Daily Minute Master Series – January 18, 2021

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Social Media

Twitter Shares Planning Guide for Your 2021 Tweet Strategy

Two key elements of an effective social media marketing strategy are planning and consistency.It takes planning to ensure that you’re communicating with your target audience, that you’re utilizing the latest best practices, and that you’re tapping into key moments and trends. Being consistent, meanwhile, helps users learn what to expect, and to develop a stronger relationship with your social presence. The same is true across all platforms, and while you also need to maintain a level of flexibility to revise and adjust to new changes as they come up, having that core strategy is key to building an effective, engaging social presence.

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YouTube Launches Next Phase of Program to Tag Items Within Video Clips

Last October, Bloomberg reported that YouTube had begun working on a new process which would enable creators to tag products displayed in their video clips, and provide direct shopping options, facilitating broader eCommerce opportunities in the app. Now, YouTube has moved to the next stage of testing – as reported by Android Police, YouTube has now launched a live test of its product tags with selected creators.

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Snapchat Adds Public View Counts to its TikTok-Like ‘Spotlight’ Feed

It’s still somewhat amazing to consider the impact that TikTok has had on the broader social media landscape. The short-form video app has gained momentum so quickly, and become so influential with younger audiences, that almost all of the major platforms have now sought to replicate its key functionality, in order to stay in touch with the rising trend. And this week, Snapchat has taken another step towards making its TikTok-like ‘Spotlight’ feed more similar to TikTok, by adding public view counts on Spotlight clips.

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Marketing

No-Click Searches: We Need New Ways to Measure SEO Results

Having trouble measuring the impact of no-click searches? Check out these new methods of attributing SEO value to zero click search.

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Add These 4 Retail PPC Strategies to Your Paid Search Arsenal

Give your paid search a refresh with these four innovative retail PPC strategies that can help you improve ROI and deliver a better shopper experience.

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Paid Or Organic Marketing: Which Strategy Provides Highest ROI

According to leading statistics from Search Engine Land, 75% of people say that paid search ads make it easier to find the information that they’re looking for. One-third of respondents say that they click on a paid search ad because it directly answers the question they were searching about. On the other hand, 70% of clicks go to organic Google search results. That’s an undeniable victory for organic marketing – customers aren’t always inclined to click on a listing if it looks like they’re being sold to. There are convincing arguments for each of them, and it’s by no means clear cut. But what if there was a third option?

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Daily Minute Master Series – January 15, 2021

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Social Media

Facebook Looks to Provide More Data Transparency with Revamped ‘Access Your Information’ Tool

Facebook has launched an updated version of its ‘Access Your Information’ tool, which aims to provide more transparency around the data that Facebook collects, and how it can be used to target you with ads.

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YouTube Launches New Hashtag Search Results Pages

YouTube is launching a new type of search results page that appears when users look for videos by hashtag. YouTube first introduced the ability to search by hashtag in 2018, but it never worked perfectly. Previously a hashtag search would include content using the hashtag and other related content that didn’t contain the hashtag. Now, when searching for a specific hashtag on YouTube on either the desktop or mobile app, users will see a dedicated page that only contains videos with that hashtag.

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YouTube Partnering to Use Its Scale to Widely Surface Trusted Health Videos

Google wants to leverage YouTube’s scale and reach to disseminate trusted health videos, and announced a new effort to “surface easy-to-understand medical information from some of the most respected organizations and clinicians.” YouTube has a new health partnerships team to “make high-quality health content available for viewers around the world.” It’s working with the American Public Health Association, Cleveland Clinic, Harvard School of Public Health, Mayo Clinic, Osmosis, Psych Hub, and National Academy of Medicine.

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Marketing

Theory: Boomers in PR Don’t Trust Influencers or Influencer Culture

Most people under, say, the age of 40 get that influencers can and in many cases, should, be an important part of a company’s PR and marketing strategy. But, those over 40 (and especially those over 50), not so much.

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Tracking the Marketing Industry’s Response to Political Unrest

Brands and media companies are being pulled into the political fray in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot and continued attempts by Donald Trump supporters to call the presidential election results into question. Marketers must decide when, and when not, to weigh in.

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WordPress Now Offers Website Development

The commercial arm of WordPress announced they were entering the website building business. The announcement was generally not well received by the WordPress web development community. Many softened their response and saw the opportunity as more information became available.

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Daily Minute Master Series – January 14, 2021

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Social Media

59% of US Adults Do Not Trust News on Social Media

A study on social media as a news source finds 59% of US adults believe the information shared on social platforms is inaccurate. Pew Research Center surveyed over 9,000 Americans about their use of social media as it relates to keeping up with current events. About half of US adults (53%) say they get news from social media either “often” or “sometimes.” Only 21% of respondents say they never get news from social media at all.

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LinkedIn Adds Swipe-Up Links to LinkedIn Stories

After it was spotted in testing back in September, LinkedIn has now officially launched the capacity to add links into your LinkedIn Stories – though it’s not available to all users at this stage.

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New Research Shows that 71% of Americans Now Get News Content via Social Platforms

After last week’s Capitol riots, the focus has once again turned to social media, and the role it plays in communicating critical information, and balancing the need for accuracy in such messaging with people’s freedom to be able to share whatever they choose. Which, as we’re all now well aware, is a difficult balance to strike, but with more and more people relying on social platforms to keep them up to date on the latest happenings in the world, it’s now an unquestionably critical consideration. But how much are people actually relying on social media apps to keep them informed on the latest news and events?

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Marketing

Google Search Console Adds Report For News Publishers

Google Search Console is now reporting on the performance of content appearing in Google News.

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Do Incognito Searches Affect SEO or Rankings

What is incognito search and does it affect SEO ranking? Read more about it, what is CTR, and if either has an effect on ranking.

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5-Step Process to Building SEO Into Your Product

Instead of making SEO an afterthought, “building SEO into the product” means developing it with SEO in mind. Here’s a 5-step process you can use.

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Daily Minute Master Series – January 13, 2021

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Social Media

Twitter Shares Fall, Parler Dropped by AWS and Further Responses in the Wake of Trump Bans

The banning of US President Donald Trump from virtually every major social platform has sparked a whole new round of controversy, and debate over whether social media networks should be allowed to cut off access to users whose opinions they don’t agree with, and when that line has been crossed.

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Twitter Says it’s Suspended More Than 70,000 Accounts Following the Capitol Riots

According to a new update from Twitter, in the wake of the Capitol riots last Wednesday, it launched a mass purge of accounts that it found were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content.

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Twitter Reports 75% Increase in Gaming-Related Tweets in 2020

Given the lockdowns that kept most of us at home throughout much of 2020, it likely comes as little surprise to learn that gaming saw a huge surge in popularity, as people sought alternative forms of entertainment and connection. But the scale of that growth is fairly amazing. Last week, Facebook shared its latest insights into the growth of gaming that it saw throughout the year, including a 50% increase in mobile gaming in the UK. And this week, Twitter has shared its latest data on the rising gaming discussion on its platform.

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Marketing

What Is a .STORE Domain? A Complete Guide to Branding an Online Store Perfectly

2020 was the year of the great consumer shift. We witnessed a flurry of new habits, perspectives, and customer needs. According to McKinsey, the number of digital interactions between brands and consumers tripled in 2020. Some 65% of a brand’s interactions with its customers now occur digitally. Most industries also saw between a 15 and 30% increase in online sales – and that increase is here to stay.

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How Marketing Ops Can Survive and Thrive in M&A

For many marketing ops teams, a merger or acquisition is either a current obstacle to navigate or a likely event looming on the horizon. Before a dip last year, M&A transactions were at an all-time high in the US. Here’s how marketing ops teams can rise to the occasion when faced with M&A growing pains.

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Virtual Events Platform Hopin Acquires Streamyard

Virtual events platform Hopin last week acquired live-streaming studio Streamyard for a reported $250 million. The move represents consolidation in the virtual events space.

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Daily Minute Master Series – January 12, 2021

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Social Media

After Permanently Suspending Trump’s Account, Twitter Needs to Establish Clearer Guidance on Rules

Following the initial restrictions placed on US President Donald Trump’s accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more, in the wake of this week’s Capitol riots, Twitter has now aligned with Facebook in permanently suspending Trump’s account. At the same time, free-speech aligned platform Parler has been threatened with removal from both The App Store and the Google Play store unless it updates its rules around content moderation, due to its failure to “take stronger action to remove posts which seek to incite ongoing violence in the US”.

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Will the Capitol Riots Prompt a Re-Think as to How Social Platforms Address Free Speech?

Will the events of this week mark a turning point for social media platforms and their approach to content moderation and censorship, particularly around dangerous movements and politically motivated debate? Following the riots at the Capitol building on Wednesday, which had been instigated, at least in part, by US President Donald Trump, who had called on his supporters to mobilize, and even fight for him, in a last-ditch attempt to overturn the election result, all of the major social platforms took action against the President and his avid supporters, in varying ways.

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Facebook Shares New Insights into Gaming Trends and Marketing Opportunities

With people seeking alternate forms of entertainment during the pandemic, gaming saw massive growth in 2020, while gaming culture, more generally, has continued to expand and underpin many of the rising trends across the web. These days, if you’re trying to reach younger audiences, and you’re not in touch with gaming culture, you’re likely missing out on opportunities. Underlining this, Facebook has this week published its Games Marketing Insights update for 2021, which highlights key usage trends and notes, largely based on a survey of more than 13, 246 people in July last year.

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Marketing

Why These 5 Unexpected Content Marketing Skills Are a Must to Build in 2021

Today’s digital age is creating a new world, where fresh, creative, human talent and newfangled digital skills are in demand. For example, Google fills over 6,000 roles in one year alone. (They receive over 1 million applications – and hire less than 1%.) But traditional education may be failing to properly prepare our next generation for what’s really necessary to succeed.

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Google Makes 4 Changes to Index Coverage Report

Google Search Console’s Index Coverage report is receiving 4 updates to keep site owners better informed about indexing issues. The Index Coverage report is new compared to other reports Google offers, as it was first introduced when the revamped version of Search Console launched in 2018.

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10 Common Mistakes In Google Ads

Despite every Google Ads account having its own quirks and challenges, there are many commonalities that emerge.

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Daily Minute Master Series – January 11, 2021

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Social Media

Facebook Announces Webinars to Explain the Potential Impacts of Apple’s Coming IDFA Changes

As Facebook continues to publicly criticize Apple’s coming changes to app data tracking, in the hopes of forcing the company to re-think the update, it’s also looking to educate advertisers and developers on the potential impacts of the coming IDFA changes, which are expected to have a significant impact on ad effectiveness. To reiterate the current situation – back in June Apple announced coming changes to its IDFA tracking system which would make all app data tracking opt-in, via explicit prompts that explain to users what data each app is recording.

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TikTok Launches First LiDAR-Enabled AR Effect for iPhone 12

AR is set to get a lot more focus in 2021, as technological advances, including new wearable devices, come to market, and push the development of digital overlays and tools to the next level.

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YouTube Shares 3 Keyword Research Tips For Videos

YouTube offers advice on competitive keyword research for videos, and answers a number of other questions about its search and discovery algorithm. In what has become a regular series on YouTube’s Creator Insider channel, a member of the search and discovery team fields questions from users in the first upload of the year. One of those questions focuses on keyword research and how to gauge which video topics will resonate with users.

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Marketing

Google Search Patents 2020: The Mega-Post Roundup

Check out the summary of all of the Google Search patents awarded in 2020, with links to dive in and learn more about to each one.

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What B2B Marketers Can Look Forward to in 2021

“For me, this is the best time to be a B2B marketer. It’s not only B2B marketing’s opportunity, but it’s B2B marketing’s responsibility to take back control of the buying cycle.” Forceful words from Nick Heys, CEO of Jabmo, a global ABM platform serving industrial and manufacturing businesses, bio-sciences and healthcare. The opportunity described by Heys has been created against the backdrop of a pandemic — and an associated economic crisis — which has forced businesses across the full spectrum of digital maturity, to double down on digital marketing and sales strategies. To gauge the extent and significance of this transformation, we spoke not only to Heys, but to Stacy Greiner, an IBM and Cisco veteran who joined Dun & Bradstreet, the global business intelligence vendor, as CMO in March 2020, just as the pandemic tightened its grip.

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5 Privacy Regulations Marketers Need to Know for 2021

Privacy laws may not always top of mind for marketers, but the start of the new year is the perfect time to make sure you are up to date with new global privacy regulations. Don’t let your 2021 marketing strategy break the law—build a customer-centric, privacy-first strategy that avoids harmful business impacts.

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Daily Minute Master Series – January 8, 2021

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Social Media

Instagram Provides New Tips on How to Create Engaging Reels Content

Whether you like the format or not, Instagram is clearly keen to get more people using its TikTok-like Reels options, which, as some have noted, could be why you’re seeing less reach than normal with your regular Instagram posts and Stories. Some have speculated that with Instagram emphasizing Reels, that’s caused a reduction in reach of other content formats in the app. And the way to negate that is to create Reels instead. Instagram hasn’t confirmed that this is the case, but a range of anecdotal reports suggest that many are seeing a drop in their regular Instagram post reach.

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Facebook Launches Updated Page Layout for Public Figures Which De-Emphasizes Page Likes

After it was first spotted in testing last July, Facebook is today launching its new Page layout for creators and public figures, which provides more management options and engagement insights, while also, importantly, placing increased emphasis on following a Page instead of liking it.

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Facebook Shares Insights into its Coming Smart Glasses, New Developments in VR

Will we see the launch of fully-enabled AR glasses from Facebook in 2021? Facebook previewed its work on its new Project Aria AR glasses last September, which included examples of full digital overlays that would be visible through the device – like safety alerts when walking down the street.

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Marketing

Amazon Marketing Cloud Enters Advanced Beta Testing

Amazon Marketing Cloud has entered a new phase in an effort to boost its appeal with advertisers from household brand names. The ecommerce giant’s nascent platform, dubbed AMC, is now available to even more brands, buying agencies and relevant tech vendors across North America, Europe and parts of Asia. AMC aims to better help marketers accurately measure how their ads perform across different channels, including how they impact awareness, lift, preference and, ultimately, whether or not they lead to sales.

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Apple Touts Record App Store Holiday Sales as Tensions with Software Companies Rise

Apple’s App Store customers spent a record $540 million on New Year’s Day alone, marking a 40% increase from last year, the company said Wednesday in its annual services report. On top of that, Apple announced it generated $1.8 billion in App Store sales of digital good in the week between Christmas eve and now has 90 million monthly active users for its Apple Books app.

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Are Best Practices Useful or Lazy?

Best practices are tactics that are widely accepted to be effective, based upon expert review and observation across multiple situations. It certainly doesn’t make sense to continually reinvent the wheel, and it’s advisable to learn and apply lessons from others.  However, is this always wise?

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Daily Minute Master Series – January 7, 2021

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Social Media

Report Suggests Facebook and Snapchat Will be Most Impacted by Apple’s IDFA Changes

Last month, Facebook launched a wide-scale attack against Apple’s coming IDFA changes, which will provide app users with more explicit information about data tracking by each app, and enable them to opt-out of such, if they choose. Now, a new report has suggested there may be good reason for Facebook’s opposition – according to data from MKM Partners, Facebook, along with Snapchat, stands to suffer the most impact from the IDFA update, with many users expected to opt-out of their data tracking due to the amount of insights that both companies take in.

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Facebook Provides Tips on Maximizing Lead Generation via Facebook Posts and Ads

Facebook has shared some new tips on how to maximize lead generation via Facebook posts and ads, in order to boost the performance of your Facebook marketing efforts. Facebook’s tips cover four key elements of effective lead generation, in order to help you formulate a better strategy for connecting with prospective customers at just the right time, and reaching more potential customers based on your lead gen capture.

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Instagram Tests New Stories Layout on Desktop

Instagram is testing out a new format for the display of Stories on the desktop version of the platform, which is designed to make it easier to scroll through the various Stories from the profiles you follow on the bigger screen.

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Marketing

9 Key Elements of International SEO: A Checklist

Last year the world changed dramatically. People were pushed further online, which created new potential for businesses seeking to compete in markets worldwide. But in order to succeed in international SEO, one must understand issues of page experience, URL structure, keywords, SERPs, and more from a global perspective. Building and expanding your company’s digital presence requires that you are able to get in front of audiences in each of the regions in which you do business, particularly in search. SEO has grown more essential than ever before, with 68% of all online experiences beginning with a search engine.

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7 Digital Marketing Trends of Focus for 2021

With the chaos of 2020 now behind us, it’s time to look ahead to what we can expect from the next 12 months. 2020 was unpredictable, to say the least. That meant that while some of the trends which were predicted pre-pandemic did end up coming to light, others didn’t emerge at all, with various forced adaptations reshaping elements of the marketing landscape. Most notably, eCommerce sales went through the roof, people spent a lot more time on social media, and video conferencing became the norm. This has led to a major shift in the way brands connect with their consumers. So, as we turn a corner into the New Year, what marketing trends will continue to permeate in 2021?

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Will Apple’s AR Glasses be Released in 2021?

Augmented reality looks set to take a major leap in 2021, with technological capacity providing new ways to create more immersive, responsive digital overlays on real-world environments, and new devices, like Facebook’s AR glasses, set to hit the consumer market. But will Facebook be the only company to release new AR wearables, or will it be just the beginning of the next big AR push? This week, various tech pundits have speculated that Apple, too, may be looking to launch its AR glasses sometime in 2021.

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Daily Minute Master Series – January 6, 2021

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Social Media

Twitter Acquires Podcast Listening App Breaker to Expand its Audio Focus

Twitter’s certainly putting its faith into audio connection. After launching the first wave of testing for its new, Clubhouse-style audio ‘Spaces’ feature last month, the company has today announced that it’s acquired podcast listening app Breaker, which it will use to build out Spaces and enhance the experience.

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Facebook Expands Engagement Alerts for Groups, Adds New Alert Options

After launching an initial test of its Engagement Alerts for groups last May, Facebook is now expanding the option to more group admins, while also adding some new elements to help group managers stay on top of relevant discussions and engagement. Engagement Alerts let admins know ‘when posts or comments in your group are getting a big response’, and can be switched on within your group settings.

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LinkedIn Shares New Usage Insights for Your 2021 Planning [Infographic]

Like all social platforms, LinkedIn saw increased usage in 2020, with video content, in particular, gaining momentum, and driving more conversations in the app. And while the focus of LinkedIn has long been B2B, it’s also gaining ground in other areas, which could provide more opportunity for brand outreach and connection in the months ahead.

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Marketing

Should You Disavow Links That Are Stealing Important Rankings With Syndicated Content?

What should you do when another site is outranking your site for your own content? Learn whether you should use the disavow tool and why.

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WordPress Powers 39.5% of All Websites

WordPress is now powering 39.5% of all websites in 2021, up from powering 35% of sites in 2020. Counting only sites that use a content management system (CMS), WordPress has a market share of 64.1%. A significant number of websites (38.3%) use no content management system at all. This data is provided by W3Techs which tracks usage statistics of web technologies, including content management systems (CMS), operating systems, web hosting providers, top level domains, and more.

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2021 Resolutions: 5 Tips for Your Google Ads Campaigns

What if your 2021 resolution was to stop wasting your budget on AdWords and start improving the profitability of your campaigns? Google tends to add more automation and complexity in their ad products. While it can help day-to-day campaign management, it comes at the price of readability and control over your campaigns. As a marketer, you need to maintain control over your campaigns and strategies. Google’s optimizations are not always in your best interest, nor do they know the context of your brand. One solution could be to use a campaign optimization tool like SEISO. It helps you to get insights on your campaigns while remaining in charge of the final decision.

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Daily Minute Master Series – January 5, 2021

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Social Media

8 Important Social Media Integration Strategies to Implement in 2021

Social media integration gives your audience more ways to engage and interact with your brand. You’re creating more opportunities for them to share your content and promote your products/services for you. The best part: It’s easy to do.

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8 Tips to Protect Your Social Media Account

Unless you’re living under a rock, you most likely have more than one social media account that you use daily. Some of us even consider spending time on social media a necessary part of the day. We’re even willing to put our most vulnerable personal information out there in exchange for the pleasures of using these apps. As you can imagine, this leaves the door open to a whole host of problems. While the methods of attack can vary, the main issue with not protecting your social media accounts is that it can lead to some form of identity theft.

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3 Social Media SEO Tactics To Maximize Search Rankings

Social media is tethered to search engine optimization (SEO). They may not have a direct relationship, but make no mistake, social media marketing combined with SEO can have a positive impact on your business’ search rankings. Case in point, the use of hashtags to get featured in Google search results. If you Google search #blogging, a number of Twitter posts will be served up in the coveted position zero spot.

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Marketing

Google Workers Form a Union

Employees at Alphabet formally announce a union to present a united voice for fairness and against discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

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8 Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2021 as Aftereffects of a Volatile Year Linger

Even as vaccine developments provide a clearer timeline for a pandemic recovery, 2021 is set to be another volatile year for marketers. If anything, the digital ecosystem is primed for a bigger shakeup as Apple’s controversial tracking changes go into effect, multiple Big Tech antitrust suits take shape and Google formally starts to sunset third-party cookies.

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Embracing Bing Search & Giving It the Attention It Deserves

Microsoft Bing gets little credit or attention from SEO and marketing pros. But here’s why you should give it some appreciation.

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