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Facebook Considers Tougher Transparency Rules in Response to Tactics Used by Bloomberg Campaign

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facebook considers tougher transparency rules in response to tactics used by bloomberg campaign

We’re less than a month into the official US Presidential campaign cycle, and already Facebook’s advanced rules around political content are being tested.

A week after implementing new rules around the use of memes by political candidates, in response to tactics being deployed by the Bloomberg campaign, Facebook is now once again being forced to re-assess its process, this time with respect to how Bloomberg is using campaign staffers to distribute his messaging through their personal networks.

As per CNBC:

“Bloomberg’s campaign is hiring more than 500 deputy field organizers, a job which includes mobilizing supporters for get-out-the-vote efforts and engaging friends to support Bloomberg for president – which can include sharing on social networks. But Facebook is concerned about the lack of transparency around Bloomberg’s employees unidentified posts, and doesn’t want to undercut all the work the company has done around transparency by allowing a campaign to circumvent Facebook’s rules.”

Essentially, Facebook is now looking into whether personal posts from campaign staffers and supporters need to also come with a disclaimer to signify their affiliation.

In some ways this seems like a stretch – people are free to share what they like on the platform, regardless of their professional ties – but then again, if this is built into a contract with the Bloomberg campaign, and a level of sharing is required or mandated as part of such duties, that muddies the waters significantly.

It seems that, despite Facebook’s many efforts, there are still some holes in its political campaign policies.

Will that become a bigger problem moving forward?

With the rise of social media as a tool for political messaging, there are some significant questions around the power of social to influence the vote – and just how powerful Facebook, in particular, can be for shifting public sentiment.

Clearly, political operatives see major potential in the platform. The Trump campaign has spent $20 million on Facebook ads in 2019 alone, while incoming Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg has already blown them away, spending $48.5 million on Facebook ads since last May.

Of course, for Bloomberg, who has a net worth of $65.2 billion, this is a relatively minor outlay – but will it work? Can the person with the most money to spend on social media ads dominate the discussion enough to actually win the vote?

At this stage, that seems unlikely. The Guardian recently conducted an analysis of Bloomberg’s campaign ads, and while there are certainly a lot of them, its assessment found that they lack political substance, and don’t properly utilize Facebook’s advanced audience targeting capacity, which has ultimately seen them fail to connect with voter pain points in the same way the Trump campaign’s efforts have. 

Bloomberg campaign example

But there are a lot of them – take a look at this chart from The Guardian in regards to Facebook ad impressions in 2020.

Facebook ads from political candidates

Yet, without the same political bite, and in-depth targeting focus of the Trump campaign – which one Facebook exec said was the “the single best digital ad campaign I’ve ever seen” – it does seem like Bloomberg is failing to gain traction. Add to that a poor showing in the recent Democratic debate, and it would appear that candidates need more than Facebook ads to win an election.

But then again, there is precedent for those that can win the mentions race going on to win the final vote.

Indeed, various research reports have shown that mention volume alone is the best indicator in predicting vote outcomes based on social media activity.

A study conducted by Dublin City University in 2011 found that tweet volume was “the single biggest predictive variable” in election results, based on their analysis of political sentiment and prediction modeling, while another study conducted by the Technical University of Munich in 2010 found that:

“The mere number of tweets reflects voter preferences and comes close to traditional election polls.”

Maybe this is what Bloomberg is hoping for – by dominating the media cycle, maybe he can go on to dominate the polls. In this sense, it would be less about the specifics of his messaging and more about his capacity to ‘flood the zone’, a tactic used by former Trump strategist Steve Bannon to maximize Trump’s messaging. 

Maybe, with more money, Bloomberg will have greater capacity to dominate proceedings, and dwarf the arguments of his opponents. That doesn’t feel likely at this stage. But that could be – or could have been – the Bloomberg campaign’s plan.  

Socialmediatoday.com

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Threads Looks Set to be Made Available to European Users Next Week

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Threads Looks Set to be Made Available to European Users Next Week

Good news with EU social media fans, with Threads looking set for a December 14th launch in the region, just in time to capitalize on holiday engagement.

As reported by The Verge, EU Instagram users can now access a countdown timer at www.threads.net, which seemingly indicates the exact time for the upcoming EU launch. Meta hasn’t made any official announcement, but the countdown clock is only visible to European users, while EU users can also search ‘ticket’ in the Instagram app to find a digital invitation to Threads.

Which replicates the original Threads launch back in July, which included similar Easter eggs and indicators pointing to the launch date (like the above).

The EU launch of Threads has been delayed by evolving EU data privacy regulations, which, due to the timing of the implementation of these new rules, has put additional development burden on the Threads team to ensure compliance with the new parameters. Amid the initial Threads launch, Instagram (and Threads) chief Adam Mosseri said that it could take “many months” for Threads to reach EU users due to these additional complications.

But we have since seen indicators that Threads is coming.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta had an established plan to launch Threads to EU users in December, while app researchers have found various references to an upcoming “Threads EU Launch” in the app’s code.

Threads EU launch

Given the various strands of evidence, it does indeed seem likely that European users will get access to the app next week. And again, with social media usage increasing during the holiday break, that would also provide the best opportunity for Meta to capitalize on its opportunities.

Which are seemingly on the rise. As more people turn away from Elon Musk’s X project, largely due to Musk’s own divisive commentary, they’re seeking a real-time social alternative, and for many Threads is already filling that void.

That’s especially true for journalists, a common target of Musk’s attacks, who are now establishing new networks within the Threads ecosphere. And while live sports engagement remains high on X, Threads is also making a push to win over more sports communities, even placing ads courtside during the new NBA in-season tournament showcase in Las Vegas.

Threads NBA ad

That’s seemingly prompting more sports fans to post in the app, which will expand again with the arrival of potentially millions more users in the EU region.

So how many more users can Threads expect to gain as a result of its European expansion?

Based on Meta’s EU disclosure data on active users, Instagram currently serves some 259 million monthly active users in Europe.

Instagram’s total, official user count is 1 billion MAU, while Threads now has over 100 million monthly users. So presumably, around a tenth of active IG users are also signing up to the app, which would mean that, at a rough estimate, we’re set to see around 25.9 million new Threads users incoming, if/when Threads is launched in the EU region.

Which is probably not as many as you might expect, but this is based on rough estimates, as Instagram reportedly has more than a billion actives now, and we don’t know the exact, current user counts of either app.

But either way, it will expand the conversation in the app, and enable more people to take part, which has its own expanded benefits. And with around 60 million X users also in the region, that could see a number of them looking to make the switch.

Which is the real aim here. Meta has created Threads as the X alternative, aiming to scoop up former Twitter cast-offs who are unhappy with Elon’s changes at the app. In order to do that, Threads needs to be available in all regions where X users may be looking to jump ship, so its EU expansion is another critical step in this respect.

It’ll be interesting to see what Threads user numbers rise to over the holiday period, and whether it can indeed become a genuine rival for X in total active engagement.

We’ll keep you updated on any official announcement on the Threads EU launch.



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The best social media hacks to blow up your following in just a year

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The best social media hacks to blow up your following in just a year

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Get viral fast. Plus more social media hacks to grow your accounts.

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X Pitches Advertisers on Audience Reach Opportunities in ‘Q5’

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X Pitches Advertisers on Audience Reach Opportunities in ‘Q5’

X is making a push to win over advertisers in the holiday season, by promoting its opportunities in “Q5”, which covers the post-Christmas to mid-January period.

As explained by X:

During [Q5], we see reduced CPMs and cost-per-conversion as consumers shop for post-holiday deals and products to support their New Year’s ambitions. Last year, X saw a 5% reduction in the average CPM and a 27% reduction in the average cost-per-conversion1.

Which could present new opportunity to reach a larger audience with your promotions, if indeed they are engaging on X over the holiday period.

“Q5 is filled with a wide variety of tent-pole moments, ranging from the holidays to sports, entertainment and more. With a surge of engagement around these conversations, your brand can remain relevant to your audiences while driving maximum ROI.

X says that, based on engagement data from last year, there are a lot of potential topics of interest for brands.

X also notes that sports video views are surging in the app, up almost 25% YoY over the past 6 months, while vertical video is also gaining momentum.

“Vertical video is the fastest growing surface on X. Over 100M people around the world are consuming vertical video daily at an average of over 13 minutes per day. On many days, vertical video accounts for around 20% of all time spent on the platform.

Though I would advise some caution in trusting these data points.

In recent months, various questions have been raised as to what X counts as a video “view” versus an impression, which is when a post is shown in-feed.

Technically, X counts video views like this:

“The main X video view metric is triggered when a user watches a video for at least 2 seconds and sees at least 50% of the video player in-view. This applies to View metrics for both uploaded videos and live broadcasts.

But that’s different to the actual view count that’s displayed on posts:

“Anyone who is logged into X who views a post counts as a view, regardless of where they see the post (e.g. Home, Search, Profiles, etc.) or whether or not they follow the author. If you’re the author, looking at your own post also counts as a view.

Even worse, X counts multiple views from the same person in that count:

“Multiple views may be counted if you view a post more than once, but not all views are unique. For example, you could look at a post on web and then on your phone, and that would count as two views.

So you can see how the public view count on video posts can massively overstate how many people actually watched a clip, which could be why X is reporting such big spikes in engagement. It just depends on which “view” metric it’s referring to here, actual views or exposure in stream.

Which makes all of these numbers a little difficult to determine, while X owner Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino have also continued to amplify misleading engagement stats via their own X profiles, muddying the waters as to what kind of actual reach and engagement you can expect.

And that’s before you consider the concerns that other advertisers have had with their promotions potentially being displayed alongside harmful or offensive content in the app.

But depending on how you feel about these aspects, and where your target audience is active, it could be worth considering X for your post-holiday promotions, as you look to maximize sales activity over the holiday period.

It’s also worth considering that with fewer big-name brands taking prime spots in the app, there may also be additional opportunity to reach people via X promotions.

There may be value, depending on your strategic thinking, though I would be keeping an eye on actual engagement

You can read more of X’s Q5 insights here.



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