Digital Marketing News 05/03/2022 – 05/09/2022

Search

Google Will Now Enable Users to Request Removals of Personal Information from Search Results

Users can now request search index search omissions for web pages with personally identifiable information. 

People have been able to request the removal of certain sensitive, personally identifiable information from Search, such as bank accounts or credit card numbers that could be used for financial fraud.

Under this new policy expansion, people can now request removals of additional types of information when they find it in Search results, including personal contact information like a phone number, email address, or physical address.

As explained by Google, “Under this new policy expansion, people can now request removals of additional types of information when they find it in Search results, including personal contact information like a phone number, email address, or physical address. The policy also allows for the removal of additional information that may pose a risk for identity theft, such as confidential log-in credentials, when it appears in Search results.”

Keep in mind that hiding search results doesn’t erase the info from the web. While Google may be the biggest search engine, and a key point of discovery in many cases, people will still be able to find the original info, if they go looking.

Social

Elon Musk Buys Twitter for $44 Billion… Now What?

Twitter confirmed that they entered a definitive agreement to be acquired by Elon Musk.

Musk plans to take Twitter private to reduce the platform’s reliance on ads, thereby enabling it to be more open to “free speech,” however Musk defines that.

Musk has been a vocal proponent of free speech and has often criticized Twitter’s moderation efforts, including its decision to ban former US President Donald Trump. Now, Musk will be able to remake Twitter however he sees fit, which will likely see significant changes to how it polices speech and approaches moderation entirely. Though how exactly Musk will go about any of this remains to be seen.

His plans are currently unpredictable, and how he plans to eliminate the app’s reliance on ads is still a mystery. Still, spending around a third of his personal wealth, you would assume he has plans to generate more money in the app.

Social

LinkedIn Reports a 34% YoY Revenue Increase

Microsoft shared its latest performance updates, with “record levels” of engagement and a 34% revenue increase.

Microsoft’s Fiscal Year 2022 third-quarter report was released with key results showing LinkedIn revenue increased to $3.44 billion. Active LinkedIn sessions increased by 22% in the quarter, and “record levels” of engagement growth in the app for eight straight quarters. LinkedIn also saw a 22% session growth, the same amount it saw in LinkedIn’s previous report.

Microsoft says that LinkedIn’s revenue strength comes from increased demand for its Talent Solutions offerings, in line with a strong job market, while Marketing Solutions is also performing well as more businesses look to tap into that increased engagement.

A big focus for LinkedIn this quarter has been adding more tools to help creators and solopreneurs maximize their opportunities. LinkedIn’s “The Great Reshuffle,” accelerated by the work from home shift, provided new opportunities for the platform to act as a connective channel that enables users to showcase their professional capabilities and helps employers find better matches through evolving HR tools.

Building on this, LinkedIn has added new analytics and profile video options and improvements to its Services Listings for freelancers. LinkedIn also recently launched the Career Pathfinder tool which highlights in-demand skills and training opportunities, connecting LinkedIn’s unmatched professional insights with its LinkedIn Learning training tools.

Search

Google Search Tests Out Lighter Purple Color for Clicked On Search Results

Google Search tests a lighter colored purple for the links you have clicked on and visited in the search results.

The difference is subtle.

Old results, in darker purple as shared by SEroundtable:

And the new results in a much more vibrant purple

We don’t know what this impacts—or if it’s part of something bigger. But you can join the discussion here if you are interested in Mordy Oberstein, who first shared this discovery.

Social

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Shares Future Plans for the Company

In the quarterly earnings call, Meta CEO shares plan to slow the pace of some investments and discussed progress with Reels and Metaverse.

Meta, which met targets for revenue and new users, plans to slow the pace of some investments due to current growth levels.

Zuckerberg addressed some of the challenges Meta is facing in a Facebook post the same day, including the transition to short-form video, which he acknowledged “doesn’t monetize as well for now, but which we’re quite optimistic about over the long term.”

Other issues include signal loss from Apple’s iOS and the slowing of eCommerce growth.

Meta divided its business last year into two categories: Family of Apps which includes Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram, and Reality Labs, which focuses on building the social media of the future.

Videos, Ads, and the Metaverse are seen to drive growth in the future. 

Zuckerberg says in his Facebook post, “Over the next several years our goal from a financial perspective is to generate sufficient operating income growth from Family of Apps to fund the growth of investment in Reality Labs while still growing our overall profitability,”

Meta plans to use three main investment priorities to drive this growth: Reels, ads, and the Metaverse.

Currently, we know that Meta is building a new platform called Horizon, focused on virtual and augmented reality. “(Horizon) will make it easy for people to step into metaverse experiences from a lot more platforms, even without needing a headset,” Zuckerberg said.

This platform will work with virtual reality platforms like Meta-owned Quest and feature both recreational activities like gaming and work use cases. “Our other focus for Horizon is building out the metaverse economy and helping creators make a living working in the metaverse. We expect to be meaningfully better at monetization than others in the space, and we think that should become a sustainable advantage for our platforms as they develop.”

Social

Meta Announces Research to Create Human-Level Artificial Intelligence

Facebook parent company Meta announces a new research project intending to create human-level AI that processes data like humans.

Meta announced they are launching a long-term research project to build a next-generation AI that can learn and process speech and text in the same way the human brain does.

Meta is partnering with a neuroimaging company, NeuroSpin, which images the human brain, and with a software company Inria, to study how the human brain processes speech and text and then compare that with how AI language models.

Meta published, “Today, we’re announcing a long-term AI research initiative to better understand how the human brain processes speech and text. In collaboration with neuroimaging center Neurospin (CEA) and Inria, we’re comparing how AI language models and the brain respond to the same spoken or written sentences.We’ll use insights from this work to guide the development of AI that processes speech and text as efficiently as people.”

Imaging tools are used to view human brain activity when accomplishing language-based tasks.

This research, if successful, may become a giant step toward the evolution of artificial intelligence.

What you can do next

• If your business is active on Twitter, watch out for changes that may impact how your target market uses the platform. 

• Talent solutions offerings are in demand on LinkedIn. If your company requires this, it may be good to look into what other companies are doing on LinkedIn to see best practices.

• Videos are still the driver of engagement, at least for Facebook. Make sure you create regular dynamic posts, so you are served to your target audience through the platform’s algorithm.

Elevate Your Marketing

Negative Review Response Examples to Improve Your Online Reputation

Negative reviews can make or break your business, but if you want to keep your online reputation positive, responding to them is one of the best things to do. Read more >

How to Track Your Digital Marketing Performance as a Franchise + Trends to Follow

The franchise is a whole different ballgame. Read how you can track your digital marketing performance as a franchise and trends that you can follow to up your game in franchise marketing. Read more >