PSPINC Official Company Blog

How Meta's New Lawsuit Will Affect Marketing Towards Young People

Oct

31

On October 24, 2023, 41 U.S. states and the District of Columbia sued Meta, alleging their social media platforms, namely Facebook and Instagram, knowingly contributed to the youth mental health crisis. In the lawsuit, they claim Facebook and Instagram are not only addictive and harmful to young users through numerous features like copious alerts, notifications, and infinitely scrolling feeds. They also claim these features “negatively impact teens’ mental health”, specifically because they encourage social comparisons and promote body dysmorphia through likes or photo filters.

What This Means for Marketers

Ultimately, regardless of where this lawsuit goes, other social media platforms may feel inclined to add more features and/or privacy settings designed to restrict usage on younger users. With the reality of social media platforms likely enforcing more regulation through features and default privacy settings over younger users, social media ads and posts may not reach much of their younger audience. Therefore, marketers should:

Market on other social media platforms specifically designed for younger people. Ex: Snapchat, YouTube Kids, TikTok, etc.
Focus on creating engaging content - for organic social media content, engaging content performs best with younger users, so use that to your advantage. The more young people interact with your engaging organic content, the more it'll show for similar users, like others in their age group.
Partner with influencers - young people are more likely to trust recommendations from their favorite influencers and engage with their content. This can also include popular celebrities among your target demographic.
Determine where else your audience is online - social media may take up a lot of young people's time, but it isn't the only place they're spending their energy online. Find out what other websites they're browsing and advertise there instead.
Target an older audience instead - even if you usually target a younger audience, it's possible you're missing out on revenue you could be earning from older potential customers.

This concern over young kids using social media and the effects it has on their mental heath isn’t a new one. In 2021, a Facebook whistleblower who was later revealed as Frances Haugen leaked internal research, proving Meta knew the negative effects their social media platforms made on young people. In response, Instagram said they were working on features that would combat this. However, it’s hard to know what tech companies can do to improve it. Even then, this concern won't go away, so it's important that marketing professionals are proactive in how they market young people.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #facebook #instagram #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mentalhealth #meta #news #smallbusiness #snapchat #socialmedia #tech #technology #tiktok #web #youtube #youtubekids

Why Threads Hasn’t Taken Off (Yet?)

Oct

24

Back in July, Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram) released Threads, their text-based social media platform after weeks of speculation that would directly compete with X (formerly Twitter). Because of how easy it was for users to sign up, ten million people joined the app within seven hours of its launch according to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO.

But now, more than three months later, Threads’ popularity has dwindled. Sensor Data reports that at its peak, 44 million daily active users were on Threads. Just a few weeks later, at the end of July, there were only eight million daily active users—an 82% drop. Many users have stopped posting and many have even forgotten about the platform altogether. Largely due to the fact that it just isn’t built out enough with the robust features that users crave on social media.

Lack of Popular Features

Every popular social media platform has its own niche, along with key features. However, Threads is still missing a lot of those features, including but not limited to a Discover page, direct message functions, and the ability to share Threads posts via Instagram direct messages, among others. It wasn’t until the end of July when Threads rolled out a Following feed and it wasn’t until August when Threads released a web version for desktop users. The other unknown thus far is whether Meta will expand their advertising network to Threads. Meta is known for being great for advertisers, but unless their daily active user count goes back up, advertisers may not be willing to spend advertising dollars on Threads.

While they’re going in the right direction in terms of working on adding more features, Threads is still missing something that will make them stand apart from their competitors. Many saw Threads as the direct competitor to X, and the fact that users’ accounts could connect to their Instagram pages and bring over their following was an attractive asset, but it wasn’t enough to keep users on the platform. Overall, many have theorized that Meta released Threads quickly when users were looking for a better alternative to X. Unfortunately, developers hadn’t really built out the program enough to really retain users on the platform. While Meta developers continue to work on adding more features to the platform, it may be a while before users will consider Threads to be a real threat to a platform like X.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #app #blog #branding #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #facebook #instagram #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #meta #mobile #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #threads #twitter #web #webdevelopment #website #x

Market Online with Canva

Oct

10

Marketing online is vital in business, especially small businesses. Most small businesses know that it’s important to have an online presence, but not all of us are skilled graphic designers. With billions of people actively using the internet worldwide, it gives you that much more opportunity to increase your brand’s awareness, build your online community, and increase traffic toward your website, all while promoting your business.

One popular, easy-to-use graphic design tool among digital marketers alike is Canva. With Canva, users can easily design professional social media posts, emails, videos, websites, and more, using their drag-and-drop editor, more than 250,000 free templates, more than 100 premium stock photos, videos, audio, and graphics, and more.

Ways to Market with Canva

1. Website design

With one of Canva’s many professional and customizable templates, design websites one page at a time. Just drag and drop elements to create a very simple wireframe and/or mockup to give web designers an idea of what you’re looking for for your website.

2. Email marketing

Browse design ideas for email newsletters among the various newsletter templates, which makes it easy to design visually-appealing marketing emails, proven to help marketers increase open rates, click rates, and overall retention rates.

3. Social media marketing

Social media marketing design is arguably the most popular use of Canva among marketers. Browse through Canva’s large collection of social media post templates to create engaging content with 100 free images, graphics, videos, and audio tracks. Collaborate with your team with the rest of your team by easily making real-time edits, leaving comments, and assigning tasks with Canva’s Team plan. You can even create a more consistent brand by using Canva’s branding tools to your advantage, which are available with premium plans.

Get professional marketing help which includes but is not limited to social media marketing from our expert team here at PSPINC.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #canva #digitalmarketing #facebook #instagram #linkedin #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #threads #twitter #video #web #youtube

Google’s Consent Management Platform (CMP) Changes and What It Means

Sep

19

Have you ever gone to a website only to come across a pop-up asking you to consent to the site using your data? That is what’s called a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) message. But you may have also noticed that not every website shows a GDPR message. That’s because privacy laws in the European Union and the UK are different compared to the U.S. when it comes to collecting users’ data.

Advertisers can use IAB’s Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF) as a tool to hold them accountable and to comply with the GDPR as well as the ePrivacy Directive, a privacy law regulating cookie usage, data minimization, and more. When advertising with Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or Ad Mob, Google-certified Consent Management Platforms (CMPs) have IAB’s TCF integrated into them, making it easier to serve ads in the European Economic Area (EEA) and/or the U.K. Equipped with IAB's TCF, Google's CMPs, and GDPR messages, advertisers can easily serve ads in the E.U. and the UK. while complying to their privacy laws.

Google’s New CMP Requirements

Starting January 16, 2024, Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob will start requiring publishers and developers to use a CMP certified by Google. Why? Because IAB Europe’s TCF released a new version (v2.2) recently that comes with even stricter consent requirements, which include:

No longer accepting “legitimate interest” as a legal base of consent for personalization efforts.
Standardized data retention periods for third-party vendors.
Easy access for users to their CMPs for if they want to withdraw or modify their consent and preferences.

For those working with ad technology providers not registered with TCF, Google makes it easy with its Additional Consent specification. While many are already using Google-certified CMPs, those who aren’t will be affected by these new requirements.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#admanager #admob #advertising #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cmp #digitalmarketing #eu #europeanunion #gdpr #google #googleadsense #iab #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #smallbusiness #tcf #tech #technology #uk #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 183 “Free Social Media Marketing Tool”

Aug

31

Social media is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways for small businesses to market themselves. But for those who aren’t trained or experienced in design, creating visually appealing posts isn’t always easy. And we’ve probably all seen our fair share of less-than-ideal graphics floating around the internet. That’s why Canva, an online graphic design tool, is so helpful to even experienced marketers.

With Canva, marketers can pick from hundreds of templates and royalty-free graphics, images, and even video. We know our marketing team here at PSPINC loves using it to their advantage. With Canva, people can drag and drop elements using their editor to make the design phase simpler so marketers can focus on marketing your business in other ways. To learn more, check out our YouTube video that breaks down all the ways Canva can help market your business. And if you’re looking to outsource your marketing work, reach out to our marketing team.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #facebook #instagram #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #twitter #web #webdesign #website #websites #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 181 “The Difference Between Localization and Translation”

Aug

17

Expanding your business to a foreign country is about more than just translating content. Language is complex, so even though the terms might be similar, they might not mean the same thing. Localization takes translation a step further by putting the foreign country’s culture into consideration. And sometimes, it can cause you to change your mind about expanding your business there if it doesn’t fit. For example, Procter & Gamble (P&G) introduced Pampers diapers to Japan in 1976 by showing an ad with a flying stork delivering Pampers to a Japanese family. But people in Japan were confused; Japanese folklore told of a story of giant peaches floating down the river gently delivering the babies.

So, when they showed this ad in Japan, it failed miserably. P&G didn’t know about this peach story until after the incident. They then changed the imagery to a peach, and it fixed the problem. But problems like this are why localization is about more than just language. It’s about culture, too. Our localization experts not only translate content from English to Japanese, but also review it to avoid any misconstrued information. And it helps avoid problems like this. Learn more by heading over to our Localization Page on our website.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #english #japan #japanese #localization #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pampers #procterandgamble #sales #smallbusiness #translation

Data Collection: Privacy Concerns and Regulation

Aug

15

Collecting data has become standard today as marketers use it to better promote their products. Efforts to better personalize ads have proven to be immensely successful, to the point of it becoming an expectation. But many aren’t fully aware of how much data companies collect on users, or how much gets passed around between third parties. And there isn’t much regulation on how much they can collect or what they can or can’t do with that data, which is how we got to where we are today.

With cybercrime only increasing in recent years, users want to make sure their data is safe. Generally, the more data you collect, the more personalized the ads will be. For marketers, more data collection makes up for better ads. But the increase in hacks has been too much for people to ignore. And it’s only revealed how easy it has become for criminals to hack people and how vulnerable their information can be. So, it only makes sense that many are asking for lawmakers to add more regulations when it comes to data collection and consumer privacy.

Current State of Data Collection

Advertisers everywhere have been digitally collecting data from customers for years now. But there are two major concerns over the amount of data companies collect: privacy and potential leaks. Most users don’t know how much of their data gets collected, nor do they know what they’ll do with it. That’s for a reason; companies prefer keeping their data practices discreet, especially for data they have no immediate use for. While this data they’re not immediately using may not be valuable today, companies argue it could be someday. At the federal level, there is no specific legislation that protects users’ data. But the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the power to protect customers from unfair or deceptive data collection practices. And they do so by enforcing federal privacy and data protection regulations.

The lack of regulations at the national level hasn’t stopped individual states from enacting some privacy laws of their own. Specifically, California, Nevada, and Maine have more comprehensive laws compared to those from other states. These privacy laws include the right of consent for their personal information, the right to request companies and third parties to delete their information, and the right to opt out of companies collecting or selling their data to third parties. On the other side of things, companies have stricter guidelines because of these laws, which include disclosing the kinds of information they’re collecting, what they intend to use that data for, and publicizing the identity of third parties, among other restrictions.

What This Means Now

Data collection practices have improved over the years as people learn more about how to keep their information safe from cybercrime. And with users demanding more transparency, more companies are complying by sharing more about their data collection practice. But it hasn’t reached the point of creating federal privacy laws; they are still only at the state level. Because of that, companies can still use, share, or sell any data they collect from customers without notifying them in most states. There also aren’t any national laws about notifying users about breached data due to leaks or other data exposures, nor are there any about third parties further selling users’ data.

In the last few years, people have realized that they aren’t as protected online as they thought. And it has just strengthened the need and desire for privacy laws at the federal level. This is a growing attitude businesses should be aware of, and the hope is, is that it will inspire more companies to be more transparent about how they collect and use customer data.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cybersecurity #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #security #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web

The Dangers of Artificial Intelligence Technology

Aug

8

While artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for a long time, it’s become much more as large strides continue to advance AI technology. AI-generated chatbots like ChatGPT are the latest popular AI technology used by Bing's AI-generated search engine. But experts in the field, including the quote-unquote godfather of AI technology, Geoffrey Hinton, are concerned about the danger it poses as the technology progresses. So much so that more than 1,000 technology leaders, researchers, and all-around AI experts signed an open letter, warning others about the risks AI technology presents.

What started as an exciting and innovative technology has since become a question of how best to proceed with it. The ethical questions of how far it can go have become existential. Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is developing so fast that it’s already surpassed human intelligence. And many are concerned it could mean AGI will eventually take over, which, admittedly, sounds more like a sci-fi movie rather than reality. But because of how fast AI technology is growing and how advanced it’s become; these concerns are only growing in validity. But aside from the existential risks that are potentially several years ahead, there are others that are more current. And even casual AI users have noticed a few of them.

3 Major Risks of AI

1. Lack of transparency

The way AI systems work, especially deep learning models, isn’t something users and most humans really understand. People can’t interpret where the information is coming from nor do they know how it came to its conclusions, which can lead to bias, discrimination, and misinformation. It’s easy for these systems to perpetuate biases in society inadvertently because of the algorithm it’s using to obtain information. And that can also lead to obtaining information that is also blatantly wrong. And these issues will only worsen if or when we rely on AI more and more.

2. Security risks

As great as AI technology can be to increase productivity, it also gives way for hackers and other malicious people to misuse the system to their advantage. Using it can lead to more sophisticated cyberattacks. And because of how much personal data AI technology collects and uses, it’ll also make that data more vulnerable to attacks.

3. Legal challenges

The legal challenges that come with using AI technology are more surrounding the fact that there is no set framework in place to regulate the use of it. Legal challenges arise when people use it to generate art or other types of content derived from another person’s work. Specifically, when people use their work to create something else. This just leads to fewer protections on intellectual properties for artists everywhere.

Where AI Will Go From Here

While there isn’t a clear and set solution in mind, one thing is clear: AI technology needs more regulation. As the technology progresses, it will only become smarter. It’s already surpassed human intelligence, and the outlook on how advanced it will be in just five years from now poses a real threat to society. While it is much more complicated than many of us can understand, it’s fair to say that it is growing rapidly at what many experts are saying is a dangerous pace. AI technology can be great at increasing productivity and processing data, but creating regulations and legal frameworks will be important moving forward to avoid the risks.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #agi #ai #aitechnology #art #artificialgeneralintelligence #artificialintelligence #bigdata #business #cybersecurity #data #intellectualproperty #law #privacy #security #tech #technology #web #webtools

Sell Directly on Social Media with Social Shopping

Aug

1

The world of shopping online changed drastically when Instagram implemented a buy button in 2015. The next year, brands could tag products with a price tag in their images. Then, Facebook followed shortly afterward by launching Marketplace in 2018. And TikTok started testing TikTok Shop in November of last year.

However, reports are that TikTok is gearing up to launch TikTok Shop Shopping Center, which will become their e-commerce platform, taking TikTok Shop a step further. Rather than just buying directly from videos, lives, and creator profile bios, TikTok Shop Shopping Center won’t just be a marketplace for other retailers to sell merchandise, but a retailer itself. The details are still not entirely clear, but if successful, it could shake up social shopping as we know it.

Benefits of Social Shopping

friends standing with shopping bags on street and looking at phone

Not only are there billions of active social media users, but they’re also spending more and more time on social media. As of 2022, users spend an average of 151 minutes a day on social media, which is up from 147 from the previous year. And social commerce generated about $724 billion USD in 2022. Both according to Statista. Directly selling on social media just further expands your overall reach to more potential customers. And since social shopping makes so much in revenue, we know how successful businesses can be on it.

Social media, as a whole, is great for obtaining social proof. Especially since many customers look at things like reviews and use those to base their decisions on whether they’ll buy something. Making your products available to users on social media just makes it possible for more feedback, reviews, and recommendations for your business. It also makes it easier for users to convert to paying customers because they don’t have to leave the app to purchase. So, regardless of how TikTok’s upcoming TikTok Shop Shopping Center changes things, it’s safe to say social shopping is here to stay.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #app #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #facebook #facebookmarketplace #instagram #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mobile #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #tiktok #twitter #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 177 “Marketing Your Website”

Jul

20

Creating a beautifully designed website can be great for business, but marketing your business shouldn’t stop there. You also need to make sure people know it exists. To do that, you can market your site by updating your site content and sharing the link to social media. Just because you have a great site, it doesn’t mean it always will be. There are plenty of obviously outdated websites still up online because the site owner never updated their site.

Other than updating antiquated website designs, the site’s content also needs to be updated. Not just to display relevant and correct information, but also to help with search engine optimization (SEO). In addition to that, marketing your site with social media can be a great way to spread the word. But promoting your business and site effectively is not always an easy feat. For more help with marketing your business, reach out to our expert marketing team.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #google #marketing #newsletter #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #searchengineoptimization #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #webdesign #websites #webtools

PSPINC Official Company Blog

freespace

How Meta's New Lawsuit Will Affect Marketing Towards Young People

What This Means for Marketers

Why Threads Hasn’t Taken Off (Yet?)

Lack of Popular Features

Market Online with Canva

Ways to Market with Canva

Google’s Consent Management Platform (CMP) Changes and What It Means

Google’s New CMP Requirements

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 183 “Free Social Media Marketing Tool”

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 181 “The Difference Between Localization and Translation”

Data Collection: Privacy Concerns and Regulation

Current State of Data Collection

What This Means Now

The Dangers of Artificial Intelligence Technology

3 Major Risks of AI

Where AI Will Go From Here

Sell Directly on Social Media with Social Shopping

Benefits of Social Shopping

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 177 “Marketing Your Website”

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