Social Shorts: LinkedIn refreshes Daily Rundown and Facebook’s VP of Ads exits company

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 makes space for news. Facebook has confirmed to Marketing Land it will not be placing ads in its newly introduced News tab, but publishers will still be able to monetize their content as usual with Instant Articles and other options.

The Washington Post first reported Facebook would be launching a news tab on the platform. Sources told the paper that the news stories featured in the tab will include articles from hundreds of news organizations, some of which will receive payment from Facebook for their content.

“Facebook’s service will include some human curation by a small editorial team of journalists, who will select top stories. But mostly the News tab will rely on computerized algorithms that seek to match user interests with offerings from a wide range of reports on politics, sports, health, technology, entertainment and other subjects,” reports the Washington Post. 

The Washington Post listed itself among the approximately 200 news organizations that will be included in the launch.

Other publications named by sources include the Wall Street Journal (which is owned by News Corp.), Business Insider, BuzzFeed News and local news publications. Sources told the Washington Post that the New York Times was also likely to participate, but terms had not been finalized. According to the report, payments by Facebook to news organizations will range from “hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.”

New look for LinkedIn’s Daily Rundown. LinkedIn has redesigned its Daily Rundown, the platform where the site curates news stories selected by an internal team of editors. The redesign includes new navigation that makes it easier for users to move between stories and go deeper into specific topics. By clicking on a headline within the Daily Rundown, users will be able to see conversations happening on the platform about the story. The site has also started a pilot program allowing users to subscribe to regularly published pieces by industry thought leaders. LinkedIn mentioned two available newsletters: the “Get Hired” newsletter and one called “The Hustle” — both offering insights into the job hunt and professional goals. Users who have access to the pilot program can find more newsletters by clicking the “Newsletters Related to Your Industry” option under the “My Network” tab.

TikTok touts its safety measures. The short-form video app TikTok, which boasts more than 500 million users, has released a second set of videos that are part of its “You’re in Control” video series, highlighting the platform’s safety and privacy features. “Educating our users on the options we provide to help them craft their optimal TikTok experience is one of our top priorities,” writes TikTok on its newsroom blog. The company has enlisted 12 of its most popular creators to produce videos on six different topics, including how to block a user, how to filter comments, reporting inappropriate behavior and how to disable or enable the duet feature which allows two videos to be posted side-by-side in the same screen. 

Majority of political tweets come from only 10% of users. After analyzing a random sample of tweets from U.S. adults with public accounts, Pew Research found the majority of political tweets are made by a very small segment of users. According to their findings: 97% of tweets mentioning national politics came from only 10% of users. Those who are tweeting about politics are also more likely to follow others who feel the same way they do. “Political tweeters – defined as those who tweeted at least five times in total, and at least twice about national politics, over the year of the study period – are almost twice as likely as other Twitter users to say the people they follow on Twitter have political beliefs similar to their own,” writes Pew Research.

Facebook’s latest efforts to safeguard elections

Facebook is doing some crisis control this week after receiving much criticism for how it handles political content and advertising on the platform — allowing candidates to run ads containing false information. The company announced a number of new updates to its Ad Library, launched the Facebook Protect program and made Pages more transparent. None of these updates reverse the company’s decision that, as the Washington Post put it: “Opens a frightening new world for political communication — and for national politics.” 

Here’s a rundown of the company’s recent moves to keep its platform safe during elections:

Updates to Ad Library offer more insight into political ads. Facebook’s Ad Library, the platform that archives all ads run on the platform during the past seven years, will now include a feature that tracks spending by U.S. presidential candidates. Facebook is also adding spend details for candidate campaigns at the state and regional level, and clarification around where the ad ran: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or Facebook’s Audience Network. Starting next month, Facebook said it will begin testing a new database that allows researchers to download the entire ad library and pull daily snapshots to track day-to-day changes.

Facebook Protect: A program to keep political accounts safe. Launched this week, Facebook Protect is designed to secure Facebook and Instagram accounts belonging to candidates, elected officials, federal and state departments and agencies, and party committees in the U.S. Participants must enroll to be part of the program, and once accepted, will receive advanced security protections and monitoring for potential hacking threats.

“If we discover an attack against one enrolled individual, we can review and protect other accounts that are enrolled in our program and affiliated with that same campaign,” writes Facebook on the Facebook Protect website, “Additionally, all Page admins of enrolled Pages will be required to go through Page Publishing Authorization to ensure the security of the Page, regardless of whether or not individual Page admins choose to enroll in this program.”

To enroll, Page owners must already have received the blue-verified badge. Once a Page has been verified it can enroll via the form listed at the bottom of the Facebook Protect site.

More transparency for political Pages. Facebook is adding an “Organizations that Manage This Page” tab to Pages to clarify what organizations are behind political Pages on the platform. The tab will list the organization’s legal name and verified city, phone number or website. For now, this information will only be included for Pages with large U.S. audiences that have already completed Facebook’s business verification process and any Pages that have been authorized to run ads about social issues, elections or politics in the U.S.

“If we find a Page is concealing its ownership in order to mislead people, we will require it to successfully complete the verification process and show more information in order for the Page to stay up,” writes Facebook executives Guy Rosen, Nathaniel Gleicher and Rob Leathern on the company’s Newsroom Blog.

On the Move

Rob Goldman, Facebook’s VP of ads, announced on Twitter that Tuesday was his last day at the company: “Some personal news: After more than 7 years, today is my last day at Facebook. What I will miss most are the people, who are among the smartest and most talented I’ve ever met. I wish them all the very best in their important work.” wrote Goldman. He first joined Facebook in 2012, and was named director of product ads and Pages in 2014.

Twitch, the Amazon-owned game streaming site, has named Doug Scott as its new chief marketing officer. He is replacing Kate Jhaveri, Twitch’s former CMO who left the company earlier this year. “Doug has deep experience extending brands into new markets across games and entertainment industries, making him the ideal fit to lead Twitch’s marketing strategy,” said Twitch COO Sara Clemens. Prior to joining Twitch, Scott led marketing for the social gaming platform Zynga and was CMO for the music startup BandPage. 

Hyundai Motors has hired Angela Zepeda as its next chief marketing officer. Zepeda will oversee all U.S. marketing and advertising efforts for the automaker, including strategic direction, brand development, national and regional advertising, experiential and social marketing, lead gen and more. “Angela was already a member of our extended family and we’ve seen firsthand her creativity, business acumen and talent in building our brand and leading teams,” said Hyundai COO Brian Smith. Prior to joining the company, Zepeda was the senior vice president and managing director of INNOCEAN USA, Hyundai’s agency of record.

Heidi Bullock has been named chief marketing officer for Tealium, a customer data orchestration platform. CEO Jeff Lunsford called Bullock a fantastic addition to the team. “Heidi will undoubtedly help us expand our market position in a high growth market and continue to solidify us as a global leader in the industry,” said Lunsford. Prior to joining Tealium, Bullock most recently served as the CMO for Engagio. She also held the role of group vice president of global marketing at Marketo.

The marketing performance management platform Allocadia has hired Julia Stead as the new chief marketing officer and added John Stetic to its Board of Directors. Stead will focus on working with Allocadia clients, guiding marketing leaders in developing strategy, investing intelligently and optimizing their marketing investment results. “I’m thrilled to be joining a team that is focused on helping other marketers achieve the same growth I’m passionate about driving for my own company,” said Stead. Before joining Allocadia, Stead was the VP of marketing at Invoca. Stetic, a veteran in the martech product industry, currently serves as the senior VP of innovation and partnerships at ServiceMax.

BitPay, a global blockchain payments provider, has appointed Bill Zielke as the company’s first chief marketing officer. In his new role, Zielke will be tasked with executing marketing strategy that supports BitPay’s growth objectives, building a strong business and consumer brand, and cultivating an increased awareness around cryptocurrency and its use. “We realized we needed a seasoned marketer to advance the company to the next level. We are excited to have Bill on board as we attract more users to BitPay and drive greater merchant acceptance of cryptocurrencies,” said CEO Stephen Pair. Zielke’s former marketing leadership roles include time at Ingo Money and Forter, serving as CMO at both venture-backed startups.

---