Krista Neher
Aug 10 2018
August 2018 Digital Marketing News Updates
We sort through the latest and greatest in digital marketing news updates each month so you don’t have to! Below is a list of changes relevant to digital marketers, along with explanations of why they matter.
Members of our Digital Marketing Insiders program get a first look at these updates, as well as answers to their questions every month. This small investment keeps them at the top of their professional game month after month. Ready to do you job better?
Facebook News Updates
- Facebook new time management tool – Facebook has a new tool for users that shows how much time you spend on the platform and what you do there. This demonstrates a lot of transparency for Facebook, but might actually turn off users who realize they spend WAY too much time on the app.
- New Video Metrics – Facebook changed their video metrics to better report on how people watch video. This also has a nice chart showing how people consume video content online – worth noting as you consider how to tell your story with videos.
- Facebook Rolls out Watch Party to Groups – This is an interesting development that allows groups to watch a video together and comment/interact/discuss the video. This could be an interesting way to drive engagement with groups or to increase engagement of your videos.
- Facebook Removes Personal Profile Scheduling – In a new update Facebook has banned third-party tool scheduling of updates to personal profiles. We noticed this with Buffer App – so be sure to review your posting strategy if you post on profiles.
- Facebook Increases Story Engagement with Tap to React – Facebook now has tap to react buttons in stories – allowing you to tap an icon to automatically react to a story. This is a quick and fun way to drive more engagements in stories.
- Mobile Ads App Creative Tools – This update lets you create engaging images for your Facebook ads easily on-the-go from your phone. Crop, add text, and more to make your ad images even better.
- Facebook Workplace Adds Profiles – Facebook Workplace is the Facebook App for internal companies to connect. They now have internal profiles making it a more comprehensive internal directory solution.
- Facebook is Testing AR Ads – We shared this last month but it may be worth keeping in mind and starting to think of ideas. As AR is growing, this could be a good opportunity for your business to drive engagement with ads.
- Facebook Ads Keyword Snooze – YES!!!!! You can snooze keywords from appearing in your newsfeed. This could be a great way to block content like political posts or tv show spoilers.
Twitter News Updates
What’s App News Updates
- What’s App Launches New Tools for Businesses – Businesses can now add new functionality to What’s App including a “Request Information” button and a button that allows you to click to chat. This shows that What’s App wants to become a business tool for managing conversations with businesses.
- Group Calls for Voice and Video – What’s App now allows for group video and voice calls.
- New Group Settings for Admins – Now admins can have even more control over a group and be the only one allowed to send messages. This is a nice feature as many use What’s App in place of email or text, so giving more admin control can increase the usage of the platform.
LinkedIn News Updates
- LinkedIn Updates Campaign Reporting – Now get more analytics in a better format with your LinkedIn Ad campaign reports.
- LinkedIn Launches Voice Messaging – You can now send audio messages to other users on LinkedIn Messages, increasing the functionality (and, ideally, usage) of the platform.
- New Features for Posting Content – LinkedIn launched a bunch of new features to make posting better including video captioning, sharing quotes from articles, translations, drafts, and an easy way to view your content.
- New Message Enhancements – LinkedIn also added many new updates to their messages – including launching and managing group messages, attachments, emojis, @ing people, and more.
Snapchat News Updates
Instagram News Updates
- Instagram Shows When Your Friends are Online – You’ll see a green dot beside their name – LinkedIn has this as well, and it can be helpful but also revealing.
- Now You Can Remove Followers – Instagram now lets you remove followers from your public profile. This means that you can remove people who are not adding value (or are detracting) and it doesn’t notify them!
- Sync Instagram Contacts with Messenger – In a move to drive more people across the Facebook portfolio you can now sync your Instagram followers to Facebook Messenger.
- New Questions Sticker for Stories – Instagram Stories has a new questions sticker in an effort to drive more interaction and fun into stories.
- Instagram Ad Spend Grows 117% – Advertising on Instagram is getting more competitive as the platform has grown (now over 1 billion users). Make sure you are making the most out of it.
- Instagram Launches IGTV Guide – If you haven’t played with Instagram TV yet it allows you to upload longer format videos. Check out this guide from Instagram with best practices.
Pinterest News Updates
YouTube News Updates
- YouTube Increases Copyright Control for Creators – YouTube launches copyright search + approval for creators with over 100K subscribers. You can now find your content on YouTube and decide if you want to allow others to repost. This is a great way that YouTube is cracking down on copyright infringements.
- YouTube Adapts to Different Aspect Ratios – A HUGE frustration for online marketers has been the different video sizes that are best for different platforms. Facebook = vertical, YouTube = horizontal. YouTube now adapts to vertical videos making the platform more robust.
- YouTube Shows Searchable Hashtags Above Video Titles – In an effort to drive more content views, searchable hashtags are now displayed above video titles – make sure you add relevant hashtags to your videos to optimize for this.
Search News Updates
- Google Says Word Count is NOT Indicative of Quality – People often wonder about the optimal word count for optimizing their content for search. Google has officially said there isn’t one. Make your content as long or short as appropriate – focus on user-experience first.
- Mobile Search Results Show Images 45% of the Time – More and more image thumbnails are being displayed with mobile search results – make sure that your site and images are optimized to make the most of this.
- Google Speed Update – Google is launching a more comprehensive look at site speed and will reduce visibility in search results of slow speeds. Check your site speed and FIX IT!!!!!
Digital Advertising News Updates
Industry News and Research
- Google Launches Podcast App – This may signal that Google is getting more serious about podcasting as a platform and could even link to search result visibility.
- Smartspeaker Adoption = the Rise of Voice – Smart speaker adoption in the US is growing rapidly (you can now get one for under $50) which is also driving the rise of voice in mobile.
- Emojis Score on Mobile – A new study shows that emojis in subject lines can increase open rates on Mobile (where most emails are now read)… maybe worth experimenting with them.
- Social Media Sentiment Not Linked to Brand Outcomes – A new report shows that sentiment on social media isn’t necessarily linked to brand outcomes. This makes tracking + measuring social brand mentions potentially less relevant and brand studies more important.
- Study Shows People Want Serious Long Form Content – While shorter is often better for capturing short attention spans on social, a new study shows that people want deeper, longer format content – especially on complex topics that they care about. Be sure to take this into account in your content strategy.
- StumbleUpon Closes Down – Bye Bye.
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