Today in Digital Marketing - Because... Who Wants Fruit? Amirite?!

Episode Date: December 23, 2021

Super Saturday has come and gone, and the numbers did not look good. TikTok's new livestreaming app hits a legal roadbump. A big bug on a big platform may have affected conversion reporting.Go Premium! No ads, more stories, and extended deep-dive weekend episodes — https://todayindigital.com/premiumADVERTISING as low as $20: https://todayindigital.com/ads JOIN OUR SLACK! https://todayindigital.com/slackFOLLOW US: https://todayindigital.com/socialmedia (TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Discord, and more) ENJOYING THE SHOW?- Please tweet about us! https://b.link/pod-tweet- Rate and review us: https://todayindigital.com/rateus- Leave a voicemail: https://b.link/pod-voicemail FOLLOW TOD:- TikTok: https://b.link/pod-tiktok- Twitter: https://b.link/pod-twitter- LinkedIn: https://b.link/pod-linkedin Today in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin (https://b.link/pod-todsite) and produced by engageQ digital (https://b.link/pod-engageq). Subscribe at https://TodayInDigital.com or wherever you get your podcasts. (Theme music by Mark Blevis. All other music licensed by Source Audio.)Does your brand need a podcast? Let us help: https://engageQ.com/podcastsOur Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today,

starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Today, Super Saturday has come and gone, at zensurance.comcom slash premium. The real world risks of real time marketing. It's Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021. Happy Abilities Day, US. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageU Digital. And here's what you missed today in digital marketing episode 532.

Last minute shoppers may be put off by pandemic headlines, but at least it seems to be better than last year. According to location analytics firm Placer.ai, reports of rising COVID-19 cases had a significant effect on Super Saturday traffic. Super Saturday, sometimes known as Panic Saturday, is the last Saturday before Christmas. Many retailers, including mass merchants, department stores, and discounters, saw lower traffic than on Black Friday, according to the company. The surge of Omicron cases are apparently scaring consumers away from in-store shopping. Here are the numbers. Sensormatic Solutions reported an almost 20% increase in

shopper traffic on Super Saturday compared to last year, when of course we were also in a pandemic. However, that actually works out to a decline of more than 26% when we compare it to 2019, the last holiday season before COVID completely changed the retail landscape. In comparison, the analysis found that Black Friday traffic declined 28% compared to 2019, but was up 47% compared to last year. A low-key legal dispute may affect your brand's ability to do commerce live streams in the near future, at least on TikTok. TikTok's new live streaming app, which we reported on last week, uses open source code from a program called Open Broadcaster Software.

OBS lets you set up and control your stream from a computer rather than just directly on your phone. This lets you add graphics, overlays, transitions, and overall just a smoother experience for viewers. But some people are now claiming that TikTok's version violates OBS's licensing policy. A user took a screenshot of the Live Studio app's code and posted it on Twitter. The tweet claims that the app is, quote, an illegal fork of OBS, unquote, and that TikTok uses OBS's code and then just customized the user interface. According to another user, if the platform uses OBS's code, it must make the source code publicly available,

in accordance with the GNU general public license. And this is where the business developer for OBS chimed in to agree. Quoting the tweet, we have a commitment to dealing with GPL violations in good faith, as in the case of TikTok ByteDance, we would be happy to have a friendly working relationship with them as long as they comply with the license, unquote. Just to be clear, this doesn't prevent your brand from going live if you're using your cell phone. Remember, we're just talking about using their new app, which is really a better way to go anyway. Anyway, Live Studio was quietly tested by a small group of users just a few days ago, but it appears the platform still has a few kinks to work out. Speaking of TikTok, a few other updates for you.

While the other platforms are considering the negative impacts of resharing, TikTok is experimenting with it. The platform is testing a new repost feature with some users. Here's a look at what you can expect. When you repost a clip, your connections will see that you have reshared it in the video details along with any comments that you've made. This reshare shows up in both your connections for you and following feed, but it doesn't post it to your profile. So in that way, it's not quite like Twitter's retweets. Basically, it's an alternative way to share videos with your followers rather than sending them through DMs. We marketers, of course, could benefit from this feature if

more people are sharing your content, could reach a wider audience, it could boost engagement. Second, another way that marketers can boost engagement on the platform is with TikTok's new live intro option. The new tool allows you to add a short text description into your live stream settings to welcome new viewers to your broadcast. You could use this as a simple way to introduce your brand, service, or product, and give users an incentive to watch your stream. And finally, TikTok is now the third largest social network in the world, right behind Facebook and Instagram, leaving Snapchat and Twitter in the dust. That's a forecast from Insider Intelligence,

which you may previously have known as eMarketer, which also predicts that the platform will reach 755 million monthly active users by next year. In comparison, Facebook is expected to reach 2.1 billion, followed by Instagram with 1.28 billion. Snapchat is well behind with 465 million and Twitter with 354 million. A bug in Google Ads might be affecting the reporting of your conversion data. Yesterday, Google confirmed an issue that was specific to Google Ads conversions that use non-first-last-click attribution models, such as data-driven attribution, or DDA.

The problem apparently has now been fixed. According to the company, the affected users are able to access Google Ads but may not have access to the most recent data. Conversions delayed by this incident, those making use of non-first-last-click attribution models, are now present in Google Ads. The Microsoft Bing and Shopify integration is now live. The company made the announcement yesterday, three days before Christmas, and two months after the partnership was announced. Despite the less-than-ideal timing right before the busiest shopping season of the year,

the integration offers advertisers an easy way to show up in Bing product ads, product listings on the Shopping tab, a new Buy Now option for a quick checkout, and more. Shopify merchants can easily set up the integration by clicking on Sales Channels, choosing Microsoft, and signing in. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit?

No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. It's been quite the year. So on this, our last episode before 2022 shows up, a bit of levity.

And to that end, we submit for your consideration what Axios considers to be the three best corrections published in the media this year. On March 8th, the Wall Street Journal, quote, the stray word yay was inadvertently inserted during editing of an article on Friday about Connecticut's COVID-19 restrictions. July 2nd, the Home News Tribune. I think this one's actually my favorite. Quote, on page 2A of Sunday's edition months after the end of World War II, in a page seven article in the October 10th, 1945 edition of the Daily Home News, a precursor to the Home News Tribune, two names were inadvertently switched in a paragraph about an event at

Lord Sterling School in New Brunswick, unquote. Wow. How's that for integrity and catching your mistakes? And October 22nd, CNN, quote, correction. We got the story of Goldilocks and the three bears wrong. It was Goldilocks who found Baby Bear's bed to be just right. And so that will put paid to 2021. We will be back with you on January 4th, Tuesday of next year. My thanks to all of you for listening, for all of the premium members, for supporting the work that we do, making it possible to have extra time to interview experts and so on. Also, big shout out to Steph Gunn, who joined our team as the associate producer and obviously elevated the quality of the podcast significantly.

And if you'd like to give us a gift, here's what we need. Just please share. Share about the podcast. Tell people. There's a link in the episode notes where you can tweet. You can see it before it goes out. You can edit it, of course. But please just share.

Let people know that this podcast exists because we find that once people find out about it, they stick around. Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Sunamic First Nation on Vancouver Island. Scripting and promotional support by Steph Gunn. Podcast music licensing by Source Audio. And our theme composer, Mark Blevis. Is that feeling you get when you feel a round thing in the bottom of your stocking and you think, oh, great, it's a tangerine. And then you get down there and no, it's not. It's a big ball

of chocolate because who wants fruit? Am I right? I'm Todd Maffin. Have a restful and safe holiday season, my friends. I'll be back with you on January 4th. Without my credit card, I got the credit card blues Oh yeah, a dance of credit card blues You know that Christmas ain't no joke When you ain't got no dough

I got the credit card blues, oh yeah Santa won't be arriving on December 25th I can't use my card to buy the kids some gifts I ain't got no decorations, ain't got no turkey too I can't pay till springtime, don't know what I'm gonna do I got the credit card blues Oh yeah The credit card blues You know that Christmas ain't no joke

When your credit's up in smoke I got the credit card blues Oh yeah Yeah Merry Christmas Say what? Merry Christmas, say what? Merry Christmas, say what? Merry Christmas Maybe I can find another job down at the local deep-hopping shop Put on a beard and boots Face Santa till I drop

Earn me a sack of money So I can buy the kids some lute And if I do a good job They may let me keep the suit I got the credit card blues Oh yeah I got the credit card blues, oh yeah I got the credit card blues You'll know that Christmas ain't no joke

When your weather's up and smoke I got the credit card blues, oh yeah Oh, I got the credit card blues Merry Christmas See, you don't get the credit card blue. Merry Christmas. I mean, okay, it's a credit card blue. Merry Christmas. I said, the grizzles ain't no joke.

Well, you ain't got no joke. I got the credit card blue. Oh, yeah. Come on, max it out, baby! stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N.ca.