News from the digital world
Summer is behind us; autumn is on its merry way and we’re ready with 5 noteworthy updates from the digital landscape.
iOS 17 is on the way at full speed, Reddit has added AI functionality to their ads manager, and LinkedIn has gained a competitor. A familiar one.
We look at this and more in this month’s issue of Xtracts, your digital news overview.
1. Apple’s iOS 17 is coming – what will happen?
When Apple is ready with a new version of their operating system, many marketers are on guard and ready to react. Why? Because it tends to have a significant impact on your digital marketing. So, with iOS 17 just around the corner, there’s only one question: what will be affected this time?
With iOS 17, Apple will further limit access to users’ data, this time by partially removing URL Tracking Parameters. In practice, this means that you may not be able to track link clicks from Apple Mail, Messages and Safari Private Browsing. Especially the first here is important, as it is vital for how you measure the effectiveness of e.g., your newsletters.
Once again, as a marketing manager, you must therefore be ready to take a detour and think differently. However, it is not necessarily the end of the world, as it is not immediately all parameters that iOS 17 will be blocking tracking of.
Source: Marketing Dive
2. Reddit adds analytics tool to their ads manager
And it’s even AI-based. Although Reddit occasionally lives in the shadow of its social media peers, don’t underestimate the potential audience lurking on the self-proclaimed front page of the Internet. And now, there is perhaps even more reason to be curious about what Reddit Ads can do.
Reddit Ads Manager’s new Keyword Suggestions feature uses artificial intelligence to find the most relevant and performance-boosting keywords for your ads. The “machine” analyzes which keywords provide the largest potential audience – while simultaneously checking the context of the analyzed forums and posts (to check both relevance and safety). In other words, it can help you target your ads in a way that is relevant to your business – and in a way that works.
Keyword Suggestions is available right now in Reddit’s Ads Manager. So, if you’re already managing ads on Reddit, there’s no time to waste.
Source: Search Engine Land
3. The EU’s Digital Services Act has arrived
For some, this may not feel like news at all, as the rules were revealed more than a year ago, but not yet 100% applied. They are now. Welcome to the EU’s Digital Services Act.
In case you have forgotten what the agreement entails, it is a legal act which is supposed to increase security on the internet. This is done through, among other things, tighter handling of posts/advertisements that promote illegal content, as well as a specific ban on targeting sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or political beliefs.
As a third step, 19 specific, larger platforms must follow additional rules due to their increased influence on internet users. This concerns platforms that have more than 45 million users within the EU’s borders – this includes Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Snapchat and LinkedIn.
Source: The Verge
4. LinkedIn might get a competitor. And it’s X
When talking about business-focused social platforms, LinkedIn is often allowed to just sit with a digital monopoly. Competitors exist, sure, but especially here at home, they rarely appear beside LinkedIn in the leaderboard. However, that may change now.
X, formerly Twitter, has just published the beta version of a jobs section on their platform. Companies with a golden checkmark can post open positions from which users will be able to apply (via an external site).
Does it put X in direct competition with LinkedIn? Probably not. X is still a social media that is used for much more than business-oriented communication, while LinkedIn has it as the absolute primary focus. Yet, it remains an interesting change.
Source: Social Media Today
5. Threads is (finally) available via browser
If you have tried googling “Threads browser version” or something similar, you have until recently been met with a big, red-hot no. It’s clear that a non-mobile version of Meta’s newest platform has been a much-desired addition for many – and luckily for them, the wait is now over.
At the end of August, Meta announced that their Twitter counterpart Threads was ready to be accessed via browser – and just a few days later, the web version was open to everyone. The text-based social media site launched in July, and while enthusiasm for a Twitter competitor was high, engagement on the platform has since been declining. Meta’s hope is probably that a web version will be able to increase interest – and the user base – for Threads.
Threads was launched on the back of a flood of migrations from Twitter to platforms like Blue Sky and Mastodon – and a month before the blue bird had to retire in favor of an X. Whether Threads manages to survive when everything is slightly less hectic in the SoMe universe, time will tell.
Source: Engadget