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#TWIMshow - This Week in Marketing
Trailer
Bonus
Episode 72
Season 1
[Ep72/30Aug21] - YouTube Premium Hits 50 Million & Other Digital Marketing Updates from the Week of Aug 30, 2021
1. LinkedIn Removing Stories on September 30 - First, it was Twitter's to abandon its social stories project 'Fleets' last month, and now LinkedIn is now also moving away from its LinkedIn Stories experiment. Does that mean that people have had enough of the Stories format in general? Likely not. Instagram Stories remains hugely popular, and Stories on Snapchat still appear to be gaining traction. Instagram Stories remains hugely popular, and Stories on Snapchat still appear to be gaining traction. As explained by LinkedIn:
“We introduced Stories last year as a fun and casual way to share quick video updates. We've learned a ton. Now, we're taking those learnings to evolve the Stories format into a reimagined video experience across LinkedIn that’s even richer and more conversational. We want to embrace mixed media and creative tools of Stories in a consistent way across our platform while working to integrate it more tightly with your professional identity.”
Among its key learnings from its year-and-a-bit old Stories project, LinkedIn says user response has shown that:
- Users want their Stories-like content to live on beyond the 24-hour window, and be available on their profile
- Users want more creative tools to make engaging videos across the platform
As a result, LinkedIn will incorporate these two elements into its next video project, which it will now develop in replacement of the Stories product. So, another Stories option down, and one less consideration in your strategic planning.
2. Finally, Twitter Launches $uper Follows - Following someone is cool but have you tried Super Following? Subscribe to your favorite creators on Twitter for access to a whole new world of Tweets. ICYMI, Super Follows can help you:
💰 Earn monthly revenue
⬆️ Take your relationship to the next level
⭐ Customize what you offer and charge
3. 'TikTok World' - Get the Scoop on Unreleased Features - So what's next for the platform? Can TikTok continue to innovate and evolve in line with user expectations and become real, significant, ongoing competition for the big players in the space?
We'll get more of an idea of this on Sept 28, when TikTok hosts its first-ever 'TikTok World' showcase event. The event will give us a preview of what's next for TikTok, though the full program schedule details have not been released yet.
It sounds similar to Facebook's F8 and Snapchat's Partner Summit events, where each platform presents an overview of their various projects and insights on what they're working on bringing to market.
4. Learn How to Build Your Audience on Pinterest - Are you looking for ways to maximize your Pinterest strategy or tips on getting started with Pins to boost your overall marketing efforts? In that case, you should check out the latest content series from Pinterest. It aims to provide expert insights from both experienced Pin creators and internal staff on how you can use the platform to best effect.
The first post in the series provides pointers on how you can build your Pin audience. As explained by Pinterest:
“On Pinterest, you get more than a passive follow. People are looking for authentic connections with creators they trust. They’re hoping to discover and follow creators who share their passions. Here, you can build an active community that values and engages with your content.”
Pinterest provides five key tips for connecting with users:
- Create fresh content weekly
- Use trends to inform your strategy
- Add text overlay to your Pins
- Topic tag before you publish
- Fill in all of your board details
5. '10 Days of Live Shopping' Event on Instagram - On 9/1, Instagram's launched a new '10 Days of Live Shopping' event, featuring a range of celebrities streaming product launches. It is an excellent experiment to assess the capacity of live-stream shopping for connecting with Instagram's audience.
As explained by Instagram:
"Fashion, beauty, music, and lifestyle are coming together like never before with Instagram's 10+ Days of Live Shopping. People can tune in starting September 1st for intimate events with Selena Gomez, Kacey Musgraves, Lil Yachty, and more surprise guests. The events give you access to fresh releases, offers, and exclusive merch only on Instagram. "
6. 'Preferred Shop' Labels Coming to Facebook - Facebook has provided some new tips for those using Facebook and Instagram Shops on standing out this holiday season. Facebook's Holiday Shop tips include:
- Ensure your catalog data is up to date and complete
- Add shopping tags to your posts
- Create custom, holiday-themed Collections
In addition, Facebook's also flagged a new label for top-rated Shops that could help provide more assurance and drive more purchase traffic. Per Facebook:
"To help buyers make more confident purchases and easily identify shops on Facebook and Instagram, we are testing a new label that identifies shops offering consistent shopping experiences."
Facebook itself added similar tags back in 2015 for Pages that responded to message queries on time.
The new Preferred Shop tags will serve a similar purpose. It aims to highlight businesses that consistently provide positive buyer experiences and meet customer demand.
Facebook's testing the new label now and will provide more info on how you might be able to get your own 'Preferred Shop' label soon.
7. Google Introduces New Product Listing and Discovery Options for Merchants - Social media is powerful brand awareness and connection tool, playing a significant role in the discovery and product connection. But Google remains the key platform for product searches. This is particularly relevant right now, as consumers look for local shopping options and whether stores are open for them to buy in person. And now, Google has announced a range of new commerce tools for the upcoming holiday season, which all retailers need to be considering in their plans.
First off, Google has added new shipping and return annotations in Google Search and Shopping results, now available across free and paid listings. Per Google,
“Shoppers can now see when their orders will arrive, with shipping annotations like "Free delivery by Fri, Dec 24,” “Get it by Dec 24” and “Free X-day” for products that ship for free in five business days or less. And to give shoppers more confidence in their purchases, you can now indicate extended holiday return windows with return annotations like "Free 90 day returns" or "Free returns until Jan 31.”
Prompts like these could be all it takes to get your customer to take that extra interest and click-through to your site. And it could eventually boost your SEO and rank you higher in search queries.
Merchants can also turn their YouTube videos into virtual storefronts to showcase their products by connecting a product feed to video action campaigns to drive customers to your site.
In the coming weeks, advertisers will also be able to link a product feed to Discovery ads to show more relevant products in moments when customers are exploring their interests in Google’s feeds.”
Google also suggests that brands should ensure that their product and business information, via Google My Business, is up to date. Their catalog listings are connected through to each Google surface, helping to provide additional context.
You can read more about Google’s latest shopping and product listing additions here.
8. YouTube Premium Hits 50 Million - In his monthly newsletter, YouTube's Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen shared that it has been almost six years since they kicked off the subscription journey. This week they have crossed 50 million Music and Premium subscribers, including trialers. Listen to our podcast to learn about our analysis as well as the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for YouTube advertisers.