Americans spend eight hours a day on digital media viewing, yes, that's right.

According to news, trends and tips hub Social Media Today, 72 percent of customers prefer learning about a product or service through video. The site also predicts 82 percent of all consumer internet traffic will come from online videos by 2022.

With the rise of TikTok, a 60-second video platform; Instagram, a social media site now known for curated photos and reels; and Twitter, a place to express yourself in 280 characters or less; it’s become clear people crave their media in bite-sized chunks. They want to aimlessly scroll through their feeds, skim news and information, and access free micro-entertainment.

It should come as no surprise that journalists, influencers, and other media professionals welcome such content so they can feed the media beast—consistently engaging this generation of digital consumers. Reporters aren’t the only ones viewing multimedia press releases today, however. Consumers have greater access to directly view—and potentially share—multimedia assets. This means comms pros should optimize their press releases by adding multimedia to engage both reporters and customers.

Adding multimedia to your press release or distributing standalone media provides a multitude of advantages.
Increases Engagement & Interaction

Multimedia’s ability to increase engagement is both biological and psychological. Humans interact in a variety of ways: They see and hear images, infographics, videos, and audio, and form an emotional connection to the overarching messages conveyed. This leads to engagement and interaction.

Improves Social Shareability

When you add an image, infographic or video to your press release, it immediately becomes more shareable. Consumers and reporters now have the option to extract the multimedia content and spread it on photo- or video-based platforms with little to no text. Visual content is 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content, states an associated article on marketing and sales platform HubSpot. Infographics are liked and shared three times more than other types of content, and 43 percent of all social media users share images.

Boosts Your SEO

Adding images, infographics, and videos that help support and explain your content can heavily improve your SEO. However, don’t just add an image or video to add it. Ensure it’s important to the overall message. When integrating video, make sure it has high-quality audio and visuals. For photos, verify they have alternative text and an image tag. To learn more about optimizing images, check out this guide. Not only does multimedia influence SEO, videos can increase conversion rates and make consumers more confident about making a purchase.
Enhances Your Chances of Earned Media Pickup

Just like consumers, journalists want multimedia content. According to the “News Direct Market Assessment” study, 86 percent of journalists find standalone media appealing. Plus, multimedia embedded in a press release or standalone multimedia gives journalists the freedom to utilize that content in the story they want to tell.

All of these benefits ultimately lead to link building, social shares, and increased targeted referral traffic and conversions. If consumers are able to engage, interact, and share your content, they’re more likely to visit your website or purchase your product. And reporters are easily able to utilize your multimedia assets in articles or blogs, increasing your company’s exposure.

What are you waiting for? Go on and add a multimedia asset to your blog, social media post or your website today to raise visibility online.

 Podcasts are now the preferred entertainment medium for many people. Business leaders launch and utilize their own podcasts to share expertise and promote their own companies to the masses. Get yourself on a podcast today!

Connect with Powerful Industry Leaders

You already know how important it is to network — connecting with other business leaders can be key for finding new clients, landing contracts with new retailers that can start offering your enterprise’s products, etc. Being a guest on podcasts is just one more way that you can expand your network! You will make connections with esteemed people in your industry, as most podcasters with successful podcasts are well-known in their niches.

You never know how these new connections can help you grow your business. For example, you could be interviewed by a big name in your industry who may end up deciding they want to invest in your company. Or, you might chat with a thought leader who shares a piece of advice that ultimately changes the whole trajectory of your marketing strategy. You might even talk with a podcast host who wants to partner with you on a new business idea! The more you grow your network through being a guest on podcasts, the more opportunities that can come your way.

Puts You in Front of Your Target Audience

The ultimate goal of any marketing initiative is to promote your business to those who would be interested in your products or services. Being a guest on podcasts in your business niche could place you right in front of an audience of thousands, tens of thousands, or even more listeners who are in your consumer target market. You can capitalize on this by sharing insight on your business offerings and driving traffic to your website. You may discover that your sales skyrocket whenever you are a guest on a well-known podcast!

Boosts Your Brand Name Recognition

Every time you are a podcast guest, you can promote your business and ultimately boost your brand name recognition in the market. This will help your potential customers or clients associate your company name with your product or service niche. Also, as you book yourself as a guest on more and more podcasts, you may start being in shows with other heavy hitters in your industry. Those listening to the segment (or watching it if there is a video element) will then associate you and your brand with the other business elites you are chatting with. This will help establish your company and you as leaders in your industry.

Increases Your Brand Credibility in the Market

Brand credibility is vital for business success. If your enterprise isn’t seen as credible and trustworthy, it can cause consumers to choose your competitors when they are in the market for the products or services you offer. It can also turn other businesses away from wanting to work with you. Thus, being a podcast guest can enhance your brand credibility, as you can add “As Seen On…” badges to your website’s homepage. When visitors to your website see these accolades, it can help them have a more positive outlook on your brand and consider your company more credible. You can also boost brand credibility by sharing the podcast segments on your social media channels!

Being a Guest on More Podcasts = More Backlinks

Every SEO guru knows the importance of getting backlinks for a website. Every time a new website domain links to your enterprise’s website, it can help boost your company’s ranking in search engines. You can increase your backlinks by being a guest on podcasts. In addition to Spotify and other popular podcasting platforms, a lot of podcasts have their own websites that list segments and the bios + website links of the interviewees. Therefore, the more podcasts you book, the more websites that will publish your bio and link back to your domain!

You Might Realize You Need to Refine Your Company’s Mission

When you are a guest on podcasts, you will be asked many questions about your business journey, what problems your enterprise aims to solve, your company’s main mission, etc. As more podcast hosts and guest callers ask you specific questions about your mission, you might realize that the market or society as a whole has slightly different needs than you thought. This may make you realize that you need to refine your business mission to meet those needs. You might also discover that you need to change your company’s overall messaging.

Takeaways

There are so many ways to promote your business, but one surefire strategy is booking yourself as a guest on podcasts. You will be able to network with high-profile leaders in your industry, as well as promote your enterprise to a vast audience of people who are in your target market. It will also boost your brand name recognition and credibility in the market. Also, you will gain more backlinks for your website and you might discover that your business mission needs to be refined. So what are you waiting for? Start looking for podcasts to be a guest on today!

Over the last few months, we’ve seen major acquisitions in the newsletter space such as Business Insider buying Morning Brew and Twitter picking up Revue. Additionally, in that same timeframe, media companies like Forbes and Facebook have expanded their offerings with the launch of newsletter platforms. So why are all these media companies – both traditional and social – now investing in a medium that has been around for more than 30 years? In short, we are facing a perfect storm of technology and consumer trends, and email newsletters are right in the eye of that storm. Here are the three big reasons why newsletters are making a splash right now.

Audiences want to choose what they read or view

From video and audio, to social media feeds, today’s media consumption habits reward niche content and can be easily consumed whenever and wherever the person is present. But that doesn’t translate to trustworthy content. People want to know where the source of their information. which became more important during the global pandemic when getting accurate information meant the difference between life and death.

With trust top of mind, channels like social media have taken a big hit. In fact, according to Statista, 89% of Americans believe that social media is responsible for the spread of false news. It makes sense: it’s difficult to know whether the media you’re engaging with is a “trusted source” when it is promoted by an algorithm or your racist uncle. To protect themselves from misinformation, consumers are opting-in to receiving content that’s from a source they know and trust. That’s where email newsletters fit in.

Email newsletters check every box: they are subscriber-based: the consumer opted-in to receive it and knows the source is trustworthy, they can provide niche, deep-dive content of interest to the consumer, and can be consumed at any time, across any device.

Publishers want more direct relationships with audiences and their data

For publishers, there are multiple benefits to developing an email program to engage consumers. The first is related to content. The email channel is logged-in media that publishers can use to get in front of their readers without having to rely on third-parties, like social media platforms, to distribute content for them. Email newsletters are also cheaper and easier to produce than other types of content, such as videos or podcasts, making it less risky for publishers to test new ways to increase reader engagement and ROI.

The second is monetization, which goes hand-in-hand with identity resolution. With Google Chrome phasing out third-party cookies in less than a year, publishers are doubling down on collecting first-party data (most importantly the email address) to continue to monetize audiences. And, of course, getting people to subscribe to email newsletters is a great way to collect them! When publishers know who their audience is, site traffic driven from the logged-in newsletter enables publishers to charge advertisers a premium for inventory. Additionally, the logged-in nature of newsletters helps sell subscriptions. Publishers who have insight into reader behavior can implement a dynamic paywall, waiting to put the wall up until the likelihood of subscription conversion is highest.

Advertisers want media that delivers both relevant audiences and measurable performance

Email isn’t just great for publishers. Advertisers also win with the channel. As a general rule, advertisers always want to be where their audiences are, and the more they can align with content that matches their brand identity, the better. As more audiences subscribe to email newsletters, and more media companies start producing them, we’ll see advertiser dollars shift over to the email inventory.  While the newsletter will never reach the scale of a social media feed or a homepage, it has something more valuable: a greater level of audience intent and engagement, since this is content the audience has subscribed to and is consciously engaging with. We saw this trend previously with podcasts, and companies like Morning Brew and The Bustle are proving it out now with newsletters.

Furthermore, even when doing a “branding” buy, advertisers care about performance and the ability to measure performance. Since email, like social media, is a logged-in channel, it offers more accurate targeting, goal-based optimizations, and more reliable measurement and audience insights – especially when the advertiser has a robust email program of their own.

Which brings us to our last reason email is resonating with advertisers: email is future-proof when considering the coming cookie apocalypse. Email, because it is logged-in and not cookie-based, it will not be impacted by the loss of the third-party cookie, making it a safe investment for both audience targeting and attribution in the long-term.

As we grow closer to the deadline for cookies, we expect to see even more investments in the email newsletter. We’re only two months into 2021 and it’s clear that consumers, publishers, and advertisers all agree this 30-year-old medium is the future.

The new tools and options introduced were already in development.  Based on current trends, and where the social platforms are headed, we've put together a new collection of predictions for 2021, and what social media marketers should be preparing for as they map out their plans.

And all going well, it looks set to be a year of growth, and exciting developments. Here are our platform-by-platform predictions for what's coming next in the world of social media marketing. Here we begin with Facebook.

Facebook

Facebook has once again seen a year of many challenges, and has once again come through them in a stronger position than where it began. That's despite rising backlash over the role the platform has played in exacerbating political division, and amplifying hate speech, and amid a push for a break-up of the company over its anti-competitive behavior.

Yet, despite an ad boycott, a critical Netflix documentary, and the forced removal of certain concerning groups, Facebook marches on, and 2021 looks set to see some major developments aligned with the next stage of The Social Network.

The New Storefront

eCommerce will be a major focus for Facebook in the next year.

We've already seen the first stages of Facebook's next big revenue push, with the introduction of Shops on Facebook and Instagram, which simplifies the process of building an eCommerce outlet on the world's most used digital platform.

That will give every business the chance to quickly build their own digital storefront, with helpful, familiar presentation options and streamlined payment tools, fueling a new wave of online business.

For Facebook, this has been years in the making, with Shops essentially being an extension of its Marketplace offering, giving more businesses the chance to connect with buyers in-stream. But Shops is also much more than that.

The big focus here will be in markets like India and Indonesia, where Facebook is seeing rapid user growth, and where the digital shift is only really beginning. If Facebook can get in on the ground floor, and become the destination for all forms of online transactions, that could see the company become an essential platform in developing regions, expanding opportunities, both for Facebook and businesses around the world, to maximize their potential.

Expect to see further development of Facebook Pay as The Social Network looks to simplify its one-click purchasing options, and new advertising opportunities that highlight products for purchase within posts. Facebook will also look to integrate more shopping posts into user feeds, in order to entice more shopping activity, while the likely merger of its messaging apps will also provide more opportunity to facilitate eCommerce across its tools.

If Facebook can get it right, this could be a major shift, fueling a new wave of eCommerce activity - which is why looking further into Facebook Shops should be a key priority for retail providers.

Also look for further development of live-stream promotion and purchasing options, and new eCommerce integrations within Watch exclusive programs as Facebook looks to tie everything back into its transactional options.

Messaging Merger

Yes, Facebook is still working on the merger of its messaging apps, and throughout the year we've seen more and more hints of the gradual interconnectivity of Messenger, Instagram Direct and WhatsApp. 

That, essentially, means that every new function introduced in any one of these apps will eventually be available in the other two - which will also facilitate new eCommerce opportunities, and more ways to run cross-platform ad campaigns and pushes in order to expand your opportunities.

Eventually, that will make it very easy for brands to expand their campaigns and functions across to, say, WhatsApp, broadening their audience potential in ways that hadn't previously considered. That'll become a bigger opportunity as Facebook showcases how that interoperability works, and what will be possible as a result.

Regulators in several nations have voiced their opposition to Facebook's messaging integration plan, and it is still contingent on no further regulatory action being taken. But it seems to be well on the way now, and that will open up new potential for connection with your potential customers across Facebook's DM tools.

Look For Algorithm Shifts

One of the big questions for Facebook will be how it addresses concerns about its notorious feed algorithm, and whether it does anything to address concerns that it's fueled the rise of dangerous hate speech. 

As Facebook looks to more actively lobby US Senators, in order to facilitate its own growth agenda, it will need to give a little to get back, and that may well see the 'nicer' News Feed option gain traction, which could have a big impact on the platform more broadly.

That could see engagement on Facebook reduce - but maybe, if it can offset that with an increase eCommerce activity, Facebook will be able to appease both elements without losing out. 

Of course, any such move also won't please extremist groups. But it could be a step in the right direction to reduce societal division more generally.

Twitter

Even after all these years, it's still difficult to say what Twitter is, what its key strengths are, and where it will look to grow in future. Because despite the platform's ongoing popularity, Twitter is largely unchanged, with no major innovation or updates that have altered how people use the app.

Sure, it made tweets longer back in 2018, and it's tried out live-streaming and Moments and audio tweets, among various other options. But none of them have really caught on, and Twitter, for the most part, remains what it was at its beginning - a real-time stream of short, sharp updates, great for staying up with the latest info. Not so good for much else.

So how can Twitter evolve beyond this? It's probably safe to say that we're not going to see any major change over the course of the next 12 months. 

Topic Focus

Twitter's also been looking to expand its potential for engagement by providing users with more recommendations of Topics to follow in their feeds, as opposed to profiles.

In 2021, it wouldn't be surprising to see Twitter take this a step further and add Topic spaces, where it will collect relevant tweets on a topic, curated by Twitter's team, into a dedicated page or section in the app.

This could be similar to its current listings related to in-progress sporting events and live-streams, providing a more immersive, focused listing of key tweets and profiles on each topic, which could help to improve engagement.

Verification Categories

Last week, Twitter explained that it's working on new categories of verification, beyond just the basic blue tick. That could see new types of verified accounts, which could include specific indicators based on what each represents.

The major addition here could be a new identifier for bot accounts - in October last year, Twitter said that it was working on a possible identifier for bot profiles, in order to let users know who (or what) they're dealing with. 

That could be a big change, which could change engagement in the app. And if Twitter wanted to take it a step further...

Bot Crackdown

Bots remain a major problem on Twitter, with various political trends attributed to bot 'armies' that are utilized to manipulate engagement and sway opinion.

But what if, as part of its new bot verification process, Twitter established a threshold on what qualifies as a bot account. What if Twitter said, for example, that 'if 80% of your tweets are retweets, you'll be labeled as a bot profile'.

That would annoy a lot of users, but it might also get more users sharing more of their own thoughts, as opposed to simply amplifying existing comments. That would also be in line with Twitter's more recent pushes to get users to take more time to consider what they're sharing, as opposed to straight retweets.

There's no indicator that Twitter will do anything like this, but it could be something to consider as it looks to tackle bot concerns.

Instagram

Instagram has become the next golden goose for Facebook, and the integration of new eCommerce tools looks set to take its earnings potential into a new stratosphere. But at the same time, some have suggested that the additions of IGTV, Reels and shopping have all started to clutter what was once a simple app focused on photography.

Of course, Instagram is well beyond its initial roots now, but has it gone too far - or will it, indeed, go over the edge in 2021?

In-stream shopping

eCommerce is obviously the big focus for Instagram, with a new Shop tab and dedicated features aligned with facilitating more immediate purchase behavior in response to IG posts.

Instagram will look to continue the development of its shopping tools in order to further encourage habitual shopping behavior - expect Instagram to add advanced one-click purchasing, new AR try-on tools, building on its existing AR shopping options (and potentially linked into Facebook's AR glasses), and video tags for products, providing more ways for businesses and creators to facilitate direct buying.

Instagram is already where many people go to discover new products and brands, and its advanced shopping options could open up a whole range of new possibilities. 

Sure, Reels got its own tab too, but shopping is where Instagram will make a real impact. 

Variable home feed

This has been speculated for a while, but with the continued popularity of Stories, expect Instagram to try out a new approach to user home feeds in 2021, with some users set to open to a Stories feed, similar to TikTok's home video stream.

That would mean that the main Instagram feed would lose focus, and become a secondary element. But I don't expect Instagram to do this for everyone. Instead, what Instagram could try to do is to align the home feed with individual user preference, with the option to switch back if you choose.

For example, if you view Stories a lot, Instagram might switch you to a Stories-first home feed, with the option to go back to the regular post feed if you want. Some users might open to a Reels feed instead, some to the Shop tab. Rather than force all users into a new feed, Instagram could look to provide options, which may help boost engagement within each element.

Reels - good enough

Then there's Reels, Instagram's TikTok clone, which general consensus seems to suggest is interesting enough, but not as good as TikTok itself.

Will Reels stick around, and/or catch on with more users?

I don't expect Reels to become a major element - and definitely not a TikTok killer of any kind. But it will likely find its own niche - and it'll remain popular in India so long as TikTok remains banned in that region. 

That could be enough to deem Reels a success, while Instagram will also look to further boost Reels through exclusive influencer deals and new features which could help it gain more traction at different stages. The right influencer deals could definitely help Reels boost engagement, and if TikTok doesn't catch up on its revenue-sharing options, Reels will remain a competitive concern, adding more pressure to the app. 

It seems unlikely that Reels will become a major consideration, but 'good enough' is likely all Instagram needs to justify its investment in the option. 

Snapchat

Snapchat has continued to establish its own niche in 2020, especially with respect to its ongoing appeal among younger audiences. New app partnerships and interactive options have provided additional avenues of consideration, but AR remains the key to boosting the app's appeal.

And despite having a more limited budget than the big players, Snap has remained a key innovator in the AR space - which could come up big in one specific way in the year ahead. 

New approach to entertainment

One of Snapchat's key areas of strength has been the steady growth of its Snap Originals programming, short, vertically-aligned TV-style shows that hold appeal to younger viewers and their evolving consumption habits.

Given this, expect to see Snap put more focus on Snap Originals in 2021 - and expect to see more major publishers and studios pay more attention, and look to align with the format, as they seek new ways to stay connected to younger audiences.

That could see some major announcements for Snap Originals, with big-name celebrities coming on board. And that will bring even more viewers to Snap, expanding its advertising and exposure opportunities.

eCommerce focus

As Instagram and Facebook look to incorporate more eCommerce tools, expect Snap to also align with this shift, and look to provide its creators with more opportunity to sell products direct in-stream.

Snapchat has been working on various eCommerce options for some time, including its integration with Amazon, but as in-feed shopping becomes more habitual, it makes sense for Snap to also incorporate similar tools, in order to maximize its own opportunities.

TikTok

TikTok has had a wild ride in 2020. The short-form video app has gone from 500 million users in December 2019 to close to a billion today, and despite facing bans, restrictions, accusations of censorship, undergoing national security reviews. Despite all of this, TikTok has continued to move forward, and now looks set to advance to the next level in 2021.

And it could be a key consideration for your digital marketing approach.

eCommerce focus

Like most other social platforms, TikTok will also be making eCommerce a focus in 2021 - though in TikTok's case, it's a little more pressing.

TikTok needs to find more ways to ensure its top creators get paid, otherwise they'll drift off to other platforms where they can make real money. That's what eventually lead to the demise of Vine - when its big stars realized they could be making a lot more on YouTube and Instagram instead, they called on Vine to establish a better revenue share deal. Vine (via parent company Twitter) refused, and those big stars left, which then sparked the decline of the app.

TikTok is now bigger than Vine ever was, but even so, it could still fall victim to the same if it can't come up with more lucrative, attractive revenue-share deals to keep its top creators around. 

In China, the local version of TikTok (called 'Douyin') has seen major success on this front by incorporating eCommerce and in-stream purchasing options.

The majority of the more than $122 million in revenue generated by Douyin last year came via these eCommerce integrations, and given this, you can expect to see TikTok looking to implement the same, and fast, as it seeks to get back on track after a year of legal challenges and complications.

If the Oracle/Walmart takeover deal goes through, Walmart has already flagged its eCommerce intentions for the app - though that deal still seems only somewhat likely, given the ongoing delays and negotiations. 

But even if it doesn't, expect TikTok to add in a lot more eCommerce tools as it seeks more ways to maximize its revenue, and revenue-share, potential.

Look to China

You can also expect TikTok to integrate other tools from Douyin, which has been around for longer, and has a huge presence within China, enabling TikTok to roll out tried and tested new features.

Some of these could include rankings of top accounts in different categories, including celebrities, and brand and business segments, like luxury, beauty, electronics, etc. That would also facilitate more eCommerce activity, while providing TikTok with another way to incentivize business activity.

Douyin also has advanced profile display options for businesses, including hashtag challenge presentation feeds and more profile links. Most of these, you would expect, will eventually make it across to TikTok as well. 

Music industry links

TikTok will also look to establish stronger ties with the music industry, in order to host more exclusive launches and events, and bring in more fans.

TikTok has already partnered with several musicians on exclusive digital concerts, and its signed partnership deals with several major labels.

As musicians come to recognize the promotional power of the platform, you can expect that those connections will become even stronger, and that could lead to new opportunities, not only for TikTok, but for brands looking to tap into these trends through sponsorships and other partnership programs that can expand their promotions.

LinkedIn

And lastly, we have LinkedIn, the old head in the social space, which may not be as exciting as some of the other platforms, but remains a key connection tool for many brands.

LinkedIn surpassed 700 million members in 2020, and has continued to see 'record levels of engagement', which only looks set to increase in the wake of the pandemic. LinkedIn is in a strong position, as the key platform for professionals, and it'll look to capitalize on this with its 2021 releases.

Live events

Virtual events become a key focus in 2020, and LinkedIn shifted to cater to this by rolling out its own Events tools, and integrating its live-stream functionality with the same. 

Expect to see LinkedIn double down on this in 2021 - and while it's likely that we'll be able to return to in-person events at some stage in the new year, the capacity to host virtual events, at low cost, will remain appealing for many businesses. LinkedIn will look to cater to this by providing more video tools and options.

Events make sense on LinkedIn, and live video is the most engaging content type on the platform. The expansion of its tools on this front seems logical - and if it can boost its promotion capacity of the same, you can expect to see more businesses looking to incorporate their events and functions into the LinkedIn experience.

Dedicated video section

As with all social platforms, video is the most engaging content type on LinkedIn, with LinkedIn users around 20x more likely to share a video on the platform than any other type of post. Given this, it makes sense for LinkedIn to capitalize on that with a dedicated video section within its app, which will put more focus on professional video content, by sector, and provide more opportunity for creators on LinkedIn to build brand awareness and presence.

And it could also become a revenue opportunity. If LinkedIn were to offer a dedicated space to showcase its best video creators, it could also provide pre or mid-roll ads, giving them more incentive to keep posting. That could see a lot more professional video content added to the platform, further boosting engagement.

LinkedIn hasn't made video a major focus as yet, but with improved topic categorization (via hashtags) and evolving video options, it makes sense for LinkedIn to also provide a dedicated video space at some stage.

New data insights

LinkedIn has the largest professional and career database in history, which gives it access to a range of in-depth insights as to how people's careers have progressed, what roles people have moved into over time, how that relates to commonalities and interests, etc.

This is a major strength for the platform, and in 2021, you can expect LinkedIn to further refine its data-matching to provide more insight to help guide users to their ideal career path and progression.

LinkedIn's already taken a recent step in this direction with its Career Explorer tool, which highlights potential career paths based on the skills you have.

As it looks to provide more guidance in the wake of the pandemic, you can expect more of these insights options to become more readily available - and many will be available for free as part of the platform's broader push to maximize economic opportunity.

This will show you how to advance your career, based on real-world insights, with links to Learning courses that can take you to the next level.

The more LinkedIn can merge these tools into its systems, the better, and the more contextual, relevant alerts of this type, the more it will increase user engagement.

Live-streaming into LinkedIn Stories

LinkedIn Stories remains a bit meh - it's nothing major, but it's also not a major distraction. In fact, it's interesting to see something different in the app, though the Stories themselves tend to be fairly light, or overly promotional.

But as with Instagram, and in line with the broader focus on video content, I do expect LinkedIn to add live-streaming into its Stories tool. 

Will that make a big difference? Probably not, but the capacity to share live videos from events, at the top of follower feeds, could be a significant update for many.

Of course, there are various other storylines that will also need to play out, including speculation over a reform of Section 230 laws, the broader push for data sovereignty, and its impacts, and the ongoing antitrust investigations for big tech. And we can't know how the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, but this is where I believe the major platforms are looking as we head into the new year. 

Hopefully, at the least, we get a more settled environment, expanding economic opportunity for all.

Google search provides a unique look at customer behavior and the end-to-end customer journey. That is why it's critical for brands to invest in SEO – not just to boost their own search results, but as an integrated marketing tool. It is so important now, as the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shifted behaviors for both workers and consumers. The implications of shifting behaviors point toward how you run your business and how people respond to it.

Organic Search

Organic search can provide critical insight into customers’ behavior and desires.

While Google keeps much of its actual data frustratingly under wraps, you can still glean a lot of insight from what it does show you. The search engine provides a trove of user insight simply in the way it presents search results. Examining the content and types of results for terms within your industry can show you what users are looking for, the questions they’re asking and what sort of content is resonating with them.

Google also provides a unique view of the end-to-end customer journey because people turn to search engines at every stage. Understanding the searches people are performing and why they’re searching can give critical insight to where you are or aren’t meeting your customers. It also can give you an avenue to fill in gaps as well as provide a more complete and cohesive experience across your different marketing channels.

Using Organic Search Results for Digital Marketing Efforts

Organic search can align your digital marketing efforts, making them more cohesive, efficient and effective. Here’s how:

Marketing: Create search-focused content that can rank but has omnichannel assets attached, which can fan out across other marketing channels. This requires significant alignment between many different teams.

Public relations: Optimize your PR language to align with relevant search terms and trending searches can help give it staying power in organic search.

Product: For e-commerce businesses that sell a lot of products, search trends and keyword volume can shape your product marketing focus. Note: A spike in interest in a particular product might also help you better plan for your inventory needs.

Advertising: Beyond the obvious -- SEM, which is directly tied to search behavior -- search trends and behavioral insights can help you tailor ads on other platforms and make better decisions about how to allocate your budget.

User experience: Because of Google’s focus on user experience in its search results (including using certain UX elements as ranking factors), good UX and high quality SEO usually align. Most SEO recommendations have UX implications; if you’re doing it right, optimizing for search engines should result in improved user experience.

Brand: Don’t neglect how your brand is appearing in search and make sure your unique selling points and brand story are represented when people search for you. People increasingly are making purchasing decisions based on specific brand attributes (more on this below) so controlling how you appear in search is essential.

Why this matters now!

There are two big reasons why this is especially important now: changes to consumer behavior and the challenges of a remote workforce.

1. Holiday shopping and COVID-19

COVID-19 has caused dramatic and likely permanent changes to consumer behavior. Notably, e-commerce sales have risen dramatically, while in-store sales are down, even in places where brick-and-mortar stores are open. Furthermore, as the pandemic drags on, people are more conscious both of their spending in general and of the impact that their dollars can have, and making deliberate choices about where and how they choose to spend money. For example, a report from Rakuten suggests that fully half of global shoppers plan to shop locally this holiday season.

Many consumers also are placing a greater emphasis on supporting minority-owned small businesses and giving their money to brands whose ethics and values they agree with. This obviously isn’t a new trend, but as with many things, COVID-19 seems to have hastened it.

A good thing to ask yourself is, what makes you different from Amazon (or any other big player in your space)? If you can compete on price, wonderful. But if you can’t, what other things make you stand out? How can you reach customers in innovative ways that resonate?

My favorite example of this is bookshop.org, an e-commerce platform for book sales that’s explicitly positioned as an alternative to Amazon, where every sale directly supports an indie bookseller of the customer’s choice.

Finding and emphasizing the things that make you different and making sure they’re reflected in search will be crucial to building a loyal customer base as consumers become more intentional in their purchasing decisions.

2. Remote workforce

A remote workforce brings new communication challenges, meaning that anything that enhances alignment is more important than ever.

Search can help break down silos between teams that don’t traditionally work particularly closely with one another. For example, are your content and product teams communicating effectively? Is your editorial calendar aligned with your product marketing campaigns? What about your social media team and inventory?

Using organic search as a framework to help guide your priorities can provide a unifying factor that helps keep teams operating in as close to lockstep as possible.

Take Away

As we all reorient ourselves in our new reality, some businesses are thriving and some are in a fight for survival. Regardless of which situation you find yourself in, organic search can provide invaluable help as you navigate uncertain waters. If you aren’t yet using it to enhance your marketing strategy, the time to start is now.

Have questions about how organic search can help coordinate your business' digital marketing efforts?

Call me today at 5616329525 for a free consult.

Step 1. Download DuckDuckGo on all your devices

With just one download you'll get tracker blocking, private searching, increased encrypting, and privacy grading on all of your browsing. Our mobile app for iOS/Android (DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser) and browser extensions for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari(DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials) has all of this in one seamless package. Privacy, simplified.

Step 2. Update your software

Your device operating systems get out-of-date over time, and old software can contain security bugs or settings that leak personal data. Set your devices (and the apps on them) them to update automatically. That way you'll always have the latest, safest versions.

Step 3. Update your privacy settings

Make sure your devices are using the best privacy settings. Here are step-by-step instructions for all the major device types.

Especially make sure you adjust per-app location settings, so that your location history isn’t leaking where it shouldn’t. For extra bonus points, review the apps you have installed. If there are any you haven't used for a while, remove them to reduce the chance of your personal data being shared in the background.

Step 4. Use a password manager

Privacy and security are not one and the same, but if your accounts are not secured, your privacy is at risk. Have you ever used the same password on more than one website? If the answer's yes, then your privacy may be compromised due to data leaks. The fix is easy: start creating unique passwords for every website you use. That may sound like a lot of work, but it’s not when you use a password manager. Password managers generate and store secure passwords for you automatically. Many browsers now have them built-in, or you can use a tool like LastPass, Dashlane, or 1Password that work across multiple browsers.

Step 5. Set up two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication (also known as multi-step login) is where you use a code to log in to websites in addition to your password. You should set up two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever possible, and certainly on your major accounts (email, financial, etc.). You can check whether major sites have it available at twofactorauth.org, which also links directly to the right documentation pages.

And that’s it! Doing the above five steps makes a huge impact on your privacy online, from stopping Big Tech from sucking up all your browsing data to adding extra protection to your passwords and email. And, once set up, it doesn’t take much effort to maintain. So, let’s make 2020 the year we all take back our online privacy!

Time for a digital marketing upgrade? Believe it or not, some businesses think because they are event based or a physical retail operation they don’t need digital marketing solutions. We can all benefit from working more efficiently, right?

In the digital landscape this can equate to Skype or Zoom video calls in place of physical meetings, either with clients, colleagues or prospects. Treat them like a weekly meeting you would normally have in person!

In the midst of our current health crisis, we are all adjusting the way we do business and manage our personal lives. Thankfully, I have been operating a virtual business for 16 years! Many of my clients are spread throughout the U.S. and often I conference with people in Europe.

Especially now, retail operations can benefit from a new digital strategy whether its for a take out menu for restaurants, an updated version of clothing, handbags, or shoes for boutiques and artisans offerings online or a blog for writers and authors, finally reigniting email marketing upgrades for marketers, lawyers, and physicians. If you need advice on any of these ideas, lets collaborate. I can help you and your company upgrade today. We can get through this, we just need to think creatively and efficiently.