This collection of social media marketing and new hire
announcements is a compilation of the past week’s briefs from our daily
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Facebook’s tag suggestion replaced with face recognition setting. Earlier this week, Facebook announced that anyone new to Facebook or anyone who had previously had the “tag suggestions” setting turned on (a feature that allowed Facebook to suggest which friends to tag in photos) will now have the face recognition setting instead.
“Our face recognition setting lets you manage not only whether Facebook uses face recognition technology on photos of you in order to suggest tags; it provides an easy onor off switch for a broader set of uses of face recognition, such as helping you protect your identity on Facebook,” writes Facebook AI Applied Research Lead Srinivas Narayanan.
The tag suggestions setting, which only suggested friends to tag in photos and videos, will no longer be available. Anyone who had it turned on will begin to see a notice in their feed about the face recognition setting detailing how the technology works on the platform. Users who have not been using the face recognition setting previously (it first rolled out in December 2017), will not see a notice in their feed about the technology.
Finding love on Facebook. After more than a year since the original announcement for Facebook Dating app, the company has launched Facebook Dating in the U.S. and 19 other countries, and says it has plans to launch in Europe by 2020. Facebook users must opt-in to the app and build a dating profile which will remain separate from their Facebook profile.
“We’re also giving people the ability to integrate their Instagram posts directly into their Facebook Dating profile and giving people the ability to add Instagram followers to their Secret Crush lists, in addition to Facebook friends,” writes Facebook Dating Product Manager Nathan Sharp.
Anyone with the most recent version of the Facebook app, who is 18 years or older, will be able to access Facebook Dating. Once they’ve created a profile, Facebook will suggest their account to others who have also opted-in to the platform. Suggestions to connect are based on a user’s preferences, interests and other Facebook activity. Facebook said all Dating activity will remain in the app and will not be shared with the rest of Facebook. Prior to launching its dating app, Facebook said it consulted with privacy and consumer protection experts to make sure privacy protections “were embedded” into app’s core.
Are #WeReady for some football? The NFL has entered into a multi-year partnership with the short-form video app Tik Tok, according to TechCrunch. As part of the deal, the NFL has launched its official Tik Tok account and started a #WeReady hashtag challenge on the platform, asking fans to post NFL-themed videos using the #WeReady hashtag. “The platform reaches a fast-growing global audience of NFL fans and future fans,” said NFL VP of Digital Media Business Development Blake Stuchin. “Hashtag challenges are a perfect way to kick off the NFL’s 100th season – with fun, new content that will entertain fans.” According to the report, Tik Tok will also have a presence at the NFL’s September 5 season kick-off at Soldier Field Stadium in Chicago.
YouTube’s new review process for Community Contributions. YouTube announced via its @TeamYouTube Twitter account that it’s making changes to the review process for Community Contributions. Going forward, creators who have opted to turn on the Community Contributions feature will have to manually review any Community Contributions before they are published and check for spam. YouTube said the change was based on feedback from creators. The Community Contributor feature allows viewers to add video titles, descriptions, subtitles and closed captions to videos, and can be turned on so that it applies to all videos on a channel or individual videos selected by the channel owner. Previously, contributed content was automatically published when it received enough reviews from the community.
An update on YouTube’s safety efforts. YouTube reports it has reduced the number of views on videos that are later removed for violating content policies by 80% during the last 18 months. Per its most recent transparency report outlining its efforts to clean up the platform, the company showed a significant increase in the number of videos and comments that were removed for hate speech, along with the number of channels that were terminated for the same reason. “Spikes in removal numbers are in part due to the removal of older comments, videos and channels that were previously permitted,” wrote YouTube on its Official Blog. During the second quarter of 2019, YouTube removed more than 100,000 videos for violating hate speech policies and terminated more than 17,000 channels for promoting hate speech — five-times more than the number of videos and channels it had previously removed from its platform for hate speech violations.
On the Move
The Goodway Group, a digital media services company, has launched a new data science and analytics division and created two new roles to lead the department. Lluis Canet has been named VP of data science and analytics and Benjamin Diesbach is joining the firm as lead data insights analyst, reporting to Canet. “The new division will allow our clients to plan their campaigns more strategically by transforming their approach to data,” said Goodway Group President Jay Friedman. Canet will report to the company’s VP of Product, Marketing and Data Huanlei Ni. Prior to joining Goodway Group, Canet held data science roles at 21st Century Fox, JP Morgan Chase and PulsePoint. Diesbach most recently served as VP of analytics for Accordant Media.
The global content production company CreativeDrive has made two new hires. Douglas Castro is joining the firm as a managing director and will lead its Central America region, focused on growing both local market clients and digital creative solutions for CreativeDrive’s global team. Before joining CreativeDrive, Castro served as a managing director at Leo Burnett. Shaun Coulter is coming on board to oversee new business efforts in the Atlanta, Georgia and Bentonville, Arkansas regions of the U.S. Coulter joins the company from Advantage Solutions.
Jerry Tomaiolo is joining Centerline Digital as VP of digital media. He will be based in the marketing agency’s Raleigh, North Carolina headquarters and lead digital media strategies. “We believe Tomaiolo is the perfect fit for Centerline Digital,” said Centerline Digital CEO Charles Long, “We are thrilled to welcome him to our team to amplify our digital technology and social media offerings.” Tomaiolo has held leadership roles at various agencies, including Saatchi Advertising and The Cimarron Group. Most recently, he oversaw B2B and B2C social media profiles for the luxury technology apparel company Buki Brand.
Shyne Group, a California-based cannabis holding company with a fully, vertically-integrated asset and license portfolio, has hired Elisabeth Baron as its chief marketing officer. “Elisabeth has a proven track record of successfully designing culturally relevant and authentic marketing campaigns,” said Shyne Group CEO Brian Mitchell, “Authenticity is one of Shryne Group’s core values and we couldn’t be prouder to have Elisabeth running our marketing program.” Prior to joining the Shyne Group, Baron led marketing at Diageo, working with consumer brands like Crown Royal, Johnnie Walker and Grand Marnier. She also led marketing for the luxury cannabis flower brand, Canndescent.
Konrad Gerszke has been named president of the digital ad platform MediaMath. He will oversee all day-to-day operations and corporate functions, and report to the company’s CEO Joe Zawadzki. “As we accelerate the work we’ve begun towards the creation of an accountable and addressable supply chain, I am confident Konrad is the right leader to help us move MediaMath into its next phase of growth,” said Zawadzki. Gerszke spent 13 years with McKinsey, eventually being elected partner at the organization, and most recently served as the group president for Nielsen Lead Markets.
The fan-first global entertainment platform Fandom has appointed Adil Ajmal chief technology and product officer. He will report to the company’s CEO Perkins Miller and be charged with increasing fan engagement across Fandom’s existing platforms and lead development for new subscription products, gaming tools and data services. “As a huge sci-fi fan, and someone who consumes way more content than I probably should, I’m extremely excited to join the Fandom team and work on a product that I, along with millions of other fans, enjoy every day,” said Ajmal. Before joining Fandom, Ajmal was the chief technology officer for LendingHome.
About The Author
Amy Gesenhues is a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy’s articles.