Lane Ellis

Facebook redesigns biz Pages for utility as feed reach declines
Facebook has released a slew of changes to its popular Business Pages offering, including updates to mobile, recommendations, events, jobs, and Facebook Local. The updates bring marketers new opportunities along with the need to re-think certain strategies that may no longer be relevant. TechCruch

Twitter loses ability to let users auto-post tweets & retweets to Facebook
Facebook changed how its API is utilized by some 60K apps, including Twitter’s, doing away with cross-posted auto-tweets unless going through the more limited posting options of Facebook’s Share feature. Marketing Land

Move Over Millennials: It’s Time To Discuss How To Win With Generation Z Moms
An examination of digital native Gen Z moms and their online brand engagement traits and habits. Forbes

Industry Group Finds Consumers Love ‘Rewarded’ Ads: Marketers, Less So
A new collaborative study by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), OpenX, and MediaMath looks at view-and-reward advertising, rewarded opt-in ad types, and what they may mean for digital marketers going forward. MediaPost

Google Has A Podcast App, But Does It Have A Podcasting Strategy?
Google is expected to increase the prominence of podcasts in all search results, expanding on limited tests it’s done with Android and Google Assistant SERPs. Forbes

Huge chunk of young people believe advertising does not welcome diversity
New survey data examines inclusion and diversity in advertising, and how far the industry may still have to go. Campaign US

Report: Google’s mobile search results now show image thumbnails 45% of the time
Mobile Google users see image thumbnails in nearly half the search results shown, according to new report data. Should marketers consider placing greater importance on thumb images? Search Engine Land

Twitter’s bot purge welcomed by agency execs
Twitter recently deleted millions of spam and inactive accounts in an effort to improve the platform. Does the move increase credibility among marketers and influencers? DigiDay

Report: Social media sentiment not predictive of offline brand outcomes
New research looks into online and offline brand conversations and their effect on consumer sentiment, plus the motivations that drive them. Marketing Land

Google leans more on algorithms for ads as critics highlight risks
Google has unveiled a slew of new ad-buying tools that incorporate machine learning, and expanded availability of a utility for running the best text-based search result ads. What will the new ad tools announced Tuesday offer for digital marketers? Reuters

Facebook Adds Keyword ‘Snooze’ Option to Help User Avoid Spoilers
Facebook has launched a new feature allowing users to hide certain words, effectively snoozing them for 30 days. How might marketers be affected? Social Media Today

Google’s New Speed Update Works On Gradual Scale; Small Improvements Matter
Google has shared information about its latest search algorithm update, which has a greater focus on site load speed that takes into account even the smallest increased efficiencies. SEO Roundtable

Facebook tests ‘subscription Groups’ that charge for exclusive content
Facebook has begun testing subscription-based Groups among a select array of users, which now allow Group managers to charge monthly for exclusive content, and which will open up new possibilities to digital marketers when rolled out to all users. TechCrunch

Google Search Console URL Inspector Tool Is Still Rolling Out
Google has added several features to its beta Search Console that offer greater insight into indexed URLs, including new more detailed crawl, index, and page-serving information, the Internet giant announced this week. SEO Roundtable

Report: Employee advocacy trumps influencer marketing
Employee advocacy has gotten recommendations that are seen as more trustworthy than those of traditional influencers, while the accurate measurement of return-on-investment (ROI) remains a top challenge for social media marketers, according to interesting recent Sprout Social report data. PR Daily

With IGTV, Instagram Takes Aim at YouTube
Instagram has added the ability to upload videos up to an hour long, with the launch of its new IGTV feature, offering digital marketers a much bigger video canvas. Instagram also announced that it has broken through the one billion user barrier. Wired

Unilever stops working with digital media influencers who buy followers
Unilever has ceased working with social media influencers who buy followers, a first-of-its-kind effort to increase influencer transparency, the mega-brand recently announced. Marketing Land

Marketing-driven revenue from mobile apps has grown 80% since 2016
Marketers focusing on mobile may be on the right track, as mobile apps have driven a vast 80 percent marketing revenue expansion since 2016, according to voluminous new report data from Facebook and marketing analytics firm AppsFlyer, detailing major differences among the gaming, shopping, and travel markets. Venture Beat

Mary Meeker’s 2018 internet trends report: All the slides, plus analysis
The highly-anticipated Internet Trends report for 2018 has been released, including data bound to prove helpful to marketers for months to come. For more than 20 years venture capitalist Mary Meeker, partner at Kleiner Perkins, has researched and put out the report. Recode

Twitter Will Limit What Third-Party Apps Can Do, Starting August 16th
Twitter is gearing up for August changes that will hamper some popular functionality in third-party apps, including the elimination of streaming real-time tweets and limitations to push notifications in apps, the company recently announced. Search Engine Journal

Instagram Explains How Its Algorithm Works in New Briefing
Instagram has presented fresh insight into some of the signals that go into how its primary feed algorithm works, which could be a boon to marketers. Social Media Today

Social Media Marketing Update: Preferred Platforms and Content Types in 2018
A multitude of the latest trends in social media marketing have been detailed in a new report from Social Media Examiner, revealing that Instagram has surpassed a declining Twitter in overall popularity, while B2B marketers continue to prefer LinkedIn. MarketingCharts

Study: Millennial travelers’ Instagram use has grown 375% since 2013
U.S. millennial travelers have turned to Instagram 375 percent more than they did in 2013, according to new research on social media usage among travelers, while Google stayed the top overall travel site. Marketing Dive

Facebook Releases Latest ‘Topics to Watch’ Report, Highlighting Key Trends
U.S. marketers now have access to Facebook’s latest list of topics to watch, as the social media giant released its “Topics to Watch” list for April, 2018, including the fastest-growing conversation topics on the platform. Social Media Today