💻 [OBO DIGEST] Race, Gender, and Health

Why you should take a break, Pinterest lost 10 million dollars…

Written by: Online Business Owner • November 15, 2021

I’m at the end of a weekend-long peer mastermind retreat in San Diego and feeling excited, refreshed, and clear about my next moves.

I’ve been reminded of the value of community, reflection, and talking about your ideas over the past few days. If you can find a space to make this happen in your business, I can’t recommend it enough!

---

News + Happenings

Facebook Is Removing Detailed Ad Targeting Related to Race, Gender, & Health

Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta has announced that detailed ad targeting related to certain types of sensitive personal information will be removed from the platform in January. The ad targeting options that are being removed are related to “topics people may perceive as sensitive, such as options referencing causes, organizations, or public figures that relate to health, race or ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, or sexual orientation.”

These detailed ad targeting categories that are being eliminated aren’t actually based on how users look or their real identity or personal choices; instead, advertisers can use these interests and causes being eliminated to make targeting assumptions about users.

Graham Mudd, Meta’s VP for Marketing and Ads, states “We’ve heard concerns from experts that targeting options like these could be used in ways that lead to negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups” in the company’s announcement.

Examples provided by Meta include:

• Health causes (e.g., “Lung cancer awareness”, “World Diabetes Day”, “Chemotherapy”)

• Sexual orientation (e.g., “same-sex marriage” and “LGBT culture”)

• Religious practices and groups (e.g., “Catholic Church” and “Jewish holidays”)

• Political beliefs, social issues, causes, organizations, and figures

Why this matters for online business -- Detailed targeting based on interest is helpful for online businesses, especially those that target more diverse populations or address particular specific issues. These changes could exacerbate already existing issues with Facebook Ads and changes this year based on iOS updates. The good news is that changes don’t take effect until mid-January -- you still have time to build custom audiences based on this detailed targeting and use those audiences and ads to generate engagement and traffic (which can then be turned into lookalike audiences for future ad campaigns). Facebook has also provided additional ideas for reaching your target audience in their announcement blog post.

---

Instagram Intros New “Take a Break” Reminders

Instagram has announced a new “Take a Break” feature to encourage users to take time off of the platform. The new feature, which is opt-in only, lets users set break reminders and gives them ideas of how to spend their time off the app. The update is being tested with a subset of users prior to a larger rollout.

Why this matters for online business

As creators and entrepreneurs continue to evaluate their social media habits, the “Take a Break” feature is a welcome addition to Instagram (a platform that’s channeled all of the addictive features of TikTok in recent months). Unlike TikTok, the feature is totally optional (TikTok inserts “take a break” videos into the user experience at regular intervals); that means it’s up to you to take ownership of your IG habits.

---

Social Media News + Updates

📸  Instagram rolls out Voice Effects and Text-to-Speech for Reels

⏰  TikTok launches new ‘Creative Exchange’ platform to generate paid collabs for creators

📌  Pinterest lost 10M additional monthly active users last quarter giving a total MAU loss of 34M since spring

📺  YouTube hides dislike counts on videos from public view to reduce dislike attacking behavior

👂 Clubhouse introduces Replays -- users can download audio and publish recordings on the app

---

In Other News

👋  Oxygen, a digital bank for freelancers, nears $500 million valuation.

👋 3% of the workforce - a record 4.4M people - left their jobs in September as the Great Resignation continues

---

THE ONLINE BUSINESS SHOW

---

YOUR WEEKLY KICK IN THE PANTS

@vanessalau.co

@ramit

@jess_ekstrom

---

About The Contributor

---

You May Also Like…