Social Media Weekly Roundup 11.12.20

Burger King France offers its Instagram account to independent restaurants

Fast food giant Burger King has launched an unprecedented social media campaign aimed at providing visibility for independent restaurants on its Instagram account. Until January 21st next year, when restaurants in France will reopen, Burger King France will allow independent restaurants, hit especially hard this year, free advertising via their Instagram account and access to its 328K followers.

Twitter is introducing frequency caps for ads

Twitter has introduced a new frequency cap feature which will allow advertisers to more easily optimise their campaigns by delivering controlled impression delivery and audience reach over a longer period of time. Frequency caps let advertisers maximise audience reach by redistributing impressions to new users and controlling how many times someone sees an ad throughout a campaign. 

The US government is taking legal action against Facebook

Facebook has been accused of using illegal monopoly power to squash competition and deny consumers the benefits of such competition in lawsuits filed by the US government against the social media giant. The lawsuits particularly highlight Facebook’s purchases of Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion and WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion. If the legal action is successful, it could potentially lead to the first court-ordered break-up of a US company in years. Facebook is now valued at more than $800 billion while its CEO Mark Zuckerberg was named the third richest person this year by Forbes with a net worth of more than $100 billion.

YouTube releases a blog post addressing political misinformation...more than a month after the US election

While fellow social media giants including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram scrambled to show how seriously they were taking political misinformation and introduced measures to try and prevent the spread earlier this year, YouTube stayed noticeably quiet. Now, more than a month after the US election, the social media site has released a blog post addressing how it will manage the spread of political misinformation post-election. The post clarifies that YouTube will remove any new piece of content that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 US election.

WhatsApp’s e-commerce feature Carts introduced globally

WhatsApp has introduced its e-commerce feature Carts to all of its users globally. The feature allows potential customers of businesses on the platform browse catalogs, select multiple items, and then check out by sending their list as a single order in one message. According to the platform, 175 million people message business accounts every day while more than 40 million browse catalogs every month.

IKEA ends production of its infamous catalogue

After 70 years of production, IKEA has announced that it will be stopping production of its catalogue and shifting its attention to becoming more digital and accessible. In the wake of the pandemic, lockdowns and limitations on its stores have meant that IKEA, like most other retailers, has seen a huge shift in customers opting for e-commerce and finding inspiration online. In a recent statement, Konrad Grüss, an IKEA manager, hailed the IKEA catalogue as “one of [the] best-known and best-loved products for 70 years, inspiring billions of people around the world.”

Pinterest adds favourites, notes and new toolbar to its boards

After a surge in the use of Pinterest over lockdown, the platform has expanded its range of features, introducing new favourites, notes and a board toolbar. According to Pinterest, there’s been a 35% increase in the number of boards created monthly during the last six months. The new features are aimed at helping those who use their boards for making lists of gift ideas or who have a hard time navigating and sorting through boards with a larger number of pins.

A Conscious Christmas: The Brands Changing Tack & Giving Back in 2020

Christmas campaign season is already in full swing, but you might’ve noticed a few changes this year. This week, we’ve taken a look at some of the best examples of brands changing tack, giving back, and supporting a more conscious Christmas in 2020.