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

How many zeros are in a trillion? One person who will know for sure is Apple CEO Tim Cook, as the tech giant became the first U.S. company to hit a market value of $1 trillion. It likely won’t stay that way for long, with Amazon, Google’s Alphabet and Microsoft inching closer to join the trillion dollar club soon.

If you’re wondering how Apple’s market value stacks up against other popular companies, this nifty and interactive New York Times graphic will put this incredible achievement into perspective.

In other news …

• Does your employer own your personal social media account? If so, do employees have to hand over control of their social platforms and followers once they leave their company? That’s the crux of the lawsuit between The Roanoke Times and one of their former employees who left for a competing outlet. This is a judgment that could set an interesting precedent on social media handle rights.
• The crackdown on hate content continues. Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify have banned American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ podcasts and website Infowars from their platforms.
• Is Twitter the most effective way to make a big announcement? When you’re Elon Musk and have 22 million followers, it could be. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX tweeted about taking Tesla private at $420 per share causing the company’s stock prices to spike and temporary halt of the trading of Tesla’s shares. Jury’s out on whether he broke any laws with his choice of announcement platform.
• Almost four years after it was acquired by Facebook, WhatsApp launched its first revenue-generating product. The 1.5 billion-user messaging app is letting businesses respond to customers through the WhatsApp Business app. This could be the beginning of Facebook pitching WhatsApp Business as an alternative to customer service call centers.

Fun Resources

Are reviews important to your organization? Here’s a helpful infographic on how to deal with fake negative reviews.

Finally …

Is Google going after Reddit’s AMA audience? The company launched Cameos, a new video app where celebrities and other public figures can answer commonly searched questions about themselves.