The Popcorn team understands the importance of ensuring that we’re up to date with emerging trends, digital marketing news stories and platform updates. During our weekly team meeting, we each highlight an interesting article or news story. In this weekly blog feature, we’ll share our exciting findings of the week with you.
(2020, May 21), “Facebook expands social media dominance with ecommerce: meet “Shops”” – Robinhood Snacks
Facebook turns e-commerce on its head by launching an Online Shopping Mall and providing brands with Facebook pages online “shops”. Businesses get a free and easy way to turn their social media pages into storefronts. Facebook gets a “small fee” per purchase. It’s very much in Facebook’s interest to make sure businesses don’t go under so that these businesses have the money/reason to keep advertising on Facebook/Instagram. Facebook Shops introduces genuine potential competition to Amazon and at a perfect time for the product
Wenograd, S. (2020, May 20) “Facebook Is Testing Mid-Roll & Livestream Video Ads: What It Means” – Search Engine Journal
Facebook is testing mid-roll and live stream video ads. Similar to YouTube, Facebook is beta-testing mid-roll and live stream ad placements on videos. Facebook has long displayed a desire to push long-form video. These ads are being put in place to try to entice content creators and attract them to share content on Facebook, rather than just YouTube.
Wenograd, S. (2020, May 20) “Facebook Is Testing Mid-Roll & Livestream Video Ads: What It Means” – Search Engine Journal
Facebook is testing mid-roll and live stream video ads. Similar to YouTube, Facebook is beta-testing mid-roll and live stream ad placements on videos. Facebook has long displayed a desire to push long-form video. These ads are being put in place to try to entice content creators and attract them to share content on Facebook, rather than just YouTube.
Heller, N. (2020, May 21) “TikTok Just Restricted Music for Brands. Are Influencers Next?” – DJ Booth
TikTok has disallowed brands from using popular music tracks, thwarting their ability to grow massive followings from songs that are trending. TikTok is already in a precarious licensing situation, and this is a step toward ensuring that artists and musicians are compensated fairly for their creations. However, if allowing sponsored content to use music freely means more sales and more streams, labels and publishers will likely look the other way.
Tudor Lodge Consultants, (2020, May 21) “What are PBNs and should you use them?” – Search Engine Watch
PBNs (Private Blog Networks) are blogs/old websites with domains that have expired, but still, have a lot of value due to gaining thousands of historic backlinks. Before 2014, buying links from PBNs was a quick and highly successful way to rank any website. However, over the last few years, Google has started to penalize any PBN site and who they link to, considering this a quick gaming of the system and anti-Google guidelines. This article further outlines the pros and cons of PBN’s.
Talbot, P., (2020, May 26) “How Marketers Steer Their Brands Forward” – Forbes.com.
This article focuses on how marketers will steer their brands forward in a post-pandemic landscape. We’ve already seen that brands are having to remain agile and adapt during trying times but also now is the time for brands to Re-evaluate their mission statements and values and ensure that their brand voice is reassuring.