Today in Digital Marketing - Even Your Employees Won't Read Your Emails

Starting point is 00:00:01 It is Thursday, January 19th. Today, a big integration for BigCommerce. How will Instagram's change today affect your organic reach? TikTok's strange new podcasting feature? Why employers are sliding into their employees' DMs? And another big fail for Meta's ad approvals bot. I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. BigCommerce is expanding its e-commerce marketplace. The company partnering with Microsoft Advertising to release a new Microsoft Ads and Listings app in its Big Commerce marketplace. Using the app, Big Commerce merchants can now integrate their stores to reach Microsoft Advertising's audience. With this Microsoft Ads and Listings integration, merchants can synchronize their e-commerce product catalogs directly to the Microsoft Merchant Center. Microsoft says

Starting point is 00:00:49 products are then automatically displayed for free across its Bing and Start placements. Merchants can also create smart shopping campaigns and view their marketing performance and insights in the app itself. Microsoft Ads and Listings on BigCommerce is currently available in select markets with plans to expand in the future. Instagram users now have a new tool to block your brand's organic reach. Users can now filter out and hide posts containing specific keywords they choose.

Starting point is 00:01:23 The platform announced today it's bringing hidden words to recommendations. Now users can add a word or a list of words, emojis, or hashtags that they want to avoid, like fitness or recipes. And the platform will stop recommending content with those words in the caption or hashtag. Instagram already lets users hide comments and DMs containing specific words, but this new expanded filtering option will let them control what they see or don't see in their feeds even more. As noted by CNBC, the change appears to address concerns raised by U.S. policymakers about the platform's impact on teens. Are podcasts coming to TikTok?

Starting point is 00:02:07 Business Insider reports today that TikTok is experimenting with a new tool that its code calls podcasts. But it's not really that at all. Rather, this will let users listen to a video's audio as the app operates in the background, much how like other video apps do. And even YouTube can do if you pay for its premium option. Obviously, this would be a great addition to TikTok, especially now that longer form videos are in the mix. According to a screenshot from a content creator apparently in the test, the app prompted an option to listen to the video, quote, as a podcast, unquote. And a thumbnail appeared on a page called podcasts. It's a weird way of saying background audio, but whatever.

Starting point is 00:02:47 TikTok did not respond to media requests for comment. Can't get your staff to read their emails? Try sliding into their DMs. Apparently, some company executives now send their employees messages via Instagram DMs because young employees ignore work emails. Take WePro, one of the world's biggest IT companies. Its CEO, quoted in the Evening Standard yesterday, said about a tenth of his company staff don't even check their work email once a month. Quoting the executive, to speak to my executive of video platform Vimeo compared emails to outdated instruction manuals.

Starting point is 00:03:39 As a result, she noted the company changed how it communicates with staff, focusing more on emotion and nuance instead of emails. She added, young people don't read anymore. 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. Not all Facebook ads get automatically denied by Meta's policy enforcement robots. Hell, some of them even make it through, including apparently a handful of ads that advocated for the death of children.

Starting point is 00:04:32 According to a new report from a human rights activist group, Facebook approved a series of online ads promoting violence in Brazil just days after protesters rioted in government buildings. Using fake accounts, the group submitted 16 ads to Facebook, with some calling on people to storm government buildings, others describing the election as stolen, and some calling for the deaths of children whose parents voted for Brazil's new president. 14 of the 16 ads were approved for publication.

Starting point is 00:05:04 A spokesperson for the group said this test proves that the platform is not doing enough to enforce its ad policies restricting violent content. The group also, by the way, submitted ads for approval on YouTube. YouTube immediately suspended the group's accounts. The group is called Global Witness. It said it deleted the ads from Facebook before users could actually see messages like death to the children of Lula voters. In response, a spokesperson for Meta said there were only 16 ads involved.

Starting point is 00:05:30 Too small, they said, to be representative of how the company enforces its policies at scale. And finally, more industry layoffs continue. Group M, one of the world's largest media agencies, has confirmed staff cutbacks. Digiday reporting today the company is conducting a series of layoffs this week with more than 100 employees losing their jobs or resigning across its global network. Meanwhile, Canadian social media platform Hootsuite is laying off nearly 10% of its employees in its third job cut over the last year and has replaced its chief executive. The company confirmed to the Globe and Mail newspaper that it would lay off about 70 people. Feeling a tiny bit under the weather today,

Starting point is 00:06:17 so I will leave it here. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. One, two, three. It's the season for new styles and you love to shop for jackets and boots. Hello. 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 dot C-A.

Today in Digital Marketing - Even Your Employees Won't Read Your Emails

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