Winter holiday sales season is in full swing. Christmas carols began playing on November 1st before the Halloween candy went on sale. But this is also the two month period where many retailers and every nonprofit make their revenue numbers for the year.

Facebook and LinkedIn are contributing by creating new advertising opportunities. Both will now allow companies to send you advertising in their messaging systems. If you’ve written a company on Facebook’s messenger service–maybe for customer service–the company may now advertise to you on Facebook Messenger. LinkedIn is taking things a step further, allowing anyone with an advertising account to send you a message on the site.

These new programs come amidst news that Facebook may be chasing down LinkedIn’s job advertising business. The social media network is now showing a “Jobs” tab on some business pages. We know that job advertising works on Facebook even if that sounds counterintiuitive. We’ve advertised for employees for one of our nonprofit clients on Facebook for  years. Consider getting ahead of the curve like they did 

We also have news this week of missteps by digital companies acting aggressively in the market. That includes Facebook allowing advertisers to  target consumers based on a “deduced” ethnic demographic and Yahoo apparently not making public the news of its massive email breach.

The Christmas season has 35 shopping days left and nonprofits have only a week longer to get 2016 dollars in for tax credits for their donors. If your organization isn’t going full throttle right now, don’t delay any longer. Get your plan in market today. If you don’t have a plan or need help creating one, there are ways to quickly launch campaigns. Contact us to find out how.

Your Digital Marketing Spotlight for November 14, 2016

Here’s Yahoo saying it was hacked much earlier than previously reported — and it is being sued 23 times so far for the breach.

Its regulatory filing dropped on Election Day, the better to keep it hidden. Yahoo! has made a lot of mistakes in recent years, and this may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

92 Percent of Amazon Shoppers Would Not Consider Purchasing a Product That Received Less Than Three Stars

Feedvisor’s Amazon User Study 2016 reveals insights into shopper research and purchase behavior, and provides recommendations for eCommerce sellers.

Facebook To Ban ‘Ethnic Affinity’ Targeting For Housing, Employment, Credit-Related Ads

After weeks of push back from U.S. lawmakers, media and civil rights leaders, Facebook on Friday announced it will stop allowing advertisers to use ‘ethnic affinity’ to target the reach of employment, housing and credit-related ads.

Facebook Will Let Brands Send You Ads If You’ve Messaged Them Before

Earlier this year, Facebook announced it was building bots that would let companies chat with you in Messenger. Now, the company has announced sponsored messages. They’re like ads, but for your chat app.

LinkedIn Opens Up Sponsored InMail to All Marketers

Businesses and brands can now use Sponsored InMail messages via LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager to engage their target audience.

Facebook Testing Jobs Tab on Pages

Does Facebook have LinkedIn in its crosshairs?

Digital Life

The Hidden Meanings Inside 27 Famous Logos

Did you know that the three ellipses in Toyota’s logo include every letter of the company’s name? There’s more to many logos than a pretty picture.

 

Articles about AT&T’s massive Time-Warner acquisition and the U.S. Presidential election crowded out other news this week.

These big stories drowned out marketing news, especially from social media, that might be prominent in other weeks. Organizations can miss important developments that can improve their success when this happens.

And it was a busy week for the Facebook-Instagram organization as Facebook commerce went global. There was also news about Google privacy changes from nonprofit ProPublica.

Our mission is to always stay in touch with the organizations that affect our daily lives. Global news can drown out their voices. Those are the weeks we have to know about things that happened that can affect our work and your company.

Your Marketing Spotlight for October 24

New Call-to-Action Options for Facebook Pages Facebook is rolling out several call-to-action updates that allow customers to book appointments and sell items directly. What’s the deal with Facebook Fundraisers? What’s the deal with the new Facebook Fundraisers tool? News for nonprofits about fundraising with a social twist.

LinkedIn updates endorsements to make them actually relevant LinkedIn has taken its endorsements feature and given it a touch-up so that it actually means something on a person’s profile. The company is CUSTOMIZING each person’s experience so that the most impactful endorsements are surfaced when you view a profile. Any business on Facebook can now sell goods right from its Page All businesses can now sell physical goods or book appointments directly from their Facebook page, reports Recode. This capability was previously limited to a group of test users. Facebook commerce is a thing for everyone.

1 in 4 Instagrammers Sharing Photos to Other Networks One reason why Instagram has become so widely known is the likelihood of people posting their Instagram content to other services. Understand how Instagram serves as the distribution point for other networks–it’s big! Google Has Quietly Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking – ProPublica Google is the latest tech company to drop the longstanding wall between anonymous online ad tracking and user’s names. As ProPublica points out, Google said it would keep the Double Click database separate from advertising when they bought the company in 2007. That just changed.

ICYMI: The Most Clicked Marketing Stories from Recent Posts

Facebook Messenger adds buy button

Common Ways Scammers Try To Hack Your Data

Nearly 85% of Smartphone App Time in These 5 Apps

Header photo by Dino Reichmuth. Other images are thumbnails from content on newsworthy websites and serve as links under the provisions of fair use.

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