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There’s a lot of social media news this week. Facebook has been especially busy,?so lets dive into what’s?been happening.

 

Facebook Miscalculates Advertising Metrics

Facebook recently announced that it has been miscalculating several content performance metrics. The new numbers might ?differ significantly? from what publishers are seeing.

This announcement sparked a wave of discussion over whether or not advertisers could trust the data they?re receiving from their campaign reports.

Facebook insists that none of the updated metrics should affect what advertisers paid for. If you paid for X number of clicks or impressions the network still delivered them.

The company?realized they had been overestimating video view metrics back in September. This prompted them to review other metrics and led to this new discovery.

The biggest change to watch out for is the 7-day and 28-day organic reach for pages. These numbers may shrink by 33 and 55 percent Facebook warns.

Facebook insists that the daily number of people who could see a page is still reporting correctly.

These?discrepancies are being blamed on bugs. The bugs are also affecting the number of full video views and time spent with instant articles.

Facebook expects to have these bugs corrected within the next few weeks.

 

Facebook Updates Its Metrics and Reporting

This week Facebook also announced changes to their metrics and reporting.

The company is partnering with companies like comScore, Moat, Nielsen and Integral Ad Science (IAS). These companies will verify the accuracy of reporting Facebook offers to its advertising partners.

This will provide third party verification of advertising metrics and ideally greater transparency and accuracy of reporting.

They?re also factoring Facebook Live and Facebook video viewership in Nielsen?s Digital Content Ratings system.

Facebook has also created a new internal review process to insure that the data it?s reporting is as clear and up to date as possible.

They?ve also started a new Metrics FYI blog to better communicate changes and enhancements in their reporting.

 

Facebook Changes Ethnic Affinity Marketing Settings

Facebook recently announced changes to their ethnic affinity marketing settings to prevent discriminatory advertising

Some advertisers might use the current settings to run ads that discriminate against certain groups the company said, specifically in the areas of housing, employment and credit.

The company says it remains committed to promote the inclusion of underrepresented communities.

They decided that the best way for it to guard against discrimination is by disabling the use of ethnic affinity targeting for these types of ads.

As far as we know ethnic affinity marketing is still available for other categories of advertising.

 

Facebook Creates a Single Inbox for Facebook, Instagram and Messenger

You can now manage your communications in Facebook, Messenger and Instagram all from a single app.

Facebook Inbox

It?s also easier now to see basic information about the people who interact with your business. All you have to do is tap a person?s name in the app to see their public profile. You can also see their previous interactions with your business as well.

This updated inbox will roll out globally to all users of the Pages Manager mobile app in the coming weeks.

You can get a head start?by connecting your Facebook and Instagram accounts if you haven?t already.

 

Facebook Adds?New Safety Features

During Facebook?s first Social Good Forum they announced?3 new tools to empower their community to do more good in the world and improve users? safety.

Community Help is a new feature that lets users ask for help including shelter, food and supplies in the event of a natural disaster.

Safety Check will let your friends and family know you?re safe during a crisis. It will be triggered by the community and not Facebook itself.

Fundraisers are being expanded so people can raise money for more than 750,000 different nonprofits. A donate button is also being added to Live vides and posts.

Facebook is also partnering with Movember this month and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Giving Tuesday.

 

Facebook Adds New Targeting Option for?Audiences

Facebook just added a new targeting option when specifying the audience for your advertising.

Advertisers now have the option to select ?everyone who engaged with your page?.

This is a fantastic option for targeting followers who are already highly engaged with your content and want to see more of what you have to say.

 

Pinterest Provides New Options for Promoted Videos

Pinterest is testing out a new auto-play feature for its promoted videos.

Advertisers can also create an episodic viewing experience with additional videos that run alongside the primary video.

It?s also possible to create a playlist of videos as well. When one video finishes the next one starts automatically.

Auto-play videos will start appearing in a new section called ?Pinterest Explore?. This is a curated selection of the top picks from top tastemakers, industry experts and Pinterest employees.

 

Periscope Now Lets You Share Specific Moments on the Web

Periscope recently brought their broadcasting service to the web with Periscope.tv. Now when a user clicks the share button they have the option to share the broadcast with a specific start time.

Users can share directly to Twitter and Facebook. They also have the option to get a custom replay link to share elsewhere.

 

Snapchat Partners with Foursquare

Snap, the company that owns Snapchat now has access to Foursquare?s location data.

Foursquare has a massive database with over 87 million real-life locations such as businesses, restaurants and stores.

The data from Foursquare will be used to power Snapchat?s geofilters. Geofilters are location-specific graphics that can be added to images and videos inside the app.

Before now geofilters were tied to broader locations like cities, arenas or events.

Soon marketers could be able to offer branded geofilters at specific locations. This could definitely provide some interesting options for open houses in the future.

 

Medium Updates Their Mobile App

Medium released an update to their app with a few new features.

Medium's App Update

There?s a new section for publications and the publications you follow will be featured on the app?s home screen.

They?ve made some cosmetic changes as well such as moving the bookmarks and search buttons and making bookmarks more prominent.

The stats section has been given a refresh as well and the app now has a quick link to stats on the 3D Touch menu. This page has also been rebuilt so it?s faster and they added the ability to pull to refresh your data.

 

Facebook and Google Fight?Fake News Websites

Both Facebook and Google have updated their policies to fight?fake news.

Google first fought back against fake news by banning sites that ?misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information? from using Adsense.

Now both companies have banned fake news websites from advertising on both of their advertising platforms.

The idea is to cut traffic to such sites in order to make them less lucrative.

 

Twitter Updates Notification Settings to Prevent Online Abuse

Twitter recently rolled out some new features to their notifications to help combat online abuse.

The social network already has a featured called Mute which lets users mute accounts they don?t want to see tweets from.

Now the Mute feature has been expanded to notifications. Keywords, phrases and entire conversations can now be muted.

This feature is expected to be available to everyone within the coming days.

 

Twitter Introduces QR Codes

Finally, Twitter has introduced QR codes that function just like the ones on Snapchat.

Users can now create a QR code in their settings that can be shared online or physically.

The app now includes a scanning feature as well that lets you scan these new QR codes to easily find someone?s profile.

This new feature isn?t available to everyone yet but it?s expected to come soon.