ICYMI: Noteworthy News in Digital Marketing

What’s new in the world of digital marketing? 

The answer to that question changes every second. That’s why each week, we dig through brand announcements, martech and platform updates, social media campaigns, and stacks of stories to curate the news you need to know in our weekly newsletter, The Spark.

If you struggle to keep up on the headlines, we understand. To help with the catch-up we’ve gathered the recent top stories, platform-by-platform, to keep you up-to-date and in-the-know. 

LinkedIn just became the latest social network to introduce a story feature, adding LinkedIn Stories to its mobile app.

With the success of Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook stories, it’s no wonder LinkedIn wanted to jump on the story train. With the platform’s unique user-base and content style, the stories feature on LinkedIn presents your brand with an opportunity to establish a regular cadence of thought leadership in a more personal way.

InstaUpdate: Instagram Guides Are Coming Your Way

Instagram has once again expanded its options for content creation. Is it a photo? A video? A story? A reel? No, it’s a Guide.

This new format will let creators post microblog-style content. The new functionality features a montage of images and videos, as well as extra commentary with tips, advice, and recommendations. Instagram is rolling out Guides incrementally, so keep an eye out for this new feature on your profile.

By The Numbers - SEO Quick Tip

A recent study of Google’s search engine results pages revealed that content formatted as frequently-asked questions (you know, FAQ) has the highest click-through rate - nearly 90% of users will click on the link to read more!

A Facebook Message: Focus on Facebook Groups

Facebook may seem like a vast, impenetrable wilderness at times for users and marketers alike. Many Facebook users find solace in the groups function, shrinking the endless wilds into a friendly neighborhood community. And now, Facebook is making it easier to market to them with the announcement of a slew of new group-focused features.

For brands, the most beneficial announcement is the group promotions addition to the Brand Collabs Manager tool. Now marketers using the Manager can quickly identify opportunities to promote their sponsored content within relevant public groups.  

New in the YouTube Universe: Find the Right Audience, the Right Ad Placement, and the Right Results

YouTube has made its case as a replacement for traditional television. What’s next? YouTube wants to help brands reach the right consumers for a fraction of a conventional TV campaign’s price.

With such an enormous amount of video content available on YouTube, it can be difficult for marketers to identify precisely where they want their ads to fall. YouTube recently introduced the “dynamic lineups” category targeting feature to help marketers pinpoint more specific and contextual ad placement options and further sharpen their YouTube ad campaigns.

By the Numbers - Marketing Fast Fact

As the world spends its time couch-sitting and phone-surfing, engagement on social media content continues to grow. Engagement on publisher videos and influencer content rose by 67% from March to July, while branded and sponsored influencer content engagement went up by 101%!

Reddit Recent Release: Ad Inventory Options Protect Your Brand Safety

Reddit introduced ad inventory options, which will deliver marketers content display options and, ultimately, increased control over who will see their campaigns. This new implementation equips marketers with selectable brand safety levels for running on-platform promotions.

Marketers have long been a little leery of Reddit as an advertising platform. The social media network has enviable engagement and user metrics, but it’s traditionally been hard to measure ROI for brands. Toyota, Nordstrom, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have cracked the code for marketing on Reddit, and, with the new support from Reddit, now you can too.

Keeping up with swift changes in the marketing world can be challenging. It’s a space that moves quickly, to say the least. And now that you’re all caught up, it will be even easier to say current especially with tools like Tier One’s weekly newsletter, The Spark, which is full of top tips, trends, and tricks, curated and sent straight to your inbox.

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