more-people-trust-(and-distrust)-facebook-than-any-other-social-site-—-[survey]

Facebook is both the most and least trusted social media platform in North America. That’s according to a new study from offline attribution provider Freckle, which recently surveyed 1,200 adults on questions of media, privacy and trust.

Freckle’s survey is one of several privacy related studies being released over the next few weeks as we approach 2020 and CCPA.

The ‘fake news’ problem. Overall, the survey found that 86% of respondents believe there’s a persistent “fake news” problem in the market. And 81% believe the problem is tied to the 2016 election and remains unresolved. It’s not clear from the survey, however, what the ideological leanings of respondents are.

What have you done to address social media data privacy concerns?

Source: Freckle consumer survey (2019)

Two-thirds concerned about privacy, half have adjusted settings. The survey examined trust and social media sites in particular. It found that 66% of people said data-privacy concerns impacted their trust of social media. Only 13% of respondents said “don’t care,” while 17% said that the impact of data privacy issues on their social media attitudes was “low.”

When asked “What have you done to address data privacy concerns?,” 50% of survey respondents said they had updated social media privacy settings. That response was most pronounced among Millennial males. A separate survey from Pew Research found 54% of Americans have adjusted their Facebook privacy settings in the past 12 months.

As mentioned, Facebook had the dubious honor of being chosen as the most and least trusted social media site in the survey. Here are the findings for both categories:

Source: Freckle consumer survey (2019)

Presumably, “other” on this list includes Instagram. However, it’s not clear why Instagram was not referenced directly in the Freckle study. It would have been interesting to compare consumer trust in Facebook with attitudes toward Facebook-owned Instagram.

It’s also not clear that respondents are in fact users of all these sites.

Why we should care. According to Pew, roughly three-fourths of Facebook users in the U.S. visit the site daily. However, as the Freckle study shows, that is happening against the backdrop of greater caution and skepticism; 12% of respondents said they had “closed” their social media accounts (read: Facebook).

While Facebook’s ad revenues continue to grow there are indications that the erosion of trust and engagement with Facebook is benefitting sister site Instagram. Some agencies and ad platforms have reported advertiser budget growth has flattened on Facebook and recently accelerated on Instagram.



About The Author

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes about the connections between digital and offline commerce. He previously held leadership roles at LSA, The Kelsey Group and TechTV. Follow him Twitter or find him on LinkedIn.



how-to-inspire people

Plant

A lot of people need to be inspired to take that great step they have always wanted to take, and when it comes to inspiration, it can come from anywhere — I mean anywhere. However, how will you feel if you are able to inspire someone to take a step? At Plant, we know how important inspiration is, and we’re always looking out for ways to inspire each and every member of our team.

If you had always wanted to inspire someone or become a source of inspiration to a good number of people, follow the tips below and before you know it, people around you would start taking action — and you’ll take credit for that.

We live in a world where people believe in faking it until you make it and you might be tempted to portray an image that’s not truly yours and yours. But let me tell you something when you are faking it, you’re an empty barrel — and people will know from the noise you make (usually louder). However, stick to that person you are. The real you and I tell you what; there are many people interested in being you, and you can have those people to inspire.

During my days at the university, I have had many students call me a mentor and all that. And I asked myself, why would they call me a mentor when I am not the best student in the department (I was in my level though), and I later discovered that it’s my readiness to explain things even though I am not the best put me ahead of the rest. What am I saying here? Be you; the world will adjust.

There are no two ways about it; if you are not passionate about what you do, you cannot inspire people to do what you do. If you are a product designer and have had the opportunity to work with a professional designer by accident who doesn’t love his work, it will show, and you’ll see lack of contentment and sometimes frustration in their actions. Let me ask you when last have you seen a frustrated individual motivate and inspire people?

But with passion for what you do, when you speak, people can see the fire in your eyes, they can tell you are happy doing what you’re doing, and they can see fulfillment in your life — that’s enough to get someone inspired.

I have come to realize something in life; people do not take you seriously until you’re an embodiment of success. Forget about what they say what you’re around. If you’re still struggling to succeed, worry less about how to inspire people and more about how to succeed in what you do. Only when you become successful you would be able to inspire someone and as such, that should be your focus. Else, you risk being part of the “fake it til you make it” crew.

Because you’re successful, you can speak with enthusiasm and people can sense that. Mind you, just being successful doesn’t work if you are not good with words. And when you use words, people have to see the enthusiasm in your words.

You have to care about people and show them you really do to inspire them. I am sure there are very successful people around you that love their jobs and speak with enthusiasm in their words, but you still dislike them because they do not care about others, not in their class. You have to be down to earth and show them you really care about them. By doing that, they would naturally want to come closer, ask questions, and want to be like you.

If you ask me, I will tell you this is one of the most important steps of inspiring people. Usually, many people have the potentials to be who they want to be and do what they want to do. However, they lack the push factor — be that push factor and see how you’ll be propelling someone for greatness. You have to encourage people to move out of their comfort zone.

Moving out of the comfort zone is something difficult for most people. Ironically, they have to do that for them to be great. Let them know that.

Life is a two-sided coin with one side being success and the other being failure. Usually, people see successful individuals as people that have not experienced failures and downtimes. Contrary to this misconception, every successful individual has had their own share of failure. Yet, only a few share it as some see it as an act of weakness and want to be seen as a genius who does not make mistakes.

Stand out from these sets of people and let them know that you were ones like them and that their condition is perfectly normal. However, make sure to do this in moderation else, some of them will remain in their comfort zone and think their condition is normal, not knowing that their own case is different.

Unless you’re a Judge in the court, avoid judging people under you. Be an umbrella for them, and instead of complicating issues for them by judging them, provide an avenue for them to heal faster. Make them feel good about themselves even though you feel their situation is critical. This is because if they are not happy with themselves, you cannot inspire them. However, I am not asking you to lie to them — no, that’s not what I am saying. What I am saying is that don’t make their condition worse.


No doubt, there’s joy in giving people the hope that they too can become someone like you. However, it’s not as easy as it seems. Here at Plant, we have tried and have seen that inspiring people takes more than just talks — it encompasses a lot of things, and these are discussed above.

the-fcc-has-no-idea-how-many-people-don?t-have-broadband-access

Bad broadband data —

The FCC likely counts millions of unserved homes as having broadband.


A map of the United States with lines and dots to represent broadband networks.

A new broadband mapping system is starting to show just how inaccurate the Federal Communications Commission’s connectivity data is.

In Missouri and Virginia, up to 38% of rural homes and businesses that the FCC counts as having broadband access actually do not, the new research found. That’s more than 445,000 unconnected homes and businesses that the FCC would call “served” with its current system.

Given that the new research covered just two states with a combined population of 14.6 million (or 4.5% of the 327.2 million people nationwide), it’s likely that millions of homes nationwide have been wrongly counted as served by broadband. A full accounting of how the current data exaggerates access could further undercut FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s claims that repealing net neutrality rules and other consumer protection measures have dramatically expanded broadband access. His claims were already unconvincing for other reasons.

The new research was conducted by CostQuest Associates, a consulting firm working for USTelecom, an industry lobby group that represents AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Frontier, and other fiber and DSL broadband providers. USTelecom submitted a summary of the findings to the FCC on Tuesday. The two-state pilot was intended to determine the feasibility of creating a more accurate broadband map for the whole US.

Why the FCC’s current data is wrong

The key problem with today’s maps is that the FCC’s Form 477 data-collection program that requires ISPs to report census-block coverage lets an ISP count an entire census block as served even if it can serve just one home in the block. It has always been known that this approach could undercount the number of unserved homes, but it was never clear exactly how far off the numbers were.

The FCC’s latest numbers suggest that 21.3 million Americans lack access to fixed broadband with speeds of at least 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up. But those numbers are based on the faulty census block data.

“In addition to other important metrics, our pilot shows as many as 38 percent of additional rural locations in Virginia and Missouri are unserved by participating providers in census blocks that would have been reported as ‘served’ in today’s FCC Form 477 reporting approach,” USTelecom and other trade groups representing telecoms and fixed wireless providers told the FCC. “These locations are homes and small businesses hidden from service providers and policymakers simply because of a lack of knowledge fueled by gaps in data—gaps that we can now fill.”

USTelecom argued as recently as October 2017 that the FCC “should not seek to collect broadband deployment data that is more granular than at the census block level, because such a change would be unduly burdensome to providers.” But industry groups and the FCC itself changed their stance after bipartisan complaints about the inaccuracy of US broadband data.

Three weeks ago, the FCC voted to require ISPs to give the FCC geospatial maps of where they provide service instead of merely reporting which census blocks they could offer service in.

The FCC’s new policy should go a long way toward fixing the data problem. But the more accurate data may make it harder for Pai to claim that his deregulatory moves are closing America’s broadband gaps. Pai didn’t create the process for collecting the Form 477 data, but he has used it to claim that his policies created more broadband, even though the data showed broadband deployment was progressing at about the same rate it did during the Obama administration.

More accurate data will also help the FCC determine which areas should get the most federal funding to expand broadband access. The FCC’s Connect America Fund has given billions to ISPs to expand Internet service since its creation in 2011, and Pai plans to continue that with a 10-year, $20.4 billion fund that would pay ISPs to bring broadband to unserved rural areas.

Data was wrong in 48% of rural census blocks

The CostQuest/USTelecom two-state pilot created a map (or “fabric”) of virtually all homes and businesses that could be served by broadband if Internet providers built out to them. The pilot also asked ISPs to submit coverage data, and the ISP-submitted data was compared to the statewide maps to determine how many buildings lacked access.

“Creating the fabric revealed that in just two states over 450,000 homes and businesses exist that are counted as ‘served’ under current 477 reporting that are not receiving service from participating providers,” CostQuest wrote. “While not every broadband provider chose to participate in this pilot—so the actual number of unserved may be lower—that still leaves the potential for substantial misrepresentations about service availability.”

The pilot also showed that current broadband-availability data is wrong in 48% of rural census blocks and is “in many cases significantly different.”

A nationwide version of the CostQuest map and data set could be completed in 12 to 15 months “for between $8.5-$11 million in upfront costs and $3-4 million in annual updates,” the summary of key findings said. To create the fabric, the pilot used data sources including tax assessor and parcel attribute data, georeferenced building footprints, and road data, along with statistical analysis and crowdsourced in-person reviews of parcels to check accuracy.

CostQuest said its data is far more accurate than what standard geocoding tools provide. The company found that 61% of locations in rural areas were geocoded at an incorrect location and that 25% of the locations were off by more than 100 meters. Additionally, 23% of locations had been geocoded to the wrong census block.

In Missouri, CostQuest found that 9% of non-rural locations were unserved and that 36% of rural locations were unserved. In Virginia, 12% of non-rural locations were unserved and 39% of rural locations were unserved.

It’s not clear whether the USTelecom/CostQuest approach will be completed nationwide. The FCC is requiring ISPs to submit geospatial coverage maps, and the FCC plans to create a crowdsourcing system to collect public input on the accuracy of those ISP-submitted maps. But that wouldn’t require the use of CostQuest’s system, and deadlines for ISPs to submit maps have not yet been announced.