Daily Minute Master Series – October 10, 2019
Social Media
Instagram is Looking to Bring Direct Messaging to its Web App
According to a new finding by reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, Instagram is looking to bring its Direct messaging functions to its web interface. That would make Instagram’s messaging tools more widely accessible, with specific benefits for those in regions where mobile connectivity is not always present, or possible, due to data limits and the like. It would also, as noted, make it easier for those looking to use Instagram Direct for customer service queries to integrate them into their broader social workflow. This new variation appears to be further along, with Wong able to recreate the Direct messaging functionality in more detail. But given that it’s been in development for at least the last six months, it could still be a little while off.
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Advertising
Quora adds 3 new targeting options for advertisers
Quora has recently added additional targeting options for advertisers on the Q&A platform. Keyword history targeting is a blend of the existing keyword targeting and question retargeting options on Quora. You can reach people who have shown an interest in subjects related to your business based on the keywords you’re using. Your ads will target who have visited groups of question pages in a given time period, such as the past 20 days, for example. Ads display on users’ feeds, topic feeds, and question pages. Quora already offers the ability to target by device and mobile platforms, but now you can now target ad sets to specific desktop browsers, including Chrome, Safari and Firefox. In the two years since Quora launched its self-service ad platform, it has been steadily adding new features, formats and capabilities. The platform claims more than 300 million monthly users, putting it in the realm of Twitter, Reddit and Pinterest.
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Nextdoor’s ‘Local Deals’ ads let SMBs target specific neighborhoods
Nextdoor is launching a new ad product called “Local Deals.” While the company has shown ads from local businesses for some time those have come largely through partners; this is the first broad-based self-service offering for small businesses (SMBs) on the site. Pricing right now is fixed (impression-based) and depends on the number of neighborhoods targeted and the population density of those areas. There’s no bidding and competition doesn’t impact pricing, according to Nextdoor’s Head of Product, Tatyana Mamut. Local Deals will appear in several places on Nextdoor: in residents’ feeds, on Business Pages, in the Business section and in search results. Nextdoor is also in a position to be disruptive, to varying degrees, to Facebook, Google and Yelp from a local advertising standpoint. Google Ads are too complicated for many small businesses; Facebook never developed a culture of search behavior and many business owners are profoundly ambivalent about Yelp. Nextdoor has a culture of local business recommendations and, increasingly, local search. It’s also highly trusted because its members are verified neighbors. It will be fascinating to see where the site goes from here and how it tries to further monetize its audience and traffic.
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Influencer Marketing
What I Learned from Surveying Over 400 Influencers
With influencer-brand relationships becoming increasingly important in digital marketing strategy, I wanted to get a better feel for how the influencers themselves view influencer marketing. To do this, I surveyed over 400 influencers and got their take on the current state of the industry. Influencer marketing is becoming more commonly used, and with the right strategy in place, it is still just as effective as ever. But in order to implement a viable strategy, it’s critical to uncover effective ways to work with influencers, so that their recommendations of your brand don’t get lost in the mix. The survey uncovered that the majority of mid-level influencers charge between $250-$400 per blog post, with full social shares including Instagram. Almost 100% of the influencers in the survey said that they prefer to be paid by monetary compensation, not just product. This aligns with my experience conducting influencer marketing initiatives for brands – most influencers these days won’t post for product unless it’s at a very high price point. On the same note, influencers don’t like to be paid by commission either. The pay-per-post model will get you the most, and the best, influencers. Many brands worry that posts labeled as “ad” or “sponsored” impact the credibility, and thus, the success of that earned post. 95% of the influencers in the survey reported that they think their audience still trusts their brand recommendation, even when in a post marked as sponsored. About half of the influencers in the survey field reported that they actively reach out to brands as part of their strategy to find partnerships. A key takeaway here is that brands should make sure they’re “influencer friendly” and have a way for influencers to easily contact them if they want to form a partnership. You can do this by having a link in your menu on your homepage just for influencers which can take them to a landing page to learn more about how your brand works with influencers.
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