Digital Debrief | March 2021

The Digital Debrief is a monthly digest of the top digital marketing news. My goal in creating it is to give professionals a "by marketers, for marketers" download of what's happening in social, websites, SEO, and tech. If you have thoughts or feedback, please drop me a line.

I would like to experiment with the format of this newsletter, open to ideas!

Say it with me now; social audio is here to stay

Facebook

We knew it was coming; Facebook’s Clubhouse copy cat is coming soon. In response to the sudden rise in social audio, Facebook has been working on its own live audio meeting rooms feature, which would enable Facebook users to create audio broadcasts that users can tune into and participate in within the Facebook app.

Twitter

?Twitter Clubhouse offering, called Spaces, has launched in testing and beta with plans to roll out to all users next month. The new feature already boasts tools that are above and beyond those that are incorporated in Clubhouse, including the ability to tip speakers. Twitter also announced plans to advance their Spaces tool by adding new features and tools for users in their test tool. The new tools include the ability to record and re-sue their Spaces after the fact and a co-hosting option.

Twitter business accounts are on the way.

Twitter business profiles have been rumored for months, but Twitter recently confirmed via a survey distributed to some users asking them to rate of value of various possible business profile features. The new business profiles include verification by default, a business category, a new panel for business information, and a new business profile badge to signify that it is an official, recognized business presence.

Twitter considering limited public figures on the platform

In response to Donald Trump’s presidency, Twitter is calling on the public to help formulate definitive rules for how politicians are able to use the platform and what sort of restrictions – if any, should be placed on their Tweets.

Facebook adds new protections for content creators

Facebook is following YouTube’s lead by allowing content creators on their platform to claim rights to their content when shared on other users and pages. The updates are in their Brand Safety and Intellectual Property tools and will protect both content and intellectual property.

Instagram adds new tools to protect younger users

Amid rumors that Facebook is developing an “Instagram for kids,” the Instagram platform is upping its efforts to stamp out predatory behavior on the app with a new range of features. The most significant of these updates are restrictions that will prevent adults from sending messages to any users under the page of 18 who do not follow them.

TikTok continues to build advertising offering with new brand safety support.

TikTok is providing more assurance to advertisers through their agreement with OpenSlate to support brand safety. The expanded agreement will provide ad placement protection to ad partners in Australia, Canada, and the UK, in addition to the US.

Facebook and augmented reality

Facebook’s project Aria continues to spark excitement with news of their AR glasses, and the company recently introduced more ideas on how the glasses will work and what types of interactions will be available. The company compares the AR shift to the invention of the PC mouse. AR will revolutionize how people interact with their devices in a similar way, adding new tools to assist and complement day-to-day activities.

Facebook is working on new control tools that will enable people to interact more seamlessly with these overlays and options. These controls are important to the AR experience as users need to be able to interact with digital AR overlays without disrupting their everyday tasks. The new tools are based on a wristband-type device that would read muscle commands as they travel through user’s arms to enable them to interact within the digital environment.

Twitter is testing the ability to watch YouTube videos in its timeline

Twitter announced this month that iOS users are now able to watch YouTube clips in-stream on the Twitter timeline without clicking over to YouTube or leaving the Twitter app.

Pinterest launches premier video ads.

During their first-ever “Pinterest Presents” marketing and advertising summit, Pinterest has announced several new ad tools, including a video ad option called Pinterest Premiere. This feature will enable advertisers to purchase exclusive video placements in the home feed for a specific demographic, interest, or category for a designated time frame. The platform also updated its interactive trends tool, which provides more specific insights into engagement behaviors across the platform.

Facebook expands option to switch off political ads

Facebook is taking another step to reduce political content in user feeds by expanding access to its controls to switch off political promotion in your Ad Preferences. The option to “see less” political ads and content in your newsfeed was previously only available to US users but has not been released to users around the world.

Now you can watch TikTok on your TV screen at home

In December, Samsung announced a new deal with TikTok to allow smart TV owners in Europe to watch TikTok clips on their TV sets. The company has now confirmed that this functionality will be available to US Samsung Smart TV owners in 2021 through the TikTok connected app.

Zero-click Google searches rose to nearly 65% in 2020

Between January and December 2020, nearly 65% of Google searches ended without a click to another web property — up from 50% in June 2019, according to a SimilarWeb study published by Rand Fishkin, founder of SparkToro. 

 FLoC is coming

Once third-party cookies are phased out, Google will not build or use alternate identifies to track users across the website. Instead, they are planning to use a new product called the Federated Learning of Cohorts or FloC API. So what is FLoC? FLoC is a method for browsers to enable interest-based advertising. It works by gathering data about a user’s browsing habits and then clustering groups of users with similar interests into cohorts. The algorithm used to develop those cohorts may look at the URLs of sites that the user visited and the content of those pages, among other factors, according to the FLoC proposal on GitHub. Information about the cohort is then shared for advertising purposes. Get the full download of what we know so far here.

Google my Business adds additional data to reports

Business owners can now see device and platform breakdown in their Google My Business Performance reports, giving the users more details about how their business is being found online.

For more nerdy content (and dog pictures), follow me on Twitter: @samanthajoallen