Daily Minute Master Series – October 23, 2019

Social Media

Instagram Adds IGTV Series Option to Categorize Videos

Instagram has added a new IGTV ‘Series’ option which will enable creators to segment their videos into dedicated collections. The new Series option will help creators better brand their content, and encourage return viewing, by giving their series a dedicated label, along with an on-screen tab which viewers can tap to get notifications of new episodes. Creating an IGTV series is reasonably straight-forward, and the additional categorization options could help guide users to specific content, enabling creators to diversify their channels. YouTube enables similar categorization through its Playlists, though IGTV’s option is more aligned with repeat viewership of specific programs. As noted, IGTV still hasn’t really taken off, and it’s not clear that it ever will, but with the added promotional power of Instagram, which can pump more IGTV content into Expore or home feeds, there’s still a way to go in dictated the platform’s fate.

For the full article click here

Pinterest Begins Rolling Put an Updated Pin Format

Pinterest has begun rolling out a new Pin format, which includes some minor functional tweaks, and separates each Pin element more specifically. The new Pin format was actually spotted by reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, who tweeted about it back in April. The change is also aligned with Pinterest’s updated business profile format, which it announced last month. The new business profile layout will enable brands to use custom images, or even video, in their header section, and will include a new ‘Shop’ tab. The rounded, separated elements will make it clearer as to what users can do in each section, which could help Pinterest encourage more user activity.

For the full article click here

Marketing

Microsoft Advertising unveils interface redesign

Microsoft Advertising is redesigning the interface to better align with the update Google Ads rolled out in full a year ago. The new user experience will feel familiar to Google Ads users. You will recognize the left-hand oriented navigation menus that anchor the Google Ads interface and Overview pages with visual charts, for example. The redesign will bring relative parity between Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads interfaces. The Google Ads redesign may not have gone over that well with a lot of users, but it’s what people are now used to. Microsoft Advertising is well aware that the closer the user experience is to Google Ads — the more it can reduce friction for users — the more likely it is advertisers will use it.

For the full article click here

Google begins testing Duplex internationally

Google is testing its Duplex technology internationally for the first time, the company announced on Tuesday. The service will be used to confirm holiday operating hours for a pilot group of New Zealand businesses. “Businesses in this pilot group will receive an automated call from Google asking to confirm their hours for the upcoming Labour Day public holiday on October 28,” wrote Scott Huffman, Google’s VP of engineering. Updating holiday business hours on Google Maps and Search is a considerate feature for users, but it’s still a long way from the almost-conversational, multi-step hair appointment and restaurant reservation booking capabilities that Google teased at I/O in 2018. If this particular test rolls out to more markets, it could make managing Google My Business information a bit more passive for business owners. Google’s limited test will likely be used to further train and develop Duplex’s capabilities ahead of a wider international rollout. Duplex powers some Google Assistant features, and as more of Duplex’s capabilities get developed and released, it may allow the Assistant to differentiate itself from other voice assistants, such as Apple’s Siri and Amazon Alexa. This may entice more users to stay in or switch to Google’s ecosystem and the more users Google has within that ecosystem, the more important it will be for businesses to have a presence on Google’s services.

For the full article click here