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The Stories You Have to Read:
32 million of the 533 million Facebook accounts compromised are for US based users and 2.5 million emails are confirmed to have been exploited.
Personal data on 533 million Facebook accounts has been compromised, according to security researcher Alon Gal. The information exposed included phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birth dates, bios, and in some instances email addresses. The data leak spanned 32 million US user records among 106 other countries worldwide. This scraping of personal data is said to have exploited a vulnerability that Facebook reportedly fixed in August 2019, meaning this leaked data set may be more than a year old already.
This personal data leak can result in spam calls, SMS messages, or unsolicited emails—annoying, to say the least. Troy Hunt, the creator of the Have I Been Pwned database, confirms that more than 2.5 million unique email addresses have been exploited.
As a precaution, it is always good practice to update and use unique passwords regularly, monitor any suspicious account notifications, watch financial statements and credit reports, and be selective about what personal information you voluntarily share. Being vigilant and proactive can make a big difference in how a data breach could affect you personally.
72% of the US population use some form of social media as of 2021.
Pew Research Center released a report early this month that follows some social media trends and developments from the last decade and a half. Pew Research began tracking social media adoption in 2005. Seventy-two percent of the US population report that they use some form of social media as of 2021; that figure rose from half of the population in 2011 and only 5% at the beginning of Pew’s study in 2005. The study also tracked adoption of social media platforms by age, race, gender, income, education, and urbanicity. Some interesting insights include the delay with which the various age groups began adopting usage and the disparities in social media usage based on education and urbanicity.
Understanding the typical social media user and channel impacts the strategy behind most marketing campaigns, whether it’s traditional, organic, or paid media distribution.
LinkedIn has added new features to profiles, including video Cover Stories and creator mode. The new video Cover Story allows users to upload an introductory video on their public profile. This feature can be used to personalize your profile, explaining who you are and your professional expertise or a quick elevator pitch of your services to potential clients visiting your business page. Among other updates LinkedIn is rolling out, the new creator mode is the most noteworthy. Professional content creators who utilize LinkedIn’s platform will now have the option to use this new mode to showcase on-platform activity in a new and engaging interface. Content can now be tagged from a selection of LinkedIn hashtags that will distribute content on-platform to relevant interested audiences. Creator mode will also shift the Featured and Activity sections to the top of your profile.
This update is exciting news for brands on LinkedIn, especially for B2B companies that don’t traditionally have an outlet on other social media platforms. B2B companies can utilize the profile videos to give quick sales pitches and overviews of their products and services. In the same light, creator mode can strengthen the discoverability of a company’s pro-centric content.
Google won its decade-old legal battle against Oracle regarding an alleged copyright infringement in the mid-2000s. The ruling was a result of a six Supreme Court justice majority, the allegations stemming from Google’s independent implementation of Java API methods that used names, argument types, and hierarchy similar to that of Java’s method for compatibility reasons. The lawsuit began a few years later when Sun, the company that developed Java programming language and other software, was acquired by Oracle. Oracle’s case was lost twice at trial courts but the ruling was overturned, it landed in the Federal Circuit Appeals Court, and last year the case was started in the Supreme Court.
The ruling on Google’s behalf means that the court system has avoided a potential onslaught of lawsuits against software companies that have utilized other company’s APIs or portions of code. The ruling now puts less importance on API copyrights and could usher in the continued innovation seen by open-source APIs and interconnectivity that now is possible with many web-based tools. A ruling in the other direction would have restricted the industry, creating siloed platforms and walled gardens. It looks like open-source APIs are here to stay.
Facebook has introduced dynamic streaming ads to its arsenal of advertising options specifically for video streaming businesses/services. This addition allows streaming brands with a library of video content to deliver a carousel ad of relevant episode titles tailored to users’ interests—in other words, episode cards delivered dynamically in the carousel.
This feature is now available worldwide to all applicable accounts. The change streamlines the process for content creators who used to create new campaigns for each individual title in their catalog. Now ads can be delivered dynamically and in a personalized experience similar to what they are accustomed to seeing on the streaming services themselves.
Media fragmentation continues to compound but so does the availability of advertising tools to deploy a hyper targeted marketing strategy.
CTV advertising is now available across an even larger network of programs, devices, and placements following agreement between ad brokers.
Three heavy hitters in the CTV advertising space, Trade Desk, Magnite, and Innovid, have created a pact to offer media buyers interactive TV advertising at scale across a huge network of streaming and web-based content providers. The alliance has offered an interface to create ads with easy-to-use overlays, viewer prompts for in-ad exploration, and in-ad experiences such as movie trailers and more.
CTV advertising continues to steadily climb as more and more viewers stream content on their devices and TV screens. More engaging and experiential CTV advertising can be expected, as traditional broadcast advertising is no longer reaching intended audiences at the same scale and is now done digitally with much more precision and measurement.
This is great news for marketers, as added tools for creativity and hyper-targeted distribution are paramount to the effectiveness of any campaign. The availability of the ad builder will be helpful for creating standout ads, immersive customer experiences, and more meaningful connections.
Reels offers Stories-like full-screen advertising experiences. Facebook rolls out similar placement in its native Stories and is considering monetization options for Facebook influencers and content creators.
Instagram is launching full-screen ad placements on its Reels feature, their year-old addition meant to compete with TikTok’s native content format. Instagram announced that its new advertising format will be revealed in India, Germany, Brazil, and Australia before rolling out elsewhere later this month. The full-screen immersive experience is similar to Instagram’s Stories placement, but the ads can run 30-second videos with which users can interact by clicking on video overlay call-to-action buttons.
Facebook is also rolling out similar features in its native Stories placement, experimenting with the use of Sticker ads on organic Stories. This feature is aimed at influencers and content creators as a form of potential monetization and revenue-sharing with select approved creators.
How will these changes affect the bottom line for Facebook and Instagram? The maturing Facebook platform is incrementally evolving, and it is clear that some of these latest additions are an attempt to keep up with competing social media platforms. It is no surprise that Gen Z has a much higher tendency toward video and visual content; it’s possible Facebook and Instagram are trying to secure their share of incoming new users. For marketers, this equates to additional avenues for advertising distribution, but it will be interesting to see how quickly these features catch on with users.
We found these articles insightful and helpful while we continue to navigate the changing marketing landscape. Thanks for reading!
Seth Slone | Digital PM
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