Welcome to Part II of Edition No. 16 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
ICYMI Tuesday: What YouTube's Latest Feature Means for Viewers
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Contents
I. GOOGLE RELEASES FIRST CORE SEARCH UPDATE OF 2022
II. TIKTOK ANNOUNCES MORE THAN 150 MARKETING PARTNERS
III. LINKEDIN IS GIVING US A LOOK UNDER THE HOOD OF ITS ALGORITHM
IV. FAQ RESULTS SHOWING UP MORE OFTEN IN GOOGLE SEARCH
V. TIKTOK ‘LIVE SUBSCRIPTION’
VI. TWITTER MEDIA IS NOW TWITTER CREATE
VII. INSTAGRAM’S DARK DM BUG
VIII. ADS ON SHORTS
I. GOOGLE RELEASES FIRST CORE SEARCH UPDATE OF 2022
Google makes small, often barely noticeable, changes to its search algorithm every day. But “[s]everal times a year, we make significant, broad changes to our search algorithms and systems. We refer to these as ‘core updates.’”
This week is one of those times. The update went live Wednesday:
It will take about 1-2 weeks to fully roll out. Core updates are changes we make to improve Search overall and keep pace with the changing nature of the web.
The release goes on to assure that just because a site’s search performance drops after a core update doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with that site.
🛠 Why does this matter? If Google referrals is a big organic traffic driver for your site, keep an eye on your analytics in the next couple weeks.
Just because your site’s organic Google search referral traffic drops, doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem with your site. The algorithm’s goal is to get users the answer to their query as efficiently as possible. And now more than ever, that’s happening on the SERP without having to click through to a website.
Create content for the reader first, and then worry about the algorithm.
Tuesday I’ll be sharing a more in-depth analysis of how to monitor the health of your Google organic traffic.
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II. TIKTOK ANNOUNCES MORE THAN 150 MARKETING PARTNERS
They are divided into four categories – Campaign Management, Measurement, Creative and Effects – and are deemed to have “achieved repeated success on TikTok’s marketing platform.”
There’s also a page to apply to be a partner.
Here is the full list of TikTok marketing partners. You can filter by country, language and specialties.
🛠 Why does this matter? You can now use tools like HootSuite and Sprout Social (among others) to publish content without having to go into TikTok itself. This will make life more efficient for social media managers.
I believe that one particular benefit is that, since you won’t have to open the app to post, you can share content without being distracted by the highly addictive feeds. (I can’t be the only one.)
Beyond allowing you to post from third-party tools, there are other partners that provide analytics, creative resources, AR effects and more.
The concept of a social network making its API available to third-party vendors is nothing new, but as TikTok is the most popular platform right now, this is great news for agencies, brands and newsrooms, as well as one-man shows with the budget and resources to tap into these tools.
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III. LINKEDIN IS GIVING US A LOOK UNDER THE HOOD OF ITS ALGORITHM
In a blog post published Wednesday, LinkedIn announced a new series, “Mythbusting the Feed,” to answer questions about, well, it’s feed.
A resounding theme that we continue to hear is the desire for greater transparency and understanding of how the LinkedIn feed works.
The first video – “What kind of conversations are welcomed on LinkedIn?” – says LinkedIn wants the feed to be a place where people can talk about “everything that’s authentic to them.” That includes topics like mental health and the challenges of working from home.
🛠 Why does this matter? The more transparency around the algorithms, the better. And since LinkedIn has established itself as a growing platform with – compared to other social networks – a high level of quality conversation, it will be interesting to see what details they share about what determines feed rank.
On the other hand, if the two videos – however helpful – are any indication, advice is going to be practical, but also a bit vague.
Is this analysis useful? Help spread the word.
IV. FAQ RESULTS SHOWING UP MORE OFTEN IN GOOGLE SEARCH
Google Search seems to be displaying more FAQ rich results in its search results over the past few days. Both RankRanger’s tracking tool and some SEOs are noticing this increase…
🛠 Why does this matter? Google offers guidance on marking up your FAQs with structured data1. If FAQs are showing up more often on SERPs, formatting your content according to Google’s specifications may increase your impressions and potentially your click-through rate.
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V. TIKTOK ‘LIVE SUBSCRIPTION’
Today we're introducing LIVE Subscription, a monthly subscription on TikTok for people to show their appreciation for their favorite LIVE creators. LIVE Subscription will initially be available to invite-only creators this month and will then become available globally over the coming months.
This sounds similar to Instagram’s subscription program, except that it wasn’t limited just to live content.
🛠 Why does this matter? This is pretty straightforward. It’s another way for creators to make money on TikTok.
I can also see news outlets and podcasts/radio shows doing some exclusive content for its TikTok subscribers. Then again, CNN+ showed us just how difficult it is to get people to pay for live news that’s not part of a cable subscription. So perhaps this will most benefit creators with super loyal followings.
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VI. TWITTER MEDIA IS NOW TWITTER CREATE
Launched Tuesday, the website gives users data-backed best practices for using Twitter.
In addition to the name change, we’ve also expanded the number of industries we serve, branching out to include writers, podcasters, gaming, and nonprofits. For the first time, we’ve also grouped content together by a specific goal that we know professional content creators care about, launching with goals for relevance, monetization, and engagement, with more goals to follow in the future.
🛠 Why does this matter? Twitter wants to make it easier for creators to post quality content on their platform (as opposed to elsewhere). These best practices will facilitate that.
While I think it will be more useful to agencies and users with large followings, I like the way it’s organized. That is, it’s easy to navigate.
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VII. INSTAGRAM’S DARK DM BUG
Some Instagram users have recently reported the text of their DMs – both sent and received – being blacked out.
🛠 Here’s how to fix it (until Instagram fixes it):
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VIII. ADS ON SHORTS
YouTube began rolling out ads on Shorts – its TikTok copy – Monday. Creators will not sharez in revenue from those ads (unlike on regular videos) for now, but that may change, according to The Information’s Creator Economy newsletter. In the meantime, creators can still earn a cut of the $100 million fund for Shorts.
🛠 Why does this matter? At the moment, the good news is all for YouTube, because they’ll be keeping the revenue from this new solution. But as they also acknowledge, this opens the door for potential revenue sharing in the future.
In 2021, regular YouTube videos generated more than $10 billion for members of its YouTube Partner Program, by far the most lucrative social network for creators in terms of total revenue. Adding revenue from Shorts to this pool could mean even more money for creators.
Did you see any other important updates this week? Let me know in the comments.
See you Tuesday for a practical tip and an in-depth analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
Formatting the code in a way that makes it easier for Google to pull your FAQs into its search results
So users get answers quickly from my work and Google profits in at least data collection. Anyone else see a problem here? Google needs to pay for all uses of our content.