Today in Digital Marketing - TikTok Account Management for Boomers

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, TikTok account management for the rest of us. Twitter pays big for using phone numbers wrong. WooCommerce jumps on board the cool kids train. Why 99% of Gen Z-ers are skipping your ads. And how to get your brand message to the top of Reddit's all page. It's Thursday, May 26th. I'm Todd Mathen. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. So, you know, your brand needs to be on TikTok.

Starting point is 00:00:28 Maybe the reason you're not there is you don't know what to post. And maybe it's just because it's too hard to manage. You've got to reply on your phone, post on your phone, and it's just all been too much of a hassle. In the last few months, we've been seeing social media platforms adding TikTok to their abilities. And today, another joined the party, Sprout Social, the platform today releasing its TikTok integration. And unlike how Instagram was for 800 years, you don't need to deal with any of the reminder nonsense,

Starting point is 00:00:56 you know, where third-party platforms couldn't post directly, but instead would pop up a reminder on your phone, and then you'd have to manually go and post the content. This is actually how it worked for Instagram Stories until fairly recently. No, the TikTok API is apparently smart enough to let these platforms post directly. I tested the Sprout integration, and it worked. Even actually let me turn off comments for a post, which I think is the first time a social platform has let us do that.

Starting point is 00:01:22 But a couple of things are still missing. First, videos cannot be longer than a minute. On the native TikTok app, the maximum is now 10 minutes per video. And you can't seem to pick a thumbnail using Sprout's publishing tool. That is a big omission, since many users will check out an account's videos on their profile page. And in the native app, the thumbnail is more like an animated GIF loop. With Sprout's implementation, and I assume this is an API limitation, it will pick a thumbnail for you, which of course means take the wheel, Jesus. We asked Sprout for clarification on these two points and did not hear back by deadline. Still though, the rest of it is pretty solid.

Starting point is 00:01:59 There are analytics. It looks like a two-month backfill. The reports look just like Sprout's regular reports, and you can include TikTok in a cross-channel report. Best of all, you can now manage your comments on desktop or laptop if you want to. No more hacking out replies on your phone. You can hide a comment but not delete it, which is a little weird considering there's not actually a hide function on TikTok itself. But there is a delete option. Whatever.

Starting point is 00:02:27 Plus, you can do all the value-add things a platform offers, like team conversations around a comment, applying tags and labels, and so on. I should note, Sprout Social is not the first out of the gate on this. Hootsuite has had this functionality for a while. So does Later. But for some reason, Later only supports comments on Instagram and TikTok. No Twitter, no Facebook.

Starting point is 00:02:45 It's kind of weird. Also, there seems to be a pretty significant lag time between a comment being posted on TikTok and it showing up in Sprout's inbox. So that's either a Sprout thing or the API only lets partners pull in timed batches. All that said, though, this is certainly welcome news. Twitter will pay a fine of $150 million after federal regulators accused the social media platform of improperly collecting and selling users' personal data to advertisers over a six-year period.

Starting point is 00:03:27 The settlement, announced yesterday, alleges that Twitter deceptively used users' phone numbers and email addresses for targeted advertising. And you might think to yourself, well, wait a minute, that's the whole point of a custom audience is uploading our first party data, which has email addresses and phone numbers. No, no, no, that is not where the data apparently came from. Users were encouraged to provide a phone number or email address to enable security measures, like two-factor authentication. Twitter, though, incorporated this information into its ad targeting data. The legal filing contends that Twitter misrepresented its policies between 2013 and 2019, violating the FTC Act, as well as the terms of a previous settlement in 2011. Twitter did apologize back in 2019, saying the addresses and numbers had been funneled into its ad system, quote, inadvertently, unquote. In 2019, the FTC

Starting point is 00:04:12 fined Facebook $5 billion over a similar privacy violation. Along with the $150 million slap on the wrist for Twitter, the company is now required to maintain a comprehensive privacy and information security program and conduct regular audits to ensure its safeguards are up to par. Elon Musk, who increasingly looks like he's trying to get out of the Twitter purchase deal, called it very concerning news and questioned, quote, if Twitter was not truthful here, what else is not true? Unquote. He posted that on Twitter. If they have the option, 99% and gets worse, two thirds use an ad blocker to avoid online advertising completely. According to the report, skipping ads may be a result of feeling overwhelmed by the number of ads they see every day. Three quarters feel bombarded with advertisements, while three out of four irritated by the invasion of their time. And it's not just a mild disruption.

Starting point is 00:05:24 One in four find advertising extremely intrusive. While brands have incorporated influencer marketing into their traditional ad strategies to reach the TikTok generation, the effectiveness of this strategy might not last long, as consumers are becoming increasingly distrustful of the relationships between brands and influencers. In fact, nearly 85% of Gen Z consumers have lost faith in influencers, according to this report from Bulb Share. Instead, they are more likely to make purchases based on, quote, authentic recommendations,

Starting point is 00:05:58 unquote. The vast majority said they'd be more inclined to purchase a product recommended by a friend than a paid influencer. So how can your brand target Gen Z with authentic advertising? Using Gen Zs, apparently. Three out of four would promote a product they genuinely care about. Almost 90% are enthusiastic about them collaborating with brands. And three out of four say they enjoy reviewing products.

Starting point is 00:06:49 Do you have business insurance? And three out of four say they enjoy reviewing products. 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. TikTok yesterday announced a new partnership with WooCommerce that allows merchants to sync their store catalog to their TikTok profile. The new TikTok plugin lets merchants connect their product catalog, set up TikTok pixel tracking for ongoing campaign performance tracking, create TikTok ads and launch them all from the WooCommerce dashboard. Once merchants sync their TikTok catalog with WooCommerce, they will be able to choose from different ad formats, including an embedded smart video generator tool that simplifies the process by producing video ads using existing product images and in-feed ad formats like catalog-based ad formats, spark ads, and lead gen ads. The integration will also give priority access to all the e-commerce features TikTok plans on releasing.

Starting point is 00:07:41 So here is how to get your brand message to the top of Reddit's coveted all page. Although this may not last long. Yesterday, the platform announced a new initiative to promote Reddit Talk. That's its version of Spaces or Clubhouse with a host program to find top talent on the app. Reddit is inviting Reddit Talk hosts, that's what they call theirs, to participate in the program in exchange for rewards like your talks being promoted at the top of Reddit, being promoted on Reddit social channels, and exclusive access to the Reddit Talks community. To qualify, hosts must run at least

Starting point is 00:08:17 four talks every 30 days between June 15th and September 15th. Everyone who has access to Reddit Talk is eligible for the program, while users can also apply for access. That URL is reddit.com slash talk. This week, Spotify announced it is rolling out call-to-action cards to more advertisers. These merge digital and audio ad placements. The ad format debuted in the US last January and will now be available to advertisers in Canada, Australia, and the UK. CTA cards are clickable ads displayed during ad breaks that appear later while users are browsing Spotify.

Starting point is 00:08:58 Compared with non-clickable podcast ads, Spotify claims its recent tests show a twofold increase in site visits with CTA cards. According to Spotify, the study also found that more than a third of its listeners say they pay the most attention to ads on Spotify, almost two-thirds more than radio listeners. The streaming giant also touted that nearly half the population in markets where CTA cards are now available use the service. A couple of small items to report. This one, first of all, might sound small, but it's actually kind of big. Google Docs will soon let you select multiple sections of text at the same time.

Starting point is 00:09:39 For example, if you want to bold all of your headings in a document, you can now do so by selecting all the text at once and applying your changes. So here's how you're going to do it once this rolls out to you. You select the first bit as usual, and then you press the command or control key on your keyboard, hold it down, keep holding it down until you select the rest of the text, the other text. This was actually something that Apple Pages had, and I loved it, and then for some reason they took it away. But it is actually remarkable how useful it is to be able to select four, five, six different words or paragraphs at a time and apply it all in one fell swoop. Anyway, that update is rolling out gradually to users. And also, if you're having Instagram problems today, you are not alone. Reports across the internet today are noting several issues with the app, like people seeing screens saying they're not logged in or blank image posts or posts from

Starting point is 00:10:23 weeks ago and no access to filters, and things like that. Other users have reported welcome to Instagram messages as though they have a newly created account, or feeds that just stopped loading after the first few pictures. In a response to an inquiry from The Verge, Instagram said, quote, We're aware some people are having trouble accessing Instagram. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible. So as I've been recording this, I've been sort of unofficially testing the

Starting point is 00:10:55 polling frequency for Sprout Social, since that is the platform that we use here at the agency. We did receive a comment and it took 30 minutes to show up in Sprout's inbox. So, you know, that happens. We don't know whether that's, again, whether that's just an API limitation or the access that TikTok has given Sprout, but it appears to be every 30 minutes. Speaking of TikTok, I've been playing some weird audio at the end of shows lately. This is all from a TikTok account called like Retro Videos or something like that. They're just really weird things that I find and give me pleasure. And so I thought I would share them with you.

Starting point is 00:11:28 And I will end today's show with this, which I also found on that account. Video dating profiles. Enjoy. Hi, my name's Mike. And if you're sitting there watching this tape smoking your cigarette, well, hit the fast forward button because I't smoke, and I don't like people who do smoke. I'm not afraid to get sand on my tuxedo if you're not afraid to let the wind mess your hair up a little bit when I take the top down. Perhaps even a nice bath with some champagne and candles. I do fashion photography, and I do consider myself a refined valley dude. Okay, I'm looking for a trendy girl with a simple smile.

Starting point is 00:12:07 Wait, it says here, oh, excuse me. Hi, I'm Maurice. I'm an executive by day and a wild man by night. Hi, my name's Monroe. You've probably already noticed that I have incredibly blue eyes. Hi, my name is Phil. Most of my friends call me Big Phil. Cool, baby, cool, we're gonna run this town tonight. Most of my friends call me Big Phil.

Today in Digital Marketing - TikTok Account Management for Boomers

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