Social Media

Snapchat Publishes New Data on How its Users are Responding to COVID-19

Snapchat has published a new update on how its users are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and its various impacts, providing insight into evolving habits, purchases, concerns, and more. The results come via in-app surveys, with varying levels of response (almost 2,000 users responded to one of the questions, but each saw different rates). As such, it’s a relatively small subset of Snap’s 229 million daily active users, but it does provide a window into how younger audiences view the pandemic.

For the full article click here

More Brands Join Campaign to Pause Facebook Ad Spend in July in Protest Over Policy Decisions

As more big-name brands join the campaign to pause their Facebook ad spend in July, in protest over The Social Network’s inaction to address hate speech on its platform, Facebook has admitted that it has a deepening ‘trust deficit’ with ad partners, which it will need to address. Last week, a coalition of civil rights groups launched a new campaign calling on major advertisers to pause their Facebook ad spend in order to send a message to the company that its lack of action on hate speech is not good enough.

For the full article click here

How Brands Can Leverage Instagram in a Work-From-Home Mode

Is Martha Stewart’s recent drunk-posting the best new Instagram PR strategy to get media coverage and engagement? Oops, maybe not for everyone. Although it is a timely reminder, on-point social media strategies are central to any effective public relations and marketing. With a large portion of the United States and beyond under shelter-at-home orders, it’s never been more true with all eyes online. Waving farewell to likes and hello to comments, it’s all about the engagement. Today’s Instagram for PR mode is all about vibrant community, cultural relevance, and visual expression.

For the full article click here

Marketing

Revisiting Outdated Brand Imagery Sends Powerful Message

Monitoring brand imagery and product name perception has always been important, but now it’s crucial. Here’s how a few CPG giants are making moves to reimagine their outdated brand imagery to recapture the hearts of today’s consumers.

For the full article click here

Apple Adds WebP, HDR Support, and More to Safari with iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur

Safari is getting great improvements this year with iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and macOS Big Sur. Apple shared a document this week detailing all the changes made to the Safari 14 Beta, which now includes WebP support, universal extensions, and more. One of the biggest changes this year is that Safari now supports the WebExtension API on macOS Big Sur. The WebExtension API is a cross-platform technology present in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and other browsers to offer cross-platform extensions.

For the full article click here

US Lawmakers are Investigating a Company that Sells People’s Phone Location Data to the FBI

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has opened an investigation into a data firm that sells people’s smartphone location data to government agencies. The company, Venntel, is facing scrutiny for the Democratic-led committee for its business of buying location data from various smartphone apps and selling that data to agencies including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. DHS used location data from Venntel to track down people who crossed the border into the US illegally, the Wall Street Journal reported in February.

For the full article click here