2018 has kicked off with more than its fair share of political in-fighting and scandals. And these battles aren’t just being fought in the hallowed halls of government. They’re also front and center in the digital world, with uncontrolled social media data access as one of the most serious—and potentially alarming—issues we’re all dealing with today.

At the core of the controversy is the importance of social media data protection. Unless you’re aware of who has access to your private information—and what they intend to do with it—no communication, even between your closest friends, is completely personal.

So, let’s take a quick look at the most important things to know about protecting your data today.

Facebook & Cambridge Analytica: A New Era in Social Media Data Protection

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, recently testified in Congress regarding the security of Facebook’s data. It happened because an online leak revealed that Cambridge Analytica had acquired Facebook user data and behavior, which it then used to serve its clients without Facebook’s full knowledge and permission.

Whoa. No matter how you look at it, the possibility of this happening over and over is downright scary.

The aftereffect is that Facebook is doing its ostensible best to correct the problem. In an attempt to increase security, Facebook is limiting what advertisers can and cannot access across the board.

One specific change is that Facebook is now forcing marketers to guarantee that any email addresses used for ad targeting (imported from business lists) were rightfully attained. This directly affects their Custom Audiences product, which previously allowed businesses to directly target Facebook users based on email addresses from their own procured lists.

It’s a step that definitely makes it a harder for marketers to reach their targets through Facebook, but it’s well worth the effort.

Instagram and the Domino Effect

As we talked about in an earlier blog, any change Facebook makes is likely to reverberate across other social media platforms. This change is no different. Marketers now have new factors to consider when building their websites and apps to integrate with all their social channels.

Developers for Instagram must now contend with new limits on their API calls—the number of times you can call data from Instagram and display it on your website or app. Instagram reduced the limit from 5,000 calls to 200 calls per hour, a staggering decrease of 96%.

A limit of such magnitude will affect even small businesses who now must prioritize when it’s right (or even advisable) to use Instagram pictures in their online marketing programs.

A New Marketing Game Plan

We’re likely to see the effects from Facebook and Instagram over the next several months. It’s also likely that we’ll see even more coming from other channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest. A shift of this scale will create new best practices and inspire changes for companies to follow suit.

Our best advice for marketers is to be aware of these changes and inform your team that as social media policies change, best practices will change, too. It might require diverting marketing dollars to other digital channels or, better yet, a move toward more strategically driven inbound, organic and yes, even outbound marketing campaigns. 

Have any questions about these newest social media changes? Drop us a line here!