Today in Digital Marketing - Bridge Over Troubled Twitter

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Friday, June 2nd. Today, the head of Twitter's trust and safety team is out, and paying users appear immune to policy enforcement. Shopify launches a rewards program, WordPress takes on Substack, and too bad you slaved over writing the perfect headline, AI is rewriting it. I'm Steph Gunn, sitting in for Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in Digital Marketing. Twitter's trust and safety lead Ella Irwin may be looking for a blue sky invite, after confirming her resignation to Reuters yesterday. She spent just seven months with the company and oversaw content moderation. The specific reason behind her departure is still unknown, but according to

Starting point is 00:00:45 TechCrunch, it seems to be related to Twitter's slide to the political right, and in particular, an activist film called What Is a Woman? The documentary is a feature-length attack on transgender people. Upon its release on Twitter yesterday, the film's visibility was limited, apparently an automatic trigger of the platform's rules against hateful conduct. In response, Musk said that the limited breach was a mistake made by several people at Twitter and clarified that the film was welcome on his platform, despite its violation of the company's policies. As of today, I was able to access the documentary without any restrictions. While it is not clear whether Irwin's exit is directly related to this incident, the report suggests she may have been involved in the decision-making process regarding video labeling.

Starting point is 00:01:30 Meanwhile, content moderation chaos persists. A new report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate revealed that Twitter is letting more hateful posts on and overlooking moderation if the poster is a paying subscriber of Twitter Blue. The report says Twitter hasn't removed recent hateful posts from verified subscribers that violate the platform's policy against hateful conduct. The study's researchers collected tweets from paying subscribers and reported them using Twitter's own flagging tools. Four days later, 99% of the reported posts from subscribers were

Starting point is 00:02:06 still active, and all of the accounts involved were still active. The flagged tweets which were posted within the last month contained racist, homophobic, neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and conspiratorial content. Shopify is now paying consumers to shop. The e-commerce company launched a new rewards program today called Shop Cash that gifts customers 1% back on purchases made using its ShopPay online checkout service. Once a purchase is made, shoppers will see the rewards appear in their ShopPay wallets in the Shop app, and these rewards can be redeemed for future purchases within the app. To promote the launch, Shopify is hosting a Shop Day event today and giving away more than $1

Starting point is 00:02:50 million in Shop Cash. The company is also partnering with several merchants and influencers, including the popular YouTube creator MrBeast, to share custom links across social channels with followers. Customers can redeem Shop Cash by clicking on those links and spending directly in the Shop app. The rewards program is now available for eligible purchases from merchants and shoppers in the U.S. WordPress is entering the paid newsletter market, directly challenging Substack and others. The company launched a big update yesterday with its newsletter market, directly challenging Substack and others. The company launched a big update yesterday with its newsletter product, now supporting paid subscriptions and premium

Starting point is 00:03:30 content. WordPress's newsletter lets writers send posts via email to connect with their audience while using the platform's other capabilities. Users have the option to use it exclusively for newsletters or integrate it into their blog for readers who prefer receiving posts via email. The tool has been around since December, but with this week's expansion, publishers can monetize their content. Like Substack, WordPress authors can choose whether their posts are available for free or exclusively for paid subscribers. When posting, publishers specify the audience by checking the right box. This is accessible to all WordPress.com blogs, including those on the free plan.

Starting point is 00:04:15 But as newsletter businesses expand, the company notes that publishers may opt for paid plans, which come with reduced transaction fees on their newsletter subscription emails. Full disclosure, this podcast email newsletter uses Substack. are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. So, you slaved over the perfect headline for that landing page or news story. Sure, it's a little clickbaity, but it's performing. Well, there's some bad news coming. Artifact, a news app, now lets users flag articles as clickbait. And worse, it will take that beautiful headline of yours and rewrite it in real time using GPT-4. A little star icon will appear beside rewritten headlines in the app.

Starting point is 00:05:19 Previously, Artifact relied on a manual process to verify and label articles as clickbait based on multiple user reports. Next up, it's working on detecting those headlines without any human flagging. The biggest e-commerce company in the world may have just found a way to reach consumers right in the palm of their hands. Bloomberg reported today that Amazon is in talks with Verizon, T-Mobile, and other wireless carriers about offering its prime subscribers low-cost wireless plans for $10 a month, or possibly for free. The talks are said to have been going on for several weeks and have also included AT&T, but the plan may take several more months to launch if it does come to fruition. Quoting the report, anytime Amazon enters a new market, it sends shivers through the industry because the retail giant has shown it's willing to absorb billions of dollars in shipping and movie production costs

Starting point is 00:06:16 to fuel Prime membership growth. Wireless service could just be one more item that Amazon's willing to take a hit on if it gives the company a leg up versus Walmart, unquote. June may have only just begun, but it's beginning to look a lot like starting to plan your holiday campaigns. On this front, TikTok has released its 2023 Holiday Marketing Playbook, which includes insights into its role as a product discovery platform and its impact on consumer shopping habits. The guide also includes top hashtags and key trends in the app, as well as recommended timelines for executing various campaigns. A link to download the guide is available in today's premium newsletter,

Starting point is 00:07:00 or you can search TikTok holiday marketing. Don't have a whole lot going on this weekend. My weekend plans actually consist of garbage pail shopping. Someone stole our garbage pail. We caught them on our front camera. I guess garbage pails with wheels are a real hot commodity because I was talking to one of my friends and she had the exact same thing happen. So I guess we're going to have to go with something a little less luxurious this time. commodity because I was talking to one of my friends and she had the exact same thing happen.

Starting point is 00:07:29 So I guess we're going to have to go with something a little less luxurious this time. On that note, I hope that your weekend plans are more exciting than mine. Thanks for listening. I'm Steph Gunn. Todd will be back on Monday.

Today in Digital Marketing - Bridge Over Troubled Twitter

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