This week, Facebook publishes a reminder addressed to marketers and developers about new targeting restrictions coming into effect in September and YouTube is revamping manual content ID claiming policies after receiving numerous complaints from creators.
Also, Instagram follows in Snapchat’s footsteps again and opens AR filter creation tools to all users. Facebook is on a mission to help film studios promote new movies; LinkedIn provides more engagement insights; YouTube expands Super Chat creator payment option to more countries worldwide, Twitter wants users to follow interests instead of accounts and more.
Facebook: New Targeting Restrictions Come Into Effect Soon
Facebook is expanding its efforts to control discriminatory ad targeting by removing some targeting options in certain business categories.
Why it matters: The ultimate goal of the initiative is to prevent businesses from using Facebook ad tools to limit audiences in an unfair manner.
The company explained, “We’re committed to protecting people from discrimination on Facebook, and as part of this commitment, we announced changes earlier this year to all ads that offer housing, employment and credit opportunities. Advertisers, developers, and partners must specify whether or not their ads fall under either the category of housing, employment or credit. They can do so by selecting a Special Ad Category, and once a category is selected in Ads Manager or via the Marketing API, a limited set of targeting options will then be available.”
The details: Key dates to keep in mind:
- Sept. 16, 2019: Special Ad Category features will be made available, and developers should begin implementing the above changes ahead of time to avoid any interruptions.
- Dec. 4, 2019: All new campaigns must comply by this date, or these campaigns will no longer continue to run.
- Starting in 2020, advertisers and developers will be required to modify any ongoing campaigns that began prior to Dec. 4 to comply with the new requirements.
YouTube Updates Content ID Claim Policies
The video
Why it matters: The move promises to help reduce some of the most frustrating and unfair claims and relieve pressure on creators, as some publishers have been taking ad revenue from YouTube creators for the smallest of infringements.
“One concerning trend we’ve seen is aggressive manual claiming of very short music clips used in monetized videos. These claims can feel particularly unfair, as they transfer all revenue from the creator to the claimant, regardless of the amount of music claimed,” YouTube said in a blog post.
The company explained that going forward, the policies will forbid copyright owners from using YouTibe’s Manual Claiming tool to monetize creator videos with very short or unintentional uses of music. Per YouTibe, this change only impacts claims made with the Manual Claiming tool, where the rights holder is actively reviewing the video. Claims created by the Content ID match system, which are the vast majority, are not impacted by this policy.
Instagram Makes AR Filter Creation Tools Available To All Users
Instagram is making Spark AR filter creation platform open to all users and introducing a new user-created visual tools library.
Why it matters: The initiative provides more visual effect tools and creative opportunities to all Instagram users.
“Starting today, anyone can create and publish their own Spark AR effects on Instagram. We’re also introducing the new Effect Gallery, which will include niche AR effects from up-and-coming artists, making it easier for people to discover unique effects from the creator community,” the company said in a blog post.
The details: To access new effects, users need to find “Browse Effects” option, which now lives at the end of the effects tray in the Instagram Camera. They will be then taken to the library of audience-originated visual tools.
Facebook Will Help Film Studios Promote Their Latest Releases
The new Facebook ad units will remind the users when a movie comes out and help purchase tickets. This week, the company made movie reminder ads and showtime ads available to all studios in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Why it matters: Jen Howard, Facebook’s group director for entertainment and technology, told TechCrunch that the move should provide the Hollywood studios with a seamless way to connect their ads with movie ticket purchases. And said that it allows them to address “the full funnel” of viewer interest, and is “really starting to get them closer to a direct-to-consumer experience with moviegoers.”
The details: A movie reminder ad allows studios to include an “Interested” button in their Facebook ads, enabling users to opt-in to a notification when the film is released. The moviegoers then will get a reminder pointing them to a page with showtimes and ticket purchase options from Fandango and Atom Tickets on Friday before opening weekend.
The second ad unit, called a showtime ad, will help in a later stage of a marketing campaign, when the movie is already playing. The ads will feature a “Get Showtimes” button, designed to direct users to that same detail page with showtimes and ticket purchase links.
LinkedIn Offers New Engagement Insights
LinkedIn announced an expansion of the LinkedIn Partner Program–Audience Engagement and offered new engagement insights.
Why it matters: The new LinkedIn insights are designed to aid marketers in their efforts to improve content strategy and deliver better ROI for LinkedIn ad campaigns and organic posts.
The details: The new partners include Amobee, Annalect, Hootsuite, Ogilvy and Sprinklr. They’ve all integrated the LinkedIn Audience Engagement API to enable marketers to discover new audiences, produce more effective content that drives engagement and measure its performance against industry benchmarks.
Stefan Krepiakevich, VP, Alliances, Hootsuite said about the partnership, “As a strategic partner of LinkedIn, we are thrilled to be one of the first partners to have access to LinkedIn’s Audience Engagement API to deliver added value to our Hootsuite Impact customers. The added capabilities will enable Hootsuite Impact customers to discover new audiences to improve campaign targeting while increasing organic and paid performance on LinkedIn.”
YouTube Expands Super Chat Creator Payment Option To 19 More Regions
YouTube rolled out “Super Chat” live-stream tipping option, which provides an additional revenue stream for live-stream producers on the video sharing platform to more countries around the globe.
Why it matters: With “Super Chat,” live-stream viewers can pay to have their comment featured more in a chat stream and access to the option will provide additional opportunities for video creators worldwide.
The details: Originally, “Super Chat” was available to YouTube streamers in 40 countries, but now the program is expanded to additional 19 regions, including Belarus, South Africa and El Salvador.
Twitter Is Testing Topic Follow Feature
Per The Verge, users on Twitter will soon be able to follow topics and discover tweets about subjects of their interest inside the timeline.
Why it matters: The initiative in testing is a part of the social media company’s goal to apply personalization and help users discover the best content on the platform based on their interests.
The details: If implemented after testing, the option will enable users to follow topics including sports teams, celebrities and television shows, with selected tweets dedicated to them and inserted alongside tweets in their home feeds. Twitter will curate topics with the help of machine learning instead of editorial curation.
The feature is currently being tested on Android and only allows sports-related interests to be followed, Rob Bishop, a Twitter product manager told The Verge.
Facebook Responds To Evidence Allegation In Cambridge Analytica Data Case
Head of Facebook’s U.K. public policy, Rebecca Stimson’s letter, addressed to Parliament, pushed back against suggestions by Damian Collins, the head of the digital, culture, media and sport committee that Facebook provided inconsistent evidence to a U.K committee investigating the social giant’s role in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
Why it matters: Facebook executives were questioned by Collins about whether the company was transparent about when it first learned about issues with Cambridge Analytica, citing statements the social network made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and in ongoing litigation by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and Cook County, Ill. prosecutor Kim Foxx.
The details: Stimson said such a statement “is not the case” and also said Facebook first learned through media reports in December 2015 about “Aleksandr Kogan / GSR’s improper transfer of data to Cambridge Analytica.” Per Stimson, Facebook heard speculation about data scraping by Cambridge Analytica in September 2015, but didn’t learn Kogan had sold the data until December that year.
WordPress Acquires Tumblr From Verizon
Tumblr is being sold to WordPress for less than $3 million, The Drum reports.
Why it matters: Changes are ahead for the social media company, which was bought by Yahoo for $1.1 billion in 2013, and assimilated into the Verizon when it acquired Yahoo in 2017.
The details: According to The Drum, Tubmlr has lost almost a third of its traffic since all pornography and sexually explicit content was banned in 2018. Although it is still hosting over 450 million blogs, the platform remains unprofitable.
WordPress owner, Automattic, however, promised to maintain the porn ban and keep all 200 Tumblr employees.
Study Finds 28 Percent Of Marketers Have Trouble Delivering In-App Video
Mobile video software company Penthera conducted research which indicates that more than one-fourth (28 percent) of surveyed marketers struggle with delivering in-app video.
Why it matters: According to Mobile Marketer, in-application advertising is currently the fastest growing form of mobile advertising. In fact, United States app-install ad revenue is estimated to grow to more than $7 billion by the end of 2020.
The details: The biggest issues that marketers say they face in relation to in-app video are awareness (50 percent), low engagement (41 percent) and inadequate metrics (40 percent).
Facebook Approaches US News Outlets To Launch News Section
Facebook is reportedly taking a first big step towards launching a dedicated, “trusted” news section on the platform.
Why it matters: The move can be seen as a response to Facebook’s Trending News section failure last year. And before that, the Trending News listing became controversial in 2016 when suggestions that Facebook employees had manually amplified and/or suppressed stories in its Trending headlines were made.
The details: According to Wall Street Journal, Facebook offered news outlets “millions of dollars” for the rights to publish their content in a dedicated news section, which is planned for launch by the end of 2019.
“Representatives from Facebook have told news executives they would be willing to pay as much as $3 million a year to license headlines and previews of articles from news outlets,” WSJ reported.
Twitter To Allow Users To Subscribe To Replies
Twitter announced a new feature in testing, which will allow users to subscribe to replies of specific tweets.
Why it matters: The feature will make an addition to the already existing notifications feature for “must-follow” accounts and will help users follow conversations as they progresses on the platform with more ease.
The details: Now, when the users click the bell icon, they can choose three options: subscribe to the “top” replies, subscribe to all replies and turn reply notifications off.
According to the company, top replies will include those from the author, anyone they mentioned and people you follow.
Telegram Launches A Feature That Prevents Users From Texting Too Often
An instant messaging app, Telegram, introduced “Slow Mode,” a tool that aids group admins on the app in better controlling the members’ engagement.
Why it matters: Per Telegram, the new feature’s purpose is to make conversations in groups “more orderly” and to raise the “value of each individual message.” It suggested admins to “keep [the feature] on permanently, or toggle as necessary to throttle rush hour traffic.”
The details: Now group administrator are able to control how often a member can send a message in the group. In a group that chooses to use the tool, members who have sent a text will need to wait from 30 seconds to an hour before texting again.
Editor’s Note: Our weekly social media news post is updated daily. This installment will be updated until Friday, August 16th. Have a news tip? We’re looking for changes to and news surrounding social media platforms as they relate to marketing. Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.
