Facebook isn’t the coolest kid on the block anymore
Last week, we featured a Senor Tower study on the most downloaded apps for April 2021. This week, App Figures released with their numbers and there’s one trend that stands out:
Facebook. Their downloads are decreasing. Month after month, year over year:
“In May of 2020, downloads for Facebook’s flagship and lite apps averaged around 15M every week. That’s across both the App Store and Google Play, based on our estimates. By June, that number dropped to 13M. Fast forward to April 2021, and that number is roaming at under 11M.
That’s a loss of 23% of downloads in just about 12 months.”
What’s causing the change: TikTok, most likely. TikTok ranked first in both the App Store and the Google Play Store in terms of downloads.
The big picture: While TikTok is on fire with download numbers, Facebook is still dominant in terms of the percentage of the US population that uses it (21% and 69%, respectively).
Is this about to change in 2022, though?
CLUBHOUSE
Clubhouse will release its Android app worldwide in a week
Viva la voice! Now we, mere Android mortals, can finally get Clubhouse on our phones.
The app has announced they’re continuing their Android rollout.
Here are the countries that are next:
- Tuesday: Japan, Brazil and Russia
- Friday AM: Nigeria and India
- Friday afternoon through the rest of the week: The entire world
The Crew’s Take: The Clubhouse team is feeling the heat from Twitter and Facebook, and we’re seeing features that they said would take months to roll out in just a few weeks. Competition can work wonders.
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SEO
Why companies are rebranding themselves to please Google
If you had to choose between higher rankings or a memorable business name, which one would you choose?
The SEO ninja in you would probably lean toward the former: Choose a business name that contains as many relevant keywords as possible.
And you wouldn’t be the only one.
In this Search Engine Land post, Colan Nielsen reports that many local businesses are changing their real names with this in mind.
More and more companies are legitimately rebranding themselves. Since Google accepts the GMB name as long as it matches your website logo and in-store signage, businesses are changing their real names to include keywords.
Smart move?
Not always. While this tactic might cause a quick SEO boost, there are some downsides to consider.
If you’re thinking about proposing such strategies to your clients, keep in mind that:
- If your entire market is adding descriptors to their names, the ranking power of it diminishes.
- Your competitors can still edit their names.
- Keywords may change over time.
- It’s a branding mess: If 10 companies in the same niche, in the same area, have similar names, there’s no differentiation.
Before you or a client rebrands to get that top spot in Google My Business, consider whether it’ll be a good business strategy long-term.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
EBAY: No more adult items on the marketplace. eBay has announced the closure of its “Adult Only” section.
YOUTUBE: We always take advertising advice from Google with a grain of salt, but this is something worth reading. The article comes from Bob and Anton, both members of Google’s Media Lab team.
PRODUCTIVITY: Reading carefully is the new listening, and writing clearly is the new empathy. Sometimes all you need to do to write better emails is to…slow…down. These tips from Harvard show you how to do just that.
FACEBOOK: When media habits change, Facebook is the first to be writing about it. Apparently, the media landscape is undergoing an interesting shift in New Zealand.
INSTAGRAM: Looks like you’ll be able to post from your desktop soon. One of our crew members is especially excited about this, and has promised us they’ll get rid of their Android emulator once it happens.
FACEBOOK: Irrelevant data is like spoiled milk. Or at least, that’s how Facebook treats it. This is an interesting article on how the social network gives “clout” to organic posts.
BRAIN TEASER
One day, two fathers and two sons went fishing. By the end of the day, they had only caught three fish. One father said, “that’s enough for all of us! We’ll have one each.” How is this possible?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
A man is challenging a monkey to a game of MindPong
Yes, you read that right.
Nathan Copeland is paralyzed and can’t walk or move his fingers. He can, however, move his shoulder and some parts of his hand.
Nathan has received a brain implant which allows him to operate a computer and a trackpad, and thus play computer games.
And if you were on the internet a month ago, you probably saw Neuralink’s video of a monkey playing Pong with its mind.
“As soon as I saw it I said, ‘I wonder if I could beat that monkey,’” said Copeland. Now he’s thrown the gauntlet and challenged the monkey to a brain-to-brain fight.
Game on: Nathan has told MIT Tech that “We are preparing and training already.”
A tough decision: Copeland is already playing several games, including Sonic the Hedgehog, using mental commands. He admitted that it was a tough decision on whether to challenge Musk’s monkey: “I could get my ass beat,” Copeland says. “But yeah, I would play.”
For the record, we’re cheering for Nathan: The human race isn’t ready for an animal uprising just yet.