Digital platforms are having a watershed moment, and one question seems to be at the heart of it: How do we improve our trustworthiness in the eyes of users without totally sacrificing the data that makes us attractive to advertisers? Some platforms are going further than others in pondering that question, and there’s an array of tactics being utilized. This week’s edition of Weekly Reads wades into this quandary.
Will Holden, Director of Digital Strategy
Social Media Today: LinkedIn takes top spot again in Business Insider Digital Trust Report
According to Business Insider’s third annual Digital Trust Report, LinkedIn has been rated the most trusted social platform for the third year running, followed by Pinterest and Instagram. The rankings are based on a 1,974-person survey centered on Business Insider’s six pillars of digital trust, which include security, legitimacy, community, user experience, shareability and relevance. LinkedIn out-performed all of its competitors in the shareability, user experience and relevance categories.
eMarketer: Pinterest exec on why Pinners like branded content
While other social media platforms are migrating away from brands to try to provide a more trustworthy experience for users, Pinterest executive Arthur Sevilla told eMarketer that his platform is actually migrating towards brands for the same reason. “Social platforms are really fantastic in terms of connecting people to people, but we’re connecting people to their own interests, and those interests are brought to life more often by the brands that are relevant within those interests.”
The Next Web: Facebook tests hiding Like counts, just like Instagram
In April, Facebook-owned Instagram commenced a test to hide likes from posts in Canada. Later in July, it extended the program to six more countries: Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand. The goal? To encourage its users to “interact with each other in constructive ways”, without getting validation from metrics. It appears the results of that test have warranted further testing on Facebook, as an app researcher reported this month that like counts were being hidden on Facebook posts in Australia. This beta test has now been confirmed by Facebook itself.
ANALYTICS
WIRED: Why California’s Privacy Law Won’t Hurt Facebook or Google
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2020, and it has many in the digital advertising world watching nervously. The law somewhat resembles Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, or TDPR, which took effect in May. Specifically, the CCPA requires companies to provide an opt-out to data sharing, clear statements of what data is being collected or shared with third parties and the right to delete data about yourself. However, WIRED believes data juggernauts like Facebook and Google, the two digital platforms relied on most heavily by digital advertisers, won’t be negatively impacted by the CCPA. Why? Primarily because both live in a “walled garden where no data leaves and very little enters.”
FEATURED PROJECT
Market Force | B2B LinkedIn Advertising Campaign | Driving Thought Leadership, New Leads
Market Force Information was looking for new and innovative ways to leverage digital channels to generate organizational thought leadership as well as subsequent new business opportunities. As a company that provides market research in seven different, very specific industries, Market Force needed to segment audiences and related messages accordingly. CenterTable found robust LinkedIn audiences in five of the seven industry verticals, and developed individual LinkedIn Showcase Pages for each (convenience store and gas station, grocery, restaurant, retail banking and fashion retail). This allowed Market Force to distribute highly specific and targeted information, industry-by-industry. We then activated multiple LinkedIn advertising campaigns, reaching an average of 5,000+ individuals and generating an impressive click-through-rate of 0.78%. Market Force’s five Showcase Pages quickly gained more than 900 followers from customer experience executives within the five industry verticals, which then led to several new contracts for Market Force.
