Sherrilynne Starkie

Strategic Digital Communications

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Top Five: Social networks invest in quality news

This week’s must-know social media news for marketing and communications professionals includes headlines about Facebook’s attempt to clean up, support for journalism from Twitter and Google, the continuing importance of links in SEO and some new, clever features from LinkedIn.

1 Facebook’s Sandberg outlines new plans to tackle misinformation

COO Sheryl Sandberg has unveiled five new ways Facebook will address issues of privacy and fake news. She has also announced funding for an investigation into the ethics of AI, and a new partnership with Germany’s office for information and security. Sandberg laid out Facebooks five-step plan to regain trust.

Glad to see these priorities. Facebook needs to turn this thing around! — SS 

Cheryl Sandberg
Photo by Jolanda Flubacher

2 LinkedIn’s new ways to track companies

LinkedIn Pages, a refresh of LinkedIn Company Pages, help people engage with companies and organizations, and to connect with the people behind the company. These include new job alerts, an alumni tool, community hashtags and company insights.

LinkedIn is a crucial platform for businesses. Are you making the most of these features on your company’s Page? — SS

3 Links are still crucial for ranking in Google

Stone Temple published a study that shows a very significant correlation between links and ranking position in Google search. The aggregate link data using 27,000 queries shows a very strong correlation between links and ranking. Even breaking it down by industry, it’s clear how important links are to ranking position in Google.

SEO remains an important part of digital marketing communications practices. — SS

search marketing image

4 Twitter is developing new analytics dashboards

Twitter is developing two dashboards, one that provides readership insights and one that provides real-time event information.

The readership dashboard, available to publishers and business account owners, reveals reader insights. For example, a publisher can see who is reading and engaging with the content it posts along with which content performs the best.  There is no word on when it will be available.

More insight makes for smarter use of this important news distribution tool. — SS 

Twitter logo

5 Google’s new publishing platform for local news

Google News Initiative has partnered with Automattic and WordPress.com and invested $1.2 million in Newspack: a fast, secure, low-cost publishing system tailor for small newsrooms.

The system allows journalists to focus on writing stories and covering their communities, without having to worry about designing websites, configuring CMSs, or building commerce systems. It builds best practices into the product while removing distractions that divert scarce resources.

Thank you Google for continuing to invest in local news. — SS 

local news reporters
Photo by Sam Shavers

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Taking part in the Facebook 10-year challenge?

Did you take part in the latest Facebook meme, the 10-year challenge?

The idea is for people to post their very first ever Facebook profile pic next to the most recent one. Personally I saw this dozens, maybe hundreds, of times in my Facebook feed over the last week or so, and yes, I certainly took part in it myself. I thought it was a bit of fun.

Kate O’Neill a contributor to Wired disagrees. She tweeted:

“Me 10 years ago: probably would have played along with the profile picture aging meme going around on Facebook and Instagram Me now: ponders how all this data could be mined to train facial recognition algorithms on age progression” Click To Tweet

Very plausible. Her idea certainly caught traction on social media where this tweet has already received more than 31,300 shares. Her supplementary article, published January 15th, has received more than half a million Facebook engagements and 601,300+ social media engagements in all, according to Buzzsumo.10 year challenge

In her article Kate posits: “Imagine that you wanted to train a facial recognition algorithm on age-related characteristics and, more specifically, on age progression (e.g., how people are likely to look as they get older). Ideally, you’d want a broad and rigorous dataset with lots of people’s pictures. It would help if you knew they were taken a fixed number of years apart—say, 10 years.

“Sure, you could mine Facebook for profile pictures and look at posting dates or EXIF data. But that whole set of profile pictures could end up generating a lot of useless noise. People don’t reliably upload pictures in chronological order, and it’s not uncommon for users to post pictures of something other than themselves as a profile picture…

“In other words, it would help if you had a clean, simple, helpfully labeled set of then-and-now photos.”

Facebook denies nefarious intent regarding this trend and points out that the challenge is a wholly user generated trend.

Do you believe Facebook?

I do tend to believe Facebook on this one. But based on the social media traction this story has garnered, people are suspicious.

Facebook has lost trust in the past year. Scandals such as the Cambridge Analytica data breach and rumours of Russian meddling in the US elections among others, have sullied the company’s reputation. User trust is at an all time low despite the many steps Facebook has taken to improve privacy and erradicate bad actors.

Yet, there is hope. People still love using Facebook to connect with friends and family (hence the organic 10-year challenge trend). Brands still love it as an effective advertising platform. Facebook can still turn this thing around.

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Top Five: New social media ‘stories’ features

Must-know social media news for communicators and marketers for this week include new Stories innovations from Facebook and YouTube, insight on finance journalists, a new editor for a LGBTQ+ magazine and search innovations from Google.

1. New CTA buttons for Facebook Page stories

Facebook Brand Pages can now add call-to-action (CTA) buttons to their Stories in drive action and increase engagement.

The new CTA sticker suggestions are based on the CTAs already featured on the page. Examples include: “Shop Now,” “Call Now,” “Book Now,” or “Get Directions. Users click the CTA button to complete the action directly through the Story.

Facebook stories are getting more useful for marketers. — SS

Facebook training

2. How to use YouTube stories

YouTube Stories are like the Stories formats on Snapchat, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Now the feature is rolling to eligible YouTube channels with more than 10,000 subscribers.

These Stories provide channel owners an informal way to stay in touch with subscribers by delivering short video content and images to their audience throughout the day.

Stories continue to grow in importance for audience engagement across social media platforms. Some great how-to info in this article.  — SS

youtube

3. 2019 journalists survey: What it means for communicators

As a follow up to the 2018 Annual Journalist Survey, a new survey of finance journalists gets their perspective on what’s to come in 2019. Here are a few of the highlights of the 2019 Financial Services Journalist Survey:

  • Fifty per cent of finance journalists expect to spend less time on Facebook.
  • The top three topics in 2019 will be cybersecurity (57.5 percent), fintech (41.6 percent) and tax reform (35.8 percent).
  • Nearly 58 percent of journalists consult a company’s social media channels when reporting on it.

Interesting stats to inform communications tactics in the finance industry. — SS

earned media: reporter and camera

4. Condé Nast names new executive editor for LGBTQ+ brand

Condé Nast has named Whembley Sewell as its new executive editor for its LGBTQ+ brand, called “them”. Sewell will take over the reins after serving as channel manager at Teen Vogue.

A sign of the continuing health of the magazine publishing industry and an important vertical for consumer brands to follow. — SS

 

5. New card lets Google users see their related search history

Google is rolling out a new search feature: “your related activity.” This feature lets signed in Google users pick up on previous searches they’ve done related to the query they just added.  Google will show links to pages visited in the past. In addition, it will show the searches that led the user to those pages. Google said, “you can access your collections by tapping the menu on the top left of the Search page (on mobile web), or through the bottom bar of the Google app.”

This new feature should increase the number of repeat visits to a website and marketers need to be ready to encourage and capitalized on this innovation. — SS

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Top Five: Social media New Year predictions and resolutions

The first Top Five must-know social media news of 2019 for communicators and marketers! We include New Year’s predictions and resolutions. We also feature stories about Cookie Monster on Twitter, Facebook Messenger’s dark mode tests and news about possible IPOs.

1. 10+ Marketing Predictions for 2019 From Top Marketers

Marketing gurus Seth Godin, Mitch Joel, Mari Smith, Michael Stelzner offer their predictions for 2019.  These include smart audio, first party data acquisition and reclaiming social independence. There will be a renewed focus on ‘social’,  more passive experiences and more principled marketing. Predictive analytics, LinkedIn’s rise, video innovation and good old reliable email all feature.

Staying ahead of the curve is the key to continued digital marketing success – SS

Crystal Ball

2. B2B content marketers New Year’s resolutions for 2019

These top five professional 2019 resolutions for B2B content marketers are achievable and imperative. Documenting strategy, less focus on keywords, personalized content are the top three. Content format innovation, Google analytics certification feature too.

New Year…new you for content marketers. All these sound practices make a positive difference. – SS

2019 image

3. Cookie Monster’s Twitter Account Is Hilarious

“Today canceled. Me staying in bed and eating cookies.”

 

via GIPHY

Cookie Monster gives us a lesson on relevancy and relatability. — SS

4. Facebook Messenger tests dark mode

Facebook Messenger has started public testing dark mode in certain countries. This allows users to change backgrounds and other interface elements to improve how content is viewed.

Another UX consideration for marketers and content creators. — SS

Messenger Icon

5. Social media platforms among top list of companies for 2019 IPO

A slew of tech companies is considering going public this coming year.  Social media platforms Slack and Pinterest are tipped to be making an initial public offering.

When Facebook, Twitter and Snap went public we saw a shift in strategic focus.  Watch for changes at Slack and Pinterest. – SS

 

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Podcast Playlist: A mix of motivation, news and entertainment

According to Edison Research, Canadian podcast audiences tend to spend more than six hours weekly listening to their favourite shows. Podcasts great way to keep on top of social media and industry trends and news. A lot of podcasts are motivational and educational, others are just very entertaining.  Here’s a list of the podcasts I’ve been listening to this week:

The mindset and discipline to build a brand and business — Lewis Howes on the School of Greatness Podcast.

I’ve been listening to Lewis’s podcast the past couple of months because it’s aspirational and has interesting guests.  Some of the episodes are more than an hour long…great for morning runs!  In this episode, Lewis invites competition winners to come on the show to discuss personal branding. It’s a live ‘ask me anything’ where the participants pick Lewis’s brain about how he built his own following of millions.

You ask I answer: How to evaluate influencer marketing software — Christopher Penn on Awaken Your Superhero.

I learn something new from every one of Christopher’s daily shows. They are short, and he makes the concepts of data analysis really accessible. The information he shares is useful. In this episode he outlipodcast iconnes the most useful features to look for in an influencer marketing software product.

Listmania — Shel Holtz on For Immediate Release

I’ve been listening to Shel’s podcasts since 2006 for good reason. They are chock full of the important social media, PR and marketing news I need to know to do my job well.  Here, Shel and his guests (of which I am one) discuss the implications of fake news for PR pros, predict internal communications trends for 2019 and go over this week’s relevent industry headlines.

Profit Sharing for Agency Employees — Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich on the Agency Leadership Postcast.

Just about my whole career has been working on the agency and consulting side, and I’ve held leadership positions for more years than I’d to admit.  This is a fairly new podcast, and I’m enjoying it so far.  I love working independently, but I do sometimes miss agency life and ALP lets me reminisce.  In this show, Chip and Gini discuss incentive and bonus schemes for agency staff.

And finally…

Witness — Phoebe Judge on Criminal

I love listening to this podcast. It’s audio storytelling at its best. Each episode is a unique story that relates to crime, criminalty, the law, justice, etc.  In this episode, Phoebe speaks to Gerald Shore, the man who created the FBI Witness Protection plan.

 

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