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In the Loop: January Marketing Round-Up

3rd February 2020

#Marketing

February already? What a start to 2020 it’s been! There’s been loads going on in the Vida office, but also in the world of marketing! So, grab a cuppa and let us talk you through some of our favourite marketing news stories of the month.

February already? What a start to 2020 it’s been! There’s been loads going on in the Vida office, but also in the world of marketing! So, grab a cuppa and let us talk you through some of our favourite marketing news of the month.

Twitter is targeting trolls

Twitter wants to help people feel safer when joining in conversations on their platform so they’ve announced a new feature to be tested early this year.

The feature allows users to choose who is able to reply to Tweets:

1.       Global, meaning anyone can respond

2.       Group, so only the people that the user follows or has mentioned can reply

3.       Panel, accepting replies from only those who are mentioned

4.       Statement, meaning nobody is able to reply

The announcement has been met with mixed opinions, with some people supporting the movement and likening it to Facebook’s privacy settings. Others claim it isn’t solving the source of the problem – human behaviour. We’re wondering how the feature will be used by public figures like politicians – food for thought!

Instagram are calling out Photoshopped images

Instagram rolled out a new feature that flags Photoshopped images. They’ll be reviewed by independent fact-checkers who were brought on board last year.

So, what happens when a photo is found to be Photoshopped? They’ll be hidden behind a warning message of “False Information” before it can be viewed and will also be removed from Explore and Hashtag pages.

We can’t help but think of the impact this is going to have on the design/photography industry, and potentially many influencers too.

Instagram added a new mentions feature

Speaking of Instagram, they’ve also made it a little easier to use their platform for marketing purposes. Now, users with a business or creator account have access to a “Stories About You” feature that shows all the active stories that mention your account, so they can easily be re-shared.

Spotify is testing stories

After the success of Instagram stories we’re hardly surprised other platforms are following suit. Spotify are jumping on it too, with a story feature for influencers to add video elements to their public playlists. It won’t be available to artists though.

The first to test the feature was Summer McKeen, a makeup/fashion influencer with over two million followers on YouTube and Instagram and over 126 000 Spotify followers.

The feature seems almost identical to stories on other platforms. It’s accessed through a circular photo at the top of a playlist, and then the story plays through, with photos lasting for a set amount of time.

Vine is back (well, kind of…)

Byte is a new short video app that reminds us a lot of Vine! Just like Vine, Byte users can record/upload 6 second looping videos – much shorter than current popular short-video sharing platform, TikTok’s, 1-minute limit!

Do you think it will take off? Or did Vine die for a reason?

Google killed the cookie

Google Chrome have decided to phase out their support for third-party cookies after pressure to make their privacy standards more robust.

Now, the tech company have revealed it’ll take two years for the transition to happen.

The changes are bound to have a big impact on the digital media industry as these cookies have become heavily relied upon for marketing purposes. In a statement from Justin Schuh, Director of Chrome Engineering at Google, Google “will maintain an ad-supported web.”

It’s going to be interesting to see how digital media companies adapt!

LinkedIn released new features

LinkedIn have brought three new features to the table already this year, designed to facilitate more engagement. Here’s what we know:

1.       Invite to follow

LinkedIn managers now have the ability to invite their first-level connections to like their page and enable it to grow. Users can opt out of these invites if they wish to.

2.       LinkedIn Live

LinkedIn pages are now able to broadcast live streams, whereas before it was only personal profiles that had access to this feature. It comes after LinkedIn announced their data showed live streams generate 7x more reactions and 24x more comments than standard video posts.

3.       Post as a page or a member

A new toggle switch has been added on the homepage to let users switch between posting content as an individual and an organisation quickly and easily. Before, users had to visit their page to be able to post as their page.

You can see all these features in action in this video.

Get creative with your own marketing

We’re always up for a chat about how you can make the most out of your marketing! Send us a quick email to hello@vidacreative.co.uk or give us a call on 0191 691 129.