The SocialSurge Round-Up: December Edition

Welcome to the December Edition of the SocialSurge Round-Up! ????

Did you see?

The world of digital marketing is constantly changing and you don’t want to miss a thing. Here are a few exciting changes in the marketing world from this past month:

• Reddit has seen a significant increase in daily users, increasing from 66 million to 97 million since last year. This growth has also led to a 4x increase in Reddit content visibility in Google search results compared to July 2023. This makes Reddit an increasingly important platform for content marketers looking to boost their visibility. This begs the question… if you haven’t started your Reddit user journey, how will agencies and other digital marketing companies learn to leverage Reddit for themselves and their clients?
• Something to keep a close eye on is the push in a lot of countries across the globe to regulate social media companies. The latest in these developments is Australia banning social media use for children under the age of 16. Does this mean 15-year-olds are going to get tossed in jail if they are seen with Instagram on their phones? Of course not. But will it force social media companies to put in place very strict measures to prove they are doing everything they can to prevent young users from using their platforms? Definitely. I would not be surprised if we see more and more of this happening, with of course, the United States up next.
• The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is pushing to reshape Google's market dominance by requiring it to sell the Chrome browser, end its partnership with Apple, and share proprietary search data, with restrictions on future investments in browsers and search for 5-10 years. Google has called these proposals extreme, arguing they could harm product quality, user privacy, and innovation. Advertisers and analysts are divided, with some concerned about the potential fragmentation of the market, while others worry about increased competition and possible manipulation of search results. The final decision, expected by August, could lead to a lengthy appeals process, making the outcome uncertain.

Social Surge Biz Updates from the Team.

What's Going Well:

• Social Team: The SocialSurge Marketing Mixer was a huge success! We had so many amazing marketing professionals attend our event. Our team is super proud of all the hard work we put in for the event's success. We are already looking forward to seeing you all at our next event! ??
• SEO Team: The SEO team made great progress getting ahead of November/December projects so that our team can relax and enjoy the upcoming holidays! Eric, Tommy, and I (Chandler) attended the BrightonSEO conference in San Diego (Nov 19th & 20th) for the first time. The main topics covered AI, SEO, and content marketing, with additional talks on paid ads and social media. The experience was inspiring, motivating me to enhance my content strategy and become more innovative with my writing. I also made valuable LinkedIn connections with other attendees, which I am hoping will increase my knowledge base for years to come.
• Paid Ads Team: As we begin our Q1 planning for 2025, we reflect on the previous quarter's performance. Many of our paid ads clients have reached or exceeded the KPIs put in place for Q4 2024.
• Management Team: 2025 planning has always been one of my favorite things to do. It always gets us fired up for all the things that we will be accomplishing next year. This is also the time of year when we get to hear from the team about the ways that they think things can be improved. These suggestions have helped us make MASSIVE changes over the years that have really helped us, so I am ready to see what the team has to give our clients the very best. Also, the SEO team came back from a conference in November with a TON of amazing insights. It is really awesome to see that team come back fired up with all kinds of new ideas as we head into next year.

What Isn't:

• Social Team: One thing that we have had to revisit this past quarter on the social team is the importance of staying up to date with all the latest news and updates in digital marketing. To combat this issue, we’ve devoted a portion of our weekly team meeting to sharing current digital marketing news we’ve come across!
• SEO Team: As the year comes to a close, it has been a little more obvious to see what the cracks in our content strategy and client communication efficiency are. Like everyone else, we started wrapping up the final quarter not only to take a look at Q4 performance but to review the entire year's performance. While doing so, we acknowledged where our strengths and weaknesses are (especially as we had some unexpected internal turnover this year). As a result of many different factors, both internally and externally, we did end up losing a client. I think this is a great learning curve as we iron out the wrinkles for 2025. The SEO team has been working on improving efficiency externally with our clients, especially when it comes to communication. This motivated us to reflect on our own internal flaws and communication errors and I am confident we will tackle these hiccups in early 2025! You have to give yourself grace in order to learn.
• Paid Ads Team: Our Web/SEO team has recently been changing URL structures on websites to optimize better. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough communication on this and some site links for Google ads were not going to the correct URL anymore. We are now actively communicating these changes to ensure no 404s or redirects are occurring with site links.
• Management Team: The election season always throws the business world into a bit of an odd place. A lot of businesses look to the results of the election before they make any final decision for the next year, putting them behind in their yearly planning. Let me be clear, we get it and it is certainly smart for many businesses to do this, but it did cause some things to get a tad behind as we wrap up the year. However, nothing that the hard-working team here at SocialSurge is up to the challenge of!

Stuff We've Learned:

• Social Team: Similar to what has been going on in previous months, migration away from X to similar platforms is something we are watching. With Threads and Bluesky gaining a lot of momentum, we’re curious to see what this means for X going into the new year. On a separate note, our entire social team got certified by Meta as Media Buying Professionals!
• SEO Team: This was my first year working in the digital marketing space during an election year. I knew major political events derail a lot of people, including myself. But it was interesting to see (potentially) how it affected our clients during the year. On top of that, one of the biggest takeaways I have from the conference is that worldwide internet use is at the slowest growth rate in 30 years. Traditional search and AI-based search aren’t delivering the same impact anymore. This is a great reminder to all of us in digital marketing that, "Traffic doesn't pay bills - conversions do". Intent drives intentional posts, which then drive our customers to the right place in their buyer journey. We need to think more critically about the outcome the user wants during every step of their journey.
• Paid Ads Team: Recently, I learned that Google Ads has introduced a range of AI-driven features to enhance campaign performance. One of the key updates is the use of machine learning for automated bidding, which helps advertisers optimize their bids in real time based on factors like user behavior and device type. Additionally, Google Ads now offers more granular reporting tools, allowing advertisers to gain deeper insights into customer journeys and refine targeting strategies. This shift towards automation and smarter insights is making it easier for businesses to run more efficient and effective ad campaigns.
• Management Team: In November some of the team went and got their META ad certifications. I (Kevin) joined them and it was a great learning experience for everyone. I am really proud of how the team studied their butts off to get it done!

Google November 2024 Core Update

Well, Google has finally announced its “classic” fall core update this week on November 11, 2024, on Twitter, or should I say X. This is the third core update of 2024 and likely the last one of the year.

Over the years, it’s normal to expect a core update around this time, and with Google wrapping in Helpful Content Updates into these core updates now, we expect a lot of that to be the main focus here again.

Learn more by reading our blog: https://socialsurgemarketing.com/google-core-update-november-2024/

Poll Results.

The results are in. It looks like Cyber Monday was the overwhelming favorite! ??

Thanks for reading the December edition of the SocialSurge Round-Up! We hope you all have a safe and enjoyable holiday season! ???