Social Media
Facebook Implements New Restrictions on Who Can Go Live to Stop the Spread of Disturbing Content
In the wake of the Christchurch terror attacks, in which the perpetrator broadcast his crimes live on Facebook, The Social Network scrambled to remove the footage, with various users posting clips, and/or variations of them, in quick succession. This week, The Social Network has announced new restrictions on who can actually use Facebook Live, with users who’ve previously violated Facebook’s rules losing their live privileges – first for a month, then extending longer for every subsequent infraction. The Social Network is additionally considering expanded restrictions to other Facebook tools – like ads – for those who break the platform’s rules. It may help, but the actual impact is hard to predict. Which is why Facebook’s also investing in new systems to better detect such content through automated means.
For the full article click here
Snapchat Publishes New Report on Optimal Ad Frequency to Drive Recall and Action
In order to determine the optimal ad exposure frequency, Snapchat analyzed 103 brand measurement campaigns, which consisted exclusively of Snap Ads in Stories. The campaigns ran between April 2017 and May 2018, with 75% of them running in the US, and 12% in the UK. Snap’s key finding says you’ll significantly improve your chances of your audience recalling your ad, and causing a change in their behavior, if you target them with two ads per week in Snapchat Stories. Any more than that, and the gains are not significant. Moreover, if you run a longer campaign, fewer ads per week works for recall, but shorter campaigns need more frequency.
For the full article click here
Marketing
Mailchimp expands from email to full marketing platform, says it will make $700M in 2019
Mailchimp will start to offer a full marketing platform aimed at smaller organizations. The new platform will feature a number of new products within it. They include technology to record and track customer leads; the ability to purchase domains and build sites; ad retargeting on Facebook and Instagram; social media management. It will also offer business intelligence that leverages a new move into the artificial intelligence to provide recommendations to users on how and when to market to whom. The expansion is part of a longer-term strategic play to widen Mailchimp’s scope by building more services for the typically underserved but collectively large small-business segment.
For the full article click here
“Trips” consolidates Google’s travel offerings
Oliver Heckmann, VP of engineering, shopping and travel at Google, announced the company’s latest efforts to consolidate and simplify travel planning. Known simply as Trips, it’s available on both desktop and mobile and allows users to explore sights and attractions as well as shop for flights, hotels and packages. Trips is accessible by heading to https://www.google.com/travel. The page features five tabs: Trips, Explore, Flights, Hotels, and Packages. If you already have some travel booked, the “Trips” tab will display an automatically generated timeline based on confirmation emails from your Gmail inbox. The Explore tab presents photographs, articles, videos and other information about a location, including “Things to do,” “Suggested day plans,” and “When to visit”. The “Flights,” “Hotels,” and “Packages” tabs let users compare prices but all transactions are still handled through other parties. Trips can be used to view, research and save potential destinations and attractions. This information can be used to retarget visitors that have already expressed interest in your business or to target travelers who may be passing through your area.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – May 17, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Announces Two New Algorithm Updates Aimed at Improving On-Platform Engagement
The Social Network has announced two News Feed algorithm updates this week, one focused on increasing the prevalence of posts from your closest friends, and the other aimed at reducing shallow, click-bait style content in feeds. Since the implementation of the News Feed algorithm, Facebook has been consistently criticized for hiding important updates, and failing to keep people in the loop on key events within their social circles. This change aims to help Facebook improve on this front. The second announced update relates to the quality of content in News Feeds, and demoting posts and links which users have said are not ‘worth their time’. The key point here is ‘less’ – Facebook can use this insight to determine not only what’s more relevant, but to reduce the reach of less engaging, less fulfilling link posts. According to Facebook, the update is not aimed at reducing the reach of Pages, but that will be the impact – Pages which regularly publish shallow clickbait will see their News Feed distribution reduced as a result.
For the full article click here
Instagram Rolls Out Updated Explore Format, Including Stories Content
Instagram is rolling out some changes to its Explore tab, designed to showcase more related trends, and guide users towards its IGTV and on-platform shopping options. Instagram has tweaked the format of the Explore search options to put more focus on the listed content, with the topic tabs along the top of the Explore screen reduced in size. Instagram’s also updated the specific listings for its IGTV and Shop posts. Now, when you tap on the IGTV section, you’ll see a personalized feed of recommended videos from “creators you follow or may want to follow”. With Instagram moving more towards eCommerce, and building out its shopping and on-platform buying options, adding more product discovery tools to Explore makes a lot of sense, and will no doubt be welcomed by users looking to use the platform for such purpose. In addition to this, Instagram’s also adding publicly posted Stories to Explore to further highlight Stories content.
For the full article click here
Marketing
Nextdoor emerges as a location marketing destination
The self-described “world’s largest social network for the neighborhood” is also a location marketing platform for businesses. Nextdoor connects people who live in close geographic proximity to each other. Only users with verified addresses may join, and when they do, Nextdoor assigns them to a neighborhood with defined boundaries. From there, users share a wide range of content, such posting lost-and-found notices, discussing the impact of municipal legislation, organizing public safety meet-ups – and, in recent years, buying and selling services and products. Now Nextdoor is actively catering to businesses in a few important ways. Businesses can claim pages and create organic listings just like they can on Google My Business. The pages give Nextdoor users the chance to rate and review them. Companies can also offer promotions, a recently launched feature. Scaling a presence on Nextdoor likely requires a national or global business to empower local franchises to manage their pages, create offers and respond to reviews given Nextdoor’s restrictions on how many pages a single business can manage.
For the full article click here
Google says image search referrals will not get new source URL (but forgets to tell us)
About 10-months ago, Google told publishers, site owners and tool providers to prepare for a change in how Google Image search will be sending their referral URLs. Instead of Google Image search traffic coming from www.google.com, they wanted to change it to help webmaster understand their image search traffic. So they said in the upcoming months the referral URL will change to images.google.com so your analytics tools can track it better. Google recently posted an update at some saying they are not going ahead with this change and that users can get this data in Google Search Console instead. This means the only way to see your Google Image Search traffic properly is within Google Search Console. That also means there will be at least a two-day delay because Search Console performance reports are always delayed by that length of time.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – May 16, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Implements New Restrictions on Who Can Go Live to Stop the Spread of Disturbing Content
In the wake of the Christchurch terror attacks, in which the perpetrator broadcast his crimes live on Facebook, The Social Network scrambled to remove the footage, with various users posting clips, and/or variations of them, in quick succession. This week, The Social Network has announced new restrictions on who can actually use Facebook Live, with users who’ve previously violated Facebook’s rules losing their live privileges – first for a month, then extending longer for every subsequent infraction. The Social Network is additionally considering expanded restrictions to other Facebook tools – like ads – for those who break the platform’s rules. It may help, but the actual impact is hard to predict. Which is why Facebook’s also investing in new systems to better detect such content through automated means.
For the full article click here
Snapchat Publishes New Report on Optimal Ad Frequency to Drive Recall and Action
In order to determine the optimal ad exposure frequency, Snapchat analyzed 103 brand measurement campaigns, which consisted exclusively of Snap Ads in Stories. The campaigns ran between April 2017 and May 2018, with 75% of them running in the US, and 12% in the UK. Snap’s key finding says you’ll significantly improve your chances of your audience recalling your ad, and causing a change in their behavior, if you target them with two ads per week in Snapchat Stories. Any more than that, and the gains are not significant. Moreover, if you run a longer campaign, fewer ads per week works for recall, but shorter campaigns need more frequency.
For the full article click here
Marketing
Mailchimp expands from email to full marketing platform, says it will make $700M in 2019
Mailchimp will start to offer a full marketing platform aimed at smaller organizations. The new platform will feature a number of new products within it. They include technology to record and track customer leads; the ability to purchase domains and build sites; ad retargeting on Facebook and Instagram; social media management. It will also offer business intelligence that leverages a new move into the artificial intelligence to provide recommendations to users on how and when to market to whom. The expansion is part of a longer-term strategic play to widen Mailchimp’s scope by building more services for the typically underserved but collectively large small-business segment.
For the full article click here
“Trips” consolidates Google’s travel offerings
Oliver Heckmann, VP of engineering, shopping and travel at Google, announced the company’s latest efforts to consolidate and simplify travel planning. Known simply as Trips, it’s available on both desktop and mobile and allows users to explore sights and attractions as well as shop for flights, hotels and packages. Trips is accessible by heading to https://www.google.com/travel. The page features five tabs: Trips, Explore, Flights, Hotels, and Packages. If you already have some travel booked, the “Trips” tab will display an automatically generated timeline based on confirmation emails from your Gmail inbox. The Explore tab presents photographs, articles, videos and other information about a location, including “Things to do,” “Suggested day plans,” and “When to visit”. The “Flights,” “Hotels,” and “Packages” tabs let users compare prices but all transactions are still handled through other parties. Trips can be used to view, research and save potential destinations and attractions. This information can be used to retarget visitors that have already expressed interest in your business or to target travelers who may be passing through your area.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – May 15, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook’s Developing New Link and Mention Stickers for Facebook Stories
According to reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, within Facebook’s back end code, there are in-development options for both link and mention stickers for Facebook Stories, unreleased, and unannounced as yet, but very likely to be coming soon. The main option of interest is the ability to add referral links. At present, the capacity to post links to Facebook Stories is available to some users, but access is very limited. If Facebook were to provide another way for brands to post links to their Stories, that would certainly spark more interest in the option. In addition, the mention sticker would enable you to tag other Facebook users in your Facebook Story – the same as you can on Instagram. The option will give you more ways to raise awareness of your Stories content – while for brands, it’ll provide another way to boost engagement with your audience.
For the full article click here
Facebook Outlines Coming Changes to Data Tracking Capacity
The Clear History tool, announced in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, will give Facebook users more control over their personal data, and how it’s used for ad targeting, with the capacity to view which apps and websites are using Facebook tracking, and clear that information from your profile, if you so wish. There will be changes to audience tracking. The most pressing point for marketers in the announcement is this: “This feature may impact targeting – When someone disconnects their off-Facebook activity, we won’t use the data they clear for targeting. This means that targeting options powered by Facebook’s business tools, like the Facebook pixel, can’t be used to reach someone with ads.” That, potentially, could be a significant blow for marketers, with the capacity to build accurate audiences for ad targeting diminished if a significant amount of users opt to remove data tracking. Data tracking will be impacted to some degree, but it’s unlikely to become a useless option, Custom Audiences are still probably going to be a key targeting tool for Facebook ads.
For the full article click here
Marketing
Google brings personalized Shopping, local inventory and better checkout to U.S.
To lure consumers from Amazon Google is upping the ante on personalization. It’s also emphasizing omnichannel shopping. Consumers will see shopping recommendations based on their shopping histories, search histories and lists. No two Shopping home screens will look alike. Users will also be able to buy online or locally, with buy online, pick up in store if that’s supported by the retailer. Another strategic move by Google is to handle the transaction and enable users to pay using cards in their Google accounts. This removes significant checkout friction and normalizes the Google Shopping experience. After today, all merchants will need to adopt Shopping Actions. That will be the key going forward to retail advertising on Google and its various properties. It’s also noteworthy that Shopping Actions is commission-based and not a CPC model. Revenue share varies by category, as it does with Amazon.
For the full article click here
Advertising
Google’s Smart Shopping Campaigns Can Be Optimized for In-Store Visits
Google will soon allow retailers to optimize Smart Shopping Campaigns for store visits and display their local inventory information. Smart Shopping campaigns were introduced last year as a new advertising product that uses machine learning to optimize for performance as well as ad placement. Today, Smart Shopping campaigns let retailers optimize for online conversions. Soon, they will also help retailers drive store visits. Google is working on a way for retailers to drive store visits with local inventory ads. Google is making it possible to offer ‘buy-online, pick-up in-store’ service through Shopping ads. To utilize this capability, retailers will need product landing pages on their site showing when in-store pick-up is available and a local inventory feed in Merchant Center.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – May 14, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Instagram Separates New Likes on Posts, Adds Unfollower Stats for Creator Accounts
Instagram is testing out an option that would separate new and old likes on your posts, helping you to more easily see the latest activity, and take action on the same. The option could make it easier for businesses to ensure they’re tracking the latest activity, helping to glean more insight about who their posts are appealing to, while also providing a chance to respond or interact with individual users based on their interest. Along a similar line, Instagram Creator accounts now have access to a new chart of followers and unfollowers, helping to provide additional context on account performance. Both of these updates would provide significant benefit, with the unfollowers chart also looking like a potentially great addition for Instagram business analytics moving forward.
For the full article click here
YouTube Tests New Tool to Automatically Generate 6-Second Ad Variants from Longer Videos
YouTube is reportedly working on a new process which would enable advertisers to create shorter, compressed versions of their video ads for usage in YouTube’s ‘Bumper’ format – without the advertiser having to actually create those shorter clips themselves. If YouTube’s machine learning system is actually able to identify the core aspects, and automatically compress them down, that could be a particularly handy tool for advertisers. YouTube says that the Bumper Machine, which is now being tested internally, would produce around four variants of each video for users to choose from, providing some level of human intervention in the process.
For the full article click here
Instagram Created an @shop Account to Promote Small Businesses and Their Products
Instagram’s latest initiative to promote shopping via its platform is a new account, simply and appropriately titled @shop. The @shop account was established to promote small businesses and the creators behind them, and it will cover categories including fashion, beauty and home décor. Instagram said every product featured on its @shop account will include shopping tags, enabling people to tap them and purchase the items right then and there.
For the full article click here
Advertising
Google Launches a New Performance Planner for Google Ads
Google Ads is getting a new tool in the form of a Performance Planner that helps with planning ad spend. Google says that, on average, Performance Planner can help advertisers drive up to 43% more conversions. The tool focuses on driving incremental conversions by identifying the best spend amounts for your campaigns. The performance planner can also make projections based on other adjustments, such as different spend levels and CPAs. This tool is a planner at its core. Changes made within the performance planner are not automatically implemented.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – May 13, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Launches New Tools for Small Businesses
Facebook is rolling out new tools to help businesses run automated ad campaigns, book appointments, and edit videos. With Automated Ads, Facebook can develop a customized marketing plan after asking a few simple questions about your business and your goals. A new appointment booking feature will let businesses take and manage appointments through Facebook and Instagram. Whether or not your business is running Facebooks ads you can still access this new feature. A new video editing feature in Ads Manager offers new ways to edit existing video. According to Facebook’s internal data, the platform is home to over 90 million small businesses as of January 2019. Facebook remains committed to improving the experience for this valuable user base.
For the full article click here
Advertising
Google Ads App Can Now Create More Types of Ads On-the-Go
Google unveiled some updates to the Google Ads app which will let users create more ads and manage more campaigns. An update rolled out last week let users create and edit Responsive Search Ads directly from the Google Ads app. In addition, advertisers and small businesses will soon be able to utilize Google Ads’ local campaigns whether or not they have store visits management enabled. Google is also enhancing ads in Local campaigns to help businesses highlight product-specific information and offers. Lastly, new inventory in Google Maps will let businesses serve ads in more places. Businesses can promote their locations when users are planning or navigating along their route.
For the full article click here
Marketing
Google to add support for higher quality images in search, swipe up images & 3D images
Google announced in the State of Search session at Google I/O Thursday, that it will be launching higher quality image support, 3D images and the ability to swipe up images from AMP pages. Google said that a new program to submit higher resolution images to Google Image search is coming soon. Websites will be able to opt-in images to this program. Over the past several months, Google has been dropping hints that image search is something SEOs, webmasters, developers and content producers should pay attention to.
For the full article click here
New app rating formula headed to Google Play will favor newer reviews
Google is increasing the weight of more recent app reviews when calculating an app’s average Play store rating. The announcement came last Wednesday at the company’s annual I/O developer conference. The refreshed ratings will be rolling out to the public beginning in August. The idea of weighting more recent ratings is based on giving more credence to the most current version of an app. With this change, your Play store rating will not only give users a better understanding of the current state of your app, it will also better reflect all your hard work and improvements. The new ratings will go public in August, but developers can already prepare for it by previewing their rating (according to the revised formula) by going to their Google Play Console.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – May 3, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Instagram is Working on a New ‘Join Chat’ Sticker for Stories
Reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong has uncovered a new ‘Join Chat’ sticker option which would enable Stories viewers to join a private chat group, direct from a Story. The ‘Join Chat’ sticker prompts the user to add a note on what the chat is about, with the lower note saying: ‘People who view your story can request to join this group chat’. This new option looks to put more emphasis on prompting private group discussion and sharing. For brands, if this is indeed launched, it could provide another way to build stronger community connection, and bring your biggest advocates closer by sharing exclusive content and/or seeking consultation. There’s no word as yet from Instagram as to whether this feature will be released.
For the full article click here
Facebook Announces Bans of Well-Known Extremist Commentators
Facebook has announced that a range of extremist commentators will be banned from the platform entirely under its ‘Dangerous Individuals or Organizations’ regulations, as outlined in its guidelines. According to a Facebook spokesperson, the company will not only ban the Pages of these individuals, but it will also remove any links to their sites shared by Facebook users. It’s a major move by Facebook, underlining the platform’s renewed focus on curbing the rising amount of hate speech on its platform, which is not only causing societal division, but is also leading to increased attacks and violence in real-life. Users will still be able to create their own posts praising these commentators and their perspectives (subject to the usual content guidelines), but sharing direct links to their content will be a no go.
For the full article click here
YouTube Is Making All of Its Original Content Free and Ad Supported
YouTube is bringing all of its original content beyond the paywall and into an ad-supported environment. The streaming video service announced plans to create an expanded slate of new and returning series from a range of mainstream celebrities and YouTube creators. According to YouTube, this year’s slate of scripted and unscripted content is focused around “music, learning and personalities.” YouTube chief brand officer Robert Kyncl said “So, one of the changes that we’ve gone through is to align our originals with the way YouTube works, which is everything is available free, and everything is available behind a paywall if there are certain features that you value in order to pay for a [YouTube Premium] subscription. With originals, we’ve gone from being focused on driving subscriptions to align with the core business.”
For the full article click here
Marketing
Google Ads Reporting is Currently Delayed Until Further Notice
Reporting data for Google Ads and AdSense is currently delayed as a result of a bug discovered on April 30. Google confirmed the bug is delaying data reporting for April 30, May 1, and May 2. The company says it will publish an update when there is more information to share.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – May 2nd, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Quora Launches New Business Podcast, Google Tag Manager Integration
Quora is slowly but surely carving a niche for specific advertisers who are looking to reach consumers right when they’re seeking answers. Quora has announced a new integration with Google Tag Manager to help streamline its data tracking tools. In order to make it easier for advertisers to gather relevant data points for their on-platform ad targeting, Quora has now become an approved tag vendor with Google, facilitating new opportunities for tracking. In order to provide even more assistance for advertisers, and highlight the opportunities of Quora ads, the platform is also launching a new ‘Grow with Quora’ podcast to showcase advertiser success stories. While Quora may not get as much coverage as other social platforms, the fact that users come to Quora seeking answers to specific questions could actually make it a better option for ad outreach, as it enables marketers to show their ads to people at just the right time in their discovery journey.
For the full article click here
Marketing
Google To Let Users Delete Mobile Auto-Tracking Data
Google on Wednesday introduced an auto-delete function that will allow users to delete data about their search and location. The new tool automatically deletes a person’s Location History, as well as web and app Activity after a specific time period. Users can choose to delete the data after either three or 18 months. The function will then continue to delete the data over time. The feature, announced Wednesday, will roll out in the coming weeks.
For the full article click here
Google bringing call intelligence and automation to SMBs, for $39 per month
Google is bringing enterprise-like automated customer service and call intelligence capabilities to small businesses (SMBs) for a flat fee of $39 per month. Google’s Area 120 experimental products group announced the introduction of a new virtual agent and telephony product called CallJoy. CallJoy promises to help small businesses offer better customer service, free up employees from having to answer the phone and convert more business by ensuring that all calls are answered. Powered by the same technologies behind Google Assistant and Duplex, CallJoy will filter calls, block spam and manage customer calls. In some ways, this is “Duplex, for business owners.” . All calls are recorded and transcribed. CallJoy envisions that SMB owners will search, tag and interact with transcripts to gain insights about customer patterns, needs or concerns. If CallJoy works as advertised it could be a very valuable service to understaffed small businesses. It could also result in more conversions and revenue for SMBs.
For the full article click here
Advertising
Microsoft Advertising is no longer just chasing parity with Google Ads – it’s building unique ads features
The ads engineering team at Microsoft has long been focused on bringing parity to Google Ads. While that still remains a focus, there has recently been an accelerated push to develop and release product differentiators – features that Google Ads doesn’t offer. There are currently 10 product features available or in pilot that are only offered in Microsoft Advertising.
For example:
Other initiatives that aren’t unique, but are on the product roadmap for this year and next include several audience targeting options such as customer match, custom combinations, similar audiences, in-market audiences and product audiences.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – May 1st, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Mark Zuckerberg Announces a New eCommerce and Payment Platform
Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg gave a keynote presentation at the F8 Conference where he revealed that Facebook-owned WhatsApp is moving toward hosting web shops where customers can browse a store’s products and make purchases. What Mark Zuckerberg announced is a dramatic expansion to the WhatsApp Business app, with a feature called, Product Catalogs. It’s likely that the WhatsApp Business Product Catalogs will feature fully functioning stores where customers can not only browse products but purchase them, too. Mark Zuckerberg also announced a new payment service that will allow people to send money to each other. Mark Zuckerberg is expanding Facebook’s business model away from just advertising and expanding it to actual commerce.
For the full article click here
Facebook is Introducing New Business Tools for Messenger
Facebook is making Messenger even more useful for businesses with tools designed to generate leads and book appointments. Facebook’s first major business-related innovation for Messenger was its chatbot program. A new business tool on the way builds on the success of Messenger with a selection of lead generation templates. Lead-generation templates for Messenger ensure bots ask people standardized questions so they can receive a standardized response. The lead generation templates will also come with completion reminders and seamless hand-off to a live agent. In addition, Facebook is opening up its beta program which allows customers to book appointments through Messenger. Lastly, Facebook announced at the conference that a bare-bones version of Messenger will be available on desktop later this year.
For the full article click here
Instagram Just Made It Easier to Shop Your Favorite Looks From Influencers
Instagram continues its march to becoming a fully immersive shopping app. After rolling out the ability to check out from 23 brands on the app in March, the social media app is putting that tool in the hands of creators. Creators and brands part of the beta test can tag up to five items from one brand in either an image or video post, as well as in stories. As part of the initial beta test, Instagram’s working with 50 creators and five publishers. Creators do not receive any commission based on clicks or sales of these items. Brands that are part of the checkout beta tag products, which consumers can tap on, get to a product page, and then tap on another button that reads “Checkout on Instagram.” This new feature has the potential to upend a significant part of the influencer marketing community, namely the number of companies that help influencers generate a commission from products in their posts, like rewardStyle’s LiketoKnowIt app.
For the full article click here
Facebook’s F8 2019: Instagram’s Donation Sticker for Stories Is Going Live Today
The donation sticker was first mentioned at the Facebook Communities Summit in February, and it will be available in the U.S. starting Tuesday. Instagrammers will be able to use the new sticker to raise money for nonprofits including Black Girls Code, JED Foundation, No Kid Hungry, Boys and Girls Club of America, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Malala Fund, GLAAD and The Nature Conservancy. The donation sticker can be accessed by opening the camera in the Instagram application, capturing or uploading a photo, tapping the sticker icon and selecting it from the tray. Users can then choose a nonprofit to support and customize their sticker. Once the sticker is live, swiping up on the Story will display the total amount that was raised. Instagram said 100% of the money raised via donation stickers goes to the target nonprofits.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – April 30, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Publishes New Guide for Instagram Creators
Facebook has published a new set of tips aimed at helping Instagram creators make the most of the platform. And while some of them are fairly common pointers, it is worth noting the more specific details included – especially as they’re coming from Instagram’s own team, and therefore based on internal data and insight. For instance, Instagram has added a range of tools to help generate more engagement and connection, using the question sticker or mention fans in Stories to spread the fan love is a solid tip for those looking to maximize their Stories performance. As explained by Facebook, now, as you record your video in the Instagram camera, a thumbnail tray will appear to indicate how many videos you’ve recorded so far. This is a good option for those looking to share longer video messages within Stories, and expand engagement potential.
For the full article click here
Marketing
Google Search Console reports back on track after multi-week delay
After a three-week delay, Google has finally updated the reports that were impacted by Google’s de-indexing bug. Google has yet to officially confirm that these reports are up-to-date, the @googlewmc channel does not yet have an update. The latest is from April 25th, in which Google said it is still working on a fix for this bug. It is not uncommon for Google Search Console to have reporting delays, more than the normal two or three-day delay. We have seen it fairly often but since it coincided with the indexing bug, it was more of a concern because SEOs, webmasters, site owners were unable to see how much they were impacted by this bug. Having fairly up-to-date data about how well your site is performing in Google is critical for an SEO.
For the full article click here
Advertising
Parallel tracking goes live for Google Ads display campaigns May 1
After launching for search ads last year, parallel tracking is coming to Google display campaigns this week. The move for video campaigns has been postponed. It will be mandatory for all advertisers that append tracking parameters to their display ad URLs in Google Ads on July 31. Google initially planned to launch parallel tracking for video campaigns at the same time as display, but said Friday that it is delaying the rollout for video. Parallel tracking is designed to enable landing pages to load faster after users click your ads if you’re using third-party click measurement. It does this by separating the processing of tracking parameters appended to an ad URL from the landing page. This way, the user is directed straight to the landing page while the tracking functionality loads separately.
For the full article click here
Shopify Introduces New Snapchat Ad Capabilities to Help Merchants Reach More Customers
Along with Dynamic Ads on Facebook, the e-commerce platform is debuting a Snapchat Ads app that lets companies create Snapchat Story Ads. Additionally, merchants can sync product catalogs to the Snapchat ads manager so prices and other items update automatically and auto-install the Snap Pixel. Shopify customers can access these new formats in Shopify’s marketing section. With the new Snapchat integration, the company now joins Facebook and Google, which also offer merchants easy ad-creation capabilities. Snapchat’s Story Ads are ads that live in the app’s Discover section and give merchants the ability to track sales as well.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – April 29, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook’s Working on a New Creator Studio Dashboard for Instagram
Facebook is testing out a new Instagram Creator Studio dashboard, which would be added into the existing Facebook Creator Studio app that The Social Network launched last year. Not everyone has access to this option as yet. It’s not clear exactly where it’s being made available, but some will see it appearing in their own Facebook Creator Studio app, if they also have an Instagram account connected. Within Instagram Creator Studio, users will be able to access a range of analytics metrics, including engagement stats, listings of when your audience is active, and demographic info. It’s worth noting that all of these insights are already available within your Instagram business profile tools, so it’s not functionally adding anything new. But it would make these more easily available via desktop, while also giving you access to a combined asset library to be used across both your Facebook and Instagram accounts.
For the full article click here
Marketing
Google bug may select unrelated canonical URLs, could impact indexing
Google tweeted Thursday that it may have selected unrelated canonical URLs for some pages and that breadcrumb trails on mobile might show the unrelated URLs. Breadcrumbs show a page’s position in the hierarchy of the site and appear under titles in the search results. Google did not say whether this latest issue is related to the indexing, Search Console report and News bugs that we’ve witnessed over the last few weeks. Google did not offer any actions for webmasters or SEOs to take. But, if you suspect that your pages are affected, you can view the Google-selected canonical URL by heading to your Search Console and entering your page’s address into the URL Inspection tool. If there’s a better canonical URL than the one that appears, follow the steps on Google’s duplicate URL help page to suggest a new one.
For the full article click here
Google My Business May Offer Premium Features for a Monthly Fee
Google is sending out surveys to gauge peoples’ interest in paying for access to premium Google My Business features. Google is sending out surveys to gauge peoples’ interest in paying for access to premium Google My Business features. New features listed in the survey include: Google customer support, “Book” button on your business profile, Verified reviews, and Promoted map pin among others. After selecting what you’re most and least interested in, Google’s survey takes your favorites and creates mock-ups of subscription packages. Google seems to be seriously considering offering premium GMB features in the form of subscription bundles. With this survey, Google is gathering information on what features users are willing to buy, and how much they’re willing to pay for them each month.
For the full article click here
Advertising
Bing Ads rebrands as Microsoft Advertising
First there was Microsoft adCenter. Then there was Bing Ads. Now there is Microsoft Advertising. The rebrand emphasizes a focus on personalization and AI. “In the next year, we’re introducing more advertising products with built-in AI, more connected to your data and your business,” Rik van der Kooi, corporate VP for Microsoft Advertising, said in a blog post Monday. It’s a bit of a back to the future move with a return to using the broader (and resurgent) Microsoft branding to signal offerings that extend beyond search inventory and search data. The last rebranding came out of an initiative to focus on specifically on search advertising. The Bing Ads branding replaced adCenter in 2012 at the same time as Microsoft and Yahoo dubbed their search alliance the Yahoo Bing Network. Sponsored Products were announced Monday. Sponsored Products allow manufacturers to promote their products in shopping campaigns with their retailer partners. “Manufacturers gain access to new reporting and optimization capabilities, and retailers get additional product marketing support with a fair cost split.” Sponsored Products is in beta in the U.S. only at this time.
For the full article click here