Krista Neher

Dec 06 2018

Join our thousands of Digital Marketing Insiders who get first look at the December 2018 Digital Marketing Updates plus live answers to their questions about applying them to their work. Learn more here!

Facebook News Updates

• New Dashboard shows how much time you spend on Facebook – Facebook launched a dashboard that shows users how much time they are spending on the platform. This could be interesting…
• Watch Party for All – Facebook Watch Party is now available for everyone – this means that anyone can host a watch party where people can commend and discuss live on the video. Brining social to video could be a differentiator for Facebook.
• Facebook Ads Coming to What’s App – Not until next year, but it might be time to start thinking about it. Facebook will launch ads for What’s App as they started looking at how to monetize the platform.

Instagram News Updates

• Instagram Cracks Down on Spammy Behavior – You may see a reduction in your Instagram engagement and follower growth. Instagram continues to crack down on automation and fake accounts to keep the platform organic. Profiles using third party apps that spam comment or engage could be penalized.
• Instagram Improves their Profiles – Over the next several weeks, you may see features re-arranged at the top of your profile including changes to icons, buttons and the way you navigate between tabs. Instagram hopes this will make profiles easier and cleaner to use. The photos and videos you’ve shared on your grid won’t change.
• Instagram Improves Accessibility with Alt Tags – Instagram moves to make the platform more accessible with alt tags for images. This may also make images more searchable with additional data attached to them. Take the few seconds to add the tags to your images.
• Instagram Launches More Shopping Opportunities – Instagram continues to launch shopping features to make it easier for users to find and buy the products that they see on Instagram. This may increase the commerce opportunities for businesses who sell online.
• IGTV can be Shared as a Preview in a Story – In an effort to gain traction for IGTV the new feature makes IGTV sharable in stories.
• Instagram Promote for Stories Makes it Easy to Promote a Story – This makes it easy to quickly promote a story on Instagram to grow visibility.
• Instagram Analytics Are Here in Facebook – Facebook and Instagram are rolling out advanced analytics for Instagram that are similar to Facebook Insights and can be used in the Facebook platform. This is GREAT NEWS as it will give more details on your performance. It will roll out over a few months – you can also request access at the link above.

Twitter News

• Twitter Brings Back Chronological Timeline – Twitter has tried to push an algorithm driven timeline since 2016 and finally, based on user feedback they are relaunching the chronological timeline.

LinkedIn News Updates

• New LinkedIn Pages – LinkedIn relaunches Pages with the goal of driving community and discussions on Pages. Some of the new features include new admin features, a mobile app for admins, opportunities to see and reshape content the Page is tagged in and better integration with third party apps like Hootsuite. YAY!!!
• LinkedIn Pages Playbook – To accompany this LinkedIn made a Playbook that shows you how to best take advantage of the new community features.
• Analysis of LinkedIn Profile Photos Shows What Works – This isn’t news but it is interesting to see the results of profile photos (the most important part of LinkedIn!!!). Basically smile and have a well copped professional looking photo. Business casual is the most common dress.
• LinkedIn joins Everyone Else with Objective Based Ads – In public beta you can now create LinkedIn Ads specifically focused on your ad objective. Similar to other networks the objective is the starting point and the ad will be optimized around the objective.
• LinkedIn Launching Stories – LinkedIn has already launched Stories for college students and is looking at expanding them. Facebook believes that stories are the future of news, but LinkedIn content tends to be longer, more text-based and focused on links. It will be interesting to see if Stories work on the platform.

Pinterest News Updates

• Pinterest Carousel Ads Put 5 Swipable Images in an Ad – The format has been on Facebook for some time and is now on Pinterest. This could be a great way to feature multiple products or recipes on one ad.

Search News Updates

• Google Allows Hashtags in Local Reviews – Google has been pushing local reviews and local guides to drive reviews and information on Google Local Listings. These can now include hashtags, which could be interesting.
• Google Detailed Demographics – Google launches detailed demographic for ad targeting including marital status, education, parental status and more. These can be used in your search and bidding strategy, so you can pay more for the demographics that are most of interest to you.

Industry News and Research

• 42% of Customers Contacted Customer Service outside of Phone and Email – This industry report shows how customers interact with customer service. Almost ALL customers surveyed said that a bad experience would cause them to stop doing business with a company and accessibility is becoming a major concern.
• Stories Research from Buffer Shows How to Succeed – Stories are hot and growing right now for marketers and businesses. If you aren’t taking advantage of stories yet, check out this research from Buffer on how top brands are succeeding.
• Digital ads continue Growth with Mobile and Video Leading – Video accounts for 30% of digital ads and 60% of those are on mobile. Digital ad spending is still on the rise.

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