Today in Digital Marketing - Why "Best Time to Post" Studies Are Nonsense You Should Ignore

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, another best time to post study to ignore. Finally, call tracking data in Google. Sirius creates a powerhouse audio ad business. Instagram's small but important tweak to bios. And the worst kept secret in the search engine industry. It's Tuesday, May 11th, 2021. Happy National Anthem Day, Argentina. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageU Digital,

Starting point is 00:00:21 and here's what you missed today in Digital Marketing. Well, it's time for your quarterly reminder that you should all but ignore the best times to post on social media studies that you see pop up every so often. Today, Sprout Social released its own version of this, taken from its base of 20,000 customers. In their case, best time means the highest level of engagement. First, the top level findings, then why you should ignore those top level findings. And all the times I'll mention here are in central time. Facebook, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday are strongest with 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. coming out on top. Instagram, weekdays were best in the 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. range. Twitter was very strong Wednesday but performed well Tuesday to

Starting point is 00:00:58 Friday. Strongest engagement was between 9 a.m. to noon-ish. And LinkedIn, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8 a.m. to about noon. Again, all those times in the central time zone. Today's premium newsletter subscribers are getting the full heat maps. So why do I hate these? Because these are global averages. And social media performance can vary wildly from page to page. For instance, if you're a football brand, the weekend is obviously going to be better. The industry verticals are always very different than the global average.

Starting point is 00:01:27 According to a different study, this one from HowSocial.com, higher education, much better in the evening. Healthcare, better between 12 and 3. Just these two alone are different than the global averages. So don't forget, these studies are moderately interesting, but are more an exercise in getting covered in the media and boosting the sponsoring company's SEO than anything you should rely on. And, as we're fond of telling our clients, when you rely on averages, you get average results. Those of you who use Google My Business' call feature to drive phone call leads to your business are about to get a big upgrade.

Starting point is 00:02:06 Finally, Google will be showing call history data in the GMB console. It's definitely been a huge gap, and for months now, Google has been teasing that it's coming. Now, it seems to be rolling out. What data are you getting? Caller ID information, specifically with the name, if it's available. Not everyone has it yet, and it might be available to you under a beta button. If it's in your account, look for a box on your GMB dashboard that's called Preview Call History Beta. A huge move in the audio ad landscape has created a new sales unit combining SiriusXM, Pandora, and Stitcher.

Starting point is 00:02:44 The new group will call itself SXM Media and hopes to attract the attention of brand advertisers looking to align with podcasts and other forms of audio like live radio and streaming music. Combined, this gives the new group access to 150 million listeners, making it the largest digital audio advertising platform in North America. Or at least that's what they claim. Interestingly, they've also cut some side deals with other platforms, including becoming

Starting point is 00:03:10 the exclusive U.S. advertising representative for SoundCloud and NBC News and MSNBC podcasts. Sirius has been working hard to make sure it doesn't miss this wave. In the last couple of years, they've acquired ad platforms AdWiz and Simplecast, as well as the podcast ad network Midroll. About two months ago, we reported on a big bug with Google Local, one that was exposing the private addresses of some home-based businesses in shopping search results. Google today started sending emails to affected businesses. And in that email, we learned this bug was actually around for a long time before Google seemed to notice it. Quoting the company's email to home-based businesses, we believe an address you provided

Starting point is 00:03:55 to Google My Business to verify business profile ownership may have been inadvertently displayed in local Google shopping search results on some occasions between October 2019 and April 2021, unquote. Yes, 18 months that bug was apparently happening. The company says it's fixed it. Instagram is adding a field in the bios of personal accounts to indicate that person's preferred pronouns. You'll also have the option to only show those pronouns to your followers. Drilling out in some countries first, they didn't specify which ones and will apparently go global in short order. By the way, a strange thing keeps happening to me when I go live on TikTok,

Starting point is 00:04:39 which I do every day to live stream the voice tracking of the podcast, in case you want to get that day's news early. Almost without exception, people will come into the live with the sole purpose of asking what my pronouns are. They ask, but they don't stick around for the answer. Like, I think they're hopping from live to live, pasting that into the comments and then bolting. I even started adding the pronouns on the background that I use, so they just need to look at the screen to get their answer. I sometimes wonder if they're just bots doing it. Anyway, strange mystery. While Apple spends a lot of time talking about how they're the vanguard of consumer privacy, most people in the space realize that this is a lot more about Apple building out its

Starting point is 00:05:22 own ads network and less about protecting its users' privacy. To that end, some people have noticed that Apple has quietly hired Antonio Garcia Martinez. You may not know his name, but I guarantee you know his work. He's one of the lead engineers that developed Facebook's ads exchange product long before Facebook went public. It's also considered the tech industry's worst-kept secret that Apple is developing its own search engine to take on Google. And finally, I am now the proud owner of my first COVID shot

Starting point is 00:05:56 and, fellow snowflakes, it doesn't hurt at all. I had this memory as a kid of an intramuscular injection being something they rammed like deep into your tissue, like it was an incredibly painful charley horse. This one I actually had to look at my arm when he got to the three in one, two, three, because I didn't believe he'd actually done the jab. I literally did not feel it. So if that's what's holding you back, I promise it's nothing. You don't feel it at all. As for the side effects, I was a little tired yesterday.

Starting point is 00:06:25 Early this morning, I woke up with the chills, but my wife got me a Tylenol and a heating pad and it at all. As for the side effects, I was a little tired yesterday. Early this morning, I woke up with the chills, but my wife got me a Tylenol and a heating pad, and it was over. I feel fine. A little fatigued, but fine. I used to get a Tootsie Roll from my doctor when I was a kid and had to get a shot. I can confirm, sadly, there are no complimentary Tootsie Rolls included with the vaccine. Talk to you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Why "Best Time to Post" Studies Are Nonsense You Should Ignore

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