Facebook just told us what’s been most popular on their platform lately
No, it’s not memes.
Facebook has just published their “Widely Viewed Content” report for the third quarter of 2021.
Widely what? It’s just a fancy term for which content got the most views on Facebook. Here are a few takeaways from the report:
Groups > Pages: In a typical News Feed, 17.8% of views came from posts from groups people joined. In comparison, 14.9% of views came from posts from pages people followed.
The most viewed domains: YouTube ranked first, followed by GoFundMe, Amazon, Twitter, UNICEF, and Linktree.
The most viewed posts: This one is interesting.
Many of the most viewed Facebook posts had one thing in common: they asked questions that you could answer creatively. Here are some examples:
- Spell your name, but for each letter press the first word that comes up in your predictive text…
- Name something that a lot of people like, but you can’t stand.
- Tell me to leave your house without using the word leave.
The takeaway: If you want to create a post that spreads organically on Facebook, one good idea is to ask a question that sparks people’s creativity and prompts them to provide an interesting answer.
E-COMMERCE
Holiday shopping (and out-of-stock messages) have arrived earlier this year
Holiday shoppers started spending earlier than usual this year, spending $72.4 billion in October, an increase of 8% over last year.
This is the main takeaway from Adobe’s Digital Economy Index report. The report is based on data from “over one trillion visits to US retail sites and over 100 million SKUs in 18 product categories” collected by Adobe’s Analytics platform.
Sorry, not available: Out-of-stock messages have also increased significantly, according to Adobe data. In October 2021, people received 250 percent more out-of-stock messages than in the last pre-pandemic period in January 2020.
Categories in demand: According to the report, jewelry, apparel, electronics, garden and pet products were the top five categories with the most out-of-stock levels.
Toy sales, gift cards, and groceries on the other hand, are primarily driving the spending increase through October. Toy sales, for example, increased by 50% in October compared to September.
Products in demand: If you’re stuck with no ideas for what to sell, Pinterest has also released the most wishlisted items for this holiday season, which should spark some inspiration.
SPONSORED BY TRENDS
How a newbie made $850k in 1 month using the insider information revealed in this community
That’s the reality for Trends community members: They see new businesses launched daily and wealth being created.
When you’re part of Trends, they give you thousands of vetted business ideas for you to start and a network of seasoned entrepreneurs that will help you make it a reality.
These are some recent examples to give you some proof:
- After reading Trends’ piece on how newsletters make money, Samuel launched the Ticker Nerd newsletter and hit 5 figures within 3 months.
- Austin, a guy with no prior experience in e-commerce, started Comfort Plants. Now he’s bringing in $10k/mo+ and growing.
- Nathan founded Bubblehotels after Trends’ report on yurts. They booked $850k of reservations in their first month.
For just $1, you can try Trends for seven days! You’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish.
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ADVERTISING
Halloween isn’t over yet
Susie Marino shared a WordStream blog post highlighting 11 legitimately scary advertising stats you should be aware of.
These are some of them:
– 94% of people skip over search ads and go straight to organic results.
How to overcome this: Create punchy copy, leverage power words, and test as many variations as possible.
– 60% of consumers intentionally provide bogus form info. If you do lead generation, maybe all those qualifying questions you make to your leads are useless.
How to overcome this: Keep the questions in the form under seven or use lead form Extensions in Google ads, or Lead Ads on Facebook, since they pre-fill the form for the user, reducing the risk of getting fake information.
– Only 10% of advertisers optimize their Google Ads accounts each week: The good news is that your competition is lazy. The bad news is that you could be in the statistics… no! We refuse to believe that our readers are lazy.
Should we tell you what to do? Audit and optimize your account periodically.
– Online ads are the least-diverse media type in the United States and 54% of people don’t feel culturally represented in online ads.
What to do: Represent different ethnicities and genders in your creatives, including those with disabilities. Also, use inclusive language.
– 96% of consumers don’t trust ads: This isn’t really news, right?
What can you do? Tone down your crazy good claims to make them more trustworthy, and include as many credibility elements as you can: social proof, testimonials, demonstrations, reasons why, creative guarantees, specifics, and acknowledge skepticism.
– 67% of people say that once a brand loses its trust, there’s no gaining it back: For example, false claims, damaged goods or services, poor customer experience, unintentional mistakes.
Trust is hard to build but very easy to break. Be consistent with your brand value. And don’t overlook customer care.
If you aren’t scared enough, check the post for the other stats along with the survival tips.
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There are dozens more like that. And you have until November 18th 2021 to invest.
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THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
How to craft a good welcome email
You might have heard us say that the welcome email is one of the most important contact points to improve your deliverability. While this is true, a good welcome email won’t just ask people to reply and hope for the best.
Here’s what we think you should include in your welcome email.
- Explain to the reader what they just subscribed to and exactly what they should expect. Be specific, don’t just say “a newsletter”. Tell them how often they will get it and what it contains. Do this in 4-5 lines.
- Offer something valuable in exchange for a reply. Whether you offer an insightful report, a mini-course, a discount to your store – make sure you have it included in your welcome email.
- Try to get a click. While the reply is very powerful, it’s harder to get than a click. Without distracting from the reply request, provide a good reason for people to click one link in your first email.
- Lastly, include a request to whitelist you. This means adding you as a contact, and dragging your email to Primary if on Gmail and those kinds of things.
After you include all these elements, you can either tell the reader more about yourself, your brand, or whatever else you deem necessary.
A good welcome email makes the recipient more likely to read your future emails. Give them a reason to read them and make sure the readers feed the algorithms the right signals for them to receive your future emails.
For more tips from The Crew, follow us on Twitter.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
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GOOGLE: The more, the merrier. Google plans to add three new columns to Keyword Planner.
AMAZON: PayPal <3 Amazon. In 2022, Amazon will accept Venmo as a payment method.
LOCAL: Yelp posts are becoming more important. The social media platform has introduced a vertical feed with images of, well, tasty dishes.
SEO: Pop-up ads will get you into trouble with Google’s upcoming desktop Page Experience update.
TWITTER: They’ve just gotten a little more premium. Twitter has launched Twitter Blue in the United States and New Zealand.
FACEBOOK: Here’s how Facebook figures out everyone you’ve ever met.
SEARCH: It may not kill Google, but it will make it uncomfortable. You.com has launched a beta version of a privacy-focused search engine.
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
Which part of a road do ghosts love to travel the most?
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.
Lies, more lies and social media
Is it true that people lie more on social media?
According to a recent study, not really.
The data: Over the course of seven days, 250 participants were asked to keep track of their overall social interactions as well as the number of social interactions with a lie.
Interactions took place in person, over the phone, via email, video chat, and via social media.
The results: Most people lied via video chat (23 percent). Phone interactions came in second, with 11.8 percent. Face-to-face interactions came in third with 9.6 percent, followed by social media with 8.6 percent of lies per social interaction.
Myth busted: Lying is not as rampant as we thought in the digital age. Although some people argue that social media, with its carefully curated pictures and rosy lifestyles, is a lie in and of itself.
But that’s a whole different topic…