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when a user gives Facebook a phone number for two-factor authentication or in order to receive alerts about new log-ins to a user’s account, that phone number became targetable by an advertiser within a couple of weeks

I’ve been trying to get Facebook to disclose shadow contact information to users for almost a year now. But it has even refused to disclose these shadow details to users in Europe, where privacy law is stronger and explicitly requires companies to tell users what data it has on them.

To test the shadow information finding, the researchers tried a real-world test. They uploaded a list of hundreds of landline numbers from Northeastern University. These are numbers that people who work for Northeastern are unlikely to have added to their accounts, though it’s very likely that the numbers would be in the address books of people who know them and who might have uploaded them to Facebook in order to “find friends.” The researchers found that many of these numbers could be targeted with ads, and when they ran an ad campaign, the ad turned up in the Facebook news feed of Mislove, whose landline had been included in the file; I confirmed this with my own test targeting his landline number.

“I think that many users don’t fully understand how ad targeting works today: that advertisers can literally specify exactly which users should see their ads by uploading the users’ email addresses, phone numbers, names+dates of birth, etc,” said Mislove. “In describing this work to colleagues, many computer scientists were surprised by this, and were even more surprised to learn that not only Facebook, but also Google, Pinterest, and Twitter all offer related services. Thus, we think there is a significant need to educate users about how exactly targeted advertising on such platforms works today.”

There are certainly creepier practices happening in the advertising industry, but it’s troubling this is happening at Facebook because of its representations about letting you control your ad experience. It’s disturbing that Facebook is reducing the privacy of people who want their accounts to be more secure by using the information they provide for that purpose to data-mine them for ads.

When I asked the company last year about whether it used shadow contact information for ads, it gave me inaccurate information, and it hadn’t made the practice clear in its extensive messaging to users about ads

Organic and promoted tweets: 71 – 100 characters Whether you’re running an ad or not, data from Buddy Media shows that tweets containing less than 100 characters receive, on average, 17 percent higher engagement than longer tweets. This is, in part, because shorter tweets are easier to read and comprehend. Short tweets also give retweeters enough room to add their own message.

Organic Instagram posts: 138 to 150 characters

Sponsored Instagram posts: 125 characters or less

Instagram hashtags: 5 to 9 per post at less than 24 characters each

According to research by TrackMaven, posts with nine hashtags receive the most engagement:

YouTube videos: 3 minutes

YouTube titles: 70 characters

Targeted advertising bears important implications for consumers. It could mean seeing advertisements based not just on what they “like” on Facebook, but on what they eat for breakfast, whether they buy khakis or jeans and whether they are more likely to give their wives roses or tulips on their wedding anniversary. It means that even things people don’t reveal on Facebook may be discovered from their online and offline proclivities.

Beegit is an app built to help streamline just that kind of team collaboration.This collaborative writing tool allows teams to work cohesively, no matter where they are, to create exceptional content. It includes an editorial calendar and communication, workflow and writing tools, all in one place.

Snapchat now works with 15 outside partners that help sell its inventory, and in January it struck a deal with Oracle Data Cloud to show ads based on what its users buy in the real world.

Admissions officers are desperate to make the most of social media as a recruiting tool. “One of the things we constantly talk about in our marketing department is, How do we utilize these tools where students spend so much of their time in the admission process?”

Some want to reach new students; others want to change a narrative about their school, Freeman says, using microinfluencers on campus to promote academics, say, rather than the partying scene. Others, like UC Berkeley, harness alumni influencers to help raise money.

The most successful college-aged influencers seem underwhelmed by universities’ offerings—educational and financial both. Markian is a college dropout. “I took a marketing class in 2017 and it didn’t touch anything even related to social media,” he says. “There’s no question that college is unnecessary. I dropped out because it was hindering my business.”

What Google Authorship also does is help rank that author in search for original content all over the Interwebz. Can you say guest posting anyone? How about blogging communities? (Just so you know, The SMB Collective is accepting new bloggers; it’s a blogging community I established in 2010 that is ebbing out of dormancy.)

To start, each user will have the ability to add 10 deals from a variety of Collections -- groupings of offers themed around Mother's Day or spring, for example -- or to search different categories. Deals are typically valid for one month and can be used four times per transaction, as well as multiple times throughout the month. The deals are also stackable with manufacturer's coupons or other offers.

Snapchat's focus on "sound-on" video ads has been appealing to its entertainment clients.

The behavior on the app is very different as you want to focus more on shorter content, whereas on Instagram, people tend to watch longer videos."

Snapchat says its vertical video ads are "as good as television" — and in some ways better — because users can choose to skip ads, swipe up to interact with them, and advertisers can use more granular targeting than TV. But with AdAge reporting in November that the average Snapchat video ad lasts less than three seconds and Snapchat counting a video "view" as soon as the video opens, it remains to be seen whether its ads are more effective than those on TV

For now, it will capture websites that use Facebook's conversion tracking pixel -- which advertisers affix to see if their Facebook ads are yielding sales and traffic -- as well as mobile apps that use Facebook's software development kit to deploy Facebook services, like the log-in. Websites and apps that have Facebook's tracking software encoded to retarget their visitors are also in the mix. Impressions tracked via the "like" button encoded in mobile apps -- which Facebook recently introduced at its f8 conference for developers -- will also be included.

gShift’s SEO software system centralizes your clients’ SEO data (rank, backlinks, social signals, competitive intelligence, Google Analytics and keyword research) and provides automated, scheduled, white-labeled SEO reports leaving more time for your services team to implement the SEO tasks that will improve your clients’ web presence.

you can provide the influencer with some pointers. Would you prefer they include keywords in the title of their product review blog to boost your SEO? How many hashtags do you want them to use, and are fans likelier to adopt shorter ones over longer ones? Should they use emojis? (The answer is almost always yes.) Which CTA performs better, “Save 15% off now with my promo code” or “Use my promo code now”?

Speaking of promo codes, what learnings can you apply from sales you’ve run in the past? Does a percentage or dollar off amount drive more conversions? Does what works for sales on your own website work just as well in the context of an influencer promotion?

Perhaps influencers’ fans are more excited about getting a free sample or trial instead of a discount. In this scenario, try testing free sample promotions with some influencers against discount offers with other influencers. Just be sure to choose influencers with similar audiences, industries, and/or locations to keep the other variables as similar as possible.

A/B test the heck out of your influencer landing pages. Try different CTA button placements and colors, test removing the navigation, and see how personalizing the page for the influencer’s audience affects conversions.

Not all your influencer marketing content is published by the influencer. Sometimes, as with the landing pages, you are using the influencers in your own content. A/B test the items under your branded control, too.

if you feature an influencer in an email newsletter, is it best to call that out in the subject line, via the sender name, through a hero image at the top, or some combination of the above? Should you target different subscriber lists for different featured influencers

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has once again promised that Twitter users will, indeed, be able to download a full archive of their tweets in just a matter of weeks.