Social Media
Microsoft Advertising Expands LinkedIn Profile, Dynamic Remarketing, In-Market Audience Targeting
B2B marketers can use LinkedIn Profile targeting in Search and Audience campaigns in more countries. Retail advertisers can retarget product engagers automatically with dynamic remarketing ads.
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Instagram Adds ‘Suggested Reels’ Display in Main Feed, Launches Monthly Reels Trend Insights
Can Instagram make Reels happen, and use it as a tool to curb the rapid growth of rival video app TikTok? Despite seemingly lukewarm initial response to the option, Instagram’s still looking at ways to maximize the usage of it’s TikTok clone functionality, and after adding a new Reels tab to the main screen for users in India last week, Instagram’s now trying out a few more ways to boost Reels exposure, and get more people using the option. First off, Instagram’s started adding a display of ‘Suggested Reels’ in the main feed of some users.
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If you haven’t been paying attention, Pinterest is on the rise, with the platform seeing significant increases in overall users (now up to 416 million MAU) and engagement as it builds upon its product discovery focus and further refines its eCommerce tools. That growth has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 lockdowns, with Pinterest becoming a replacement for the shopping mall in some respects. And regular Pinners are definitely coming to the platform in a buying mindset – according to Pinterest, some 90% of active Pinners use the platform to plan for or make purchases, while the app also sees far higher purchase intent than other social networks.
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Marketing
10 Ways Content Marketers & SEO Pros Can Boost Client Lifetime Value Right Now
When it comes to the metrics by which you measure business growth, Customer/Client Lifetime Value (CLV) is king – but only given the right context. Increasing CLV in your content marketing business isn’t about taking more from each customer or simply selling them on additional services.
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A burning question this holiday season is whether people will return to physical stores or buy substantially everything online? The Mary Meeker formulation is: what percentage of retail spending will move online? But that binary “brick and mortar vs. e-commerce” narrative is crude and fails to appreciate the role stores play in driving online sales. Indeed, a more interesting question is to what degree traditional retailers will be able to leverage physical stores for competitive advantage in their battle with Amazon and other pure play e-tailers? In the past, retailers with stores and e-commerce have treated them as entirely distinct channels, with different P&Ls and separate operational teams. Only recently have major retailers recognized how stores and e-commerce support one another and started to integrate those efforts (e.g., curbside pickup and seeing physical stores as ready-built distribution centers).
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Daily Minute Master Series – September 9, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Microsoft Advertising Expands LinkedIn Profile, Dynamic Remarketing, In-Market Audience Targeting
B2B marketers can use LinkedIn Profile targeting in Search and Audience campaigns in more countries. Retail advertisers can retarget product engagers automatically with dynamic remarketing ads.
For the full article click here
Instagram Adds ‘Suggested Reels’ Display in Main Feed, Launches Monthly Reels Trend Insights
Can Instagram make Reels happen, and use it as a tool to curb the rapid growth of rival video app TikTok? Despite seemingly lukewarm initial response to the option, Instagram’s still looking at ways to maximize the usage of it’s TikTok clone functionality, and after adding a new Reels tab to the main screen for users in India last week, Instagram’s now trying out a few more ways to boost Reels exposure, and get more people using the option. First off, Instagram’s started adding a display of ‘Suggested Reels’ in the main feed of some users.
For the full article click here
Pinterest Outlines Recent Improvements to Feed Ranking, and Focus on Video Content
If you haven’t been paying attention, Pinterest is on the rise, with the platform seeing significant increases in overall users (now up to 416 million MAU) and engagement as it builds upon its product discovery focus and further refines its eCommerce tools. That growth has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 lockdowns, with Pinterest becoming a replacement for the shopping mall in some respects. And regular Pinners are definitely coming to the platform in a buying mindset – according to Pinterest, some 90% of active Pinners use the platform to plan for or make purchases, while the app also sees far higher purchase intent than other social networks.
For the full article click here
Marketing
10 Ways Content Marketers & SEO Pros Can Boost Client Lifetime Value Right Now
When it comes to the metrics by which you measure business growth, Customer/Client Lifetime Value (CLV) is king – but only given the right context. Increasing CLV in your content marketing business isn’t about taking more from each customer or simply selling them on additional services.
For the full article click here
A Corona Xmas: Why Physical Stores Will Power Online Shopping this Holiday Season
A burning question this holiday season is whether people will return to physical stores or buy substantially everything online? The Mary Meeker formulation is: what percentage of retail spending will move online? But that binary “brick and mortar vs. e-commerce” narrative is crude and fails to appreciate the role stores play in driving online sales. Indeed, a more interesting question is to what degree traditional retailers will be able to leverage physical stores for competitive advantage in their battle with Amazon and other pure play e-tailers? In the past, retailers with stores and e-commerce have treated them as entirely distinct channels, with different P&Ls and separate operational teams. Only recently have major retailers recognized how stores and e-commerce support one another and started to integrate those efforts (e.g., curbside pickup and seeing physical stores as ready-built distribution centers).
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Google Launches Android 11, Featuring New Messaging Tools and Business Features
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Daily Minute Master Series – September 8, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Confused by Facebook’s Limited Data Use for CCPA? You’re Not Alone
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TikTok Launches Marketing Partner Program for Advertisers
TikTok has launched a new Marketing Partner Program, which is the platform’s latest element in its push to expand its advertising potential, and maximize opportunity for brands.
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Facebook Outlines New Measures to Protect the Integrity of the US Presidential Election
The US Presidential Election campaigns are gaining momentum, and the expectation is that it will be one of most divisive and volatile political battles in the nation’s history. And already, there have been accusations of questionable tactics, and concerns around the use of misinformation in order to gain advantage. Questions have been raised around the voting process itself, the use of image editing and ‘deepfakes‘, and foreign interference already. And this is before we’ve really reached the main campaign period – over the next two months, you can expect there to be much, much more on this front, as the contenders seek to get an edge in the race.
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Marketing
Why ‘Modelers,’ the Data Experts in Marketing Technology, Are So Needed Now
Martech expert Scott Brinker has developed a taxonomy of the roles within marketing and marketing operations. It’s known as the “5 Ms”: managers, marketers, maestros, makers and modelers. It just might be that one of those personas—the modelers—is the hottest role in martech. “Really their expertise is around the data, and this is not just like looking at a dashboard or, you know, running a report in Hubspot or something,” he said during a recent Martech Live session. “This is like, ‘I want to be able to run my own AI models for machine learning against the different data from sales to different campaigns.’ It’s true data science work, and the people who do that, a big part of the way they think is in terms of models.”
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Anatomy of a Powerful Content Marketing Funnel [SEMrush Survey Stats]
Did you know that only 9% of marketing professionals worldwide evaluate the performance of their existing content strategy as “excellent”? The biggest challenge faced by over half of the people we surveyed last year is creating content that brings significant traffic to their websites and generates quality leads. That’s why, this year, SEMrush aimed to find out how to build an effective content marketing funnel that attracts and converts by conducting a survey among 350 marketers across the globe.
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Tips On Leveraging Free Digital Marketing Resources To Step Up Your Marketing Game
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Daily Minute Master Series – September 4, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Twitch Continues Expansion Beyond Gaming with Global Roll Out of Watch Parties
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LinkedIn Adds New Staff Connection Tools Via Company Pages, New Follower Analytics Options
LinkedIn is adding a new, dedicated communications channel for your company and employees via your LinkedIn Company Page, while it’s also providing new insights into your company page followers to help guide your content and outreach decisions, as part of its latest feature roll-out for company pages.
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Twitter Publishes New Insights Into Video Ad Effectiveness
No doubt you’ve heard this before, but video is the best performing content type across all social platforms, and Twitter is no exception. According to research, Tweets with video see 10x more engagement than those without, while Promoted Tweets with videos save more than 50% on cost-per-engagement. If you can create video content, you should – and this week, Twitter has published some new insights into exactly how you should look to utilize its various video ad options to maximize campaign impact.
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Marketing
How to Enable SEO Across Your Organization: 4 Proven Tips
Have you ever tried to implement an SEO project and received pushback from IT, development, product, design, UX, brand, content strategy, or any other non-SEO team? If so, you aren’t alone. SEO is often dependent on other teams, and your project can be dead on arrival without the right support. Therefore, gaining stakeholder buy-in is a critical, yet challenging, component of implementing an SEO project.
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Nine Common Content Marketing Myths Debunked
Whether you’re trying to boost website traffic, raise awareness for your brand or drive more sales, content marketing can help. However, there are many common content marketing myths that you should not believe. Here are nine of them.
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Marketing in the Age of Resistance
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Daily Minute Master Series – September 3, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Twitter Announces New Push to Improve Tweet Accessibility Options
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TikTok Sell-Off Delayed Due to Newly Imposed Restrictions on the Export of Chinese Tech Advancements
So what’s the latest on the TikTok takeover stakes? With the US Government’s September 15th deadline drawing ever-near, reports earlier in the week suggested that TikTok owner ByteDance had decided on a winning bid, and that an announcement was imminent. But complications arising from the Chinese Government’s newly imposed rules on the export of technological advancements, including digital algorithms, have basically stalled the process, with the parties involved now working to establish what, exactly, the new restrictions mean for any deal.
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LinkedIn Adds New Staff Connection Tools Via Company Pages, New Follower Analytics Options
LinkedIn is adding a new, dedicated communications channel for your company and employees via your LinkedIn Company Page, while it’s also providing new insights into your company page followers to help guide your content and outreach decisions, as part of its latest feature roll-out for company pages.
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Marketing
Do Links in Citation Structured Data Have More Power?
Some in the SEO community suggest that the Schema.org Citation structured data property can make a link more powerful. Can a link in the structured data really make a stronger link? The answer is unambiguous.
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Breaking Down the Google My Business Profile Program Upgrades
Google may open the Google Guarantee to some local organic search opportunities – and it could mean big changes to the way small businesses set themselves apart. In late July, we learned that Google appeared to be offering upgraded profile features to Google My Business members. For $50 a month, local businesses that aren’t already part of Google’s Local Service Ads (LSA) program are being offered badging and backing similar to the Google Guarantee. This apparent shift toward offering its SEO muscle to organic search, in addition to paid, is significant.
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The Conversational Style Of Marketing: Engaging, Empathetic And Attentive
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Daily Minute Master Series – September 2, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Twitter Adds Example Tweets to Selected Trends in Order to Provide More Context
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TikTok and Teespring Partner on New Integration to Enable Creators to Sell Merch On-Platform
TikTok has announced a new integration with Teespring which will enable TikTok creators to sell merchandise that they’ve designed directly to their fans within the app.
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Instagram Carousels Are the Most Engaging Post Type [STUDY]
According to a recent study, posts on Instagram are likely to be more successful if they contain a carousel – versus a single photo or video. Socialinsider examined over 22 million Instagram posts, of which nearly 3 million were carousels. In addition to finding carousels generate the most engagement, the study breaks down what the top performing carousel posts have in common. Given that Instagram carousels allow for up to 10 photos or videos, finding the right balance of media to include can be challenging. The data in this study can assist marketers with constructing more effective Instagram carousel posts. Also – is it really necessary to tell folks to swipe left?
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Marketing
Biden Campaign Launches Official Animal Crossing: New Horizons Yard Signs
Starting today, September 1st, Animal Crossing: New Horizons players will be able to deck out their island homes with official Joe Biden yard signs as part of the campaign’s broader initiative to organize voters online this fall. Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak in the US earlier this year, campaigns like Biden’s have been forced to entirely rethink how they organize voters. Instead of in-person rallies, Biden’s team has opted for live-streamed events and fundraisers along with socially distanced productions and interviews. The entire Democratic National Convention was held virtually earlier this month, with most guests streaming in over video software like Zoom to deliver speeches.
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See How Visits to Retail, Grocery, Workplaces Are Trending by Area with Google Mobility Reports
Google’s COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports show how visits and length of stay in various place categories have changed compared to a baseline period before the pandemic. The reports, which are published on an ongoing basis, illustrate movement trends over time with respect to geography (including country, state and county) over a six-week period, with the most recent data representing approximately 2-3 days ago (the amount of time it takes to produce the reports).
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The Need to Take a Fresh Look at Consumer Data
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Daily Minute Master Series – September 1, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Twitter Officially Launches New ‘Quote Tweets’ Count on Main Tweet Display
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Facebook Provides an Overview of Content That it Looks to Exclude From its Recommendation Surfaces
In an effort to improve transparency, and provide more guidance as to how it shows users content within their feeds, Facebook has today published its Recommendation Guidelines, which includes a listing of topics and themes that are ineligible to be highlighted within its various discovery surfaces.
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5 Proven Tips to Set Up Your LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms for Success
LinkedIn lead gen forms are a powerful tool to attract more B2B leads. Users can submit their information directly via the LinkedIn interface without having to navigate to your website, and fields are pre-populated to save effort. In this article, you’ll learn a few ways to make sure your LinkedIn lead gen forms are set up for success.
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Marketing
15% Of Search Queries On Google Are New – No Change There
In 2007, 25% of all queries that searchers entered into the Google search box was never seen by Google before. That figure changed to 15% in 2013 and has remained at that figure according to Google even through today. Google reconfirmed the 15% figure in 2017 and 2018 and now again in 2020. Danny Sullivan from Google confirmed it on Twitter saying “That stat is still correct. That’s why we continue to cite it.” This was when he was asked “Anyone have more recent “affirmation” of the 15% new daily search stat?”
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Zoom Reports Second Quarter Results for Fiscal Year 2021
“Organizations are shifting from addressing their immediate business continuity needs to supporting a future of working anywhere, learning anywhere, and connecting anywhere on Zoom’s video-first platform. At Zoom, we strive to deliver a world-class, frictionless, and secure communication experience for our customers across locations, devices, and use cases,” said Zoom founder and CEO, Eric S. Yuan. “Our ability to keep people around the world connected, coupled with our strong execution, led to revenue growth of 355% year-over-year in Q2 and enabled us to increase our revenue outlook to approximately $2.37 billion to $2.39 billion for FY21, or 281% to 284% increase year-over-year.”
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How to Dominate Ecommerce This Year
Here’s how ecommerce brands and marketers can leverage personalization and on-page SEO for more traffic and sales this year.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 31, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
China Imposes New Rules Which Could Halt TikTok Sell-Off, Triller Enters Bid for the Platform
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6 Ways to Get More Social Media Traffic to Your Website in 2020 [Infographic]
Are you looking for ways to increase traffic to your business website? Want to know how to get more of your social media followers onto your site? The team from Red Website Design share 6 ways to get more traffic to your website in this infographic.
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Why Users Call New Facebook Design a Nightmare
Facebook rolled out a new design their interface. Facebook users reacted with not only displeasure, but actual hate. These are the reasons why so many are threatening to quit Facebook. What may be contributing to the hate is that Facebook announced the change becomes permanent on September 1, 2020.
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Marketing
Internal Linking: How to Unlock Your Site’s Hidden Potential [Webinar]
Join the next Search Engine Journal webinar on Wednesday, September 9 at 2 p.m. ET as Jenny Halasz, President of JLH Marketing and Ambassador for OnCrawl, shows you how to use internal linking to break through an SEO plateau and continue making progress on your site.
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The Most Common Way PPC Ad Budget Is Wasted
As paid search marketers, we have something of a love affair with data. PPC has gotten more expensive as the years have passed, so it’s become even more imperative to understand where every cent is going and whether or it’s producing sales. Or at least, that’s what we tell ourselves.
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15 Digital Marketing Tools to Improve Your Online Presence in 2020 [Infographic]
Are you looking for ways to improve your online presence in 2020? Want to know the digital marketing tools that can help your grow your business? The team from Page Traffic share their recommended marketing tools in this infographic.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 28, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
TikTok CEO Resigns as Oracle-Lead Bid Becomes the Lead Contender in the Acquisition Race
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Facebook Announces Beta Launch of ‘Horizon’ VR Social Experience
With virtual reality gradually becoming more mainstream, accelerated by increased take-up amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, Facebook has announced that its new social VR experience platform, called ‘Horizon’, is now moving into closed beta.
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3 Impacts to Social Media in an Election Year (& How to Dodge Them)
Social media professionals, we have to talk. It’s about the election. The world is on fire and it’s all we can do to stay upright throughout the course of the day. Our heads are spinning with the stuttered start-stops of our campaigns this year, paused and then unpaused and then paused again, making sure that we don’t distract from critical events or center ourselves in crises. Then layer that in with all the major social platform leaders in the news threatening to make yet another round of changes to the algorithm in the weeks leading up to the election. It’s plenty. But this is the job. We have to be able to keep our heads on swivels and pivot with the world and adapt or be left behind.
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Marketing
Official AMP for WordPress Plugin Updated to Version 2.0
Version 2.0 of the Official AMP for WordPress plugin is now available and comes with a number of useful features for site owners. The plugin is designed to offer essential tools to assist with the creation of AMP content. WordPress site owners can use the plugin to build lightning fast pages while minimizing the amount of resources needed. The update from V1 to V2 brings some major upgrades. Here’s a rundown of what’s available.
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Google SEO 101: Site Migrations
Google’s Martin Splitt, and Glenn Gabe of G-Squared Interactive, get together to discuss the most common questions SEOs ask about site migrations. Here’s a quick recap of each talking point, along with its corresponding time stamp in the video.
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Marketers Expect Slight Cut to Martech Budgets, but New Platforms Still the Focus
With the global coronavirus pandemic still wreaking having on businesses large and small, marketing teams are preparing for a fiscal 2021 with smaller budgets. But based on our Forecast 2021 survey of nearly 100 marketing professionals, martech is not expected to take nearly as big a hit as other areas. According to our survey, 55% of respondents expect their advertising and campaign budgets to take the biggest hit for 2021, compared to martech spend (18%) and personnel (16%). The findings align with Gartner’s recently released 2020 CMO Spend survey, in which 24% of respondents said martech spending would still be a priority in 2021 despite the upheaval.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 27, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Twitter Provides Tips on Effective Use of Twitter Lists for Social Media Managers
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TikTok Faces Restrictions in UK, Launches New ‘Not Going Anywhere’ Merch
As negotiations over the app’s future continue in the US, the UK Government is reportedly leaning towards implementing restrictions on TikTok, due to data gathering and sharing concerns, as opposed to following America’s lead and imposing a full-scale ban on the app in the region.
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Apple’s iOS 14 Poised to Slash Facebook Audience Network
The hits just keep on coming for Facebook’s ad ecosystem. The roll-out of CCPA in July caused havoc for advertisers, and Facebook is now proactively warning of a new potential disruption: the roll-out of iPhone’s iOS 14 next month. To understand this change, there are a few moving parts.
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Marketing
Thinking Outside the SEO Box: How to Find Global Opportunities Now
Keeping your business afloat during difficult times is challenging – but it can be done. For his SEJ eSummit keynote, Bill Hunt, President of Back Azimuth Consulting, tapped into his 25 years of digital marketing experience to offer actionable tactics on how businesses and agencies can not only survive the new normal, but thrive. He illustrated how you can start thinking outside of the SEO box and utilize your existing technical skills to pitch and implement ideas that deliver results your customer, client, or boss need right now.
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SugarCRM Acquires High-Profile Start-Up Node
AI-as-a-Service platform Node has had no trouble attracting attention since its founding by Falon Fatemi in 2014. Fatemi, hired by Google as a sales strategist at the age of 19, their youngest employee, and has picked up a string of awards as a fast-rising female tech entrepreneur.
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Building a Better Budweiser Ecommerce Platform
In early August one of the United States’ most legendary brands, Anheuser-Busch InBev, home of Budweiser, announced that VTEX would help power their global marketplace and point-of-sale functionality. But what did Budweiser see in VTEX? Along with facilitating contactless ordering and delivery in international markets, VTEX has staked a claim to being “the world’s first and only fully-integrated commerce-marketplace-OMS (order management system) solution.”
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 26, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
TikTok Shares Official User Counts as Discussions Continue on Takeover Bids
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Facebook Shops & Instagram Checkout Expand to All US Businesses
Facebook is rolling out a dedicated shopping tab, and expanding Shops and Instagram Checkout to all US businesses.
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Twitter Tests Replacing ‘Retweets and comments’ with New ‘Quotes’ Count
After recently rolling out a new, separate listing of ‘Retweets’ and ‘Retweets with Comment’ in each tweet, in order to provide more transparency on engagement, Twitter is now experimenting with a simplified ‘Quotes’ listing which would replace the ‘Retweets and comments’ note on the main presentation screen.
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Marketing
Blindly Follow Google’s John Mueller?
A discussion on Reddit asked members if they blindly followed the advice given by Google Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller. John Mueller started a poll on Twitter. The SEO community offered candid feedback on how they felt about Mueller’s advice.
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Analyzing 98,863 Ranked URLs in Travel: What We Learned
The travel sector is one of the most competitive verticals when it comes to organic search. With relatively low barriers to entry for most business models and an ever-growing and varying consumer base, it’s an appealing market to be a part of. Earlier this year I wrote a post looking at how travel brands can be competitive this year, and then the world went into lockdown. That being said, the three points I raised in this post are for me now even more important than ever.
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Report: Insights-Led Engagement for the Mobile-First Consumer
The mobile-first consumer is different. They are tech-savvy and are aware that brands collect a ton of data about their tastes, preferences, likes, and more. They expect marketers to use these insights and then engage them with personalized and relevant communication across channels. The challenge for marketers. Unfortunately, marketing and product teams often struggle to meet these expectations. A typical marketing department is usually stuck with a complicated network of tools for campaign management, automation, analytics, and more. These tools are siloed and provide an incomplete view of the consumer journey and behavior. Instead of leading with consumer insights, marketers often end up running campaigns first and then rely on reporting tools to see if it worked. New tools to solve this challenge. Customer-obsessed brands are adopting new-age tools such as MoEngage, which allows marketers to gain insights into consumer behavior and then engage them with personalized messages across mobile, email, and the web.
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