Social Media
Facebook Rolls Out Facebook Pay to the US, Expanding On-Platform Payments
Facebook has announced the roll-out of Facebook Pay to US users, which will facilitate on-platform payments, in-stream, making it easier for people to buy products on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Initially, Facebook Pay will be available as a payment option for fundraisers, in-game purchases, event tickets, person-to-person payments, purchases from select Pages using Facebook Checkout and businesses on Facebook Marketplace. Facebook says that it hopes to expand Facebook Pay to more people and places, including use across Instagram and WhatsApp, over time. Even without Libra, Facebook is able to move ahead with its payment tools, and that could open up a whole new world of opportunities for businesses. Instagram, for example, launched Instagram Checkout with selected partners earlier in the year. Facebook is taking extra care to ensure that people are aware of the safety measures it has in place, while it’s also moving to distance Facebook Pay from the Libra project.
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Instagram Goes After TikTok with New ‘Reels’ Mode
Instagram has launched a new feature which aims to replicate the key functionality of rising app TikTok. But rather than taking on parent-company Facebook’s usual tactic of launching a separate app, Instagram is adding its new ‘Reels’ feature as an element within Instagram Stories, using the app’s scale to try and beat TikTok at its own game – and blunt its potential to take away younger users. Reels will enable users to create short videos which can be shared and remixed – just like TikTok. Those videos can include music, utilizing Facebook’s expanding music library, while Reels also includes a range of creative editing options, like variable playback speed and ‘ghosting’ which enables users to create more seamless scene transitions. The new mode, which will initially only be available to users in Brazil, will be available within the Stories Camera.
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Facebook Expands its ‘Breaking News’ Tags to More Regions
Facebook has this week announced that it’s going to give more publishers in even more regions access to its ‘Breaking News’ post tags. Facebook says that its breaking news tags will now be made available to selected publishers in Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Facebook will also give more publishers in regions where the tags are already available access to the tool. The expansion of Facebook’s Breaking News labeling may also link into the roll-out of Facebook’s dedicated News tab, which is now being tested among selected users in the US.
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Marketing
Google Adds Local Ad Options Ahead of the Holidays, Including Google Maps Listings
Google is rolling out three new local ad tools to help businesses reach consumers within their vicinity. First off, Google is adding a new way to showcase your store locations in Google Maps with business icons and markers highlighted when people conduct a local search. In addition to this, Google is also adding new catalog-like listings to Display Network ads. The option expands your opportunity to connect with audiences through Google’s Display Network, showcasing more of your products with a mini-website like feed, in-stream. And lastly, Google’s adding more options to list your local store pick-up options within Local Inventory Ads. Local Inventory Ads highlight your product and store information to nearby shoppers via search – you can read more about the option here.
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Daily Minute Master Series – November 25, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook’s Testing a New ‘Favorites’ Friend Listing for Facebook Stories
Facebook is reportedly testing out a new option which would enable users to share their Facebook and Messenger Stories with smaller, selected groups of friends, as opposed to all of their connections. The option would provide a new ‘Favorites’ list option for you to share your Stories to. Tap on the Favorites listing and you would be able to select users to include on the list. That seems to align more with the broader usage of Stories as a more private option – the format originated from Snapchat, where communication with your closest connections is the focus. There’s no word on any official release, or how the functionality would work (for example, could those on that initial ‘Favorites’ list then re-share the story from their profiles?), but it could be another element to watch in 2020 as a potential addition to your Stories strategy.
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Facebook Removes Option to Add Friends to Live-Stream Broadcasts
Facebook is shutting down its live-stream with friends feature, which it launched back in 2017. Live with friends never seemed like a major focus for Facebook Live, but Facebook Live in general seems to have de-prioritized somewhat after that initial boom. Which, as noted, may be a trend among the live-stream function altogether, as users move onto other elements, like Stories, and increasingly, messaging. Part of the problem with streaming has actually been in creating good content. Yes, it’s cool to be able to broadcast yourself to your connections whenever you want, but actually creating quality, entertaining live-stream videos, on a consistent basis, is hard, and not everyone can do it. Given that Facebook’s retiring the option, it would suggest that it largely won’t be missed, but it did provide another angle to Facebook Live streams, and lessened the burden of being consistently entertaining in your own right.
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Marketing
Gmail app adds AMP for Email support for Android and iOS
Google has announced that the Gmail app for Android and iOS will be rolling out support for AMP for Email, the dynamic content feature that allows users to interact directly within emails. The update is available to all G Suite editions and will be set to “on” by default. Users viewing emails through a third-party app will receive a static version of the email. Serving dynamic emails allows marketers to extend the lifetime of their brands’ emails. Marketers who take advantage of AMP for Email can keep their customers up-to-date without sending redundant emails by including dynamic content like the status of an e-commerce order. It also allows recipients to take actions such as unsubscribing without having to leave the body of the email. With the Gmail app now supporting dynamic content, marketers have the opportunity to deliver engaging mobile experiences that don’t require the recipient to open another app or browser.
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Google Ads to Provide More Data on the Performance of Smart Bidding
Google Ads will provide advertisers with more transparency into the performance of smart bidding strategies. In the bid strategy report, advertisers can now view the top bidding signals that are driving the success of their ad campaign. The bid strategy report may also include combinations of the above signals. For example, the report may show that people are more likely to convert when searching for the keyword “business” in Los Angeles on a Saturday. Top bidding signals will be viewable for campaigns using Target CPA and Maximize conversions on Search. Support for Target ROAS and Maximize conversion value will be available at a later date.
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Daily Minute Master Series – November 22, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Twitter Rolls Out Option to Hide Tweet Replies to All Users
After months of testing, Twitter has now announced that is new ‘Hide Replies’ option will be rolled out to all users globally. You’ll now have the option to remove any tweet replies, and better control your tweet engagement. When you do choose to remove a reply, your tweet will get a small page-type icon in the bottom right corner. Any user will be able to tap on that icon and get a full list of replies which have been hidden, which means that it’s not a block, as such, but a means to keep the conversation on track, and remove abusive and/or unnecessary replies. That could prove to be a particularly beneficial process, as it can help to highlight unacceptable tweet behavior, and maybe make others re-think similar approaches. In many ways, it’s just a first step, but providing additional control over your on-platform experience will be beneficial many users, and could help clean-up and improve overall discourse within the app.
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Facebook Considers Changes to its Political Ads Policy
As you may have heard, Facebook’s decision not to subject political ads to fact-checking has caused a lot of concern, in various sectors. With The Social Network rolling out a range of measures to stop potential misuse of its platforms by politically-affiliated groups in the wake of the 2016 US Presidential Election, its decision to allow lies in political ads in the coming campaign seems at odds with such efforts. Add to that the fact that every other digital platform – including Google, which this week announced its own political ad restrictions – now either doesn’t accept political ads or subjects them to fact-checking, and you can see why the pressure would be on the world’s largest digital platform to re-think its stance. Facebook could still do more. Facebook could still subject political ads to fact-checks, it could add in new labeling to signify such, or it could, as Twitter has done, just stop selling political ads. There’s nothing official as yet, but expect to see Facebook’s political ads policy change within the next few months.
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Facebook to pull location from ad set when creating new Lookalike audiences
Facebook is testing the removal of the location field that advertisers use to create Lookealike audiences – Facebook’s tool for reaching new audiences based on how they compare to existing customers. In the test, Lookalike audiences use locations from ad sets – eliminating one extra step in the targeting setup process. For brands that target audiences across multiple geographic locations, inputting locations to build a lookalike audience can be a time-consuming and duplicative effort. Pulling location data from ad sets can help advertisers speed up the Lookalike setup process and reduce the potential of missing a key target location.
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Marketing
Google Ads intros ‘restricted data processing’ capability for CCPA compliance
Google will offer restricted data processing to enable businesses to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the company announced Wednesday. With restricted data processing enabled, Google will act as an affected business’ (advertiser, publisher or partner) data processing service provider. Restricted data processing, Google explained, will “restrict how it uses certain unique identifiers, and other data processed in the provision of services to you, to only undertake certain business purposes.” Similar to the EU’s General Data Regulation Protection (GDPR), the CCPA provides several data privacy protections for California state residents. It is set to go into effect on January 1, 2020. Affected businesses must give California residents the ability to opt-out of the sale of their personal data on their website homepages. With restricted data processing applied, features such as adding users to remarketing lists, similar audience seed lists will not be available. Google notes that for App campaigns this means users who download an app from an ad will continue to see ads for the app. If your business falls under CCPA, you’ll want to be sure you’re adhering to the regulations across your digital marketing efforts. Given the size of California’s population, this regulation will have an impact on the ability of those businesses to retarget and build lookalike audiences based on site visitors and customers on a potentially sizable percentage of their potential audience (California represents 12% of the U.S. population).
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Daily Minute Master Series – November 21, 2019
/by Corey PadveenMarketing
Google’s ‘Duplex on the web’ enables the Assistant to buy movie tickets for you
Google is making it possible to use the Assistant (via Duplex) to buy movie tickets online. Back in May at Google I/O, the company announced that it was expanding the AI-powered Duplex beyond restaurant reservations to booking rental cars and buying movie tickets. Called “Duplex on the web,” users will be able to use the Google Assistant for new reservations and purchase categories. Movies is the latest example. Android users in the U.S. or U.K. can ask the Assistant for movie showtimes or search movies in the Google app. The Assistant will then lead searchers through a “buy tickets” process that involves theater selection, movie times and, if available, seat selection. A saved payment card needs to be in Chrome to work in this case. Google has now talked repeatedly about “helping users get things done in search and with the Google Assistant. This is about making search more transactional and owning the transaction. Google is doing this in shopping and across the board in local (e.g., food ordering). If these capabilities (i.e., Duplex on the web) take off, publishers and brands will need to be partnered or integrated with Google actions/services or risk losing the transaction to a competitor. It will also mean that Google owns the customer.
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Google Adds Nielsen TV Data to Reach Planner to Better Optimize Video Campaigns
Last year, Google launched its Reach Planner tool which provides estimates for YouTube ad campaign reach and performance based on a range of metrics and inputs. Now Google’s looking to improve its comparison tools by adding in TV reach data from Nielsen, in order to provide insight into how ad spend on both TV and YouTube can impact campaign reach. Now, with comparative TV and YouTube data on one screen, advertisers will be able to identify optimal targeting and reach options to achieve their desired goals. Obviously not all advertisers will benefit from this, as not all are running TV ads, but for those who are using online and traditional TV campaigns, the comparative data could provide significant insight, and help to optimize reach.
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Social Media
Facebook Adds New Options for Brands to Control Ad Placements
Facebook has announced a new set of brand safety tools which will enable businesses to better control where their ads appear across Facebook’s various ad delivery networks. Facebook is adding a new, dedicated section within Business Manager/Ads Manager where brands can create block lists, get delivery reports and set account-level inventory filters (as opposed to having to apply them one campaign at a time). Facebook is also looking to give advertisers the capacity to white-list the types of content they appear on for in-stream video ads. The new measures will provide additional assurance for advertisers, enabling them to avoid any concerning associations, while also improving targeting options to their focus audiences. Facebook also notes that while it has a zero-tolerance approach for harmful content on its platforms, “that doesn’t mean zero occurrence”. Given that some content can slip through the cracks, additional measures like this will provide advertisers with more options to manage their ad placements, and maintain greater awareness of the same.
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Twitter Adds New ‘Conversation Insights’ to Media Studio
Twitter has added a new ‘Conversation Insights’ element to its Media Studio tool, which provides more specific data on your tweet mentions, who’s mentioning you, and filters to provide additional information on the types of accounts engaging with your profile. You can filter the tweet timelines by follower and engagement thresholds, language, Tweet format, and verification status, helping you locate more influential and region-specific mentions. Twitter’s also planning to add in the capacity to engage with Tweets, share them, or even reply directly from the Conversation Insights page sometime in future.
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Daily Minute Master Series – November 20, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Instagram’s Testing a Display New Layout for IGTV Content
As discovered by reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, Instagram is still working on new ways to get more people engaging with IGTV content. Instagram is working on a new format for IGTV content which would switch your main feed into a vertical scrolling list, leading you through to the next video in stream. Instagram’s also looking to add categories into your IGTV discovery listings – for comparison. IGTV seemingly hasn’t taken off as Instagram might have hoped as yet, but with Snapchat’s original programming seeing big viewer numbers this year, you can bet that Instagram will be looking to give IGTV another push in 2020, which this new discovery format could play a part in. With younger viewers becoming more attuned to short-form, episodic content online, IGTV seems well-placed to potentially capitalize on this. Whether that happens or not is another thing entirely.
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Snapchat Says Political Ads on its Platform Are Fact-Checked, Adding to Debate
Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel has said that his platform fact-checks all ads, including those from political candidates, adding even more fuel to the ongoing debate. That seems like a logical stance to take, though as Facebook has repeatedly noted, there are a lot of gray areas in such calculations. Where do you draw the line on misinformation? An obvious untruth is easy for people to pick out, but what about a claim like ‘President Trump has improved the American economy and created millions of jobs’. Is that true? It is and it isn’t in varying measure, and it’s more nuanced claims like this – from politically-affiliated groups in the US, and in every other nation where these platforms operate – that can make such processes difficult to enforce in a fair and measured way.
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Marketing
Google brings audio news aggregation to smart speakers, phones
Google has launched what it calls “Your News Update,” an audio news feed that you access through the Google Assistant. Sources, which Google paid to license, include ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, AP, Politico, USAToday and many others — though apparently not NPR. Users need to set up the audio feed as a news playlist, through the Google Assistant app. News aggregation is a mixed blessing for publishers. It can deliver traffic, branding and (some) monetization but for some it can also reinforce usage of the aggregation site, rather than drive traffic to the source. In the past few years Google has been trying to build appealing consumer news products, while also boosting traffic and revenue for publishers.
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Google testing car rental comparison ad unit in search results
Google is testing a sponsored widget for car rentals in the search results. The ad unit allows users to enter the kind of rental they’re looking for, along with the dates needed. Ads appear below with offers from car rental agencies, including the day rate and car model. The example above shows offers from Priceline and Thrifty. The sponsored car rental widget puts a comparison function at (or near) the top of the page and could conceivably drive higher engagements than individual listings and ads. Currently, car rental search results typically include a number of text ads followed by a local pack. Google runs similar sponsored widgets for Flights and Hotels in the search results. As far as I’m aware, this is the first foray into a special program for car rentals. Presumably, as with Hotels, Flights and Shopping ads, the car rental offers are powered by data feeds. It’s also another example of Google enabling users to research and take actions from right within the search results.
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Daily Minute Master Series – November 19, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
TikTok Reaches 1.5 Billion Downloads, Seeks to Distance Itself from Chinese Government Links
According to the latest data from Sensor Tower, the short video app has now exceeded 1.5 billion downloads worldwide, making it the third most downloaded, non-gaming app of the year (after WhatsApp and Messenger). US growth is good, but India, with over 1.3 billion total citizens, and a rapidly growing digital economy, may be even better for the app’s longer-term future – if TikTok becomes the must-have app among younger Indian users, that will set it up for huge success, and huge advertising potential in that market. TikTok’s also experimenting with social commerce links and new ad types which could expand on its potential for brands and businesses. There’s a lot to like for social media marketers, and TikTok could well be for real, and could be set for a major rise in 2020. 2020 could be the year for TikTok, and if it continues its rise in India, it could well be on track to become the next big social platform – and as such, getting in now and establishing a presence may be of some benefit. Or it could stumble and fall back.
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Snapchat Adds Extended Mid-Roll Video Ad Option
Snapchat is giving advertisers more room to tell their stories in mid-roll video ads by expanding the time limit for its video ads to three minutes. According to AdWeek, Snapchat users will still be able to skip the mid-roll video ads after six seconds, but advertisers will be able to use the option for longer video messaging, in order to keep those viewers who are interested engaged. Snap says that the option will provide more capacity for advertisers to utilize their existing video assets, rather than having to cut them down to six seconds, which may provide more opportunity for cross-promotion and engagement. Capitalizing on that increased interest will be a key focus for Snap in 2020, and you can expect the platform to launch new original programming and additional ad formats in line with usage trends.
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Marketing
Google Maps becomes more ‘social’ with Local Guides follow feature
Google’s Local Guides program has more than 120 million members in 24,000 locations globally. They are a largely invisible but indispensable part of the Google Maps experience, providing reviews, images and other content as well as answering questions (Q&A) about local businesses and places. Now the Guides are about to become more visible. Maps users in a number of cities will soon be able to follow Local Guides and see local recommendations of places and things to do. For You is essentially a local discovery feed, like other Google content feeds. It’s not clear how widely used it is; Google hasn’t released any data to my knowledge. When users follow a Local Guide, they’ll see that person’s recommendations. This essentially mirrors the local business follow feature in Google My Business and the lesser-known follow Lists feature in Maps, which lives under “Your Places.” Google has made numerous attempts to build social networks or social products over the years, most visibly Google+. All have essentially failed, unless you consider YouTube a social network. Now Google is layering social features into successful, established products. But will those features be adopted? That’s the relevant question.
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Shutterstock’s new music subscription offers affordable music licensing for content creators
Shutterstock has launched an unlimited music subscription plan for content creators and digital marketers, offering more than 11,000 tracks that can be included in web-based content, including YouTube videos, podcasts and conference presentations. The subscription fee is $149 per month, and includes access to the Shutterstock Music library with music tracks searchable by genre, mood or popularity. The company says its music selection has been curated by professional musicians, with hundreds of tracks added every month. This latest offering from Shutterstock gives digital marketers and content creators the ability to spice up their content — putting a professional shine on things like podcast intros, YouTube ads or conference and trade show presentations. At $149 per month, it’s a cost-effective feature for marketers lacking the budget and resources to invest in high-end music productions for various projects.
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Daily Minute Master Series – November 18, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook releases several ad personalization capabilities
Facebook is bringing more machine learning-driven capabilities to its ads platform to improve personalization, the company announced this week. Advertisers will now be able to automatically serve different ad formats to audiences based on the machine learning model’s prediction of a user’s format preference. Campaign managers can access this capability from the Facebook Dynamic Ad unit when creating ads for the catalog sales, traffic and conversions objectives in Ads Manager or the API. Facebook has also rolled out a responsive ad feature that allows advertisers to input multiple text options for the primary text, headline and description fields when building single-media ads for traffic, app installs, and conversions objectives. In Ads Manager, advertisers can now add different languages to be auto-translated for international audiences. For smaller organizations, creating highly personalized content can be challenging if time and resources are limited. By leveraging machine learning to dynamically select ad formats, creative, and text on the ad impression-level, advertisers can more efficiently deliver campaigns that reach the right audience, at the right time, with less effort.
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Twitter Releases New Political Ad Policy Following Announcement of Ban on Political Ads
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was heavily praised last month when he announced, in no uncertain terms, that Twitter would ban all political advertising on its platform. First off, Twitter says that it will prohibit the promotion of political content. Twitter has also launched a new ad category called ‘Cause-based advertising’. Under its ’cause based’ banner, Twitter will allow for restricted promotion of ads. These ads cannot be used to “drive political, judicial, legislative, or regulatory outcomes”, and advertisers will need to be certified to run such promotions. Twitter will also limit the targeting capacity of any such ads. Additionally, news publishers who meet Twitter’s exemption criteria will be allowed to run ads that reference political content and/or prohibited advertisers under its political content policy, “but may not include advocacy for or against those topics or advertisers”. So publishers can promote their coverage of the news, but not opinion pieces which advocate for a specific political angle.
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Pinterest Expands Self-Help Tools, Outlines Improvements in Detection of Self-Harm Content
After first launching its self-help tools to assist those searching for terms related to mental health concerns back in July, Pinterest has this week expanded its self-help assistance exercises to cover more types of potential health problems, including depression and self-harm. The exercises provide tips on how to deal with such issues by re-directing energy into things like “starting a journal and rereading it a few days later to get some perspective on your thoughts”. The exercises themselves have been formulated in partnership with The Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation, Vibrant Emotional Health and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Pinterest does note that these activities are not intended to replace professional care, but they may provide quick assistance to those in need via the platform. As social platforms continue to play a larger role in our interactive process, especially among younger generations, it’s critical that such efforts get more focus, and that automated detection systems continue to improve in order to help people trying to best manage such distress.
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Marketing
Redesigned Microsoft Advertising Editor now available
The latest version of Microsoft Advertising Editor has an updated look and some new features designed to make it easier to use. The redesign coincides with a new look for the web interface that’s rolling out. Microsoft is testing showing several types of AI-powered recommendations in Editor. The recommendations, which can include suggestions such as to add new keywords, set estimated mainline bids and fix ad groups without ads or keywords, are noted with a lightbulb icon. This update will still feel familiar (the editor pane is still at the bottom of the screen rather than on the right side as it is in the updated Google Ads Editor). There are also several additional updates: Zipcode targeting, responsive search ads (RSAs), price extensions and dynamic search ad descriptions and longer titles are all now supported in Microsoft Advertising Editor.
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Daily Minute Master Series – November 14, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Releases New Overview of Content Removals, Fake Profiles and Enforcements
The Social Network has this week released its latest Community Standards Enforcement Report, which outlines all the content removals and actions it’s taken as a result of posted material that breaks its established rules. Facebook says that it has significantly improved its detection methods, enabling it to remove more content than ever. It’s also improving its capacity to detect content which violates its rules around child nudity and the exploitation of children. This, in particular, is a key area for Facebook, and it’s good to see ongoing improvement in its automated detection systems – which, ideally, will also save manual, human moderators from having to view such content. Also, while its systems for detecting fake accounts have improved, the number of fake accounts on the platform has ramped up in recent months. Facebook also estimates that around 5% of its user base is still made up of fake profiles. With more activist groups looking to use the platform to spread their messaging, this remains a key area of concern.
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LinkedIn Brings Back Option to Invite Connections to Follow a Company Page
LinkedIn is re-introducing an option which will enable Page admins to invite their connections to follow their LinkedIn Company Page. The feature was apparently available some years back, but was removed due to spam, then it got re-introduced as an option in May this year. Then it was removed again – but now, according to reports relayed via social media expert Matt Navarra, it’s coming back once again, with all company pages set to have access to the option by next month. There are a few restrictions on its use which may help limit overenthusiastic invites. With these restrictions in place, it could be a beneficial addition, and another way to grow your LinkedIn company page audience. We would definitely advise that you use it with caution, and in a targeted away – and no doubt you are going to get some super keen admins flinging random invitations your way as a result.
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Marketing
Google starts new Search Console training series on YouTube
Today at SMX East, Daniel Wasiberg a Search Advocate at Google, announced a new YouTube series aimed at training users on how to get the most out of using Google Search Console. The series covers everything from the basics, such as getting started, verifications, reports and settings. The series will go through how to monitor your site traffic, fix numerous issues reported by Search Console, as well as help searchers find your web site on Google search. Google Search Console offers a critical set of tools that should be mastered by everyone in the SEO space. It should also be a toolset used by developers, webmasters, publishers and site owners. This video series should help everyone learn more about how to use Google Search Console through tips and advice from a Googler, Daniel Waisberg, who not only gets search but deeply understand analytics and the publishing world.
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Reviews platform GatherUp acquired by martech holding company ASG
In a transaction announced Thursday morning, reputation and reviews platform GatherUp has been acquired by Alpine SG Partners (ASG), a SaaS holding company. GatherUp began as GetFiveStars in 2013 and rebranded in September 2018 to reflect a broader focus on the customer experience in addition to review monitoring and management. ASG already owns Grade.us, a similar reputation management platform but which serves slightly different audiences. Reputation is an explicit part of the Google local algorithm and something that all SMBs and enterprises alike must monitor and nurture. Consumers rely heavily on reviews across product and service categories to help make purchase decisions — so much that there’s been significant growth in review fraud across Google, Facebook and Amazon. Reviews and customer feedback are also at the core of the broader notion of “customer experience” management. It will be interesting to see how the “reviews space” evolves and potentially combines with other forms of customer analysis and machine learning in the next phase of local marketing and commerce development.
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Daily Minute Master Series – November 13, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Rolls Out Facebook Pay to the US, Expanding On-Platform Payments
Facebook has announced the roll-out of Facebook Pay to US users, which will facilitate on-platform payments, in-stream, making it easier for people to buy products on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Initially, Facebook Pay will be available as a payment option for fundraisers, in-game purchases, event tickets, person-to-person payments, purchases from select Pages using Facebook Checkout and businesses on Facebook Marketplace. Facebook says that it hopes to expand Facebook Pay to more people and places, including use across Instagram and WhatsApp, over time. Even without Libra, Facebook is able to move ahead with its payment tools, and that could open up a whole new world of opportunities for businesses. Instagram, for example, launched Instagram Checkout with selected partners earlier in the year. Facebook is taking extra care to ensure that people are aware of the safety measures it has in place, while it’s also moving to distance Facebook Pay from the Libra project.
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Instagram Goes After TikTok with New ‘Reels’ Mode
Instagram has launched a new feature which aims to replicate the key functionality of rising app TikTok. But rather than taking on parent-company Facebook’s usual tactic of launching a separate app, Instagram is adding its new ‘Reels’ feature as an element within Instagram Stories, using the app’s scale to try and beat TikTok at its own game – and blunt its potential to take away younger users. Reels will enable users to create short videos which can be shared and remixed – just like TikTok. Those videos can include music, utilizing Facebook’s expanding music library, while Reels also includes a range of creative editing options, like variable playback speed and ‘ghosting’ which enables users to create more seamless scene transitions. The new mode, which will initially only be available to users in Brazil, will be available within the Stories Camera.
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Facebook Expands its ‘Breaking News’ Tags to More Regions
Facebook has this week announced that it’s going to give more publishers in even more regions access to its ‘Breaking News’ post tags. Facebook says that its breaking news tags will now be made available to selected publishers in Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Facebook will also give more publishers in regions where the tags are already available access to the tool. The expansion of Facebook’s Breaking News labeling may also link into the roll-out of Facebook’s dedicated News tab, which is now being tested among selected users in the US.
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Marketing
Google Adds Local Ad Options Ahead of the Holidays, Including Google Maps Listings
Google is rolling out three new local ad tools to help businesses reach consumers within their vicinity. First off, Google is adding a new way to showcase your store locations in Google Maps with business icons and markers highlighted when people conduct a local search. In addition to this, Google is also adding new catalog-like listings to Display Network ads. The option expands your opportunity to connect with audiences through Google’s Display Network, showcasing more of your products with a mini-website like feed, in-stream. And lastly, Google’s adding more options to list your local store pick-up options within Local Inventory Ads. Local Inventory Ads highlight your product and store information to nearby shoppers via search – you can read more about the option here.
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Daily Minute Master Series – November 12, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Adds Option to Control Your Navigation Bar Icons and Notifications
Over the last few days that Facebook has rolled out a change to its lower navigation bar, in order to better align the displayed icons with the on-platform functions which you actually use. TechCrunch has confirmed that this update also includes a new capacity to more easily change your listed icons, and get rid of those sometimes annoying red dot notifications on each. Aside from personal preferences, Facebook has also traditionally used the lower navigation bar to promote its latest options – like Facebook Watch or Marketplace. Now it seems that Facebook’s going to give more control back to users on this front, which could help it encourage more activity. Giving users more control over their shortcuts and notifications seems like a good move, and it’ll be interesting to see if the added personalization actually gets people tapping across to other areas within the app.
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Twitter Outlines Policy Plan for Identifying Deepfakes in Tweets
Twitter has now released its draft rules for handling such content on its platform, and addressing concerns with digitally manipulated content. Deepfakes have become a major focus for online providers in recent times, with both Google and Facebook also launching new research initiatives to help them detect and action the same. Twitter’s looking to get ahead of the game by ensuring that it has clear policies in place for dealing with deepfakes before they become a bigger concern. Right now, deepfakes – or digitally altered videos/images which appear to show a person doing or saying something they didn’t – seem to be more like a novelty, an interesting experiment, they don’t seem to be a major privacy or security issue. Research has shown that people will look to share content which supports their own beliefs, and will therefore be less likely to fact-check the same. While it doesn’t seem like a major issue right now, it’s clear that deepfakes will become a problem, which is why its good to see Twitter, along with Facebook and Google, moving to get ahead of it now.
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Marketing
DuckDuckGo joins World Wide Web Consortium
DuckDuckGo has joined the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the search engine announced on Monday. As a member of the international organization, DuckDuckGo says it will contribute to “global standards with privacy in mind as part of our mission to raise the standard of trust online.” The addition of a privacy-focused company, like DuckDuckGo, may influence the direction of future standards as well as future revisions of existing standards. More emphasis on privacy within future web standards may also mean less data for marketers that use vendors and platforms that adopt those standards.
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Chrome May Warn Users of Slow Pages Before They Click
Google Chrome announced a plan to introduce badging as a way to encourage publishers to improve site speed. Google proposed a contextual menu on links that will tell users, before they click, that a site is slow. The goal is to reward fast sites. According to Google, the purpose of the badging is to “reward” fast sites and to warn users of slow sites as a way to provide value to them. A warning about a slow site experience before a user clicks through may cause users to abandon the click and opt for the faster loading site. Page speed has always been important. From the earliest days of the Internet it was known that faster pages converted at higher rates. A fast loading site is important regardless of anything Google does.
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Daily Minute Master Series – November 11, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Instagram Will Begin Hiding Total Like Counts for US Users from Next Week
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri announced that the platform will be extending its test of hiding total like counts to users in the US. Instagram’s hidden like counts test has sparked much debate in the social media industry, with some seeing it as a major win for platform health, and others questioning the impacts it will have on engagement, influencer marketing, etc. While the test has been active for some five months, we still don’t have any data from Instagram as to how platform usage has or hasn’t changed as a result, nor do we have any insight as to what the platform is looking as a measure of success for the now expanding test. The fact that Instagram is expanding the test to American users would suggest that it is generating results, but what those results are exactly, and what their extended impacts will be, we don’t know as yet.
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Twitter’s Testing a New Option Which Would Enable You to Switch Accounts in Tweet Replies
Twitter is testing out a new option which would enable you to switch accounts within the tweet reply process, making it easier to manage multiple account interactions on the go. Some users have noted that the functionality has been available to them for some time, while others are not seeing it. We don’t have any word on who, exactly, has access to the reply switching option at this stage. But what’s interesting about that is that Twitter has been looking to add various TweetDeck-only features into the main app in recent times. Just last month it was reported that Twitter has been testing out advanced search filters based on engagement into the main app, which is already possible through TweetDeck. By adding more advanced tools into the main app, Twitter could improve its overall functionality, which could provide a significant boost for social media managers who are looking to action things on the go.
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Facebook Launches Military and Veterans Hub to Improve Digital Skills for Those Who Serve
Facebook has launched a new resource hub to help military members and veterans in improving digital literacy, and expanding their opportunities. Called the ‘Military and Veterans Hub’, the new mini-site will help those who serve to find job opportunities, enhance their digital skills, and provide online safety tips to improve their digital understanding. The mini-site aims to further Facebook’s connection with the military community – according to Facebook, more than 900,000 people in the US participate in more than 2,000 groups for military members, veterans and their spouses on Facebook. Facebook’s also looking to help military veterans expand their career opportunities, and translate their skills, with a new a 12-month career development pilot program focused on AR/VR for veterans with backgrounds in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or Computer Science. The announcement coincides with Veteran’s Day, and as noted, seeks to solidify the role that Facebook plays in connecting these groups.
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Marketing
Google’s John Mueller On Blocking Robots.txt Files From Being Indexed
Google’s John Mueller recently provided some advice on how to block robots.txt and sitemap files from being indexed in search results. Mueller said the x-robots-tag HTTP header can be used to block indexing of robots.txt or sitemap files. If you’re running into the problem where your robots.txt file is ranking in search results, blocking it using the x-robots-tag HTTP header is a good short-term solution. But if that’s happening then there are likely much larger issues to take care of in the long-term, as Mueller suggests.
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