FTC Cracks Down on Instagram, Twitter Starts to Grow | Social You Should Know

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While Pinterest embraces its search engine reality, the FTC proves it knows how social networks work and Twitter starts to grow again, all in this week’s edition of Social You Should Know.

Pinterest is Officially Embracing Its ‘Discovery Engine’ Status

With the launch of their first advertising campaign this summer in the US, Pinterest is now positioning itself as a visual search engine rather than a ‘social network.’ It claims Pinterest helps you get ideas for your real life and on the path to try those ideas. In its first move in this direction, Pinterest has gotten rid of the ‘Like’ button and previously ‘Liked’ pins will be saved to a private board. Supposedly, user confusion over liking vs. saving pins prompted the change but brands may see a drop off in Pin engagement as a result.

FTC Issues Warning to Instagram Celebs

In a move that made it clear to me the FTC gets how social networks operate (kudos!!), letters were sent to over 90 Instagram influencers warning them to stop hiding from followers the fact that their posts were sponsored by brands. In that letter, the FTC gave unambiguous direction on how to ensure disclosures were in fact “clear” and “conspicuous”. For starters, disclosures must be clearly visible in the mobile feed without requiring the user to click “read more.” Additionally, a common practice by some influencers of burying #ad among a slew of other hashtags in a post is an absolute no-no.

Twitter Is Finally Growing Again, Sort Of

In an update to investors this week, Twitter announced that its average monthly active users is up 6% over this time last year. Advertiser faith in the platform has clearly faltered though, as they also reported the first quarterly revenue decline since going public in 2013. It appears Twitter knows full well the industry is going to need more than just 1 good quarter of active user growth to get back on its feet, stating revenue growth is expected to lag user growth for the rest of 2017. The open question – will this growth continue as the political conversation tied to much of this growth calms.

You Get a Shorty, And You Get a Shorty…

Finally, I have to give a shout out to our Carusele team. Not only did Carusele take home multiple category titles and audience honoree awards for our influencer marketing programs at this years’ Shorty Awards but Carusele also won the Shorty for Small Agency of the Year! Kudos to the team for all their hard work and THANK YOU to our clients for trusting us and our influencers with your precious business.

 

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