Tag Archive for: Marketing News

Daily Minute Master Series – August 12, 2020

August 12, 2020/by Corey Padveen

Social Media

Facebook Publishes Latest Update on Content Removals, Fake Accounts, Hate Speech and More

Facebook has published the latest version of its Community Standards Enforcement Report, which outlines all of the policy and rule violations that Facebook has taken action on, across both Facebook and Instagram, over the preceding three months. The latest version of the report utilizes a new layout to present the data, which is essentially a large page of charts.

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Twitter Rolls Out Tweet Reply Controls to All Users

After testing them out over the last few months, Twitter has today announced that its new tweet reply control options are being made available to all users on iOS, Android and twitter.com.

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Pinterest Makes Skin Tone Search Qualifiers Available in More Regions, Expands AR Try-On Program

As part of its ongoing effort to improve the utility of its product recommendation tools, Pinterest is expanding the availability of its skin tone matching options, while it’s also adding more brands into its AR Try-On program, giving users more ways to shop online.

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Marketing

WordPress 5.5 – Easy Overview

WordPress 5.5 is a major update. It has over 450 improvements and bug fixes. These are the major changes you should know about in plain English.

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Structured Data & Relevance: Reading Between the Google Guidelines

Structured data plays a big role in the future of search. To future proof campaigns, SEO professionals should start paying more attention to Schema markup.

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Best Practices For B2B Tech Marketing During Times Of Crisis

Each touch point along the customer journey is an opportunity to enhance loyalty, increase revenue and gain an edge on the competition. Brands have found so much success prioritizing this strategy that a race has been on to create a truly 360-degree customer approach that will provide the best experience at every interaction.

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Daily Minute Master Series – August 11, 2020

August 11, 2020/by Corey Padveen

Social Media

Twitter Has Updated its Warning Prompts on Potentially Harmful Tweet Replies

After testing them out over the last few months, Twitter has today announced a new update for its warning prompts on tweet replies which it detects may contain offensive comments.

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TikTok Takeover Update: Twitter Looking for a Way In, Microsoft Facing Staff Backlash

With only 35 days left to negotiate a buy-out, or face a potential ban in the US, the pressure is on for TikTok, and its potential suitors, to get the details of any such deal straight, and establish what, exactly, the platform is worth, and whether it’s a viable prospect for their respective future plans. Thus far, only one company has publicly stated that it’s looking to purchase the short-form video app, but in recent days, two more organizations have reportedly expressed an interest in buying the app – though in slightly altered form to the Microsoft proposal.

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New Reports Underline Facebook’s Role in Exacerbating Political Divides – But Will Facebook Take Action?

As part of the ongoing investigation into potential antitrust activity among US tech giants, the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple all recently appeared before the US House Judiciary Committee, where they were asked a range of questions relating to varying concerns about how their companies operate.

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Marketing

Google Suffers Massive Glitch

Google’s search algorithm suffered an unprecedented glitch that affected search results. Many in the search community believed it was an update. It was not an update.

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Covid-19 Seems to Have Changed Lifestyles for Good

Covid-19 has altered life as we know it. When governments imposed lockdowns in March, people transformed their homes into makeshift offices, gyms and pubs. For many, crammed commutes and bustling nightlife became a distant memory. Now that countries have eased restrictions, residents are venturing outside again—but not as much as before. Globally, they made perhaps 25% fewer trips per day in July than they did in early March, according to The Economist’s analysis of Google’s phone-tracking data.

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15 Seconds of Engagement as a Simple Content Metric

Time on page is a familiar metric for content success, although it’s obvious that a page can be left open with no engagement happening. inPowered, the AI-driven content marketing, has proposed a minimum 15 seconds of engagement as optimal, and is reporting positive business outcomes.

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Daily Minute Master Series – August 10, 2020

August 10, 2020/by Corey Padveen

Social Media

The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Image Sizes in 2020 [Infographic]

Attention to detail is the difference between ‘good’ and ‘great’, and when you’re competing with so many other businesses on social media, you need to aspire to the latter, in everything that you do. That’s even more the case right now. Due to the COVID-19 lockdowns, an increasing number of businesses are looking to maximize their online presence, and maintain their operations via digital tools. That means even more competition, so you need to make sure that you’re paying attention to every element. Which includes your posted images. Using the right image dimension requirements for each platform will ensure that your visuals look their best, and provide the best reflection of your brand. And that’s where this overview can help – the team from AgencyAnalytics have put together an updated, platform-by-platform overview of optimal image sizes to help keep your content looking its best.

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Facebook Adds New Sponsored Post Options for Groups

As Facebook continues to emphasize group engagement, The Social Network is also looking to create more opportunities for businesses within these highly engaged communities. And while you can already run ads in the Groups feed, Facebook’s looking to add another potential revenue pathway specifically for group admins, with new brand partnership posts built into the groups experience direct.

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Top YouTube Searches During COVID-19 Pandemic

YouTube published a new set of insights with information about the most popular video topics since the pandemic started. From sourdough to self-care, trending topics reveal that people turned to YouTube to learn skills and improve their wellbeing. YouTube’s report is full of rich visuals, as well as insight into what can be derived from the popularity of each search term. Here’s a quick rundown of key insights from the report.

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Marketing

The 11 Most Important Hard & Soft Skills Marketers Need to Have

Picture this: You’re wearing many hats as far as marketing goes. You’re ready to rock the digital marketing sphere. Not so fast! You could be lacking in the soft skillset department, and you might not be able to speak the marketing language fluently. This mistake may compromise your exposure, distancing you from the online population.

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How Visual Commerce is Transforming the Customer Experience

As we near the six-month milestone in the new world of the digital customer experience, one often overlooked segment is now more relevant than ever—visual commerce. But what is visual commerce? 3-D images? Video sales calls? Visual commerce is much more than just these tactics, which proactive marketing departments are getting to know as they adjust to the new normal. “The transition that people expected to take four years has occurred in four months,” said Chris Beaudin, director of marketing for Atlatl Software, a visual commerce platform. “It is a drastic mental shift that is now a necessity. A lot of big companies were dragging their feet, making the back end a priority, now they have to play catch-up.”

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How Connected TV Measurement Proves Its Performance Marketing Potential

A lot has been written about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world of advertising. Budgets were decimated and marketers scrambled to find other ways to do more with less. One of the less talked about themes, however, has been how the pandemic served as a major blow to linear TV consumption and as a boon to Connected TV (CTV). There are tons of stats that support this sea-change – 80% of US households now own at least one connected TV (CTV) device, and Nielsen has tracked an 81% YoY increase in CTV viewing time while linear has fallen off. Some TV networks are now even starting to prioritize their content for streaming ahead of linear TV in a nod to the new normal of user behavior.

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Daily Minute Master Series – August 7, 2020

August 7, 2020/by Corey Padveen

Social Media

TikTok Updates Efforts to Counter Misinformation and Election Interference on its Platform

As the US tech giants weigh a possible takeover offer for the rising video app, TikTok has this week announced a new set of measures to better detect and remove misinformation on its platform, while it’s also, interestingly, working with experts from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to protect against foreign influence. Interesting, in this sense, because TikTok has been identified by some experts as a distribution platform for pro-China propaganda – which, of course, TikTok is very keen to pushback against.

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Instagram is Reels Complicated Now

Instagram has something valuable that Facebook doesn’t: a young, trendsetting audience. That makes it an irresistible venue for striking blows against competitors. For Snapchat, Instagram has Stories. For YouTube, there’s IGTV, and for TikTok, there’s now Reels, which works almost exactly the same way as the popular but controversial video app. Through a lot of copycatting trial and error, the company has found that any new product that isn’t wrapped into either Facebook or Instagram’s network usually fails to get traction. That’s right. (Did you use Poke? Bolt? Slingshot? Lasso? Exactly.) Wrapping Reels within Instagram is the only way to guarantee at least a few hundred million people will use it fast enough to weaken TikTok at vulnerable moment.

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Snapchat Adds In-App Voter Registration Targeted at Young People

Snapchat is rolling out a slew of new tools and features to help prepare young people to vote in the November election. Snapchat has unparalleled reach into Gen Z and Millennial demographics. The tools it’s building are meant to guide those specific populations to more resources to help them register to vote and form a voting plan. Other platforms focusing on voter registration are doing so with a much wider user population in mind.

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Marketing

Can PageRank Predict the NHL Playoffs?

The 2020 NHL playoffs are (finally) underway. So in the spirit of debate, let’s find out if it’s possible to measure sports using SEO techniques – and ultimately predict the next NHL Stanley Cup champion.

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Search Console API Announcements

Over the past year, we have been working to upgrade the infrastructure of the Search Console API, and we are happy to let you know that we’re almost there. You might have already noticed some minor changes, but in general, our goal was to make the migration as invisible as possible. This change will help Google to improve the performance of the API as demand grows.

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Should You Ignore 2020 In Your 2021 Marketing Plan?

“How do I think about 2020 when building my 2021 marketing plan?” To be sure, 2020 has been a year. And it’s barely half over. So many related questions are still unanswered:

Will the continued spread of Covid-19 lead to renewed shutdowns?
Will we see a second wave of the pandemic during this winter’s cold and flu season?
Will consumers maintain their new online shopping habits even if the pandemic wanes?

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Daily Minute Master Series – August 6, 2020

August 6, 2020/by Corey Padveen

Social Media

Instagram Launches its TikTok-Like ‘Reels’ Functionality in 50 New Regions

In a move that will be a surprise to absolutely no one, Instagram has today announced that it’s making is TikTok-like ‘Reels’ functionality available in 50 regions, including the US, in addition to the 4 where it was already available.

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TikTok Valued at Around $30 Billion, as Microsoft Evaluates Takeover Offer

How much is TikTok actually worth? Some estimates have put the app at close to $50 billion, given its meteoric growth and large user base. Official predictions suggest that Microsoft, or any other suitor, will need to pony up between $10b and $30b to purchase the short-form video app – and for comparison, Instagram is reportedly worth around $100 billion. It stands to reason that TikTok could be worth around half of Instagram’s price – but then again, that depends on what exactly they would be getting for that price.

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Twitter Publishes New Data on the Rising Gaming Discussion on the Platform

If you’re not paying attention to the rise of gaming culture, you’re missing a huge chunk of how the next wave of consumers connect and interact. The majority of the top-performing channels on YouTube relate, in some way, to gaming culture, while gaming more generally is set to become a $196 billion industry by 2022. And that growth has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 lockdowns around the world – which is reflected in the latest research data from Twitter, which looks at the emerging gaming conversation via tweet.

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Marketing

Google Ads Advertisers Can Now Capture Leads From YouTube

Google is giving advertisers new ways to capture leads by adding lead form extensions to YouTube and Discovery campaigns. Lead form extensions were first introduced last year when Google enabled them for search campaigns. These extensions allow advertisers to append lead forms to ads that appear in search results – and now YouTube and Discover as well. The forms appear after users express interest in the ads by clicking on them. Then the ad will expand into a conversion form, which users can fill out and submit it without ever leaving the screen they’re on. If a user is logged into their Google account then lead forms can be automatically filled in and submitted with just a few clicks.

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Google Ads Rolling Out Multiple Updates to App Campaigns

App campaigns in Google Ads can now be optimized specifically for driving as many app installs within as short a timeframe as possible. An update coming later this year will simplify the campaign creation process with a new tool for optimizing images. Here’s more about each of these updates to app campaigns.

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4 Ways to Get Started with Agile Marketing

The only constant in marketing is change. And with that constant change comes greater expectations for the marketing team to produce bigger results at a faster pace with limited resources and a newly remote workforce. Now more than ever, marketers must be ready for whatever comes their way—and they must be equipped with the right tools and processes to get results. To keep up, many marketing teams are making big changes to how they manage their work and create differentiating content by adopting an Agile methodology. Agile marketing allows marketers to be more organized, get more done and be more responsive to market changes or with shifting company strategy.

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Daily Minute Master Series – August 5, 2020

August 5, 2020/by Corey Padveen

Social Media

Facebook Launches ‘Black Business August’ to Support and Highlight Black-Owned Businesses

Facebook has announced a new slate of free education sessions and awareness programs as part of National Black Business Month, which celebrates the contributions of black-owned businesses around the world.

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Facebook’s Updated Chat Plugin for Websites Enables Messaging Without Logging onto Messenger

Facebook has launched a new update for its Messenger chat plug-in for websites, which enables businesses to prompt direct message conversations with visitors to their site via a pop-up chat window. Facebook has updated the design and format of the plug-in, and made it easier to integrate into your website code. But the biggest change is that website visitors will now be able to start a Messenger conversation with your business, from your website, without having to log on to Messenger to do so.

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Snapchat Updates Audience Reach insights with Regional Audience Counts

This could help provide more context for your Snapchat marketing approach. Last month, Snapchat shared its Q2 performance numbers, in which it reported a 17% year-on-year increase in daily active users to 238 million. Reflecting this increase, Snapchat has also updated its Snap Focus education module on Unique Audience Reach, which also includes more specific detail on Snap’s regional audience numbers.

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Marketing

Google’s Search Quality Raters Do Not Directly Influence Rankings

Google published a detailed explainer about how changes to search rankings are evaluated internally before being rolled out to users. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison for Search, goes over the role of search quality raters and how their evaluations are incorporated into algorithm updates. Thousands of changes to Google’s search algorithms are made every year, and they all go through a process to determine whether they will be useful for searchers around the world. Here’s are some ways that feedback from quality raters and regular people are used in algorithm updates.

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SEO for Images: See What You’re Missing in Your Visual Search Strategy

The visual aspect of communication and marketing has become increasingly important. But why is SEO for images – and the general concept of visual search – still considered a little more than a marketing nice-to-have? In his SEJ eSummit session, Gianluca Fiorelli detailed all the visual search opportunities you might be missing out on that can increase your organic traffic through the correct usage and optimization of images. He also talked about how to get more and better organic traffic using Google Search, Images Search, Google Lens, Photo and Assistant. Here’s a recap of the presentation.

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How Search Data Can Inform Larger Online Business Decisions

As an SEO I’m constantly utilizing keyword search volume data to help make more informed decisions about clients’ online presence. But the reality is, this data has way more use cases than anyone gives it credit for. The role of a decision maker in any online business requires the ability to gather (or be presented with), understand, and forecast with all types of data. Simple yet effective methods for identifying trends in online searches can ensure you’re getting your product or services in front of the right people at the right time. This is particularly useful if you sell a variety of seasonal products online. But the same process can be leveraged for single-focus businesses, as well. This data can then trickle down to a variety of team members, from SEO and Paid Search Account Managers, to merchandisers and content strategists.

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Daily Minute Master Series – August 4, 2020

August 4, 2020/by Corey Padveen

Social Media

White House Gives TikTok Till September 15th to Sell its Business: Here’s What You Need to Know

To recap the current situation – earlier this month, following the Indian Government’s decision to ban all Chinese apps, including TikTok, in its nation amid ongoing border battles with Chinese forces, US President Donald Trump said that he too was considering banning the app as part of punishment for the COVID-19 outbreak. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later clarified that the Government was indeed considering banning the app, but less so as a form of punishment, and more due to concerns that it could be used as both a surveillance and propaganda tool for the Chinese regime. That concern is not unfounded, with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance having in the past worked with the CCP to moderate anti-government content and distribute pro-China material within its apps.

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Snapchat’s Working on a New Option to Add Popular Music Clips to Your Snaps

Snapchat’s working on a new way to share music within Snaps, which could be seen as another nod towards the rising popularity of TikTok, though there are some variances in application.

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Facebook Will Look to Support New eCommerce Functionalities via its Accelerator Program

With Facebook looking to make eCommerce a bigger focus in order to assist businesses impacted by COVID-19, The Social Network has this week announced a new, specific eCommerce element within its startup accelerator program, which will provide training and support to “innovative commerce startups” that are looking to improve the online shopping experience.

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Marketing

Google Analytics Shifts More Data Privacy Control to Marketers

Against the backdrop of multiple data privacy violation lawsuits against tech companies and increasing government regulations on data collection, Google announced new settings that gives marketers more control over data collection. Publishers can now disable personalization, delete data and take advantage of other settings that impact the data privacy of consumers.

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Will Google’s Ad Disclosure Schema Catch On?

Google announced some updates to how it plans to inform users about the ads they see, including a new type of schema, as well as the latest on Privacy Sandbox proposals to manage ad serving, measurement and more without third-party cookies and cross-site tracking on Friday.

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WhatsApp Rolling Out Search the Web Functionality to Help Fact Check Viral Messages

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, but that also means a lot of misinformation and rumors are shared on the platform. Separating fact from fiction is important, especially with everything this year has thrown at us. Now WhatsApp is starting to roll out a feature that lets users quickly search Google for frequently shared messages to see if there’s more info online.

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Daily Minute Master Series – August 3, 2020

August 3, 2020/by Corey Padveen

Social Media

TikTok Responds to Possible US Ban: “We’re Not Planning on Going Anywhere”

Are we close to saying goodbye to TikTok? On Friday evening, speaking to the press pool, US President Donald Trump said that TikTok would soon be banned in the US, sparking an outpouring of emotional responses from the app’s users, and a major surge in downloads of alternate video apps.

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Microsoft Mulls Purchase of TikTok as Trump Says That he is Banning the App in the US

Bloomberg reported that the US Government is planning to announce a decision which would essentially order China-based ByteDance to divest its ownership of short-form video app TikTok, or face a total ban on the app in the American market.

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FBI Announces Arrests Over Recent Twitter Hack

After Twitter yesterday provided an updated overview of how its recent high-profile, Bitcoin-scam hack occurred, in which various celebrity accounts were taken over by the hackers, the FBI has today announced that a man in Florida has been arrested over the incident, while two others have been charged with assisting the crime.

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Marketing

Doing More with Less: Automated, High-Quality Content Generation

How do you continue to deliver amazing results with limited time and resources? Writing quality content that educates and persuades is still a surefire way to achieve your traffic and conversion goals. But the process is an arduous, manual job that doesn’t scale. Fortunately, the latest advances in Natural Language Understanding and Generation offer some promising and exciting results. For his SEJ eSummit session, Hamlet Batista discussed what is possible right now using practical examples (and code) that technical SEO professionals can follow and adapt for their business.

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SaaS Marketing: How to Never Miss Your MQL Goal Again [Webinar]

Many marketers are struggling to find success during COVID-19. It’s no different in the SaaS industry. Digital marketers are working diligently but they are not seeing the marketing qualified lead (MQL) growth they’re striving for.

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Why SEOs Should Care About Brand

Brand is already affecting the performance we are held accountable for, so we can use the data we have as SEOs to benefit the whole company.

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Daily Minute Master Series – July 31, 2020

July 31, 2020/by Corey Padveen

Social Media

Snapchat Publishes First-Ever ‘CitizenSnap’ Report Which Outlines its Contributions to Societal Improvement<

Snapchat has today published its first-ever CitizenSnap report, which provides an overview of the company’s efforts to address racial inequality, environmental responsibility and societal impact over the past year.

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Facebook Adds 100 Million More Users, Reports 11% Revenue Growth Amid COVID-19

Despite COVID-19, an advertiser boycott, and an appearance before US officials over possible antitrust violations. Even amid these varied distractions and impacts, Facebook has once again reported steady growth in its latest earnings report, with the platform now exceeding 3 billion users worldwide across its ‘family of apps’. First off, on users – Facebook added another 100 million monthly active users in the Q2, taking it to 2.7b MAU.

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Twitter Provides New Detail on Recent Celebrity Account Hack

Twitter has today provided another update on the extent of the recent hack which saw the profiles of several high profile users, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden and more, taken over and used to promote a cryptocurrency scam.

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Marketing

3 Tips for Keyword Research & Content Localization Success

Keyword research and content localization are crucial for the SEO success of international websites. Learn proven tips to keep your campaigns in good shape.

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Google Maps Goes Social Giving Each User Their Own Profile

Google is turning Maps into a social network of sorts by giving each user their own profile filled with photos and reviews they’ve submitted. This is an extension of a pilot feature rolled out last year that allowed users to follow select Local Guides and get their latest updates. Following the success of the pilot launch, Google is expanding this functionality worldwide to all users.

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Feedback Optimization: A User-First Approach to SEO

Feedback optimization is the process of using readers’ comments to improve your content. See how this strategy can improve SEO performance while creating better search results for your audience.

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Daily Minute Master Series – July 30, 2020

July 30, 2020/by Corey Padveen

Social Media

Snapchat Publishes New Study into Evolving Video Consumption Behaviors

Snapchat has published a new study which looks at evolving video consumption behaviors, particularly among younger audiences, and provides recommendations on how businesses can align their content efforts with these shifts. The report is based on research conducted by The National Research Group, and incorporates responses from over N=1,000 respondents aged 13-35 in the US – while Snap has also produced localized versions for the UK and Saudi Arabia as well.

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TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer Issues Challenge to Facebook in First Public Statement

After coming into the role back in May, new, US-based TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer has today issued his first public statement, in which he takes an aggressive stance in facing up to the challenges posed by regulators and competitors, whom, he says, are seeking to shut the app down. TikTok is currently under investigation in the US and other regions over its links to the Chinese Government, which has already resulted in the platform being banned in India. Amid the speculation, Facebook has also taken the opportunity to further squeeze the app, by releasing its similar ‘Reels’ functionality on Instagram into more markets. Facebook has even offered deals to prominent TikTok creators to get them to share their content on Reels instead.

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11 Facebook Ad Tactics for High-Converting Campaigns

Facebook Ads is easily one of my favorite platforms to run ads across the entire customer journey. There are so many targeting options and placements – the opportunities are endless. Done right, you can prospect, re-engage, and convert in a cost-efficient way. Here are 11 tips for driving more value with Facebook Ads.

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Marketing

Marketing Disrupted: 5 Ways AR & VR Are Reshaping Digital Marketing

Augmented reality is more than a buzzword. Move over human influencers; virtual beings might be the next-gen in the near future of marketing. Ever want to grab a headset and meet your client in virtual reality instead of Zoom – see what your home office makeover could look like using augmented reality or create a virtual copy of yourself and send it off to teach your next webinar or Facebook Live? Digital marketers are facing new realities, thanks to pandemic disruptions, diversity movements, and social distancing. Everything – from virtual spaces, micro-messaging to digital creators to platform targeting – has completely turned marketing upside down in the last few months.

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Google Advises Site Owners of Rise in ‘Work From Home’ Searches

Google is notifying site owners via Search Console of an increase in searches related to work from home jobs. The increase in searches is directly related COVID-19’s impact on businesses and employment. The purpose of alerting site owners is to make them aware of an opportunity to use remote job structured data markup.

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Search Competition: Who Are You Really Competing With?

Competition is constant. No matter what business you’re in, there will always be other people competing with you for customers, subscribers, viewers, partners, etc. Even Google technically has competition — maybe you found this article through Bing? The point is…you have competitors trying to beat you. Do you know who they are?

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