This blasted cold November has had me really, really busy one way or another so I am a wee bit behind my round up this past month! With the steam building up on the windows, the cars needing scraping every morning and the paths and roads getting more glassy, its definitely turned a corner weather wise!
Let's see what changes have happened this November that we need to be ahead of...
This would be a Curators and Marketers tool in my opinion, rather than the every day Joe. Mainly because its just more work for an already very busy business owner. I can't see this taking off in its current format in other space, at the moment anyway. It's called Saved on your Desktop and Guide on your phone.
This is from Mari Smith "Guides are kind of like 'mini blog posts,' and are a way for you to share tips, resources and other longer-form content in a dedicated tab on your profile. An Instagram Guide could include text + photos, galleries and videos to illustrate your topic/theme. Instagram has also now added Products, Places and Posts.
You're basically aggregating/curating content and setting out in a format that looks to me like Facebook Notes (sunsetted on Oct. 31 for some reason!)... or Medium posts!!
Guides are visible on mobile as well as desktop Instagram.
Guides should be a great feature for showcasing much more about your offerings, talents, interests etc. And, good for SEO, too!"
The link in the header is the Instagram Press Release way back in May. I'd never heard of it until last month....
Ahh the bane of all business owners. Mainly because they are actually becoming more fundamental if you find your audience on Facebook, which a lot of us do. I've found - especially this year its success has wavered month by month. My tried and trusted audiences and elements have been tweaked in order to still get a suitable reach and reaction. To the untested though - this has been incredibly unhelpful! Then to make matters worse Facebook decided to shut down a l ot accounts without warning! Others have experienced long term ads being rejected or disapproved.
Well our woman on the case Mari Smith found out there had been some system wide technical issues causing the ad accounts to shut down in the first place, so it wasn't anything personal. We have been told that this has now been fully resolved though.
From Mari Smith: "In about 99.99% of issues (deactivations, rejections/disapprovals), this is all done by AI on the first pass. It's vital that you use the *appeal* process to escalate your case and get to a real human (hopefully for proper support!!)."
Please bookmark this very helpful URL to check on the overall status of Facebook Ads Manager at any time: https://status.fb.com/ads
Facebook apologizes for any inconvenience!
Every now and then I get approached by a brand to have their business links included in my blogs. Well recently I heard from Whoishostingthis.com and I think it's quite a handy tool to use. Picking a host is a very personal thing I find and decisions aren't usually made on just cost. Customer service, potential add-ons or maybe you want to support your on county or country and keep supporting local. What ever your decision, its best to be informed. So check out this guide and see what you think?
www.whoishostingthis.com/hosting-reviews/
I have to admit when I think of LinkedIn I rarely think of Advertising on it, even though I have numerous times for myself and for a several clients. It's not a standard advertiser for a lot of people. However, its getting better and building a stronger appeal for those that have used it in the past.
LinkedIn have tried to encourage us by wafting FREE Ads Voucher at us and sending £50 to spend. They are free - you just need to save them to the coupons area in a timely fashion before they time out. I just did it recently actually and now have until February 2021 to spend it.
Why not add this facility to your strategy for 2021 - especially as they do have effectiveness when targeted properly. Check out this blog from business2community to get an idea of the range.
Have you seen these new "stories" yet? Everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon these days - so it made sense that Twitter would. Does this help us in anyway though? No not really but it does mean that it will appeal more to the Millenials!
Yes that's right, this in my opinion is a form of business development for Twitter. Their current audience is older and in many senses wiser but they do need to keep attracting a new audience in order to keep running. So as nonsensical as us "oldies" may feel this tool is on Twitter, there is a reason it is.
Will you be adopting Fleets for your 2021 strategy?
Yes they are finally coming back in January! Its been a long time coming but it's finally happening! If you feel you have what it takes to get verified then look them up from January. To learn a little bit more about this, read this article.
What is a Business Strategy? by IPA Group
4 Creative Ideas to Level Up Your Content this Festive Season by Lucy Hall
November Podcasts for The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast
Podcast 44 - Vanity Metrics
Podcast 45 - Organic Marketing Featuring Deasha Waddup
Podcast 46 - To Niche of Not to Niche that is the Question
Podcast 47 - The Superstar VA with Esther Ocampo and Barbara Edwards
Podcast 48 - Where to go when social media changes
So here we have it - a bit late but still useful! Let's hope you get chance to use some of this before the end of the year! It's been an awful year one way or the other but we can only hope that 2021 brings more cheer.
I'll be back with the last round up of the year. Looking forward to creating something positive out of this year....
Working with clients Nationwide from base in Mullingar.
