This collection of social media marketing and new hire announcements is a compilation of the past week’s briefs from our daily Marketing Land newsletter. Click here to subscribe and get more news like this delivered to your inbox every morning.
Facebook tests Brand Collabs tool on Instagram creators, Snapchat launches new ad format
Instagram brand collabs. Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, wants to better support collaboration between brands and influencers. The company announced a new test that extends the Brand Collabs tool – which has only been available to Facebook creators – to a select group of Instagram creators. The tool is designed to help businesses connect with relevant influencers for branded content partnerships. Brands can indicate the type of audience they want to work with, including country, gender, age, number of followers, and interests. When brand collaboration campaigns are running, Instagram will provide performance metrics while giving brands the option to promote influencer content in the feed like an ad.
Snapchat unveils interactive ad format. In partnership with Paramount Pictures for the 2020 release of “Top Gun: Maverick,” Snapchat has launched a new interactive movie preview ad format dubbed the “trailer reaction lens.” These AR lenses allow Snapchat users to participate in the campaign by creating their own content in a split-screen format, capturing both the movie trailer and the user’s reaction. Users can add creative elements to their reaction shots with digital overlays used to promote the film. The move adds Snapchat to the growing list of platforms attempting to encourage real-time interaction from users.
Instagram to cover misinformation with overlay warnings, Facebook launches automated approvals for Groups
Combatting misinformation on Instagram. In an announcement from parent company Facebook this week, Instagram is expanding its fact-checking program globally to allow third-party fact-checking companies around the world to assess misinformation on the platform. Instagram will partner with 45 different fact-checking organizations to rate the truthfulness of photo and video content on the app. Media that’s found to contain misinformation or untruthful content will be hidden from the Explore and hashtag pages, with a warning overlay blocking the content in the feed and Stories until users tap again to see the post. To determine which content should be sent to fact-checkers for review, Instagram will use a combination of platform data and feedback from users.
Automated approval for Facebook Groups. In an effort to help Facebook group admins better manage new member requests, the social giant has launched a feature that automatically approves new members based on requirements set by Groups admins. Admins are able to turn the feature on in the group settings, allowing anyone who meets all of the membership requirements to automatically be added to the group when they submit a membership request. The automation feature is optional but could be especially useful for businesses that manage a number of large groups with varying levels of membership requirements.
Twitter beefs up safety council, Facebook predicts content trends for 2020
Twitter expands Trust and Safety council. Twitter is making changes to its Trust and Safety Council — an in-house committee Twitter formed in 2016 to help advise on the platform’s products, programs, and policies. According to the company, Twitter is adding more members to the Council to help connect with the perspectives of a broader cross-section of society when establishing platform rules and policies. Going forward, the Council will be made up of several groups, each focused on advising on important issues that contribute to real-world harm. Beginning in 2020, Twitter will initially set up groups focused on: Safety and online harassment, human and digital rights, child sexual exploitation, and suicide prevention and mental health.
Facebook content trends for 2020. The social network has released a new report on the key topics and trends that will inform social predictions for users and marketers going into 2020. Unlike past reports that only analyzed U.S. trends, this year’s report is split into global regions with predictions for each location. The report forecasts trends across a wide range of topic areas, including art and design, beauty and fashion, entertainment, food and drink, mind and body, and travel and leisure. In the North America section, Facebook predicts that a sense of individualism will continue to drive people’s choices with hot-ticket trends like flexitarian diets, indoor gardens, and custom combinations that give people more control over their day-to-day actions.
Facebook braces for privacy laws, #YouTubeIsOverParty calls out platform for censorship
Facebook counts down to CCPA. With mere weeks to go before the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) takes effect, the social giant last week posted a statement that boiled down to one message: Facebook is ready. “We are ready for its arrival in part because we’ve made many long-term investments across our products to help people everywhere easily manage their privacy and understand their choices,” Facebook wrote. CCPA will be enforced starting January 1, 2020, giving internet users the right to see what data big tech companies collect about them and with whom it is shared. In preparation for the law, the California-based social network has been busy adding new tools to support CCPA compliance, including a new privacy hub that outlines Facebook’s data policies for collection and usage. The company has also added a range of self-serve tools that allow Facebook users to download or delete data.
#YouTubeIsOverParty. Earlier this month, YouTube announced updates to its harassment policy, resulting in a number of creators voicing concerns and frustrations over the stricter new guidelines. Over the last several days, creators and users alike have posted notifications showing content that’s been flagged or entirely removed from the video-sharing platform – a clear indication that the company is moving swiftly to enforce its updated policies. YouTubers have taken to Twitter with #YouTubeIsOverParty in a protest against the new guidelines, which are impeding the monetization efforts of some creators. To make matters worse, many of the videos flagged or removed included explanations that appear unclear and unreasonable, prompting cries of censorship on Twitter.
On the move
Pinterest hires head of monetization engineering, Twitter gets a new director of platform, HubSpot expands its C-suite
Pinterest has announced Waleed Ojeil as the company’s new head of monetization engineering. Waleed joins Pinterest from Google, where he spent 14+ years leading teams in analytics, attribution, and measurement products. While at Google, Ojeil also oversaw the unification of web and application analytics. At Pinterest, he will report to the head of engineering, Jeremy King, and run the company’s ads engineering teams.
Greg Lieber, VidMob’s head of partnerships and business development, is joining Twitter as its new director of platform, according to Adweek. At Twitter, Lieber will be responsible for developing strategies that connect the company’s products to the market, as well as identifying strategic opportunities for the social network to grow and evolve its ads ecosystem.
HubSpot has named Yamini Rangan as its first-ever chief customer officer, tasked with uniting the company’s marketing, sales, and services teams. HubSpot says Rangan will be a key member of its executive leadership team, overseeing teams charged with accelerating the company’s business goals. Prior to joining HubSpot, Rangan was chief customer officer for Dropbox and spent time at Workday as its VP of sales strategy and operations.
About The Author
Taylor Peterson is Third Door Media’s Deputy Editor, managing industry-leading coverage that informs and inspires marketers. Based in New York, Taylor brings marketing expertise grounded in creative production and agency advertising for global brands. Taylor’s editorial focus blends digital marketing and creative strategy with topics like campaign management, emerging formats, and display advertising.