Twitter adds Communities (Similar to Facebook Groups)

Taking on Facebook Groups and Reddit threads, Twitter has announced Communities. Now in testing, Twitter is adding communities based around content themes. “Imagine an alternative timeline where everyone just gets you…” Twitter posted in making the announcement. Twitter showed examples including: Plant lovers Black women photographers Sneakerheads Crypto Skincare Traveling solo It will take some

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. The tech giants likely fear

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, and Apple were expected to

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 campaign to hold Facebook accountable. 

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 Act. The PACT Act would

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 pandemic, consumption of media has

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 effect in January 2020.  Businesses

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 accounts were remaining online, you’d

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 purchase decision-making process. Other key

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 from the report. Paid Search

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 continued bipartisan conversations with attorneys

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.  “As you evolve,” Melanie Travis,

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 involving an online retailer.  A

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 any multiplayer online gaming, no

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 hit with a record $5

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. based companies that have any

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 report here:  Internet_Trends_2019.  It’s 333 pages

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 visitors during Q3 of 2018.

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.  “But we’ve repeatedly shown that

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: Article 11 requires search engines

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, housing, or credit will not

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 average of 77.2% more referring

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 manage emerging technology and changing