Social shorts: Facebook gets a status monitor, YouTube adds Neilsen data to TV, TikTok hits 1.5 billion downloads

This collection of social media marketing and new hire announcements is a compilation of the past week’s briefs from our daily Marketing Land newsletter. Click here to subscribe and get more news like this delivered to your inbox every morning.

LinkedIn cracks down on bad accounts and spam. Last week, LinkedIn released its latest Transparency Report, which addresses its efforts to remove spam and fake accounts, along with actions taken based on user reports and government information requests. According to the report, LinkedIn took down more than 21 million fake accounts in the first half of the year, and removed more than 60 million pieces of spam – including fake job postings. It also got rid of more than 16,000 instances of harassment, 11,000 posts containing obscene or pornographic content, nearly 2,000 posts showing violence or terrorism and 22 occurrences of child exploitation.

YouTube to creators: It’s OK to take a break. YouTubeYouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki posted a year-end letter addressing the ongoing challenges of creator burnout and a new push to level the playing field between creators and advertisers. Wojcicki said company data indicates that creators can still maintain growth even if they take a break from creating. The comments follow a year mired in creator frustrations around platform updates and content infringements. Wojcicki explained that the platform wants to make it easier for creators and advertisers to work together on content that works well for both partners. “We’re working to identify advertisers who are interested in edgier content, like a marketer looking to promote an R-rated movie, so we can match them with creators whose content fits their ads. In its first month, this program resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads on yellow icon videos,” she said.

Facebook Dating joins the family. Facebook Dating, a feature of the main Facebook app, now allows users to add Facebook and Instagram Stories to their Facebook Dating profiles. The short-lived Stories format could give Facebook Dating a leg up in the dating app game by allowing users to showcase ephemeral content that tells a natural story about their day-to-day lifestyle and interests.

Real-time service status monitor. Facebook now has a status monitor that advertisers and social media managers can check to find out if an ad platform is experiencing outages or issues. The simplistically-designed status monitor provides the status of the Facebook Ads Manager platform as well as the service status of tools such as ad creation and editing, ad delivery, and ad reporting. Andrew Foxwell tweeted a link to the status page (November 25, 2019), adding that the page has been an ongoing request to Facebook by digital teams. 

Simplifying Lookalike audiences. Facebook is testing the removal of the location field that advertisers use to create Lookalike audiences –  Facebook’s tool for reaching new audiences based on how they compare to existing customers. In the test, Lookalike audiences use locations from ad sets – eliminating one extra step in the targeting setup process

YouTube adds Nielsen data to Reach Planner. In a move to beef up the way advertisers optimize TV and online video while maximizing reach, YouTube is bringing Nielsen TV data to its Reach Planner tool. With Nielsen TV data in Reach Planner, advertisers are able to optimize their mix of TV and online video to maximize reach, balance frequency, and reduce waste. Advertisers can also change the mix of YouTube formats to better understand the effect on the overall campaign.

Facebook under fire for political ads policy. The social media giant has been facing heavy criticism in recent weeks over its political ads policy, which fails to fact-check political claims and enables the spread of potentially deceptive propaganda. On Monday, one of Facebook’s top executives – Carolyn Everson, VP of global marketing solutions – again defended the policy, stating the company has no plans to change it and insisted voters should decide what messages resonate as true. Facebook’s unregulated political ad climate raises questions about the platform’s standards for determining news integrity, and could further strain the relationship between advertisers and audiences as the political landscape heats up in the coming months. 

‘Whale’ lets users create and share memes. Facebook’s New Product Experimentation (NPE) team has launched a new meme creating app dubbed Whale. The app, which is currently being tested in Canada, allows users to upload images from a stock library and then add various effects before sharing the meme on social media or sending it as a message. Whale joins a long list of experimental apps that have either been launched or acquired by Facebook, including Moments, Notify, Lifestage, Poke, Slingshot, Tbh, Moves and Hello.

TikTok hits 1.5 billion downloads. The video creation and sharing app has exceeded 1.5 billion downloads worldwide, according to the latest data from Sensor Tower. The figure makes TikTok the third most downloaded non-gaming app of the year, behind WhatsApp (with 707.4 million installs) and Messenger (with 636.2 million). It ranks just above Facebook, which claims 587 million downloads, and Instagram, with 376.2 million.

Twitter makes it easier to report abusive Lists. Fresh off of banning political ads, Twitter is making it easier for users to report Lists that are being used for abusive purposes. Lists – a Twitter feature that enables users to follow groups – has garnered some criticism over the years for enabling harassment. Twitter will now allow users to flag Lists as abusive, the company announced Monday, marking the first time Twitter has offered a reporting function specifically for lists.

On the move

Wrapify, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Searchmetrics get new execs

Douglas Cardova has been named the new VP of business development of OOH advertising platform Wrapify. Based in New York, Cardova will be tasked with expanding Wrapify’s presence across the U.S. and building brand awareness and recognition with clients and agencies in the OOH space. Much of his focus will be dedicated to Wrapify’s East Coast presence, while also supporting all business development aspects across the U.S. With an extensive background in the OOH space over the last decade, Doug was previously at EnPlay Media, where he was responsible for developing the go-to-market strategy for new business and sales growth.

TBWA\Media Arts Lab, the global creative agency owned and used by Apple Inc., (November 25, 2019) announced the appointment of Marianne Stefanowicz as the agency’s first chief communications officer. With two decades of experience, Stefanowicz will be responsible for all internal and external communications, with an emphasis on global integration across the agency’s seven offices. She will report directly to the agency’s global president, Katrien De Bauw, in the Los Angeles headquarters. Stefanowicz joins TBWA\Media Arts Lab after a four-year tenure at Droga5 where she was the chief communications officer, responsible for driving the agency’s reputation and managing all agency communications.

Search and content optimization platform Searchmetrics has appointed Matt Colebourne as its global CEO. Colebourne has held numerous senior leadership positions across the digital marketing arena, including roles at DoubleClick, eSpotting and Trinity Mirror. At Searchmetrics, Colebourne will be tasked with driving international growth for the company in the U.S., Germany, UK, and Croatia. Before Searchmetrics, Colebourne was the European VP International for DoubleClick, part of the team responsible for growing the business prior to its sale to Google. 

About The Author

Taylor Peterson

Taylor Peterson is Third Door Media’s Deputy Editor, managing industry-leading coverage that informs and inspires marketers. Based in New York, Taylor brings marketing expertise grounded in creative production and agency advertising for global brands. Taylor’s editorial focus blends digital marketing and creative strategy with topics like campaign management, emerging formats, and display advertising.