Welcome to Part II of Edition No. 34 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
Fix GA’s Default Channel Groupings
Images + SEO
Contents
I. TikTok’s Bad News for Instagram
II. Facebook Adds Feed-Customizing Options
III. ‘Multisearch’ Analysis Impossible in GSC, GA4
IV. New Instagram Ad Surfaces: Annoying or Exciting?
V. Twitter Videos are Getting Supercharged
VI. Photos, Videos and GIFs, Oh My!
VII. View Count Could Be Coming to Tweets (But Hopefully Not)
VIII. Multiple Links in Your Instagram Bio?
I. TikTok’s Bad News for Instagram
For when you'd prefer to express yourself in formats other than video, we released Photo Mode, a new carousel format available on mobile for photo content that's ideal for sharing high quality images on TikTok.
🛠 Why does this matter? This whole time Instagram has been chasing TikTok. Now, TikTok is unveiling a parallel to what’s been Instagram’s best feature all along. (Even if they abandoned it for Reels.)
Now, is a photo feature an app novelty? Not at all. But TikTok was never in the photo business. Until now. And that’s bad news for Meta.
(As if taking on BeReal. with TikTok Now wasn’t enough.)
It’s like Instagram cut its hair to be more like TikTok, while the latter was letting it grow out all along. (This sounds like the perfect role for a young Lindsay Lohan.)
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II. Facebook Adds Feed-Customizing Options
You can customize your Facebook Feed by selecting Show more or Show less on a post to see more of what you want and less of what you don’t.
We’re also continuing to explore ways to personalize how much content you see in Feed from the friends and family, Groups, Pages and public figures you’re connected to.
The feature is also being tested on Reels.
🛠 Why does this matter? Meta platforms have been going through an identity crisis in an effort to keep up with TikTok. This has meant many more recommended posts in our Feeds from people with which we aren’t connected.
This seems like a correction to that change. A way to put some power back in the hands of the user.
“Show more will temporarily increase the ranking score for that post and posts like it. If you select Show less, you’ll temporarily decrease its ranking score.”
It’s interesting that any feedback we give will only have a “temporary” effect. And even that’s ambiguous.
The biggest problem Meta has is that it’s trying to change its identity to keep up with TikTok, while TikTok can continue to be itself.
That is, from the beginning, TikTok has had FYP, a way to discover content from accounts you don’t follow. Facebook and Instagram, however, have been since their genesis much more about connecting with friends, family and people you aspire to know.
That’s why shoving complete strangers in our Feeds, mostly in the form of Reels, has been met with backlash. It’s like having classy a middle-aged friend show up one day with dyed hair wearing the latest Gen Z fashion.
What works for the younger generation doesn’t fit them so well. And that’s OK. We liked them for who they were in the first place. (This sounds like the perfect role for a grown-up Lindsay Lohan.)
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III. ‘Multisearch’ Analysis Impossible in GSC, GA4
Glenn Gabe ran a test to see how Google’s new Multisearch feature’s data shows up in Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4.
Spoiler: It doesn’t.
Multisearch is a way to refine a Lens search with text. So if you snap a photo with the Google app of a t-shirt someone’s wearing, you could then type “Nike”, for example, to refine the photo results. This would likely show you where you could buy a similar Nike-branded T-shirt.
🛠 Why does this matter? Google has been making a big deal about Multisearch this year, and it does appear to be a great feature. (Here in Spain, I don’t yet have access.)
But being able to break down how much traffic is coming from Multisearch vs. regular image searches vs. Google News (etc.) is important to a refined SEO strategy.
While Lens/Multisearch may not yet be widely used, if Google’s going to keep pushing it, we need to understand when and how it’s bringing users to our websites and apps. This goes especially for e-commerce sites whose sales may potentially increase from this feature.
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