Today in Digital Marketing - Instagram's "Verified Only" Feed — Will Your Brand Pay to Play?

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Friday, August 11th. Today, Instagram denies reports it's working on a very Twitter-like feature, a podcast network scales host-read ads, Snapchat's new after-dark sharing, and what does the new brand authority metric give us? I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. Could a verified users-only feed be coming to Instagram? According to a new discovery in the app's code,

Starting point is 00:00:28 Meta appears to be working on a feed option for Instagram that would only show those with a blue check, which could be a step toward boosting visibility for verified accounts, similar to what X, formerly Twitter, has done. A reverse software engineer recently revealed that both the iOS and Android Instagram apps are now displaying a meta-verified feed filter

Starting point is 00:00:51 alongside the chronological following and favorites feeds. But Instagram denied testing the feature. Meta didn't say if the feature was an internal development in progress or one it had considered but abandoned. According to the app researcher, the feature was added to the Android app code on August 4th and to the iOS app this week. It remains to be seen whether Meta moves forward with the concept of a designated feed for its paying subscribers. The podcasting platform Red Circle launched a new multi-script feature for advertisers today. With the tool, brands and agencies can now take a single script and

Starting point is 00:01:34 generate endless personalized versions for each podcast, each with their own unique promotion code. Prior to this, that work had been done manually. This gives podcasters a call to action and promotion code link to include in their show notes during script creation. They can be tracked back to individual podcasts to determine which performed best. Full disclosure, our podcasts use the Red Circle platform. Cue the sexy sax music. Snapchat has launched a new After Dark story feature, which lets accounts post exclusive content when the sun goes down from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., but only on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays for some reason. Once the clock strikes 5 a.m., users can watch the snaps shared on the story

Starting point is 00:02:20 to see what their friends or brand accounts that they follow posted. But access to view the After Dark story is only granted if they also posted that previous night. The feature is also limited to one post per night, similar to Be Real. The new option is being rolled out to all users this week and might be something to play with if that aligns with your brand's voice. This week, the SEO company Moz introduced a new metric called Brand Authority designed to gauge brand strength. The new metric measures the strength of the brand based on broader online conversations using a scale of 0 to 100. The number measures popularity, meaning that even highly disliked brands could have a high score.

Starting point is 00:03:07 Moz says this score reflects brand online value through the search engine's perspective. The company released the top brands on its metric. Given the score measures popular discussion, the top five are Google, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, and Walmart. Comparing that list with Kantar's most valuable brands based on financial valuation, Google and Amazon retain top spots, but different companies show up like Apple, Microsoft, and McDonald's. So while you can get a brand authority score now, what is it really telling you? Quoting Content Marketing Institute, brand value is highly subjective. It's most accurately measured across multiple attributes, including financial, trust, and popularity. As marketers and stewards of the

Starting point is 00:03:50 brand, you help orchestrate, because you can't control it, the perceptions of your brand over time. They are the sum of promises kept, the spaces in which your customers create their value and look at you in a different way. Mazda's new brand authority score certainly seems to offer marketers a useful tool to measure their efforts to move the brand. One thing to keep in mind is that an increase in score may not be the right goal. Unquote. 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.

Starting point is 00:04:31 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. The biggest e-commerce company in the world is Marie Kondo-ing its product lineup and giving its private label brands a minimalist makeover.

Starting point is 00:04:54 The Wall Street Journal reporting this week that Amazon is slashing the number of in-house brands it offers on its marketplace and plans on cutting 27 of its 30 clothing brands as it battles costs and regulators. The company has created several private label brands across a variety of departments, most of which operate without Amazon branding, like WAG and Mama Bear. This cutback will leave Amazon with just three in-house brands, Amazon Essentials, Amazon Collection, and Amazon Aware. The shift also extends to some private label furniture brands.

Starting point is 00:05:26 Sources say Amazon plans to sell the remaining inventory from the now discontinued brands until they run out. Heads up, Facebook group admins. Meta is sending out notifications to some admins this week, urging them to step up their moderation game or face replacement. The warning says that admins either need to be more engaged or if they do nothing, Facebook will automatically find someone within a week. And we all know how well this kind of ultimatum went down with Reddit moderators. The change differs from Meta's current policy

Starting point is 00:06:02 that states, quote, if a group has no admins, Facebook may suggest that some members become an admin based on many signals. Signals include their current level of participation and whether they're an admin of any other Facebook groups. Facebook may also archive the group if there are no admins for a while, unquote. So while groups without any active admins may get archived according to the policy, there was no mention of automatically replacing them. So maybe double check if your brand runs any of its own Facebook groups and make sure your admins are active. Otherwise, Meta might just hand the keys over to some randoms. And finally, Amazon is changing up its deliveries by sending orders without extra packaging to cut costs and reduce environmental impact.

Starting point is 00:06:49 But this stripped-down approach has its downsides. Your neighbors might get a front-row seat to your orders of toilet paper and self-help books and other items. There's also concern, of course, about theft or damage. To soothe those woes, shoppers can select extra Amazon packaging at no additional charge for items in their orders. So next time your neighbor gives you a knowing nod about your bulk toilet paper purchase, just remember, you're saving the planet one package at a time. That will do it for the week. Today in Digital Marketing, it's produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Tsunamic First Nation on Vancouver Island.

Starting point is 00:07:35 Our associate producer is Steph Gunn. Production coordinator, Sarah Guild. Music licensing by Source Audio. Ad coordination by Red Circle. And our theme composer, Mark Blavis' dad joke of the week. Yes, it's a new thing. I'm afraid for the calendar.

Starting point is 00:07:50 Its days are numbered. I'm Todd Mappin. Thanks for listening. Have a restful weekend, friends. See you on Monday. Out of control We're getting too far down the wrong road It's hard to see It's getting so far away from me

Today in Digital Marketing - Instagram's "Verified Only" Feed — Will Your Brand Pay to Play?

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