Facebook Archives - Spinnaker Marketing

October 6, 2018September 3, 2021

Facebook Fake Profiles Warning

Recently we have seen something a massive wave of Facebook fake profiles, something I had not seen, on that scale, in my 10+ years working on Facebook and social media in general and being on Facebook.

There is, as we speak, a massive wave of fake profiles being created, most of them spoofing existing profiles and targetting the connections to that profile and their connections.

I have to assume it’s either because of:

The upcoming elections and a massive wave of fake news and disinformation using Facebook as we have seen during the 2016 campaign
The holiday shopping season

They know that a vast majority of people share content without vetting the facts, they trust their friends to do research before posting or sharing, that’s how fake news, conspiracy theories and scams go viral

What can you do? A lot:

Stop accepting invitations to connect from people you don’t know
If a profile is light on information or was created recently, pretending to be a cute guy or girl, it’s likely fake, report it and block it
If a friend you are already connected to asks you to connect again, it’s likely a spoofed profile, look at the number of postings and the information, do a search to see if it is a duplicate
If your friend’s profile has been spoofed, let him know and report the fake profile to Facebook, they are pretty good at deleting them.
If you are tagged in a post peddling cheap brand name goods, free airline tickets, free cars and other similar posts, report the post as spam, report the page to Facebook
Do a search on your name on Facebook to see if your profile has been spoofed; if it has been spoofed warn your friends and report the fake profile to Facebook

We all have to do our part to stop fake news, conspiracy theories and scams and it starts with being smart on Facebook

March 20, 2018March 20, 2018

Facebook Apps Privacy Check

Facebook app privacy check

How do you do a Facebook app privacy check? With all the bad privacy news emerging this past weekend, now is a good time to check your settings, especially which app you, wittingly or not, allow to dig into your personal information and allow to have access to your friends.

Photo courtesy blogtrepreneur

First, to understand what happened, let’s start from the beginning.

in 2015, a company called Cambridge Analytica, working on election campaigns was looking for extensive data to perfect their analytics model targeted at precisely influencing electoral behavior

One problem though, they did not have access to that massive amount of information

Comes in Cambridge professor Aleksandr Kogan. He creates a Facebook app called “thisisyourdigitallife” described as a tool used by psychologists

Facebook users open the app, by the same token allow the app to collect information about them and their friends.

Now, if that was the end of the story, no big deal, Facebook allows researchers to mine the data for research and academic purpose but Aleksander Kogan then crosses the line and sells the data collected from 50 million Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica then uses the massive amount of data to micro target voters for the Trump campaign

The moral of the story, be very careful as to what information you allow apps to have access on your Facebook profile. Before you can open any app the creators are supposed to tell you what information the app will access. Don’t just click yes and think if using the app is worth giving away that information

As we saw in this case, not all data collections are innocent and even if they are, there is no guaranty they won’t be used for nefarious purpose later on.

What now you will ask?

I bet you have given many apps access to your data, now is a good time for a privacy check and a clean up

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015

Hashtags: Useful or Nuisance?

We have all seen them, use them or been annoyed by them when abused, something I call hashtag vomit. Users who don’t understand hashtags tagging their post with so many irrelevant and annoying hashtags you just want to move on without reading the post.

It started on Twitter, Facebook unsuccessfully tried to incorporate them in posts, LinkedIn gave up on them, Instagram and Pinterest users swear by them but few actually understand their use and purpose.

By definition, A hashtag is a type of label used on social network and micro blogging platforms to make it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. In short, hashtags are like keywords allowing readers to find content related to a subject and should be treated as such

Social media “gurus” have been promoting hashtags as essential to social media posts and content success, advising marketers to use hashtags as a critical element of any high-performing social media update without educating their clients and the public about the way to effectively use them

The result has been hashtag vomit, what mainstream search engines would classify as spam. We have seen updates and content with plethora of hashtags, some relevant most irrelevant for the sake of trying to maximize potential exposure.

The question has long been, do hashtags actually work?

The answer is yes and no, depending on your purpose

Twitter recently released a study focused on direct response ads, which are intended to drive a specific result, like an app install or a website visit, suggesting that when these ads included a hashtag or mentioned another account, they didn’t perform well

Continue reading “Hashtags: Useful or Nuisance?”

June 5, 2015June 5, 2015

Retailers Are Turning to Social Media For Market Research

Social media permeates every facets of business, from branding to marketing, sales, customer service and to often overlooked market research, product development and HR

Increasingly though, retailers and brands are turning to social media for market research.

Consumers have adopted social media in a massive way and, in spite of concerns for privacy, are sharing what they like, buy and want on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram to name the biggest ones. Continue reading “Retailers Are Turning to Social Media For Market Research”

December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

Disclosure Is The Key

Recently an advertising agency learned a hard lesson about social media promotion: Disclosure is the key.

The FTC recently settled with Interpublic’s Deutsch LA advertising agency and Sony over claims the companies engaged in deceptive marketing during the launch of Sony’s hand held PlayStation Vita gaming console.

The lesson should not be lost on any marketer.

According to the complaint, one of the agency’s assistant account executives sent an email asking the agency’s staff to help promote the PlayStation Vita ad campaign by posting positive comments about the console on Twitter using the hashtag #gamechanger.

Deutsch LA employees posted tweets promoting PlayStation Vita without disclosing their connection to the agency or Sony.

According to the FTC these tweets were misleading because they didn’t reflect the views of actual consumers-users.

Agencies have to exercise a lot of caution when talking about a client’s work on social media, though best practices in that area aren’t always well codified, said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at digital agency MRY.

“This will be a wake-up call for agencies in terms of how they communicate work they have in market and what they encourage employees to do,” Mr. Berkowitz said.

It’s not the first time the FTC intervenes against agencies for deceptive marketing and it’s not likely to be the last and they will not stop at tweets.

The FTC is clear o that matter (and further clarified recently), marketers when they post on social media must disclose and consideration whether financial or in products and must disclose their connection to the agency, client or marketer.
What that means is that the poster must disclose if they work for the agency or the brand, they must disclosed if they have been paid or received free products or have received the service for free as a consideration to write and post about the product or service

In social media more than any other form of PR or advertising transparency is the key to keeping regulators at bay, to ensure brand integrity and to keep consumers trust.