Tuesday Tune-Up #391

Tuneup
weare.social


Landmark judicial ruling finds Australian media companies liable for comments on their social channels
You may remember Dylan Voller as the 17-year-old who was shown restrained and wearing a spit hood in shocking CCTV footage from an adult prison in the Northern Territory. The story was broken by the ABC in 2016, and News Corp, Fairfax Media (now Nine), and Sky News Australia all covered elements of the case as it unfolded, posting their stories to Facebook.

Voller claims that a number of comments on the posts defamed him, and this week, a judge has given him the green light to sue the media companies – despite their vigorous protest that the comments shouldn’t be their responsibility. We’ll be watching the case closely with the rest of the industry.




Facebook’s Libra positions itself as the user-friendly evolution of PayPal, but their track record on data security poses serious questions
The basics of Libra are fairly simple. The cryptocurrency is launching to the public in the first half of 2020. You’ll be able to buy and cash out Libra anonymously, online or at physical stores. You’ll spend Libra using a crypto wallet, or in the Calibra wallet that will be built into WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook. Its fees are promised to be lower than PayPal.

Facebook have launched a separate company, Calibra, which will handle its crypto dealings, and promises to keep your finance data separate to Facebook ad data. They have also bolstered consumer trust by engaging a variety of high-profile businesses to partner in The Libra Association, Libra’s controlling body.

However, the full story is more complex than a simple use case. Facebook have proven, repeatedly, that they’re not safe or responsible custodians of our data, and seem almost immune to government regulation. The Guardian highlights some of the big concerns around ‘surveillance capitalism’ – the centralising and data banking of personal finance, as it seeps into parts of our lives that we just assumed would be regulated carefully by our governments. Our UK Senior Creative Technologist, Sam Cox, reflected that it’ll be “an interesting watch from a regulatory standpoint” as the company looks to win over both users and governments.



We got a peek behind the curtains of influencer life, and it made us all feel gross
Last week, Marissa Grossman aka @fashionambitionist had her followers enthralled, as they watched an elaborate proposal unfold. However, the happy events were somewhat marred by the circulation of the couple’s brand pitch, inviting marketers to get involved in the big event. Holy cringe!

The big takeaway for us as influencer marketers is to make sure we partner with influencers who have an authentic role for our brand in their lives, and use our gut instincts to steer clear of insincerity.




Pinterest working to deliver ever richer AI recommendations
You may be familiar with ‘Shop the Look’, where Pinterest’s visual engine identifies items in a photo and helps you purchase them. ‘Complete the Look‘ will extrapolate on this, and offer you items which are not in the image but contextually relevant, based on your browsing history and contextual trend info. Cool.



Google launch Facebook brand page-style tool for businesses
Google My Business gives companies with a Google presence a one-stop shop for updating their business information online, adding photos and reading reviews. The new tools allow businesses to tsuz up their profiles with logos and photos and claim a short name and URL for their business. Google will allow businesses to reward new customers with ‘welcome offers’, as well as launching a Marketing Kit website where businesses can order free stickers and posters to place at their retail location.

Is the product a competitor for Facebook pages? Our guess is that they’ll be complimentary, rather than brands choosing one or the other.




Calling all footy fans
For us, the best thing about the big vibe around the upcoming third Origin game is the chance to get solid mileage out of the Instagram stickers we made for our client NRL.

When you’re making your next Instagram story, hit the ‘add a GIF’ button, and search ‘state of origin’ for some pretty joyous ways to share your footy feelings. Don’t forget to tag us @wearesocialau so we can see your creations.



Choose Your Own Adventuré
If you can’t wait for Game III and want to feel the kind of adrenalin rush that only a truly high-stakes scenario can provide, then might we suggest a Twitter thread that takes a Choose Your Own Adventure-style ‘skill’ mechanic and pairs it with the impossibly fraught scenarios that must be navigated by the assistants to Beyoncé Giselle Carter-Knowles.

In the thread, created by the Twitter user @CORNYASSSBITCH, your objective is to not get fired. It’s harder than it sounds. Each successive tweet presents a terrifying scenario that must be negotiated, with reply tweets listing your options. So, for example, Beyoncé is getting ready for a red carpet. What are you getting her for breakfast? Yogurt, granola and strawberries or a five star breakfast? See? Terrifying.

You can play along here. A word of advice for the first scenario: she’s a vegan with Type A tendencies. Don’t hurt yourself.




This edition of the Tune-Up has been lovingly prepared by Zoh Dowling.