They say the only constants in life are death and taxes. For those of us marketing in the digital world, this fact is only underscored by the frequent platform updates. LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter – name a channel and it has evolved in some way within the last 6 weeks.
As Marketers, I think it’s fair to say that some days it’s tough just keeping up, never mind also be able to maintain a cohesive digital marketing strategy. With each new platform change and added feature, comes opportunity for growth and expansion. Below we explore some of the latest updates in channels we use every day and what this could mean for your brand strategy. After all, sharing is caring… right?
LinkedIn retired their products and services pages on April 14, leaving Marketers with a couple options for company promotion on the popular channel. Marketers are encouraged to embrace LinkedIn Showcase pages to highlight individual products, themes/topics, divisions, or brands, and build their own niche conversations and communities. Each Showcase page offers opportunities for multimedia usage, allowing Brand Managers to post pictures, videos or messages to their followers.
If you’re thinking about building out a Showcase page for your product or brand, keep the following in mind:
- Be Strategic: If you have many products or brands, think about which one makes the most sense for a Showcase page. Which brand audience would be most engaged? Start there and build additional pages as needed.
- Get Social: Begin building followers through creative outreach to ensure engagement with your page. Audience is key.
- Stay Active: Give your audience a reason to come back. Allot time and resources for additional content creation and page monitoring/maintenance. Keep the page updated at least twice a week with fresh ideas, posts and messaging.
Last week, Twitter launched a new interface design allowing users to further customize their profiles and account features. Taking a nod from Facebook, the new Twitter design includes allowances for larger images and video sharing.
Focusing on media first, Twitter provides some unique opportunities for Marketers, below are just a few:
- Profile Images: Enhanced profile images allow your brand to show a little more pizazz and personality. Try using the header image to showcase brand creativity, corporate culture or unique images of your products. Save your logo for the thumbnail.
- Pinned Tweets: Users can now pin a favorite tweet to the top of their profile. Did you have a brilliant tweet recently, or maybe a rave review? If so, go ahead and pin it!
- Photos: New image sharing capabilities allow brands to share photos using collages and image slideshows. Try using this feature to showcase your latest event or product announcement.
Always innovating, Google announced updates for two for their platforms, Google+ and AdWords.
Google+ Post Ads:
- Google+ Marketers with a minimum of 1,000 followers can now use their Google+ content as ads through the Google Display Network.
- Ideal for brands that have engaging images or videos to share, +Post Ads are also great for small businesses that are active in the channel and want to explore paid advertising.
- Try expanding your reach by repurposing posts with high engagement.
AdWords Shopping Ads
- Google is now transitioning Product Listing Ads to Google Shopping.
- Ads will appear the same to the end-user, but Google’s update provides additional insights and ease of use for Marketers.
- Cleaner shopping feed integration and advanced segmenting are just a few features allowing e-commerce sites to capitalize on the growing online shopping market.
- Interactive Marketers can learn more about Google’s advertising updates on their blog, adwords.blogspot.com. Also, check out what our Paid Search team manager, Max Braglia, has to say about the transition in this month’s “Ask the Expert”.
Being an early adopter isn't always easy. However, there are very distinct advantages to familiarizing yourself and capitalizing on the latest online marketing opportunities as they roll out. Ultimately, it’s a matter of knowing what will work best for your brand.
