#StopHateForProfit: Brands Boycott Facebook
For the first time in Facebook’s history, high-profile brands are pulling ads from Facebook and Instagram as part of the #StopHateForProfit campaign. The feud started on May 29th, as Facebook refused to follow Twitter’s lead and adjust to delete President Trump’s hateful tweet in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Starting July 1st, brands including Verizon, Ford, Adidas, HP, Patagonia, The North Face, Unilever, Starbucks, and Coca Cola are pulling ads from the social platform to protest against its’ policy, said to amplify hate speech.
In response, Mark Zuckerberg has announced: “Facebook will now take on an approach similar to that of Twitter, labeling posts that may violate its policies but are allowed to remain on the platform because they are deemed newsworthy.”
Today, the top 100 biggest advertisers account for only 6% of Facebook’s annual ad revenue. This suggests that the July boycott may have a limited impact on the tech giant’s bottom line. The true cost may however lie in further loss of trust from the public.
(Image creds: Ad Age)
TikTok is Now Open for Business
TikTok launched last week their new ‘TikTok For Business’ platform to offer marketing solutions for brands. Ad formats will include the current TopView, which is the ad that appears when first launching the TikTok app. Future products will include Brand Takeovers, In-Feed Videos, Hashtag Challenges, and Branded Effects.
Brand Takeovers are the three to five-second ads that are either a video or static. In-Feed Videos last up to 60 seconds and include sound. Hashtag Challenges allow brands to invite users to create content around a specific hashtag and participate in the user community.
With Branded Effects, brands will be able to insert themselves directly into the content creation experience. The effects allow a brand or product to be added to a video in a 2D, 3D, or AR format called ‘Brand Scan’. These can also be combined with Hashtag Challenges and boost engagement.
With this new launch, TikTok is growing out of the experimental phase and becoming a serious competitor to the more established Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.
(Images creds: Tech Crunch)
Instagram expands ‘Reels’ to new markets
As reported in a previous social short, Instagram launched “Reels”, a TikTok competitor, at the end of last year, allowing users in Brazil to record short and snappy videos to music or other audio.
As of last week, the video feature is now available in France and Germany. Instagram Reels can be shared on Instagram Stories, sent directly to specific users, or added to a new Reels tab. There is also a brand new discovery section on Instagram’s Explore page that will showcase the best-performing videos.
Although it is unclear when Instagram Reels will be rolled out worldwide, stay tuned as we’ll continue to report on any new updates.
(Image creds: Instagram via Tech Crunch)
Twitter Tests Updates For Fleets
While it has yet to be rolled out worldwide, Twitter is testing a new way of having conversations in Fleets, Twitter’s version of Instagram Stories. This update would enable users to create ‘co-fleets’ as first reported by Matt Navarra.
Twitter has confirmed the test to Social Media Today, providing this statement:
“We are testing something new for some people using Fleets in Brazil so they can Fleet with another account and everyone can see their conversation for 24 hours. We are trying this to understand how people might use this new way of having conversations in Fleets, as part of our bigger efforts to better serve the public conversation and encourage people to share fleeting thoughts.”
(Images creds: Social Media Today)
Finally, for our previous #SocialShort, click here.
