Who is trustworthy in social media universe?

Many social media platforms have been under intense pressure to be more transparent with its privacy rules and regulations, as well as being transparent in informing people what information they collect.

As a great example, check out this previous blog post: How will the Apple iOS 14.5 changes influence marketing?

Recently, I came across a study done by Business Insider Intelligence called "The 2020 Digital Trust Report."

According to the report's introduction, "'The 2020 Digital Trust Report' analyzed how U.S. social users perceive social platforms on measures of trust and ad engagement, with an eye toward helping advertisers make better decisions about how they invest ad dollars."

To conduct the study, the report said, "'The Digital Trust Ranking featured in the report is based on an online survey of 1,865 US social media users fielded from May 28, 2020 to June 3, 2020. Respondents had used at least one of the social media platforms in our study in the past 12 months."

The study defined confidence in social media and on the internet as "the confidence people have that a platform will protect their information and provide a safe environment for them to create and engage with content."

The report highlighted five pillars as its base for understanding people's trust on the web:

• Security
• Legitimacy
• Community
• Ad experience
• Ad relevance

Results showed LinkedIn, Pinterest and Reddit were the most trusted social media platforms by users. Those were followed by Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

In addition, it was reported the top reason a user would have trust with a social media platform is the platform's ability to protect a person's privacy and data - 88%.

To read the full report, click here.

Making the most of your landing pages

I say it all the time when it comes to website design and functionality: create a positive experience for the person coming to your website.

The blog uxcam.com, says "88 percent of users are less likely to return to a website after a bad user experience. Mobile users are five times more likely to abandon a task if the website isn't optimized for mobile. If a website needs more than three seconds to load, 40 percent of the people leave the website. And, 70 percent of people look at lists with bullet points."

Those are all important data points when considering your website design.

Recently, I came across a report outlining 21 best landing page tips to help enhance the quality of a website.

You can view and download the guide, published by Instapage, by clicking here.

Apple launches app tracking permissions

We've known this was coming for several weeks. But, it's here. Apple has launched its app tracking permissions program as part of its latest update.

The launch of iOS 14.5 includes new phone unlock options for people wearing face masks and a range of updated voice options for Siri. But the biggest change with this update is a significant impact to marketers.

Apple's new app data tracking prompts are now being rolled out to all iOS devices.

From Apple, via socialmediatoday.com, "App Tracking Transparency requires apps to get the user’s permission before tracking their data across apps or websites owned by other companies for advertising, or sharing their data with data brokers. Apps can prompt users for permission, and in Settings, users will be able to see which apps have requested permission to track so they can make changes to their choice at any time."

This change has been floating out there for several weeks, months even. According to socialmediatoday.com, the change has had companies voice their opposition to this approach, highlighting the impact it could have on digital marketing, and reducing the effectiveness of online ads.

Apple said its stance is that this change puts more control into the hands of individuals and with the broader shift toward providing more transparency and control over user data.

To read the full article, click here.

Snapchat announces growth after Q1

Snapchat has released its 2021 first quarter results.

Snapchat announced it had 280 million daily active users in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 51 million people or 22 percent, year-over-year. It also reported, for the first time, the majority of its DAUs were on the Android version of its mobile app.

In North America, DAUs have increased from 86 million in Quarter 4 in 2019 to 93 million Quarter 1 in 2021, a change of 5 percent.

Those numbers should be eye openers for marketers who are looking to adopt more video in their strategies, as well as reaching younger audiences (30 and younger).

The company also announced its content offering changes in Q1 of 2021. Among those was the Spotlight, which works like a highlights reels, made popular by Instagram and TikTok. In March, the company said, more than 125 million people used Spotlight. In addition, Spotlight was launched in India, Mexico and Brazil, bringing the total countries with that feature to 14.

And the number of people engaging daily with reality lenses grew more than 40 percent year-over-year.

For the full report, click here.

4 YouTube Trends to Leverage in 2021

A recent Pew Research analysis said YouTube is the most commonly used online platform, with 81% of Americans saying they ever use the video-sharing site, up from 73% in 2019 (you can read that blog by clicking here).

So certainly the question is how to leverage YouTube for your social media and digital marketing goals?

A blog by Hubspot helps point to four ways to do that.

• Consumers want videos that reflect their daily life.
• Short-form video is growing in popularity.
• But long-form videos aren't going anywhere.
• Marketers will start leveraging audio ads.

You can read more by clicking here.

Connecting with consumers through email

Email is still a powerful, useful and needed tool in a digital marketing strategy.

According to optinmonster.com, a survey showed 58 percent of people check their email as their first task of a day, followed by social media at 14 percent. In addition, checking email is also a complementary activity. People do it while watching TV (69 percent), in bed (57 percent) and on vacation (79 percent). People can do this because of how many people have smartphones, which is 3.6 billion worldwide, according to statista.com. That's up from 2.7 billion in 2017.

What email does is gives you direct communication to your followers, customers or potential customers. So, despite the shift toward digital and this era of social distancing, interpersonal communication in some form is still valuable and wanted.

Here are some things that can help you in your email marketing.

Personalization

Like mentioned previously, email provides businesses the opportunity to communicate directly to their customers or potential customers. Social media is more of a generic, wide-spread message.

With many email marketing software programs, you have the option to put in a person's name in a subject line or the body of the email itself. Make it sound like you're talking directly to them.

Celebrate your customer(s)

Show your appreciation of their business, salute their loyalty to your business. Offering exclusive offers is one way to show you're appreciative of their business, but you also want to keep them engaged.

Mobile experience

When putting together your emails to customers, make sure the emails are mobile friendly. Remember, more than 3.6 billion people around the world have a smartphone. Hubspot.com research indicated:

• Mobile opens account for 46 percent of all email opens.
• 35 percent of business professionals check email on a mobile device.
• 73 percent of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email.

Create positive overall experience

A well-designed email is also important. And well designed doesn't mean it has to be loaded with graphics, for example. Sometimes, simple is better, or less is more.

This is especially useful when considering mobile. Users can't see everything on a screen at the same time as you do on a desktop. Making users scroll and scroll and scroll will frustrate them. Then, you've got a negative experience and likely a future open lost.

Growing your LinkedIn following

While some aspects of LinkedIn have been undergoing transformations over the last several months, one thing remains steady: it's audience.

LinkedIn skews heavily toward the business professionals, usually those with at least some form of higher education beyond high school. LinkedIn users also tend to not be those younger than 21. Those users that are 21 are ones ready to move into the professional workplace from college.

One of the positives with LinkedIn is posts on it have a longer shelf life than posts on other platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter for example. I still see posts from a weeks ago in my LinkedIn feed.

There is one other thing that makes LinkedIn stand out compared to other social media platforms: trust.

Research has shown nearly 60 percent of users of social media who get their news that way don't trust what they see on social media. That is according to Search Engine Journal.

On LinkedIn, that isn't a concern because people on LinkedIn tend to be more professional.

If you own a business or oversee a business profile on LinkedIn, there are ways you can, from your personal LinkedIn profile, stand out and direct users to your company’s page. 

Post regularly

Create content to post on your personal page and share anything that was posted to your company’s page. When you share the content from your company’s LinkedIn page, it will bring more awareness to the company. Sharing content posted by others outside of your network isn't a bad idea either.

When connecting, send personalized notes

When you ask a user to join your personal LinkedIn network, it’s likely attributed to you noticing you both have similar interests or you work in the same industry. When you ask them to connect, include a note that gives them a some information and explain why you would like to join their network.

Join Groups

There are several LinkedIn groups that are specific to your industry. Join groups that you think discuss topics that would be of interest to your company’s target audience or overall goals. Make sure you are engaging in group conversations, and start paying attention to who else is an active member of the group.

Something to keep in mind.

LinkedIn connections aren’t easy to grow, but can be done. Your personal LinkedIn profile can help your business gain more leads.

TikTok adds 'Business Creative Hub'

TikTok has cemented itself as a viable social media platform. And, for the last several weeks, months even, the platform has explored and adopted ways to be a platform beneficial for businesses.

According to SocialMediaToday.com, TikTok has created a "Business Creative Hub."

From TikTok, per SocialMediaToday.com, "From listening to our business users, we found that a common challenge faced by many was a lack of inspiration for new content to post. It could be that a winning strategy used on other platforms isn't having the same success here, or that you don't know what's trending and how your brand can jump on board."

The article adds, "The new hub aims to address this need, with a showcase of trending content in three different categories, which aims to highlight creative, engaging use of TikTok clips by brands."

To read the full article, click here.

TikTok shares ad strategy tips, based on responses from 25,000 users

TikTok's growth has been well-documented and the big question out of that, from a marketer's standpoint is: how can we leverage TikTok for business growth?

TikTok has prepared information to help marketers make a sound decision.

According to a story by SocialMediaToday.com, "TikTok recently commissioned Kantar to conduct a new study as to how ads on TikTok are perceived, in comparison to promotions on other platforms. Kantar interviewed more than 25,000 participants, across 20 different countries, between September 2020 to January 2021, in order to provide these notes on TikTok ad effectiveness.

"The research shows that 72% of respondents found ads on TikTok 'inspiring', the highest across all platforms."

To read the full article, click here.

Voice searching future, SEO tips

Where I work, I've been tasked to research voice search options to implement into our overall marketing strategy.

Lots of research has been done and corresponding data has been released over the last several years about voice searching and its place within society and marketing strategies.

Here are some of those figures:

• Google reports that 27% of the online global population is using voice search on mobile.
• A Gartner study predicts that 30% of all browsing sessions will include voice search by 2020.
• According to Google, 52% of smart speaker owners keep them in a common room such as a living room. 25% of these people keep them in their bedroom, while 22% keep a smart speaker assistant in their kitchen. Among smart speaker owners who regularly use them, 62% will make a purchase using voice technology.
• A 2018 study from BrightLocal found that 58% of consumers used voice search to find a local business in 2017, and 46% of people using voice search daily are searching for local business.
• According to an Adobe Analytics survey, the most common voice searches on smart speakers are asking for music (70%) and the weather forecast (64%), followed by fun questions (53%), online search (47%), news (46%), and asking directions (34%).

In other words, voice searching is on the rise.

There are several companies that walk you through the process in getting set up, how to update, how to access analytics insights and more. This is not a pitch for either of those. But when I was looking through options, I noticed some companies are more difficult than others in terms of how to set up your profile. One company I found lets you make a refundable down payment so you can speak with a marketing expert for onboarding. That person will walk you through the process of set up, integration and analytics. Then you can make a decision to proceed or not. I suggest finding a company that does that, especially if you're someone like me that is new to the side of the technology.

But when thinking about voice search, it got me thinking again about SEO, or search engine optimization.

During that onboarding, the company finds out from you what keywords you'd like to use to help trigger your result when someone does a voice search. That's why I got thinking about SEO.

Search results focus on keywords. The most common way to address SEO is through a process called on-site SEO. That is where you have keywords and/or phrases directly on your website. When someone puts in a search term or phrase, Google crawls websites that are indexed (which you do through Google Search Console, a free tool) to help the person potentially find what they're looking for. The on-site SEO is one of the easiest SEO fixes one can make.

Another way to improve your SEO is working on external strategy, such as through email marketing or social media marketing. Sending links via email or posting direct links on social media are other ways to drive traffic to your website.

An extension of the external strategy is doing something called a website audit.

There are several free or paid-for companies that offer website audit services that can scan your website for detectable errors. Those errors can include:

Site auditing tools can scan your site for important search ranking factors such as:

• broken links
• indexing
• page speeds
• page headings

Click here for an in-depth look at SEO Best Practices by DBS Interactive (FYI. It is a long read.)

Also, an audit can tell you your website's health through a score. Click here to read more about website health scores and why they're important.

Hootsuite rolling out new features

If you're a Hootsuite user and you haven't already, you will likely soon.

"Check out all the new features being released in Hootsuite! You can expect to see these features added to your account over the next week. Hootsuite’s single-step Facebook authentication now makes it easier to connect multiple Instagram business accounts to Hootsuite at the same time.

"In Hootsuite Inbox and Streams, you can now see and engage with your brand's LinkedIn video posts and comments. Available on desktop and mobile.

"If you use Facebook Messenger bots to automate your communication in Hootsuite Inbox, you can now view responses to both Generic and Button templates.

"Our Trello app has a new look and feel! You can now use the Trello app to add due dates and image attachments from a post in Hootsuite to a Trello card.

To learn more about these exciting releases be sure to check out our What's New Page.

Hootsuite purchases Sparkcentral

During a recent presentation outlining Hootsuite's focus on customer communication via social, it announced its purchase of Sparkcentral.

According to the presentation, "Sparkcentral is a social customer care platform, helping some of the world’s most customer-focused brands such as Slack, CitizenM, Emirates, Engie, and Axa deliver exceptional service via social and messaging channels including SMS, Whatsapp, WeChat, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and many other asynchronous messaging channels."

It was also revealed during the presentation that about 46 percent of social users want communication with a business in less than one hour.

It's hoped with this integration of Hootsuite and Spark Central that customer care is enhanced and it enriches the communication with customers.

Why the change?

Well, 2020 was a year of change and it looks like many of those changes are here to stay long term.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are still in many ways forced to do things without person-to-person interaction and doing everything online. More employees will likely be working remote on a more regular basis. Therefore reliance on mobile technology is, arguably, at its highest point so far in history.

In addition, according to the report, impatience is also growing. Thus, maintaining communication and being on top of messaging will be key and challenging going forward.

To see the full Hootsuite presentation's slides, click here.

Don't sleep on Baby Boomers on TikTok

It's clear. TikTok has become a global social media platform. It has gripped an entire generation of people that has and will continue to change the social media universe for the next several years.

It's also clear the platform skews heavily toward those 30 and younger, probably even 25 and younger. However, recent data from Pew Research indicates Baby Boomers aren't ones to sleep on with TikTok.

Pew Research (which can be found in a previous blog post here) shows nearly 20 percent of TikTok users are 50 and older. (On a side note, about 15 percent of the same age group are on Snapchat)

Now, don't get too excited just yet. Still a heavy majority of TikTok users are younger than 30 and if that's your target audience, TikTok is likely beneficial for you and/or your business. But, the Baby Boomers are a potential market worth keeping an eye on for future advertising opportunities.

New report details TikTok's takeover

A report produced in collaboration between AdWeek and Student Beans says TikTok, in 2020, was the year TikTok took control over an entire generation.

TikTok has challenged young minds to be creative, daring and humorous unlike anything we've ever seen on social media. On top of that, over the last several months, TikTok has worked on upgrading its platform to allow for e-commerce.

As proof, according to the report, the hashtag #TIkTokMadeMeBuyIt is widely popular and viral. The Student Beans survey of students ages 16-24 found that 55 percent of TikTok users had made a purchase after seeing a brand or product on the platform. Plus, 41 percent said they’d consider buying something directly off the app.

"TikTok is all about raw, unpolished, often humorous video," the report says. "No endlessly edited photos or Facetuning here. Gen Z’s preference for truth, authenticity and humor pervades."

One more thing to consider. The report added, "40 percent of people on TikTok don’t have Facebook accounts and 63 percent are not on Twitter."

How to excel on TikTok

The report says, "TikTok users are obsessed with challenges and one of the best ways to tap into the creator community and mentality is through a hashtag challenge."

A challenge can be anything you want it to be, but also should be within sound judgment regarding community guidelines. If you create a challenge, make sure you have a clearly defined and easy to access call to action.

To read the full AdWeek/Student Beans report, click here.

Defining your target audience

Basic advertising centers on your knowledge of your target audience. If you don't know your target audience, you're likely advertising to a bunch of people who have no interest in your product or service. Therefore, you're wasting valuable money.

A target audience is simply a collection of common denominators in relation to a group of people who are or would be interested in your product or service. Those include age, gender, profession, where they live, etc. Those are called demographics. Psychographics center on traits such as hobbies, likes/dislikes, etc.

Here's how to better understand and define your target audience.

Current customers

This is obvious and simple. These are people who have already purchased something from you previously. If you do business online, in many cases, you'll already have a fair amount of data about them. These people will tend to speak about your product and service. You couple that with adding some of their demographics and/or psychographics, you can understand or target a potential future customer.

Past customers

This set of people can help you understand what they may not like about your product or service anymore. For example, if someone was 25 and bought something from you in the past, and now that person is 40 and doesn't purchase from you anymore, you can possibly pinpoint your target audience as someone younger than 40.

Demographics/Psychographics

Age, location and interests, as mentioned previously, play pivotal roles in developing your target audience. Age and location are especially important. Age was already discussed. But location is key because if you're a local business in Florida, you probably don't want to advertise to someone in California, for example.

Social media social listening is a valuable trait to possess when getting a definition of your target audience in this area.

Change to Facebook Creator Studio

If you haven't already, you will likely soon notice a change to the layout of Facebook's Creator Studio.

I was on it April 8 and I was given the following notice, "

Your content currently in the Content Library's Posts tab has moved to either our new Pre-Published or Published tabs. In a few weeks, the Posts tab will no longer be available here. Try taking a short tour to get familiar with Creator Studio's new look."

The notice gives you a link to click to take that tour. And it also gives you a link, which explains the new layout with different tabs:

• Pre-Published tab: A workspace where you can set up and schedule upcoming content posts for publish.
• Published tab: A workspace for you to manage, update and crosspost your published content.
• New onboarding and guidance for Pre-Published and Published tabs to get you ramped up faster.
• Posts and Instant Articles subtab content has moved to either Pre-Published or Published tabs, depending on content status (draft vs published)

Tips to improve your social media content

Visual content (photos or videos) is essential to help spread your message and create brand awareness on what has certainly become a crowded social media universe. Not only does it lead to higher engagement rates from your audience, but we are more likely to remember it if it includes an image, again either photo or video.

Strong visual content on social media gives people a reason to follow, like, comment, and hopefully buy your product or service. 

Vary your visuals 

There are several types of content you can share. Examples include stock photos, infographics, charts, videos and GIFs.

It is important to switch it up to keep your audience engaged. Essentially, keep them guessing and curious. Canva or Photoshop are great resources. Giphy is another website that helps you create GIFs and memes.

Be creative with text 

Just because you focus on the visuals doesn't mean the text takes the proverbial backseat. Text is still highly important with any visual you create on social media.

In posts, less is more has proven to be the best tactic.

But also, don't forget about grammar and spelling. 

Encourage participation

Remember, social media is about engagement. So, entice your followers to be engaging. One way to do that, for example, is to solicit photos. An example is April is Autism Awareness Month and the color associated with autism is blue. So, challenge followers to share a picture with you of them wearing a blue shirt (Remember. Be sure to ask for permission and tag appropriately when you want to include user-generated content).

Facebook Analytics going away June 30

Facebook has, quietly, made a major announcement and it will have a significant impact on social media and digital marketers.

Effective June 30, Facebook will be eliminating its Analytics tool option. The Insights tool on Facebook, which offers page managers ways to see a post's reach, impressions, engagement, etc., is also on the way out.

According to its announcement, which is buried on its Business help page:

"Facebook Analytics will no longer be available after June 30, 2021. Until then, you will still be able to access reports, export charts and tables, and explore insights. To export data into a CSV file from Facebook Analytics on your desktop, click the arrow in the top-right corner of each chart or table. Other business tools can help you understand your advertising, presences, and activities on Facebook and Instagram, including:

• Facebook Business Suite allows you to manage your Facebook and Instagram business accounts and can show you detailed insights about your audience, content and trends. (This tool may not be available to you yet.)
• Ads Manager lets you view, make changes and see results for all your Facebook campaigns, ad sets and ads.
• Events Manager can help you set up and manage Facebook Business Tools like the Facebook pixel and Conversions API, and reports actions taken on your website, in your app and in your physical store."

Now the question is why? Well, Facebook doesn't reveal its reason. But that doesn't mean there aren't theories.

According to a report in Ad Exchanger, Facebook Insights and Facebook Analytics was not as useful as many other analytics tools. Reportedly, a number of businesses used tools like Amplitude or Mixpanel more than Facebook Analytics. (Source: Why Is Facebook Analytics Going Away? What Is Facebook Analytics Feature?)

Other sources:

• Facebook Analytics Will Shut Down On June 30 – Here’s Why That Is (And Isn’t) A Big Deal
• Facebook Analytics is Shuttering on June 30

New social media use data released

Social media, according to a new study released by Pew Research, is still an active part of people's lives and regular part of their routines.

Released April 7, Pew Research revealed that 7 in 10 Americans say they use some kind of social media, which remains stable to previous studies.

According to Pew Research, "Beyond the general question of overall social media use, the survey also covers use of individual sites and apps. YouTube and Facebook continue to dominate the online landscape, with 81% and 69%, respectively, reporting ever using these sites. And YouTube and Reddit were the only two platforms measured that saw statistically significant growth since 2019, when the Center last polled on this topic via a phone survey.

"When it comes to the other platforms in the survey, 40% of adults say they ever use Instagram and about three-in-ten report using Pinterest or LinkedIn. One-quarter say they use Snapchat, and similar shares report being users of Twitter or WhatsApp. TikTok – an app for sharing short videos – is used by 21% of Americans, while 13% say they use the neighborhood-focused platform Nextdoor."

In regards to platform use, Pew Research says, "YouTube is the most commonly used online platform asked about in this survey, and there’s evidence that its reach is growing. Fully 81% of Americans say they ever use the video-sharing site, up from 73% in 2019. Reddit was the only other platform polled about that experienced statistically significant growth during this time period – increasing from 11% in 2019 to 18% today."

When looking at the under 30 demographic, Pew Research says, "Majorities of 18- to 29-year-olds say they use Instagram or Snapchat and about half say they use TikTok, with those on the younger end of this cohort – ages 18 to 24 – being especially likely to report using Instagram (76%), Snapchat (75%) or TikTok (55%)."

The findings came from a nationally representative survey of 1,502 U.S. adults conducted via telephone Jan. 25-Feb.8, 2021.

To read Pew Research's full report, click here.

Click here to read the Topline Questionnaire.

Click here for the fact sheet.

Is TikTok right for you?

Projections by mobile data and analytics firm App Annie estimates the short-form video app will surpass the 1 billion monthly active user mark at some point in 2021 and will continue to grow. Not bad for a company that launched in 2016, but wasn't launched globally until 2017. It was the most downloaded app in 2020.

As the platform continues to blossom and, in many ways, set the new standards across several areas of social media, work is being done to understand the app's place in marketing.

But, like with all social media platforms, TikTok is not for everybody.

Consider these things before committing to TikTok:

• Who are you trying to reach?
• Who is your target audience?
• Do you have a sellable business, product or service?
• Can you develop the content TikTok is designed for?

Let's look at each of those above questions.

Research and data suggests the audience on TikTok is heavily skewed toward those born after 1990, i.e. 30 and younger or thereabouts.

So, if your business, product or service is for those 35 and older, TikTok won't be a useful tool for you. You'd be wasting time, money and resources.

TikTok thrives on short-form video (15-60 seconds). It's possible to use stills in the app, but generates far less engagement. Video is the primary focus and intent with TikTok. If you don't plan to use video, don't use TikTok. One nice thing about TikTok is over the last several months its created a "Creator Portal" that offers tutorials on how to shoot, edit and post video.

Use of hashtags are extremely important. Like Instagram, it's the main way people find content on TikTok. The common hashtags are #fyp or #foryourpage (for your page, which is the newsfeed on TikTok). The algorithm for the TikTok newsfeed is based off your browsing and engagement history. So if someone posts a video with a #fyp hashtag and you've watched that person's video or something akin to it, that'll be your newsfeed or your #fyp newsfeed.

LinkedIn offering tools to add to personalization

LinkedIn is making moves to bring more personalization options to its users.

Per SocialMediaToday.com, "LinkedIn's looking to help users share more of their personal story, and maximize their on-platform presence, with the addition of a range of new features for individual member profiles in the app. 

"First off, LinkedIn's adding a new video cover story option, which will enable users to add an introductory video that people can view when they visit their LinkedIn listing."

For a while, LinkedIn wasn't known for drawing large engagement numbers because it was seen as a more professional or business-like platform. While that is still the case, the recent efforts by LinkedIn show that it is committed to staying relevant in the social media universe. It's doing that by offering its users more ways to bring personalization to what was for so long known as a bland platform.

This personalization can certainly help nonprofits looking to connect with B2Bs and B2Cs for possible donations. This can also help prospective employees and employers gain better insight into a person or company.

You can read the full article by SocialMediaToday.com by clicking here.

PODCAST: Getting email marketing right

Email marketing is an essential part to any digital/social media marketing strategy. It allows you to stay in touch and keep your followers engaged.

You can do that through e-mail blasts and newsletters. Sound the same right? In one way, yes. But they're both very different in their functionality and, more specifically, what content should be in each one.

In this episode, I discuss those differences and recommendations.

Also in this episode of the Dettmann Media podcast:

• Apple's iOS 14.5 update could have a significant impact on digital marketing.
• LinkedIn to jump on audio rooms social media trend set by Clubhouse.

Available on Buzzsprout, as well as Apple, iHeart Radio, TuneIn Radio and Spotify!

Understanding cookie coding

For the last several weeks, I've been working on coding with Google Tag Manager as well as cookie tracking codes as we're learning more about the future of third-party trackings on websites.

The reason for the latter is because a webinar I attended talked about the future of third-party cookies as there is a great push for more transparency and privacy protection with things such as Apple's 14.5 update (Click here for my latest post about the webinar and the future of cookies).

It's been a challenge to get a handle on cookies and tags and more. But I think I came across a really helpful graphic on understanding the "definitions" of cookies that can be found on websites. Click here for the article.

Otherwise, click here for the PDF of the graphic.

Cookies, website analytics heading for change

Recently, I watched a webinar by Northwoods, a marketing agency in Milwaukee, and the discussion centered on cookies, third-party tracking methods.

First of all, it was very good. If you'd like to watch it, click here. 

It's been well publicized the shift to more transparency by social media and websites as far as what they're tracking from visitors, i.e. Google Analytics.

According to a statistic shared during the presentation, the ad blocking penetration rate is growing. In 2014 it was 15.7% (per Statista). In 2021, that number has swelled to 27%, about a 71% change. That's important because not being able to understand data via data tracking, makes marketing decisions more difficult.

What cookies allow marketers to do is to remarket to an audience, target previous website visitors and target users based on their browsing history.

So, when cookies are blocked, that data becomes increasingly difficult to obtain and analyze.

The presentation said third-party cookies will likely be gone within two years. So how do we get data we need to make informed marketing decisions?

Suggestions include contextual advertising, which is an ad that in similar to the content on the page. For example, being on a food website and getting an ad about Oreo cookies.

Another suggestion was content advertising, which is providing information. For example, if a potential customers is looking for a new lawnmower, place content as an ad, rather than an ad. Essentially, people want content, not ads.

The forecast says marketers will be marketing to groups rather than individual people, according to the presentation.

TikTok launches Playlists

TikTok's latest tool will offer users an opportunity to separate their content into specific areas for followers to follow. It's called Playlists.

It's similar Instagram's Stories to where you can create a video and archive it in a category for people to watch.

It's not available for all as of this writing. But I don't foresee waiting long for creators and business accounts being able to do this.

YouTube explains Shorts functionality

YouTube has, in phases, rolled out its version of the highly popular TikTok model: short-form video (15-60 seconds).

Here are some previous posts discussing YouTube's future as well as the Shorts tool.

YouTube numbers and changes to know

ARTICLE: YouTube Points to Shorts as Key Development Opportunity in 2021

In a video hosted by Madisen Dewey, she answers questions: What are Shorts? What tools are rolling out to help you create Shorts? Helpful resources are also included.

Watch the video here.

TikTok reveals Q1 numbers

Source: AppAnnie

A push for a ban by the U.S. government didn't appear to scare mobile users when it came to TikTok, according to first quarter 2021 data released by the platform.

TikTok had the most downloads in the first quarter of 2021, even though former president Donald Trump sought to ban the Asian-based app developer.

Facebook and Instagram also moved up the chart in the last quarter.

Of course, it's worth noting that Facebook and Instagram have been around a while so their downloads are going to grow like TikTok, which launched only a few years ago.

According to the study, "It’s telling that Signal, a privacy-focused messaging app, was the quarter’s fastest-growing app by downloads and MAUs – and that the similar Telegram was at number 3 and 2. The other notable breakout app was MX Takatak, which serves the growing demand in short user-generated video content in India, part of the current trend of rapid growth of home-grown publishers. According to our estimates, it was the fastest growing app by downloads in Q1 2021."

Total downloads also grew significantly. Downloads on both iOS and Google Play combined rose by around 10 percent to 31 billion in the quarter.

Consumer spending on mobile saw a surge, 40% in one year, according to the study.

Consumers spent $32 billion on in-app purchases across iOS and Google Play globally in Q1 2021. It's the biggest quarter since records began.

According to the study, "The numbers illustrate the remarkable impact that the pandemic has had on the app market. Q1 2020 was the first period of global lockdowns. Stay at home orders forced consumers to seek out indoor stimulation, and they found it on their smartphones, through games and other highly engaging apps such as video streaming and social sharing platforms. As a result, the market grew at unprecedented speed. Smartphone users spent around $9 billion more on apps and games in Q1 2021 than they did in Q1 2020."

Read the full report here.

Twitter taking Spaces to next level

Clubhouse, the audio-driven social media app, continues to grow. But, it has revealed it has some challenges ahead in trying to keep up with the demand of the app.

Twitter is ready to pounce.

Having already started Spaces, Twitter is looking how it can potentially pass Clubhouse. And the way to do it, Twitter believes, is allowing its users to use Spaces via desktops, rather than mobile only.

According to SocialMediaToday.com, "That could be a big bonus for broadcasters who are looking add a little more polish to their audio rooms. Many podcasters, for example, have professional microphones and sound recording equipment attached to their primary workstations, and while you can get better-sounding microphones for mobile devices, it'll be cheaper, and easier, for most to use the equipment that they already have on their home desktops."

Read the full article here.

Major change for Twitter coming

Twitter revealed in February, which was reported by SocialMediaToday.com, its plans or goal to go from 152 million monthly active users in quarter 4 2019 to 315 million MAU by quarter 4 2023.

It's unveiled several changes to the platform over the last several months, with tools such as Spaces and Fleets, as well as the purchase of Revue (a newsletter service).

Now, according to SocialMediaToday.com, Twitter is rolling out a groups-like tool called Communities. It would allow Twitter users to share their tweets within selected sub-groups of users, as opposed to sharing with everybody.

It'll be similar to Facebook's Groups where you can create a specific audience you want to share information with and engage with. With Facebook Groups, advertising is difficult because of privacy settings that can be set by group moderator(s). I can see this being a similar challenge for marketers in Twitter.

After all, at the heart of social media is to be a part of a group with similar interests and beliefs.

I like this idea as anyone who follows my Twitter (@nick_dettmann), I tweet about various topics. I wouldn't mind having specific audiences to tweet to that may not be interested in everything I tweet.