Today in Digital Marketing - INSTAGRAM DMs ARE FINALLY IN THE API! 🎉🍾

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 point is 00:00:18 starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Today, perhaps the biggest single item Be protected. Be Zen. ads, and the voice recognition tool you should never use. It's Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021. Happy Republic Day, Italy. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing.

Starting point is 00:00:58 Let's say you decide for some reason that you don't want to be in Google. Maybe you're taking your site down for maintenance or, I don't know, some other reason. Here's a question. Roll the music! Will deleting your website's sitemap file result in your removal from Google's search index? In other words, will Google drop you from search if you remove or don't have a sitemap.xml file on your server? As always, the answer later in today's episode. pig in the air? This can only mean one thing, ladies, gentlemen, and enbies. It's finally here.

Starting point is 00:01:46 Instagram DMs in your third-party social media tool. Now, before you break open the cheap gin that we ship to all premium newsletter subscribers for this very celebration, some background, and this being the Facebook platform, some catches. First, the background. Yeah, one of the huge gaps that social media community managers have had to deal with is that their third-party tool, like Sprout Social or Agorapulse or Hootsuite or Later, none of them could surface direct messages that you'd receive on your brand's Instagram channel. It wasn't the fault of the tools. It was Facebook's fault. They just hadn't put Instagram DMs into the API that these tools rely on.

Starting point is 00:02:26 So all we had was Facebook's own tools, like Business Suite, or maybe it was Creative Suite or Creative Studio. I don't know. And nobody else did either. It was always a dog's breakfast. Or you could have used your phone to log into your brand's Instagram account to reply, but that doesn't really work at scale, and it lacks all the value a third-party tool offers. Topic tagging, escalating internally,

Starting point is 00:02:49 providing comments, reporting, and all that. Well, last month, Instagram started quietly testing this with a very small closed beta, but today they announced it has begun to roll out to everyone. Well, almost everyone. So, we come to the catches. Catch number one, first remember this is an API they're rolling out. That's for developers. So this means you and I are still waiting for those tools to integrate it. Theoretically, of course, since it's just code, you could program your own tool,

Starting point is 00:03:21 and some very large brands do exactly that, but the vast majority of us will rely on a third-party tool. Catch number two. This will be a staged rollout. They're not throwing the switch on for everyone. First, it'll only work with Instagram accounts that have follower counts between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. Next month, they say they'll drop that bottom limit to a minimum of 1,000 followers. And by the end of Q3, they expect to let all accounts use it. Catch number three. There's an interesting bit of fine print in their terms and conditions. This API will let your tool retrieve images and videos that your user sends. But Facebook says your tool will not be allowed to store them on their servers.

Starting point is 00:04:06 That means if Facebook decides to pull the image or video that your customer has sent you, it's gone. You're not allowed to keep a record of it. Which is a little strange, especially given the stringent record-keeping standards that many regulated industries must abide by. But I guess we'll all have to see how that shakes out. We reached out to the top social media tools to see if they are planning to implement this and when.

Starting point is 00:04:28 Both Hootsuite and Agorapulse told us they are working on it, but wouldn't commit to a release date. Later.com appears to have not been in the test group since they told us, quote, since it was only just announced, we don't have any concrete deals to share with you, but this is definitely something the team is thinking about. Sprout Social said it's actually ready to go today if you're on their platform and your Instagram account qualifies. Remember, that's between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. But if that's you, you will get a notification shortly to reauthorize your Instagram account

Starting point is 00:04:57 within Sprout, and it'll start working. Also, Sprinklr said they are ready to go. We did not hear back from Buffer. So, that's the good news. You know what comes next. We turn from Facebook's APIs to its beleaguered ads platform. And some exclusive news you're hearing about here first. Facebook is testing a new approach to dynamic campaigns.

Starting point is 00:05:24 And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you are Facebook is testing a new approach to dynamic campaigns. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you are not going to like it. First, dynamic campaigns, those are where you give it, say, three different headlines, three different descriptions, three different primary texts, and it will mix and match them to find a combination that works well. It doesn't have to be three. You can use any number. Some people get good results from this, but it's mostly a mixed bag. Now, a very strange version of dynamic rotation. Instead of rotating those three separate text fields,

Starting point is 00:05:52 Facebook will actually put that text into different fields. In other words, and this is quoting from Facebook's test, text you provide may appear as primary text, headline, or description. Wait, what? So yeah, that headline you worked on might show up as body copy instead. Or they might pick a different headline and put your preferred headline as the link description. No official word from Facebook on this, but some people are seeing this pop up in Ads Manager. Back to Instagram briefly for news of a rare algorithm policy reversal.

Starting point is 00:06:35 The platform previously would give original content priority in the stories feed over existing reshared posts. But now they say for the time being, both will be given equal weight. This is actually tied to the escalating tensions in the Middle East with some users saying limiting reshares of stories has also limited pro-Palestinian voices in the app. Instagram denies that's happening. They do seem to have been trying to get rid of reshares quietly, first by reducing their distribution,

Starting point is 00:07:04 and in some cases, just straight up removing that ability entirely for some people. This change is likely to be temporary, quoting socialmediatoday.com. While Instagram has taken a step back in this specific instance, it will no doubt keep looking for ways to stop people resharing feed posts to their stories because, as Instagram CEO Adam Massari has previously noted, it's very clearly a prominent pain point in the app. It'll be interesting, too, to see whether similar concerns apply to Reels, with reach restrictions now in place for posts that include word marks in an effort to limit the resharing of TikTok clips. Yes, that rumble you felt this morning was indeed a core algorithm update at Google.

Starting point is 00:07:53 They do these big core updates a couple of times a year. They say the next big one will actually come next month because they just couldn't fit everything they wanted into today's update. Google says, as they usually do around these core updates, that most sites won't notice much of a change in their rankings, if anything at all. Indeed, says searchenginejournal.com, quote, Don't be too quick to celebrate if you see positive changes either, because it's possible the impact of this month's update will be reversed next month, unquote. Even so, probably worth waiting a couple of days for the dust to settle,

Starting point is 00:08:23 then checking where your brands or clients land now after this update. It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 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.

Starting point is 00:08:55 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. 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. Another change coming to Google's search

Starting point is 00:09:32 algorithm is core web vitals. We've talked a lot about it here. Well, one of the three components that make up that new metric is changing. It's the cumulative layout shift metric. That's the one that measures how much your web page's layout jumps around. They've tweaked this a little. They've now updated that metric in the all-important Google Search Console. Quoting the company, The CLS metrics have been updated to reflect a more accurate representation of layout shifts on the page. You might see changes in your page CLS statuses, mostly positive, reflecting this change to CLS actually happened back in April.

Starting point is 00:10:11 But these updated scores weren't reflected in Search Console until just yesterday. TLDR, you should see better CLS numbers, which means better core web vitals, which could even translate, maybe, sometimes, to a tiny ranking boost. To Twitter now, where they've announced a larger test of ads in between Twitter stories. The vertical Snapchat-like format they call Fleets. This actually isn't their first full-screen mobile ad format. They tried it back in 2017, but it never launched fully. In their announcement, an interesting hint about how they might evolve this.

Starting point is 00:10:49 Quote, We want to understand how this content performs for customers, not just for fleet ads, but also for future iterations of full-screen formats on Twitter. Unquote. Some analysts think this might mean expandable tweet ads, where it looks like a tweet, but when you tap it, it expands full screen. This is something Facebook would call an instant experience. I know you want the fine details, so here they are.

Starting point is 00:11:13 Fleet ads will support images and video in the 9 by 16 ratio. Video ads can be up to add a swipe up call to action and you'll get metrics on impressions, profile visits, clicks, website visits, video views, six second video views, starts and completes. This test starts today with a handful of advertisers in the US, more countries to follow. A new study from Environics and Amazon has confirmed that customer trust will be an increasingly valuable currency for brands. The study of about 5,800 Canadians suggests that purchase decisions and customer loyalty will be increasingly driven by shared value, but shoppers will hold brands more accountable to any promises made about impacting the greater good. Some of the top-line findings, 66% of those polled, said they are much more likely to purchase from a brand that's willing to take a stand on social issues.

Starting point is 00:12:14 But 72% just don't trust businesses that make claims like those. And consumers were seven times more likely to say that purchaser reviews is what made them buy, as opposed to anything they saw by a social media influencer. Google has added an interesting new feature to its voice recognition Google Assistant box. It now supports Google My Business and will let you set up your business profile all through voice. Apparently, all you have to say is, oh, by the way, turn off your Google machine because I'm going to say the magic words. All right, just turn the volume down right here. Hey, Google, bring my business online.

Starting point is 00:12:57 Also, you'll need to know Italian and live in Italy because that's the only place it appears to be being tested right now. Also, also, please don't set up your Google My Business profile using voice recognition, okay? Use a real computer for that. By the way, reports on Twitter this afternoon say the Google My Business platform has a bug where there's no confirmation screen when you use their suggest an edit tool. Apparently, the edits are going through just fine. You're just not getting the usual thank you screen.

Starting point is 00:13:28 Oh, and as for the quiz, will deleting the sitemap file on your web server remove your web pages from Google's search index? The answer, nope, not at all. Here's Google search advocate John Mueller. Removing a sitemap file doesn't prevent crawling of the URLs that were specified in the sitemap file. A sitemap file helps us to crawl more efficiently, though, which is generally why we recommend using it. In particular, a sitemap file helps us to find new and updated pages slightly faster, which is always a good thing, right? Remember, Google doesn't need to have a sitemap to find your pages, as long as they're linked internally and your website is even moderately well-organized. Many websites rank just fine without one. It's a nice to have. It is not a mandatory. More than 400 digital marketers just like you are in our Slack community. Inside, you'll find exclusive deep dive episodes.

Starting point is 00:14:33 Jobs get posted there. People use it to get advice, all sorts of stuff. It's free to join. Just tap the link in this episode's notes or go to todayindigital.com slash Slack. I'm Todd Maffin. Talk to you tomorrow. Yeah. There ain't no doubt about it I know that I am the man

Today in Digital Marketing - INSTAGRAM DMs ARE FINALLY IN THE API! 🎉🍾

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