[Ep105] – Instagram’s Ranking Algorithm Will Reward Original Content

[Introduction] – 00:00

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the TWIMshow. This is your host, Sajid Islam. Today. I’ll be going over episode 105, which is from the week of April 18, 2022, and let’s jump into that.

 

[Update 1 – Web.com Launches eCommerce Platform] – 00:12

First off, I’m going to actually dive right into. And announcement from Web.com, we haven’t really covered Web.com before. However this is something important for enough for me to bring it over exactly. Web.com has launched an ecommerce platform. This is similar to Shopify from what I’ve read, it’s like you know, you know it’s a. Solution where they have inventory management, SEO is baked into the solution , they have marketplace integration so you would probably be able to you know well they are saying claiming that you would be able to send your products in your Web.com shop directly into Facebook Marketplace then they have shipping integration. They have drop shipping management, purchase order management, shipping management. Overall it seems to be very comprehensive. I will be putting the link to the announcement in the show notes. If you wanna check it out. The reason why we are covering this in this podcast is because our podcast is primarily focused towards small businesses and marketing. Got anything that will help you grow your business? And obviously if you have a word press shop which is who commerce we’ve covered Shopify and now Web.com you have plethora of choices in terms of what platform to use and for some reason if your Shopify store gets banned or they kick you out maybe or maybe Shopify doesn’t take drop shipping, maybe Web.com is a platform for you. That let’s move on to the next update.

[Update 2 – SpamBrain: Google’s 2021 Web Spam Report] – 01:43

So Google this week has announced or released their 2021 Web Spam report, and they’re calling it spambrain. That’s the name they’re giving to the artificial intelligence that detects and, you know deranks, deindexes spam from the web. Obviously spam Brain is something not new. They actually talked about spam brain in 2018, however, now they’re officially calling it spam brain. Now, why are we covering this update in this podcast is one of the things. As I was reading through their web spam report. And you know, I will put a link to the web spam report in our show notes is like, you know. They have seen about quite six times more spam sites in 2021 than they did in 2022. They’ve reduced a lot of stuff, but deep down in the report they’ve talked about page quality. You know, content that is considered spam and that’s something you need to focus on. Right. And we’ve been publishing a lot of blogs lately around you know, good, best practices, things like that. So if your small business or if you have any SEO person and that person doesn’t, you know. Talk about things that are must do like you know, content length and you know. Showing expertise, alternative news, things like that. Then you probably don’t have the right. You know SEO person or you’re not doing the right things by as far as you. Now, why I say this? Also another thing is you need to keep in mind is you don’t have to do the work but you need to know so that you understand if you’re hiring or if you have the right person working on the right stuff. ’cause. If not, you are going to lose out right with that what I’m going to do is I’m going to go ahead and move on to the next update and I will put a link to the. web spam report. Check it out. However, if you don’t want to read it ’cause you know it’s a bit boring and it has a lot of technical stuff which I would suggest is that you follow marketANDgrow and look at some of the blogs that we are publishing ’cause these are actually blogs that are we right based on feedbacks from Google’s John Mueller. More from you know reports like this one and we’re kind of figuring out what’s the must know, blogs and SEO strategies for a small business. OK with that let’s move on to the next update, which is From YouTube.

[Update 3 – YouTube Will Highlight Top Shorts clips in ‘Trending’ Tab] – 04:09

YouTube has decided that they will highlight Top Shorts Clips in Trending tab and it’s gonna be arranged by regions and this is a good thing. So seems like you know, shorts on YouTube are actually catching on, and they’re the only worthy competitor to TikTok according to YouTube, shorts clips, shorts clips have already been have reached over 5 trillion with a T total views and what they’re gonna do is they’re gonna highlight the best performing shorts video in your region at any given time. On the short shelf right on the short shelf. So there are a couple of things you can do out of this. Number. One is you can see what type of short videos are trending in your region and then you could kind of kind of reverse engineer it and kind of figure out, OK, why is what’s in this video that’s really going viral. Now, obviously if you have a business to run, this is something you cannot do. And this is where you bring in help such as your marketing person. Or your assistant. And they can kind of start doing things right. And keep in mind something that goes viral does not necessarily mean that, you know, that’s in line with your, you know, business or what will you do. But nevertheless, it’s a good thing for you to see what’s making to the top now. If it’s always cats and you know dogs or other things, song and dance and probably you know, you can ignore it. But nevertheless it’s just shows that you know You Tube shorts are here to stay. They’re catching on and obviously monetization. Aspect of it right with TikTok monetization is hard because you have to get monetized from either from the creator fund or from something else. But with You Tube, obviously if you have a YouTube channel and you’re doing shows, people come in, you can have a lot more revenue options. So that’s probably the reason why you two shorts are doing better than probably. In the Instagram reels as well as. TikTok OK with that, let’s move on to the next update. The next update is from Microsoft search.

[Update 4 – Microsoft Advertising Extends RSA Migration Deadline] – 06:13

Microsoft Advertising has decided that they’re going to extend RSA, which is the responsive search ads migration deadline by two more months. So instead of from June, they’re moving into August end of August. Again, responsive search ads are those automated AI driven search where you know you give a bunch of headlines and a bunch of descriptions like it usually in Google is five and five. And then it’s gonna mix and match and serve your content to the searcher. And whereas the other one expanded to extract, which was like static or this is my ad one, this is my ad two this is my ad three and then you know it will serve the ad. Now what you do is you give it a five headline 15 headline two and five headline 3. And you know, 5 descriptions and Microsoft is going to basically mix and match and play around with it and show it to. This is something very standard with Google search ads as well. Again, whatever happens in Google search, Microsoft copies and vice versa. I mean, you know, you’ve been, you’ve been listening to the podcast for some time. You know, I talk about it. All these platforms are copying. From each other, so there’s nothing new about it. But I thought I mentioned it so that you know, if you know that there’s time, it’s not, you know, end of June. By the way, Microsoft is also having an automation bootcamp on May 10 through 12. If you want to sign up for it, go ahead. The link is in our show notes page. OK, with that, let’s move on to the next update. The next update is on Snapchat.

[Update 5 – Snapchat Q1’22 Results: 13 Million More Users in Q1 & Revenue Increase] – 07:44

Snapchat has released the Q1 2022 uh results, which is basically the earnings report from quarter one 2022 and what they’re reporting is 13 more, 13 million more users in Q1 and increase in revenue. This is a good news. This is a good news because for Snapchat, obviously I would say a bad. News for Facebook. Snapchat seems to be adding the move. They’ve added most of the users in rest of the world category, which AKA India. That’s where it’s kind of catching on. And what snap is also saying that they’re dynamic ads which allow advertisers to upload their product catalog and have SNAP system match users with the most relevant product and ad formats depending on user interest, where a big revenue Product that is targeting the younger generation SNAP is probably the platform for you and stay away from, you know, meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. I said this because again meta platform, I keep seeing reports where you know cost of acquisition is high. You know it’s working, it’s not working, it’s broken, it’s not working, it’s spending money, things like that. Of course there is the whole thing about your account getting blocked. For example, my account was blocked last Friday or Thursday. For no reason whatsoever. It’s just that Phase I was trying to broadcast zoom meeting into a Facebook group and into my Facebook group by the way, and. Facebook just blocked me saying, oh, I’ve been engaging in authentic behavior. I’ve been hacked and whatnot. I’ve blocked my account and they made me forced me to change my passwords and what’s what’s anyway with that? That’s the highlight you need to know from Snapchat. Snapchat is a platform with augmented reality is growing, however. If you are not into AR, or if you’re not targeting Gens Zs, then probably this is not the platform for you. OK,

[Update 6 – TikTok Launches ‘Interactive Add-Ons’] – 09:45

Talking about short form video, TikTok has launched an interactive add-ons. I will tell you this is pretty cool. So typically here’s what I let me break it down for you. Typically ads are like very monotonous right where it says buy now shop now things like that Tiktok has given this opportunity where you could actually add things like swipe. To unlock and you know other fancy things where they’re saying now people will be compelled to engage, right? Because this is something new. And while it’s new, I’m pretty sure meta platforms are going to start copying it because they’re gonna say, Oh my God, they came out with this nice thing that we don’t have. Let’s copy it. Uh, but by the way, there are two different types of interactive add ONS. There are standards and premium. Par TikTok standard add-ons offer a way to reach lower funnel marketing goals like driving clicks and conversions, premium add-ons or for a way to reach upper funnel goals like brand awareness and community building. Both offer you a unique chance to capture people attention in a format that resonates with them. That’s what exactly reading from TikToks announcement. However, the demo video I saw from TikTok on Interactive add-ons, it was really cool, something new, something refreshing because you know now. You know, I saw one of the things where, you know, there was an event and then you had to select and it the message popped up after the video. It was like slide to unlock and sliding right skipping. It’s not about always click on it. Click on it, click on it. OK. That’s all there is about this update. Let’s move on to the next update.

[Update 7 – Create Fundraisers Directly in Instagram Reels] – 11:21

Which is obviously a nice segue. Instagram reels. Now you can create fundraisers, dry, clean Instagram reels. It was released on April 19th, 2022, and you know right now it’s available in over 30 countries and you have connections to 1.5 million nonprofits. So if you’re part of that nonprofit, you could actually. Or if you believe in the nonprofit, you can create these things. It’s just another way for Instagram to engage users and create. Causes on reels, right? Because again, a lot of the younger generation believe in causes. They want to support causes. So if I see something that I believe in, I would be more likely to pay through Instagram reels. And if I pay through Instagram reels, that downstream effect is that, you know, maybe I will also they will Facebook or Meta Instagram. Whatever you call them, he’s gonna store my credit card information. And now I would be more likely to purchase things on Instagram platform. No, I do not know how many people are actually using Instagram shops and purchasing things from Instagram. Facebook doesn’t share those numbers, which kind of tells me that they’re not doing really cool ’cause if it was in like, they’re gonna come out and say, you know what, we are crushing it guys. Here it is. What’s our numbers are like, just how you know, You Tube came out and said we had like 5 trillion. News people are like so Facebook is still putting money in betting on this horse where if we can get people into our, you know, give us the credit card and do this check out things like that, maybe they will. Go ahead and, you know, spending Instagram shops and things like that. But anyways, nevertheless, this is something, an option that exists. So if you wanna check it out, go ahead and check it out.

[Update 8 – Meta Releases ‘Community for Brands Playbook’] – 13:11

Next up on this is the Meta has released community for brands playbook. This is again for people who have Facebook groups and they want you to. They’re giving you some tips and tricks on how to grow up. Grow your Facebook group, how to engage and things like that. So if you are someone like me where your group is not really taking traction because. You do not have the right community person or you are still scratching your head. This is probably a good place to start. Again, I admit I am generally very you know. I’m generally bashing Facebook or Meta or Instagram in this podcast. However, I do like this thing that’s coming out of Facebook or Meta just because you know it’s just giving you an idea, so check it out. I mean, you know, it’s let me see how many pizza 39 page playbook it’s divided into 6 sections, each of which examines how to develop a community essential resources. Or a community building maker tools that can help case studies that show how certain brands have already found success is with these methods. I will go ahead and put the link to the. Playbook in the check it out.

[Update 9 – Instagram’s Ranking Algorithm Will Reward Original Content] – 14:22

Lastly, for this week was Instagram’s announcement Instagram, Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri’s announcement is that Instagram is going to start rewarding original content, or probably give more priority on original content. What this basically means is all those IG channels that says you know, there are content aggregators. I mean, I do not know about you, but we get all these messages on the self post this on this channel put this on this channel. So what’s happening is people will. Some IG accounts. They will take content that’s on yours and they will ask you to publish it on their channel so that they get a lot of reward. And Adam is coming out and saying, hey, that’s not fair. People who are creating original content should be. Rewarded. So they should get higher priority now. Adam did also say that, you know, if content that is created outside of Instagram and upload it to the apps will not be penalized obviously. So for example, if you have the same content on YouTube and on Instagram, they’re not gonna penalize you. However, keep in mind Instagram did say that if your content has watermark, so for example if you download the content from TikTok and upload it into IG reels. Instagram is going to reduce the visibility or reduce the reach. So that’s one thing you keep in mind that still exists. It’s just that, you know, you can use the same content, it’s just that it cannot have the watermark, that’s number one, number 2, they’re going to also look at posting history. So they’re gonna see. Is this a one time thing or is this something you constantly repost things? So if you’re always remixing reels and things like that, they would probably look at it and they’re gonna reduce their reach again. So. copying and pasting those top trending viral. Video clips will not really help you anymore with Reach, so keep that also in mind. And the last thing they are saying is like, hey listen guys, we still do not have this algorithm figured out. Figuring out what is an original content, what is not is a basically a working progress, so we may miss once in a while or we will miss most of the time. But keep in mind because anyone can game the system. I love it how they’re kind of coming out without a plan. They’re just saying it. They’re not. They’re admitting like, you know, yeah, you know what? Anyone can actually mix things up like you could take a clip. And you could probably add a couple of other images, or you could put supreme impose that image with another image and another video and kind of do things so that way you know Instagram algorithm doesn’t detect that this is a content that has been already been posted. And you can bypass those filters. Now I wouldn’t suggest that you do that, people. Shady people, dodgy people do that. I wouldn’t suggest you do that unless you have a particular need, right. For example, you take a video clip of something happening and you wanna report on it and you could add your video on top of it and you can talk about it, things like that. But if you’re trying to game the system, folks. That’s not the right thing to do. Please don’t do it. I’m just throwing some ideas, but nevertheless, now you know, if you are creating original content and Instagram, you probably have a better chance, though I wouldn’t definitely just focus on Instagram. If you’re creating original content, post it on Instagram, post the same content on other channels like you know LinkedIn or YouTube. Or TikTok ’cause. We already do that. Create the content in different formats and for different environments and we publish it out. If not, at least you know. You are active on all the social channel. It doesn’t. It just takes extra 10 minutes to post it on different channels.

[Closing] – 17:48

 OK with that folks, that’s it for this week in marketing. Now you know everything you need to know, if you, once again this is your host Sajid Islam and if you want to read more about it, check out the show notes. With that signing off this is your host Sajid Islam signing off until next week. Take care. Bye bye.

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