Google’s latest updates…major Facebook Live changes…Twitter confirms tweet tweaks…plus THAT Chewbacca video.

15 things you need to know this week from the world of digital and social marketing.

Taking the Pulse is our fast summary of latest news on key digital marketing and social media platforms, plus essential need-to-know information for marketers and business owners. Keeping you updated on the stuff that matters to your business. Presented by Carlton Jefferis.

Google

• Google I/O conference highlights
  I was left feeling slightly underwhelmed at the announcements flowing from Google’s flagship annual conference last week. My key observation was Google assistant which has potential consequences for business and marketing as we move into the era of voice search. Here are the main things that caught my eye:
  • Google assistant: – not an app or device but rather a platform that brings together the full suite of Google’s search “brains” including AI, bots, voice recognition and more. Think of it like Apple’s Siri, or Amazon’s Alexa. Google assistant sets the course for two-way conversation between people and Google, helping people actually complete tasks rather than just answering search queries. According to Google’s CEO 20% of queries on mobile are already voice searches. Incredible! SearchEngineLand considers some of the challenges for marketers as the world shifts to voice-control.
  • Google Home: Google’s answer to Amazon Echo. Probably way smarter.
  • Google Allo: a curious messaging app in which the aforementioned Google assistant lurks in the background “listening” to your conversations and popping up with “useful” related information. A privacy minefield.
• Google AdWords revamp
  Google – which now handles over 2 trillion searches per year – says mobile search is growing 50% faster than other search types. Of that a third of mobile search is local search, so they’re making their flagship AdWords product more effective for location-based mobile:
  • Local search ads that appear on Google search and Google Maps.
  • Promoted Pins allow you to advertise in maps, including your logo.
  • Expanded text ads provide more preview info to users before they click.
  • Other changes including upcoming revisions to the ad bidding process.
    

Facebook

• Daily posts on Facebook Pages surged in 2015, slipped on Twitter profiles
  New study from Quintly which analysed 180,000 Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles shows Facebook far from being “dead” for businesses:
  • Facebook continued to build momentum in terms of post frequency with brands – up 36% over the year.
  • Twitter on the other hand slipped 2% over the year. Is this an early indication of a general downward trend in business use of Twitter?
  • Instagram topped Facebook and Twitter in terms of engagement rate,.
  • Most interestingly, brands with the smallest followings (1,000 or fewer) on all three social networks boasted the strongest engagement rates.
    
• Reply to comments with video
  Facebook is testing a new way to respond to comments using video, perfect if (like me) you’d rather record something than write it down. We have this feature on The Digiterati Facebook Page so leave a comment for on one of our posts and maybe I’ll surprise you with a short video reply :-)
• Pages app on Android gets a makeover
  Marie is reporting that the Android version of Pages app has a completely new user interface today. Recent posts now appear in a carousel format. Screenshots here:
  

Facebook Live

• Skip straight to the good part of Facebook Live video
  Bored of hanging around for the action in a Live replay? Too much blah, blah, blah at the beginning? Facebook is rolling out a feature they call “engagement graph” which basically overlays a Live video with a graphical representation of the volume of Reactions and comments received while the broadcast was actually live. This way you can fast-forward to the part where viewers started sending the hearts, likes and wows which Facebook say indicates the good stuff. Bonus: Reactions and comments will also start to appear during replays, in real-time as they happened. More.
  
• Two-thirds of total watch time happens from Live replay
  Facebook’s Head of Video, Fiji Simo, says:

  “Around two-thirds of the watch time for Facebook Live happens when the video is no longer live, which tells us that people are interested in watching live videos even if they can’t catch them while they’re happening.”

• Time-unlimited Facebook Live broadcasts
  90 minutes of live-time not long enough for you? No problem! You can now use the Live API to broadcast time-unlimited Live videos. There’s only one drawback: the Live won’t be saved as a replay. If you want the replay you have to keep within 90 mins. Further information.
• Live Maps rolls out on desktop in more countries
  More discovery options for Facebook Live = more ways for your Live to be discovered. Full details here.

• Chewbacca mask demonstrates the potential of Facebook Live
  If you haven’t seen the “Chewbacca” video where’ve you been? On Friday this spontaneous and joyful video became the most-watched Facebook Live video ever (I know, I know, Facebook Live has only been around for a few months!), caused the mask to become sold out across the USA, and landed the broadcaster Candace Payne’s family a ton of swag and a trip to Facebook HQ. At the time of writing the Live had 144 million views in little more than 5 days. Need further proof of the power of Live? More info.

Adobe

• Look out Canva! Adobe Spark launches suite of social content apps
  Adobe has cottoned-on to the growing need for rapid ways to create compelling content for use on social media channels – things like images or montages containing text and quotes, or simple videos and animations. Enter Adobe Spark, a suite of desktop and iOS apps to help small businesses with visual storytelling. Create images, videos and web pages, post announcements, catalogues, explainer animations and marketing stories. My main thought is how this will impact Canva? Watch the video below to learn more.

Twitter

• IT’S OFFICIAL! 140 characters now means 140 characters
  We covered this in last week’s show but now the news is official and even better than we imagined! Here are the details of what will no longer count towards the 140 character tweet content:
  • URLs shared
  • Media attached (images, videos, polls etc)
  • @names in replies to tweets
  • Quoted tweets
• Goodbye .@ – the most widely misunderstood “feature” of Twitter
  To this day many people don’t realise that if a tweet starts with @ it is only seen by people who follow you AND the @name person you’re tweeting. DOH! That’s why people add the . (full stop / period) BEFORE the @ sign in a tweet. By starting with .@ the tweet is visible to ALL of your followers. I’ve followed Gary Vaynerchuk for years and he’s constantly banging-on about this widely misunderstood “feature”. Not for much longer! Twitter says they will eliminate this in the next few months.I was tempted to choose Candace Payne for my award this week for making the world cry with laughter. But instead the crying-with-laughter emoji is awarded to Twitter for Overdue Feature Announcement of the Decade. Congratulations Twitter!

  

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About Carlton Jefferis

Carlton Jefferis is a senior consultant and trainer at The Digiterati. He has over 20 years experience working on pioneering Internet and digital marketing projects for a wide range of clients including Sony, AOL, Manchester United FC, Nationwide Building Society, AT&T, Autographer and a large number of start-up tech businesses. He advises clients of The Digiterati on commercial and sales strategy, digital marketing strategy, ecommerce and product development. As a skilled, active social media practitioner he delivers public training and bespoke in-house courses on social media marketing, digital strategy and digital transformation. He also blogs for leading global digital marketing publisher, Smart Insights.

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