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

It was a tough week for Facebook. While users remain stagnant in the U.S., the platform lost users in Europe and saw slowed revenue. This caused the largest single-day drop in market value in U.S. history of $100 billion. The question of why has yet to be answered, but most likely is related to the new GDPR rules and Facebook’s many recent scandals. The good news for Facebook? It has other products under its umbrella (Instagram and SnapChat for starters), so any decline in Facebook users is generally absorbed by increased usage of other products.

In other news …

• A recent study shows that within the next decade, more than half of U.S. workers could participate in the gig economy.
• The ACLU has made a statement against Amazon this week for the use of facial recognition software that, ummm, isn’t very accurate.
• Facebook is rolling out a monthly donations feature as part of a new set of fundraising features.
• Know what a “flop” account is? The Atlantic explains this new way in which teens are discussing everything from politics to viral memes on Instagram.

Fun Resources

• Ad Espresso has a round-up of insights and best practices through an analysis of a whopping 752,626 Facebook ads. One of the insights is to keep Facebook headlines to five words – short and sweet!
• IGTV is here, and Social Media Today explains how and what to post if you are taking the plunge into Instagram’s live video platform.

Finally …

New York Magazine has a nice breakdown of Twitter’s recent “shadowban” controversy, and in it provides an excellent definition of the term for those who aren’t familiar.