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midweekminute Christine Gritmon Inc. midweekminute Christine Gritmon Inc.

#MidweekMinute 9/25/19: The Future Is NOW

Facebook suspends apps, kills Group Stories, and wants you to control your phone with your brain (whaa?); Hide Tweets; Instagram restricts body-shaming; YouTube giveth verification, YouTube taketh away, YouTube giveth back; AI video ad placement. 

Sorry in advance for all my political Tweets. Let’s not go into that here… on to other social media news!

Facebook has suspended API access for tens of thousands of third-party apps in the continued wake of the Cambridge Analytica data-mining scandal, which prompted Facebook to investigate hundreds of app developers on the platform.

Facebook is discontinuing the seldom-used Group Stories feature tomorrow.

Facebook is acquiring CTRL-labs, a neural learning firm dedicated to translating human brain impulses into digital signals, as part of their Facebook Reality Labs team. The company’s key product is a wristband that will enable you to control electronic devices without touch. (Yes, we officially live in the future.)

Instagram has announced viewing restrictions on weight loss & cosmetic procedure content for users under age 18, and advertising restrictions for how such products are promoted in general.

Twitter’s Hide Replies feature, previously testing in Canada, is now active in the U.S. and Japan. This feature is designed to hopefully help discussions on the platform from getting too ugly (as they are wont to do).

YouTube announced - and then rescinded - major changes to its creator verification system, which would have rescinded verification badges from many creators based on updated criteria. YouTube will re-launch its verification program in late October for accounts not already verified.

YouTube and Google have announced Video Reach ad campaigns, which will enable advertisers to upload numerous types of video ads under a single campaign and allow Google’s AI to optimally distribute them in accordance with viewer insights.

Join me on LinkedIn Live at 4 pm ET for discussion of all stories!

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midweekminute Christine Gritmon Inc. midweekminute Christine Gritmon Inc.

#MidweekMinute 7/10/19: Monetization and anti-bully-ization

Facebook pays creators (and skims a little off the top); Instagram anti-bullying action; IG engagement down.

I hope Tom from MySpace has a blast at the White House Social Media Summit… 🙄

Facebook has made several video-monetization-related announcements this week: new video ad placement options, better tools for creators to manage monetization, tweaks to the beta subscription program (including Facebook now taking a cut of that revenue from creators), and enhanced tools for matching up brands and collaborators.

Instagram ups its anti-bullying functions by warning you if a comment could be considered inflammatory (like a digital conscience!) and allowing you to restrict certain users from seeing your content.

Business users report a significant decline in Instagram engagement rates (perhaps a lot of that engagement was coming from bullies?…).

Join me on LinkedIn Live every Wednesday at 4 pm ET for a fuller explanation of each of these stories and what they mean for you.

LinkedIn Live Replay:

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midweekminute Christine Gritmon Inc. midweekminute Christine Gritmon Inc.

#MidweekMinute: Trolls, exploration, pins, journalism, bots, and camaraderie

Twitter calendarizes their stand against hate; Facebook will let you browse brands & your friend's babies on separate feeds, "pin" together like posts, and subscribe to real news; LinkedIn will let a bot interact on your behalf, and possibly start original programming; you can bring a friend onto your next Instagram Live broadcast.

"When will Twitter take action against the hate being spewed on their platform - and what will they do?" They've detailed exactly what they're doing about it, and when.

"I wish my Facebook feed were more about my friends, and the brands could go somewhere else." Like a new Explore Feed, perhaps?

"I also wish I could 'pin together' pictures, videos & posts that are part of the same basic story." Facebook Sets is in testing.

"I like real journalism and I'm willing to pay for it." So subscribe to Facebook Instant Articles!

"I tend to have the same predictable responses to most of my LinkedIn messages." Let LinkedIn Smart Replies handle it for you!

"LinkedIn is such a great place for networking and thought leadership, and video is great for both - they should have video shows on LinkedIn!" That may be happening soon...

"When I'm on Instagram Live, I wish I could pull a viewer out from the crowd to share the screen with me - I'd feel like Oprah, or Bruce Springsteen." Well, you can do that now, though I doubt Oprah or Bruce will be utilizing this new feature.

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Christine Gritmon Inc. Christine Gritmon Inc.

#INBOUND17: Dharmesh Shah

HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah brings us back to the customer-focused principles of inbound marketing, then announces how HubSpot's products are moving forward with that knowledge.

HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah used his half of the founders keynote to delve into his take on some of the same topics as Brian Halligan, especially that of culture, as it was a running theme throughout this year's conference. He also got us back to the customer-centric mindset we need to embrace when creating inbound marketing, the urgency of creating value in all things (never creating just to put something out there), and demonstrated some of HubSpot's plans to deliver on these values, including a stepped-up CRM for sales professionals and HubSpot's recent acquisition of an AI company (per Dharmesh himself, he likes chat bots and he cannot lie).

(And yes, I recycled the picture from Brian's keynote; I didn't get any good shots in the back half!)

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