Today in Digital Marketing - The "New" Instagram Tool That's Years Late

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Thursday, October 20th. I'm Todd Maffin. Today, one more reason to get your products into Merchant Center. YouTube expands shoppable video. Facebook groups get reels and new admin tools. Why a third of retail executives are clearing inventory. And hey, Instagram's scheduling tool is here, but does anybody care? Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. All right, we start today with some good news for those of you who work in e-commerce.

Starting point is 00:00:28 Google today announcing updates to its shopping experience in search with more visual results for desktop in the U.S. This updated desktop feed, which came to mobile last month, will show more products, brands, articles, and videos when users add the word shop to a search for items. Google has also added new dynamic filter options to refine search results, including brand, retailers, products nearby, sales, and a few more. Because the filters are dynamic, they will display the most recent content based on what the user is searching for at the time. Consumers can also search for a specific product using a dual screen style where they can read product information without leaving the results page. In other Google news, the company is rolling out My Ad Center today, which lets people

Starting point is 00:01:16 control the ads they see. Users can access the Ad Center by selecting the three-dot menu that appears in ads on Search, Discover, and YouTube. Then by using the Customize Ads tab, they can tailor their ad experiences based on topics and brands. They can also choose whether they want to see ads related to sensitive topics like alcohol, gambling, and dating. It also gives them the option to disable personalized ads entirely. Google isn't the only platform looking to ramp up shopping as the holiday season nears. Klarna, the company known for its buy now, pay later services, announced a number

Starting point is 00:01:53 of new shopping products yesterday, including a new search tool that lets customers compare prices before making purchases. The tool shows consumers both new and pre-loved options from retailers and lets them filter results by customer rating, store availability, and shipping options. Consumers can also see the price range as well if other retailers are offering the product at a better price or with faster and cheaper delivery options. The tool will also look for and apply available coupons at checkout. Klarna also announced it's hopping on the video content bandwagon with a new shoppable video stream. Now, when users watch video in the app, like an unboxing or a review video, they can shop for the item from the video.

Starting point is 00:02:36 You can't have shoppable videos without creators these days. With that, Klarna is entering the influencer market with a new creator platform. Well, like Klarna, YouTube is also banking on social shopping and looking to open up access to its live stream commerce tools to more creators. YouTube Shopping Tools, first introduced last year, lets eligible creators tag products with shoppable links in their content. Previously, only a thousand creators participated in the YouTube shopping beta, but now new eligibility requirements for shopping are rolling out, as long as you have thousands of subscribers. Insider reports that by the end of the year,

Starting point is 00:03:15 creators in YouTube's partner program in select countries with at least 20,000 subscribers will be able to tag their content with shoppable links, including videos, shorts, and live streams. Creators will only be able to tag products that are listed in the Google Merchant Center, of course. Finally, the platform will be pushing on-platform shopping via its second live shopping event next month, called From YouTube to You. Not even Facebook groups are safe from getting reeled. to you. I guess. Facebook group members will also soon be able to share a public Facebook event for your community to their Instagram story. Meta is also testing updates to members' groups' profiles, including customizing the information in the About Me section

Starting point is 00:04:13 and letting members add an indicator to their profile to let members know they are open to messaging. The company is also testing the ability for group admins and moderators to create view-only chats to send one-way communications to all of their members without having to maintain or respond to messages in the chat, as well as a new process to highlight top contributing members who can earn points by taking on group engagement responsibilities. Facebook is also trying out a new Admin Assist update that will let group admins automatically remove posts containing misinformation, as determined by Meta's third-party fact-checkers. 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

Starting point is 00:05:05 financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today, starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. The platform that wants you to post every single day is finally trying out an in-app scheduling option. Instagram confirmed it is testing a native scheduling tool for posts and reels with a limited group of users. Strangely, no info on stories yet. This strikes me as more than a little late. Third-party platforms have been scheduling Instagram content for years. Hell, even Meta's own creative hub or creator studio or business suite or whatever the hell they call that has been able to do this for ages. I guess it's nice it's coming to the app itself, maybe? Users who have access to the

Starting point is 00:05:48 feature can schedule posts by going to Advanced Settings when creating new content and turning on the toggle that says Schedule this post to select a time and date. According to early leaked screenshots of the test, you can also view scheduled posts through the Scheduled Content section accessible under the menu and reschedule content if you need to. And finally, ahead of what looks like a gloomy Q4, new numbers from Accenture show that more than a third of brands plan to deeply discount or take other measures to get rid of excess inventory. The survey of 150 retail executives found nearly all of them, that is to say 99% of respondents, had increased their promotional activity and more than a third are stockpiling

Starting point is 00:06:36 items to make sure they have enough supply. One of the YouTube holes that I've fallen down hard for the last few months is this channel called Law Talk with Mike. It's a lawyer in Chicago. He basically just streams all sorts of weird court events, but he has been with some of his lawyer buddies streaming the court case that is happening right now with the fellow that mowed down a bunch of people in a parade in, I think it was Wisconsin. Anyway, I hate to say this, but it's actually a borderline entertaining trial only because this guy is a complete idiot and represents himself. And it's just, it's just, it's fascinating to watch the judge in all of it. I don't know why I got into this rabbit hole, but I did. So I'm off to watch more of it. Thanks for listening. I'm Todd Maffin.

Starting point is 00:07:23 See you tomorrow. explicit content will still be prohibited. Which, like, what's adult-themed if it's not sex and nudity? You know, it's just like, who's ready to watch me refinance my mortgage? The interest rates are so huge right now, I don't think I can afford

Starting point is 00:08:02 to live in my house anymore.

Today in Digital Marketing - The "New" Instagram Tool That's Years Late

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