Bee Measure

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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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Make Your Own Data Gifs, Better Blog Posts & The Internet in 355 Slides

What’s New This Week?

What’s Up with the ‘Net?
You’d think that an entire year worth of online trends would be too much information to condense into one Power Point presentation. But you’d be wrong!  Each year, Mary Meeker, a partner in venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins, does a rapid-fire bazillion-slide-long (actually, 355) presentation of the year’s top takeaways. See this year’s presentation here and read Recode’s synopsis and analysis here.

Brits Slightly Dismayed at Facebook Political Ads
The Brits are having an ethical dilemma about the role of Facebook advertising in political elections. Until recently, political campaigns had spending limits on advertising and a ban on TV ads. But the rules don’t cover online advertising, so Facebook is suddenly cashing in. Here’s BBC’s coverage.

Artificial Intelligence Comes for… Me
Last week, I joked about robots taking over the world. But this article makes me worried that it’s really happening… to my job! Check out this scare tactic, oops I mean trend piece, on how artificial intelligence can help automate social media analysis and take the guesswork out of managing accounts.

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Why Fewer People See Your Facebook Posts and What Teens Find Cool

What’s New This Week?

Must Be the Algorithm
The Chicago Tribune chronicled the decline… of their Facebook post reach. This detailed case study (so many charts!) portrays a conundrum faced by many publishers: their content isn’t being surfaced by Facebook’s algorithm. (And we learn that Facebook formally recommends “24 to 48 posts per day.”)

#Resistance’s Data Love Affair
This newsletter has talked a lot about the role of data in political campaigns. And, yes, this is yet another article on the topic. But this Wired piece feels empowering, making the claim that data is the solution to finally understanding our elections process. Or as the article puts it: “Donors have no way of knowing whether it’s polls, personality, or backdoor politicking leading the party to back one candidate over another… founders want to bring transparency to the process.”

Big News for Google Analytics Nerds
I have been working in Google Analytics for a long time, so this is a big one. GA is getting a new homepage dashboard and will no longer open to the “Audience Overview” report. Bounce rate is gone! Here’s the update with screen shots.

And on a Lighter Note
I have to love any article that complains “the nerds have taken over marketing.” This Forbes fluff piece cracked me up, even though it contains zero actual information.

And in other links….
An adult coloring book features climate change data. (Color in maps of land loss and graphs of rising temperatures.)  Google asks 10K people to contribute their health data, so they can calculate “normal” human health. And finally, the “mother of all ad blockers” is coming for us.

Advice of the Week

#StopMakingEverythingaHashtag
Social media agency Scribble Social gives their hashtag pet peevesand how to correct them. Tip #1: The point of hashtags is to help your content get discovered.

Cool Visualization of the Week

Kids These Days
What do teens think is cool? Well, Google found out for us. (Thanks, Google!) And the answers are: YouTube, Oreos and reading. And the least cool? Wall Street Journal, Sprint and Yahoo!

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Facebook Forbids Snooping and Crafty (Pun Intended) Advertising

What’s New This Week?

Stop Spying Everyone, Says Facebook
Facebook is explicitly telling groups to stop using their data for surveillance, writes TechCrunch.  You can thank the ACLU for forcing the issue. Back in October, one group was caught compiling protesters’ posts from social sites and selling the data to law enforcement. Twitter also forbids this practice.

“Very, Very Fictitious” Data
Remember that time the Obama administration manipulated jobs data to make the unemployment rate look lower? Yup, it’s another story about “fake” data in the Trump Administration. Thanks FiveThirtyEight for breaking down why this claim is so absurd.

The State of the Social Media Union
I see so many one-off stories about social media trends (Twitter is over! Facebook use is down!), that it’s hard to keep track. I appreciate Forbes’ mile-high overview of what’s up with each main social platform.

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