It’s time for another scoop of social media marketing news to make sure you’re staying on top of this ever-changing platform. Let’s not waste any time and get right into these delicious social media marketing stories.
1. 76% of Instagram influencers hide advertisement disclosure in their posts
More than three-quarters of influencer adverts on Instagram have the disclosure hidden somewhere in the post, whether that be in the middle, at the end or in a comment.
This is according to research undertaken by the team behind global affiliate network Awin.com as part of a wider look into disclosure in affiliate marketing. For the study, the top 100 posts for each disclosure hashtag were analyzed to see whether the hashtag was visible in the original post, or needed expanding to be seen.
The hashtags used for analysis were #ad, which had the highest number of posts at 12.8 million, #advertisement (1.8m), #sponsored (3.3m), #gifted (1.8m) and #affiliate (744,000). According to the ASA, influencer marketing labels “must be prominent enough that consumers will easily notice it”, and that “burying a label in list of hashtags…or placing it ‘under the fold’ where consumers would need to click ‘see more’…won’t be sufficient”.
Make sure your influencers are not making this mistake.
2. Facebook Will Now Count Unconnected Facebook and Instagram Accounts Separately in Ad Reach Data
Facebook has announced that it will begin counting people who’ve not connected their Facebook and Instagram accounts in its Accounts Center as separate entities for ad purposes – i.e. if your accounts are not connected, Facebook will now assume that your Facebook and Instagram profiles are two different people.
As explained by Facebook:
“Starting today, if someone does not have their Facebook and Instagram accounts linked in Accounts Center, we will consider those accounts as separate people for ads planning and measurement. Facebook and Instagram accounts that are connected in Accounts Center will continue to be counted collectively as a single person. This change will roll out over the next few weeks.”
This could make Facebook’s ad reach numbers look a lot better, with a much broader scope, based on variable accounting.
3. Facebook’s failure highlights why email reigns
What were you doing when Facebook went down earlier this month?
If you were like many of your fellow marketers, you were tearing your hair out because you couldn’t access any Facebook-owned sites like Facebook or Instagram. No social posting. No campaign research, launches or analysis.
This event just proved how important it is to diversify your digital marketing efforts. If one goes down, you still need to have ways to interact with your customers. It underscores the importance for growing your e-mail list and having a strong e-mail marketing strategy for your business. Get in touch to learn more about our iScreamSocialMedia marketing service!