Today in Digital Marketing - That Support Widget On Your Site Could Cost You Millions

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Friday, March 3rd. Today, your site's customer support widget could get you in hot water. Facebook Reels get a big upgrade, Meta kills paid partnerships, sort of, an unlikely newcomer to the metaverse, and the TikTok feature everybody's creeped out over. I'm Steph Gunn filling in for Todd Maffin. That's ahead, today, in Digital Marketing. Does your brand's website have a chatbot? It's a common feature that countless e-commerce sites rely on for marketing, sales, and customer service. But that chatbot could end up costing you millions. Foot Locker has been hit by a $25 million lawsuit over allegations of violating consumer privacy through its chat feature. The lawsuit claims the company is illegally wiretapping customers

Starting point is 00:00:48 because it records their chat conversations, archives them, and shares the information with third parties. Foot Locker's lawsuit isn't the only one. Similar suits were filed against Crocs and Adidas last year, which means more lawsuits like this could be on the way. What can you do to prevent being targeted? A report from the Marketing Insider yesterday suggests that brands or service providers offering an online chatbot feature should consult with their legal counsel to determine if

Starting point is 00:01:16 they need to take any precautions. Extra steps you could take include the usual creating a detailed policy that is consistent with current privacy laws and regulations, regularly updating your privacy policy to remain relevant, and ensuring customers are aware of how their personal information is being used. Facebook Reels are getting some updates today, including 90-second videos. Up until now, Facebook Reels were limited to 60 seconds. The company is also rolling out more creative tools, including ready-made Reels from Memories, a new Grooves feature that automatically syncs your video to the beat of a song,

Starting point is 00:01:55 and finally, Templates, which let you create Reels with trending templates. This feature was rolled out on Instagram last year. In other meta news, and this one's a bit of a surprise, branded content ads will no longer contain paid partnership disclosure text. Meta says it is redesigning the branded content ad format on Instagram to remove that language from the ad format. Moving forward, newly created branded content ads on Instagram, including ads created with or without an existing organic branded content post, will feature both the primary and partner identities, for example, brand and creator, in a dual header format. While we are removing the paid partnership language, branded content ads will continue to identify both the brand and creator and will include the sponsored label. To be clear, this update is an ad format change only. No changes have been made to setup or permissions or Meta's branded content policies.

Starting point is 00:02:57 And organic branded content posts will still use the paid partnership label. I should note that updates like this aren't usually posted publicly by Meta, and they can be hard to track down. We often learn about them from Andrew Foxwell's fantastic Slack community, which we've been a member of since its start. You can check it out via our affiliate link, which is b.link slash founders. Score one for Google. Consumers suing Google over its data collection practices have lost their early appeal to pursue at least $5 billion in damages as a class action. The group sued Google in 2020, claiming that the company collected data on users despite them using Chrome's incognito mode. The mode claims to leave fewer traces of data and tracking when browsing the web. Reuters reported yesterday that a U.S. court has rejected an appeal request

Starting point is 00:03:50 for a previous ruling denying the class action status. Class action status would have let them pursue claims against Google as a group instead of filing individual claims. The class would have included tens of millions of Google Chrome browser users. But it's not over. The plaintiffs can still revive their money damages claims during a final judgment. The trial is scheduled for November and it will be by jury. Home Depot is starting them young. The home improvement retailer made its debut in the metaverse yesterday with a new experience for kids on Roblox. The virtual experience is based on the company's in-real-life kids workshops, but in Roblox, virtual kids workshops challenge the

Starting point is 00:04:36 youth of the nation to collect virtual materials to build projects. Players visit the new metaverse storefront in an area of the game called Redcliffe City. They are offered a variety of projects to build. They can also go on a scavenger hunt, collecting materials from virtual aisles to assemble their project. And when they're done, the gamers can leave the virtual store with their project and use it throughout the Redcliffe City virtual world. Home Depot will also be running a campaign throughout its real-life workshops in which unique codes will be given out to use in the game during the first Saturday of each month starting this weekend. It's the season for new styles and you love to shop for jackets

Starting point is 00:05:20 and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at Rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. 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 point is 00:06:10 starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. LinkedIn recently made some changes to its company engagement report. The report is available within the matched audience feature of Campaign Manager and displays how many people from each company are engaging with your content. What's new? A company segmentation option. This lets marketers filter the report to create company list segments, which can then be used in ad campaigns. Quoting LinkedIn, Once you've filtered by engagement level and prioritized accounts for your segment, you will have the option to create a dynamic or static segment.

Starting point is 00:06:47 A dynamic segment will update daily with companies from your original list, then have low engagement. A static segment will be a snapshot of the low engaged companies at that moment, and the segment of companies will not change. You can also download the report to analyze LinkedIn engagement data on your own. As social media today points out, the additional capabilities may not be a key factor for all brands, but they could help you gain a better understanding of how people are reacting to your updates. dates. Two new filters are freaking out TikTokers, and it might be at the hands of our robot overlords. Gizmodo reported today that the filters known as Bold Glamour and Teenage Look are

Starting point is 00:07:34 potentially using AI to completely alter your face. But filters that alter faces and apply mascara have been around for years. So what makes these two so different? An augmented reality consultant quoted in the piece explained that this filter is likely using machine learning technologies. A traditional filter takes your two-dimensional screen and then it overlays a face mesh on top that tracks to your face. Bold Glamour actually takes the camera image itself and then processes it. Unquote. These two filters are allegedly using generative adversarial networks to seamlessly cover your face.

Starting point is 00:08:11 This is why bold glamour's modifications seem to move with your face, and why the filter barely distorts when you cover your face with your hand. I tried the bold look filter, and I don't hate it. But it did completely change my face rather convincingly compared to just a regular makeup filter. The filter gave me incredibly realistic lip injections, removed my buckle fat, and a brow lift. I had a total Mandela effect moment during the show today over Home Depot branding. So apparently the company has always been called the Home Depot.

Starting point is 00:08:51 The logo even has the in it. And I've always just thought it was Home Depot. But based on everything I was looking at online, the company pretty much denies being called anything but the Home Depot. But apparently I'm not the only one experiencing the phenomenon. I found a Mandela Effect group on Facebook and it shows a screenshot of a woman who had two old credit cards, one for Home Depot and then the other one for the Home Depot. Case closed. If you're on LinkedIn, don't forget to sign up for our free daily newsletter it's called the top story each business day we'll send you the lead story in our podcast including videos

Starting point is 00:09:32 links charts and graphics and it's completely free you can sign up for that at today in digital.com slash top story there's also a link in the show notes today in digital marketing is produced by engage q digital on the traditional territories of the snunema first nation on vancouver island There's also a link in the show notes. Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Snunema First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our associate producer is me, Steph Gunn. Our production coordinator is Sarah Gild. Music licensing by Source Audio. Advertising by Red Circle.

Starting point is 00:09:59 And our theme composer, Mark Blevis, got his Twitter account suspended again. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the tweet he sent Elon Musk. It read, You pay the profits to justify the reasons. I heard your promise, but I don't believe it. Outro Music

Today in Digital Marketing - That Support Widget On Your Site Could Cost You Millions

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.