Today in Digital Marketing - Inside a Million-Dollar Instagram Verification Scheme

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, how not to get the blue checkmark on your brand profile, details on one of Instagram's largest verification schemes. Also, why you should be using influencers outside of social, the most effective ad combinations on Twitter, and a nasty TikTok vulnerability that put millions of brand accounts at risk. It's Wednesday, August 31st. I'm Steph Gunn, filling in for Todd Maffin. Here is what you missed today in Digital Marketing. Today, most people value a coveted blue checkmark on social profiles, and most brands strive to get that blue check. But can that little blue verified checkmark be trusted? ProPublica has a fascinating story up today on a scheme to game the verification systems

Starting point is 00:00:48 of social media platforms. According to their investigation, hundreds of people have been clients of a million-dollar scheme to get falsely verified as musicians on Instagram since at least 2021, including brands, reality TV show stars, and OnlyFans models. According to ProPublica, the verification scheme exploited music platforms like Spotify and Apple Music as well as Google Search to create fake musician profiles and trick Meta into verifying them. An aspiring DJ and crypto entrepreneur sold this as a service. It was apparent to him that Instagram's requirements for verifying musicians could easily be met by creating dubious profiles on platforms like Spotify and Apple, buying articles

Starting point is 00:01:31 promoting the musician, and gaming Google search. Quoting the piece, the songs uploaded to client profiles were often nothing more than basic looping beats or in at least one case extended periods of dead air. The Meta employees tasked with reviewing the musician verification applications apparently failed to listen to the tracks or look too closely. Sources say the individuals running the scheme also frequently bought fake comments and likes for clients' Instagram posts to make the accounts look popular and purchased fake streams for songs on Spotify. They also purchased articles promoting purchased fake streams for songs on Spotify. They also purchased articles promoting fake artists and their music on websites.

Starting point is 00:02:13 One source even said that some clients were told to rent a recording studio and post photos on Instagram that made it look like they were working on music. So far, Meta has removed more than 300 Instagram profiles with fraudulent verification badges. Again, quoting ProPublica, the scheme, which likely generated millions in revenue for its operators, illustrates how easily major social, search, and music platforms can be exploited to create fake personas with real-world consequences, such as monetizing a verified account. It also underscores how Instagram's growth and cachet

Starting point is 00:02:44 combines with poor customer support and lacks oversight to create a thriving black market in verification services and account takedowns for hire, unquote. The article goes into a lot more detail about this mind-boggling scheme, and it is well worth a read. A link is provided in today's premium newsletter, or you can head to ProPublica.com. The article is titled, Real Money, Fake Musicians. If you're looking to increase engagement, a new study from marketing agency Mediacom has found that consumers want to see influencers pretty much everywhere. Although social media has typically been the platform for influencer marketing, half of consumers now say that they are more likely to engage with a product

Starting point is 00:03:28 if a related ad is endorsed by an influencer, regardless of the platform. When it comes to traditional media, more than half of respondents who read physical newspapers and magazines daily admit to buying something promoted by a creator, closely followed by podcasts and online media. These traditional media consumers also have a slightly higher purchasing intent than users of most social media platforms. Among those who follow creators on social media, fewer consumers have purchased something they promoted on top platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The study also found that traditional TV is still relevant, with almost half of consumers indicating they are very likely to engage with the brand

Starting point is 00:04:12 if they see an ad with the creator while watching television. Quoting the head of influencer marketing at Mediacom, there has been a lot of noise made around the role of influencers on social media, but it's clear that traditional media can have almost the same impact on consumers when influencers and brands collaborate. Creators are becoming a driving force for brand relevancy and engaging with consumers in a trusting and meaningful way, which ultimately results in better performance. And because of this, brands need to understand that there is a wealth of opportunity

Starting point is 00:04:44 to do exciting work with influencers beyond social media. Data has been provided by Mediacom's survey of more than 2,000 consumers in the UK and US. For advertisers looking to maximize performance on Twitter, the platform today released a new guide on the most effective ad combinations. Keep in mind that Twitter naturally wants you to spend more money on your tweet campaigns and use more of its ad options. That said, data suggests that some combinations are more effective at driving results than others. Twitter divided its results into three separate advertising goals. First, building brand awareness. If your brand has a mobile app, Twitter says a combination of an image with website button, video app with website button, and video with website button was the winning recipe. For brands without a mobile app, a mixture of a single image, image website button, carousel image with website button, and video website button was the magic formula.

Starting point is 00:05:41 Next, boosting purchasing intent. A combination of Twitter moments, organic video, and a video with website button resulted in five times the purchase intent and consideration. The third and final goal, lifting brand favorability. Twitter says that using an image-based poll along with an image with website button tripled those favorability numbers. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. 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. A few people changes to report. First, Netflix has finally found its executives to run its

Starting point is 00:06:38 advertising division, and both are from Snapchat. As Netflix prepares to enter the industry of ad supported streaming, Snap's chief business officer will join the company as president of Worldwide Advertising. The streaming giant also recruited Snapchat's VP of sales, who will hold the same role at Netflix. Both people will start those new gigs in the next week or two. There may be another reason the execs are jumping ship, Snap's CEO confirmed this morning that the company will reduce its staff by 20% and will stop investing in some projects in order to refocus the business on growing ad revenue. A memo sent to staff explained why the changes are necessary, stating it has become clear that we must reduce our cost structure to avoid incurring significant ongoing losses. Also in the news, YouTube's chief business officer is leaving the Google-owned video platform after more than 12 years there. No word on when he's going.

Starting point is 00:07:39 Microsoft this morning revealed a high-severity vulnerability in the TikTok Android app that could have let hackers take over brand accounts with a single click. Quoting Microsoft, attackers could have leveraged the vulnerability to hijack an account without users' awareness if a targeted user simply clicked a specially crafted link. Attackers could have then accessed and modified users' TikTok profiles and sensitive information, such as publicizing private videos, sending messages, and uploading videos on behalf of users. Microsoft noted that the vulnerability has been fixed, and so far there's no evidence of its exploitation. Nevertheless, the potential impact was huge,

Starting point is 00:08:20 since it affected all Android versions of the Android TikTok app, which has more than 1.5 billion downloads. Consumers will soon have even more choices in what content they see on Instagram, which could go either way for your brand's visibility on the platform. This week, Instagram announced new features to help consumers refine content recommendations. First, it's testing the ability to select multiple posts within Explore and mark them as not interested all at once. Like not interested in feed, the platform says it will immediately hide those posts and refrain from showing users similar content in the future. The platform will also soon start testing the ability for users to tell Instagram that they don't want to see

Starting point is 00:09:04 suggested posts with certain keywords, hashtags, or emojis in the caption or included tags. Quoting Instagram, whether you're seeing something that's not relevant or have moved on from something you used to like, you can use this feature to stop seeing content that's not interesting to you. Finally, the platform has provided a basic overview of its current system. Instagram says it uses five specific interaction metrics to guide its recommendation system. How long users are likely to spend on a post, the likelihood of a user commenting on a post, liking a post, resharing a post, and the likelihood of a user tapping through to the creator's profile. And finally, in the no, it's not just you department,

Starting point is 00:09:52 some Shopify stores were down this morning. Oddly, it appeared to only affect stores that had Google's tag manager code in place. The store still worked, but customers weren't able to reach checkout. The bug appears to have been fixed now. Today marks my last day filling in for Todd on Wednesdays, which means you'll be back to hearing Todd five days a week. Next week is the exception as it's the Labor Day weekend, so no show on Monday. So another four day week for Todd. Just kidding. I also get a four day week and I really enjoyed getting to sit in the hot seat and host this summer. So I wanted to thank you for Todd. Just kidding. I also get a four day week and I really enjoyed getting to sit in

Starting point is 00:10:25 the hot seat and host this summer. So I wanted to thank you for listening. And on another note, you can still find me in our Slack group, which if you haven't joined yet, what are you waiting for? You'll get instant access to advice, tips, and help from over 900 digital marketers. Plus you get a look at what's coming up on each day's episode. It's free to join. You can join now by tapping the link in the show notes or going to todayindigital.com slash slack. Thanks again for listening. Todd will be back to talk to you tomorrow. Bye.

Today in Digital Marketing - Inside a Million-Dollar Instagram Verification Scheme

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