Today in Digital Marketing - Instagram Has No Idea What Digital Marketers Want. Discuss.

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Starting point is 00:00:18 starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected, be Zen. Today, big moves in the single technology Be protected. Be Zen. Instagram is busy working on a feature nobody will use. It's Friday, May 14th, 2021. Happy Independence Day, Paraguay. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital, and here's what you missed today in digital marketing. A few times a week, I'll jump on my TikTok account and go live, answering questions people have about digital marketing. Most of the questions I get are pretty basic. How do I get more leads for my gym?

Starting point is 00:01:06 Or which platform is the best? Or should I focus on traffic or post-engagement? The answer to all these, of course, is, well, it depends. But there's one question I never answer this way. And that question is, what do you think is the next big tech for marketing? I actually have an opinion here. Augmented reality. I think AR is on the verge of becoming the next great tech in marketing because it's aligning with four huge trend lines. First, mobile phones are now fast enough to handle

Starting point is 00:01:40 advanced real-time AR rendering. Huge investments are being made in the connection between AR and e-commerce. All the social platforms are racing to build AR into their apps. And consumers are coming to expect offer and product customization from marketers. One of the platforms that wants to be out front, Snapchat, which has embraced AR from its early days, though it was used more for fun than commerce back then. Today, the company released a study they did with Deloitte Digital in which they asked 15,000 consumers across 15 countries what they thought of the whole space. First, adoption rate, nearly 75% of the global population and almost all smartphone users will be frequent AR users.

Starting point is 00:02:34 Unquote. And they say AR is already influencing people's buying decisions. More than 100 million people currently shop using some kind of AR tech. Here's socialmediatoday.com's take on it. The expanded potential of these tools, including virtual try-on options and digital product placement, like 3D visualizations for furniture, will build on this, making AR an even bigger consideration for more businesses over time. That becomes even more significant when you also consider the rise of e-commerce, which has seen a significant boost as a result of the pandemic, unquote. And back to the Snapchat study, quote, consumers continuously expect more personalized and engaging experiences that enable them to interact with the world. The companies that embrace change can become dominant industry players,

Starting point is 00:03:27 those that don't fall behind competitors and sink, unquote. Today's premium newsletter has a link to the full Snapchat study. And remember, since it's Friday, everyone gets today's issue. If you're not yet on our newsletter list, just go to todayindigital.com slash newsletter or tap the link in this episode's notes. There's a paid plan for the daily issues, but the free plan will send you the Friday issue every week. Snapchat's not the only brand racing fast to get deeper into AR. Walmart today announced they'd acquired Zkit, a company that created a virtual changing room. When the experience is live on the Walmart site, customers will upload a photo of themselves or choose from a series of models that best represent their height, shape, and skin tone.

Starting point is 00:04:15 Then the site will show them in any item of clothing, mimicking the experience of trying on clothes in a store. They can even share their virtual outfits with friends for a second opinion. This isn't the first such tech, of course. Sephora has been doing this with try-on makeup for seven years now, as Snapchat recently bought the sizing tech company Fit Analytics. Despite the global pandemic that kept many people out of its stores, and actually probably because of that, Walmart had a great 2020. E-commerce sales rose 79% for the fiscal year. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Starting point is 00:04:58 So AR will be big. What else is on the hot list? 30 points to you if you said live-streamed e-commerce. And now, one of the OGs of consumer brand awareness platforms is jumping into that as well. Pinterest today said later this month it will host a three-day long live virtual event, which will feature a range of live-streamed sessions from creators and celebrities. The big difference here, this won't be live streamed on YouTube. Viewers will watch directly in the Pinterest app.

Starting point is 00:05:30 They will have a new Pinterest live page, sort of an index of all the upcoming scheduled live events, with a remind me button. For now, these events will only be available on mobile and only to Americans. Thanks for nothing, Pinterest. In this first upcoming test, viewers will be able to comment on the video to interact with hosts, but there will not be any kind of e-commerce integration. But, quoting socialmediatoday.com, that's no doubt coming.

Starting point is 00:05:57 With TikTok airing its own shopping-focused live streams, you can bet that Pinterest is also eyeing the same, linking its expanding catalog of product pins into a live stream experience that will eventually enable all pinners to broadcast live and promote their products within the app. Which makes sense, especially given the popularity of food and beauty content on the platform. Through live streaming, chefs will be able to guide pinners through their recipes, while beauty creators will have a direct option to better showcase various products. In this respect, live streaming seems to fit perfectly within the Pinterest ecosystem.

Starting point is 00:06:42 And when you also consider that video views within pins increased more than three times in 2020, there's clearly demand for more video content within the app, unquote. Also in related live stream news, Facebook this afternoon published a white paper on the best practices for live streaming company events on social media. There's a link in today's newsletter for that white paper. An independent software engineer has found code on Instagram's website showing that they are working on a publish tool there. There, as in on the website.

Starting point is 00:07:14 You drag images onto the page, select a crop, a filter, add captions. It's basically the mobile workflow, but on web. And sure, I guess. But have the programmers at Instagram not been told about Creator Studio? Because I thought that's where they were going to consolidate everything. Or was that Business Suite? Now, wait a minute. Now, hang on.

Starting point is 00:07:35 Which one was it? I have a list here. Creator Studio Business. Creative Hub? Was it that one? Anyway, my take, who cares? We all use third-party platforms for this now anyway because they forced us to, essentially. And the one thing social media managers actually need from Instagram, we still don't have.

Starting point is 00:07:57 The ability to see and reply to DMs in the third-party tool of our choice. It is absolutely mind-boggling to me that Instagram still believes brand managers and digital marketers really prefer to handle DMs from our personal phones. Like, does anyone at Instagram use their own app? Hello? Hello? Well, a special weekend extra is coming your way tomorrow. Just a little bit of fun.

Starting point is 00:08:33 This morning, our Slack community hit 400 members. There is a channel in there for noob questions. There's a channel where you can promote pretty much anything you want. There's a channel with exclusive podcast content you can only get

Starting point is 00:08:44 in our Slack. There's even a channel that alerts you every time the Facebook ads platform goes down. I'm not kidding. Today in digital.com slash Slack will get you in there. It's free to join, by the way. It's completely free. You can also tap the link in this episode's notes. Well, that's it for the week. Today in Digital Marketing is produced on beautiful Vancouver Island by EngageQ Digital. Production support and fact-checking by Sarah Guild. Our theme is by Mark Blevis.

Starting point is 00:09:11 Music licensing by Source Audio. I'm Todd Maffin. Have a restful weekend, friends. I'll talk to you on Monday. I was falling down, and the world was crumbling all around. I would help you stand your ground. I was lost before your love was found. If the oceans emptied out, and your heart was filled with so much doubt. I would lift you up somehow.

Starting point is 00:09:43 I was lost before your love was found Before your love was found I was lost, so lost Yeah

Today in Digital Marketing - Instagram Has No Idea What Digital Marketers Want. Discuss.

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