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COMING AT YOU WEEK OF 1.25.22

HERE’S WHAT I’VE GOT FOR YOU TODAY

The good, old new marketing news

Visual storytelling lessons from a photojournalist

A treasure map

THIS WEEK’S MOST IMPORTANT MARKETING NEWS  

S O C I A L M E D I A

META IS BEGINNING TO OUTLINE THE ETHICAL PARAMETERS OF COMPUTER-GENERATED INFLUENCERS

This list shows you:

(1) how realistic computer-generated avatars can look and

(2) that there are avatars with a considerable following on social media.

There’s a fat can full of worms like deep-fake technology and these “virtual influencers.” So, Meta is getting started on outlining the ethical parameters that will dictate what is and isn’t allowed with this type of technology. We had a terrifying and fun time going down this rabbit hole. We hope you do too.

INSTAGRAM IS TESTING A SUBSCRIPTION FEATURE

If this test inspires Instagram to truly launch this feature, then followers could pay creators for access to exclusive Stories and Instagram Live videos.

TIKTOK IS ALSO TESTING A SUBSCRIPTION FEATURE

TikTok’s power lies in the For You page, which lets people see videos from accounts that they don’t follow. And since you probably need to follow an account to subscribe to it, a subscription feature doesn’t seem as intuitive for Tiktok as it does for Instagram. And, TikTok hasn’t released details on how the feature would work. We’re curious to see what they’ll come up with.

TIKTOK IS TESTING A STORY FEATURE

Content posted to a TikTok story will appear on For You and Following pages the same way other videos do. But unlike other videos,

  • they’ll only be viewable for 24 hours
  • they’ll have a blue “Story” label, and
  • they will show bars that tell you how many frames are in the story.

The big point here is that you don’t need to go to a special section of the app to see Stories, the way you do in other apps.

YOU CAN NOW ‘REMIX’ ANY PUBLIC INSTAGRAM VIDEOS

Before, Instagram’s Remix feature only allowed you to record your own content alongside public reels. But now you can Remix with all videos, as long as it’s posted publicly.

LINKEDIN LAUNCHED AN AUDIO-EVENT FEATURE AND EXPANDED THEIR NEWSLETTER OPTIONS

LinkedIn’s “audio event” seems like a Clubhouse-lookalike feature, which isn’t a diss. Also, LinkedIn now lets you feature your newsletter on your profile and will soon allow newsletters for Pages (before now it was for individual users only).

L A W S

2 CONGRESSWOMEN AND SEN. CORY BOOKER INTRODUCED A BILL TO BAN TARGETED ADS

The Banning Surveillance Advertising Act would prohibit using personal data to target ads on platforms like Google and Facebook. It appears that this would practically eliminate any targeting abilities.

Placing ads strategically alongside content that matches the ad topic would still be permitted. And, broad location targeting is also allowed in the act. This would obviously have a pretty crazy impact on our industry, but the bill has only been introduced. It hasn’t been voted on yet.

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT APPROVED THE INITIAL DRAFT OF A BILL THAT LIMITS AD TARGETING

This European bill isn’t as restrictive as the US bill we were just talking about, but it is similar. It bans targeting based on sensitive information, like race, sexual orientation, and religion. And it requires platforms to give people the option to opt out of tracking, which might sound familiar after Apple’s recent updates that do exactly that. Similarly, Facebook recently disabled targeting based on the sensitive information discussed in this bill.

This week, the bill’s initial draft was accepted with 530 votes (only 78 votes against it) and there will be more steps before it’s officially passed.

A D V E R T I S I N G

A TECHNICAL ISSUE PREVENTED SOME YOUTUBE ADS FROM BEING SERVED CORRECTLY JAN 18-21

If you were running Discovery or Performance Max ads on YouTube during that time frame, then your ads may have been affected.

GOOGLE ADS HAS SOME NEW STUFF FOR US

S E O

A NEW ROBOTS TAG GIVES YOU MORE CONTROL OVER WHEN CONTENT IS INDEXED

This indexifembedded tag should be helpful for media publishers who don’t want their media pages indexed on their own site, but do want it indexed when other people embed their content on other sites.

HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT THE NEWS SECTION LATELY?

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VOTE HERE
😴👍👎

Feel free to hit ‘reply’ and tell us more about what is or isn’t working for you in the newsletter. Or if you just want to be pen pals.

VISUAL STORYTELLING

Jeffrey Allred Interview

Jeffery Allred is a photojournalist who has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He’s covered the Olympic Games twice, Hurricane Harvey in Texas, the Haiti earthquake, NBA finals, NFL games, and various collegiate sports. We sat down with him to learn about visual storytelling.

Don’t clutter an image, and keep everything intentional

Jeffery focuses on simplicity, which isn’t crazy easy because he often has to tell an entire story in one shot. Many times we want to keep the viewers engaged with a lot of elements, but that detracts from the photo.

Allred said, “I want the viewer to look at the subject first, and then explore the scene. Keeping things simple is probably one of the keys to good photography.” And we’d add that it’s a key to good visual storytelling too. Once you keep it simple, you can then add dimension with other elements. But only if it enhances the story.

There’s no room for your ego

Regardless of whichever field you are in, it is important to make sure everyone feels comfortable. A big part of that is leaving behind your ego. Jeffery says, “As photographers, what we try to do is keep it very unbiased. We want to tell it as it is.” Once a camera is whipped out, many people start getting tense and uncomfortable. Allred tries to help out by speaking to them, which helps to capture candid moments. Jeffery lives by the golden rule, if you don’t know about the golden rule, then we’ve got bigger problems!

Give a voice to the underdog

Allred is interested in the stories that don’t usually get shared. All the famous athletes get recognition or stories about them, but he wants to give a voice to those that don’t have one. One of his favorite stories he’s documented was about a 4-year-old girl who was diagnosed with cancer. Jeffery said, “As I’m photographing this family, this little 4-year-old girl, I wanted to show a great deal of respect. And so I think dealing with it respectfully, was probably the best thing I could do.” The family hoped to bring awareness to cancer and with the help of Jefferey, it was possible.

To wrap this up, here are the takeaways:

  1. Don’t clutter an image, just for the sake of it. Everything needs to be intentional
  2. Don’t have an ego… you’re not Beyonce
  3. Give a voice to people who don’t have one

LET’S GET VISUAL

Google is the new homepage

Some context for today’s subject line:

“You’re off the edge of the map, mate. Here there be monsters.” – Captain Barbossa, Pirates of the Caribbean