Rally the Trends – October
A monthly round-up of digital marketing, SEO, and social media updates, summarized for you.
Oh, hi there. Welcome to the sixth edition of Rally the Trends! Thanks for visiting this highlight reel of digital marketing news and social media updates. We’re so glad you’re here.
SEO
What to Do With Your Date(d Content): Maybe you have a great piece of content that isn’t getting the traffic you want it to. One way to get Google’s attention is to update the date of the article. This is a big discussion with SEOs because it can be a bit murky. A recent comment from a Google employee seemed to imply that even significant date updates on the page won’t harm your SEO efforts. If the <lastmod> value in the sitemap isn’t accurate, however, Google will not crawl the page at all. Best practice is to leave the original publish date as is and add a “last updated” tag for additions. Updating articles can be helpful for CTR, but make sure they are worth the time it takes.
King Content Dethroned: Well, sort of. “Content is king” is a phrase you’ve probably heard before, either in SEO or for other writing. With SEO, it seems to imply that with only good content, your page will automatically appear on the front page of search engine results. Is content a prized piece of the SEO pie? Absolutely. But it needs to be the content your audience is interested in. Along with that desired content, you need quality links, current, authoritative information, and search engine indexing to give your page a competitive edge in the rankings race.
Digital Marketing
[Ho, Ho, Ho]me of Holiday Search: Google for Small Business Holiday Hub. The holiday shopping season is here. With a study showing that more than 70% of U.S. adults plan to take care of at least half of their shopping online, Google created a set of resources for small businesses still adjusting to increased digital sales. Resources include tips for reaching customers on Google Search, Shopping, and Maps, as well as tips for growing your site and optimizing your GMB.
Popularity Poll: Search edition. A recent report from SEMrush looked at the most popular search terms of 2020. The report includes terms that have gained the most volume year-over-year and searches that made their debut in 2020 (think “Tiger King” and “stay at home order”). It’s not surprising that the highest trending search involved Coronavirus relief funds.
Easy Target: Let’s face it: Every product or service isn’t for everyone. Trying to plan a marketing strategy that appeals to everyone doesn’t work. Building one based on customer segmentation, however, does work. Creating customer segments based on certain characteristics is effective because it specifies who you are trying to reach. Segmentation works because it is based on the core audience, and those are the people who are most likely to purchase again and again.
Social Media
Smart Social: No, this isn’t the name of a new content scheduling platform. It’s just the approach you should take when thinking about a brand’s social media platforms. Every social media platform is not right for every company. Pinterest, for example, is a great platform, but it’s not going to reach the right audience if you are promoting financial services. If you are jumping into the social pool or expanding your platforms in 2021, this infographic is a good starting place for deciding which ones are worth your time and your dime.
Source: Social Media Today
Unlimited Text: On Facebook ads. The Social Network is reportedly revising its guidelines to allow ads with more than 20% text on the image. In the past, Facebook gave a disclaimer that ads like this would not be shown. The reason given has always been that based on research, Facebook and Instagram users on these platforms do not enjoy text-heavy ads. While Facebook still suggests keeping the text short, this update will certainly make advertisers’ lives a little bit easier.
Facebook’s Dilemma: With ‘The Social Dilemma’. The recent release from Netflix has caused waves among its viewers, to the point that Facebook issued a 7-point rebuttal addressing it. This action is out of character for Facebook, and by releasing a statement, the social media giant has seemingly continued the conversation that puts the brand in a negative light. The Social Dilemma has elicited a wide range of responses. Some are calling it a dive into sensationalism, while it has others thinking about deleting their Facebook and Instagram accounts. Whichever side of the scale you land on regarding the documentary, it’s apparent that it caused enough of a stir for Facebook to refute it, specifically and publicly.
You Want It, You Got It: Shopping while you scroll your feed has never been easier, both for customers and business owners. Instagram is gearing up for the holidays with a new guide called The Season for Shops. This resource includes how-tos on setting up a shop and ads, tagging products, and creating collections. Instagram also announced that shopping will be integrated into IGTV. With active users at 1 billion and counting, Instagram Shopping has a lot of promise for businesses looking to reach potential customers.
Read Before Tweeting: A simple prompt that Twitter started testing a few months ago is seeing positive results. In June the platform started giving users a “nudge” notification to read articles before retweeting. People are opening articles 40% more often with the prompt. Publishers with quality content also stand to benefit from increased traffic. Sites with poor content or misinformation, however, might have less of a chance of being shared if people do some simple fact-checking. Twitter is now releasing this feature globally, and hopefully this will lead to further informed sharing.
Source: Search Engine Journal
#Trending2020: For better or worse, this year is one for the history books. COVID-19 affects everyone in different ways. Without a doubt, it has impacted online conversations. Twitter recently shared how the content shared on its platform has changed this year. Tweets about parenting and mental health, as well as new hobbies, have increased significantly in a year-over-year comparison. These insights are helpful in understanding how people are communicating on Twitter and how to join the conversation.
It’s Storytime: For LinkedIn. Following in the footsteps (or should we say dashed lines) of other major social medias, LinkedIn made Stories available to all users in late September after testing the feature regionally earlier this year. Stories have become a significant aspect of Facebook and Instagram and could be a chance for higher engagement on LinkedIn. If you’ve seen the feature and aren’t quite sure how to use it for your business, here are some ideas:
Source: Social Media Today
When You’re Trying to Grow Your Nonprofit: Try LinkedIn. There is a growing space on the platform for nonprofits. A big part of that is due to the fact that members on LinkedIn are over 50% more likely to donate to charities. If you think about it, it makes sense that a professional network where people are serious about business (and thus, earning an income), would be a fitting audience for charitable giving. LinkedIn recently published this article showing how it helps nonprofits grow.
A-Town Shoutout
You Win Some, You Lose Some: Atlanta felt that this week. First, the L: after starting the season off 0-5, the Atlanta Falcons fired head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff on Sunday. Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris has been named the interim coach. As for the other Georgia sports teams, we won’t make you relive the misery here. The W: Congrats to Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on being named one of Glamour’s 2020 Women of the Year!
Be safe. Take a deep breath. Make time to vote. Thanks for reading to the end. We’ll see you next month. 👋🏽👋🏾👋🏿
