Facebook and Gmail: Our Online Marketing Standbys Evolve

All sacred cows aren’t going to be sacred forever—and that’s especially the case when the cows in question are important marketing tools owned by internet giants like Facebook and Gmail.

Some important considerations on this front in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Quitting Time

A great post on why smart biz is leaving #Facebook  (opens in a new tab). #socialmedia  (opens in a new tab) #socialmediamarketing  (opens in a new tab)   http://t.co/nMb6JO9ANf  (opens in a new tab)

— Adrian Segar (@ASegar) March 28, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

We already know that there’s a good chance Facebook is going to break our hearts, but when the relationship is over, do you let it drag on, or do you break up entirely? If you’re the Eat24 delivery service, you’re ready for your breakup. On Thursday, the company announced that it was shutting down its Facebook page on Monday unless the social giant changed its ways. And in doing so, the company came up with a brilliant piece of marketing of its own—a highly entertaining blog post  (opens in a new tab). “This isn’t easy to say since we’ve been together so long, but we need to break up,” the company wrote. “We’d love to say ‘It’s not you, it’s us’ but it’s totally you. Not to be rude, but you aren’t the smart, funny social network we fell in love with several years back. You’ve changed. A lot.” Think you could pen and post a breakup letter like this? (ht @ASegar  (opens in a new tab))

Speaking of Changes …

Google just turned Gmail into Pinterest: http://t.co/pBRfgEuI9L  (opens in a new tab)

— Co.Design (@FastCoDesign) March 28, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

Google’s changes to the way that marketing emails show up in Gmail have been a source of irritation for months, but a recent move to change the way the promotional emails show up could help change attitudes. As Fast Company reports  (opens in a new tab), Google is beta-testing a new image-heavy format for its emails, exemplified by the GIF below:

Think this format could encourage your readers to click on your promotional emails? If you’d like to test it for yourself, sign up over this way  (opens in a new tab). (ht @FastCoDesign  (opens in a new tab))

(iStock/Thinkstock)