As Q1 came to a close this month, news within the industry continued to flourish. In March, LinkedIn launched several new features for audience targeting, and Twitter announced its plans to incorporate a “Subscribe to Conversation” button in the near future. Amazon has yet again set out to dominate the retail realm, this time through their influencer program, while Facebook threatened cybersecurity for account holders through their insecure storage of user passwords. Finally, subsequent to the release of countless police misconduct reports, California news agencies are teaming up to bring justice to those affected through collaboration as opposed to competition. We’ve rounded up all of this and more in this month’s recap, keep reading to make sure you don’t miss out on the latest industry news!
Social Media
Forget Instagram, Amazon is the Influencer Platform of the Future
Considering that 49% of consumers rely on influencers for product recommendations, it’s no surprise that influencer marketing is dominating social media. However, this month revealed that Amazon has continued to take over yet another aspect of the retail realm through their own influencer program. Amazon’s influencer program serves as an extension of their affiliate marketing program, as the retail giant only collaborates with “high-end” Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram influencers. Amazon influencers have the opportunity to create a custom storefront, vanity URL, and select the products they wish to showcase. Despite the fact that brand features in an influencer’s storefront serve as a powerful tool to increase brand awareness, the phenomenon only contributes to Amazon’s increasing power in the retail sphere.
LinkedIn Brings Lookalike Audiences to B2B Marketing
At last, LinkedIn will offer marketers a lookalike option for advertising targeting! Although Facebook and Google long ago added lookalike audiences to their catalog of targeting options, LinkedIn has finally adopted this option. LinkedIn’s Director of Product acknowledged LinkedIn’s tardiness in offering this feature, noting that B2B marketing is a different beast. Despite this, LinkedIn has successfully launched lookalike audiences in addition to two other targeting tools, templated audience segments and expansion of interest-based targeting through Microsoft Bing search data.
Facebook Stored Millions of User Passwords in Plain, Readable Text
Social media users’ apprehensions about cybersecurity were heightened this month as Facebook revealed the passwords of 600 million users were stored in plain text within the company’s data storage system. This issue was discovered during a routine check in January. Considering passwords within this storage unit dated back to 2012, the question is raised of how this wasn’t discovered sooner. Despite the fact that Facebook insists privacy is its top priority, this is not the platform’s first issue with cyber security, emphasizing the growing concern for the amount of information consumers share with social media channels.
Twitter Confirms a New ‘Subscribe to Conversation’ Feature for Following Tweets of Interest
Last month, Twitter shared its plans to add an “Edit Tweet” button, and this month the social platform confirmed plans to further enhance their options for users. In an effort to make Twitter more conversational, the platform confirmed that a “Subscribe to Conversation” button has been prototyped and is currently being tested. This new feature would allow users to follow a conversation with notifications when new Tweets are added, without signaling their interest or the need for users to participate in the conversation themselves. Although Twitter has not announced a release date for a “Subscribe to Tweet” button, we are eager to see this feature in action.
Industry News
California news organizations are setting an example for the rest to follow. With a recent bill passed within the state that released countless police misconduct records, over 30 news organizations have teamed up to take advantage of this opportunity for good journalism. However, with an archive of decades of information released, the scale of the challenge ultimately led these news organizations to work together as opposed to competing against one another. Thus far, over 1,000 records have been requested across 600 different police agencies. Collaboratively, news agencies around the state are highlighting and bringing justice to individuals who been a victim of police misconduct or wrongful use of force.