Every two weeks, Vanguard distills hundreds of digital media headlines into the best “byte”- sized pieces of useful information. Each edition has news ranging from the latest Facebook algorithm changes to best practices for email marketing. Share Digital Bytes with your organization to keep your digital strategies ahead of the pack.

Digital Bytes

Twitter made waves this week by deleting 6 percent of all accounts that were suspected to be bots or fake. This caused CEO Jack Dorsey to lose 200,000 followers and could affect practically every large account on the platform. Losing followers to many influencers means a loss in advertising dollars, so it’s a risky but commendable move for Twitter in trying to make the platform less prone to bot activity. Yours truly only lost, ahem, four followers.

In other news …

• The U.K. has fined Facebook $664,000 for the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Over on our side of the pond, the Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, and FBI also are investigating and considering fines for the company.
  • Relatedly, BuzzFeed reported on a meeting Facebook had with journalists about a new ad campaign showcasing the company’s efforts to fight fake news. Spoiler alert: it didn’t go well.
• Why would viral Instagram accounts switch from public to private? It’s a strange advertising scheme that ensures people can’t privately share their content in group chats. The Atlantic investigated the phenomenon.
• Google launched new ad options this week that take advantage of machine learning-centered ads.
• One hurdle many consumers face in online shopping is the inability to try on products. Facebook has a new virtual reality ad option that may help.

Fun Resource

A social media measurement plan in 5 steps? I’ll take it! Read Social Media Today’s 5-Step Plan to Measure Social Media ROI.

Finally …

#PlaneBae — a tweet storm last week that went viral depicting a love connection between strangers on an airplane — opened up a discussion about the ethical implications of live streaming the lives of strangers. Almost all social media platforms encourage in-the-moment “hot takes” on news and media, so sharing your own “hot takes” on strangers is inevitable but unfortunate, IMHO.