Today in Digital Marketing - Here's What FaceTok Will Look Like

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, Facebook plans to change its algorithm to become its biggest threat. What marketers need to know about the Data Privacy and Protection Act. How to market your brand on the anti-Instagram. And is deleting comments on your Facebook ad pulling your ROAS down too? It's Thursday, June 16th. I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. Well, competing with TikTok has been Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's MO for quite some time. Now we have new information about how Facebook plans to change its algorithm to compete with social media's current golden child. Yesterday, as we were putting the show together, Facebook employees were receiving a new directive.

Starting point is 00:00:41 Make the feed more like TikTok. According to an internal memo from Tom Allison, the executive in charge of Facebook, the goal is to shift the platform into a discovery engine, which would rely heavily on AI-recommended content based on overall engagement and popularity, just like TikTok's For You feed. Recommendations would mainly come from unconnected content, including reels, and users would see fewer posts from personal connections. This is particularly interesting since Facebook has always said that is its strength, surfacing content from brands and friends and family members that you are most connected to. In fact, more than a disconnection, this turns that essentially on

Starting point is 00:01:24 its head. Also interestingly, the memo states that the social network plans to streamline content sharing by bringing Messenger's inbox back into the Facebook app, which again is a massive reversal after they spun off that app, much to everyone's chagrin several years ago. Quoting Allison, the home experience will balance both connected content and unconnected content. We're working to clean up top of feed and make it just as easy to see stories from friends as it is to discover new content in reels. We're also exploring a community panel to give direct access to the communities you care most about. Finally, we're testing a product to give you predictable access to your connected feed with the ability to sort in chronological order and filter by groups, pages, and friends. Internally, we call this Mr. T.

Starting point is 00:02:14 And I am excited about the progress the team is making, unquote. But as the A-team's Mr. T famously quipped, I pity the fool. As a reference to the sucker that's been targeted for a beatdown, in this case, I'm not so sure that sucker is TikTok. Well, the on again, off again Elon Musk purchase of Twitter appears to be on again. He showed up today for an all hands meeting with Twitter staff. Among the leaked takeaways, Musk said he'd probably modeled Twitter's future product direction more like WeChat, the super app in China that does everything

Starting point is 00:02:50 from messaging to commerce to ride hailing and more. He said, quote, you basically live on WeChat in China. If we can recreate that with Twitter, we'll be a great success, unquote. Andrew Hutchinson has a snarky but solid take on this today in socialmediatoday.com, quoting him, Wow, what a stroke of genius this is. This approach totally hasn't been attempted by almost every other messaging app in every other region. Indeed, Meta's been working on this template for years, first trying to get Western users more hooked on Messenger via the addition of a range of expanded functions and tools, then pushing to do the same with WhatsApp in India and other Asian markets. It's never worked. For whatever reason, Chinese users have adopted messaging apps in a much bigger way than those in other markets. And while Meta is still hopeful that it can make WhatsApp the key connective tool on India

Starting point is 00:03:40 and Indonesia specifically, the chances of US.S. users increasing their reliance on a messaging platform and definitely on Twitter are not high. But Elon seems to believe he's the first to notice this and that this is some hidden gem that no one has stumbled upon yet, which again underlines the concern that he's a little naive in his approach to managing and maximizing the platform, unquote. Andrew's piece is definitely worth a read. It's on socialmediatoday.com. It's called Musk's Twitter Plans Remain Vague After First Q&A With Company Staff. Kurt Wagner from Bloomberg also tweeted some info from the session, quoting his tweets. He was just asked about layoffs and replied that the company needs to get healthy without rejecting the idea of layoffs.

Starting point is 00:04:25 Quote, anyone who is a significant contributor should have nothing to worry about, unquote. Was also asked multiple questions about employees working from home. He said priority would be in-person work, but also carved out an exception for employees who are, quote, excellent contributors, unquote. Elon was asked about being CEO. He didn't say yes or no. Quote, I'm not that hung up on titles, but I do want to drive the product in a particular direction. There are a lot of chores if you want to be CEO. He said he doesn't care about title, but people, quote, do need to listen to me, unquote. And finally, again, quoting Kurt Wagner here, somehow the discussion then turned to aliens. Elon said, quote, I have seen no actual evidence for aliens, unquote,

Starting point is 00:05:13 which is exactly what an alien would say to avoid detection. I'm just saying. Yesterday, the U.S. Congress discussed the finer details of a proposed federal privacy bill showing some progress on a long-promised effort to give Americans more control over their personal data. According to the legislation, the American Data Privacy and Protection Act would take effect six months after being passed. Though its regulations are not finalized, Adweek has a piece up today on what marketers need to know about this proposed upcoming bill. First, people can file a private right of action. This bill gives U.S. consumers the right to sue tech companies that violate it. Second, people can opt out of targeted ads. This law gives people the right to opt out of that advertising, thus preventing their data from being sold without their consent. Opt-in consent will also be required for sensitive data, like tracking an individual's online activity across different websites. Geolocation data is also subject to opt-in consent. Three, companies will be mandated to adopt privacy by design framework.

Starting point is 00:06:21 Fourth, firms need to designate data privacy officers. And fifth, walled gardens will enjoy more power. The targeted advertising section of the bill favors walled gardens, including social network sites and e-commerce companies like Amazon. For example, if a consumer visits Amazon and searches for a pair of sneakers, Amazon will be able to retarget that person for those sneakers. Without insurance, your assets 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. While Facebook tries to be TikTok, the social media app BeReal, which seems to be anything but like Meta's platforms, continues to gain momentum.

Starting point is 00:07:23 According to Apptopia, Be Real is enticing almost 3 million daily active users. The new kid in town, Be Real, is designed for users to showcase their real life. Users receive a notification every day at a different time, prompting them to post, and they have only two minutes to take a photo using their camera, capturing both the front and back of the camera. I have tried this out. I have to say it's oddly refreshing content. Like TikTok, there are two main feeds, one that only shows your friends. The other is a discovery feed. No idea how it's picking what to show you there.

Starting point is 00:07:56 But the content is beautifully unvarnished and normal. A guy watching his friend put a sleeping bag out. Someone waiting for a bus outside a hotel, an institutionally drab wall at a doctor's office. It is truly the anti-Instagram, at least for now. Feel free to follow me there. Of course, my username is just Todd Maffin. But as a consumer-driven app between friends and connections, how can your brand capitalize on the forthcoming Be Real platform? Well, the app currently doesn't offer any ad options, but MediaPost reports how early adopters are

Starting point is 00:08:30 indeed using the app to promote their brand. One fast food chain, for instance, used Be Real to share a limited promo code for free food with its users. Due to Be Real's ethos of transparency and authenticity, as the company puts it. Media posts suggest that brands interested in marketing on the platform should tell an authentic story instead of sharing the polished narratives we sometimes see on other social platforms. You know, I was thinking the other day, I wonder who could be benefiting from Apple's app tracking transparency. Could it be TikTok? No. Meta? No, definitely no.

Starting point is 00:09:12 Oh, what about Apple? So it turns out Apple Insider is reporting today that Apple could bring in $6 billion in revenue from mobile advertising by just 2025. As a result of the release of iOS 14 and the introduction of app tracking transparency, Meta, on the other hand, allegedly lost $10 billion in revenue. One analyst claimed that Apple's change drove headwinds for incumbent advertising platforms, and those headwinds will force advertisers to reallocate advertising budgets, including on Apple search ads. Analysts also predict the mobile advertising market is expected to exceed $400 billion in 2024, which is about a third of an increase from the $288 billion it claimed last year. While many big brands are busy marketing themselves as LGBT allies for Pride Month, new research from Data for Progress has found several companies are also backing anti-LGBTQ

Starting point is 00:10:17 plus legislation. At the same time, they're promoting how great an ally they are. This year, lawmakers in the U.S. have introduced nearly 300 pieces of anti-LGBTQ plus legislation, including a number of measures targeting trans youth. Data for Progress has compiled a database showing which brands publicly oppose those bills, but also fund lawmakers who sponsor them. Those brands include AT&T, Toyota, Comcast, and Amazon. According to the analysis, all four marketers sponsored pride celebrations this month, but also collectively gave more than a million dollars to the lawmakers responsible for anti-queer campaigns this year. Reddit advertisers will now have access to DoubleVerify's measurement and verification tools.

Starting point is 00:11:08 Reddit announced the exclusive partnership today and said it will use the tech to help advertisers ensure campaigns are viewable, seen by real people, served in a brand-safe environment, safe from fraud, and appear in the intended geography. The full suite of solutions is expected to be available in 2023. And finally, I report this with a bit of hesitation since it is anecdotal data. It is only based on the report of one person, but it comes from Andrew Foxwell's great Foxwell Founders Group.

Starting point is 00:11:39 So I do put some weight in it. Someone in his group is reporting that every time they delete a comment from a Facebook ad, their ad performance on that ad set dips, and dramatically so, from a blended ROAS of 4 to under 1.3. The person says it's happened already three times, and they could see the correlation based on the time and date. So I bring it to your attention just in case it's something you may want to look into. Maybe test at your end, deleting a comment. Does that actually have an effect on your ad campaign performance?

Starting point is 00:12:09 If this is something that you think is a thing or has happened to you, please let me know. Just tweet me or use the contact information in the show notes or something. It seems like a strange signal that Facebook would be using for ad performance. But, you know, they're not exactly always the A-team over there. Just got the Vets bill for, well, Vets quote, I guess, for dental care for our aging mini schnauzer. She's 14 years old, has not had dental work in a while has some extractions to do anyway uh the price you know it's bad when the quote comes with a range right

Starting point is 00:12:52 at the low end it might be this at the high end it might be that low end 1700 high end almost 2200 dollars oh my god she is worth it, though. We have a special needs cat as well who has a special diet with of course only the most expensive food. It's a good thing we don't have kids. I'll tell you. Anyway, that's it for today. I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:13:27 You trademarked the phrase, I pay the fool. Exactly. So what happens if someone uses that in a commercial? Oh, oh, oh, my people are going to be on them. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. That's part of Mr. T's retirement fund.

Today in Digital Marketing - Here's What FaceTok Will Look Like

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