SOCIAL MEDIA
Messenger has an update look and Snapchat releases some data
A quiet day, mostly focused on a certain Cupertino device announcement. Facebook and Snapchat still squeezed out some updates for us.
Let’s unpack the social media news from yesterday:
- Messenger has a new look – and some new features! In an announcement yesterday, Facebook unveiled a new logo for Messenger, which it’s no coincidence that this is similar to Instagram’s logo). A couple new features, including selfie stickers and custom reactions, are coming soon.
- If you have a young audience, you might be interested in this report shared by Snapchat.
The first point shows that Facebook is still working toward its goal to integrate its messaging platforms.
On the other hand, Snapchat is just doing Snapchat things and doubling-down on their strengths. Oh, and they are planning to make use of the new iPhone’s LiDAR-powered lens.
BUSINESS
Meat and potatoes lessons for freelancers
Are you about that freelance hustle?
Elise Dopson quit her job three years ago to start freelance writing, and she just shared some meat and potatoes information she wishes she knew three years ago when she started.
Whether you’re fresh in the game or not, these tips can be super useful:
- Create a separate bank account for all of your income, and pay yourself a salary from that account. This helps you manage your cash flow and save.
- Create another account to save for taxes.
- Relationships are everything. Elise attributes 99% of her clients to her network.
- Set aside 1 hour per week to learn new stuff.
- If your rates don’t scare you, they’re not high enough. Plus, charge an extra 20% for the benefits you don’t get as a freelance.
- Testimonials are the bread and butter of freelancers. It’s what makes people trust you. And always ask for them because they won’t come naturally.
- Don’t work without a contract. Always have a way to protect yourself.
- Have a dedicated work-space and office hours – and don’t work beyond those parameters.
- There’s more to freelance than the juice of your work: planning, research, email, accounts, etc. Plan also for this in your work-hours.
There you go.
Basic stuff that can help any freelancer – even if you’re experienced, some of these tips might be new to you!
SPONSORED BY REVCONTENT
82-year-old American actor’s business scales to $300k/m on Revcontent selling CBD
In 2019, American actor Tommy Chong re-launched his CBD brand Tommy Chong’s CBD (TCC).
With CBD products still blocked from social media advertising, TCC’s marketing team decided to turn to Revcontent. And it was a great choice: They scaled ad spend up to $100k/month with a 533% ROAS.
Tommy Chong’s CBD has been able to reach highly engaged audiences at all the stages of the funnel, thanks to some of Revcontent’s industry-leading features such as:
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MARKETING
The acquisition channel nobody is talking about
Darko, a writer for ZeroToUsers, was scraping the interviews of 483 founders on IndieHackers to understand which channel was the most used to acquire users.
SEO, press releases, affiliate marketing, you know the drill.
These were the most popular. But there was a channel mentioned as many times as SEO and affiliate marketing, and nobody was explicitly talking about it.
Probably because it is so simple and effective. And, chances are you jump into this “channel” several times per day.
What are we talking about?
“Powered by”
If you visit an e-commerce store built on Shopify, you’ll probably find the “Powered by Shopify” label at the bottom of the website.
You’ll see this with plenty of other software services, too.
Here are the examples reported by Darko:
Widgetic gives newspaper articles more interactivity by enabling them to add things like quizzes, live voting, and so on.
Once they enter a market, other newspapers start using their app. This is because journalists read the articles of their competitors. So they see the “Powered by Widgetic” label and think:
“My competitor uses this tool. I’ll use it too.”
One more example? LiveAgent, a help desk & live chat software. The “powered by” marketing has been their main acquisition channel:
“Word of mouth and branding displayed on our widgets such as “Live Chat Software by LiveAgent” were bringing in 50% of new leads”
Therefore, this “powered by” thing can be a useful tool if you run a SaaS business. And these are some suggestions on doing it the right way:
- It doesn’t always have to be a link.
- Use the power of default: If you don’t want to force the powered by link on your product, you can make it optional.
- Start from the top of the chain: Small guys of the industry want to copy the big guys. If you can assure that a big player in your industry can use your product and showcase it with a “powered by” link, leads will start to flood in.
At its simplest form, “powered by” marketing is just another form of social proof – but one that can generate leads on autopilot.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
INSTAGRAM: The BBC has the largest news following on Instagram. Check out how they’re leveraging a custom tool to create beautiful Stories!
ADVERTISING: Struggling to be creative with your ads? Savannah Sanchez has an entire page on her site with creative examples if you’re looking for a boost of inspo.
GOOGLE: Trying to keep up with your podcast analytics? Google will now show you clicks from search, so you can attribute how much of your audience is finding you organically.
WORDPRESS: If you’re looking to light up Twitter with one of your blog posts, you can now do that. A new feature can auto-generate Twitter threads from your blog posts!
BRAIN TEASER
What has cities, but no houses; forests, but no trees; and water, but no fish?
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.
Mini doesn’t mean small in Cupertino
iPhone 5 fans, rejoice. Apple held their iPhone 12 event, “Hi, Speed” yesterday, and there were a few notable mentions (other than the iPhone 12, of course).
In case you missed it, here’s what Apple announced:
- Flat edges are back. One of the biggest aesthetic changes to the new iPhone will be its edges. The new design is reminiscent of a modern iPhone 5, which is something that we love.
- Everything is mini. Well, not everything, just the things that have the name ‘Mini’ after them – and for this event, that means the iPhone 12 Mini and the HomePod Mini. Apple announced an ‘Intercom’ feature that lets you broadcast a message to your devices (including the HomePod Mini).
Fun fact: The iPhone 12 Mini might not be so mini after all. With a 5.4-inch screen, it’s bigger than most standard iPhones before the X and even about the same size as the iPhone 8 Plus!