Category: Social
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What’s Loading in the Background When You Visit a Website?
Website tracking continues to spin out of control, collecting your data and repackaging it for sale. Sometimes what loads in the background can be helpful. Other times, providing data to site owners. And sometimes, it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s actually loading behind the scenes. Here’s a breakdown of what’s…
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Is Reddit Part of Your Content Mix?
Maybe it should be. Since Google cut a deal with Reddit, things have changed. According to Niklola Baldikov at Inbound Blogging, Reddit’s daily active users shot up to 97.2 million in 2024. That’s a 47% increase in case you’re keeping track. Some niche communities experienced a 937,700% surge in organic…
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Sick of AI Posts on Social Media? Just Wait.
Sick of AI posts on social media? Meta execs: hold my beer. Facebook and Instagram are rolling out products to create AI characters who live on the platform and interact. “We expect these AIs to actually exist on our platforms in the same way that (human) accounts do,” said Connor…
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Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Updates Endorsement Guides
The FTC has recently revised its endorsement guides for influencer marketing and online reviews, marking the first update since 2009. The objective of the guidance is to prevent deceptive practices in consumer reviews and paid endorsements that appear as genuine feedback. The FTC continues to emphasize the disclosure of “material…
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Facebook, Instagram to Block News in Canada Due to New Law
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has announced that it will block access to news articles on Facebook and Instagram in Canada. This decision comes after Canada passed the Online News Act, a new law that requires internet companies to pay news publishers for their content. Meta had initially protested against…
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FTC Calls Social Media a “Gold Mine for Scammers” and Investigating Advertiser Oversight
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken action against social media and video streaming companies to address the growing issue of fraud on their platforms. The commission has issued orders to eight companies, including Meta Platforms, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snap, Twitter, Pinterest, and Twitch Interactive, requesting information on their policies…
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Utah Social Media Act Restricts Use for Minors, Requires Parental Consent and Access
Utah Governor Spencer Cox has signed two bills into laws that restrict the use of social media platforms by children and places additional burdens on social media companies. The Utah Social Media Regulation Act requires platforms to verify the ages of all Utah residents. It also imposes a curfew between…
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Would You Pay for Social Media?
As social media companies look for ways to increase monetization of their platforms, considering charging fees for access keeps popping back up as an idea. Twitter launched a subscription service (Twitter Blue) that gives users a blue checkmark, edit tweets, and write longer posts. Facebook is launching Meta Verified subscriptions…
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Use Twitter API? Fees Going Up From $0 to $500k/Year – Seriously
First reported in Wired, Twitter is planning to put its API access behind a paywall and the cost is HUGE. The cheapest package gives access to 50 million tweets at a cost of more than half a million dollars a year. That’s the starting point. The large package for enterprise…
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Social Media Engagement Rates Take a Sharp Dive
Rival IQ today announced their 2023 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report detailing everything a marketer needs to measure social media success against their competitors on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok across 14 major industries. The report features insights into how social media engagement has changed over the last year for…
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TikTok Banned from Government Devices, per White House
The White House has issued a guidance memorandum giving federal agencies until the end of March 2023 to remove TikTok from all government-issued devices, citing security concerns. The Chinese-owned social media app has faced increased scrutiny in Washington and states across the country, with critics alleging that the Chinese government…
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Improving Engagement on LinkedIn | How Often Should I Post to LinkedIn?
One of the keys to getting engagement is to increase activity and distribution. LinkedIn provides broader distribution to posts that get early engagement when first posted. One way to do that is to encourage friends and co-workers to comment and engage. One friend I have has fostered a small network…
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The World’s Top Websites in 2020
With people stuck inside their home, they relied on technology to stay connect more than ever. Businesses had to adapt to this online shift. It resulted in new online habits and the way people used the internet in 2020. A study done by the UK Domain has revealed the top…
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Facebook Threatens to Stop Allowing News Sharing over Pending Legislation in Australia
Facebook is publicly ramping up the battle with the Australian government over pending legislation that would force it to pay royalties for use of copyrighted news content. It’s a battle being watched closely in both media and tech circles because the implications go farther than just what’s happening in Australia.…
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Anti-Trust Hearings Against Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google: What’s at Stake
Nearly half of Americans now believe major tech companies should face more regulation. That was one key finding in a new survey by the Pew Research Center. The survey was released as a House Judiciary Committee is looking into tech companies. Specifically, they are examining anti-trust concerns. Google, Facebook, Amazon,…
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More than 1,000 Advertisers Have Now Joined the Facebook Boycott
More than a thousand advertisers have now stopped spending on Facebook. Those behind the efforts say Facebook hasn’t made a commitment to changing anything. Jonathon Greenblatt with the Anti-Defamation League, along with leaders of other civil rights groups (NAACP, Color of Change, Free Press), organized the Stop Hate for Profit…
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Bipartisan Legislation to Hold Internet Companies Accountable for Moderation Practices
SOURCE: News Release U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet, and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), ranking member of the subcommittee, in introducing the Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency (PACT) Act, new bipartisan legislation to update Section 230 of the Communications Decency…
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Changing Consumption Habits During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Remember all the headlines about the death of network news? It turns out the ABC World News Tonight with David Muir is the #1 program on television right now. It’s not just the #1 news program; it’s the #1 program period – beating everything in prime time. During the coronavirus…
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A New Era in Online Privacy Rights Begins: Have You Made the Required Changes to Comply?
January 2020 brings a new year and a new decade. It also brings new privacy laws for business. Have you made the changes you need to avoid being out of compliance? CCPA California’s CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) is one of the strictest laws in the U.S. and goes into…
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Report: Fake Accounts and Bots are Proliferating Online; Social Media Companies Aren’t Stopping Them
Let’s say you were able to positively identify more than 15,000 fake social media accounts. You reported a significant number of them to social media platforms as fake. Nearly a month later, who many do you think would still be on the platform? If you said 95% of the fake…
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TV’s Influence on Purchase Decisions Exceeds All Other Media Combined
Once again, consumers cited traditional television advertising as having the strongest influence on their purchasing behavior, greater than the influence of all other media combined. That was the key takeaway from a research study, 2019 Purchase Funnel, conducted by GfK which measured the influence of media on consumers during their…
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More Bad News for Organic Search + New Research on Paid Search, Social Media, and Mobile Ads
If you’re hoping organic search is the way to increase conversions on Google, we’ve got some sobering news for you: organic search on Google is producing just 22% of site visits, according to the new 3Q 2019 Digital Marketing Report from Merkle. Here are a few of the others insights…
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Facebook Being Investigated by 47 Attorneys General
47 Attorneys General are now investigating Facebook for possible antitrust violations. When the probe was first announced in September, 8 states were behind the effort. 45 states have now signed on along with AGs in the District of Columbia and Guam. The AGs say it is a bi-partisan effort. “After…
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Changing Channels: Direct to Consumer Brands Are Moving Digital Dollars Back to Traditional Advertising
Many D2C brands are moving digital dollars back to traditional marketing channels. Rising costs of digital mediums Need to build brand awareness, trust, and credibility They are finding out that the direct response type campaigns that can work on search and social media channels will only take you so far. …
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Using Facebook’s Like Button on Your Website May Violate EU Laws
This could change a lot of things. If your website has Facebook’s like button on it for content or comments, you could be liable under the European Union’s privacy rules regardless of where you do business. The EU Court of Justice handed down the ruling this week in a case…
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Online Gamers Face Consistent Harrassment
You’re right in the middle of an online battle when suddenly someone starts threatening you. It goes way outside the bounds of any acceptable behavior. The harasser might target your ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. They might spew hate speech or start rambling about extreme views. If you’ve done…
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Facing a $5 Billion Fine, Facebook Adds $10 Billion in Market Value
“Facebook’s infringements of the 2011 consent decree and its pattern of violating user trusts have been both vast and brazen.” – Letter to FTC from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) The Senators are reacting to word that’s leaked out that Facebook will by…
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GDPR vs CCPA: How Privacy Regulations Affect Businesses
New privacy laws on the world stage are impacting businesses that have any online presence and capture personally-identifiable data. GDPR The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has already had a significant effect on companies doing business in the EU or doing business with EU residents. It’s affected most U.S.…
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Internet Trends 2019: Mary Meekers’ Annual Report Shows Big Changes
Mary Meeker is a venture capitalist and former Wall Street security analyst. She’s ranked by Forbes as one of the top 100 most powerful women in the world. When she unveils her annual presentation on Internet trends, it makes news. This year’s report is no different. You read the full…
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Photos of men appear twice as often as women in news stories
A new study by the folks at the Pew Research Center turned up an interesting finding: Men appears twice as often as women when it comes to being featured in news photos on Facebook. The research group analyzed posting from 17 national new outlets with at least 20 million unique…
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Ever Wonder Why Posts Show up in Your Facebook Feed? Inside Look at the Algorithm
Ever wonder why certain posts show up in your Facebook feed and others never do? Facebook is hoping to be able to give you some insight into that with its new “Why am I seeing this post?” tool. When you’re looking at a post, click the three dots in the…
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Amid Privacy Issues, Facebook Promises Privacy Will Be the Foundation for the Future
“I understand that many people don’t think Facebook can or would even want to build this kind of privacy-focused platform — because frankly we don’t currently have a strong reputation for building privacy protective services and we’ve historically focused on tools for more open sharing,” wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.…
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New EU Copyright Rules Could Be a Major Disruptor for Google, YouTube, et al
New copyright rules have been voted in by the European Parliament that could be a major disruptor for Google, YouTube, and other digital platforms. Musicians and content creators have pushed for the legislation. Others argue that it destroys user-generated content. Here are the two clauses that are generating the attention:…
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Google+ May Be Saved After All… Kind Of
If you’re one of those folks (like me) that embraced Google+ when it started out, you may have been surprised (like me) when the company announced it was shutting down. It was an ambitious project for the internet giant, but they admitted defeat in October. People, it seemed, just didn’t…
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Facebook Will Eliminate Ad Targeting Options to Settle Lawsuits
For businesses that rely on Facebook’s micro-targeting options, there’s a significant change coming. To settle pending lawsuits for violations of federal law, Facebook will take away some targeting options for advertisers. These targeting options violated federal Fair Housing, Employment, and Credit laws by discriminating against protected classes. Advertisers targeting jobs,…
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Long-form Content Results in 56% More Social Shares
Long-form content results in 56% more social shares than content shorter than 1,000 words, according to new research from BuzzSumo and Backlinko. The research, which analyzed over 900 million articles, also discovered that long-form content was correlated with better backlink performance. Specifically, posts weighing in at more than 3,000 words receive an…
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AI is changing the way we interact with brands
New advancements in AI-based search, including voice search, are fundamentally changing the way people interact with brands. Research from Yext Inc and Vanson Bourne shows marketers are struggling to evolve quickly enough for this new reality: only 8% of marketers believe their organization’s brand management strategy is completely effective to…
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Is It Time to Break Up Facebook?
The Electronic Privacy Information Center and a host of advocacy groups have written to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it’s time to seriously consider breaking up Facebook. “The companies should be reestablished as independent entities and Facebook should be required to disgorge the personal data unlawfully acquired from those…
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Amazon is predicting what you want and sending out free samples
Amazon is apparently beta-testing a new advertising strategy that leverages its logistics and delivery expertise with its massive treasure trove of consumer data. A report in Axios says Amazon has teamed up with advertisers Maybelline and Folgers to send free samples to users with a predilection for purchasing their products. …
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Can public officials block citizens on social media? Nope.
The law is playing catch-up with many facets of digital technology and social media. The latest battle has been over whether government officials can block people on Facebook. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court ruling that said it was unconstitutional for publicly elected officials…
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Is Facebook facing record fines for violating its FTC privacy agreement?
The Federal Trade Commission is looking at what could be record-setting fines against Facebook, according to the Washington Post. It has to do with the binding agreement the social media company signed in 2011 to protect personal data. The fine would be for violating that agreement. The biggest fine to…
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Tiktok Passes Facebook in App Downloads
TikTok has been downloaded more than 100 million times in the U.S. and claims 500 million monthly active users. The social video app has surpassed Facebook when it comes to downloads. Facebook responded by launching Lasso, a similar product to try to compete. If you haven’t seen these videos, they are…
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Trust in Social Media Continues to Plummet
If you thought public opinion on the trustworthiness of social media had bottomed up, you might want to rethink that a bit. A new study by Tapatalk polled 1,000 U.S. adults and found that trust in social media networks continues to decline. Get the full report here. 74% said the…
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Optimizing Ad Performance: Measuring ROI for Digital Campaigns
The promise of digital was more transparency and access to metrics that demonstrate whether something is working or not. Too often, though, the metrics establish action without establishing conversions. In other words, the metrics show that someone clicked on an ad, but doesn’t demonstrate whether they bought the product. Clicks…
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Hackers are now hacking Connected TV Sets
Yup, it happened. Hackers have been able to hack TV sets. The guy behind the hack called himself, The Hacker Giraffe, and managed to exploit a Google Chromecast vulnerability in devices and posted a privacy warning (and promoted PewDiePie, a YouTube celeb). According to Media Post, the hack takes advantage…
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How Much of the Internet is Fake?
Seriously. If you haven’t read Max Reed’s article “How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually” yet, stop what you’re doing and do it right now. Here are just a few of the gems Reed lays out: How much of the internet is fake?…
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Facebook, Amazon Adding More Subscription Video Services
The social media giant is in talks with HBO, Showtime, and Starz about adding streaming video. Facebook would offer subscriptions to these channels which users would watch within the Facebook platform. It the deal consummates, Facebook would likely have to shell out money in advance to the streamers and then…
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Is Facebook Getting in the Home Shopping Channel Business?
First, they get us addicted to social media. Then, they start selling us stuff. Now, Facebook wants to launch its own version of a shopping channel. QVC does some $9 billion dollars a year hawking product on TV, so you know there’s a market for it. Full Disclosure: I work…
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Using Facebook Messenger to Build Your Brand
When most businesses think of using social media to promote their brand, their initial thoughts likely revolve around advertisements and proper management of their company profile. Messaging apps, however, are growing at an incredible rate, and many brands don’t take advantage of the considerable potential that services like Facebook Messenger…
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Social Media Leads to Employee Turnover? It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way
Nearly everybody has experienced both the positives and negatives of social media: the connection with family and friends and the spreading of fake news. In the workplace, social media can be a force for good by helping employees share ideas and foster a positive culture. It can be a tool…
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Facebook Facing Charges of Fraud, Inflating Video Views by as Much as 900%
The folks suing Facebook for inflating video views now say it’s worse than they thought. Originally, the group said FB was jacking up video metrics by as much as 80% higher than they actually were by the way they were reporting them. Now, they say the real number is somewhere…
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Google Is Under Investigation for Privacy Breach That Led Them to Shut down Google+
The best social network you probably never used is shutting down. After security problems that Google apparently didn’t report publicly, Google+ is closing down inAugust, 2019. The private data of half a million of Google+ users was exposed in early 2018, but the company never reported it at the time. …
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Screen Size Matters: TV Ads Lead to More Sales Than YouTube or Facebook Ads
Research done by Dr. Karen Nelson-Field, Professor of Media Innovation, University of Adelaide and Executive Director Centre for Amplified Intelligence, shows several important points: There is a significant relationship between the attention paid to advertising and sales People pay more attention to the same advertisement on TV vs. Facebook or…
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Digital Media Consumption Way Up: Winners and Losers
Overall digital media consumption grew by 15% in August alone, according to a Pivotal Media Research analysis of Nielsen’s August 2018 data as reported by Wayne Friedman in MediaPost. Winners and Losers Google goes up. Facebook goes down. Google products, including YouTube, Google, and Waze account for 32.8% of all…
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“Facebook doesn’t operate with real-world metrics”
GroupM is the world’s largest advertising company. So when it speaks out on industry issues, people pay attention. Robin O’Neill is the Managing Director of Digital Trading for GroupM and had some harsh words for Facebook in an article in Digiday. For a company that will take in an estimated…
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Four Reports Show Serious Problems for Facebook
Four reports within the past 10 days point to a serious problem for Facebook. First, the headlines: Facebook is shedding massive traffic — and it’s apparently flocking to YouTube Facebook’s web traffic has declined by nearly half in the last two years, while YouTube is climbing Facebook Engagement Sharply Drops…
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Facebook page engagement is dropping rapidly
Buffer and BuzzSumo teamed up to analyze more than 43 million posts from Facebook’s 20,000 top brands. Key findings from 43 million Facebook Business Page posts Top Pages are posting a lot more Overall Page engagement is declining Facebook engagement down for videos, images, and links Posting 5 times per…
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Social media usage is dropping
Edison Research knows a thing or two about research. These are the same folks that do exit polling for national elections (as well as tabulate the national votes) for ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN. With a staff of 19,000 interviews, they conduct telephone, internet, and in-person interviews. Here is what…
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Do social media platforms censor political viewpoints?
72% of people survey by the Pew Research Center say social medias site censor political viewpoints and favor one party over the other. It’s an interesting split when you look at the data: 43% believe major tech firms support liberals over conservations 33% believe companies favor women over men 72%…
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Would you pay 5 cents a day to use Facebook? One country just enacted a “social media tax”
The Ugandan government has implemented a law forcing mobile users to pay taxes to use mobile money and social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Skype. As of July 1, people in Uganda have to pay 200 Ugandan shillings (about 5 cents in USD) a day if they…
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More employers using social media to disqualify job seekers
Drug testing, background or credit checks used to be factors that could disqualify an otherwise great candidate. Now companies are adding formal social media evaluations to the list, according to new data from the 2018 MRINetwork Reputation Management Study. Gone are the days of employers casually reviewing social media to assess prospective…
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Facebook is spending $1 million a day on TV ads
Facebook’s taken hit after hit to its reputation. Accusations of political bias, alleged misuse of personal data, data leaks, third parties accessing your data through your friends without permission… the list of complaints goes on and on. The list of lawsuits by shareholders and users against the social media company…
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Tips for Better Social Media Sharing
If you want as many people as possible to find your site and engage with your content, you need to make sure that your content is shared, and that those shares encourage new people to visit your site. In a world where so many people are already vying for…
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Social Media falling out of favor as a news source
Reuters Institute surveyed more than 74,000 people in 37 countries about where they get their news online. What they found is that social media is quickly falling out of favor for news consumption after years of continuous growth. “For the last seven years we have tracked the key sources for…
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Publishers could be required to get permission and pay to link to copyright material
Now that GDPR is the law in the European Union, lawmakers have their sights on copyright reform, which could have significant impact on the way websites work. They want to bring digital copyright laws across Europe into a unified code. According to the proposed legislation, it “provides for measures aiming at…
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Facebook, Google hit with multi-billion dollars lawsuits on first day of GDPR privacy and consent rules
On day one of the new GDPR privacy and consent rules in the European Union, Google (and its Android operating system) and Facebook (including WhatsApp and Instagram) were served with lawsuits that allege the companies “coerce users” into sharing personal data in violation of the law. The lawsuits are asking…
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California Supreme Court rules defendants have right to access public social media content
The California Supreme Court ruled this week that social media companies can be forced to hand over content to criminal defense prepping for trial. Specifically, the attorney in a murder trial was trying to get info from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Previously, Facebook has pretty much just ignored the request…
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What would you sell your social media data for?
Facebook makes its money by gathering our personal data, packaging it, and selling it to advertisers. They say it’s the price we pay to use the service for free. If Facebook had to pay us for the information, however, what price tag would you put on it? We now have…
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Lots of U.S. companies are not ready for new data protection policies
Something big happens this week. The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) goes into effect in Europe. It provides strict regulations on privacy and how online companies can use consumer data. It can also enforce significant fines – up to 4% of gross revenues or $20 million. Even though it’s not…
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Facebook says it deleted half a billion fake accounts and 837 million spam message in 1Q 2018
When your platform is built around user-generated content, not everybody will use it for good. Policing the content to make sure people aren’t breaking the law, posting nude photos, hate speech, spreading fake news, or spamming everyone is difficult stuff. It’s a daunting task. “We’re often asked how we decide…
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The Astounding Number of Bots on Twitter
Call it the attack of the bots. The majority of tweets linking to the most popular websites are not handled by human beings, but bots that post content without human involvement. That’s the findings of a Pew Research Center random sampling of 1.2 million tweets last year to answer this…
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Emotional Brands and Neuroscience Marketing
Some of the most successful marketing campaign motivate with emotion and not facts. That’s why companies like Facebook, ESPN, Nielsen, and ad agencies have divisions that explore the neuroscience involved in advertising. By examining the hidden signals of emotional reactions, marketers can better focus campaigns to take advantage of the…
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Facebook rolling out Downvote options for comments
In a nod to Reddit, Facebook is rolling out the upvote/downvote options for comments on posts. It wants you to flag bad comments and highlight positive comments by moving them higher up the list. Just don’t call it a Dislike button. “We are not testing a dislike button. We are…
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Is Facebook evil? Aren’t we all?
Last week was all about Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional hearing. There’s no point in denying that Facebook gathers lots and lots of data about individual users. That being said, all kinds of companies and governmental organizations are more than willing to use that data to have successful Facebook campaigns. So,…
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Facebook Admits It Can Track Users Online Even If They Aren’t Logged In
Yup, Facebook can track where you do on-line even if you aren’t logged in to the Facebook app. “When you visit a site or app that uses our services, we receive information even if you’re logged out or don’t have a Facebook.” – David Baser, Product Management Director, Facebook, via…
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Class Action Suit Alleges Facebook’s Facial Recognition Violates Privacy Act
Facebook is catching it from all sides these days. In the crosshairs now is FB’s practice of using facial recognition software. It used to throw me a bit when I would post a picture and, somehow, Facebook would know who was in the picture and prompt me to tag them. …
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Senate Bill Would Help Protect Your Online Privacy
We don’t hear the words “bi-partisan” as often as we used to, but Senators from both parties have come together to introduce the Social Media Privacy and Consumer Rights Act of 2018. While it doesn’t solve the problems of data collecting and tracking, it certainly is a positive step towards…
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10 Steps to Getting Started on Social Media Marketing
At some point, every entrepreneur comes to the crossroads of whether they should engage in social media marketing or not. The quick answer is – yes! I know, I know! You don’t have time! You have a dozen appointments on the go, a million tasks on your to-do list…
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Facebook Admits to Scanning Private Messages, Releases Privacy Policy Updates
Facebook is scanning private messages its users are sending to each other over Facebook Messenger, the company admitted in response to a Bloomberg story. Separately, the company also announced updates to its privacy policies with simpler explanations on the types of data it gathers. Questions about the company’s monitoring of Messenger messages had arisen…
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Facebook Doesn’t Believe Recent Scandals Will Hurt Its Business — Fortune
Facebook’s recent data privacy issues and the recent Cambridge Anlaytica scandal don’t seem like they will impact the company’s business. That’s according to Facebook vice president of global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson who said at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council event this week that the social networking giant is “not anticipating major changes…
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The worst social media marketing mistake you are probably making
Social media marketing is the new black. It’s not even a question anymore of whether you should be on social media, but rather what social media you should be on. Even though social media have been around for a few years now, I still constantly see companies that make the worst…
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The Facebook Love Affair Is Finally Over: Users Lose Trust
Two recent polls tell the story: Facebook has lost trust with its users. In light of the revelation that Cambridge America used data from 50 million Facebook users for political purposes without users permission, the social media company’s stock fell by 14% in last week’s trading and #DeleteFacebook continues to…
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8 Ways to Build a Personal Brand
For years, marketers have worked with companies to build their brand. Cementing a brand message into a consumer’s mind makes sure you’ll get a shot at their business when they need your service. Imagine your air conditioner stops working and it’s 95 degrees outside. You’ll head to your computer and…
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What happened when researchers scanned teenagers brains while using Social Media
The same brain circuits that are activated by eating chocolate and winning money are activated when teenagers see large numbers of “likes” on their own photos or the photos of peers in a social network, according to a first-of-its-kind UCLA study that scanned teens’ brains while using social media. Brain…
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When public officials use social media to do business, do they have the right to block constituents?
Here’s an interesting debate: If you’re a public official, should you have the right to block people from your social media page? A number of public officials are being sued, including Governor’s in Maryland, Kentucky, and Maine, by state ACLU chapters. Now, the ACLU is taking on a case against Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar.…
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Social Media for Publishers: Revenue Doesn’t Match Investment
Despite all the work media companies put into their Facebook and other social media channels, it has not turned into any significant source of revenue. If you’re in the business you know that. You get some traffic from social media, but not any real dollars. A research report by trade…
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Facebook expands its Breaking News test
Facebook is expanding its test group of local and national publishers that get to put that BREAKING NEWS banner on stories. It added another 50 this round based on the initial results of testing. “Drawing attention to breaking news on Facebook will help get important information to people when…
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How Dark Web Hackers Are Now Using Messaging Apps to Target You
If it seems like hackers are always one step ahead, you may be right. With the authorities shutting major marketplaces on the dark web, the crooks have turned their attention to apps to steal your information. Messaging apps are a favorite target. Hackers send links and attachments, such as a…
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Google and Facebook face potential anti-trust claims
Germany is the latest to level potential anti-trust violations at Facebook and Google. Germany’s anti-trust regulator has started a formal investigation into online advertising. Google and Facebook have said they will cooperate, according to Reuters. When you are an international company, it can be tricky to navigate different laws in…
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30 Social Media Stats Every Local Business Should Know
For help with your digital and social media, contact PulseLocal Marketing. In Huntsville, AL, call 256.533.3131.
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Mark Zuckerberg Now Says He’s Letting News Back into the Facebook News Feed – but with a Catch
Just a week after blowing publishers’ minds by letting them know Facebook was de-emphasizing their content and reminding them who is really in charge, Mark Zuckerberg has change his mind again…or maybe he’s just drip-feeding out the news. Facebook says it will prioritize what it defines as “trustworthy” news sources…
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Which Advertising Medium Do Consumers Trust the Most?
With U.S. consumers being exposed to an average of 10,000 brand messages every day, and 90% of consumers reporting that advertisements influence their purchase decisions, the power of advertising is undeniable. According to research from Clutch, consumers in the United States say Television and Print are the advertising mediums that…
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Seismic Shifts in Digital Marketing in 2018
As we look ahead to 2018, there are some clear pattern emerging when it comes to digital marketing and advertising. What’s in and out? Here are my predictions for 2018: Content Marketing, SEO, and Value Exchange With the reduced reach of social and the continuing fragmentation of media, marketers are finding…
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Facebook, Twitter threatened with sanctions over election reporting
At issue: Russian interference in E.U. referendum It’s gotten a lot of media play: U.S. intelligence agencies have publicly reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered actions to interfere with the Presidential election in 2016, including social media. Facebook and Twitter have reported that their own internal investigations show its…
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Failing to Take down Hate Speech Could Cost Social Media Companies $57 Million Fines
Germany is serious about cracking down on hate speech. Social media companies that don’t take down objectionable content within 24 hours of notification are facing massive fines. If posts are “obviously illegal” under German laws, companies like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube (Google) can face fines up to $57 million dollars…
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Winners and losers in a rapidly consolidating digital advertising market
Good News for digital ad sellers: Digital Advertising is expected to finish the year with a year-to-year growth rate of 11.5% in 2017 and grow again in 2018 by 11.3%. That information comes from GroupM/WPP, the world’s largest buyer of advertising. Magna (IPG Mediabrands) pegs 2018 digital growth at 13%.…
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Every single day, 10,000 Facebook users die
“…in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” — Benjamin Franklin (1789). Benjamin Franklin would never have anticipated anything like social media. From chronicling the mundane (what I ate for lunch) to the monumental (Trump as President), Facebook has become the background of life for many. As more…
Paul Dughi.com 