Krista Neher

May 06 2019

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Facebook News Updates

• Facebook F8 Event – Facebook announced a number of updates to the platform at their annual conference. The biggest changes are a focus on communities (groups and events). They also announced a complete redesign coming in 2019 (the biggest in 5 years) that should also address privacy and security concerns. Messenger will also focus more on family and friends.
• Strong Q1 Results – Despite what some may think, Facebook ad revenue continues to grow (26%) and users *Daily active and monthly active* are both growing by 8%.
• Ad manager refresh and new bid cap – Facebook will launch and rollout a new interface for Ads Manager and Business Manager. They also introduced a new bid type to maximize for volume – cost cap.
• Facebook Algo Update – Mostly impacting low quality content or offensive content and requiring groups to better moderate content.
• Facebook Adds Brand Safety to Audience Network – The Audience Network shows your ads on news sites off of Facebook (it is a default placement when you run Facebook ads unless you deselect it). To prevent your ads from being seen around questionable content, Facebook now has three default levels of safety to protect your reputation.
• How Facebook Deals with Problematic Content – Facebook increased transparency around how they deal with problematic content on the site (think fake news or other content issues). Their process is centered around removing content that violates standards, reducing the visibility of content that is problematic but not a violation, and informing people with additional information.
• Facebook Integrates 3D Photos in More Places – They can now be shared in Stories and as Updates. This more interactive photo format can make your content stand out in the newsfeed and drive more dwell time.
• What’sApp to have payment and commerce – Facebook announced that these new features will come to What’sApp for business including a catalog feature. This shows where Facebook is focusing (private communications and monetization) and may be worth thinking about for your business.

Instagram News Updates

• F8 Announcement – Facebook will focus on more camera features and reduce the prominence of likes to increase the quality of the platform and reduce the focus on vanity metrics.
• Poll Sticker now in Stories – The new poll sticker for stories makes them even more interactive. 
• #Ad on Instagram grew 42% – This shows that influencer marketing (and disclosing it) is growing in importance.
• Instagram is the Best Place to Target Teens – They prefer to interact with brands there and shop there.

Twitter News Updates

• Twitter Launches Hide Replies – It isn’t committed to the feature, but in June businesses will be able to hide replies that don’t contribute to the conversation. They won’t be removed but will be more difficult to find.
• Twitter Q1 Results – Users are growing (although very slowly) and ad revenues are up. A separate study showed 80% of all Tweets are generated by 10% of users.

SnapChat News

• Snapchat Announced AR – SnapChat announced a new app called “scan” that brings AR into image and video sharing. Using advanced technology they can incorporate AR experiences directly into images making them even more fun and creative. These images are pretty cool and it wouldn’t be surprising if Facebook and Instagram launch this functionality soon.

Pinterest News Updates

• Pinterest Launches Conversions Features for Promoted Pins and Videos – Pinterest is a powerful shopping advertising platform, and by allowing advertisers to optimize for conversions (and not just clicks) it now has the ability to be a major player in the shopping advertising space.

LinkedIn News Updates

• LinkedIn gives SEO Tips for Pages – If you want your company Page to rank in searches, check out these tips from LinkedIn. Basically use keywords in the most prominent places and complete your information.
• Document Sharing Rolled Out – All Members, Groups and Pages can now share documents and PDFs providing more robust content on the platform.
• Schedule Meetings Easily in LinkedIn Messenger – LinkedIn now makes it easy to share availability and locations directly in messenger, with the hopes that people will use it to more easily set meetings.
• LinkedIn Launches 4 New Reaction Buttons – Love, Curious, Insightful, and Celebrate join the Like button and are being rolled out on LinkedIn.

Search News Updates

• AMP Stories Get Prominence in Search Results – New Google AMP stories will be shown toward the top of mobile search results. These stories don’t expire after 24 hours and can be linked to. This also shows the stories format is gaining even more traction.
• Want to Know what SEOs are Charging – This new (very detailed) report shows what agencies and freelancers are charging. This is an interesting benchmark for SEO and other services as well.
• Google Shows More Images in Web Search Results – This means that images should be a clear part of your search strategy.

Digital Advertising News Updates

• Bing Ads is now Microsoft Ads – The rebranding signals Microsoft combining resources.
• Reddit has $100M in Ad Revenues – And over 35 million active users, making it a platform worth considering to reach your audience.

Industry News and Research

• Top Priorities for CMOs – When it comes to digital, CMOs are focused on improving processes & capabilities, finding new revenue sources and generating more customer conversion/lifetime value.
• Creative Commons Search Engine – You can now search directly in the Creative Commons database for images that you are free to use with attribution or other requirements, making it easier to find and attribute images.
• 72% of Consumers Used Voice Search from a Home Device – This shows that voice search will become more important as marketers struggle with how to deal with limited results in the medium.
• Privacy Scandals Haven’t Impacted Social Media Usage – Despite the narrative, the privacy issues have not actually impacted behavior.

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