Digital Debrief | July 2021
Samantha Allen
Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing. Author of the Digital Debrief. Rarely filtered marketing leader. Passionate about telling brand stories online.
The Digital Debrief is a monthly digest of the top digital marketing news. My goal in creating it is to give professionals a "by marketers, for marketers" download of what's happening in social, websites, SEO, and tech. If you have thoughts or feedback, please drop me a line.
Trends I’m watching:?
1. Augmented reality?
2. Social audio?
3. Social subscription services and monetization
4. Upcoming regulation changes
5. Long form video
6. Community building
Clubhouse?
Clubhouse is now open to all users
After what feels like an extended duration of beta testing, Clubhouse announced that it is moving out of closed beta and the app will now open to everyone who wants to join a Club and tune into the latest audio chats.?
‘Backchannel’ messaging platforms extend conversations on Clubhouse.
A new direct message tool on Clubhouse will allow users to expand their conversations beyond live Rooms and audio chats. The new messaging platform is called ‘Backchannel’ and will add a new element to the audio room experience, allowing users to continue their discussions in new ways.?
Facebook?
Messenger launches ‘Soundmojis.’
New emojis that play a short audio clip are now available on Facebook messenger. The new digital expression, named ‘Sooundmojis’ provides another interactive element for user message threads.?
Overview of Oversight Board decisions.
The effectiveness of Facebook’s independent oversight board has been consistently scrutinized as the platform is not held to implementing any of the board’s suggestions. Facebook is seeking to remedy this crisis by publishing a new Oversight Board Quarterly Update with a new level of transparency on the Board’s actions so far and how Facebook has responded to their recommendations.?
Partnership with Coursera will expand digital skills training initiatives.
Facebook looks to play a bigger role in the next stage of economic development around the world and has announced that it's partnering with Coursera on two new career certificate courses, focused on Marketing Analytics and Software Development. The programs provide a platform to learning in-demand skills directly from Facebook.?
Twitter?
Did someone say dislike button?
A small-scale research experiment to find out which replies users find more relevant during conversations on Twitter led to many Twitter users enthusing over the addition of a “dislike button.” However, the experiment is a limited test and the downvotes will not be public or impact the ranking of individual replies, for now.?
Revenue results for Q2 show steady user growth and increases in ad spend.?
Twitter’s Q2 earnings results show a steady increase in both users and revenue as the platform seeks to expand its user base and user monetization efforts in the coming years.?
Twitter launches the first stage of upgraded TweetDeck?
After flagging a coming update for TweetDeck back in January, Twitter has now launched a live test of the new look TweetDeck. The tool for social media managers will now include a full Tweet composer, updated search features, new column types, and new ways to group your columns into ‘Decks’ to expand usage.?
领英推荐
Twitter tests new ‘Convert to Professional’ option for business profiles?
As Twitter’s new business profiles get closer to launching, more details and features are being spotted in testing. The latest is a ‘Convert to Professional’ option that uses a three-step process asking users to select a business category for their presence, and assign themselves either a Business or Creator profile.?
After less than a year on the platform, Fleets retired in July.?
Twitter’s take on Stories, Fleets, was removed from the platform in mid-July to allow the platform to focus on their social audio offering, Spaces.?
Instagram?
Instagram extends Reels length to 60 seconds.
Falling in line with both TikTok and YouTube Shorts, Instagram announced that Reels length limit is being extended from 30 seconds to 60 seconds for all users. However, this update may cause Reels to bleed into the platform's other functions - Stories, which users can upload longer videos onto in 15-second clips, and IGTV, which allows users to upload up to an hour of video content.?
YouTube?
YouTube prioritizes official health advice.?
As the US Government takes aim at Facebook over lack of effort on combating misinformation, YouTube is unveiling a new push to do exactly that. The addition new labels on videos from authoritative health sources, and prioritized links to these clips in searches related to health concerns will provide additional assurance and endorsement of content from official health sources.?
Search Engines?
Google categorizes what organic search traffic drops look like.?
For the first time, Google has provided illustrations and categories to what different types of traffic drop-offs look like and the issues that cause them. This categorization provides visual examples and information on what the drop-offs could mean for site admins.?
Google lists why it ranked search results as they appear.?
Google can now list several of the factors or reasons why it ranked a specific search result in its search listings as an expansion to the about this result box that launched in February. The information will include the terms it matched on the web page and your query, if links from other websites influenced the ranking, if the results had related images, if there were geographical reasons for the result, and more.?
Snapchat
3D Bitmojis are here.?
Snapchat’s digital fashion push continues with the addition of 3D Bitmoji avatars, the new Bitmoji characters will include over 1,2000 combinations of facial expressions, poses, background, and gestures. This will enable Snapchat users o create more personalized depictions of their virtual selves.?
Pinterest?
Pinterest seeks to incentivize creators to stay or get started on the platform.
Pinterest is launching new tools to help creators monetize their on-platform presence, while also better enabling brands to promote their products via influencer partnerships. The new tools include shopping tags in addition to Idea Pins, Pinterest’s version of the stories format. Users can now tag specific items within their Idea Pin clips, linking users to purchase pages. The platform is also adding more transparency to branded content deals with a new tool that adds a “paid partnership” label to Idea Pins. ?
LinkedIn?
LinkedIn’s Q2 reports record engagement.?
Parent company, Microsoft, shared data on LinkedIn’s Q2 performance that showed continued growth in in-app engagement and the news that the platform has surpassed $10 billion in annual revenue for the first time.?
TikTok
More transparency for Brand/Creator Partnerships.
A broader expansion of TikTok’s Branded Content toggle, with infers will be required to switch on when promoting products in their clips will provide indicators to what is branded content and what is not on the platform.?
New live-stream features are coming to TikTok.?
TikTok has added new elements to its live-streaming options, including scheduled events that you can promote, live Q&A, and a co-streaming option to enhance the experience. The new scheduled events card can be created and shared to promote your upcoming stream and allows users to tap and register for an in-app reminder.?
New resumes feature allows users to connect with job opportunities.?
TikTok is launching a new program in the U.S. called ‘Resumes’ which will allow users to post personal job pitches via TikTok clips. The new dedicated job application process will connect users with open positions via the app.?
New ‘Shoutouts’ feature will enable users to pay for personalized video messages from stars.?
Look out Cameo, TikTok is working to provide more revenue-generated options to keep stars from drifting off-platform, and with that effort comes the latest feature, ‘Shoutouts.’ This tool will enable fans to pay to have platform stars send them a personalized message.?
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2 年Samantha, thanks for this amazing share??