February 2018 Digital Marketing News Updates

We spend hours reviewing articles, posts, and reports to stay up-to-date so you don’t have to. Here are the 2018 digital marketing news updates to keep you current in performing your job.

Facebook News Updates

• Facebook Tweaks the Algo: Is Organic Reach Dead? – Spoiler alert: It’s not.
• Facebook Releases 2017 Annual Results – And it isn’t all great… while ad revenue is up almost 50% the amount of time people are spending on Facebook is declining. These two things together mean that ads will probably cost you more on Facebook than in the past. Facebook positioned the reduced time as planned, but to maintain their ad inventory they will want to get that back up.
• Facebook Shares Messenger Trends for 2018 – It is no surprise that Facebook continues to invest heavily in the Messenger application. These trends show that Facebook is committed to making messenger the default platform to connect with the people and businesses you care about. Replacing phone numbers with Messenger (I mean, you want to talk to a person not a number) is on the agenda…
• Facebook Focuses on Bot that can Chat – Facebook released a paper showing that they are working on Bots that can use natural language and develop more personality over time. Their goal is for their bots to be able to “talk” to people in a meaningful way. This shows that the investment and interest in Chat + Bots is something they are spending serious time on.
• Facebook Announces Portal to Take on Alexa + Google Home – Facebook has announced that they plan to create a home voice activated device to compete with Alexa and Google. It will be interesting to see if they can successfully break in to the platform.
• What’s App for Business Launches – The new platform allows businesses to connect directly with their customers in What’s App. While many businesses already participated there, the new official platform includes new features to give businesses a more official presence.

Twitter News Updates

• Twitter Launches Sponsored Moments – You can now create sponsored posts within moments. If used smartly you can inject your relevant brand content into the “moments” that people are interested in.
• Twitter is working on SnapChat Style Video Sharing – Sharing video on Twitter isn’t as easy as it should be – so Twitter announced plans to make it easier (similar to SnapChat) hoping to get in on the massive video trend.
• Twitter Launches Brand Bowl

Instagram News Updates

Note: A lot of updates on Instagram Stories – this shows that Instagram is committed to the story platform, which directly goes head-to-head with Snapchat. Instagram stories officially has more users vs. Snapchat, so this is worth noting.

• Carousel Ads come to Instagram Stories – You can now use the carousel format in a story ad.
• Instagram launches “Type Mode” for stories – You can now add text (with fun fonts and colors) to your Instagram stories – making it a better platform to share your story.
• Instagram Adds Recommended Posts to the Feed – This can be great for businesses as you can potentially get more exposure if you have relevant content… although more likely businesses will be able to pay for sponsored placements over time 😉
• Instagram Lets Users Schedule Posts – YAY and FINALLY!!!!! Not all third party tools are up and running yet, but the API now allows you to ACTUALLY PUBLISH POSTS to Instagram from a scheduling tool. The catch? It is only available for business accounts.

Search News Updates

• Google Relaunches Search Console – You can now view both the old and new console. The new console includes more data + better analytics. Google is building it from the ground up with the aim of giving you the most relevant information at the top and helping you make sense of the data.

Digital Advertising

• IAB Offers Guidelines for Influencer Marketing – The IAB announced Guidelines for businesses when working with influencers. While not binding, these guidelines ad rigor to a space that has not been heavily policed.