The Friday Five: 4-Day Work Week Trial a ‘Breakthrough Moment’, New Survey Finds Companies Are Too Robotic, and Meta Offers Blue Check Verification

Welcome to your weekly dose of digital marketing goodness - The Friday Five! Every Friday, we bring you the five hottest and most significant stories from the world of marketing. From the latest social media updates to insights on SEO and PPC, we've got you covered.

So, sit back, grab a coffee, and let's dive into this week's mix of marketing news and insights.

1. Check, Please! Meta Joins the Subscription Bandwagon, Offering Blue Check Mark Verification for a Monthly Fee

Facebook's parent company, Meta, has announced the launch of a new subscription service called Meta Verified, which will enable users to verify their identity and add the coveted blue check mark to their Facebook and Instagram accounts.

The service will cost up to $15 per month and is rolling out in New Zealand and Australia this week. Users can verify their identity using their government-issued ID cards and will receive improved visibility and reach, protection against impersonation attacks, and direct access to customer support.

Meta has confirmed it will be rolling this service out to other countries in the coming months.

Meta's move to subscription services follows Snap launching its own subscription service last year, which has already converted 2.5 million users into paid customers.

Elon Musk also revamped Twitter's subscription service, Twitter Blue, to offer additional features, including the blue check mark. The move is a new revenue channel for Meta, which has opted not to charge its customers for most of its services in the more than 15 years since its founding.

The company makes nearly all of its money from advertising, but Apple's stringent privacy changes could cost it over $10 billion in lost ad revenue in 2022.

For more on this checkout Tech Crunch's piece.

2. Google's SEO Link Best Practices Reveal Surprising Parallels with Algorithms

Google has recently expanded its guidance on best practices for links, and the updated SEO Link Best Practices have many surprising parallels with what we know about algorithms and the proper use of HTML.

Four takeaways from the guidance include the fact that the title attribute can work like an anchor text, Google recommends being concise and using natural language for link anchor text, and context is important for link anchor text.

The four main points were:

1. Title Attribute Can Work Like an Anchor Text
2. Extra Long Anchor Text is Bad
3. Context and Natural Language Important for Link Anchor Text
4. Don’t Chain Links

Google’s algorithms do not provide “points” based on keywords in content, but instead, focus on understanding natural language. Therefore, writing clear and easy-to-understand content that is search-optimized can have a positive impact.

The guidance highlights the importance of knowing the correct use of HTML and recommends checking the Mozilla HTML Developer pages for guidance.

Google's John Mueller recently emphasized that while internal linking is important for SEO purposes, it should not be the primary focus of website owners. Instead, website owners should prioritize creating high-quality, helpful content that is useful to users. Mueller emphasized that the goal of Google's algorithm is to promote content that is helpful to users, rather than content that is solely designed to appease search engines.

For more insight check out Search Engine Journal's piece.

3. 4-Day Week Trial Hailed as a ‘Major Breakthrough Moment’

A recent study has found that the vast majority of companies that took part in the largest trial of a four-day week are choosing to continue with the new working pattern.

Of the 61 companies that entered the six-month trial, 56 have extended the four-day week, including 18 who have made it permanent. The findings will be presented to MPs as part of a push urging politicians to give all workers in the UK a 32-hour week.

'Across a wide variety of sectors, well-being has improved dramatically for staff; and business productivity has either been maintained or improved in nearly every case. We’re really pleased with the results and hopefully, it does show that the time to roll out a four-day week more widely has surely come,' said Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, in The Guardian.

The trial has been promoted by 4 Day Week Global, a not-for-profit organisation, and overseen by the think tank Autonomy and a team of academics. Staff were given the opportunity to remain on their existing salary, working across four days instead of five.

The majority of companies reported that they were satisfied with productivity and business performance over the trial period, and surveys of staff taken before and after found that 39% said they were less stressed, 40% were sleeping better and 54% said it was easier to balance work and home responsibilities.

For more reaction check out this article.

4. Marketing Takes Centre Stage as Inflation Rises: Survey Reveals Marketers are Bossing the Boardroom

Marketing is becoming increasingly important for brands as they turn to marketers to help them get closer to their customers amid rising costs and inflation, according to Marketing Week’s Career and Salary Survey.

The survey, which received responses from over 3,000 marketers, found that 40.9% believed that marketing had a greater strategic role within their business. This represents a 10 percentage point increase year on year, with 34.8% of respondents saying marketing was more influential within their businesses, and 27.2% saying it was better appreciated.

The survey also found that the majority of marketers feel confident in their ability to influence change within their companies, with 58.2% feeling confident in their abilities. Almost two-thirds of marketers (65%) also feel that their work is having a greater impact than it did previously, with 17.9% strongly agreeing that their work is making a difference.

However, despite marketing’s strategic role growing, 44.4% of marketers say that marketing is somewhat understood by their businesses and is seen as a cost. More than a third of B2B marketers (35.5%) say marketing is completely understood at their companies, compared to just 29.5% of B2C marketers.

For more on the survey, head over to Marketing Week.

5. Are Companies Too Robotic for Customers? Survey Shows 85% Crave More Human Connection

A new survey of 2,000 consumers by The Foundation reveals that 85% of them feel that organisations have become impersonal and have lost their human touch.

Additionally, 83% of people believe that businesses take their customers for granted, while 81% feel that organisations are more interested in cutting costs than providing good service.

According to John Sills, managing partner at The Foundation, organisations have worked hard to perfect the functional customer experience at the expense of the emotional, human experience.

'Organisations are now full of humans who aren’t allowed to act in a human way, whether they’re designing the products, creating the communications or delivering the service,' said Sills.

The survey also showed that 78% of respondents think organisations send too many emails and feedback requests.

On this, Sills said: 'This epidemic of survey requests convinces CEOs that they’re close to what matters to customers and that customers care about their business, where in fact, neither is true.'

For more check out Marketing Tech News.

That was a big ol' Friday Five - we hope you enjoyed it! For more insights and breakdowns of important marketing stories, be sure to check back next week for another edition of the Five.