Daily Minute Master Series – October 24, 2019

Social Media

Zuckerberg Faces US Congress on Libra, Privacy and More

This week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was put to the test on Libra before the US House Financial Services Committee. And while Zuckerberg’s testimony was primarily focused on Libra, Zuckerberg also faced questions about a range of other issues related to Facebook and its operations. Zuckerberg explained that Facebook’s cryptocurrency would “extend America’s financial leadership, as well as our democratic values and oversight around the world.” Zuckerberg explained to the House that Chinese-backed groups are looking to extend services like AliPay into new regions, essentially forming their own, separate currency that would be controlled by the Chinese government. Zuckerberg framed Libra as something of a defender against this, but the representatives seemed less than convinced about the viability of a Facebook-controlled payment and banking system. Essentially, Facebook still seems to have a way to go in convincing the House, and others, that it can be trusted with people’s money. And it now seems increasingly likely that this will cause a delay in the planned launch of Libra in 2020.  

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LinkedIn Rolls Out New Format for its ‘Daily Rundown’ Professional News Updates

LinkedIn is looking for more ways to facilitate discussion, and get professionals connecting over key topics. LinkedIn has this week announced that it’s making some changes to its Daily Rundown professional news listings, which users can opt-in to, in order to be sent a key business news overview each day. The idea here is to get more LinkedIn users conversing around the latest trending topics, by connecting you through to key conversations. LinkedIn’s dedication to human-powered moderation has seen it produce a more beneficial, focused stream of news updates than other, algorithm-defined listings. LinkedIn has more capacity for benefit in this regard, as professional news stories are less likely to verge into divisive, politically-influenced topics, but clearly, based on the engagement stats, there is a need for a level of human intervention to ensure such listings remain focused and relevant. 

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Marketing

Google Ads Rolls Out 2 New Tools for Responsive Search Ads

Google is introducing two new tools for responsive search ads, which are now available to all advertisers in all languages. In addition, responsive search ads can now be set up from Google Ads Editor, the Google Ads API, and the mobile app. Google recommends getting started by adding at least one responsive search ad and two expanded text ads per group. Other Google-recommended best practices include monitoring ad strength, and pairing smart bidding with responsive search ads.

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Survey: 97% of online adults transact with businesses they find on Yelp

Almost all (97%) of online adults spend money with businesses they find on Yelp, according to a Yelp-commissioned study conducted by SurveyMonkey, And 93% of people using Yelp compare businesses before making a buying decision. Yelp cites both the 2016 and 2019 studies to argue that Yelp is the “most influential and trustworthy” site to find a local business, beating out “Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor and HomeAdvisor.” However, Google now has considerably more reviews than both Facebook and Yelp. According to an independent study by FreshChalk, Yelp shows up in the top five results for 92% of local queries on Google consisting of a city and vertical category. So it remains a critical directory for ranking in addition to its high purchase intent use case. The company is has been busy this year rolling out new products and features (e.g., personalization) to differentiate from Google and to diversify revenues away from advertising alone.

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