Vanity Metrics #2
PRbot activate!, FB media buying is brutal, and Undying Fake News.
The palm rejection on my laptop’s touchpad has stopped working, so that’ll be my excuse for any typos this week. That and I make lots of typos. Let’s get to it:
The Big Stuff
Digiday.com
The idea of influencers isn’t new: celebrities have hocked products in print, radio, and television since the dawn of technology. But when it comes to social media, the term is far too nebulous to have meaning. That’s because “influencers” shouldn’t refer to just one model. It can mean people, but it can also mean brands and even strategy…
Strategy Expert Ana Andjelic brilliantly explains why we need to stop thinking “Influencers” and start thinking “Influence” as the components to realizing strategic goals in her latest piece for The Startup.
Corporate PR culture has always been a bit robotic (heh) for my taste. But creating a chatbot to provide PR points to employees is a new one. Facebook has created a bot for employees to help reinforce their public statements. This seems to continue the long-standing issues the company has had of saying one thing in public and doing the opposite in private. H/T to Bloomberg’s Sarah Frier for the heads up.
The leading cause of baldness among media buyers and campaign planners is undoubtedly Facebook’s Campaign Manager. But it’s table-stakes if you’re going to be doing any paid social in 2019. Frequent errors and looooong approval wait times are becoming more and more common. Kristina Monllos from Digiday looks at what it feels like to lose access to a key tool and have no humans around to help (“Facebook’s support [is a] a black box and a shit show”), the latest in her “Confessions” series.
Fact: 52% of American users say Facebook is their primary source for news now.
Social media platforms have a big problem when it comes to fake accounts. They push and pull issues to one side, game the system, and just sow chaos in general. Each year, company CEOs take to conference stages laying out plans to counter bots, trolls and fake accounts with AI, policy and other solutions. But when it comes to follow-through, what are they actually doing about it? Well, according to a recent NATO Strategic Comms study, basically nothing…
NATO spent a measly $330 to buy influence with, track down, and then report over 19,000 fake social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Checking in a month later, a staggering 95% of reported accounts were still active.
Major league sports thrive on being able to attract and retain young audiences. That’s why they are often some of the first brands to experiment with new trends and platforms to gauge potential traction. In 2019, that means TikTok. Front Office Sports looks into how orgs like NFL have already amassed 1.7 million followers on TikTok by partnering with individual players and even using other platforms like Twitter to drive discovery.
The Small Stuff
Ad spend in Canada is forecast to drop next year in every area but digital, which will see a 10% increase driven largely by an increase in social media spend.
Oculus users are going to start seeing ads as Facebook begins collecting their data for targeting. Facebook went all-in after buying Oculus in 2014, pushing users to link their Facebook accounts to access all sorts of chatting options, so this shouldn’t be a surprise.
Instagram is rolling out mandatory birthday fields in an effort to control undesirable messaging (and I’m sure to shore up age targeting).
Facebook is working on Podcasts and Travel apps (ICYMI, Facebook launched three new apps in November). The full story is behind the NYT paywall.
Canva, a favorite among content creators with little time or budget to dive into more in-depth design software, is rolling out a suite of new tools and functions including video editing, app integration, education platforms, and a stand-alone desktop version.
Matt Navarra, one of my secret weapons when it comes to social platform news, oversees arguably the most popular private group on Facebook for social media professionals. Matt recently debuted the Geekout with Matt Navarra podcast and has been able to access some key platform-side people for the first season. Check out Episode 1 with Twitter’s Director of Product Management, and Waterloo alumni, Sara Haider (go Canada).
Last second fun stuff! Facebook Messenger debuted a new Star Wars-branded theme for Messenger last night. I can confirm it works in Canada (Android) now. Thanks to Bradly Shankar at Mobile Syrup for the heads up!
Something specific you want to see covered? Let me know in the comments. Thanks again for subscribing, and give Vanity a share if you like what you’ve seen. The next edition is already in draft, so expect it soon!
Ryan LaFlamme has worked in social media marketing and advertising for longer than the job had a title. He formed the independent social consultancy Hub and Spoke in 2016, and can be found hanging out on Twitter @ryanlaf