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Newsfeed Exile, Creepy Chat Bots & Why GA Stats Never Match Facebook

Facebook’s New Pay or Disappear Model
It’s been a few weeks, so of course Facebook has made some changes. What’s new this time? FB is rolling out a new Newsfeed called “Explore.”  In most markets, Explore has updates from pages that you don’t follow. But in a few cities, Facebook has bumped brand content to this secondary feed. Only those who pay to promote posts appear in the main Newsfeed.  Look for a follow up soon with metrics about what this means for organizations on Facebook (aka everyone).

The Facebook vs. GA Saga, the Final Word
Ever wondered why Facebook and Google Analytics are different? Yes, it’s a topic that’s been covered before here. But I had to give this article a shout out for falling squarely in the category of “I’m happy they did this, so that I never have to.” The TL;DR version: this article is very kind to Facebook, telling you to add 20% to whatever Google Analytics conversations you attribute to Facebook.

Those Lucky 15 People in Florida
Yeah, yeah. It’s another piece about politics and Facebook ads. Epolitics boiled down the 60 Minutes interview with Brad Parscale (“the first pure-digital consultant to run a major presidential campaign”) to a few gems about the Trump campaign’s savviness with Facebook ads. In one spot, Parscale said the Trump campaign used Facebook to reach clusters of rural voters, such as “15 people in the Florida Panhandle that I would never buy a TV commercial for.”

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Biased Analysts, Harvard’s Social Survey & More on Russia’s FB Ads

Russia’s Meddling, Analyzed
Last time Bee Update came out, the news about Russia’s election-meddling Facebook ads had just broken. This edition, I provide the analysis. $100K is such an odd amount to spend on ads, argues the Atlantic. It’s too much to go unnoticed, and too little to have much effect. Or did it? The low cost of Facebook ads means that $100K can go a surprisingly long way, says The Daily Beast. In this piece, a (colorful) Facebook ad expert estimates that the $100K in ads reached 26 million people. Oh yeah, and Wired explains how Facebook needs to fix itself.

Just Admit You’re Biased Already
I’m a big fan on the Digital Analytics Power Hour podcast. (Yup, there’s a podcast for everything these days). This episode from August on biases was a classic. As much as we want to be impartial, it’s hard to not fall into traps. Here’s some self-reflection from my favorite podcasting analysts.

Social Media Goes to Harvard
Harvard surveyed chief marketing officers and summarized its findings about social media. Social media spending is up 200% in 8 years. (I’m surprised that’s not higher), but nearly half the CMOs say they don’t know if it’s paying off. Here’s that portion and a link to the full survey results.

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Russia’s Facebook Ads, Data Makeovers & Predicting Donors

What’s New This Week?

Russia Funds Political Facebook Ads
Having covered various Facebook Ad drama, I didn’t think anything on the platform could shock me. But it can! Facebook disclosed on Wednesday (finally!) that a Kremlin-backed company funded $100,000 worth of Facebook Ads. The ads, which ran from June 2015 until this May, focused on divisive social issues, such as gun control.

Finding Donors in the Data
Turn on your speakers and check out this podcast from Blackbaud. The nonprofit tech company explains how nonprofits can use predictive analytics to find their most likely (and capable) donors.

Happy Birthday, Here’s the $$
Facebook rolled out a new feature that allows people to solicit birthday donations for their favorite nonprofit. It works like this: two weeks before your birthday, Facebook will prompt you create a fundraiser for an approved organization (There’s currently 750K). You set a goal and create a message. Then, Facebook notifies your friends on the big day. The catch: a 5% fee.

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Better Web Forms, Gender Positive FB Ads & A Note From Cville

Bee Measure is proud to be based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Much has already been said about the events of last weekend, so I debated whether to add my voice in the mix. Then on Wednesday, a friend and I took a walk to see the impromptu memorial of flowers, candles, writing and gifts that mourners assembled at the scene of the crash. I wanted to share the photo my friend took. The image says a lot about the mix of sadness, apprehension and determination we all feel this week. As nonprofits (and nonprofit supporters), we do great work. And we will persevere.
– Emily (from Bee Measure)

 

What’s New This Week?

Who’s on First, Oops, Facebook?
Business Insider published a new report about the demographics of our fav social media platforms. Here are the free takeaways. And here’s my summary: Snapchat is getting older, LinkedIn is richer and everyone’s on Facebook.

Gender Positive Does Better, Swears Facebook
I’m not sure how much faith I put in research done by Facebook about Facebook to promote Facebook advertising, but I still am heartened by its study of gender in advertising. For an industry that loves to use images like this, it’s good to have stats that ads promoting equality pay off.

Pittsburgh, Not Paris
I love a good case study, so here’s Pittsburgh’s Chief Data Officer talking about how the city built an open data site that displays 311 calls and police blotter data. And the name is a pun too. Gotta love it!

The Protest in IP Addresses
It’s been a while since I’ve covered data privacy issues related to the Trump administration. But it’s back. In the winter, anti-Trump protestors used the site DisruptJ20.org to organize Inauguration Day protests. Then, the Justice Department issued a request for 1.3 million IP addresses to identify site visitors. Now, the site’s hosting company is resisting.

Advice of the Week

End Web Form Intimidation
Your site probably has a form, or two, or 10. Mine has several, and it only has a dozen pages. I love the content from MarketingExperiments.com, and this video on optimizing website forms provides solid advice. (Just ignore the annoying ads.)

Cool Visualization of the Week

86% Eclipsed
Let’s end this on a fun note. Nothing is currently bringing the US together quite like the solar eclipse. So here’s Vox’s fun, interactive graphic to show you what the eclipse will look like in your zip code. Why can’t you be closer to totality, Charlottesville!

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Machine Learning Explained, Fake Ads Found & Airbnb Reviews Mapped

When the Journey is the Goal
Many nonprofits use social media to promote education and awareness of a cause. They don’t necessarily have conversion in mind. So how can a savvy nonprofit communicator evaluate this type of social content and campaigns?  Well, MarketingLand does a nice job of explaining alternative metrics. (Interested in setting this up for your website? Reach out. )

Explain Like I’m Five: Machine Learning Edition
“Machine learning” is one of those buzzy terms that gets thrown around a lot. I was happy to stumble on this nice explanation of what it is (and is not).

And now that we know about machine learning… here’s Engadget explaining how Facebook uses the technology to detect fake ads.

Talking to Your Data
I recently covered Google Analytics’ new feature that is supposed to allow analysts and business people to get data by asking questions, rather than running reports. Well, it looks like Tableau is barking up the same tree. They recently acquired start up ClearGraph, a service that lets users visualize data through natural language queries (think “this week’s transactions over $500”).

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