YOUTUBE
YouTube wants to give videos more exposure
YouTube has announced a “new to you” tab, where you can discover new flavors of videos that are personalized for you.
Why we care: YouTube video discoverability can be extremely difficult. On TikTok, for example, a single video has the potential to go viral and get millions of views, all within the app. It’s much harder to do that on YouTube.
But, this new tab has the potential to change things.
How this differs from home page recommendations: Users have complained to YouTube that the home page is becoming a little… Stale. Same videos, same creators, same everything. As a result, YouTube has decided to spice things up.
How this differs from “Explore”: On the Explore tab, you can see trending videos within a specific niche. These videos are not personalized to you. The “new to you” tab will try to strike a balance between showing you new and relevant videos.
The Crew’s take: We can’t help but wonder if this is inspired by TikTok. Is TikTok’s popularity changing people’s preferences to want more new content from all platforms?
Anyway, this is good news if you’re looking for organic promotion and we hope this trend will continue, well, trending.
TIKTOK
#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt
No, this isn’t a fancy hashtag. It’s the title of a session at TikTok’s newly announced “Unplugged” event.
The event: “Unplugged” will be a set of live sessions happening in July on how marketers can grow their brand within the platform.
Each session will focus on a different niche: Fashion, family, culture, entertainment, and so on.
Another month, another record: According to recent SenorTower data, TikTok was the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide for June. This was also the case for May, April, March and February.
These are some impressive stats. And we can’t blame marketers for saying TikTok is the platform they want to crack into the most.
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How to generate $20k in 9 hours by treating LinkedIn like Twitter
This is the experience that Justin Welsh learned from his product launch on LinkedIn. The main point is to treat LinkedIn like Twitter. But, that’s not necessarily self-explanatory.
Here are the details:
- A lot of marketers complain about the big amount of whacky content on LinkedIn. That’s an advantage! It means it’s easier to stand out.
- Be bold: Everyone is bold on Twitter because it’s the culture, whereas on LinkedIn everybody stays formal because they worry about their boss. This means that if you can be mildly polarizing, you’ll stick out like a black stallion in a flock of white sheep.
- Be consistent and patient: Justin Welsh posted every day for 30 days before the launch. This helped him build an audience of 102k people.
- Use your profile effectively: Use the “featured section” of your profile to add CTAs.
- Prepare your one-shot: The day of the launch, Justin published a post promoting his new course at 7:15 AM. Thirty seconds later, he asked his private Discord community of LinkedIn followers to support it. This engagement boosts the reach of the post. But don’t abuse this practice. Justin suggests doing it once per year.
- Engage like hell: On launch day, he spent six hours answering comments, DMs, and emails.
- Hit your email list: One hour after the 7:15 AM post, Justin followed up with an email to his list of 6,900 people.
- Collect social proof in real-time: He took all the positive comments on the LinkedIn post and added them to the sales page in real-time. The more comments he added, the higher the conversion rate went.
LinkedIn is definitely under-used. And maybe this post proves that its underutilization is a good thing.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
SNAPCHAT: Adapt to AR or get left behind. This seems to be the message behind Snapchat’s latest data on what people want as they return to stores.
PINTEREST: We bet you didn’t know this: Pinterest’s fastest growth in 2020 came from two emerging audiences: Gen Z and, wait for it… men. Yes, men. Both of those audiences were up by 40% year-over-year.
GOOGLE: A small update coming from Google Shopping. If you’re a merchant, instead of two pieces of information (like an email and a phone) you’ll get asked to submit just one.
INSTAGRAM: Remember SkyMall commercials? If not, you’re most likely a millennial or Gen Z and should read the article. If yes, then don’t feel old; feel more experienced. This article goes into detail on how Instagram Ads are starting to resemble SkyMall commercials.
ANALYTICS: If you notice a discrepancy between your CloudFlare and Google Analytics stats, you’re not alone. You’re far from alone, actually.
SEO: Google MUM is the end of SEO… Or is it? Pandu Nayak, VP of search at Google, provides some info on what MUM will be replacing (hint: it’s not SEOs).
TWITTER: If someone applied and did not receive the Twitter check mark, the company will now explain why (hopefully without destroying their ego in the process).
BRAIN TEASER
Arrows are part of me, but bows are not. You can enter, but you can’t leave. You can’t walk in, but you can escape. What am I?
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.
Hotdogs and buns should be equal
Hot dogs often come in packs of 10. Buns come in packs of 8. And there’s long been a conspiracy that this is, of course, intentional.
This isn’t right, according to Heinz Ketchup Canada. Hot dogs and buns go together in your stomach. So, the same thing should happen in the store. This is why this company recently started an online petition hoping to eliminate the unfair mismatch.
The (actual) reason for the petition: Food waste. When shops buy their supplies, they might get packs of 10 hot dogs and 12 buns. Thus, they end up paying for 2 buns they don’t need and throw them away. Which ends up being a waste.
We believe in equality for both your stomach and the environment, so this petition gets our support.