October 2020

Facebook – Dating

First things first… ‘All the single ladies’ (and men!!) … move over Tinder, we have a new dating app entering Europe – and it’s one Ireland already has! That’s right, Facebook has launched Facebook dating profiles in many European countries.  You might be saying, are we not meant to keep two meters away from each other – yes, we are, but Facebook have made virtual dates available too. Facebook Dating may not impact your social strategy (at least not in work!), but it’s always interesting to see what platforms are doing to stay relevant and adapt over the years – and we reckon it won’t be long before they use it as another advertising stream. Watch this space!

Keeping with Facebook, again, this shouldn’t affect your strategy too much, but it’s interesting nonetheless. They have announced that they are taking legal action against companies who are selling fake followers to other companies. It’s nice to see this action from Facebook, glad we know they take these matters seriously – and how annoying are those spam accounts!  

Instagram – Age-Gate

We jump ship to the sparkling seas of Instagram now, where they have announced that brands will be able to ‘age–gate‘ individual posts. This will help business such as retailers, who don’t want to promote alcohol to users under the legal drinking age with their campaign. Global brands might find this helpful too due to different restrictions across different regions.

Twitter – Prompts

Twitter is next on our journey and it’s a very welcome update from them this month. They have announced that they are adding new prompts that will appear before you tweet, if the tweet itself is believed to be misinformation. This is assumed to be because of all the false information that is spread by political campaigns and their followers in America in the lead up to the Presidential election. It’s great to see a social media platform take action against spreading incorrect information aka #FakeNews! 

Instagram – Taking a Stand

Let’s move back to Instagram, where they are taking a stand against companies and influencers who fail to adhere to the rules regarding commercial relationships. Commercial agreements in many countries including Ireland are meant to include, for example, the hashtags #Ad or #Sponsored (see here from the ASAI). For anyone who runs influencer campaigns or is thinking about it, just follow the rules and you won’t get punished, it’s that simple. With this update, influencers will get a prompt when putting up a post, to confirm if it is part of a paid agreement. From a company’s perspective, make sure, where relevant, you notify the influencer before they post anything, that they must include the #Ad or #Sponsored.

Facebook – Messenger

Finally, we head over to Facebook Messenger. Have you got Facebook Messenger downloaded on your phone? Have you noticed that the icon has changed? Messenger have announced: 

“Our new logo reflects a shift to the future of messaging, a more dynamic, fun, and integrated way to stay connected to the people you’re close to.“ 

And you thought it was just a gradient! Updates on Messenger include customising the themes in your chat, personalised stickers and collaborative video viewing. It will be interesting to see if the Facebook logo gets a new look too! 

That’s all for this month, folks – it’s been a bit of a blur! We’ll be back in a few weeks with November’s chilliest takes.

Let Us Know About Future ‘Sparks’

If there’s anything in particular you want us to cover in our future Sparks Roundups, or if you need help planning and implementing your digital marketing campaigns, just pop judy@h-c.ie an email and we will be happy to get back to you.

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