<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Hundreds of content creators signed an open letter asking Meta to scrap a decision to curb the reach of “political content” on Instagram and Threads, amid concern the change could limit marginalized creators’ reach across the platforms.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The&nbsp;<a href="https://accountabletech.org/wp-content/uploads/Open-Letter-to-Instagram.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">letter</a>, first reported on by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/04/10/politics-instagram-threads-limits/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, was organized by the groups Accountable Tech—a nonprofit that advocates for better regulation of Big Tech companies—and the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD, and includes the handles of more than 200 accounts, including popular accounts like the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/feminist/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">@feminist</a>&nbsp;account, with which has 6 million followers on Instagram.



The signatories argue the&nbsp;<a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/continuing-our-approach-to-political-content-on-instagram-and-threads/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">policy</a>, announced in February, is “undermining the reach of our content online,” and is hurting efforts to “foster more inclusive and participatory democracy and society during a critical inflection point for our country.”



Forbes has contacted Meta for comment and did not immediately hear back—but Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told the Washington Post the change “expands on years of work on how we approach and treat political content based on what people have told us they wanted,” and Meta officials have previously<a href="https://deadline.com/2023/07/instagram-boss-politics-hard-news-not-pushed-threads-not-worth-scrutiny-negativity-integrity-risks-1235432486/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">&nbsp;suggested</a>&nbsp;they believe Instagram and Threads should focus their content on other topics aside from politics or hard news.



With Meta’s definition of “political content” including “social topics,” creators are concerned the new policy could “limit the reach of individuals and organizations whose identities and/or advocacy have been rendered a ‘social topic’ in this country,” the letter states, singling out advocacy efforts on climate change, gun violence prevention and transgender rights.



The creators are calling for Meta to change the policy so that users could “opt-in” to limiting so-called political content, rather than by opting them out by default.



The decision comes as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/familyequality/p/C5ixsJeLnSk/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">several</a>&nbsp;affected&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/innercitystruggle/p/C486cuxv-jo/?img_index=1" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">accounts</a>&nbsp;have been raising concern that the policy could affect the reach of news about LGBTQ+ issues, and have been providing instructions for followers to turn off the new settings.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-has-the-policy-changed">HOW HAS THE POLICY CHANGED?</h2>



In a February&nbsp;<a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/continuing-our-approach-to-political-content-on-instagram-and-threads/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">blog post</a>, Instagram said it will no longer “proactively recommend content about politics” from accounts users don’t follow across Instagram or Threads. Users who still want recommended posts on political content will be able to access an option to turn off limits in their content preferences. The policy applies to public accounts, and doesn’t change how users will see content from accounts they actively follow. Professional accounts can see whether their content is eligible to be recommended, and can request reviews if they disagree.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The open letter comes as content creators in recent weeks have been voicing concern about Meta’s new approach and also about how LGBTQ+ issues are treated across the tech giant’s platforms. Last month,&nbsp;<a href="https://glaad.org/smsi/report-meta-fails-to-moderate-extreme-anti-trans-hate-across-facebook-instagram-and-threads/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">GLAAD</a>&nbsp;released a report detailing how anti-transgender posts proliferated across the platforms despite policies aimed at preventing them, as LGBTQ+ creators have said that their own content is being limited by the policy, according to the Washington Post. Some creators have raised concern about how “political content” is defined, with Instagram influencer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/katiegrossbard/?hl=en" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Katie Grossbard</a>&nbsp;telling&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/creators-reaction-meta-instagram-limiting-political-content-rcna144969" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">NBC News</a>&nbsp;last month: “This decision directly harms communities whose entire existence is political.”



PROMOTED



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



<a href="https://deadline.com/2023/07/instagram-boss-politics-hard-news-not-pushed-threads-not-worth-scrutiny-negativity-integrity-risks-1235432486/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Adam Mosseri,</a>&nbsp;Instagram’s head, has suggested he doesn’t see Instagram or Threads as being a central place for politics, writing on Threads that while “politics and hard news are important,” using them as a revenue source “is not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity (let’s be honest) or integrity risks that come along with them.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



16%. As the open letter points out, that’s the percentage of adults who say they regularly get news on Instagram, per a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Pew Research Poll</a>.

INDIA-US-INTERNET-FACEBOOK

Creators Say Meta Shouldn’t Curb ‘Political Content’ In Policy Change Backlash

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Meta registered its highest-ever share price Friday, potentially completing the social media giant’s dramatic recovery amid Wall Street’s renewed faith in Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has refocused the firm&#8217;s attention on improving bottom lines.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Shares of Meta climbed as much as 2.2% to $384.36 in Friday trading, eking out their prior intraday high of $384.33 set in September 2021.



Meta, which also broke its prior high closing share price of $382, capped a significant comeback from the stock’s 77% collapse from its 2021 peak to its November 2022 nadir.



The 2021-22 unraveling, though coming as worsening economic conditions and the threat of higher interest rates broadly weighed on technology stocks, notably coincided with Meta’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/">name change</a>&nbsp;from Facebook to reflect the company’s shifting focus away from its core social media product and into Zuckerberg’s pet “metaverse” augmented and virtual reality passion project.



The metaverse push&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/07/26/metaverse-results-keep-getting-worse-at-meta/?sh=78e1c8672b24">proved</a>&nbsp;highly unpopular among investors, as the company’s augmented and virtual division reported $13.7 billion of operating losses in 2022.



But Meta shares came roaring back in 2023 as Zuckerberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/03/14/meta-cuts-another-10000-jobs/?sh=1d164387725b">touted</a>&nbsp;the company’s “year of efficiency”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/meta-lay-off-employees-metaverse-silicon-unit-wednesday-2023-10-03/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">marked</a>&nbsp;by more than 20,000 layoffs and a push to boost profits, an effort that began to bear fruit in Meta’s results as the company is fresh off of its most profitable quarter ever, generating $13.9 billion in cash during the quarter ending September 30, 2022.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Meta was the S&amp;P 500’s second-best performer of 2023, returning almost 200%. Its gains came during a broad rally for big tech stocks, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index rose more than 40% last year. Zuckerberg, who owns about 13% of the company, grew much richer as Meta stock soared. His $134 billion net worth Friday, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/?sh=51ad6d243e06">as estimated</a> by Forbes, is the fifth-largest fortune in the world.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



Meta is now within 2% of achieving a $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time in its history. Apple, Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, Alphabet, Amazon and Nvidia are the only companies in the world now valued at over $1 trillion. Meta’s roughly $985 billion market cap Friday made it the world’s seventh-most valuable company.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



Meta will report fourth-quarter and full-year financial results February 1. Analysts expect Meta to report its most profitable year ever with a record $72.6 billion of projected EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), according to FactSet.

In this photo illustration the American online social media

Meta Stock Sets Record High—How It Emerged From 77% Plunge And Metaverse Fiasco

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Teens are using social media at rates as high as ever, with the majority using YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram and nearly half of teens saying they are online “almost constantly,” though Snapchat slightly overtook Instagram this year, according to a new Pew Research Center&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/12/11/teens-social-media-and-technology-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey</a>&nbsp;of teens and technology.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The 46% of teens—13- to 17-year-olds—who said they’re online “almost constantly” is the same as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">last year</a>, though the number has almost doubled since 2014, when just 24% of teens said they were online “almost constantly.”



There wasn’t much overall change in social media usage between this year and last, as Youtube beat out TikTok as the dominant social media platforms, used by 93% and 63% of teens, respectively.



Snapchat moved above Instagram in 2023, with 60% of teens saying they use Snapchat and 59% using Instagram, compared to 62% using Instagram and 59% using Snapchat last year, and 52% on Instagram and just 41% on Snapchat in 2014-2015.



Social media usage differs slightly by gender, with teen girls being more likely to constantly use TikTok and Snapchat than boys, though constant usage of YouTube, Instagram and Facebook are fairly similar across gender lines, Pew reported.



Pew polled just under 1,500 teenagers for the survey in September and October, with a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



BeReal, the newest social media platform included on Pew’s poll, is the only platform that white teens were more likely to use than Black or Hispanic teens. TikTok was used by 80% of Black teens, as opposed to 70% of Hispanic teens and almost 60% of white teens, and more Black teens reported using X, formerly known as Twitter, than white or Hispanic teens.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



58%. That’s how many teens use TikTok daily. Of those, 17% described their TikTok usage as “almost constant,” and 32% said they use it several times a day. Hispanic teens are most likely to be using TikTok constantly, with almost one in three Hispanic teens reporting they’re almost constantly on the app compared to one in five Black teens and one in 10 white teens.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



Facebook is no longer dominating social media for teens. In 2014-2015, 71% of teens used Facebook compared to the 33% who reported using it now. The same can be said for X, formerly known as Twitter, which has seen usage drop from 33% to 20% over the same time period. However, teens in lower-income households are using Facebook more than their peers: 45% of teens in households making less than $30,000 annually reported using Facebook, compared with 27% of those in households that make at least $75,000 annually. And Instagram—which is owned by Facebook parent Meta—still remains broadly popular. Instagram, along with most major social media platforms, has faced a deluge of criticism in recent years about how it protects teenage users.

Midsection of teenager using phone while sitting with friends by cobbled street

Snapchat Overtakes Instagram In Teen Usage—But YouTube And TikTok Still Win, New Poll Finds

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said Tuesday &#8220;more and more&#8221; of the social media platform will become video-focused over time, defending Instagram from widespread complaints about changes that have made it more like competitor TikTok—a move that had angered creators like Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, two of the most-followed people on the app.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Last week, parent company Meta&nbsp;<a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/introducing-new-ways-to-collaborate-and-create-with-reels" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">introduced changes</a>&nbsp;to Instagram’s apps: Videos under 15 minutes will be posted as Reels, the platform’s video format, and Reels are now being promoted and shown to others on Instagram, a concept very similar to TikTok’s For You Page.&nbsp;



As Instagram shifts from its roots as a photo-based app to focus more on video, several big-name creators have spoken out: Kardashian, who has 326 million followers, and Jenner, who has 360 million, shared <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CgVLB1Dj3Ow/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a post </a>asking to “Make Instagram Instagram Again” instead of a reproduction of TikTok—a stance backed by many other creators.



Mosseri&nbsp;<a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/introducing-new-ways-to-collaborate-and-create-with-reels" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">posted a video</a>&nbsp;Tuesday responding to the backlash and predicting “more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time,” as that’s where users are putting more of their attention.



He said the platform “will still support photos” while it “leans in” to focusing on video.&nbsp;



Instagram “is going to try to get better” at recommending content on users’ feeds—a feature popularized by TikTok—to help creators “reach more people” and for followers to discover new accounts, Mosseri said.



Mosseri said the social media platform will test a “full-screen” display for photos and videos for some users, another change that could make Instagram resemble TikTok, but it’s “not yet good” enough to be fully adapted by Instagram.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">we don’t wanna make videos Adam lol&mdash; chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/status/1551979056995848192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“We’re going to stay in a place where we try to put your friends’ content at the top of your feed and at the front of Stories whenever possible,” Mosseri said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



Kardashian and Jenner shared a post that said “stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND&nbsp;</h2>



Creators like Jenner and Kardashian aren’t only angry they can’t see photos of their friends as easily anymore. Instagram is a hub for influencers, celebrities and content creators to push collaborations, sponsored posts and advertisements for products. A new algorithm that highlights video instead of photos means creators have to change their content to be able to get eyeballs on it—and make money from it. But TikTokers are also getting in on the monetization game: Last year, the social media platform’s highest-paid creators earned $55.5 million, a 500% increase from 2020, as many of them partner with clothing brands and launch movies and TV shows,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/01/07/top-earning-tiktokers-charli-dixie-damelio-addison-rae-bella-poarch-josh-richards/?sh=758f7d3e3afa">Forbes&nbsp;reported</a>&nbsp;earlier this year. Instagram launched Reels in 2020, shortly after TikTok experienced an explosion of growth into the mainstream that may have spooked Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees in February that Meta is facing an “unprecedented level of competition&#8221; from TikTok,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-03/zuckerberg-tells-staff-to-focus-on-video-as-meta-plunges?sref=PqmVp1JY#xj4y7vzkg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg</a>&nbsp;reported. Zuckerberg said the company would be focusing on Reels as a way to combat this. In April, Meta&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/facebook-meta-earnings-q1-2022/card/zuckerberg-says-meta-will-more-actively-use-ai-to-compete-with-tiktok-XcqG3RrIeswi7OksnMxh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;it would use artificial intelligence to recommend posts to users, a move similar to TikTok, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/facebook-meta-earnings-q1-2022/card/zuckerberg-says-meta-will-more-actively-use-ai-to-compete-with-tiktok-XcqG3RrIeswi7OksnMxh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wall Street Journal</a>.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



2 billion. That’s how many monthly active users Instagram&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/14/instagram-surpasses-2-billion-monthly-users.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly had</a>in December 2021. In September, TikTok said it had over 1 billion.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/01/07/top-earning-tiktokers-charli-dixie-damelio-addison-rae-bella-poarch-josh-richards/?sh=1093245d3afa">Top-Earning TikTok-ers 2022: Charli And Dixie D’Amelio And Addison Rae Expand Fame—And Paydays</a> (Forbes)



By Marisa Dellatto, Forbes Staff

MALAYSIA-US-INTERNET-SOCIAL-APPS

Instagram Exec Defends Shift To Video Despite Complaints From Creators Like Kylie Jenner

Facebook’s parent company says it will no longer let advertisers buy targeted ads for users based on sensitive information such as race, political affiliation, sexual orientation, religion or health. &nbsp;



In one of its first major moves since&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2021/11/03/with-facebook-becoming-meta-chief-marketing-officer-alex-schultz-says-were-not-running-from-anything/?sh=2214098856be">rebranding as Meta</a>, the company plans to remove options to target people based on how people reference causes, organizations or public figures. The changes—which will go into effect on January 19—will be rolled out across all of Meta’s platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp as well as its network of other websites and apps using Facebook’s ad-targeting tools. For example, advertisers will no longer see health-related categories for keywords such as “World Diabetes Day” and “Chemotherapy” or religion-based keywords including “Catholic Church” and “Jewish Holidays.”



In a blog post published today about the decision, Graham Mudd, Meta’s vice president of product marketing and ads, wrote that the company wants to “better match people’s evolving expectations of how advertisers may reach them on our platform.” He said the changes are based on feedback from policymakers, civil rights experts and others as a way to prevent advertisers from abusing the platform.&nbsp;



“It is important to note that the interest targeting options we are removing are not based on people’s physical characteristics or personal attributes, but instead on things like people’s interactions with content on our platform,” Mudd wrote. “However, we’ve heard concerns from experts that targeting options like these could be used in ways that lead to negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups.”



In a series of tweets about the decision, Roy Austin Jr., Facebook’s vice president of civil rights, said the decisions to remove ad-targeting options <a href="https://twitter.com/RAustin_Jr/status/1458165826670956546?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“wasn’t an easy decision.”</a> He added that some advertisers expressed concern about their ability to “help generate positive societal change.” The company is also adding new tools to let users choose to see fewer ads about types of content they might not be interested in. While the company already gives people control over opting out of ads related to alcohol, parenting and politics, users will be able to also see fewer ads about gambling and weight loss beginning next year.



Samidh Chakrabarti, who led Facebook’s civic integrity team before leaving in September, wrote on Twitter that Meta’s updates are “an important step.” However, he said the company should also agree to a third-party audit to detect potential bias in the ad delivery system.



“Modern ad networks now deliver ads so precisely that they may create more bias than ad targeting itself,” Chakrabarti wrote.



Meta’s moves comes as European lawmakers are pushing to regulate how Facebook and other tech giants collect and use data for advertising. During the annual Web Summit tech conference last week, Věra Jourová, European Commission vice president for values and transparency,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2021/11/02/european-union-lawmaker-says-whistleblowers-highlight-the-need-for-regulating-online-political-advertising/?sh=3ba7bcad31e3">said sensitive personal information shouldn’t be allowed for use in political advertising</a>. She said users should know why they’re seeing an ad, who paid for it and which data was used to target them, adding that there should also be a way to opt out.



“As we always say in Europe, we want technologies to serve the people and not vice-versa,” she said during a press conference in Lisbon. “Big Tech has really big power, but they did not assume the responsibility.”



Meta’s decisions to remove sensitive ad-targeting tools follows another big decision by the company to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2021/11/02/facebook-shutting-down-facial-recognition-software/?sh=249a30a66e90">shut down its facial recognition software</a>, which has long been seen by many consumer advocates as an invasion of user privacy. The change, announced last week, will begin rolling out over the next few weeks while Facebook deletes face scans of more than a billion users. The update also will end the social network’s ability to automatically suggest tagging people in photos and also affect a tool that helps blind and visually-impaired users identify images via text descriptions.



Earlier today, Meta also released its&nbsp;<a href="https://transparency.fb.com/data/community-standards-enforcement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">quarterly report</a>&nbsp;detailing how it enforced its policies from July through September of 2021 including detailed information about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.engadget.com/metas-latest-transparency-report-details-bullying-and-harassment-on-facebook-and-instagram-182854231.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bullying and harassment on Facebook and Instagram</a>. The company also said it will let EY conduct an external audit of its metrics in the fourth quarter.



Although Meta is making a number of changes to its own policies, U.S. lawmakers continue looking at ways to regulate the company and other tech giants. Earlier today, a bi-partisan group of lawmakers announced new legislation that would let users opt out of having companies’ algorithms serve up data-driven content.&nbsp;



“This commonsense legislation will increase data transparency, expand consumer privacy, and shed light on mechanisms used to power Big Tech platforms,” U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, wrote in a tweet.



Last month, Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill that would remove liability protections when a platform “knowingly or recklessly promotes harmful content.” A third bill, introduced by U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, would change the way large companies are able to collect, use or share user data while giving additional enforcement powers to the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.



By Marty Swant, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration a Facebook logo seen displayed on

Meta Will Soon Ban Targeting Ads Based On Sensitive Categories Including Religion And Politics

TOPLINE Tens of thousands of Facebook users reported experiencing outages on Monday morning, as well as users of the tech giant’s other major social media platforms, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger in outages that appear to be international. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



According to outage tracking service DownDetector,&nbsp;<a href="https://downdetector.com/status/facebook-messenger/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://downdetector.com/status/instagram/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">number</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://downdetector.com/status/facebook/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">of</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://downdetector.com/status/whatsapp/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outages</a>&nbsp;reported by users spiked for all four of Facebook’s major services around 11:30 a.m. EDT.



Comments left on DownDetector and other social media platforms indicate that users all over the world are experiencing outages on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.



Facebook did not immediately respond to a Forbes request for comment, but said in a statement the company is “<a href="https://twitter.com/Facebook/status/1445061804636479493" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">aware</a>” of the complaints and working on a solution.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.&mdash; Meta (@Meta) <a href="https://twitter.com/Meta/status/1445061804636479493?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



With more 2.89 billion active monthly users last quarter according to the company’s self-reported figures, Facebook is the most popular social media platform on earth. Facebook’s platforms have experienced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/04/08/facebook-whatsapp-instagram-working-again-after-brief-outage/">several</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/03/19/instagram-whatsapp-facebook-messenger-down-in-apparent-outage/">major</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.abc4.com/news/national/users-reporting-problems-accessing-facebook/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outages</a>&nbsp;this year.



This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.



By Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff

Smartphone apps from Facebook

Facebook, Instagram And WhatsApp Face Worldwide Outages

Facebook will soon allow people on the social media platform to send direct messages to Instagram users and vice versa, the social media giant said in a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/09/new-messaging-features-for-instagram/" target="_blank">blog post</a>, signaling the first step in the company’s plan to unify messaging systems across all of its platforms, which also includes WhatsApp.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h4>



Instagram’s inbuilt instant messenger will also be updated to include a few additions including selfie stickers, custom backgrounds, and disappearing messages.



The feature will be open to all users by default but Instagram users who may want to keep their chats separate from Facebook may choose to opt-out of the update altogether, although this means they will also not receive all the other new features.



It is unclear as to when the cross-platform messaging will become available to all users, but CNN&nbsp;<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/30/tech/instagram-messenger-messaging/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that the feature is presently being “tested in select markets and will expand globally in the coming months.”



The cross-platform integration presently excludes Facebook-owned messaging behemoth WhatsApp which has over 2 billion users worldwide.



Unlike Facebook Messenger and Instagram’s direct messages, WhatsApp features end-to-end encryption that prevents third parties including government and law enforcement from peering into messages in transit.



In 2019, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had&nbsp;<a href="http://facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-privacy-focused-vision-for-social-networking/10156700570096634/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outlined</a>&nbsp;a plan that would see his company pivot away from public communications to focus on encrypted private messaging.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h4>



Responding to a question on WhatsApp integration on Twitter, Facebook’s EMEA Technology Communications Manager Alexandru Voica&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/alexvoica/status/1311287329701724170" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>, “Right now, we are focused on cross-app communications Messenger and Instagram. We are still determining how cross-app communications will work with WhatsApp. WhatsApp will continue to remain a separate, end-to-end encrypted app at this time.”



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">CHIEF CRITIC</h4>



After Zuckerberg announced his company’s intention to integrate its service, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/opinion/sunday/chris-hughes-facebook-zuckerberg.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>&nbsp;for the&nbsp;New York Times, calling for Facebook to be broken up. Arguing that Facebook has become a monopoly which in turn has limited competition and held back innovation, Hughes wrote, “Mark’s influence is staggering, far beyond that of anyone else in the private sector or in government. He controls three core communications platforms — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — that billions of people use every day.” He then called on the government to move quickly to split Facebook from Instagram and WhatsApp adding, “Until recently, WhatsApp and Instagram were administered as independent platforms inside the parent company, so that should make the process easier. But time is of the essence: Facebook is working quickly to integrate the three, which would make it harder for the F.T.C. to split them up.”



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h4>



On Tuesday, Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/09/privacy-matters-accounts-center/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;that it was testing a unified ‘Accounts Centre’ that would control login and other activity on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger from a single platform. Once operational this will allow users to log into all three of the apps from a single platform and cross-post content. “Whether you want to share a story to Instagram and Facebook at the same time, or use your Facebook account to log into Instagram, setting up your Accounts Center will allow you to control connected experiences that work across our apps,” Facebook said in its blog post.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



Lawmakers around the world have <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/29/facebooks-plan-to-merge-messaging-services-could-be-barred-in-the-eu.html" target="_blank">expressed concern</a> over Facebook’s plan to integrate its messaging platforms. The company is presently facing antitrust scrutiny in both the U.S. and the European Union. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://medium.com/@teamwarren/heres-how-we-can-break-up-big-tech-9ad9e0da324c" target="_blank">called</a> for the breaking up of big tech companies including Facebook. The Democratic presidential candidate <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://nypost.com/2019/05/13/joe-biden-says-hes-open-to-breaking-up-facebook/" target="_blank">Joe Biden</a> and his running mate <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://gizmodo.com/kamala-harris-says-we-need-to-seriously-take-a-look-at-1834706259" target="_blank">Kamala Harris</a> have both said that the issue of breaking up Facebook is something that needs to be given a serious look. However, breaking the company up may become difficult if Facebook manages to merge all its services under a single umbrella.



-By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

Facebook, Instagram Users Will Soon Be Able To Send Each Other Direct Messages

As TikTok and Oracle&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/oracle" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ORCL</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/oracle">-0.3%</a>&nbsp;work out&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2020/08/27/walmart-joins-microsofts-bid-to-acquire-tiktoks-us-business/">an acquisition deal</a>, the social media company is also thinking about who will be its next CEO after its last chief, Kevin Mayer,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2020/08/27/tiktok-ceo-kevin-mayer-exits-as-company-faces-threat-of-ban-in-us/#794266db114c">departed&nbsp;</a>after only a few months.



One of the people in the running for the job is Instagram billionaire Kevin Systrom, who left Facebook in 2018,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/technology/tiktok-deal-revisions-trump-review.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to</a>&nbsp;a&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/new-york-times" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NYT</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/new-york-times">-1.2%</a>&nbsp;story. The discussions between Systrom and Tiktok are only in the early stages, the&nbsp;Times&nbsp;reports. TikTok could not be reached to comment for this story. A spokesperson for Systrom declined to comment.



TikTok’s divestiture from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance very much remains a work in progress.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-17/oracle-bytedance-said-to-accept-new-treasury-terms-on-tiktok" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg&nbsp;</a>reported this afternoon that the U.S. Treasury department has tentatively approved a deal that would leave TikTok’s U.S. operations largely in the hands of American stakeholders, including Oracle. ByteDance still needs to get approval from President Trump by Sunday, the day when a Trump-issued executive order goes into effect that would effectively ban TikTok in the U.S.



Mayer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/05/20/inside-the-hunt-for-tiktoks-new-ceo-and-whats-next-for-the-worlds-hottest-app/#711472b5abb4">was seen</a>&nbsp;as a strong choice when his hiring was announced in May. He had spent years at Disney&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/walt-disney" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DIS</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/walt-disney">-0.1%</a>&nbsp;overseeing its M&amp;A deals and working on the launch of its streaming service, Disney+. But Mayer unexpectedly departed last month, saying he had not expected to be caught up in tensions between the U.S. government and China. Vanessa Pappas, TikTok’s general manager, has been serving as TikTok’s interim chief.



In Systrom, TikTok would get someone who has already created one social media giant—and someone immensely familiar with one of TikTok’s main rivals: Mark Zuckerberg. Systrom sold Instagram to Zuckerberg and Facebook in 2012 for almost $1 billion and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2016/08/01/instagram-the-50-billion-grand-slam-driving-facebooks-future-the-forbes-cover-story/#3fdf40ee278f">then built it up</a>&nbsp;to over a half-billion users before leaving.



Zuckerberg and Facebook clearly see TikTok as a threat already. Instagram has rolled out a number of new features that copy TikTok, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/08/05/instagram-intensifies-battle-with-tiktok-as-influencers-ponder-their-options/">a short-form-video editing tool</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/08/19/instagram-reaches-for-more-of-tiktoks-magic-with-a-change-to-its-main-feed/">changed its main feed</a>&nbsp;to make it more like TikTok. In Washington, Zuckerberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-stoked-washingtons-fears-about-tiktok-11598223133" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;stressed to politicians that TikTok was a threat to American users; Trump and other Republicans have expressed worry that TikTok may mishandle user data to satisfy the Chinese government.



Add Systrom to the mix, and the battle between TikTok and Facebook becomes one of the most intriguing rivalries in the corporate world.



By Abram Brown,Forbes Staff

2019 SXSW Conference And Festival – Day 4

TikTok Reportedly Considering Instagram Billionaire Kevin Systrom For Vacant CEO Role

Next to the familiar content from family and friends in Instagram’s main feed will now be something else: photos and videos from accounts you don’t already follow. The introduction of these algorithmically chosen “Suggested Posts” is a significant change to the app and a response to the technology that has allowed TikTok to establish itself as a surging rival.



Starting today, Instagram will include the Suggested Posts at the bottom of the Home feed, which users will reach only after scrolling through all the new content from the accounts they follow. Suggested Posts are picked based on what the app thinks interests you, and it gleans this from a number of factors, including analyzing what content you liked and shared and the accounts that you follow.



“So if you’re typically excited about specifics interests—like for me, food and interior design—you would hopefully see more content that would have loved to have seen,” says Instagram’s Robby Stein, the executive responsible for the new feature. “We saw an opportunity to actually help bring some of the best of Instagram to you&#8230;instead of relying entirely on you to find all of the best content on Instagram.”Recommended For You



This is a departure point for Instagram. Instagram’s Home feed, the app’s default starting point, has been a place only for content that you’ve knowingly told Instagram to put there. TikTok works in the opposite way. TikTok’s For You page is its starting point and displays content based entirely through an algorithm, surfacing content from accounts you don’t know and from ones that have interested you in the past.



TikTok’s For You page has enabled content to more easily go viral than on Instagram and for more influencers to amass bigger followings. It has become a beloved hallmark of TikTok: Users like it because they find more things. Influencers like having the greater shot at fame (and possibly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/08/06/tiktoks-highest-earning-stars-teen-queens-addison-rae-and-charli-damelio-rule/#4bbb5e245087">the money</a>&nbsp;that can follow with that).



By mimicking TiKTok, Instagram is indicating how far it’ll go to beat back its new competitor, including changes to core real estate on its app. Instagram displayed similar behavior earlier this month when&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/08/05/instagram-intensifies-battle-with-tiktok-as-influencers-ponder-their-options/#4dacb30c67a2">it debuted</a>&nbsp;its own short-form video editing function, Reels, a product meant to directly compete with TikTok. In the past, Instagram’s parent company Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/facebook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FB</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/facebook">+2.4%</a>&nbsp;has been widely criticized for its copy-cat tendencies as have many other large tech companies.



For now, Suggested Posts is tucked away in an innocuous place on Instagram. It’s not clear whether many users regularly get to the bottom of their Home feeds. But Instagram says it will be refining Suggested Posts in the future and wouldn’t comment on whether these posts could later appear higher in a user’s feed or whether they might eventually include content from Reels.



Suggested Posts are similar to what Instagram already displays in its algorithmically driven Explore page. The company declined to give details about how the content selected for Suggested Posts will differ from what would already appear in Explore.



Instagram’s Home feed hasn’t been altered much in past years. In 2016, Instagram changed how it displayed posts, switching from chronologically displaying them to an algorithmic method that prioritizes content from the accounts you interact with the most. Before this, the Home tab was changed in 2013 when Instagram began including ads there.



TikTok’s future, of course, remains a mystery. President Trump has given its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, until November to sell off the app’s U.S. operations out of concerns that ByteDance may be improperly handling user data. ByteDance has maintained that it does not.



-Abram Brown, Forbes Staff

Social Media Logos

Instagram Reaches For More Of TikTok’s Magic With A Change To Its Main Feed

While a growing number of influencers are dictating what
brands sell, beauty entrepreneur Jackie Aina is of the view they have the duty
to use their platforms responsibly.&nbsp;&nbsp; 



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Mixing up the inspirational with informative, the
thought-provoking with tongue-in-cheek, and sarcasm with calling out brands for
not being inclusive, Jackie Aina is influencing the beauty industry one product
at a time. 



With over three million YouTube followers and 1.2 million on
Instagram, Aina is one of the stand-out digital influencers cashing in on
online followings to broadcast messages to millennials, lifestyle brands and
billion-dollar cosmetic conglomerates. 



Although Aina does all of this with a dose of humor, the journey to YouTube stardom started some 10 years ago for the 31-year-old beauty entrepreneur, when she was desperately searching for a way to escape loneliness and unfulfillment. 



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“I had gone on to marry the guy who inspired me to join the
military. We were stationed in Hawaii and we were very unhappily married. I
didn’t have a job and YouTube was buzzing in 2009. We had a lot of Asian faces
who were really the faces of beauty on YouTube and I didn’t really see anyone
like me. So, my best friend, literally every day, said ‘why don’t you put your
makeup looks on YouTube’ and I always said no.”



Her friend’s unrelenting pursuit finally paid off.&nbsp; 



“So, one day, I decided I wasn’t doing anything, and being
bored and not being fulfilled emotionally and I didn’t have a lot of positive
things going on for me at the time, so that left me a lot of time to consume
content and then I started creating it.



&nbsp;“I truly tapped into
something that I needed at the time mentally and that was great. People didn’t
know me but they would just gas me up; they were so nice and would always give
me positive encouragement which I really needed at the time,” Aina says.



That was a lifetime ago. These days, the Los Angeles-born influencer, who was called&nbsp; ‘beauty influencer of the year’ by Women’s Wear Daily last year, is short-listed among the top beauty influencers in the United States, with lucrative brand collaborations behind her. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">Most notably is her collaboration with the Estée Lauder-owned brand, Too Faced, as part of the Born This Way foundation range, which she helped to create. </blockquote>



Celebrities and influencers are increasingly being paid
several thousands of dollars per tweet or Instagram post to promote products,
services and even social causes. 



With most millennials avoiding posts that look like
sponsored ads, brands are now increasingly interested in ads that appear
organic. And that is where influencers come in. 



Remuneration for such posts is usually decided after
considering factors like number of followers, popularity, engagement, frequency
of posts, as well as the format of the post. 



Furthermore, influencer accounts with&nbsp; massive follower counts can leverage their
social media clout to showcase brands to their followers and perhaps, most
importantly, use their brand voice to fight against injustice in the industry,
something Aina is passionate about.



“A lot of years on YouTube were spent seeing comments from
people who say things. It is easy to sit and complain but what are you doing to
change the industry?” 



In response, Aina decided to use her platform to fight for
the change she wanted to see in the industry. She holds other influencers
accountable for offensive remarks and joins controversial and tough discussions
about issues like colorism in the beauty industry. And brands are starting to
listen. 



It was her outspoken voice in the beauty space that caught the attention of the beauty conglomerate, Too Faced, which short-listed Aina to help expand its foundation range and ensure the makeup undertones would also compliment women of color.



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“That was a testament to brands actually listening. Just
because you think someone is not watching, doesn’t mean they are not watching.
They are definitely watching. Sometimes all you really need is that one
opportunity and that can be leveraged over and over again,” Aina says.



As brands increasingly turn away from traditional marketing,
towards social influencers, young, connected digital natives like Aina, will
continue to play an important role in the success of beauty brands for the
foreseeable trend-obsessed digital future.

Jackie

Making Up For Millions

Many perspectives have been shared on influencer marketing, but very few from the brands themselves. What are its business imperatives and ROI?



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



In the heart of Sandton, Africa’s richest square mile, is
Brittany Preece, a social media manager at Investec Bank. 



As part of the Private Banking marketing team, Preece and
her team have managed to successfully implement disruptive digital strategies
to meet the growth objectives of the bank. 



Traditionally, the role of marketing has been to support business objectives. Yet when companies experience financial difficulty, more often than not, marketing is seen to be the first in line on the chopping block. As a way of adapting to this reality, most marketing managers have had to look at cost-effective, yet creative, ways of achieving business impact.



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Social and digital media have given room for new ways
businesses can engage and sell to their customers. 



Increasingly gaining traction in South Africa is influencer
marketing, an entirely new branch of the sales and marketing funnel which has
seen brands leverage popular personalities on social media to promote their
products and services online. Globally, the influencer marketing industry is
forecast to be worth $5 billion to $10 billion by 2020, according to a study by
Mediakix.



For Investec, attracting and diversifying into new markets
has informed their decision to leverage influencers as part of their marketing
strategy. 



“Since 2015, we as Investec, have predominantly used influencer marketing to reach the young professional audience,” Preece says. 



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“We (Investec Private Bank) have recently evolved our
qualifying criteria. We’re no longer just the preferred banking partner for
accountants, engineers, lawyers, doctors and actuaries. We’re positioned to be
the bank of choice for those who are under the age of 30, consistently earning
more than R600,000 ($42,582)a year, with a university degree and working in
their area of expertise.” 



Seated in front of a glass wall which looks out to a view of
a bustling and upbeat office environment, she elaborates that to effectively
reach the young professionals’ target market, it is important to identify
individuals that can speak to that audience. 



“What influencer marketing gives you, that a lot of the other marketing channels can’t, is great reach and engagement with your target audience. Using [influencers] brings a lot of authenticity to the brand, where Investec Private Banking was seen as unattainable to a lot of young professionals,” Preece says. 



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In the digital universe, content is king. Authenticity is
paramount. A study conducted by the Mobile Marketing Association reported that
most consumers have banner blindness and suffer from advertising fatigue. They
cannot recall the last digital banner ad that they saw. 



Ad-blocking continues to be a growing phenomenon, further
demonstrating the shift in consumer behavior. Consumers simply don’t want to be
marketed to. To this effect, influencers assist brands to reach their customers
through content that is more relevant to those consumers.



According to Business Insider’s 2018 Influencer Marketing
Report: Research, Strategy &amp; Platforms for Leveraging Social Media
Influencers, the average social media engagement rate from influencer marketing
averages 5.7% per post. 



This is a feat compared to content generated by brands which
fluctuates around 2% – 3% per post. 



With this in mind, it’s even more essential for brands to
involve influencers upfront to co-create an envisioned campaign. 



“You want your influencer to buy into what you stand for as a brand. It shouldn’t be a hard sell – consumers see through that. If not done properly, it can look very fake and [we] never want to make it feel like an ad,” Preece says. 



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Brands and agencies measure awareness and engagement by
analyzing a few parameters, including, inter alia, number of likes, comments,
shares and followers. Proponents of this theory believe an increase in these
parameters lead to brand success. 



Detractors of the theory believe awareness and engagement
alone are not sufficient indicators of brand success. “Likes and follows are
unimpressive without an increase in the bottom line,” says Sinesipho Maninjwa,
a financial analyst and commentator. 



But technology has its limitations. Dianne Joseph, the
Commercial Director of Digital at Nielsen, a leading global information, data
and measurement company, elaborates that there are real challenges in measuring
sales attribution as a result of influencer marketing. 



“The influencer models are difficult to measure because most
influencers use their own personal pages to post, and these organic posts don’t
offer us the opportunity to implement a tag (for tracking purposes) and,
therefore, we aren’t able to track the outcomes,” Joseph says.



The ability to measure what is happening on and off digital
platforms, or across social media platforms, is a challenge that most digital
marketers face. Different platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have their own
unique methods of tracking and storing data. The link between these platforms
is, therefore, a lot more tenuous. 



But in support of influencer marketing, a number of global
studies have come out and shown that influencer marketing does yield a positive
return on investment (ROI). 



Pierre Cassuto, of social media influencer platform Humanz,
who recently set up shop in South Africa from Tel Aviv in Israel, believes that
the use of influencers can lead to increased sales. “In the US market, there is
about a four times ROI on money spent in the influencer marketing space for
retailers, cosmetics and FMCG brands,” he adds.



Cassuto agrees that engagement on its own doesn’t yield conversion. For influencer marketing to yield conversion, the message being broadcast by influencers has to be well thought out and carefully constructed to achieve that objective. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">There has to be a reason for someone to do something now as opposed to anytime. That can be around creating urgency around something specific, it can be around creating a limited time availability offer.</blockquote>



Essentially, brands can become creative and purposeful in
how they design their entire campaign to track conversion from the ground up.
“The way we suggest measuring conversion is by making sure that the influencers
have a way that [brands] can track the relationship between the influencers
post and the actual conversion,” Cassuto says.



The first looks at providing the influencer a coupon code
that they can distribute and share. In doing so, the specific brands will know
that the people who redeemed the coupon code came from the influencers. The
second options measures sell over time related to increase in traffic due to
influencer marketing towards a landing page that the brand is driving to. With
this, Cassuto states that brands can do A/B testing to see the impact on days
influencers are posting and days when they’re not. 



With all the advantages of influencer marketing, should
brands solely invest in this sales channel? 



Preece firmly holds the view that influencer marketing on
its own isn’t the be all and end all. “I do believe that it should be a mix. I
believe that an integrated marketing plan that uses out-of-home, billboards, TV
and digital is where you see the most results.”



“Things can go wrong with influencer marketing. You are
putting faith and trust into a human being who is imperfect. We have a saying:
A tweet can tank an economy,” Preece says.



With consumers becoming increasingly selective about what
they consume, influencer marketing continues to grow as an attractive sales
channel. It is imperative that brands place the necessary care and due
diligence before partnering with any influencer. 



The perfect fit between an influencer and the brand will
determine the overall ROI. After all, effective influencer marketing is the
online equivalent of the highly valuable word-of-mouth advertising that
marketers have always coveted.

gettyimages-981661932-170667a

‘A Tweet Can Tank An Economy’

Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is planning to unify the underlying messaging infrastructure of the WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger services and incorporate end-to-end encryption into these apps, the New York Times reported.



The three services will, however, continue as stand-alone apps, the report said, citing four people involved in the effort.



Facebook said it is working on adding end-to-end encryption, which protects messages from being viewed by anyone except the participants in a conversation, to more of its messaging products, and considering ways to make it easier for users to connect across networks.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“There is a lot of discussion and debate as we begin the long process of figuring out all the details of how this will work,” a spokesperson said.</blockquote>



After the changes, a Facebook user, for instance, will be able send an encrypted message to someone who has only a WhatsApp account, according to the New York Times report.



Integrating the messaging services could make it harder for antitrust regulators to break up Facebook by undoing its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram, said Sam Weinstein, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.



“If Facebook is worried about that then one way it can defend itself is to integrate those services,” Weinstein said.



But Weinstein said breaking up Facebook is viewed as an “extreme remedy” by regulators, particularly in the United States, so concerns over antitrust scrutiny may not have been a factor behind the integration.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">MAJOR TRADEOFFS</h4>



Some former Facebook security engineers and an outside encryption expert said the plan could be good news for user privacy, in particular by extending end-to-end encryption.



“I’m cautiously optimistic it’s a good thing,” said former Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, who now teaches at Stanford University. “My fear was that they were going to drop end-to-end encryption.”



However, the technology does not always conceal metadata &#8211; information about who is talking to whom &#8211; sparking concern among some researchers that the data might be shared.



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Any metadata integration likely will let Facebook learn more about users, linking identifiers such as phone numbers and email addresses for those using the services independently of each other.



Facebook could use that data to charge more for advertising and targeted services, although it also would have to forgo ads based on message content in Messenger and Instagram.



Other major tradeoffs will have to be made too, Stamos and others said.



Messenger allows strangers to contact people without knowing their phone numbers, for example, increasing the risk of stalking and approaches to children.



Systems based on phone numbers have additional privacy concerns, because governments and other entities can easily extract location information from them.



Stamos said he hoped Facebook would get public input from terrorism experts, child safety officers, privacy advocates and others and be transparent in its reasoning when it makes decisions on the details.



“It should be an open process, because you can’t have it all,” Stamos said. -Reuters



-Munsif Vengattil, Jan Wolfe and Joseph Menn 



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/03/29/zuckerberg-bezos-fortunes-shed-billions-amid-tech-stock-slide/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Zuckerberg And Bezos Fortunes Shed Billions Amid Tech Stock Slide (opens in a new tab)">Zuckerberg And Bezos Fortunes Shed Billions Amid Tech Stock Slide</a>



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Zuckerberg to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger

The Instagram influencer marketing industry is expected to exceed $1 billion by the end of 2017, and more than double by 2019. A Santa Monica-based influencer marketing industry Mediakix forecast these figures by studying the #spon #sp and #ad hashtags on the platform, which saw over 9.7 million posts tagged in 2016, with 14.5 million expected for 2017.
While South Africa may be late to the party for most things digital, there are a fair amount of influencers making waves locally. No matter the niche, there are bloggers and influencers who, through their combined digital platforms, are regarded just as important as journalists when it comes to making an invite list; or taking part in a campaign best aligned with their brand. It is predominant with fashion, beauty and lifestyle bloggers in South Africa where some have quit their full-time jobs to focus on being an ‘influencer’.
<div id="attachment_34458" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34458" class=" wp-image-34458" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Aqeelah-Harron-Ally-200x300.jpg" alt="Aqeelah Harron Ally" width="300" height="450" />Aqeelah Harron Ally (Photo supplied)</div>
Aqeelah Harron Ally, a 27-year-old fashion, beauty, and travel blogger at <a href="http://fashionbreed.co.za/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FashionBreed</a>, from Cape Town, worked full-time for five years before quitting her job, and tells us she could have afforded to leave sooner, but didn’t have the courage.
Ally, who has been blogging for seven years, initially started her blog so she could work for a magazine to ultimately become a fashion editor. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film, Media &amp; Writing, and Drama from the University of Cape Town; and a Diploma in Make Up Artistry.
The decision to quit her job has worked out well for Ally, who says she is much happier now, even though being her own boss can be stressful at times.
“I’ve been lucky because for the last two years, I’ve landed many contracts which span over four, six, or even eight months; this helps a lot with stability, however I’m also fine without those kinds of jobs.”
She has other once-off campaigns that are booked a month or two in advance, and out of the events she attends, about 60% are paid attendance, which is generally tied to a campaign she is already creating content for.
“I seldom get paid just to attend an event and cover it, but I have done it in the past.”
Another digital content creator who quit her full-time job after five years is 26-year-old Anna-Belle Durrant from Parktown North in Johannesburg. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Philosophy from the University of the Witwatersrand. She started her blog <a href="https://shesaid.co.za/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SheSaid</a> back in 2013 initially to share her love for Johannesburg, but it has blossomed into stories about travel, fashion, healthy living and design.
“So far it’s worked out incredibly well; I love that I am the master of my own time and creations, and I’m still very fortunate to work closely with agencies like Cerebra [previous employer],” says Durrant.
To her, blogging is like freelancing; work comes in when it comes in and you just have to go with the flow. “However, I do work with brands on a retainer basis to create content around their offerings; and my campaigns run across all my social channels and blog. When you become a blogger, your mind-set changes completely, what you earn is in line with how much you work… so work hard and you should be ok,” she says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/06/sharing-economy-400000-guests-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Sharing Economy: 400,000 Guests At Home</a>
However, the industry has been marred by a fake follower problem where users deceive brands into paying them for being an influencer. Mediakix ran an experiment on two accounts proving how easy it is by purchasing fake followers from as little as $3 for 1,000 followers and $4 for 1,000 likes. Once these accounts reached a threshold of 10,000 followers, they signed up for campaigns – and got accepted for two paying jobs each.
The onus of this falls on PR companies or marketing agencies who need to ensure they’ve done thorough research before approaching an influencer. A quick search on Memeburn.com for an article titled Fake followers are a massive problem, as SA duo proves shows the extent of it in South Africa.
Ally says what they’re doing is illegal.
“It is straight-up fraud because you’re telling a brand to pay you for something you can only pretend to offer. Buying followers is selfish and entitled, but more than anything it’s a charade they won’t be able to keep up with because there are so many tell-tale signs that reveal the cracks in the lie.”
<div id="attachment_34459" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34459" class=" wp-image-34459" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Anna-Belle-Durrant-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="450" />Anna-Belle Durrant (Photo supplied)</div>
Durrant on the other hand feels that while you can cheat anything in life, rather focus on your own content and what you need to do to build your brand as the truth always comes out in the end.
Both Ally and Durrant work extremely hard at being full-time bloggers and share similar sentiments that it’s not all freebies, fame, travel and parties. “You’re a stylist, photographer, writer, curator, art director, model, negotiator/businesswoman, social media manager, video maker; the ultimate definition of a jack-of-all-trades,” says Ally.
Durrant compares it to running a magazine that needs to be published constantly except she’s the CEO, photographer, stylist and janitor, all while fighting for invoices to be paid. “It’s a lifestyle of work hard, play hard.”
Ultimately, both find it very rewarding. For Ally, it’s all about the relationships with her readers, and stresses on how much she values it. “YouTube really extended my reach in this sense which has been so great. It’s also been rewarding growing as a content creator and actually getting paid for it. I’m really thankful for this because creatives don’t often get to say that. It’s really special being able to work for brands I grew up loving and respecting, even more so when their international teams fly to South Africa and get closely involved in what we do.”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/07/11/workplace-future-now/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Workplace Of The Future &#8211; Or Now?</a>
Durrant loves that she gets to do things and go to places she could only have dreamed of.
“A highlight was exploring a music festival on the coast of Wales last year. Traveling makes me happy, I get to do that for my job; I honestly couldn’t ask for anything more. I also get to meet really incredible people and work with truly inspiring charities and brands, I have inspiration around me 24/7.” &#8211; Written by Nafisa Akabor

When It Pays To Be Online

You wake up each morning but before getting out of bed you’re already caught up with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. By the time you’ve reached the office, you know exactly what’s trending, which celeb made a faux pas, and what your virtual friends are wearing to work. Sound familiar?
According to the SA Social Media Landscape 2017 report issued by World Wide Worx and Ornico, there are 14 million South Africans on Facebook, 7.7 million on Twitter, 5.5 million on LinkedIn and 3.5 million on Instagram. It’s unclear how many are on Snapchat as users themselves don’t know what their follower count is; however, the last global estimate stood at 2% being South African.
Being on multiple social media platforms is the norm, but how has it changed our behavior? Gregory Eccles, a counselling psychologist practicing in Greenstone Hills, Johannesburg, says social media allows us to share far more of our lives with a large audience than we typically would have, creating opportunities for both greater inclusion of others in our lives, as well as for overshare or compromised privacy.
“Like any other communication tool, it gives us the power to affect change in our lives in good and bad ways, but it is our choice of how we use it that ultimately decides its impact,” says Eccles.
“It also allows us to indulge our inherent narcissism more fully than we otherwise may have been able, but those are desires that were there prior to social media.”
Saaleha Bamjee, a 33-year-old writer and photographer based in Johannesburg, who has since deleted her Snapchat account, says she used to catch up on the network in the mornings and evenings, and when not busy, in the afternoons.
“I joined out of a sense of FOMO [fear of missing out], and at first, followed the popular accounts,” she says. “It soon got tiresome, none of what people were sharing was of any value to me personally.”
There have been reports over the years of people going into debt to maintain an online presence and image, while a fair amount of ‘influencers’ overseas have quit Instagram altogether because they couldn’t keep up with the pressure of leading “fake” lives. Eccles says there is certainly pressure to maintain a certain type of social image, and the same applies to our social media presence.
“While some people may experience that pressure as quite overwhelming, it is ultimately still an action of choice for the most part as to how we present ourselves through social media.”
Bamjee says she made purchases on cosmetics and haircare appliances based on the recommendation of a local beauty blogger, while other purchases were tied to being a photographer.
“On Instagram, if I want to be hired or promote my services effectively, I have to upload quality images; this often involves shopping for food ingredients and props.”
Eccles thinks that social media doesn’t actively force us to make purchases. He says that the one aspect of social media when compared to other communication methods is that it allows us greater control over what we present, but we do not always take that into account when viewing posts from other people – an oversight which potentially mars our perspective of our status relative to others.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen an increase in new hardware such as better technology in smartphones like higher megapixels on the front-facing cameras, and 360-degree cameras, which Facebook has been supporting for quite some time now. These technologies enable us to share more than ever because it’s no longer just a photo; it’s now full-on livestreams through Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat, and 360-degree photos and videos of every aspect of our lives.
While the availability of these sorts of tools can make it easier to indulge in our vices, Eccles maintains it is not the tools that are to blame.
“We need to look at our own motivations for why we use all of these tools the way we do, and think carefully about what other options we may have to achieve similar results (sense of social connection) and what the consequences of each method are.”
Eccles believes the problem is deeper than what it appears, and thinks that while consumer culture has an influence on our need to be connected all the time, the bigger influence are our own feelings of social connectedness or isolation.
“The truth is we all have a strong desire to connect socially with others, and social media is often the easiest way to do so. Unfortunately, our interactions through social media are quite superficial, forcing those who choose to fulfil their need for social interaction through social media to require more of it.”
Bamjee subsequently stopped following Snapchat accounts that had a “sameness” about it – a preoccupation with affluence and image.
“I soon realized that I didn’t want to see even more than what was already being shared on Facebook or Instagram. I missed having a conversation where I could ask ‘hey, what’s new’ and actually hear something I hadn’t known about previously.”
Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate our reasons for being on social media and the behavior it dictates. “We have a common urge to place blame outside ourselves – Facebook does this to us or smartphones do this to us, but while they often make it easier to behave in ways that may not be particularly healthy, such as ignoring the outside world in favour of spending all your time on your phone, we cannot ignore our own agency in all of this,” concludes Eccles.
While her time is still being monopolised by other social media platforms, Bamjee says she is happier in the sense that she no longer feels she has to know what’s going on with everyone all the time.

shutterstock_520529596

The Social Media Disconnect

August is not the only space dominated by woman. Internationally, experts concur that social media and its expansion is driven by women. In fact, had social media been around in 1956, the August 9 nation-wide women’s march against the apartheid passbook laws would most probably have been organized and gained momentum from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
According to Hootsuite, more women use social media than men in North America, and with online dominance comes influence. In the ‘Top 20 Women Social Media Influencers’ list published by Forbes in the second quarter of 2013,
@AnnTran tops the list with 100,000 tweets. She blogs and tweets about travel and leisure, providing advice to her 326,000 plus Twitter followers.
It’s this strong social media dominance that gives women power to influence online opinion and also sees them driving online shopping.
As women tend to be the more social than men, they naturally gravitate towards platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, which allows for engagement that could lead to business.
Pinterest—a social media platform that baffles most male minds—is dominated by female users, who make up over 90%. They pin anything from holiday plans, party ideas, wedding inspirations to the latest fashion accessories and even plan their events on this archive of virtual pinboards.
Mommy Blogs have become quite the online phenomenon, with 14% of American mom’s blogging according to US tax preparation company H&amp;R Block. Mothers-to-be, who are on maternity leave, or stay-at-home mothers have taken to the likes of Blogger and WordPress to share their experiences, tips and insights into being a mother. According to
Babble.com, Rebecca Wolf—a mother of four whose blog is called ‘Girls Gone Child’—tops the list of roughly 500 Mommy Blogs that have considerable power and reach.
As in the offline life, all is not roses and puppies. Because of their widespread online presence, women also suffer from the darker side of social media. It consists of girlfriend-spa-trip-envy, Twitter update jealousy and Instagram vanity. Age-old social pressures—now distributed across global social media platforms—may send some female users into a spiral of envy and depression, after they see a friends’ relationship status change to ‘engaged’ or ‘married’ while they are single; after looking at gym-carved bodies or becoming victims of spiteful Facebook postings.
Author Julie Spira coined the term Social Media Anxiety Disorder (SMAD). This unofficial, non-medical condition describes those who feel aggravated after not receiving an immediate Twitter @reply. They may become depressed each time someone unfollows or unfriends them. And may continuously refresh their social media tabs awaiting an update. They cannot live without their smartphones and surprisingly become annoyed when others text or check their social media updates during meetings or social gatherings.
Where does this leave men? Where the online world has always kept them: entertained for hours in front of YouTube, watching sports re-runs and funny commercials.

Tag: Instagram

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