61: [Ep61/14Jun21] – Integrating Your Podcast to Your Facebook Page & Other Digital Marketing Updates from the Week of Jun 14, 2021

[Introduction] – 00:00

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Episode 61 of This Week In Marketing show, and happy father’s day to all current and future fathers. I’m your host Sajid Islam, and today I’ll be going over the notable news and updates in the digital marketing space from the week of June 14th, 2021.

[Update 1 – Instagram Launches Reels Ads] – 00:41

So let’s start off today. First, we’re going to start off with Instagram. So Instagram has announced that they. Reels ads are available globally now. If you’ve been following our show, you know I had predicted that reels ads will be coming on the day we covered the release of Instagram reels. Why is that? Well, you know, that’s the business Facebook is in, right? The back story here is that Facebook tested the reels in select countries. And now. IG reels are available globally as of June 16, 2021, according to Instagram. They feel like it reels is the best place on Instagram to reach people who don’t follow you, and a growing global stage where brands and creators can be discovered by anyone. This ads will help businesses reach greater audiences, allowing people. To discover inspiring new content from brands and creators well. That was Instagram official statement, but I will tell you well if they come up with if Instagram want to come up with like just say call. X reels. Tomorrow, they’re gonna say that that’s the best reels. Best place on Instagram to reach people globally. Forget about it. But for now, there is a new inventory type. You can obviously take advantage of it. For us. We don’t do Instagram ads. We don’t do Facebook ads. In fact, to the point where I haven’t run a Facebook ads in the last. Three years or so, and it’s just Friday. I found out that my ad account has been blocked because they think, you know, I did something suspicious. I ran a ad that is counter to the Facebook algorithm of Community standards recently, and which is why they are blocking my account. Well, Facebook, I didn’t run ads why are you blocking it? Something like. I don’t know. I’ve never had any add disapproved, but anyway, that’s a different story, but that’s what it is. If you have ad account that’s working great, good for you, go ahead and give it a try. Let’s move on.

[Update 2 – Group Fundraisers on Instagram] – 02:39

Next up, we have a. It’s another feature update from Instagram where they have. They have long added the capability to do group fundraising to for people to raise money for a social cause and every donation that is raised through Facebook/Instagram will go directly to the nonprofit, which basically to say Facebook, is not taking a cut for now. Didn’t say this, but mark my words for now. Once it becomes big enough, they will. So. Where up until that, that Facebook people have raised about 5 billion with a B dollars of on, you know, Facebook/Instagram and what Facebook is saying. Look look offline fundraising is often a group activity from things like walkathons to bake sales to concerts and they wanted to bring that same sense of community Instagram fundraisers so people can activate together around a single cause. And the way it works is that you know when you start out fundraiser on Instagram, you will be able to invite people to join. Therefore, and have more people promoted. In my opinion, this is definitely not going to replace a go fund me or any other vehicles that people are already doing it. But this would be something in conjunction with that. So the way I think it would. Work is actually. I’ll take it back. It has. You have to have a direct nonprofit unless you are going through, say, a pseudo nonprofit, where do you have some of the Sioux nonprofits you know, you could, they could become your proxy and you can. And you know, I forgot the term, but basically they will collect all the donations for you, and then they will in return. Past the in the amount collected to you, minus their processing fee, there are organizations entities like that, but this will by no shape and form should replace like go fund me or anything else you’re doing. This should be a good value. Add to whatever you have and as a way to tap in people to your you know. Outside your network. OK, with that, let’s move on to Google.

[Update 3 – Google Launches Search Console Insights] – 04:45

So from Google comes, Google has launched, finally launched Google Search Console Insights. They’ve been playing around with for about a year now, as I mean they’ve been testing it out and what they’re saying is this is actually a good tool to help site owners better understand their audience AKA content, right SCI. Calling it SCI because search console insight short combines data from both search console and Google Analytics in an effort in an effort to make it easy for, you know, site owner created to understand content performance. Oftentimes you know it can become very overwhelming for you to understand what’s happening in Google Analytics and pair them up with. Data from Google Search Console, so I think this is a great tool now for those of you who are listening to it and it’s not sure what Google Search Console is, Google Search Console is a place where you actually add your website to. It’s again part of Google but it doesn’t get added automatically. So on your website you have Google Analytics that tracks like who’s coming when. They’re coming. What they’re doing, what they’re clicking and search console basically collects all the organic data, right? How are people finding a site with keywords that been using things like that? Yes, some of those information gets passed into Google Analytics, but you still still want to have your Google search console. If you’re not familiar with Google, Search Console is and you have a website, Google the word Google Search console, it will take and I think I forgot the URL but it will take you to the website to that URL. You can register your website, you have to specify that you own the website and off you go and you will take it from there. But what Google is saying. Data in search console’s insights will help site owners answers questions such as what are your best performing pieces of content and which ones are trending? How do people discover your content across the web? What do people search for on Google before they visit your content? What article refers users to your website and content. Although something answers again, you could find out by digging through Google Analytics, but most people do not have a GA expertise or someone on payroll who can do this. So I think this is a godsend solution. OK, let’s move on to the next one. Shopify

[Update 4 – Shopify’s Shop Pay is Now Available to Online Stores Who Don’t Use Shopify] – 06:56

Shopify is now saying shop pay is not available to online stores, who even don’t use Shopify if you’re following or short that, we show, you know we cover shopping. When it was released, but this week what Shopify is saying, you know, hey, you don’t have necessarily use Shopify store, but you could still leverage Shopify Pay. Folks, this is the pay game, right? We. We are moving towards e-commerce. We have applepay, we have Google Pay, we have Amazon pay now we have shop pay. I don’t know PayPal pay. I mean there’s a plethora of tools, right? But everyone is hoping that by providing something like this they can process more transactions and they can get more customer data. And as a result, it’s gonna make floppy far better. I mean, that’s what people does, and actually Shopify does have a leg up in terms of, you know, getting into the payment game ’cause they can understand the whole e-commerce solution better because they’re actually in the business of serving customers and shops to. You don’t facilitate their self, right? So anyway, shall we, fi, just like anything else they’re saying it’s faster, more efficient. Secure pay, pay payments. Yes. Which payment processing processor is not faster. Secure and efficient anymore. Hello. But you know they have to put that marketing to marketing spin in that’s what they did that convenient order tracking and management carbon emissions offset on every delivery. And then I did on shopping as well. So I can look for every payment processing they do, they plant the tree or something like that. But you know if you’re ecofriendly, go for it, that’s their angle. I’m not against it. It’s just it’s just yet another pay system out there. If you’re using Stripe, I do not even know why you want to go to Shopify, but if you account is banned like PayPal closes your account or stripe doesn’t work with you, then probably you wanna go with Shopify. I still do not know how much they’re gonna charge either. That’s another thing. You know the processing fee anyways. With that, let’s move on to the next update, which is also from Shopify.

[Update 5 – Shopify’s New Feature Will Help Your Store To Become More SEO Friendly] – 09:01

Shopify’s new feature will become more friendly SEO friendly to be specific. Their CEO, actually Lütke, tweeted that, you know, starting Monday, which is tomorrow ’cause I’m recording this on a Sunday on a Father’s Day that users would be able to update their robot.txt file again. Robot.txt file is the file that you put on your website on the root of your website. Usually you don’t see it. People don’t see it, but that tells the robot which is the crawler. Google Crawler Bing crawler any website crawler, how they should behave and what they should index and what they should not index. This is great like you know now you could have a sales page and then just tell the spider. Index the robot not to index the page and as a result you don’t have to worry about. Oh my God, is someone gonna find this page like six months from today? And is it gonna be a Boo Boo? Right. So that’s what it is. It’s a good thing. One of the caveat is that you have to use Shopify’s liquid theme template. Again, I’m not a Shopify developer so I do not know what it is but. If you are using Shopify, you probably know what this means, and you could probably work with the developer. You probably have enough information to be able to do it on your own. OK with that, let’s move on to the next update, which is from YouTube.

[Update 6 – YouTube Bans 4 Business Types From Advertising on its Masthead] – 10:20

So You Tube basically announce that you know they’re gonna not allow four types of businesses to advertise on their masthead. And again, if you’re not familiar with Google map, Google Lingo, or Masthead in YouTube is, then you’re not alone. This is something, you know, every platform has their own lingo. And I’m gonna just bring. Clear being up to speed, Master is basically it’s a video ad that appears at the top of YouTube homepage. If you go to youtube.com and if you see a big big rectangular add, that’s a YouTube masthead, right? And Google is saying, hey, we are no longer allowed this type of four ads, which is alcohol sales, gambling, prescription drugs. Additional political ads and in my opinion, I think it makes sense like You Tube is gaining popularity. You YouTube is becoming mainstream. YouTube is on TV’s, YouTube is on everywhere and they do not know who is going to turn on youtube.com, whether it’s on from TV, from an iPad, from a phone or whatever, they do not know. So they want to be careful. So they’re just saying on the front page, we are not going to allow these plus whatever they were not allowing before and it makes sense ’cause it could be a minor. I have kids at home, I have YouTube TV and they could be going on the TV at place and they could see things add that are inappropriate, right? Again, if I was quick, if I was searching particularly for gambling or alcohol sales then that. It makes a very different thing, so again makes sense. It just shows YouTube is getting bigger and better and becoming mainstream TV.

[Update 7 – New Ad Formats in Microsoft Advertising] – 11:54

With that, let’s move on to the next part, which is their new ad formats in Microsoft advertising. Yes, what Microsoft is introducing a new ad format called Tools and Activities. That, they say, will be unique to the platform. At least for now, until it gets copied by someone else right after all you feel following us, you know that you know, all these platforms are helping each other anyways. So, but what? What Microsoft is saying? These ads are made in real time by Microsoft artificial intelligence does. There are no keywords required for you to play with for relevant queries using unique feedfiles and that include images, price, reviews and videos, which of course you put it to put it into the Microsoft system and it’s still in beta. But advertisers in the US and UK can sign up for this Beta filing or. Request form which we are going to link in our shows homepage or on our website marketandgrow.com/twimshow. Right there. And also we, I’m gonna put a link to, you know, all the other requirements and optional attributes that you should be putting in into when creating this ad. Now I’ve looked quickly I briefly looked into this add and I will tell you I’m very terribly impressed what it can do, especially it can probably boost your ticket sales and. Do not discount Microsoft ads. There is a segment of the market that is still using Microsoft Bing ’cause remember. Windows PCs ships with Microsoft Internet Explorer/Internet, Edge edge browsers and they’re there by default set to Bing.com there is a market for their OK

[Update 8 – Integrating Your Podcast to Your Facebook Page] – 13:35

With that, let’s go to the next update, which is from Facebook and Facebook is saying they’re going to make it easier for you to integrate your podcast to your Facebook page. That is true, folks. That is correct. So when this is launched tomorrow this. Next week. What you’ll be able to do is you’ll be able to put a plug in your podcast RSS feed into your Facebook page and the Facebook page will automatically get generate content label newsfeed post to all episodes published moving forward. That means if I connect my, you know, news feed, which I plan to do so. Anytime I publish the twimshow every Sunday, it will automatically get published to Facebook. I no longer have to manually copy it into Facebook and publish it and do all those things. It just makes it a lot easier. I like it and what Facebook is saying. Also, they’re planning to add a feature that will allow listeners to create clips from their favorite shoes. So for example you like this. Portion of the podcast very much. You’d be able to copy that and paste it into your profile, or, you know, share it and things like that. We’ll see when that happens. I will obviously update you, but for now this is really interesting. I like it right. They obviously, you know, want to keep creators on their on their platform, on their app as long as you as they can like, imagine. You know, if I were, if you were listening to the Twimshow every 20 for 20 minutes every week, right, obviously one caveat and I will tell you, mark my words today is June 20th 2021. Facebook is going to insert ads into this sometime in the future, not in the near future but sometime in the future. Once it gains popularity. OK, keep that in mind.

[Update 9 – Facebook Adds New Features to Group Admin] – 15:18

Next update, Facebook adds new features to Group admins. This is actually a pretty interesting update because I will tell you Facebook is saying they’re adding things like. Content moderate improve content moderation processes, conflict alerts and an updated overview dashboard that will highlight group tasks that require attention as well as a customizable admin home, right. One thing I will tell you, the content moderation feature. While they’re saying it will enable group admins to set up their own criteria and what they want to moderate, even automatically moderate post. Into post over here and you know, and if it doesn’t get cinematically delete it. Now you know, I’ve seen a lot of groups that do that with the enforcement, no group link sharing allowed no affiliate link, and people still figure out a way to do it by saying, oh, PM me or DM me for I will send you the link or they will put the the quoted word like, you know. marketandgrow.com like they will spill out the whole thing and then people find ways to around it. I mean, I do not even know if that is a great example, but that’s the example Facebook came out with, OK? But they’re also saying is a group admins will also be able to restrict people who don’t qualify to participate, participate based on range of options, like how long. You ever had a Facebook account or how long they’ve been a member of the group? I mean, you know Facebook, you want to build a community and you’re creating groups and now you’re giving me the tool to say, hey, you cannot be particip. You cannot take part in this. You know, you cannot communicate or you cannot comment on a post because you’ve been only a member for two weeks. Like, great, that’s gonna really great engagement. Right. Facebook. Great idea. Right. Conflict alert. Which Facebook is saying it’s gonna use Facebook AI to detect and notify admins when there may be contentious and unhealthy conversations in their group so that they can take action as needed. Hi, I do believe AI is progressing. I do believe AI is making you know. Advances in leaps and bounds with what you know, what people look. People are generally crappy. They don’t go and say, you know what? I’ll shoot you. I’ll kill you. They become very snarky and they become very sarcastic that they said things that may sound right, but it’s actually sounds, you know incorrect, right? It’s like you’ve seen this backhanded compliments, things like that. So I do not even know. How this thing is gonna workout, but I just think you know it just create either a lot of headache for the group admin or it’s just gonna turn off a lot of people and they’re gonna be like bye bye. I’m out of this group. Anyway. I’ll let Facebook figure it out. I don’t get paid for Facebook people to do it, but I think in a way, if this works out and they will have. The group admins would end up training Facebook’s algorithm, and Facebook would probably get better in other things. But the other thing I will tell you is is very I’m I’m part of a lot of groups very. I have not seen that many you know. How does unhealthy conversations in a group that people just really do that maybe I haven’t been part of this like, you know, dark groups. I would say where people are like, you know. Really killing each other, like many gangster groups, probably like, you know, mafia groups. I haven’t seen those groups. I do not know how it is. Maybe that’s where you know, dark things happen. But the groups I’ve been to. Yeah. I mean, sometimes people did get into fights and arguments, things like that, but eventually enough people wiser and they’re like, you know what this is, it doesn’t make any sense. Just shut it down like you know, they just ignore. I’ve seen that this happen sometimes. You just need to let major take over. Like, you know. Stop being a helicopter parent, Facebook. But you know they have two plus billion users, so they probably need to do a lot more or two point there. Maybe again. I will tell you I do not know. Maybe there are a lot of bullying happening in happening on the platforms and I just do not know it because I don’t. I’m not in that range age range so. Forgive me if I say something incorrect, but I think it again. How they will do it, they will figure it out, but anyway. And the other thing is like, you know, they have a new apples process for group admins, a ability tag group rules within comments and posts for clarity. Even group members will also be able to tag specific group rules when they report posts and comments. And you know, the release goes on those minor things. But I think these are the major ones that you. Want to hear about? You should know about again. I will put all the details of what is being covered in our show. No space. So again, check out marketandgrow.com/twimshow and you’ll find everything else from there. OK.

[Update 10 – Facebook Launches Program to Provide Opportunities for Independent Artists] – 20:06

With that, the last update for this week is that Facebook is launching independent music independent artist program. What they’re doing is they will help unsigned musicians earn money from the music by making the content available on Facebook and Instagram through Facebook pop partner platforms such as Distrokid or TuneCore. The way it will work is they will upload. Independent artists will upload their music to Facebook through either one of these platforms and it will become available in. Facebook creator portal and say we are publishing a video and we end up using it. Facebook is gonna give them a cut. This is what you know. Back in April we covered our TikTok was doing the same thing with United Masters. Google recently announced that you know they paid like $4 billion in the last 12 months to artists as royalties. This is around the same game. Facebook is realizing, you know, people are creating videos and you know, oftentimes they’re video guests, you know, track down because of copyright violations, not they do it intentionally. Even couple sometimes our videos days because someone ended up using a music that’s copyrighted. So Facebook is saying, you know, what will make it easy. We’ll give you a library choose from this music. Choose one genre and then use it for free, and obviously it’s not free ’cause Facebook is gonna pay them, and they’re gonna probably insert ads. They’re gonna keep more videos. It’s a whole ecosystem of, you know, hey, let’s give you, I will pay you to create music in hopes that you’re gonna get paid when someone uses music and then what they’re doing is they’re giving me access to this music because now I’m going to add more content into Facebook, and people are going to watch those content, and it’s just gonna be a whole round ecosystem around ads. That’s how it works. That’s the game OK.

[Closing] – 21:47

 

Alrighty, folks. That’s it for this week in marketing. Now you know everything that you need to know. If you’d like to read more, make sure you visit our show page, where you will find the links to the articles. Once again, this is your host Sajid Islam signing off until next week, and if you’re not signed up for our email newsletter, make sure you do that because you can get the same updates from our email newsletter. Take care. Bye-bye.

Thank you for tuning in this week. It was a pleasure to serve you all. Hit the subscribe button so that you remember to sign on next week. Same place, same time for another round of This Week In Marketing.