Today in Digital Marketing - Aug 14 — SPECIAL: The Digital Marketing Ombudsman (Ep 215)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, Facebook opens a new revenue channel for your brand and throws Apple under the bus at the same time. Bing's product search gets smarter with local results. Snapchat opens its doors to TikTok. And the first episode of the Digital Marketing Ombudsman. It's Friday, August 14th, 2020. Happy Independence Day, Pakistan. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital, and here is what you missed today in digital marketing brought to you by CompuServe.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Facebook is launching a new way for brands to generate revenue by hosting live online events, events like classes or performances. They say if your brand page qualifies, more on that in a second, you'll be able to set a price, promote the event, collect payment, and host the event all in one screen. Quoting the company, in testing, we've seen businesses use Facebook to host expert talks, trivia events, podcast recordings, boxing matches, cooking classes, intimate meet and greets,

Starting point is 00:01:02 fitness classes, and more. Now, pages in 20 countries around the world that meet our partner But they couldn't resist taking a shot at Apple, saying, quote, we asked Apple to reduce its 30% app store tax or allow us to offer Facebook Pay so we could absorb all costs for businesses struggling during COVID-19. Unfortunately, they dismissed both our requests and small and medium sized businesses will only be paid 70% of their hard earned revenue, unquote. They even showed a screenshot of how the purchase flow in the app works. It's basically the same on Apple devices as on Android, but for one small yet very important bit of text right below the purchase button. On Android devices, it will say, Facebook doesn't take a fee from this purchase. But on iOS devices, it says, Apple takes 30% of this purchase.

Starting point is 00:02:07 Jesus, we get it. Facebook says their offer of not collecting any fees is valid at least for the next year. They have submitted this new version of the app to Apple. Let's see if it gets approved with this extra bit of snark thrown in.

Starting point is 00:02:25 If you sell things at a bricks and mortar store, you might be interested in Bing's latest updates. Bing, of course, Microsoft's competitor to Google. First, nearby search. People can search for a product they're interested in, and now we'll see a list of nearby stores selling it. They've also added pandemic-related information from the stores.

Starting point is 00:02:44 By the way, their implementation of it looks identical to Google's. Like right down to how far down the page it appears, what the info box looks like, what text is in it. Customers can also force this by applying the new available nearby filter. And while people are searching for stores near you, Bing Shopping will now show available in-store deals on the right side of the search results page. So you've decided that your brand

Starting point is 00:03:12 probably needs a presence on TikTok. You've opened the app, maybe even tried out a couple of short test videos on your own. You've discovered that you can easily use the same cool AR effect as another user because the video will show you on screen what the effect name was. But in many cases, the coolest videos, the ones with the effects you

Starting point is 00:03:32 really want to use, don't have that on-screen effect name. And that's because the video was done in a different app and imported into TikTok. And nine times out of 10, that different app is actually Snapchat. Yeah, a lot of creators and brands are using Snapchat to create the video, but using TikTok to publish it. And now Snapchat is taking advantage of that with its launch of some new effects, effects that they call those lenses, built specifically with TikTok in mind. The lenses are based on TikTok dance trends, and in many cases were created with input from the influencer who created a particular dance. This isn't the first time Snapchat has tried cozying up to TikTok's huge user base. Last month, they started testing letting people swipe up to advance to the next video instead of the current method of tapping on the right-hand side of the screen.

Starting point is 00:04:29 Speaking of TikTok, they have launched a new tutorials section aimed at helping us old marketing people produce videos on there. Because, have you tried making a TikTok video? I mean one with like multiple scenes or text or adding music. It's really not that intuitive at first. Well, the site contains information on making videos, telling a brand story and understanding your analytics. The site is at tiktoktutorials.uk. But for some bizarre reason, you have to apply for access first. Apparently, when you get in, there's a kind of TikTok certification program. Remember, all the platforms have something like this. Facebook calls it Blueprint.

Starting point is 00:05:09 Twitter calls it Flight School. And Google's is called Ads on Air. They're always excellent sources of information and almost always free. And just to get all the TikTok stuff mostly out of the way before we move on, there's this conspiracy theory going around there. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but hear me out. About a month ago, if you shared a TikTok post through iMessage, you would get a preview like this.

Starting point is 00:05:38 Then about a week ago, you lost the preview, but it still says TikTok. Now the only thing you see when you share a TikTok video is this HTML text. I don't know what's going on. And my wife and I noticed this too, actually, when we sent each other TikTok videos, instead of the nice preview, it was this just ugly HTML file with the string of numbers as the title. What does it mean? Is this the start of the unraveling of TikTok? Nope. It was a bug. They fixed it. Still ahead, the first ever episode of the Digital Marketing Ombudsman, where we unravel one of the most popular shortcuts to building up a Facebook brand page and why you should never, ever do it.

Starting point is 00:06:20 Plus, a deep dive into the content algorithm of one of the world's most popular social media platforms that's still ahead when Today in Digital Marketing continues. the convenience of your telephone to bring you hundreds of online services like a complete set of encyclopedias and the AP Newswire. It helps you decide on investments, bank, make airline reservations, and shop in the electronic mall. It connects you with other computer owners and offers games that pit you against opponents around the country. You get all this and more and it's as simple as making a local phone call. To get online with CompuServe and over a half million people throughout North America, see your local computer store for a free informative brochure about CompuServe. And that brings us to the first episode of the Digital Marketing Ombudsman,

Starting point is 00:07:21 where I try to track down some of the most confusing things that happen day to day in our world, in social media, on the ad platforms and the likes, and try to explain them. And today, this conundrum. So you're browsing Facebook, and you notice a friend has commented on some contest post. It's a contest for a free HP laptop, and all you have to do is comment HP, and then you're entered in the contest. So you do, and join the 66,000 other commenters. The post also has 19,000 shares. A couple of days go by,

Starting point is 00:07:59 you check the post again to see if you won, but that post is now gone. And you think, that's weird. I could have sworn I commented on a post there. And you did. Then, you look a little closer at the Facebook page. Turns out, it doesn't have any posts at all anymore. And the category of the page is listed as Artist. What is going on here? To help us understand, I'm joined by Ryan Chan. He runs the email newsletter called the Unethical Marketing Newsletter. There are actually a lot of businesses that are looking to build a social media following,

Starting point is 00:08:39 but they don't want to start from zero. So when you look at a Facebook page with zero followers, zero likes, the chances of you following that page is pretty low. If you want to take the shortcut, you want to have a Facebook page that already has thousands of followers. They sell these to businesses that want to take the shortcut. From what I can tell, it ranges somewhere from $2,000 to $20,000, $30,000. He shows you what's under the hood there. You can subscribe for free at unethical.marketing. And he promises if you sign up, he won't change the mailing list to some kind of laptop giveaway. Yeah, I have people that ask me, like, how do we know that you are not doing this?

Starting point is 00:09:38 And finally, an extended episode for your weekend. Michael Sanchez has taken brands from zero followers to millions of followers on TikTok. How does he do it? He sat down with me for more than 45 minutes and we covered everything a digital marketer needs to know about getting your brand up on TikTok, including TikTok Virality 101. How does content move on the platform? What are the marketing opportunities for a duet format video? Is there a TikTok newsfeed algorithm and how do we hack it? And the surprising reason, you don't want a whole lot of followers for your brand's account. You can listen to this extended episode for free right now. It is available in our Slack community.

Starting point is 00:10:28 Just go to todayindigital.com slash Slack or tap the link in the notes. Once there, introduce yourself, then check out the channel called Exclusive Content to find this special episode. Once again, that's todayindigital.com slash Slack or tap the link in the notes. And that does it for the week.

Starting point is 00:10:49 Our theme is by Mark Blevis, music licensing by Source Audio, ad management by Podcorn. And this podcast is produced by our agency, EngageQ Digital. Find us at engageq.com. Special thanks to CompuServe for sponsoring today's show. I'm Todd Mathen. Have a restful and safe weekend, friends. I will talk to you on Monday. She said I would do well to

Starting point is 00:11:12 remember my place before some big ideas developed in between my ears, that maybe we could be good friends. Now she said boys like me are always thinking romantically Good friends. She said, boys like me. Oh,

Starting point is 00:11:27 we're speaking romantically. And I won't rest. To convince her.

Today in Digital Marketing - Aug 14 — SPECIAL: The Digital Marketing Ombudsman (Ep 215)

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