Facebook has never shied away from trying new things — even if its customers find those things unpalatable. The latest innovation to attract detractors: promoted posts, in which a person or a company pays to have their status update prioritized in users’ feeds. Well, Wistia — a rising member of Boston’s sizzling tech start-up scene — gave it a whirl and found it, shall we say, counterproductive. Facebookers were so incensed at this intrusion into their feed that we can’t repeat most of their comments (but MarketingProfs can). Alyce Currier, Wistia’s content strategist, writes about what they learned from the snafu: “on the Internet, we’re still territorial. We don’t like advertising that’s trying to trick us…When advertising is styled exactly like a post from a friend, it feels tricky, but we’re not falling for it, so all it does is make us angry.” Moreover, while it’s an old adage that “the more you sell, the more you repel,” when you’re advertising in a space where people don’t expect to see advertising, “your post doesn’t need to be sales-y to get people riled up.”
If you’re interested in social media marketing, it’s worth reading the full post for some of the details on the thinness of Facebook’s targeting algorithm and the “likes” promoted posts receive, but for now I’ll just leave you with this final thought from Currier: “These posts do feel like spam and don’t belong in the Timeline (even if Facebook lets us put them there).”
NO LONGER DUMPING IT INTO THE HARBOR
Americans Suddenly Love British Tea (Financial Times)
Yorkshire Gold has always had a cult following in the United States, but it wasn’t until fictional Nick Brody, a central character on the hit show Homeland revealed his penchant for it that “our Twitter feed went crazy,” says Taylors of Harrogate brand manager Sam Ward. Now, bolstered by other, also-unsolicited celebrity endorsements (Russell Crowe! Sigourney Weaver! Madonna!), the family-owned company is looking west for growth. (Tea sales in the U.K. have been flat since the 1970s.) But as they experiment with more advertising and broader distribution, they might want to be a bit careful — part of the charm for many Americans (or at least, this one and her mother) is feeling like Yorkshire Gold is their own special secret. Not Madonna’s.
Soda Wars Backlash: Mississippi Passes ‘Anti-Bloomberg’ Bill (NPR)
Businesses in New York were all set to start serving “quaint little 16-oz soda cups” as one restauranteur put it, when a judge struck down Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on jumbo soft drinks (the mayor will appeal). Mississippians, however, aren’t taking any chances. Getting out in front of what one Democrat called the “organic agenda,” lawmakers have passed “the Anti-Bloomberg Bill,” a measure designed to limit cities’ and towns’ ability to regulate food. Mississippi, it’s worth noting, has America’s highest obesity rate, at 34.9%.
Uncle Sam Is Not a Betting Man
Why Economists Love Intrade — And Why the Government Hates It (Washington Post Wonkblog)
Becoming a Digital Business (CIO Insight)
Rolling Back the War on Vaccines (BCG Perspectives)