preview’ option for Page posts which would enable you to see what your update is going to look like before you hit ‘Share’. The option could help Facebook Page admins to better manage their posts and output, ensuring that what they aim to publish, and what actually appears, match up. It would also help highlight errors and mistakes before they happen – if you get into the habit of checking the preview, you’ll be able to catch errors and/or formatting problems before you go live, which could help reduce clumsy looking slip-ups. Of course, you can already do this, in large part, via the existing Page publishing tools – if you schedule a post, you can view it from your scheduled list and see what it’s going to look like to your Page fans. But if you’re publishing live, you’ll often skip that step. This would enable you to maintain awareness of how your posts are going to look in all instances.

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