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Marketing in the Digital Age: News Round-Up (week ending Mar 29, 2019)

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Checkout on Instagram, Facebook Ban on White Nationalism, and E-Commerce reports on Google Analytics in this week’s Marketing in the Digital Age.

Facebook Announces Ban on White Nationalism

Summary: In the wake of the New Zealand mosque shooting (the shooter broadcast the crimes on Facebook Live), Facebook announced it will put a ban on rhetoric touting (“praise, support and representation”) for white nationalism and separatism. If a person searches for terms associated with white supremacy, they will be redirected to resources on helping people leave behind hate groups.

Opinion: I assume the issues of First Amendment rights will come up with the block of free speech and something I struggled with, even though I vehemently oppose the content like this. What I see as the difference with this, hate speech can exist but it doesn’t mean a company has to provide the platform to distribute it. People are granted access to free speech, not distribution.

Introducing Checkout on Instagram

Summary: Instagram announced launch of a beta test where you can buy products directly on Instagram without leaving the app. “When you tap to view a product from a brand’s shopping post, you’ll see a “Checkout on Instagram” button on the product page. Tap it to select from various options such as size or color, then you’ll proceed to payment without leaving Instagram. You’ll only need to enter your name, email, billing information and shipping address the first time you check out.”

Opinion: Impulse shopping at its finest!

Google Analytics Ecommerce Report: Standard vs Enhanced

Summary: “Although the Enhanced Ecommerce reports offer more information, setting them up requires more work. Only make that extra effort if you don’t have another tool that helps you analyze your customer journey and sales funnels and how they generate revenue. And if you’re just getting started with Google Analytics Ecommerce reports, the Standard option is a great choice.”

Opinion: Having clients who struggle with the investment (time and money), this article outlines the benefits of enhanced over standard ecommerce reports on Google Analytics.

Marketing in the Digital Age: News Round-Up (week ending June 22, 2018)

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Facebook charges subscription fees, Instagram will host video up to an hour, and Salesforce integrating Google Analytics in this week's news round-up.  

Facebook Lets Group Admins Charge for Access

Summary: As a test, Facebook is allowing some group admins to charge for access to their content. TechCrunch reported the fees will range from $4.99 to $29.99 per month.  

Opinion: Although I don't want to have to pay for access to another service, I can appreciate why this is happening as a way to monetize content and allow for creators to profit from their work.   Currently, Facebook has built its entire model on ad-support, and this is a way to diversify the revenue stream.  It also allows the people creating the content to share in some of the revenue, which currently doesn't happen. 

Instagram Announces Long-Form Video

Summary: Instagram announced IGTV, a platform that will allow users with 10K+ followers to post content up to an hour long.  Everyone else will get 10 min, which is up from the previous 60 second cap.  IG doesn't plan on producing its own content and is relying in its celebrity users to popularize the function.  It will launch without ads.  

Opinion:  At a billion active users of Instagram, that's a lot of video to be had! Once it's popularized, I can see this being another ad sales platform.  It's also a way for Instagram to steal views from YouTube.  

Salesforce-Google Analytics Integration and What it Means for Marketers

Summary: Instead of building its own web analytics, Salesforce will be integrating Google Analytics into its service offerings.  The partnership will allow for seamless (their words, not mine) integration of Google Analytics 360 through Salesforce Marketing Cloud.  It was doable before but not without cumbersome challenges.  Now, "A marketer from a consumer goods company can, for instance, view imported metrics from Analytics 360 on the Marketing Cloud dashboard. If they see certain products are getting frequently viewed, but not purchased, they can create an aggregated and anonymized audience of those users in Analytics 360, and then publish it to Marketing Cloud with a few clicks."

Opinion:  As a marketer, anything that consolidates info onto one platform would definitely make life easier.  This goes a step further in being able to analyze data from customers who take a certain action on a website and track for future improvements.