Social Media
This year has posed many challenges, and they may be no more acutely felt than in the education sector, where massive changes in process, assessment and curriculum as a result of COVID-19 will have long-lasting impacts on many students. In recognition of this, and ahead of the broader return to school across the US, Facebook has this week launched a new Educator Hub, which is designed to help students, parents and teachers by providing a range of educational resources, which are focused on improving learning outcomes, updating lesson plans, and teaching digital literacy.
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Amid speculation over its future in the US, TikTok’s counteroffensive, thus far, has largely revolved around showcasing the value its platform provides for Americans – both in terms of general usage and in creating new opportunities in jobs, content revenue, exposure, etc. Which, in the middle of a pandemic, when unemployment figures are at record highs, should be of value, and could, TikTok would hope, reduce the US Government’s opposition to the app. Maybe. This week, it’s announced another measure on this front, partnering with UnitedMasters to formulate a new music distribution opportunity for independent artists.
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Marketing
Chrome 86 Will Crack Down Hard on Insecure Forms
Google announced that Chrome 86 will begin cracking down on forms that are sent via the insecure HTTP protocol. Publishers are urged to review their sites and make sure that all forms are transmitted via the secure HTTPS protocol. Some sites that have migrated to HTTPS may still have forms that are transmitting via the insecure HTTP protocol. If these forms are related to lead generation, it may result in less earnings.
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This year has been one of the most uncertain and capricious years ever for eCommerce. As businesses look to recover from the early effects of COVID-19, eCommerce advertisers must ask, “what happens next?” While signs point to a slow recovery of jobs and purchasing in Q4, there is also a chance the U.S. will see another shutdown later this year impacting the economy and eCommerce in a similar way to March and April. On top of this, Prime Day has likely moved from Q3 to Q4, creating unprecedented crossover with the holiday buying season. What does all of this mean for your eCommerce ad strategy? First, let’s look at how COVID-19 has shaped the industry so far this year and what changes we still expect to see.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 25, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Pinterest Provides Tips for Travel Brands Amid Early Signs of Travel Recovery
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Facebook Provides Tips on Utilizing Live Producer to Maximize Live-Stream Broadcasts
Facebook recently launched a new video series in which it’s showcasing interviews with internal experts working on specific platform tools, in order to provide more insight into how each works, and how users can get the most out of the various functions the platform has to offer. The first video in the series looked at Creator Studio, while the second looked at Facebook Live. The most recent addition focuses on Live Producer, with tips on how to use the platform to maximize your Facebook Live broadcasts via new additions like graphic overlays, visual tools, advanced technical connections and more.
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10 Ways to Restore Your Social Media Reputation
While developing content calendars and meticulously monitoring your brand is essential, it doesn’t necessarily leave you free of drama. Accidents happen! Here are to the top 10 ways to restore your social media reputation.
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Marketing
11 Expert Tips for Optimizing Your Images on Amazon
Images are one of the most critical elements of effective e-commerce. On Amazon, customers have a lot of options right at their fingertips, and before they even click on a product, they will look at the images. Want to beat your competition? Then having high-quality images is necessary. When you see a product in person, you answer a million questions by simply walking by a rack of clothes and running your fingers across the fabric.
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The Importance of Data and Analytics to Adidas
We learned was that 11% of respondents said the focus of the majority of their personnel spending would be towards data scientists and analytics personnel. Why the increased importance of data scientists and analytics personnel? Marketers know that more has to be done with data to prove ROI while building a direct correlation with corporate revenues. To talk about these trends and more, we spoke with Papadopoulos, based out of Adidas’ office in the Netherlands. He was able to give both enterprise and international perspectives about the increased demand for data scientists.
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2020 Google Paid Search Trends that Have Nothing to do with the Pandemic
It’s no secret to paid search marketers that COVID-19 has hugely impacted performance and advertisers’ ability to spend on paid search marketing in ways varied across industries and business situations. There have been plenty of articles written on some of these shifts. Here I’d like to talk about the 2020 trends affecting paid search marketers that have nothing to do with the pandemic, and how to think about them moving forward.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 24, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
TikTok’s Taking Legal Action Against the Trump Administration’s Attempts to Ban the App in the US
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Facebook Outlines New, Machine Learning Process to Improve the Accuracy of Community Standards Enforcement
Facebook is always working to improve its detection and enforcement efforts in order to remove content that breaks its rules, and keep users safe from abuse, misinformation, scams, etc.
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Facebook Evolving Trends Research: Mindful Wellness [Infographic]
Facebook has published a new set of reports which look at evolving digital media trends amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The reports are based on a combination of internal data insights from Facebook, commissioned survey insights and third-party research, in total, incorporating responses from over 34,000 consumers.
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Marketing
4 Reasons Why Sites May Lose Google Rankings
Someone asked Google’s John Mueller why their site, successful for seven years, has lost keyword rankings. Mueller responded with four reasons why sites lose rankings. It will be a mistake to assume this is a comprehensive list of why sites lose rankings. It’s probably best to understand them in the context in which the information was given, in an impromptu question and answer. His explanation was a general overview and not necessarily a complete listing of reasons. That said, the answers provide insights into why a site may have lost rankings and help start the process of formulating a recovery plan.
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Storytelling Delivers Marketing ROI. Want Proof?
Putting the customer at the center of everything your business does and cultivating an empathetic work culture are two powerful ways empathy can be used to drive business success. But, if we dig a little deeper into why empathy is so important, we can uncover one of the most effective tools in the world for connecting with people and driving results – storytelling. Storytelling is the art of drawing out empathy from both storyteller and audience.
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Google Lets Retailers Customize Product Info in Search Results
Retailers have new ways to control how their products appear in Google search results through the use of robots meta tags and an HTML attribute. These new methods of marking up product pages allow retailers to customize search snippets according to their preferences. Retailers can already use schema.org markup or Google Merchant Center to specify how they want their product to appear in search results. However, Google may choose to display other on-page content it finds through regular crawling. That’s why some retailers may want greater control over how their product information appears.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 21, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
New Report Finds Facebook is a Major Facilitator of Health Misinformation
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Reddit Reports 18% Drop in Hateful Comments After Recent Change in Enforcement Approach
Back in June, Reddit announced a major shift in its approach to tackling hate speech, which, at that time, saw it immediately ban over 2,000 subreddits that had long skirted the platform’s rules. This week, Reddit has provided an update on those actions, which it says have seen it reduce overall instances of hateful comments on the platform by 18%.
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Instagram Showing More Content From People You Don’t Follow
Instagram’s main feed will now show posts from people you don’t follow, after you’re caught up with content from the people you do follow. A new section of “Suggested Posts” is appearing in users’ main feeds immediately after the “You’re All Caught Up” screen. Displaying organic content in users’ feeds from accounts they don’t follow is a first for Instagram. Traditionally the main feed of Instagram has been reserved for content that users have opted into. The exception, of course, has always been sponsored posts from advertisers. Now Instagram is allowing organic content in the main feed that users have not opted into.
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Twitter Adds More Detail on DMs from Users You Don’t Follow
This is helpful – Twitter has announced a couple of new detail additions to direct messages from users that you don’t follow, which will make it easier to see who the user is, and if/how you’re connected.
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Marketing
E-commerce Explodes: 45% Growth in Q2
Years of economic growth have been wiped out by COVID-19. However, the story for e-commerce has been the opposite: an acceleration of growth that otherwise might have taken years. Approaching 20% of retail. The U.S. Commerce Department reported new retail sales data (.pdf) earlier this week. It shows a huge spike in second-quarter e-commerce spending as a percentage of total retail, growing from 11.8% in Q1 to 16.1% in Q2. Some analysts and outlets exclude categories such as restaurants, bars, automobile dealers and gas stations to tell a stronger growth story. Using that formula, which is a bit of a cheat, e-commerce is now closer to 21%. To put all that into larger context, July retail sales data showed growth of 1.2%. That followed a 7.5% increase in June on the heels of an 18.2% jump in May. So, as retail sales have slowed, e-commerce has gained momentum.
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How to Determine the Value of a Backlink
So, you’ve just earned a sweet backlink from a website. Now what? Is it really valuable enough to see changes to your authority and rankings? We’ve been told time and time and time again that links are critical to search engine ranking. But not all links are created equal. Some can even damage your site at scale. There are tons of factors that determine the real value of a backlink. Factors that let you know the link you just earned is Grade-A. In this piece, you’ll run through some of (not all) these factors to help you determine the value of your backlinks.
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10 Tactics to Improve Your Email Marketing Campaigns
With COVID-19 grinding in-person marketing to a stop, marketers are putting even more pressure on the original “king”: email. But with the renewed focus comes the responsibility to make sure you are executing with best practices in mind. “Email marketing should address how you can make [the recipient’s] life better today, even if it is in a small way,” Dave Charest, director of content marketing at Constant Contact. “You can demonstrate urgency by positioning your products and services in a way that addresses new and changing customer needs, not by pushing discounts and products down their throat. Email marketing is all about sharing the information [the recipient] needs in the way they prefer it, which includes tone, length and time of day.”
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 20, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
What Happens on the Internet Every Minute (2020 Version) [Infographic]
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Facebook Adds New Resources to Support Black-Owned Businesses
Facebook has announced some new resources to better support and assist black-owned businesses, as part of the company’s broader effort to address racial inequality in the US.
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Instagram Rolls Out Suggested Posts at the End of Your Following Feed to All Users
After testing out different variations of the option, Instagram has now officially added a new listing of suggested posts at the end of your main feed, for whenever you scroll through all of the latest updates from the people and profiles that you’re following.
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Marketing
Google Now Enables GMB Profile Edits from Search and Maps [Updated]
Until now, local businesses or their agencies had to use the Google My Business (GMB) site or mobile app to update business information. But the company is making it possible to edit or update GMB profiles directly from Maps and Search. Google announced Thursday morning that local marketers will be able to “create posts, reply to reviews, add photos and update business information” directly within these consumer-facing interfaces. Here’s how it looks in Google-provided images. To do this, agencies or business owners need to be signed in with the Google account associated with the business.
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7 Useful Tools for Conducting Keyword Research Right Now
Consumer behavior is changing rapidly and unpredictably during the coronavirus pandemic. That’s why conducting keyword research is now more important than ever to understand the latest shifts in consumer intent. Although 100% of SEO professionals worth their salt understand how to dig insights out of Google Search Console and know which keyword tools have helped them in the past to increase traffic, rankings, and visibility in search results, this is the time to think outside the search box. Even one new insight per fortnight can help your company or clients pivot to create more relevant content as they navigate the “new normal.”
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The Death of Cookies and the Threat to Digital Marketing
“The pressing issue is that there will be significant disruptions in how business is done in addressable media. Proper solutions need to be devised that enable the economic model of digital marketing to continue.” Sobering words from Bill Tucker, Group EVP leading the Data, Technology, and Measurement Practices at the ANA , and executive director of the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media. The concern is provoked by the general threat to targeted advertising and marketing presented by the growing emphasis on user privacy. More specifically, it’s provoked by the threat to third-party cookies.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 19, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
TikTok Launches New Ad Campaign to Highlight Community Benefit and Positivity
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Oracle Emerges as Another Potential Buyer for TikTok
A new suitor has emerged in the race to buy the US operations of TikTok, with cloud computing giant Oracle reportedly joining a group of investment firms in formulating an offer for the app.
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Snapchat Looks to Expand Off-Platform Sharing Options to Expand Audience Reach
Snapchat is testing out a new option which would enable users to share its premium content offerings – like original shows and content from Discover partners – outside the app, potentially facilitating exposure and reach to a much broader audience. Back in 2018, Snapchat added the capacity to share certain types of Stories outside of app through embeds or link shares. At that time, the option was limited to Official Stories, created by celebrities and influencers, and Our Stories, which are curated by Snapchat’s in-house team. But now, Snapchat is also looking to expand the same functionality to its premium Discover content.
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Marketing
Inside the 3D-printed Millennial Hotel Coming to Saudi Arabia This Year
There’s a lot happening these days in the northwest deserts of Saudi Arabia. This once-desolate region is in the midst of a building boom, with numerous high-end hotel brands rushing to create a tourism industry from scratch. Leading the way is Habitas, the upstart hospitality company that’s bringing a sustainably built, 3D-printed resort to AlUla before the end of this year.
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How the Banking and Financial Services Industries have Turned Digital
With your neighborhood banking branch essentially turning into another app on your mobile phone, most banking functions have been transformed and simplified by the transition to digital, which was already well underway by the time COVID hit. What has been the level of investment in or commitment to digital in the financial sector?
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7 Ways to Grow Your Business Using Blogging
Want to grow your website traffic consistently, attract new customers, build loyalty with current customers, and become a brand leader in your space? Discover the power of a blog. The benefits are endless. But be warned: you can’t be lazy or promotional. The goal is to continually add value by publishing informative, well-written articles created with strategy and customer engagement in mind.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 18, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Adds New Tools to Track Political Ad Spent via its Ad Library
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Facebook Launches New ‘Educator Hub’ as Students Head Back to School
This year has posed many challenges, and they may be no more acutely felt than in the education sector, where massive changes in process, assessment and curriculum as a result of COVID-19 will have long-lasting impacts on many students. In recognition of this, and ahead of the broader return to school across the US, Facebook has this week launched a new Educator Hub, which is designed to help students, parents and teachers by providing a range of educational resources, which are focused on improving learning outcomes, updating lesson plans, and teaching digital literacy.
For the full article click here
TikTok Establishes New Partnership with UnitedMasters to Assist Indie Musicians via the App
Amid speculation over its future in the US, TikTok’s counteroffensive, thus far, has largely revolved around showcasing the value its platform provides for Americans – both in terms of general usage and in creating new opportunities in jobs, content revenue, exposure, etc. Which, in the middle of a pandemic, when unemployment figures are at record highs, should be of value, and could, TikTok would hope, reduce the US Government’s opposition to the app. Maybe. This week, it’s announced another measure on this front, partnering with UnitedMasters to formulate a new music distribution opportunity for independent artists.
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Marketing
Chrome 86 Will Crack Down Hard on Insecure Forms
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How to Prepare Your E-commerce Ad Strategy for an Uncertain Q4
This year has been one of the most uncertain and capricious years ever for eCommerce. As businesses look to recover from the early effects of COVID-19, eCommerce advertisers must ask, “what happens next?” While signs point to a slow recovery of jobs and purchasing in Q4, there is also a chance the U.S. will see another shutdown later this year impacting the economy and eCommerce in a similar way to March and April. On top of this, Prime Day has likely moved from Q3 to Q4, creating unprecedented crossover with the holiday buying season. What does all of this mean for your eCommerce ad strategy? First, let’s look at how COVID-19 has shaped the industry so far this year and what changes we still expect to see.
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Facebook Launches Free ‘Paid Online Events’ for SMBs and Others
Facebook wants to help small businesses (SMBs) survive the COVID crisis — and make money. A few months ago, the company announced $100M in cash grants and ad credits for SMBs. It later introduced Facebook Shops to help SMBs sell online. And today it announced a new product to monetize classes and online events called, matter-of-factly, “paid online events.”
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 17, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Is Testing New Post-Level Analytics for Groups
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TikTok Provides an Overview of its Analytics Tools
Yes, TikTok remains under a cloud, and yes, there are ongoing concerns about its data-sharing and moderation processes. For some, that will mean that they’ll look to avoid the app entirely, but many others are still looking at ways to tap into the video platform’s popularity, and in particular, its reach with younger audiences. How you view TikTok will come down to your own perception of the various issues at hand, and your concerns around such, but for those who are looking to maximize their TikTok presence, TikTok has this week published some new pointers on how to make best use of its analytics tools, which are available on TikTok Pro accounts.
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Facebook Adds New Paid Events Options for Businesses and Creators
Facebook is launching a new paid events option in order to provide another way for businesses to generate direct income amid the COVID-19 crisis.
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Marketing
How to Integrate Content Marketing & SEO
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How to Create an Editorial Calendar for Content Marketing in 5 Easy Steps
For many content teams, building an editorial calendar seems like nothing more than an idealistic dream. You know that you should do it – but what usually ends up happening is a content planning process that’s haphazard, at best. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to actually using an editorial calendar lies in, well, it’s usefulness. To be sure, it’s one thing to grab an editorial calendar template and add some placeholders for tentatively planned content. It’s quite another thing to flesh out these placeholders with useful information to guide the creation of content that’s relevant and useful to your marketing efforts. Before you completely give up on organizing your content marketing efforts with an editorial calendar, consider this robust process.
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20 Places You Should Be Sharing Your Content
Writing and publishing blog posts or articles on your own website is critical to generate qualified traffic. Publishing informational content on a website blog, resource section, or Content is everywhere today. It’s insanely competitive. Did you know that over 70 million blog posts are published monthly? If you’re going to gain any real traction, you need to look beyond publishing content on your website. In addition to mainstream outlets like Medium, sharing your content on industry or niche platforms can also help it get seen by more people. Think of sharing your content on other outlets like a megaphone: the more places you promote it, the wider the message will spread.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 14, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Launches Voting Information Center as it Looks to Encourage 4 Million More Americans to Vote
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Snapchat Adds Lenses Inspired by TikTok Dance Trends to Boost Exposure for its AR Offerings
While Facebook is looking to take-on TikTok directly, via the broader launch of its copycat Reels function, Snapchat appears to be taking a different route, with a new selection of AR Lenses that have been built in collaboration with popular TikTok influencers, and encourage users to participate in TikTok dance challenges via Snap’s tools.
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Instagram Looks to Crackdown on Bots with New Review and ID Process
Instagram is making a new push to stamp out bot accounts via a new process that will require the owners of profiles found to be connected with suspicious behavior to provide identification information to confirm that they are, in fact, a real person.
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Marketing
Google Travel Updates How it Recommends Flights and Hotels
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29 Questions SEO Professionals Should Ask Potential Clients
So, you’d like to win some new clients? Make sure you’re asking enough questions – and the right ones. That might seem counterintuitive, but consider this: There’s a good chance that business doesn’t understand the true power of SEO, or why it’s crucial to their overall business strategy. Only 36% of small businesses (the most common type of business out there) had an SEO strategy in 2019, according to Clutch.
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Agency Commits to Equality in Influencer Marketing
As influencer marketing plays an ever more vital role in engaging customers for brands, MSL, the public relations and influencer marketing agency within Publicis Groupe, has made a series of measurable commitments to address the inequalities within the influencer marketing space, focusing specifically on diversity, inclusion, and equal pay.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 13, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Instagram Tests Reels Button on Lower Function Bar in Some Regions
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Cycling Most Talked About Mode Of Transport During Pandemic, Finds Social Media Monitor Brandwatch
“Cycling had the largest conversation increase of all the types of transport we looked at, with mentions increased 28% since March,” says a statement from digital consumer intelligence company Brandwatch.
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Facebook, Snap Held Talks to Buy TikTok Rival Dubsmash
Facebook and Snap recently held talks to buy Dubsmash, a lip-syncing video app that has surged in popularity alongside a crop of other TikTok competitors. Dubsmash was approached by both Facebook and Snap about a deal in recent weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The acquisition talks progressed far enough to include discussions of a price tag in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the person said.
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Marketing
Higher Education Marketing Strategy During the Pandemic
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Why You Should Keep Marketing in an Economic Downturn
COVID-19 has placed the global economy on the precipice of a recession… or worse. When the full impact on the economy will be felt is still anybody’s guess, but a significant business slowdown seems inevitable. Frequently when there is an economic crisis, businesses cut back on their marketing budget. However, it’s been shown time and time again, that a downturn can provide a great opportunity to promote and claim additional market share.
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Hidden WordPress 5.5 Feature Blocks Rogue Plugins
The newly updated WordPress 5.5 contains a feature that prevents rogue plugins from taking over WordPress sites. The change allows a WordPress site to check if a plugin is legitimate or not and to block it from updating if it is flagged as blocked from updating.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 12, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Publishes Latest Update on Content Removals, Fake Accounts, Hate Speech and More
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Twitter Rolls Out Tweet Reply Controls to All Users
After testing them out over the last few months, Twitter has today announced that its new tweet reply control options are being made available to all users on iOS, Android and twitter.com.
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Pinterest Makes Skin Tone Search Qualifiers Available in More Regions, Expands AR Try-On Program
As part of its ongoing effort to improve the utility of its product recommendation tools, Pinterest is expanding the availability of its skin tone matching options, while it’s also adding more brands into its AR Try-On program, giving users more ways to shop online.
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Marketing
WordPress 5.5 – Easy Overview
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Structured Data & Relevance: Reading Between the Google Guidelines
Structured data plays a big role in the future of search. To future proof campaigns, SEO professionals should start paying more attention to Schema markup.
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Best Practices For B2B Tech Marketing During Times Of Crisis
Each touch point along the customer journey is an opportunity to enhance loyalty, increase revenue and gain an edge on the competition. Brands have found so much success prioritizing this strategy that a race has been on to create a truly 360-degree customer approach that will provide the best experience at every interaction.
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