Social Media
Facebook Takes First Steps Towards Building a Dedicated, ‘Trusted’ News Section
According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is now offering news outlets “millions of dollars” for the rights to put their content in a dedicated news section, which Facebook is looking to launch before the end of the year. The proposed new News section – essentially Facebook Watch for News – would serve as a means to fill this need, while it would also enable Facebook to maintain some level of control over the content displayed by choosing the partners it works with, and highlights within the stream. That, in itself, could still cause Facebook headaches – just this week, reports suggested that The White House is considering an Executive Order which would task the FCC with developing new regulations that would determine when and how social media companies filter posts, videos or articles on their platforms. If Facebook were to create a whole news section of vetted partners, that could lead to more accusations of bias. Through Facebook Watch, the company is actually already showcasing selected news sources, with Facebook working with several news publishers on Watch-exclusive programming. If more people are looking for news content, and Facebook can find a way to give it to them in a format that they like, Facebook wins through increased engagement and ad exposure.
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Twitter’s Testing a New DM Search Option Among Various Other Tweaks
Twitter is currently testing out a new option which would enable users to search through their DMs. The functionality is not amazing at this stage, you would be able to search via profile name, and likely by Twitter handle. Which is better than nothing, but a lot of the time when you do want to go searching through your DMs, its because you’re looking for something that someone has sent to you, so it would be more helpful to be able to search by message content. That doesn’t appear to be an option in this current phase of testing, though you would imagine its something that Twitter is also looking into, in order to make it a truly valuable addition. Twitter’s also now testing an option which would enable you to subscribe to a tweet discussion in order to get notified of any replies, while it’s also been refining smaller elements within its redesign – including its text sizing options, which have been a key pain point for many. None of these updates, in itself, is a major functional shift – like, say, editing tweets would be – but it’s clear that Twitter’s exploring a range of options aimed at improving the on-platform experience, and boosting engagement.
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Marketing
Google’s Mueller Asked About Increasing E-A-T with Structured Data
In a Google Webmaster Hangout, someone asked Google’s Webmaster Trends Analysis John Mueller about schema structured data and Expertise, Authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Structured data is simply a way to communicate information. It doesn’t communicate signals of quality. Mueller answered that using structured data was up to the publisher and that authorship information was gathered by Google “through a number of ways.” It must be pointed out that putting information in the structured data that does not exist in the web page itself can be viewed as spam and result in a manual action. Structured data is not a piñata filled with candy, waiting for Google to come along. It is just a way to communicate information that is visible to users on the web page itself. John Mueller himself said that Google tries to identify E-A-T “partially through the content directly.”
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Alexa devices maintain 70% market share in U.S. according to survey
Based on its newest survey, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners said “the US installed base of smart speaker devices is 76 million units, up from 70 million units in the March 2019 quarter and 50 million units in the June 2018 quarter.” Amazon has consistently and aggressively discounted its Echo Dot to maintain and grow its share of the smart speaker market – most recently, during Prime Day. Indeed, the company said that Echo Dot was its top-selling device during the sales event. Google has largely matched Amazon’s pricing to keep pace. In the broader virtual assistant market, a recent survey by Microsoft found that consumers were using Siri and Google Assistant equally (36%), followed by Alexa (25%) and then Cortana (19%). Unfortunately, the survey didn’t distinguish carefully between virtual assistant usage on smartphones and smart speakers.The realization of the full potential of virtual assistant powered devices depends on greater adoption of smart displays or the tighter integration of smartphones with smart speakers, which Google is trying to do. The first generation Echo was introduced in 2014. It will probably take another five years for these devices to mature and become viable marketing, commerce or customer service tools – if they ever will.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 21, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Finally Launches its ‘Clear History’ Tool, Starting in Ireland, South Korea and Spain
Facebook has finally announced the initial rollout of its promised ‘clear history’ tool, which will enable users to see the websites and apps which send Facebook information when they use them, remove that information from their account, and turn off Facebook’s ability to store the same going forward. The tool will give users more capacity to manage how their data is utilized by Facebook and advertisers.The new option is being launched, with users in Ireland, South Korea and Spain getting first access to the functionality, ahead of an expanded push. The functionality will also have some level of impact on Facebook’s ad targeting tools. How much of an impact, exactly, will be dictated by how many users take up the option to delete their history, but Facebook warned marketers back in May that the implementation would lessen its capability to provide in-depth tracking for advertising purposes.
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Facebook Looks to Launch WhatsApp Payments in Indonesia
At the Libra launch event in June, Facebook clarified that India was not part of its initial rollout plan, which may, in part, be due to concerns around cryptocurrency from Indian regulators. Instead, Facebook has since switched focus to WhatsApp Pay, which it’s now planning to roll out to all of its Indian users toward the end of the year. And while Facebook waits for Indian regulators to assess WhatsApp Pay, Reuters has reported that WhatsApp is now also in talks with multiple Indonesian digital payment firms over plans to offer WhatsApp Pay in that market as well, potentially reaching another 100 million users. Which would be good for WhatsApp, helping it to build its eCommerce capacity, and good for Facebook overall. But it also leaves a question mark of the viability and potential of its Libra currency. Facebook will likely still push ahead with its plans, and the implementation of WhatsApp Pay could serve as a good precedent for regulators, and example which shows that Facebook can be trusted in this respect. But it may also spark a re-think of Libra, and the way it’s used. If it’s not going to be accessible in Facebook’s largest user markets, maybe it’s not as valuable as Facebook may have initially hoped.
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LinkedIn Outlines its Improving Efforts to Eliminate Fake Accounts and Spammers on its Platform
This week, LinkedIn has outlined its evolving efforts to detect and remove fake profiles, which can be used to make connections, and then steal personal contact info from unsuspecting users. Given the professional focus of LinkedIn, it seems like it would be less of a focus for misinformation campaigns in particular, but as noted, there are numerous known LinkedIn scams which involve fake profiles making connections in order to steal personal information, and gain insights into your LinkedIn network. So while it may seem less of a focus, LinkedIn is actually just as susceptible to such use as other platforms. In this sense, it’s good to see LinkedIn improving its systems, and working to better protect its now 645 million member base.
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Marketing
Bing Webmaster Tools adds Domain Connect verification integration
In order to make it easier for some webmasters to verify their web sites with Bing Webmaster Tools, Bing added support for verification through Domain Connect. This allows those using 1&1 IONOS, GoDaddy, Media Temple or Plesk easier access to verify their web sites with Bing Webmaster Tools. Google also did some forms of automatic verification for Google Search Console and has worked with domain name providers to make it easier. But Google does not work with Domain Connect. Making it easier to set up a verified site with Bing Webmaster Tools will mean more web site owners will be able to use the tools. This will lead to more reporting, more debugging and more informed site owners. It will help sites find indexing and ranking issues faster and give site owners more access to advanced search engine reporting.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 20, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Twitter Launches 6-Second Video Ad Bidding, Providing New Options for Video Marketers
Twitter is launching a new video ad option in the form of 6-second video ad bidding, which will see advertisers only charged if and when their video ad is in view for six seconds. According to EyeSee, which conducts studies of audience engagement based on advanced eye-tracking technology, 3 seconds is actually the hot spot for video ad recall and response. That should, theoretically, mean that Twitter’s new 6-second bidding option will be more than enough time to ensure optimal response. To clarify, video advertisers will still publish their on-platform video ads as normal, but this new option will enable them to choose to only be charged when their video is viewed for 6 seconds. The idea is that this will provide a more flexible option for advertisers, enabling them to optimize for completed views, while also putting more reliance on Twitter’s system to showcase their content to relevant audiences who are more likely to watch.
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Reddit Previews Coming Live-Streaming Capacity in New, Week-Long Project
Reddit is looking to get in on the live-streaming action – though it’s doing so in its own, unique way. Late last week, a new Reddit called r/pan began sharing cryptic messages. The series of posts have ended up being the precursor to what Reddit’s labeling its version of the Public Access Network (PAN), which will enable Redditors to broadcast, in real-time, on a dedicated PAN channel. Reddit says the option to broadcast is coming to all users this week, but it’s rolling out in stages, so some users will have it before others. The addition makes sense, from a functional standpoint, but it also seems destined for controversy, with Reddit being more open to questionable content, and welcoming of related discussion. Reddit has long sought to distance itself from editorial interference in what users discuss on the platform, with no ID requirements and profiles being optional on the network. The initial r/pan experiment will run for a week, giving users a glimpse at Reddit live-streaming, and providing Reddit with insight into what it will need to do to stay on top of content issues.
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Marketing
Voice assistant usage now at ‘critical mass’ as Google Assistant crowned smartest
A new estimate from eMarketer pegs the number of monthly users of voice assistants at roughly 112 million, up from 102 million in 2018. The firm characterizes this as “critical mass,” although it still represents a minority of internet users (40%). By 2021 eMarketer says about 123 million people will be using voice assistants at least monthly. More voice search and engagement happens on smartphones than smart speakers, which eMarketer says are used by 77.6 million people. Separately, last week, Loop Ventures released its latest comparison of virtual assistants. The study found, “Google Assistant was once again the best performer, correctly answering 93% and correctly understanding all 800 questions. Siri was next, answering 83% correctly and only misunderstanding two questions. Alexa correctly answered 80% and only misunderstood one.” The report also expressed surprise at the continuing rate of improvement in accuracy. Ultimately Google Assistant is in the strongest position and will likely become the dominant voice assistant, with corresponding advertising and commerce implications for marketers and brands. An open question is whether or how much voice will eventually supplant traditional search on mobile devices.
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Advertising
Google Ads to remove accelerated ad delivery option next month
Google Ads announced a coming change to ad delivery options that will start September 17. The accelerated delivery option will be removed and standard delivery will be the only option for Search and Shopping campaigns, as well as for campaigns with shared budgets. Any Search or Shopping campaigns and shared budgets using accelerated delivery will be switched over to standard delivery automatically by October 1. Google says, the way that accelerated delivery works can make it an inefficient option. Google recommends choosing the maximize conversions or maximize clicks bidding strategies to indicate your performance priority for campaigns that had been using accelerated delivery. And, of course, use ad scheduling to manage when your ads are shown and bid adjustments to increase and decrease bids during certain times of day. (Though Google’s ad scheduling only takes your account’s time zone into account.)
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 19, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook is Removing its Group Chats Feature to Limit Spammers
Facebook has announced that it’s removing the group chat functionality that it launched in October last year, which was designed to facilitate more intimate discussion between group members, separate from post comments. As noted by TechCrunch when the feature was launched, group chats are able to host up to 250 group members, who are not necessarily connected as friends, but are connected through a group. The problem here is that as people become increasingly protective of their more intimate messaging, they may not be overly happy that some random stranger who they’re tangentially connected to via a group is able to send them a direct message via this option. That’s only speculation – Facebook hasn’t provided any further clarification on the update beyond the above note, though it did provide some additional pointers to help members and Page admins manage the change.
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Facebook Marketing API to get ‘Special Ad Category’ field for housing, employment, credit advertisers
Facebook is adding the same Special Ad Category field it rolled out in Ads Manager in July to its Marketing API next month. The update, which is designed for marketers and developers running housing, employment and credit ads, limits the set of targeting options to keep marketers from running discriminatory ad campaigns. Facebook’s efforts to end discriminatory advertising practices impacts any marketer running housing, employment or credit related ad campaigns. Advertisers that don’t select the Special Ads Category run the risk of their campaigns being terminated on the platform. Once the Special Ad Category is selected, some detailed targeting options will no longer be available, such as demographics, behaviors or interests. “Special Ad Category” advertisers will also not be allowed to exclude any targeting options. The decision was part of a settlement Facebook reached with multiple civil rights groups that charged the company with allowing discriminatory ad campaigns to run on the platform.
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Instagram to Crack Down on Fake Stories Views
Instagram is reportedly working on a solution for the wave of inauthentic story views that has spread throughout the network. TechCrunch reports the influx of fake views is related to a new tactic where spammy accounts are “watching” stories to appear more real and gain new followers in the process. This growth hack sprung up after Instagram began cracking down on bots and paid likes and followers back in November. The types of accounts responsible for fake story views range from Russian models, to social media agencies, to public figures trying to grow their presence. Instagram confirms to TechCrunch that it’s aware of fake story views and is working on ways to reduce the activity. The solution will involve implementing new measures specifically for stories. Instagram did not not offer any further details. Eventually Instagram will have measures in place to thwart this activity without users having to clean up the spam on their own.
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Marketing
Google My Business adds bulk review management
Google has added the ability to see all your reviews across multiple listings on a single page. You can see this within Google My Business reviews section at https://business.google.com/reviews. This is available in location groups with 500 or fewer locations, but is not available for organization accounts. This can be very useful for those who manage more than one location or listing. You can quickly see all the reviews under your Google My Business account, and you no longer need to click into each individual listing to see its reviews. This should save you time and help you find and report on important reviews sooner.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 16, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Adds New Booking and Reminder Prompts to Movie Ads
Facebook is rolling out two new options for movie ads on its platform – reminder prompts for movies you’ve registered an interest in, and direct booking options to streamline the process. Now, when a movie ad appears in a users’ News Feed, they’ll have the option to tap on an ‘Interested’ CTA button. When they do, they’ll get a reminder in their notifications listing when the movie is released, which may help spark more people to head to the cinema. The other new option comes via search – when users go looking for a movie on Facebook, they’ll now be able to view a new detail page, where they’ll also be able to book tickets directly. The new movie ad tools will be available in the US and UK, facilitated through partnerships with AMC Theaters and Regal Cinema. With News Feed ads at their peak, it’s interesting to see how the company is branching out, and looking to provide advertisers with new opportunities.
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Facebook Reminds Advertisers and Developers that New Targeting Restrictions Come into Effect Soon
Back in March, Facebook announced that it would take stronger action against discriminatory ad targeting by removing a range of targeting options in certain business categories in order to stop businesses using its ad tools to limit audiences in an unfair manner. Facebook’s changes relate to housing, employment and credit ads, each of which has been found to be have been used by some advertisers to exclude certain groups. The changes to these ad categories began rolling out last month, while a new Special Ad Category field will be available in Facebook’s Marketing API in September, enabling third-party ad tools to comply to the new process. Facebook says that all developers which want to facilitate Facebook ad creation must implement the Special Ad Category restrictions by Dec. 4, 2019, or their ads may be paused for non-compliance.
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Twitter’s Testing a New Content Filtering System for Message Requests
Twitter is testing out a new filtering option for Direct Messages which will be applied to your ‘Additional Messages’ or those received from people you’re not following. If Twitter’s system detects potentially offensive material within your additional messages, those will be sent to a new, separate section, which users can either opt to view or not. It’s the latest in a range of new tweet tests – Twitter’s also testing out new topic-based streams, the ability to subscribe to individual tweet reply threads and the capacity to move around your uploaded photos via drag n’ drop UI. It’s a small change, but it makes a lot of sense, and could have significant impacts for vulnerable users. The DM filter is currently being tested with a subset of users.
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Google doesn’t pass PageRank on nofollow links. Here’s why you still see them in GSC
Despite showing nofollow links in Search Console, Google does not transfer PageRank to those links, explained Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller. They do not pass PageRank, even if you see them in your GSC Link Report. “However, it’s still a link on the web, and users may be using those to reach your website,” Mueller elaborated, concluding, “And so, in Search Console, we decided to show these as links together with other links pointing to your site. Similarly, if you were to use the disavow links tool, those links would no longer be passing any signals, but would continue to appear in the Links Report in Search Console.” Misunderstanding the nature of the links that appear in your GSC Link Report can lead to a skewed interpretation of your PageRank, which may also lead to an inaccurate assessment of your site’s overall SEO.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 15, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
LinkedIn Sales Navigator will now surface more content for sales teams to share
LinkedIn Sales Navigator released product updates on Wednesday, adding more features for discovering and managing leads, a redesigned Help Center and an integration with its content-sharing app Elevate. LinkedIn first launched Elevate — an app designed to help users curate and share content on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook — in 2015. Now, Sales Navigator users who also use the Elevate app will receive alerts on their Sales Navigator homepage when new content is available. Users will be able to access the content without having to log into Elevate, and then share it on LinkedIn as well as Twitter and Facebook. LinkedIn says more than 1.3 million lead and account lists have been created in Sales Navigator. For marketers managing B2B campaigns, this latest update will benefit their content strategy efforts, helping them push more content to their sales team. On the sales side, the update offers more functionality with improved lead discovery and management features.
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YouTube Expands Super Chat Creator Payment Option to More Regions
YouTube is expanding its Super Chat live-stream tipping option, which provides an additional revenue stream for live-stream producers on the platform. Super Chat enables live-stream viewers to pay to have their comment featured more prominently in a chat stream. Originally only available to YouTube streamers in 40 nations, YouTube is now expanding the program to an additional 19 regions. YouTube hasn’t revealed the usage numbers for Super Chats, but various streamers have used the option to raise significant amounts – of which, YouTube takes a 30% cut. Most platforms have been investigating ways to generate revenue from live-streams, and incentivize creators. YouTube’s Super Chat system is more specifically based on how the process is used by Chinese streamers, where live-streaming is now a multi-billion dollar industry. It doesn’t seem like it will cause the same type of shift in the online content space in western regions, but as more streamers get access to the option, it helps to grow YouTube’s content and revenue stream, while providing additional opportunities for the next crop of video stars.
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Twitter Begins Testing its New Direct Message Search Tool
The platform has now begun official testing of its new direct message search tool, providing a means to locate specific message threads within your Twitter inbox. The functionality, at this stage, is limited to searching by display name, not by message content, which seems fairly limited. But it’s something, and it’s something that many users have called for – and as you can also see, the search results show individual and group message threads that each user is mentioned in, which will also help. The addition could be of particular value for brands which provide consumer help handles on the platform, which often primarily operate via DMs. Now, you’ll be able to more easily locate relevant users to respond to with relevant updates and clarifications, streamlining the process.
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Facebook Rolls Out New Privacy Model for Groups With Only 2 Settings
Facebook is introducing a simplified privacy model for groups, reducing the number of settings to just two. Going forward, Facebook groups can either be set to “private” or “public.”Facebook is introducing a simplified privacy model for groups, reducing the number of settings to just two. Going forward, Facebook groups can either be set to “private” or “public.” When a group is set to “public” anyone can view the members of the group and see all published content. When a group is set to “private” only group members can see who is in the group and what they’re posting. In addition to these privacy settings, group admins will have control over how their group is found. Admins can specify whether or not the group can be found in search and other places on Facebook.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 14, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
YouTube Updated its Algorithm in July, Upsetting Many Creators
According to Bloomberg, YouTube updated its algorithm in early July to boost the visibility of “quality” children’s content. As a result, some channels received a spike in viewership while others saw viewership decline. This update is important to be aware of for anyone who produces content for kids. The report indicates YouTube updated its algorithm in an effort to appease the FTC. YouTube did not communicate the update to creators, who are struggling to make sense of it. Some channels that produce content for children saw a major drop in viewers, while other channels producing the same type of content saw a major increase. Bloomberg speculates the update is targeting certain types of channels that create animated content for children solely for the purpose of racking up views. It would make sense for YouTube to target channels that are exploiting its algorithm. However, other channels producing higher quality content for kids saw their traffic take a hit as well. So creators are at a loss as to why the changes were made and how to recover from them.
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LinkedIn launches Audience Engagement Insights with addition of 5 new marketing partners
LinkedIn is launching a new Audience Engagement Insights category as part of its marketing partner program, and adding five new third-party analytics platforms that integrate with the LinkedIn Audience Engagement API: Amobee, Annalect, Hootsuite, Ogilvy and Sprinklr. Marketers on LinkedIn will now have a broader view of what works on the platform with access to audience discovery insights, content recommendations and industry benchmarks. And with the five new integration partners now available to deliver those insights, many marketers will be able to choose a platform they may already be using.
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Facebook was in Talks to Acquire Houseparty, According to New Report
This week, The New York Times has published a new article which digs into questions around Facebook’s rising dominance, and how the company has sought to acquire competitors in order to maintain its position – raising eyebrows among regulatory groups. Late last year, Facebook was in advanced talks to acquire multi-participant live-streaming app Houseparty, which was launched by the makers of former live-streaming hype leader Meerkat back in 2016. Facebook sought to get the upper hand on potential competitors, and make acquisition offers for them in the early stages of any such rise in popularity. Facebook clearly saw Houseparty as another potential threat in this respect. Group video chat hasn’t yet caught on as the next big thing, which seemed to be Facebook’s key concern, but it’s interesting to note the lengths that Facebook went to in order to eliminate a potential competitor, and further solidify its dominance.
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Marketing
Google Search Console Now Reports on More Types of Structured Data
Google is adding three more types of structured data to the rich results report in Search Console. Search Console will now report on the following types of structured data: Product Markup, Sitelink searchbox markup and Unparsable types. Now, owners of e-commerce sites can use Search Console to easily check if Google can read all of their product markup. In addition, they can quickly identify which sets of markup contain errors and begin troubleshooting immediately. Google mentions that only the ability to report on these types of structured data is new. The issues being reported on may or may not be new.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 13, 2019
/by Corey PadveenMarketing
Hotels can now add services, amenities in Google My Business
Google My Business added support for hotels to login to Google My Business and update the hotel’s services and amenities details. Google provides a summary of a hotel’s amenities that customers can view from Google Search and/or Google Maps. You can edit this information in your dashboard if you find any of it to be factually incorrect. Google is becoming the go-to-place for searchers to look to for hotel reviews, pricing and details. It is important that you keep the hotels you manage up-to-date and accurate, so that a hotel customer doesn’t get upset that the information they saw on Google doesn’t match the actual hotel’s accommodations. It is also important to keep your hotel’s details accurate by you taking the lead and controlling what is shown within Google.
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Ecosia says it will boycott ‘search choice’ auction on Android in Europe
Berlin-based search engine Ecosia says it will not participate in Google’s “search-choice” auction for Android devices in 2020 in Europe. Will other engines follow its lead? Earlier this month, Google announced that it will introduce a new “choice screen” in Europe for Android users in 2020. The screen will appear during set up and ask users to select a default search engine. Google plans to use an auction, as it does with comparison shopping engines in Europe, to determine which search engines to present on the choice screen. The three highest bidders will appear, along with Google, as options for users. Google anticipates search choices will vary by country, with Google always present as a choice. Ecosia believes that it is unethical for a company with a dominant market position like Google Android to discriminate access to it. By artificially limiting user options, Google is creating scarcity where there is none. This will unnecessarily increase costs for alternative search engines, and will keep new entrants from growing market share. Whether or not there are 4 or 14 options for users to choose from, Google would still likely retain most of its current usage in Europe, because of its brand strength versus rivals. This is the central challenge for regulators, which are trying to “unbundle” Google and Android: how to give Google’s competitors more visibility (and viability). It will be very interesting to see whether other search engines align themselves with Ecosia or decide to participate in the auction. Applications are due in mid-September.
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Prepare to say goodbye to average position in Google Ads on September 30
Google announced Monday that it will begin sunsetting the average position metric the week of September 30. In lieu of average position, Google says advertisers should transition to using the position metrics— search top impression rate and search absolute top impression rate — introduced last year. These indicate the percentage of impressions and impression share your ads received in the absolute top (the first ad at the very top of the page) and top of page (above the organic results) ad slots. Now, we have about 6 weeks to fully absorb the repercussions of the change and implement updates to any reporting, rules or scripts that use average position.
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Advertising
Google Ads’ Optimization Score Now Includes Shopping Campaigns
Optimization scores in Google Ads will now include shopping campaigns as well as search campaigns. Google Ads will assign an individual score to each campaign type, and provide a combined score at the account level. Scores for shopping campaigns range from 0% to 100% – a score of 100% means the campaign is optimized to perform at its full potential. This update comes with new recommendations that are specific to shopping campaigns, such as switching to Smart Shopping campaigns and adding seller ratings. According to Google, advertisers saw an average increase of 10% in their conversion rates after increasing their account level optimization score by 10 points.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 12, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Takes First Steps Towards Building a Dedicated, ‘Trusted’ News Section
According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is now offering news outlets “millions of dollars” for the rights to put their content in a dedicated news section, which Facebook is looking to launch before the end of the year. The proposed new News section – essentially Facebook Watch for News – would serve as a means to fill this need, while it would also enable Facebook to maintain some level of control over the content displayed by choosing the partners it works with, and highlights within the stream. That, in itself, could still cause Facebook headaches – just this week, reports suggested that The White House is considering an Executive Order which would task the FCC with developing new regulations that would determine when and how social media companies filter posts, videos or articles on their platforms. If Facebook were to create a whole news section of vetted partners, that could lead to more accusations of bias. Through Facebook Watch, the company is actually already showcasing selected news sources, with Facebook working with several news publishers on Watch-exclusive programming. If more people are looking for news content, and Facebook can find a way to give it to them in a format that they like, Facebook wins through increased engagement and ad exposure.
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Twitter’s Testing a New DM Search Option Among Various Other Tweaks
Twitter is currently testing out a new option which would enable users to search through their DMs. The functionality is not amazing at this stage, you would be able to search via profile name, and likely by Twitter handle. Which is better than nothing, but a lot of the time when you do want to go searching through your DMs, its because you’re looking for something that someone has sent to you, so it would be more helpful to be able to search by message content. That doesn’t appear to be an option in this current phase of testing, though you would imagine its something that Twitter is also looking into, in order to make it a truly valuable addition. Twitter’s also now testing an option which would enable you to subscribe to a tweet discussion in order to get notified of any replies, while it’s also been refining smaller elements within its redesign – including its text sizing options, which have been a key pain point for many. None of these updates, in itself, is a major functional shift – like, say, editing tweets would be – but it’s clear that Twitter’s exploring a range of options aimed at improving the on-platform experience, and boosting engagement.
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Marketing
Google’s Mueller Asked About Increasing E-A-T with Structured Data
In a Google Webmaster Hangout, someone asked Google’s Webmaster Trends Analysis John Mueller about schema structured data and Expertise, Authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Structured data is simply a way to communicate information. It doesn’t communicate signals of quality. Mueller answered that using structured data was up to the publisher and that authorship information was gathered by Google “through a number of ways.” It must be pointed out that putting information in the structured data that does not exist in the web page itself can be viewed as spam and result in a manual action. Structured data is not a piñata filled with candy, waiting for Google to come along. It is just a way to communicate information that is visible to users on the web page itself. John Mueller himself said that Google tries to identify E-A-T “partially through the content directly.”
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Alexa devices maintain 70% market share in U.S. according to survey
Based on its newest survey, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners said “the US installed base of smart speaker devices is 76 million units, up from 70 million units in the March 2019 quarter and 50 million units in the June 2018 quarter.” Amazon has consistently and aggressively discounted its Echo Dot to maintain and grow its share of the smart speaker market – most recently, during Prime Day. Indeed, the company said that Echo Dot was its top-selling device during the sales event. Google has largely matched Amazon’s pricing to keep pace. In the broader virtual assistant market, a recent survey by Microsoft found that consumers were using Siri and Google Assistant equally (36%), followed by Alexa (25%) and then Cortana (19%). Unfortunately, the survey didn’t distinguish carefully between virtual assistant usage on smartphones and smart speakers.The realization of the full potential of virtual assistant powered devices depends on greater adoption of smart displays or the tighter integration of smartphones with smart speakers, which Google is trying to do. The first generation Echo was introduced in 2014. It will probably take another five years for these devices to mature and become viable marketing, commerce or customer service tools – if they ever will.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 9, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Twitter Begins Test of Optional Notifications for Replies to Any Tweet
Twitter’s testing out a new option that would enable users to receive notifications about replies to another account’s tweet. Users will be able to select any tweet, from any profile, and be notified as the discussion evolves. The option to subscribe to tweet replies was first spotted in testing by reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong back in March. Twitter’s launching the test on both iOS and Android with a limited subset of users. The functionality of the option is fairly limited in scope, but it has been a commonly requested feature, and it could help more users stay in touch with trending conversations and topics. Brands could also look to use the option for competitor monitoring – if there’s a discussion thread between a competing business and a customer which you’re interested in, you’d be able to stay across it with less effort.
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Twitter Announces Removal of Third-Party Data Sources from Ad Targeting Options
Twitter has confirmed that it will remove third-party data options from its ad targeting process, following Facebook’s lead in distancing itself from outside data sets, and the methods in which such may have been collected. Twitter currently partners with a range of data providers, which can help advertisers create more effective audiences by offering additional insight into certain trends and behaviors. But that also puts the creation and sourcing of those insights out of Twitter’s hands, which, as cases like the Cambridge Analytica case have shown, can be problematic. According to Twitter, most advertisers on the platform already use their own data to buy ads instead of purchasing the third-party insights available through its system, so the impact, in that sense, should be minimal. But it will put more onus on advertisers to ensure that their data is being sourced in a legitimate, legal way – while reducing the same for Twitter.
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Marketing
Reservations, AR navigation coming to Google Maps
Google Maps users will soon be able to view their flight and hotel reservations directly from the mobile app and use augmented reality to direct them as they travel on foot. These new features are part of Google’s expanded Maps offerings aimed at travelers. Viewable from the Your Places section of the Maps sidebar, the Reservations tab will display a user’s upcoming trips. Selecting a trip will display the associated reservations. Maps was once mainly a navigation application. Google has been adding more features to make it a hub where users can leave reviews, message local businesses, order food, view the places they have visited and, now, view the destinations they will visit, receive recommendations based on past searches or location history and save locations to reference later. For local businesses, Maps’ expanded functionality makes their GMB listings — for better or worse — a crucial part of their online presence.
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Google Will Now Highlight Individual Podcast Links Within Search Results
Google has announced that it will now highlight links to individual podcast episodes within relevant search queries, adding more potential brand-building value to the rising practice. Relevant podcasts will be highlighted, as Google notes, based on what’s being talked about within each episode, which it’s system can ascertain from the title and description. But Google can also, at least to some degree, understand the audio content of each program also. That could have significant benefits for podcast discovery – how accurate and valuable its recognition processes are at this stage is not 100% clear, but as Google improves its systems, this will make more podcasts even more valuable in an SEO sense. Google also notes that it’ll be looking to help podcasters further build their audiences by adding an option for publishers to specify where people can listen to their podcasts within search results. That’ll provide the capacity for publishers and brands to highlight podcasts which may be exclusively available by purchase or subscription.
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Daily Minute Master Series – August 8, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Pinterest adds new e-commerce layer with personalized ‘shopping hub’ atop user feed
Pinterest continues to push e-commerce initiatives, introducing a personalized “shopping hub” last week that displays at the top of users’ feeds with product recommendations pulled from retailers’ organic Product Pins and Catalog feeds. Pinterest also rolled out an updated shopping section that will display below Product Pins, highlighting Catalog content from the respective brand. “Making it easy to browse into the catalogs of brands of all sizes, like Target, Birdies Slippers, Joybird, The Tie Bar and Parachute,” Pinterest wrote on its business blog. Pinterest is continuing to build out e-commerce features for its discovery platform to connect users to more branded product recommendations. This personalized “shopping hub” gives retailers the opportunity to expand their reach on the platform outside of ad campaigns.
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Facebook Adds New Slideshow Option to Facebook Stories to Boost Usage
In it’s latest attempt to get more people using Facebook Stories, Facebook has introduced a new Stories option, which will enable users to add a still image slideshow to their Story. The new option, provides a simplified way to add a stream of images, which will play out through your Story frames. That could be particularly relevant among older users and/or those less familiar with the Stories format, both of which are key audience groups that Facebook ‘s keen to get onto the Stories train. But it also again raises the question, with Facebook pushing yet another Stories option as it seeks to boost engagement: Is Facebook Stories really going to supersede the News Feed as the primary social sharing option on The Social Network? The data does support the Stories shift, growth momentum which Facebook says will see Stories overtake feed sharing this year.
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Marketing
Google testing tools now support evergreen Googlebot
Google announced that many of the testing tools available within Google Search Console or the Google developer portal are now using the new evergreen Googlebot for crawling. Three months ago, Google launched what is being called evergreen Googlebot. In short, it means that Googlebot, Google’s web crawler, will crawl the web using the latest version of Chromium – basically what you and I see when we launch Chrome and browse the web. Googlebot and Chrome will be using the same rendering engine. Now, three months after this launch, the tools Google have now support and will continue to support the latest version of Chrome. That means what you see in Chrome, what Googlebot sees and what Google shows you in its testing tools should all match. These tools are: Search Console’s URL inspection tool, Mobile-friendly test, Rich results test and AMP tes. With this update, the testing tools will now show us what Googlebot sees today. For the past three months, the testing tools were using the old version of Googlebot and what those tools were showing you were actually not exactly what the new Googlebot was seeing. So now you can depend more on these tools for your SEO tests and validations.
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Google discontinues Trips mobile app
After three years, Google has phased out the Trips mobile app and integrated its “Things to do in a destination,” “Trip reservations” and “Saved places” features into Search and Maps. This follows the launch of Google’s browser-based travel planning tool announced at the company’s Marketing Live event in May. Did you even remember Trips existed? The impact of shutting it down will be minimal, but moving the users it did have from the Trips mobile app to Search and Maps for their travel planning may yield more opportunities to show ads to potential customers that have expressed interest in businesses like yours or have already booked travel to the area you service. Google.com/travel’s browser-based interface offers the same trip planning features on desktop and mobile, which may allow advertisers to target travelers that are logged in as they plan their itineraries at home and when they’ve arrived at their travel destinations.
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