Today in Digital Marketing - 193: Cinq Pamplemousses, S’il Vous Plaît 🇫🇷

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, a huge crash at Facebook is causing headaches for social media managers around the world. How much does adding services to your Google My Business profile affect your search ranking? Behind the scenes at an Amazon review scam operation? And how to write content that Google will like? The solution is in three easy letters. It's Tuesday, July 14th, 2020. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. Here is what you missed today in digital marketing.

Starting point is 00:00:33 With the U.S. government signaling it might outright ban TikTok, some creators on that platform are turning to a new app. It's called Vine. Oh, sorry, hang on a second. How is it called here? Oh, it's called Vine. Oh, sorry. Hang on a second. How is it called here? Oh, it's called Byte. But it's basically Vine, made by the same people with more or less the same features. The six second limit has been increased to eight seconds. And this week, it even surpassed TikTok

Starting point is 00:00:57 on the app store charts, reaching the number one position on Thursday. So far, at least what I'm seeing is one of two kinds of posts on Byte. Either it's a creator basically just testing the app out, trying the text images and filters and audio options, or it's people simply cross-posting their TikTok videos there. Quality aside, the numbers are certainly growing. And if the U.S. government does indeed ban TikTok, this will be one of the contenders to take its place. All that to say, attention digital marketers, if your brand has not yet secured your preferred username on Byte, now is the time. A big crash of part of Facebook's publishing platform this morning is causing some chaos for social media managers.

Starting point is 00:01:47 Around 5.30 this morning, Eastern Time, developers started reporting that Facebook's API for Instagram publishing just straight up stopped. When third-party tools tried to publish an Instagram post, the API would just barf back the text, service temporarily unavailable. At about 1 o'clock Eastern this afternoon, Facebook told developers it had found the root cause of the issue and a fix is expected, quote, in the coming hours, which is to say this might still be happening as you hear this. Remember, the API is what powers your third-party platform of choice, whether that's Sprout Social or Agorapulse or Buffer or Hootsuite, all of them rely on this one API. When it goes down, so does their functionality.

Starting point is 00:02:33 So they're really just waiting for the fix so that they can resume Instagram publishing as much as we all are. Oh, also apparently buggy today, Facebook custom audiences. Some people just seeing a blank screen, others getting a pop-up message saying that they're accessing the custom audience screen too much in a short period of time. It's the same message you get when you try to spam a post with comments. As with all of these glitches, they usually even out after a day or so. If you manage your brand's marketing, which I'm guessing you do, otherwise why the hell would you be here listening to me, you probably have some familiarity with Google My Business.

Starting point is 00:03:12 That's the back end which controls how your business appears across Google's various sites like Maps, Search, and so on. Last summer, they added some quick services options. For instance, if you were a plumber, it would suggest some services you could check to indicate you do that work, like install toilet and repair pipe. If it didn't suggest services, you could add your own custom services. So here's a question. If you add some of those services in, will you get rewarded with a higher position in Google? The answer? Probably not. The folks at local SEO agency Sterling Sky tested this. They've got a great breakdown today on their website, quoting from their piece. The first business we tested this on was a security system supplier.

Starting point is 00:03:55 We added the predefined service security cameras to the listing. We monitored the keywords related to security cameras for several weeks and saw no noticeable increases. The second business we tested it on was an insurance company. We added the predefined service auto insurance and watched their rankings for auto insurance over several weeks. Just like the first test, we saw no improvement, unquote. For the record, they also tried those custom services where you type in your own service listing. And while there was a tiny bit of movement, it was the kind of movement that just happens all the time with Google. So essentially, no change.

Starting point is 00:04:32 All that said, though, adding keywords, while it might not help you rank higher, is kind of like the meta description in HTML. Google doesn't consider it for ranking purposes, but it really does make a difference in whether the user decides to click your listing or not. My advice? Add those services in. One of my favorite parts about being a marketer has always been learning about the different customer groupings that various industries use. Sometimes they're called avatars, sometimes tribes. You know these. There's the nesting parents group, the new money millennials, the globe-trotting retirees, and of course the infamous soccer moms. Well, now we've got a new set of customer avatars for the pandemic age. They were outlined in a forecast of consumer spending by Kantar, the findings of which we'll get to in a moment.

Starting point is 00:05:22 But in case you're curious, here are the avatars they're using. Ostriches. Don't care or understand what everyone is so worried about. Kantar found 12% of people met that description. Quezarras consider the rules excessive, 22%. Hibernators accept what's going on and don't want constant updates. They were 12%. Good citizens want to be informed

Starting point is 00:05:47 and see the rules followed, 22%. Distressed dreamers are concerned about personal health and finances but have an optimistic outlook. That's 18%. And at 13%, precarious worriers who are very scared and wish the government did more. As for the forecast itself, Kantar interviewed more than 100,000 consumers in 60 markets and found, quoting MarketingDive.com, 69% of consumers are still worried about the pandemic, and 46% say they will hold off on normal consumer behaviors because of concerns about their safety or the safety of their loved ones. 60% of consumers don't expect to re-engage for at least another month, and 30 to 50% don't expect to go shopping, go to restaurants or bars, travel, or go to the gym or movies for another two to three months or possibly longer. Again, that group 30 to 50%.

Starting point is 00:06:46 Maybe we need another avatar grouping. Let's call it anxious marketers with metric targets over their heads. If you market on Amazon, I'll bet one of the most annoying parts of your job is competing with listings that are so obviously fraudulent in one way or another. One of the most common frauds? Fake reviews. Amazon has worked very hard on trying to tweak its review algorithm to be able to detect when a review is fake, but as with all arms races, the bad guys always seem to be one step ahead. Today, there is a great long read over on Medium called My Bizarre Stint as an Amazon Reviewer for Hire.

Starting point is 00:07:26 And if you do any marketing on Amazon, or really, actually, if you do any marketing on any e-commerce platform that has reviews, this is absolutely worth a read. In it, the author says they first started when they ran across a website promising to refund 100% of their purchase price if they gave it a five-star review. So the author did it, mostly as a laugh, they were planning to buy it anyway, but lo and behold, the full refund suddenly appeared in their PayPal account. And soon enough, other scammers noticed. Quoting the piece, Fake Facebook accounts with bland profile pictures of flowers started messaging me. Are you a US

Starting point is 00:08:05 reviewer? I would say yes and send them my Amazon profile link so they could see my many reviews. The person on the other end would message me a gallery of various product images, and I would choose the one I wanted. They'd offer keywords and tell me the exact amount the product sold for and the number of reviews it had, so I would have to search first and then select the product on my own, a process that might raise the item's search ranking. It was a nudge-nudge kind of thing, sending me covertly toward the products without sharing the exact link. There's a lot to absorb in here, so be sure to bookmark it for the weekend or something.

Starting point is 00:08:44 There is a link in absorb in here, so be sure to bookmark it for the weekend or something. There is a link in this episode's notes. If I had a list of the most common questions clients ask us here at EngageQ, our agency, I think number one would be this. How do we get higher in Google? Google actually has an answer to this question, by the way. And that answer is, write better content. And they mean it. None of the little hacks that people obsess over, tweaking keywords in your alt tags, meticulously curating backlinks, and so on, none of them are as effective as simply writing content that is easy for people to read,

Starting point is 00:09:21 is unique, and has enough depth to answer the viewer's question. SearchEngineJournal.com today published a good review of the three things that Google looks for, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. This is often known by its simple three-letter acronym, EAT. The piece is called How to Write for Google's Core Algorithms, and here are a couple of highlights. Quote, Tired old advice will never make it in the eyes of today's online readers. People are looking for something fresh and bold.

Starting point is 00:09:53 They're searching for new eye-opening insights. So if you publish generic, cliche content that's just, well, meh, your readers will click back the moment they land on it, and Google will notice. Also, an established site owned by an expert in the industry will rank higher than a random site with no credentials. Remember, though, that authority doesn't necessarily mean a bachelor's degree or special certificates. For instance, if you've been making goat cheese for 15 years, you are clearly an expert on the topic. Unquote. You'll find a link to the full article in this episode's notes. The excellent web video tool promo.com has changed

Starting point is 00:10:36 their pricing model. Again, this time for the better. First, it was a certain number of videos you could make a month, but you could use any stock video they had. Then it was, hey, unlimited videos, make as many as you like, but only from our shitty stock video collection. If you want the good stuff, then you're limited. But now, and unless I'm reading this wrong, unlimited videos per month and unlimited use of their stock video catalog, including their so-called premium videos. That's at their $99 tier. There is a $39 tier, but it comes with some restrictions oncalled premium videos. That's at their $99 tier. There is a $39 tier,

Starting point is 00:11:07 but it comes with some restrictions on that premium library. I have to say, promo is excellent. The videos are really sharp. The stock library is comprehensive, especially now that you can use them all, at least at the $99 level. The music library is quite varied, easy to search, and it's really simple to make different dimensions for different platforms.

Starting point is 00:11:22 They also have a social media calendar. I know everyone does, but with theirs, every day comes with a pre-produced short social media video. You just need to slap your logo on it and call it a day. So maybe if you are producing web videos or social media videos, it might be worth another check. Promo.com. Okay, five small items in the lightning round today.

Starting point is 00:11:49 Buffer has released its campaigns tool publicly. Some users have actually seen this in their dashboards for a few months now. Basically, it lets you combine specific posts into a single campaign so you can measure reach and engagement of those posts as a whole. Agora Pulse has a new agency program. There's a Facebook group, a directory so potential clients can find a firm to work with, and the possibility of being featured on their blog. Snapchat is testing a user interface change that's, shall we say, inspired by TikTok.

Starting point is 00:12:15 It lets users move through Discover content with a vertical swipe. But because stories can have multiple parts, you'll still need to tap the side to advance through a set of videos. Google has knocked another product category out from its shopping platform. Starting at the end of this month, they will disallow downloadable software CDs and DVDs on shopping actions. Video game DVDs will still be allowed. This is really just an expansion of their overall ban on digital goods and services. And finally, if you ever want more information about the stories covered here,

Starting point is 00:12:46 as you probably know by now, I put the source links in the episode's notes. But starting today, I am publishing the full transcript of every episode. You can find them at todayindigital.com slash scripts. Well, it's Bastille Day today, which marks the anniversary of the attacks on the French prison named Bastille.

Starting point is 00:13:09 This happened in 1789. Here's what went down. A bunch of revolutionaries attacked the prison for perhaps the most European reason at all. No, they weren't looking for guards or prisoners. Rather, they needed supplies. Gunpowder, actually, to be specific. See, they'd stolen a bunch of rifles from the invalides, but I guess they forgot to steal the ammo as well. So someone said, hey, I bet the Bastille prisons got some, bien sûr. And so they stormed it and

Starting point is 00:13:36 defeated the guards and in so doing, kicked off the beginning of the French Revolution. And today, July 14th, La Joue de Bastille is a national holiday in France. My whole family is French-Canadian. I was part of my family's first generation born and raised outside of Quebec. So, like the rest of Canada, I know enough French to explain where Jacques and Marie are looking for the pencil

Starting point is 00:14:00 in La Bibliothèque, in case you're curious. And I know how to order five grapefruits at a store. And that's about it. I will be celebrating Bastille Day today by grinding more gold bullion in Fallout 76 because that Secret Service armor does not come cheap. I'm Todd Knopf, and stay safe, friends. More news from the digital marketing front tomorrow. Talk to you then.

Today in Digital Marketing - 193: Cinq Pamplemousses, S’il Vous Plaît 🇫🇷

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