Vanity Metrics #21.5
All the small things.
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(Just) The Small Stuff
What a week. In case you missed it, we highly recommend you catch up with Vanity #21 from yesterday focusing on the #StopHateForProfit campaign, and going forward will include a new section on any future updates of note. Today, let’s play catch up on the last two weeks of other social media industry moves. There’s more than you might think, so let’s get to it.
Hayley Catherine
Instagram is no longer requiring new advertisers to have a Facebook Page. All you’ll need to get started is an Instagram Business Account. It’s a small change, but indicative of how much power IG currently commands in the ad game.
Instagram is also beginning to solidify requirements for shopping access ahead of the big Facebook “Shops” launch. Key point: all shoppable items have to come from one site (aka the site you’ll be linked to Shops).
Instagram is testing an entirely new layout for Stories, moving the icons to its own dedicated tab, replacing the current top bar with a “See all stories” link.
Google recently announced that the “TV viewing” category for YouTube videos has grown 80% in the US alone in the last 12 months to over 100 million views/month. So if you’re ad formats don’t work for tv, you’re leaving a lot on the table.
TikTok recently peeled back the cover on its recommendation algorithm, and it’s a great way to consider how to build your content to help it have the best chance of surfacing. “A strong indicator of interest, such as whether a user finishes watching a longer video from beginning to end, would receive greater weight than a weak indicator, such as whether the video's viewer and creator are both in the same country.”
Client Leads Center is coming to the Facebook Business backend.
Buying ads in California? The State’s new Consumer Privacy Act requires you to make some changes to your pixel tracking code or face the consequences. Facebook has been helping out ad buyers, but as of August 1st, the onus is on you to ensure compliance.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before… on July 1st, Facebook quietly admitted they have once again leaked users’ private data to 3rd party developers. “…email addresses, birthdays, language, and gender, and was sent to around 5,000 apps past the 90-day threshold.” Sigh.
The natural gas industry in America has quietly been paying influencers to extol the virtues of #cookingwithgas in over 100 paid posts and stories on Instagram since 2018.
Counting on the allure of Instagram stars to help fend off alternatives backed by environmentalists, the gas industry doesn’t want you to realize how much its paid marketing has influenced public thinking that gas stoves are stylish, innocuous, and necessary home appliances.
Genius or Gross, I’ll leave that to you, but some influencers began deleting their posts after the Mother Jones story broke.
For reference, Vanity #4 talked about “influencer washing”, including a Candian public/private transportation company, Metrolinx, that was criticized for a similar dubious “influencer washing” campaign.
Facebook is shutting down it’s TikTok clone Lasso. The app never really caught on, and the upcoming Reels addition to Instagram will be its successor. Reels is already being tested in Brazil, and has been expanded to India this week…
… because India just banned TikTok. After a border skirmish involving Indian and Chinese forces, the country has retaliated by blocking 50+ Chinese mobile apps, including TikTok (which is one of the more popular apps in the country where ByteDance employs some 2000 people). Got 3 minutes? NPR interviews TikTok users in India trying to figure out how to pivot.
Aside from cooking videos, live streams have been one of the largest growth categories in 2020. Case in point: Twitch saw a 62% growth in viewing (5 billion hours) in the last quarter alone.
Just, ugh. “An exclusive investigation reveals that Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women, shaping the behavior of content creators and the worldview of 140 million Europeans in what remains a blind spot of EU regulations.” Long read here.
Looking to create a simple Livestream solution for yourself or your clients at home? Deity Microphones have a great video to help you get started with a good-quality OBS set up.
Quick update: today there are over 800 brands that have joined the #StopHateForProfit campaign. If you want to learn more or see how you or the brands you represent can participate, please visit stophateforprofit.org.
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 Now accepting new clients and speaking engagements.