Every year, Edelman releases their Trust Barometer, measuring the level of trust the population has in bodies of varying authority. It’s no surprise that this year, there were some significant changes to how people see the world and where they place their trust.
While we see shifts in consumer trust focal points and factors with each passing year, there were some significant changes in 2020 due to pivotal aspects such as the racial justice movement across the world, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. These are just a few of the highlights and points of note worth understanding in the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer report.
The Biggest Loss Can Be Found with Trust in Government
17 of 27 countries saw significant decreases in consumer trust in government. This has been fueled in large part due to the pandemic and has been exacerbated by the spread of misinformation online (discussed below). Government has traditionally been the institution with the highest level of trust among both the informed and general public, but with the drop this year to third place among the four main organizational sources of consumer trust, businesses have taken the lead.
Business is the Most Trusted Institution
People point to businesses as the most trusted institution they have. Among businesses, NGOs, media, and government, businesses saw the largest increase in consumer trust. Simply put, people feel like employers are in a position where honesty and attentiveness have the most impact on their success, and therefore can be trusted most to put the needs and demands of employers and consumers first.
Fear Related to the Pandemic is a Major Factor in Loss of Consumer Trust
Fear was a common theme among respondents, whether related to societal tensions or the pandemic, and as a result, personal fears had a major impact on consumer trust overall. Concern over job security and job availability has resulted in a nervousness among consumers, and that is reflected in the overall drops in general consumer trust in most major segments.
Academics, Experts, and Peers See Loss in Consumer Trust
One concerning aspect with regards to both consumer trust and, to a more focused degree, the direction of business and marketing, was the all-time lows reached in consumer trust in academic experts, technical experts, and peers (a person like yourself).
How does this factor into the world of business and, to a smaller degree, marketing? Peers have long been on the rise when it comes to consumer trust. This source of information is largely why earned media and influencer marketing have exploded in recent years. This plunge to 53% of consumers indicating they trust this source can have significant repercussions in how businesses reach and connect with consumers moving forward.
Misinformation Leads to Record Lows
Misinformation in media – both traditional and to a more severe degree, social – has led to plummeting levels of trust in a number of previously reliable sources. While this has led to a greater reliance on information at a local level, we will need to assess the long-term impact on consumer trust when it comes to content found in digital and social media.
Media and Science Literacy Skyrocket
With a decrease in trust came an inverse correlation in media and science literacy. Consumers have clearly indicated that they are setting out to learn for themselves beyond any threshold set in the past. The key to continuing to see this as a positive step will be the ongoing battle against misinformation that could hurt trust in the long-term.
Safety and Training Become Keys for Employees
Due to factors such a societal tensions and the pandemic, a key for employees that has emerged as more crucial than ever is safety in the workplace. Coupled with that is proper training. Fear and concern over job loss and availability mean that people want a sense of reassurance and security that they are safe in their roles and that there exists the opportunity for advancement and growth.
Consumers Feel Empowered to Affect Change
Community activism has shown that people can affect real change when working together. This has empowered consumers and given them new confidence in their ability to dictate to companies how they expect them to act, rather than see companies and authoritative bodies as those solely in command.
This was clearly a transformative year, and what is most clear is that priorities for consumers and consumer trust factors have shifted dramatically. While we collectively hope for a return to ‘normalcy’, it remains to be seen how that term is defined as we emerge from the pandemic.
You can read the full Edelman Trust Barometer report here.
Daily Minute Master Series – February 2, 2021
/by Corey PadveenThe Marketing Rundown
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Social Media
Facebook’s Daily Active Usage Has Stalled in the US – A Sign of Concern for The Social Network?
For the full article click here
Twitter’s Acquisition Spree Could Point to Rising Internal Pressure, Particularly for CEO Jack Dorsey
Twitter has been on an acquisition spree of late, buying up visual creation platforms, design and production teams, improved audio discovery tools, and most recently, newsletter creation platform Revue.
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YouTube Points to Shorts as Key Development Opportunity in 2021
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Marketing
4 Audio Advertising Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2021
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Google: Embedded Videos Have Same SEO Value as Uploaded Content
Google’s John Mueller says there’s no difference, when it comes to SEO, between embedded videos and videos natively uploaded to a website. This topic came up more than once during the Google Search Central SEO office-hours on January 29. Saidul Hoque, SEO Manager at RealClicks, started by asking a series of questions about video SEO. One of those questions involves Google’s perception of embedded content versus self-hosted content.
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Google Updates Event Structured Data Requirements
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Gen Z and Millennial App Usage Shifts in 2020
/by Corey PadveenGen Z and Millennial app usage signal shifts in mobile user behaviors with regards to social media in the coming year.
Image Credit: App Annie
Gen Z and Millennial app usage can often be regarded as key defining engagement metrics dictating the direction of mobile marketing and engagement. In 2020, a few familiar names disappeared from the top five most likely to use, Facebook among them, to make way for some new, hugely popular platforms.
According to App Annie, Snapchat and Discord took the top spot for Gen Z and Millennials, respectively. In fact, in the United States, massive platforms like Facebook and Instagram that have long-reigned on top of at least some key demographics were not present in the analysis of Apps Most Like to Use for Gen Z, Millennials, or Gen X. While Facebook’s properties still account for the most hours spent overall, the data suggests that popularity might have plateaued as other apps, like TikTok and Twitch, saw significant year-over-year gains in engagement.
Globally, 3.5 trillion hours of time were spent on apps, leading to over $140 billion in consumer transactions. 2020 was a year that saw enormous growth in mobile adoption and usage, with an average of 8% more time spent on mobile than watching television. That’s a 20% increase in time spent on mobile from 2019. Of course, the pandemic and lockdowns were major contributing factors, but the key here is that the desired platform under these conditions was mobile over any other.
As you might expect, the majority (roughly 2/3) of mobile app spend was generated from gaming – ranging from casual to casino. This was driven primarily from in-app spend in arcade games, which saw a 300% year-over-year growth. Ultimately, all sectors saw a significant increase in both adoption and engagement, which leads one to question how this shapes the future of mobile marketing and consumer engagement.
In terms of live content, streaming platforms saw incredible rises in popularity, with the average amount of content streamed up anywhere from 60-85% around the world.
YouTube still reigns supreme both in the United States and globally, but other live platforms, like Twitch, are gaining steam as live streaming has emerged as a favorite for more diverse audiences outside of gaming during the pandemic.
What Does This Mean for Marketers
Shifting demographic preferences when it comes to marketing is nothing new. IT is something we, as marketers, are constantly adapting to and for which we are consistently creating new strategies. But one thing that has become clear is that experiential mobile is becoming a key component of mobile engagement. Content alone is not going to drive the level of engagement marketers enjoyed early in the rise of mobile on networks like Facebook and Instagram. We need to find new ways of directly engaging with audiences in a live environment. Gen Z and Millennial app usage behaviors are clearly trending towards personalized, immersive experiences, and this has intensified during the pandemic and lockdowns. While there is clearly still considerable value from an overall engagement standpoint in static content, creativity in how mobile and, more specifically, gaming and live streaming, can be used to connect and engage with key, younger audiences will be crucial to building your brand and connecting with new demographics moving forward.
Daily Minute Master Series – February 1, 2021
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
The Perfect Social Media Posting Schedule for Your Business in 2021 [Infographic]
For the full article click here
Twitter and Sprinklr Join Forces to Release 2021 Customer Care Report
Twitter and Sprinklr, the Customer Experience Management (CXM) platform for modern enterprises, have just launched a 2021 Customer Care Report: From AM to DM: Twitter customer care in a 24/7 world.
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Twitter and NBCUniversal Explore New Ways to Meet the Demand for Premium Social Content
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Marketing
21 Day Digital Marketing Challenge
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Google Sees Discover As Part of Search
Google’s John Mueller says it’s common for broad core algorithm updates to impact Discover in addition to web search results. Google sees Discover as part of search results, rather than a separate component. Since Discover is part of search it uses a number of the same quality algorithms, Muller says. That means changes to Google’s web search algorithm will impact Discover. Or, as Mueller puts it, updates to Google’s search algorithm “commonly” impact Discover.
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3 Keys to a Digital Advertising Growth Mindset in 2021
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Daily Minute Master Series – January 29, 2021
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Social Media Ad and Video Spend Skyrocketed in Q4 2020
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Facebook Explains How the News Feed Predicts What We Want to See
ow does Facebook’s news feed AI decide which posts to show you and when? Facebook has released a full explanation and, as you may assume, the system is very complex. If you’re interested in hearing the Facebook engineering team’s perspective, you’ll get to learn more about the way the multi-layer algorithm code is built.
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Twitter Announces Acquisition of Newsletter Platform, Revue
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Marketing
Coors Light and Coors Seltzer’s Big Game Ad Will Air in Your Dreams
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Google Drops Review Snippets For Lawyers
It looks like Google has stopped displaying the rich results review snippets for attorneys and lawyers in the Google search results. Joy Hawkins showed a screen shot from January 10, 2021 with ratings showing in the Google search results and then on January 26, 2021 they are gone.
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Your Guide to Getting Into Google News
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Daily Minute Master Series – January 28, 2021
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
3 Social Media Trends to Watch in 2021
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Facebook Begins Rolling Out ‘Facebook News’ in UK
Facebook News, Facebook’s dedicated tab for news in the native app, launched its first test run in the US back in October of 2019. As of today, Facebook News has officially launched in the UK.
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Alternative Social Media Platforms Gain in Popularity
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Marketing
Edelman Trust Barometer 2021
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The Disappearing Amazon Resellers
Amazon conceived the marketplace to bring brands it couldn’t convince to sell onto the site. Thus, for years most of the sellers were large resellers with tens of thousands of products. However, increased competition and brands going direct has eroded this opportunity. Only 10% of the top third-party sellers on Amazon have more than 1,000 products for sale. Five years ago, in 2016, that number was nearly 40%. According to Marketplace Pulse analysis of the top Amazon sellers, the share has steadily decreased since then. The number of products was chosen as an arbitrary point to differentiate large resellers from other types of sellers. Half of the top sellers currently have 70 or fewer products.
For the full article click here
Web Design Trends and Statistics 2021 [Infographic]
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Key Findings in the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer
/by Corey PadveenEvery year, Edelman releases their Trust Barometer, measuring the level of trust the population has in bodies of varying authority. It’s no surprise that this year, there were some significant changes to how people see the world and where they place their trust.
While we see shifts in consumer trust focal points and factors with each passing year, there were some significant changes in 2020 due to pivotal aspects such as the racial justice movement across the world, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. These are just a few of the highlights and points of note worth understanding in the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer report.
The Biggest Loss Can Be Found with Trust in Government
17 of 27 countries saw significant decreases in consumer trust in government. This has been fueled in large part due to the pandemic and has been exacerbated by the spread of misinformation online (discussed below). Government has traditionally been the institution with the highest level of trust among both the informed and general public, but with the drop this year to third place among the four main organizational sources of consumer trust, businesses have taken the lead.
Business is the Most Trusted Institution
People point to businesses as the most trusted institution they have. Among businesses, NGOs, media, and government, businesses saw the largest increase in consumer trust. Simply put, people feel like employers are in a position where honesty and attentiveness have the most impact on their success, and therefore can be trusted most to put the needs and demands of employers and consumers first.
Fear Related to the Pandemic is a Major Factor in Loss of Consumer Trust
Fear was a common theme among respondents, whether related to societal tensions or the pandemic, and as a result, personal fears had a major impact on consumer trust overall. Concern over job security and job availability has resulted in a nervousness among consumers, and that is reflected in the overall drops in general consumer trust in most major segments.
Academics, Experts, and Peers See Loss in Consumer Trust
One concerning aspect with regards to both consumer trust and, to a more focused degree, the direction of business and marketing, was the all-time lows reached in consumer trust in academic experts, technical experts, and peers (a person like yourself).
How does this factor into the world of business and, to a smaller degree, marketing? Peers have long been on the rise when it comes to consumer trust. This source of information is largely why earned media and influencer marketing have exploded in recent years. This plunge to 53% of consumers indicating they trust this source can have significant repercussions in how businesses reach and connect with consumers moving forward.
Misinformation Leads to Record Lows
Misinformation in media – both traditional and to a more severe degree, social – has led to plummeting levels of trust in a number of previously reliable sources. While this has led to a greater reliance on information at a local level, we will need to assess the long-term impact on consumer trust when it comes to content found in digital and social media.
Media and Science Literacy Skyrocket
With a decrease in trust came an inverse correlation in media and science literacy. Consumers have clearly indicated that they are setting out to learn for themselves beyond any threshold set in the past. The key to continuing to see this as a positive step will be the ongoing battle against misinformation that could hurt trust in the long-term.
Safety and Training Become Keys for Employees
Due to factors such a societal tensions and the pandemic, a key for employees that has emerged as more crucial than ever is safety in the workplace. Coupled with that is proper training. Fear and concern over job loss and availability mean that people want a sense of reassurance and security that they are safe in their roles and that there exists the opportunity for advancement and growth.
Consumers Feel Empowered to Affect Change
Community activism has shown that people can affect real change when working together. This has empowered consumers and given them new confidence in their ability to dictate to companies how they expect them to act, rather than see companies and authoritative bodies as those solely in command.
This was clearly a transformative year, and what is most clear is that priorities for consumers and consumer trust factors have shifted dramatically. While we collectively hope for a return to ‘normalcy’, it remains to be seen how that term is defined as we emerge from the pandemic.
You can read the full Edelman Trust Barometer report here.
Daily Minute Master Series – January 27, 2021
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Social Media Managers Grapple with Burnout, Leaving the Industry
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TikTok Launches New ‘Creator Portal’ Education Platform to Help Creators Maximize their Efforts
TikTok has launched a new Creator Portal platform in order to provide additional guidance and tips to help creators maximize their in-app presence.
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Instagram Launches New ‘Professional Dashboard’ Platform to Provide Quick Guidance for Creators
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Marketing
Will Australia Have to Live Without Google Search?
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Google: Sites Can Safely Display Pop-Ups On Temporary Basis
Google’s John Mueller says sites can display pop-ups without being affected by the mobile interstitials penalty, as long as the pop-ups are temporary. Since the intrusive interstitials penalty was introduced in 2016, the word from Google has been to avoid showing pop-ups to mobile visitors or risk having your pages devalued in search. Now we’ve learned it’s safe to display pop-ups on mobile, at least for a limited timeframe.
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Google’s John Mueller Praises Digital PR
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Daily Minute Master Series – January 26, 2021
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Pinterest Adds New AR ‘Try-On’ Tools for Eyeshadow, Expands Product Tagging Within Pins
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Snapchat Launches Test of Dark Mode with Small Percentage of Users
This will be welcome news to dark mode enthusiasts. This week, Snapchat has confirmed that it’s testing a new dark mode option with a small percentage of users, moving into line with almost every other app that now has a low light option.
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LinkedIn Adds New Post Visibility and Reply Controls to Manage On-Platform Discussions
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Marketing
16 Website & Blog Content Ideas to Get More Traffic & Engagement [Infographic]
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Google Outlines New Deal to Pay French Publishers for Use of Their Content
As it continues to negotiate with Australian authorities over the proposed implementation of new regulations, which would force it to share revenue with local news publishers in that nation, Google has today announced a new deal that will see it pay French publishers for news content, as part of its Google News Showcase program.
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Does Google Set Limits to Search Traffic?
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Daily Minute Master Series – January 25, 2021
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Social Media Replaces Fairs as the Third Most Successful Sales Channel for Galleries in 2020
How the art world mighty have fallen. Art fairs—ranking as the third most successful way for galleries to sell art in 2019—has slipped to sixth position in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Artsy Gallery Insights 2021 Report. Social media has replaced fairs, becoming galleries’ third best sales channel, moving up from sixth place in 2019. “The ranking of top sales channels shuffled considerably this year, with online sales, social media, and gallery websites taking the place of art fairs and walk-ins,” the report says. However, the number one way to sell art remains outreach to existing clients, accounting for 28% of total annual gallery sales in 2020.
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These 14 Principles Could Help Big Platforms Create Healthier Social Media
Major internet platforms could do a lot more to create healthy social media by adopting measures to keep people safe and encourage users to see one another as human, according to new research that surveys their most dedicated users. The researchers, who are part of a project called Civic Signals that is devoted to building healthier online spaces, asked 20,000 internet users across 20 countries about their use and perception of platforms including messaging apps Telegram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger; social networking tools including LinkedIn, Reddit, Facebook, and Pinterest; and search engines Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
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Social Media Bans Are Really, Actually, Shockingly Common
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Marketing
5 Reasons Email Outreach Campaigns Don’t Hit the Mark
Planning an email outreach campaign? Check out the five most common reasons why email outreach campaigns fail, and learn how to avoid them.
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Are Super Bowl Ads Worth the Money or is YouTube an Alternative?
Is it still worth it to invest in Super Bowl ads on TV in 2021? Find out here, and learn why YouTube is a good alternative.
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9 Factors to Consider in Hiring a Search Agency
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Daily Minute Master Series – January 22, 2021
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
How To Harness The Hot New Social Media App Clubhouse To Build Your Brand
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Pinterest Tests New Stories Panel at the Top of User Feeds
If you’ve logged into the Pinterest app recently, you may have noticed a new addition at the top of your home screen.
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Facebook Launches Updated ‘Account Quality’ Dashboard to Help Businesses Address Concerns
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Marketing
Shutterstock Outlines Emerging Visual Trends for 2021 [Infographic]
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A Quick Guide to SEO for Non-Profits [Infographic]
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11 Guest Posting Tips for Better Link & Brand Value
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