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Twitter Expanding Character Count and Vimeo Acquires Livestream http://ift.tt/2xJWJvi Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show with Michael Stelzner, we explore Twitter expanding to 280 characters with Madalyn Sklar, Vimeo acquiring Livestream with Luria Petrucci, and other breaking social media marketing news of the week! Watch the Social Media Marketing Talk ShowIf you’re new to the show, click on the green “Watch replay” button below and sign in or register to watch our latest episode from Friday, September 29, 2017. You can also listen to the show as an audio podcast, found on iTunes/Apple Podcast, Android, Google Play, Stitcher, and RSS. For this week’s top stories, you’ll find timestamps below that allow you to fast-forward in the replay above. Vimeo Launches New Live-Streaming Platform: Vimeo acquired live video streaming platform Livestream and is launching a new live-streaming platform called Vimeo Live. With this new platform, creators will be able to capture, edit, stream, and archive their live events in addition to hosting, distributing, and generating revenue from their videos. Vimeo Live will be offered as a set of annual and monthly paid membership tiers across a range of price levels, similar to Vimeo’s other paid membership plans. (6:25) .Twitter Tests 280-Character Limit and New Character Countdown: Twitter announced it’s testing an expanded 280-character limit for select languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, to allow users to share their thoughts without running out of room in the tweet. Japanese, Chinese, and Korean are excluded from this test because these languages generally require fewer characters to express the same thoughts. Expanded tweets are currently being tested with “a small group of people” before Twitter decides to expand it more broadly. Twitter is testing a 280-character limit for languages affected by cramming. TechCrunch reports that Twitter also updated the user interface such that it will no longer count down the characters until you near the end of a tweet. “Instead, a circle will fill in as you approach the limit, and you won’t know how many characters you have left until only 20 remain or 10 for Japanese, Chinese and Korean language users.” (20:00) Facebook Seamlessly Combines Live Broadcasts and Recorded Video Over Weak WiFi Connections: Facebook Live broadcasters can now continue recording a video even when they lose their WiFi connection. Once a WiFi connection is established again, Facebook will seamlessly combine the live broadcast and the recording video and post one entire video as a live broadcast.
Facebook Shows How Long Since a User Has Been Active on Messenger: Facebook Messenger now shows the time since a user was last active on Messenger. It appears that Facebook limits the timeframe to within one hour. Once a user has been inactive on Messenger for longer than one hour, the time marker and flag reportedly disappear from Messenger. Facebook now shows how long since a user has been active on Messenger. Facebook Highlights and Tags New Members to Groups: Facebook appears to have added a designation to groups that tags and highlights new members. It also features a new prompt that suggests admins “write a post to welcome them” to the group and will automatically tag each individual within the post. Facebook added a “New Member” designation to groups that tags and highlights new members. Facebook Adds Option to Include Personalized Notes With Invitations to Like a Page: Facebook allows admins to invite people they know to like their page. Facebook appears to have rolled out the ability to also “write a note to include in your invitation” when you send these requests. ![]() Facebook added the option to include a personalized note with invitations to like a page. Facebook Expands “Order Food” Option in Main Navigation to More Users: Facebook introduced an option to order food directly through the main navigation menu of the site in May 2017. At the time, this tool was only available to “select users” on both the web and mobile. It appears that Facebook has since expanded this feature to more users. This tool handles the entire takeout process from select restaurant pages “from ordering to checkout,” all within Facebook. Facebook expands Order Food option in main navigation to more users. Snapchat Introduces Sponsored 3D World Lenses: Snapchat introduced 3D World Lenses, “a new kind of World Lens that allows you to bring your characters and products to life inside the Snapchat camera.” Snap Inc. is betting that 3D World Lenses can help brands drive their business objectives by bringing products or branded characters into Snapchatters’ “real-world” environments, drive awareness and favorability, and encourage consideration and intent to purchase.
Snapchat Introduces New Sky Filters: In celebration of its sixth birthday, Snap Inc. announced it will be adding new Sky Filters, which bring “an entirely new set of filters… designed to detect the sky in your photos and offer a carousel of effects that can then alter the sky’s appearance” in the Snapchat app. This update is available for iOS and Android this week.
Instagram Gives Public Accounts More Control Over Comments and Rolls Out Other New Tools: Instagram added new features that allow public accounts to limit comments to “people you follow and your followers,” only “people you follow” or “your followers,” as well as the ability to block certain accounts from commenting at all. Instagram is also adding new mental health resources and support during live broadcasts, expanded comment filtering to more languages, and introduced new “kindness” stickers. Instagram adds new features that allow users to control who’s able to comment on your posts. Instagram Monthly Active User Count Increases by 100 Million in Four Months: Instagram announced that it now reaches 800 million monthly active users, up from 700 million as reported in April 2017, and currently boasts 500 million daily active users. CNBC reports that “time spent watching video on Instagram is up more than 80 percent year over year… and four times as many videos are being produced every day on Instagram compared with a year ago.” Instagram Doubles Advertisers Base to 2 Million in Five Months: Instagram also announced that it has doubled the number of advertisers on its platform since March 2017, growing its advertiser base to 2 million. The Instagram Business blog highlights how some of its most successful marketing campaigns have leveraged Instagram Stories to “captivate and inspire” Instagrammers. Instagram Adds Face Filters to Live Video: Instagram is rolling out the ability to add face filters while sharing a live video broadcast. Face filters in live video will be available globally “over the next several weeks.” Instagram adds face filters to live video. Facebook Messenger Adds More Advertising Objectives for Brands: Facebook is rolling out additional advertising objectives for brands using Messenger to promote branded chatbots and other “conversational campaigns.” These objectives include the ability to target users based on increasing brand awareness, lead generation, and driving store visits. Adweek also reports that Facebook is currently testing these new goals with “nearly a dozen objectives… [such as] increasing reach, engagement, traffic, and video views” and hopes “to get large and smaller advertisers onboard that want to reach the more than 1 billion people on the Messenger platform.”
Facebook M Now Shares GIFs, New Quick Replies, and Movie Ticket Recommendations: Facebook Messenger announced that its in-app virtual assistant, M, now offers new suggestions that will make “your everyday conversations better and help you get things done.” M will now surface suggestions for GIF responses to common expressions like “good morning,” “I love you,” and “thank you,” and offer quick replies to agree or disagree questions in a one-on-one conversation. M also recognizes when people are discussing movie tickets or showtimes in either group or one-on-one conversations in Messenger and will present a button to purchase tickets directly through the new Fandango Chat extension. Facebook notes that these new M suggestions are only available to U.S. users at this time.
LinkedIn Integrates Profile Cards With Microsoft Office 365 Profile Cards: LinkedIn and Microsoft are “bringing personalized LinkedIn insights directly into your Microsoft Office 365 experience” by integrating LinkedIn and Microsoft Office profile cards. By connecting LinkedIn and Microsoft accounts, members will be able to “seamlessly discover more insights within the Profile Card in your Inbox, your calendar and contacts lists… such as where they work, what they do, and where they went to school.” This integration will start rolling out “in the coming weeks” on Outlook on the web, SharePoint, and One Drive for Business. It will be available to Outlook.com customers “soon” and on Outlook for Windows, Outlook for iOS, and other Office products “in the coming months.” LinkedIn and Microsoft are bringing personalized LinkedIn insights directly into your Microsoft Office 365 experience by integrating LinkedIn and Microsoft Office profile cards. Facebook Watch Features NFL Game Recap and Highlights: Facebook signed “a multi-year, global deal with the National Football League that allows the social platform to host highlights from games.” The new NFL Game Recaps will share highlights from the 256-game regular season and content from the playoffs and the Super Bowl. Facebook will also feature NFL Turning Point, which will “break down the pivotal moments from Sunday that defined the outcome of each game,” and Sound FX featuring “the best on-field sounds from players and coaches wired for sound.”
YouTube Studio Update Features In-App Scheduling Tools and Subscriber Stats: The YouTube Creator Studio app has been renamed YouTube Studio and now includes the ability “to schedule posts right from your phone” and “a prominent subscriber count card right at the top of your YouTube Studio app dashboard.” YouTube also announced that it plans to roll out the ability to use creator hearts and pin comments “in the coming months.”
YouTube Debuts New Ad Tech Tools for Brands and Marketers: YouTube rolled out four new ad tech tools to help advertisers “capture the attention of [their] audience on YouTube.” These new tools include Director Mix, a new technology that allows a company to “simplify the process of creating different versions of the same creative tailored for each audience,” and an expansion of YouTube’s Custom Affinity Audiences offerings, which allows marketers to “reach people based on the kind of searches they do or the kind of places and apps they like.” YouTube also introduced Video Ad Sequencing “to help you architect an ad experience that unfolds over time” and a new, global approach to measuring sales lift with Nielsen MPA (Matched Panel Analysis). Amazon Introduces Six New Alexa-Enabled Devices: Amazon debuted six new Alexa-enabled devices this week. These include a second-generation Echo and new the Echo Plus with a dedicated smart home hub. Amazon also introduced a compact Echo Spot featuring a built-in camera and screen, the Echo Connect which turns your Echo into a voice-controlled speakerphone, and Echo buttons for “even more fun and play” with Alexa. Amazon also rolled out a new Fire TV with 4K Ultra HD, high dynamic range (HDR) support, and an Alexa voice remote.
Google Pulls YouTube Access From Amazon Echo Show: The Verge reports that “Google has apparently decided to stop allowing the Amazon Echo Show to access YouTube.” Both companies issued contradictory statements about this move with Amazon claiming “there is no technical reason for that decision” and Google expressing otherwise. Google claims that “Amazon’s implementation of YouTube on the Echo Show violates [its] terms of service, creating a broken user experience,” but expressed hope that the two companies will be able “to reach an agreement and resolve these issues soon.”
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Don't send a girl you've never met a drawing you've made of her face http://ift.tt/2hC27g0 If there's one thing women can all agree on, it's that we don't like being internet stalked. And yet certain men never seem to get the message. Take it from Natalie Steinbrink. She was recently Tindstagrammed — when someone from Tinder finds you on Instagram and slides into your DMs. But the "random tinder guy" who reached out to her also included a drawing he made that was inspired by one of her Instagram photos. Umm. Very not cool, random tinder guy. His message to her read, "Hope this isn't weird. I get inspired sometimes while swiping through tinder. And I feel if someone inspires you and it manifests into art they deserve to see it. Sincerely, random Tinder guy."
Steinbrink made it clear she did not swipe right on him. He had no reason to think she was interested in him. He only stalked her Insta and decided she probably wanted a creepy picture of herself. He felt she deserved to see his "art," though it probably made a far different impression than he was expecting. And even though he didn't explicitly say he was looking for a date, he's definitely not getting one now. Social Media via Social Media http://ift.tt/1N1mMj1 September 29, 2017 at 04:57PM
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9 Simple High ROI Shopping Cart Abandonment Prevention Tactics http://ift.tt/2xHkjZy How are you handling your shopping cart abandonment? The first step is for you to track and recognize how many shoppers are leaving items in their carts without finalizing the purchases. If you’re not addressing it, you’re missing out on sales. Take a moment to ask yourself how you can improve the customer experience. Is there a problem with your conversion funnel? This is a basic visualization of how companies create conversions. First, the consumer becomes aware of your brand, products, or services. Next, they have a need or want that sparks interest in something more specific. Once the consumer knows what they want, they consider the purchase. Adding a product to their shopping cart definitely qualifies as the consideration part of this conversion funnel process. They are just one step away—or even one click away--from finalizing the sale. So, what’s the problem? Let’s take a look at a conversion funnel with some holes in the process: If customers are getting all the way to the shopping cart, I’m willing to bet you don’t have a problem with your homepage or product service page. What about your contact page or customer service information availability? It’s possible the customer doesn’t feel comfortable finalizing the purchase based on the provided information about your business, reputation, warranty, or return policy. But again, they’ve already made it to the checkout page with items in the cart. So, I think this is another unlikely scenario. The issue has to be in the final step of your conversion process. I’ll show you some techniques that will minimize shopping cart abandonment on your platform and increase your conversion rates. 1. Recognize that customers are price sensitiveYour prices may be deterring the consumer from finalizing their purchase. Look, I get it. Obviously, you’re trying to make a buck. I’m not telling you to start giving everything away. You should be making a healthy profit on each transaction. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some numbers: Unexpected prices are the number one reason why customers are abandoning shopping carts. So, the initial price of your item might be okay. But the added charges are turning customers away. Some examples of these extra charges may include:
Is there a way you can eliminate some of these? Here’s an idea. Maybe you can take on the shipping fee. Instead of putting that burden on the customer, you can adjust the original prices of your products to account for the shipping charges. Will the customer end up paying more? Yes. But it’s not an unexpected charge. You’ve got to find a middle ground. Based on the graph above, the price was a factor in three of the top four reasons why people abandon shopping carts. Try to keep your prices competitive while still generating a nice profit. You may end up making slightly less money each transaction, but it’s worth it if you can increase the transaction rate. 2. Make sure your website and checkout procedures are secureIn the last five years, 46% of Americans were victims of credit card fraud. That’s an alarming number. Americans are the targets of nearly half of all the credit card breaches worldwide. Consider these numbers for a second. Have you had a credit card breached? Do you know someone who’s been a victim of credit card fraud? This is a legitimate concern for people. Your customers may have had a bad experience in the past, and that is making them hesitant about online purchases. The purchase process on your website needs to be secure. You are responsible for your customers’ credit card information. Don’t be the reason for their accounts getting hacked. Take the proper security measures and place the corresponding badges on the checkout page, similar to the graphic above. Make sure your website is secure. Is your website running on an HTTPS connection? Look at the example from Dick’s Sporting Goods: See the secure sign? It makes the consumer feel more comfortable at the checkout page. Personally, it’s a red flag for me if I don’t see this while I’m shopping. I won’t be entering any of my personal or credit card information on a web page that’s not secure. Quick side note: notice Dick’s offers free returns on its apparel? I wanted to point that out as well. It makes the customer feel better about the checkout process. A secure website and checkout process need to be a priority for your ecommerce store. 3. Allow your customers to check out without creating a profileObviously, you want customers to have an account with your company. It’s a great way to track their behavior and keep them informed of special offers and promotions. However, you shouldn’t be forcing people to create a user profile just to make a purchase. Why?
If your website doesn’t have a guest checkout option, you’re making a mistake. Here’s an example from Lululemon of the guest checkout option: It’s a really clean checkout page. There are two clear options. Returning users can easily sign into their accounts, and customers without an account can proceed without creating one. This ensures you aren’t losing sales. Here’s the thing, though. In order to complete the checkout process, the customer still needs to enter their information. You’ll have their name, email address, location, and other information. Once the sale is final, you can entice them to create an account. All they need to do is create a password. You already have everything else in your records, so they don’t need to submit information twice. Here’s a great example of what this should look like: Give the customer a reason to create an account. Refer to the image above. What’s the customer getting in return?
But they shouldn’t be forced to create a profile just to make a purchase. Make sure that’s optional. 4. Accept a wide range of payment options for the customerWhat kind of payment options are you accepting? Visa only? You don’t accept Discover cards? I understand. Certain credit card companies have higher processing fees than others. Accepting transactions from PayPal or similar platforms could be even more costly. By not accepting certain payment methods, you could be turning customers away. You might think that everyone has one of the credit cards you accept, but that’s not always the case. Give the consumer lots of options. Do you accept Apple Pay? There are nearly 86 million iPhone users in the United States. Last year, Apply pay transactions grew at a 50% rate. These numbers show alternative payment methods are trending upward. Don’t fall behind the curve. If you’re accepting only one or two payment forms, it could be the cause for your shopping cart abandonment. The customer gets to the checkout process only to discover you’re not offering their preferred payment option. 5. The process needs to be mobile friendlyIs your website mobile friendly? Is the checkout procedure optimized for mobile devices? It needs to be. Research shows 84% of smartphone users have experienced a problem completing a mobile transaction. And 40% of users will go to your competitor after an unsatisfactory experience on your mobile site. What do these numbers tell you? People want to shop on their phones. Here’s some additional information about mobile users: Nearly 5 billion people have a mobile device across the world. Of course, not all these people are your potential customers. But a large chunk of them could be. Don’t alienate people from shopping on their mobile devices. It’s estimated that half of ecommerce transactions take place on mobile platforms. That number is only going to grow. If getting to a laptop or desktop is the only way for your customers to shop, it could be hurting your sales. Make sure your checkout procedure is optimized for mobile devices to decrease your shopping cart abandonment rates. 6. Don’t let your competitors steal your customersHow unique is your product or service? Chances are, you don’t own the space outright. You have plenty of competition. It’s not always easy to compete with the big players like Amazon or Walmart. Earlier we looked at a graph that said 36% of shoppers abandoned a shopping cart because they found a better price elsewhere. If your prices are higher, that needs to be justified. Make sure your quality and service are outstanding. Your customer needs to understand this. The website needs to load fast. Don’t make the process too complex. We know that 25% of shoppers will abandon their shopping carts if the navigation is too complicated. They will go to your competitors instead. Be aware of how your competitors are operating. It’s always helpful to use competitor analysis tools to improve your traffic. 7. Send an email reminder if a cart is abandonedOkay. So you may not be able to prevent everyone from abandoning their shopping carts. Even if you decrease the abandonment rate, you won’t get that number down to zero. Where do you go from here? Don’t give up just because a customer abandoned their cart. If you have their information, reach out and send them a reminder. Here’s a great example from Saatchi Art: This email accomplishes a few things:
The reminder alone may be enough to get the customer to finalize their purchase. But if it’s not, it creates a sense of urgency by saying “high sell-out risk.” We’ll get into some more detail on this method shortly. It also provides an extra incentive by offering a 10% discount. Earlier we discussed that customers are price sensitive. They may have abandoned the cart for financial reasons. Giving the consumer a discount will show them you care. That promotion may be enough of a reason for them to finish the checkout. 8. Use A/B testing to simplify your checkout processHow long does it take the customers to make a purchase on your site? Every extra click they have to make gives them a chance to second-guess their decision. You can run an A/B test to see which checkout procedure is more successful. Let’s look at a couple of examples. Here’s the checkout progress bar from Crate & Barrel: It’s a quick checkout process.
Three steps and done. Here’s an example from another website: Their process is six steps. That’s double the number of Crate & Barrel’s process. If you have a long checkout system, I suggest you shorten the process significantly. Still not convinced? Run an A/B test. Use your current system as the control group and a shorter version as the experimental group. See if you notice a difference in your shopping cart abandonment statistics between these two groups. 9. Create a sense of urgencyEarlier I mentioned that Saatchi Art created a sense of urgency with their abandonment recovery email. FOMO—the fear of missing out. You can do this on your checkout page as well to reduce cart abandonment. Some customers are just browsing. New customers most likely won’t buy something on their first visit to your website. But you can give them an extra incentive to finalize their purchases. Create a sense of urgency.
I’m sure you’ve seen phrasing like this before while browsing online. Hotels and airlines do this all the time. Act now, or miss out. You can incorporate this psychological strategy into your checkout process to minimize cart abandonment. ConclusionShopping cart abandonment is a problem for your ecommerce website. You’re not alone. It’s not too late to make changes to your checkout process to prevent future cart abandonment. Follow the advice above to keep your abandonment rates low while increasing your conversion rates and revenue. Customers are price sensitive. Don’t hit them with any unexpected charges. You need to accept multiple forms of payment while also making sure the payment procedure is completely secure. Customers won’t shop on your website if they think their credit card information is at risk. Don’t force shoppers to create a customer profile to check out. Instead, offer a user account as an option after they complete the process. Make sure your site is optimized for mobile devices. If not, your customers will go to your competition. The checkout process needs to be short. You can run an A/B test to play with different options and formats. Create a sense of urgency to avoid cart abandonment: if the customer doesn’t act now, they may not be able to get this product in the future. Even if someone abandons their cart, it’s not too late. Send them an email to remind them about the product. You can also offer a discount or promotion as an extra incentive to finalize the sale. How will you implement these methods on your ecommerce checkout page to minimize shopping cart abandonment rates? Social Media via Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/UU7LJr September 29, 2017 at 10:03AM
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Make a giant career change into digital marketing for just $20 http://ift.tt/2x23XsG Make a giant career change into digital marketing for just $20Image: pexels By Team CommerceMashable Shopping2017-09-29 14:33:14 UTC The good news: social media and digital marketing can unlock massive conversion and revenue, taking your business to the next level of success. The not-so-good news: managing your own personal website and social media account won't exactly prepare you for a marketing job at a big company, no matter how many followers you have. If you want to become a marketing master, you’ll need to immerse yourself in the nuances of the industry—and there’s no better way to accomplish that than live classroom learning with a real instructor. Luckily, you don’t need to enroll in expensive college courses to do that. Purchase the Digital Marketing & Social Media Bootcamp for a fast, affordable crash course that will earn you two certifications and get your foot in the door at your first marketing job. The live courses offered in this bundle—facilitated by Shaw Academy—allow you to digitally sit in on actual presentations led by real-life digital marketers and social media gurus. You’ll be able to join interactive Q&A sessions, receive one-on-one evaluations, and even get 24/7 access to recordings of past classes so you can learn at your own pace. Here’s what you can expect from this two-part training: Diploma in Social Media MarketingIn this live course, you’ll learn how to leverage Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other social media channels to boost engagement and ramp up sales. You’ll understand how to plan, execute, and assess social media campaigns, manage the online reputation of your business, and many other strategies and hacks used by industry pros. Diploma in Digital MarketingDigital marketing isn’t just about getting people to visit your website, it’s also about getting them to make a purchase, and then to repeat the process again and again. And with the overwhelming amount of choices available to the average consumer, achieving that kind of loyalty is no easy task. This accredited diploma course will show you the techniques needed for quick results. You’ll learn page and image design, how to craft successful email campaigns, how to follow SEO best practices, and other key concepts for growing your business. Enrollment in these live courses would normally add up to a whopping $790, but take advantage of this limited-time offer to get them both for only $19.99. Social Media via Social Media http://ift.tt/1N1mMj1 September 29, 2017 at 10:00AM YouTube Remarketing: How to Retarget People on YouTube http://ift.tt/2yLe474 Want your YouTube ads to convert? Looking for effective ways to build remarketing audiences for your ads? To explore tactics for remarketing with YouTube, I interview Brett Curry. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers, business owners, and creators discover what works with social media marketing. In this episode, I interview Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce and a YouTube ads expert. He authored "The Ultimate Guide to Google Shopping" for Shopify. He's also host of the eCommerce Evolution podcast. Brett explains different ways to combine search, shopping, and YouTube options to build target audiences that convert. You'll discover how to estimate the cost of YouTube ads and manage your budget. Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below. Listen Now Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show: YouTube Remarketing Brett's Story Right out of college, Brett started a small ad agency. In school, he sold radio ads, but he loved the way local TV ads made an impact and created local celebrities. In 2004, Brett got into search and SEO, which led to building OMG Commerce in 2010. OMG Commerce is a full-funnel ecommerce marketing agency. At every stage of the funnel, the agency focuses on attracting the right shoppers to each client's brand. To do that, they combine search, shopping, display, and YouTube ads. Brett thinks that search ads and YouTube ads are a match made in heaven and that YouTube ads create unique opportunities for remarketing. For example, OMG Commerce has a client that sells iPhone accessories. At the top of the funnel, if someone is looking at iPhone case reviews, the agency targets that person with a YouTube ad. Someone actively searching on Google for a specific product such as an iPhone 7 Plus screen protector will see a Google Shopping ad. When someone who clicks doesn't convert, they begin seeing remarketing ads. Although OMG Commerce primarily uses Google products, Brett believes in using any kind of marketing that works. Also, connecting the dots at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel is important. Brett's agency makes sure clients have AdWords conversion tracking, Google Analytics, and the correct attribution model. Then the agency pulls together all of these elements so their clients see the impact. Listen to the show to learn how Brett's company built their claim to fame. YouTube Versus Facebook Ads Brett says a lot of merchants getting good results advertising on Facebook want to know if they can do something similar on YouTube with the Google Display Network. The answer, for the most part, is yes. (Remember that Google owns YouTube.) Businesses usually want to do both YouTube and Facebook ads. Compared to Facebook, YouTube advertising has advantages. Facebook counts a video view (and thus charges the advertiser) after three seconds, whereas YouTube counts a video view after someone has watched for longer. With YouTube, a view counts after 30 seconds or the length of the video if it's shorter (like a 15-second ad). That longer view time is a better measure of whether someone is engaged with the video. Plus, YouTube is expanding the ways you can target viewers. With in-market audiences, you can target people who are in the market for a particular type of product. For instance, if you work in the skincare business, you can choose people whose search patterns indicate they're in the market for skincare products or services. With affinity audiences, you can target someone who's into travel, food, or something else. Brett thinks one of the best options is the ability to target someone based on their search behavior because YouTube is the number-two search engine (behind Google). Search behavior offers great insight. 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YouTube Remarketing: How to Retarget People on YouTube http://ift.tt/2yLe474
Looking for effective ways to build remarketing audiences for your ads? To explore tactics for remarketing with YouTube, I interview Brett Curry. More About This ShowThe Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers, business owners, and creators discover what works with social media marketing. In this episode, I interview Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce and a YouTube ads expert. He authored “The Ultimate Guide to Google Shopping” for Shopify. He’s also host of the eCommerce Evolution podcast. Brett explains different ways to combine search, shopping, and YouTube options to build target audiences that convert. You’ll discover how to estimate the cost of YouTube ads and manage your budget. YouTube Remarketing: How to Retarget People on YouTube featuring insights from Brett Curry on the Social Media Marketing Podcast. Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below. Listen NowListen now: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show: YouTube RemarketingBrett’s Story Right out of college, Brett started a small ad agency. In school, he sold radio ads, but he loved the way local TV ads made an impact and created local celebrities. In 2004, Brett got into search and SEO, which led to building OMG Commerce in 2010. OMG Commerce is a full-funnel ecommerce marketing agency. At every stage of the funnel, the agency focuses on attracting the right shoppers to each client’s brand. To do that, they combine search, shopping, display, and YouTube ads. Brett thinks that search ads and YouTube ads are a match made in heaven and that YouTube ads create unique opportunities for remarketing. OMG Commerce helps attract shoppers at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. For example, OMG Commerce has a client that sells iPhone accessories. At the top of the funnel, if someone is looking at iPhone case reviews, the agency targets that person with a YouTube ad. Someone actively searching on Google for a specific product such as an iPhone 7 Plus screen protector will see a Google Shopping ad. When someone who clicks doesn’t convert, they begin seeing remarketing ads. Although OMG Commerce primarily uses Google products, Brett believes in using any kind of marketing that works. Also, connecting the dots at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel is important. Brett’s agency makes sure clients have AdWords conversion tracking, Google Analytics, and the correct attribution model. Then the agency pulls together all of these elements so their clients see the impact. Listen to the show to learn how Brett’s company built their claim to fame. YouTube Versus Facebook Ads Brett says a lot of merchants getting good results advertising on Facebook want to know if they can do something similar on YouTube with the Google Display Network. The answer, for the most part, is yes. (Remember that Google owns YouTube.) Businesses usually want to do both YouTube and Facebook ads. Compared to Facebook, YouTube advertising has advantages. Facebook counts a video view (and thus charges the advertiser) after three seconds, whereas YouTube counts a video view after someone has watched for longer. With YouTube, a view counts after 30 seconds or the length of the video if it’s shorter (like a 15-second ad). That longer view time is a better measure of whether someone is engaged with the video. YouTube advertising offers several benefits. Plus, YouTube is expanding the ways you can target viewers. With in-market audiences, you can target people who are in the market for a particular type of product. For instance, if you work in the skincare business, you can choose people whose search patterns indicate they’re in the market for skincare products or services. With affinity audiences, you can target someone who’s into travel, food, or something else. Brett thinks one of the best options is the ability to target someone based on their search behavior because YouTube is the number-two search engine (behind Google). Search behavior offers great insight. For example, you can learn not only that someone is looking for recipes, but that they’re also interested in how to make coffee drinks. Listen to the show to hear my thoughts on why YouTube users watch video with more intent than Facebook users do. YouTube Retargeting Options When most people think about remarketing or retargeting, they think about reaching someone who has been to their site but didn’t convert by buying a product, downloading a guide, or taking another desired action. When you remarket to this audience on YouTube, you run an ad only to those users, remind them of your offerings, and try to get them back. You might even give them a discount or coupon. However, Brett emphasizes that you can also remarket to people who watch videos on your YouTube channel. Moreover, you can segment these video viewers into people who have commented on a video, watched a particular video, watched any video, and so on. You can build lots of lists based on different criteria. There are a lot of ways to divide your YouTube viewers to remarket to them. For example, one of Brett’s clients is a large company that sells coffee syrup and does a lot of how-to videos such as “How to Make a Caramel Macchiato.” You can target people who watch the informational video with an ad for the syrup and include a discount. The key to good marketing is matching your message with your market. You need to reach people with the right offer at the right time. Targeting your YouTube video viewers does come with some limitations. To add someone to a list based on their video-viewing behavior, they have to watch to the billable point in the video (30 seconds or the whole video, whichever comes first). Beyond that, you can’t create segments based on how long someone has watched a video. For example, you can’t create a list of people who have watched at least half of a long video. Next, Brett shares some of his favorite lists to build for YouTube retargeting. You can create a list as simple as All Site Visitors, which is anybody who’s been to any page on your site. For instance, because pumpkin spice latte season is a short window, his coffee syrup client would want to hit all website visitors from the past year or more and let them know pumpkin spice is available for a limited time. You can also look at product page viewers because they’re typically a little more engaged. Cart abandoners (people who added a product to the cart but didn’t check out) are another audience with high conversion rates. You can segment your ads for these audiences into 7-, 14-, and 30-day windows. There are many ways to create a remarketing list. Next, I ask Brett where these remarketing YouTube ads appear. Brett says the two different ad formats are in-stream ads (also known as pre-roll ads) and in-display ads (also called TrueView discovery ads). In-stream YouTube ads play automatically before the featured video a user wants to watch. The in-stream ads that viewers can’t skip are expensive so they’re typically only run by large corporations or brands. Most businesses run skippable ads and Brett says it’s actually good when people skip your ads. If viewers aren’t interested, you don’t want them to hang around because you have to pay for that impression. YouTube’s in-stream (or pre-roll ads) like this one run before the featured video plays. While YouTube’s in-display ads usually appear in the upper right in the YouTube interface on a desktop browser, the ads can also show up in search along with organic results. In-display ads are usually a thumbnail followed by two or three lines of text and are labeled as an ad. A YouTube user has to click an in-display ad to see the content itself. You have total control of where you put your ads. Choose in-stream, in-display, or both, which is what Brett likes to do. When you run both, Brett finds that in-stream ads get a lot more impressions (90% to 100%) because you can target videos and they autoplay. I ask about mobile versus desktop ads, and Brett explains you can do bid adjustments based on device. For example, if you choose to do a -100% bid adjustment on mobile devices, it would effectively block mobile traffic. If you use YouTube for either top-of-funnel or remarketing, mobile can still be effective because you’re either just trying to plant the seed or trying to get them to come back to the site. Listen to the show to hear my thoughts about making a complex sale on mobile versus desktop. How Costs Are Calculated With in-stream ads, a viewer has to watch a certain percentage of your video (it has to count as a view) before you’re charged for an impression. For in-display ads, someone has to click to play the ad (thus choosing to watch it), and a cost is associated with the click. You’re charged for in-display ads when someone clicks on your ad to play it. Your cost per view depends on a bid you place. Tell Google you’re willing to pay X amount per view (30 seconds or the whole video, whichever comes first). So if someone is watching the video for Social Media Marketing World and clicks the overlay that says Register Now, no matter when they click on it, we get charged for the click. (So we would pay the $0.05 to $0.09.) On average, Brett sees anywhere from $0.05 to $0.09 cents per view. Clients who are going after a broader audience can bid really low (below $0.05). I ask Brett if there’s a way to determine your total cost for an ad. Brett says that in Google’s reporting, you see how much you’ve spent overall, how many clicks the ad has received, and the cost per click. Also, as you’re planning a campaign, you can experiment with different scenarios and costs by using the AdWords planner. For example, you can tell the planner you’re willing to pay $0.04 per view. The planner will then estimate how many views you can get. As you build or upload your audience and change what you’re willing to pay per view, you can see what kind of impressions you can get based on your budget. It’s a handy tool. However, Brett emphasizes that your view rate determines the actual cost (not impressions). If you have a thousand impressions on the worst video imaginable and everyone skips it, you’re not charged for that. To help manage your costs, you can set a daily budget in the AdWords interface. You also want to look at the view-through rate, which is the percentage of people who see it who actually view it. If you have 1,000 views and you paid $0.04 per view, you may have gotten 15,000 impressions to get those views. You can also see reports that show what percentage of people watched 25%, 50%, 75%, or all of your video. With that data, you can begin comparing video ads and noting which ones are more engaging. Select a daily budget along with your bid. In your YouTube video, you can display a call-to-action overlay at any time and for as long as you want. With ad costs in mind, Brett typically places that overlay about five seconds after the video starts. In the first five seconds, the script might describe the target audience so people who aren’t in that audience can move on (and thus that impression doesn’t turn into a view). When the overlay appears, it can say something like “Early-bird discount expires on X time/date. Click here to get it now.” Brett has also seen a spokesperson point to the overlay and say, “Click here to take advantage of the offer!” Listen to the show to hear Brett’s example of a five-second video intro that helps uninterested viewers move on. Creative Things You Can Do With YouTube Remarketing Brett shares a strategy he used with his friend Ezra Firestone, co-owner of BOOM by Cindy Joseph, a successful ecommerce skincare line. They wanted to find people who purchased from BOOM but hadn’t bought BOOMSILK, a popular but relatively new product. In AdWords, they built a list of BOOM purchasers who had not bought BOOMSILK. Then they targeted this audience with an ad about BOOMSILK moisturizer. They know the audience loves BOOM and have bought in the past, and the list converts really well. Combine lists in custom audiences. To create a custom audience of existing customers, you can use a few different tools. With Customer Match, you can upload customer emails that you have permission to use. Google will try to match each email with one of their users so you can show them targeted ads. Other tools include the AdWords remarketing tag and a list you build in Google Analytics and then import into AdWords. To identify customers who didn’t purchase BOOMSILK, Brett and his team had to work with available data. You don’t have a way to integrate your email list seamlessly with your shopping cart. As a workaround, they identified existing customers who hadn’t visited the BOOMSILK product page. Create smart lists using the Admin section of Google Analytics. Another useful tool for building audiences to target is Smart Lists, a relatively new feature. To create a smart list, Google looks primarily at your conversion data and builds a list of people most likely to convert on their next visit. People on a smart list may not have purchased yet, but Google’s saying they’re hot prospects. To base a smart list on your own data, you need to have at least 500 conversions per month and at least 10,000 page views per month. (If you don’t have that level of conversions and traffic, your smart lists are based on similar businesses.) Also, to use the Smart Lists feature, Analytics and AdWords need to be connected and you need to enable Smart Lists in Analytics. After the Smart List feature is set up, you can build a list in Analytics and import it into AdWords. You can also target people on YouTube with a smart list. A third way to target potential buyers is similar audiences. For example, if you upload a list of your best customers, Google will find a similar audience. (This is akin to lookalike audiences on Facebook.) It’s also based on behavior. Google is saying, here’s your list, here are other people who searched in similar ways, visited similar sites, things like that. Because a similar audience isn’t true remarketing, Brett uses these audiences with a little more reserve and wouldn’t spend as much to show ads to similar audiences. He typically uses them with search ads. Last but not least, when running search ads or Google Shopping ads, layering in YouTube data to create your target audience is also helpful. For instance, Brett’s client who sells high-end furniture wouldn’t usually bid on “leather sofa” because it’s too broad. However, they might target someone who has watched one of their YouTube videos and then searches for “leather sofa.” Listen to the show to hear Brett and I discuss the data and machine learning Google uses to build smart lists. Shoppable TrueView Shoppable TrueView is the combination of YouTube TrueView ads and Google Shopping ads. You can run a video ad (for example, for a brand-new pellet grill) and right next to it they’ll show a product listing ad (PLA), also known as a Google Shopping ad, for grills or grill covers. Shoppable TrueView matches Google Shopping Ads with your video ads. For example, someone goes to the grill page, clicks around, and doesn’t purchase. The next time they’re on YouTube looking for anything from barbecue recipes to football highlights, the pre-roll video will be for grills at the company they just visited. Also, below, beside, or overlaying the video will be Google Shopping ads showing the grill. To use Shoppable TrueView, you need to set up the product feed with Google Merchant Center. You can tell Google to show only certain product listing ads or to open up the whole inventory. Listen to the show to discover how this tactic solves one of the frustrations with Google Shopping. Discovery of the WeekA key pain point for many Instagram users is the inability to add carriage returns to create blank spaces above the list of multiple hashtags used in image descriptions of comments. Now, thanks to DisplayPurposes.com, Instagram users can create that white space. Simply click on the pink Copy Mode button, then type or paste in all of the hashtags you want to use under the bullet points in the white box you see. DisplayPurposes.com lets you paste in up to 30 hashtags. Select and copy everything in the white box, then paste it into an Instagram image description or comment. Copy the text in the box. DisplayPurposes magically inserts a carriage return behind each bullet point. ![]() Instagram post with carriage returns above the hashtags. DisplayPurposes.com is free to use. Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how DisplayPurposes.com works for you. Listen to the show! Listen now: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:What do you think? What are your thoughts on YouTube remarketing? Please leave your comments below. Social Media via http://ift.tt/1LtH18p September 29, 2017 at 05:03AM
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Twitter opens up on Russia after meeting with Congress http://ift.tt/2ybTrDV Following its meeting with members of the Senate and House’s respective intelligence committees, Twitter has issued new details on the information it is providing to aid the congressional investigations into Russia’s potential interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Twitter, like Facebook, is being examined for its part in spreading content created or paid for by Russian state-sponsored entities with the desire to influence U.S. politics. The meat of Twitter’s new disclosure is its effort to cross-reference Facebook’s list of 470 accounts believed to be linked to the Russian government. Twitter reports that 22 of those Facebook accounts “had corresponding accounts on Twitter.” Twitter removed any of those accounts that it hadn’t already suspended for violations of its terms of service prohibition against spam and also took action against a number of other affiliated accounts that it discovered in the process:
Twitter also reported details on Russia Today’s ad budget on the platform. The U.S. intelligence community believes that Russia Today, better known as RT, is affiliated with the Russian government. Still, because Twitter failed to specify how much of RT’s ad spend was related to the U.S. election it’s difficult to infer much of meaning from the information:
New reports have suggested that Twitter might have been an equal or greater focus for Russian influence campaigns compared to Facebook, which first made headlines around the issue. In its statement, Twitter also reiterated its commitment to cooperating with Congress, though Virginia Senator Mark Warner seems less than impressed with its efforts to date. Twitter is expected to appear along with Facebook and Google before both the House and Senate in hearings on the Russian influence campaign over the course of the next two months. Featured Image: nevodka / iStock Editorial / Getty Images PlusSocial Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com September 28, 2017 at 03:49PM Is Your Website Useless? 7 Essential Questions to Ask Yourself http://ift.tt/2wZ3ITW When is the last time you generated a lead from your website? Would you even know if you did, or whether the lead came from another channel? In this article we’re going to be look at whether or not your website is useful, or useless. If you’re impatient, submit your website to our Website Grader tool and we’ll send you a detailed performance report of your site after you’ve finished reading this article. 1. Why Do You Have A Website?Many small businesses I speak to have a website but aren’t sure why they have one. They were either talked into it by a colleague or worn down by the mass of articles and people telling them that they need one. If you have a website but aren’t sure why, chances are it isn’t going to be very effective! As with any marketing endeavour, you need to start with the objective. 2. Do You Measure Success?Are you measuring the performance of your website? Do you have Google Analytics setup? If not, then you won’t have any data to determine if your website is effective or not. Think of Google Analytics as an accounting system for your website, it gives you detailed metrics on how many visitors you get, where they come from and what they do once they’re on your site. Using Google Analytics you can measure the following:
What makes things worse, is that many small businesses are convinced they have Google Analytics setup when they actually don’t! If you’re not sure, we wrote an article on this which shows you how to check – Is Google Analytics Setup On My Website? If it turns out you don’t have Google Analytics setup, not to worry, we got you. We also wrote a simple guide on How To Setup Google Analytics On Your WordPress Website. Not on WordPress? You should be! Talk to us about converting to WordPress. 3. Is It Responsive?It baffles me that there are still businesses without a responsive website. It’s 2017, everyone and their grandma has a smart phone and is browsing the internet. If your website isn’t responsive, you are losing out on two fronts:
There is a simple tool you can use from Google to check whether or not your website is mobile friendly (besides the obvious test of getting out your mobile phone and having a look). Here’s the Google Mobile Friendly Test tool. 4. Does It Have A High Bounce Rate?You’ll need Google Analytics setup to determine this one. Bounce rate is defined by Google as: “Bounce rate is the percentage of single page visits (or web sessions). It is the number of visits in which a person leaves your website from the landing page without browsing any further. Google analytics calculates and reports the bounce rate of a web page and bounce rate of a website.” Your website bounce rate can be found in the Home section of Google Analytics and is defined as a percentage figure. If you have a high bounce rate this generally suggests there is an issue with one of two things:
Bounce rate varies depending industry, typically anything consistently higher than 60-70% suggests there is a problem that needs addressing. If you’re seeing a bounce rate of 80-90% I suggest you look at refreshing your website pronto! 5. Does It Reinforce Your Brand?Is your website unique and it does reinforce your brand? If you have brand colours, fonts and terminology, does your website reinforce this and distinguish you from competitors? If I asked what colour springs to mind when I say Netflix, you’d immediately think Red. What about Spotify? Green. Apple? White and grey, clean colours. Look at the Netflix homepage below. It’s striking, in their signature red colour and strongly reinforces their brand. Having a strong brand can help you in the following ways:
6. Does It Send You To Sleep Waiting For It To Load?If your website is slow, sluggish and takes a long time to load, it’s going to be costing you business. This could be a contributing factor to high bounce rate, you have less than 10 seconds from when someone lands on your site to grab their attention and provide them with enough info for them to navigate further into your website. If it takes 10 seconds for your website to load for a first time visitor, large chunks of traffic may choose to just close your site and try a competitor instead. Remember, there’s always someone else hungry for the business! 7. Does It Generate Leads?The litmus test for every business website is, does it generate leads, or does it make sales (if ecommerce). For B2B websites where the objective is to generate leads, correctly configuring Google Analytics will allow you to determine which leads are coming via the website (you could also look at call tracking). If you are using an ecommerce platform like Shopify or Woocommerce, you’ll be able to track orders and sales via your ecommerce dashboard, and connect the dots on where these sales come from using Google Analytics. If your website isn’t generating leads, it may time to start asking why and what can be done to change this. The post Is Your Website Useless? 7 Essential Questions to Ask Yourself appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://ift.tt/xMddWR September 28, 2017 at 01:54PM
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Twitter is briefing Congress today in election probe http://ift.tt/2xzMqfL Congressional investigations into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election are looking at the spread of misinformation on a number of online services — not just Facebook. In fact, Twitter is meeting with Congressional staffers today — Recode’s Tony Romm says Twitter’s Vice President of Policy Colin Corwell is currently in a closed-door meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee. According to Politico, Senate investigators are going to be asking questions about how tweets contributed news coverage, as well as: “What, if anything, did Twitter do to address bots once it had identified them as potentially malicious?” In addition, a number of publications have reported that the Senate Committee is asking Facebook, Twitter and Google to testify at a hearing on November 1. Most of the recent discussion around Russia’s online activity has focused on Facebook (among other things, this has prompted Facebook to announce new transparency measures around ad-buying), but new research suggests that Russia is quite active on Twitter, too. For example, the Alliance for Securing Democracy says that since last month, it has been following 600 Twitter accounts — some operated by bots, some by humans — tied to Russian operations. They’re not, however, simply supporting President Donald Trump. In fact, in the recent controversy around Trump and N.F.L. players, the accounts ended up posting messages on opposing sides of the debate. There’s also new research from Oxford University which found that 20 percent of tweets sampled from around the election included “polarizing and conspiracy content,” including content from Wikileaks and Russian sources. The greatest concentration of that content was in swing states like New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Featured Image: Image by Erik Pronske Photography/Getty ImagesSocial Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com September 28, 2017 at 10:40AM
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Tech giants pressured to auto-flag “illegal” content in Europe http://ift.tt/2xFhlVg Social media giants have again been put on notice that they need to do more to speed up removals of hate speech and other illegal content from their platforms in the European Union. The bloc’s executive body, the European Commission today announced a set of “guidelines and principles” aimed at pushing tech platforms to be more pro-active about takedowns of content deemed a problem. Specifically it’s urging they build tools to automate flagging and re-uploading of such content. “The increasing availability and spreading of terrorist material and content that incites violence and hatred online is a serious threat to the security and safety of EU citizens,” it said in a press release, arguing that illegal hate speech also “undermines citizens’ trust and confidence in the digital environment” and can thus have a knock on impact on “innovation, growth and jobs”. “Given their increasingly important role in providing access to information, the Commission expects online platforms to take swift action over the coming months, in particular in the area of terrorism and illegal hate speech — which is already illegal under EU law, both online and offline,” it added. In a statement on the guidance, VP for the EU’s Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip, described the plan as “a sound EU answer to the challenge of illegal content online”, and added: “We make it easier for platforms to fulfil their duty, in close cooperation with law enforcement and civil society. Our guidance includes safeguards to avoid over-removal and ensure transparency and the protection of fundamental rights such as freedom of speech.” The move follows a voluntary Code of Conduct, unveiled by the Commission last year, with Facebook, Twitter, Google’s YouTube and Microsoft signed up to agree to remove illegal hate speech which breaches their community principles in less than 24 hours. In a recent assessment of how that code is operating on hate speech takedowns the Commission said there had been some progress. But it’s still unhappy that a large portion (it now says ~28%) of takedowns are still taking as long as a week. It said it will monitor progress over the next six months to decide whether to take additional measures — including the possibility of proposing legislative if it feels not enough is being done. Its assessment (and possible legislative proposals) will be completed by May 2018. After which it would need to put any proposed new rules to the European Parliament for MEPs to vote on, as well as to the European Council. So it’s likely there would be challenges and amendments before a consensus could be reached. Some individual EU member states have been pushing to go further than the EC’s voluntary code of conduct on illegal hate speech on online platforms. In April, for example, the German cabinet backed proposals to hit social media firms with fines of up to €50 million if they fail to promptly remove illegal content. A committee of UK MPs also called for the government to consider similar moves earlier this year. While the UK prime minister has led a push by G7 nations to ramp up pressure on social media firms to expedite takedowns, especially of extremism content, in a bid to check the spread of terrorist propaganda online. That drive goes even further than the current EC Code of Conduct — with a call for takedowns of extremist material to take place within two hours. However the EC’s proposals today on tackling illegal content online appear to be attempting to pass guidance across a rather more expansive bundle of content, saying the aim is to “mainstream good procedural practices across different forms of illegal content” — so apparently seeking to roll hate speech, terrorist propaganda and child exploitation into the same “illegal” bundle as copyrighted content. Which makes for a far more controversial mix. (The EC does explicitly state the measures are not intended to be applied in respect of “fake news”, noting this is “not necessary illegal”, so that’s one more online “problem” it’s not seeking to stuff into this bundle, adding: “The problem of fake news will be addressed separately.”) It has divided its set of illegal content “guidelines and principles” into three areas — which it explains as follows:
Ergo, that’s a whole lot of “automatic tools” the Commission is proposing that commercial tech giants build to block the uploading of a poorly defined bundle of “illegal content”. Given the mix of vague guidance and expansive aims — to apparently apply the same and/or similar measures to tackle issues as different as terrorist propaganda and copyright — the guidelines have unsurprisingly drawn swift criticism. MEP Jan Philip Albrecht, for example, couched them as “vague requests”, and described the approach as “neither effective” in its aim of regulating tech platforms nor “in line with rule of law principles”.
He’s not the only European politician with that criticism, either. Other MEPs have warned the guidance is a “step backwards” for the rule of law online — seizing specifically on the Commission’s call for “automatic tools” to prevent illegal content being re-uploaded as a move towards upload-filters (which is something the executive has been pushing for as part of its controversial plan to reform the bloc’s digital copyright rules). “Installing censorship infrastructure that surveils everything people upload and letting algorithms make judgement calls about what we all can and cannot say online is an attack on our fundamental rights,” writes MEP Julia Redia in another response condemning the Commission’s plan. She then goes on to list a series of examples where algorithmic filtering failed… While MEP Marietje Schaake blogged with a warning about making companies “the arbiters of limitations of our fundamental rights”. “Unfortunately the good parts on enhancing transparency and accountability for the removal of illegal content are completely overshadowed by the parts that encourage automated measures by online platforms,” she added. European digital rights group the EDRI, which campaigns for free speech across the region, is also eviscerating in its response to the guidance, arguing that: “The document puts virtually all its focus on Internet companies monitoring online communications, in order to remove content that they decide might be illegal. It presents few safeguards for free speech, and little concern for dealing with content that is actually criminal.” “The Commission makes no effort at all to reflect on whether the content being deleted is actually illegal, nor if the impact is counterproductive. The speed and proportion of removals is praised simply due to the number of takedowns,” it adds, concluding that: “The Commission’s approach of fully privatising freedom of expression online, its almost complete indifference diligent assessment of the impacts of this privatisation.” Social Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com September 28, 2017 at 10:40AM |
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