Twitter will no longer be a free platform
Twitter has long been a pretty straightforward platform. No paid subscriptions, no groups or communities, just people tweeting (and mostly arguing) about everything imaginable.
But, in earnings reports earlier this year, the mention of a premium product was dropped. And while there’s still no word on editable tweets, the announcements Twitter made during yesterday’s Twitter Analyst Day were big.
Here’s what went down:
- Twitter will be adding some very Patreon, Substack, and Facebook-type features. There are two main updates here. First, people will be able to charge their followers – with something called a Super Follow – to grant them access to extra content. Second, people will also be able to create and join interest-based groups.
- Super Follows are flexible. People can offer paid subscriptions to newsletter content, communities, tweets, and more. If you’re a creator on Twitter, your monetization options just went through the roof.
The Crew’s take: This is the biggest update we’ve seen from Twitter in a long time. It’s intriguing to see some concrete details on what Twitter’s monetization options will look like. And, fortunately for marketers, they’re pretty flexible – it appears that creators can choose their own prices and the perks they offer followers.
This marks the end of an era for Twitter, the long-time free and public platform. The update opens up the chance to explore new horizons, if you’re a marketer or creator.
Facebook’s side of the story
Over the past couple of weeks, Facebook and Australia have been in a fierce battle over whether or not the platform should be required to pay publishers.
Here’s the deal, as of now: Australia wants Facebook to pay publishers for content that gets linked on its platform, and Facebook disagrees.
So far, Facebook has been on the winning side of the battle. But with news that Australia passed what they wanted in legislation, Facebook has released their side of the story.
You can find the full announcement here, but these were the highlights:
- Facebook says that it could be devastating to require social platforms to pay publishers for linked content. It’s a dramatic take, but Facebook strongly disagrees with the idea that a platform should be required to pay publishers simply for linking content.
- Facebook also claims that last week’s decision to ban the sharing of news in Australia was not out of the blue. Instead, the company says that it signaled this move months in advance, and Australia simply forced the hand.
Most of you reading this probably aren’t in Australia. But just because it’s only happened in Australia so far doesn’t mean it won’t happen in other countries – so give it all a good read!
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CONTENT MARKETING
The great content marketing paradox
You have probably never thought about this paradox.
After all, Rand Fishkin, who talked about it here, bumped into it after creating content for 20 years.
What paradox are we talking about? This one:
- Basic “beginner” content appeals to broader audiences, but has a low amplification potential. Being beginners, that have no influence in their industry.
- High level content for smaller audiences has a greater amplification power. Because these are usually influencers, thought leaders, writers, podcasters, and more.
The paradox: The amplifiers can usually help you reach the beginners. The beginners usually can’t help you reach the amplifiers.
When thought leaders share your piece of content, your post gains signals that positively impact the search and social algorithms, helping you get still more traffic.
Hence, the logical question is: If you want to reach beginners, but still leverage the sharing power of amplifiers, what content do you create?
Rand Fishkin proposes this process:
- Find and follow the sources of influence in the field you’re targeting.
- Gain a deep understanding of which content resonates, earns amplification, and how and why.
- Create personas for both target customers AND the sources of influence who’ll help you reach them.
- Determine the content those personas want, need, and will share.
- Create content for the various groups.
- Apply SEO-focused keyword research.
- Publish.
- Promote.
However, mind that in any different niche, the way influencers distribute content and why they do it varies.
That is why researching the field is crucial. And if you’re crafting content, you’ll be far more effective creating it, titling it, positioning it, and marketing it if you know:
- The distribution of your audience’s “beginners,” and “experts”.
- Who follows whom for what.
- Who shares what and why.
- How to appeal to the amplifiers while serving the audiences you need to engage and convert.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
FACEBOOK: According to an internal report, 1.8B people use Facebook Groups every month.
SNAPCHAT: The company says that it reaches 70% of 13 to 24 year old users in the countries that generate half of the world’s ad spend.
GOOGLE: Will audio search ever be possible? Google shared some results of their early tests.
FACEBOOK: Facebook launched a campaign including TV and digital promotions explaining why personalized ad targeting is a good thing.
SNAPCHAT: Snapchat is working on a dark mode for Android devices.
BRAIN TEASER
What kind of band never plays music?
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.
Here we go again
It’s been a couple of weeks since the big GameStop drama. Bar one entertaining Congressional hearing (featuring Roaring Kitty himself), things have been quiet on the crazy stock front.
That changed on Wednesday, when GameStop’s stock surged by more than 105% after-hours. It continued the rise yesterday, and at the moment of writing this, the price per share still sits at $106.
And yes, Reddit is still extremely excited. In fact, the stock’s initial surge caused Reddit to crash temporarily due to the overflow of users and content.
It may not be getting the media attention of the first surge, but it’s a sign that social media-fueled stock frenzies probably aren’t going anywhere.
Buckle up!