Tag Archives: Social Media Today

If anyone can provide insight into essential visual content trends, it’s Shutterstock. One of the most utilized stock image libraries in the world, Shutterstock now hosts close to 300 million images, and 16 million video clips, which are used in a range of ways across the web by marketers, artists, advertisers and more. And based on these usage trends, Shutterstock is well-placed to know which image types and traits are most popular, and where things are headed in the visual space. To provide some insight on this, Shutterstock recently published its Color Trends 2020 report, which looks at the key visual shifts taking effect across the web. And the biggest […]

Yes, TikTok seems like the next big thing, the next major social media platform moving into the mainstream, and yes, there definitely, on the surface, seems like a lot of marketing opportunity in the short video platform, particularly in regards to connecting with younger audiences. But questions still remain around the platform’s various content moderation and policy approaches, with two new issues arising this week which point to concerns within the app’s process. First, documentation acquired by Netzpolitik shows that TikTok actively limited the reach of content that had been uploaded by users who appeared to have disabilities, as part of a misguided effort to reduce cyberbullying in the app. The documentation advised […]

As we head into another US Presidential Election cycle, the debate over the spread of fake news, and who’s responsible for it, is once again set to become a key focus. All platforms are working to reduce their impact in this regard, but YouTube, in particular, has a significant role to play. With so many people now getting news content and information from the online video giant (around one in five YouTube users say that the platform helps them understand what’s happening in the world), it needs to ensure, where possible, that it has measures in place to reduce the flow of misleading content, while also amplifying relevant, accurate news […]

GIFs have become part of our digital vernacular – they’re now as common as emojis, and like emojis, they can be a great way to express emotional context, which is often absent in text alone. They can also be great for your marketing messages, when used right. Various brands have experimented with GIFs in their outreach efforts, and Facebook added GIFs as an option in its ad creation toolset back in 2017. It won’t be for everyone, but as GIFs become more commonplace, it may well be worth testing them out in your communications as a means to better connect with your audience. In this sense, it’s also interesting to understand […]

Following on from its efforts to limit discriminatory audience targeting in ads related to housing, employment or credit opportunities, Facebook has this week announced two new measures to further enforce its additional rules, and provide more transparency into its process. First off, Facebook has announced that the new ad restrictions in these categories will now be applied across all of its various ad creation surfaces, including Ads Manager, Instagram Promote, the Facebook Marketing API and ads created via Facebook Pages. The new restrictions for these ad types came into effect back in August, but up till now, they’ve only been fully enforced when those ads were purchased through Ads Manager. Now, […]

Twitter’s looking to help brands better understand their tweet campaign performance by giving more advertisers access to its ad response survey tools, in order to glean more insight around their promotions. As explained by Twitter: “To help marketers measure how their campaigns are driving brand lift, we are making Twitter Brand Surveys available for all managed accounts in the US, UK, Canada, Japan and Brazil. We developed Twitter Brand Surveys while keeping accessibility and actionability in mind – we wanted campaigns, small or large, to have access to survey studies and for brands to understand which specific Tweets drove the highest lift.” You’ve likely seen Twitter’s surveys come up every now and […]

While the holiday spirit is no doubt slowly starting to kick in, many of you are also probably beginning to map out your 2020 marketing approach, and planning your next campaigns in line with the big events that are on the horizon. To help you get a head start on what’s coming, Twitter has this week published its 2020 major events calendar, covering all the key dates and events you need to be aware of, separated by type, along with helpful notes to focus your efforts. As explained by Twitter: “Twitter is a place for people and brands to connect with what’s happening – and while new conversations are constantly unfolding, […]

Data security has become a key issue in social media circles over the past two years, and as we head into another US Presidential election cycle, you can bet that debate around data privacy, and the use of personal information for targeting, will again be a topic of heated debate. In line with this, Twitter has announced the launch of its new Privacy Center, which Twitter says will: “…provide more clarity around what we’re doing to protect the information people share with us. It is the central place that host’s everything that’s part of our privacy and data protection work: related initiatives, announcements, new privacy products, and communication about security […]

With some 80% of Millennials planning to purchase a vehicle within the next five years, auto marketers need to be looking at ways to reach these younger consumers, and connect with them at the right time to maximize brand affinity. And Snapchat might actually be the best platform for this exact purpose. To help with this, Snapchat recently published a new ‘Auto Playbook’, which is full of stats and tips on how to utilize Snapchat’s various ad and outreach options to connect with potential auto shoppers through the app. There’s a heap to take in – first off, Snapchat outlines some key stats around its audience, and the potential reach […]

This is an interesting development amid the ongoing debate around political advertising on Facebook, and what should and should not be allowed in campaign ads. Late last week, the Singaporean Government instructed Facebook to publish a correction notice on any updates in relation to a story about the arrest of an alleged whistleblower in the region. Social media expert Matt Navarra shared an example of the post correction notice on Twitter: As you can see here, the post isn’t dismissed as ‘false information’, nor does it include a note that the information has been ‘disputed by fact-checkers’. Instead, the warning label reads: “Facebook is legally required to tell you that […]