What a start to the year! The first month of 2021 is already over and the digital marketing industry certainly started the year with hopeful and exciting news.
Keep reading for digital updates from January:
Contents
Youtube’s Hashtag Search Results
You can now search for videos on Youtube using hashtags or just by clicking on hashtags on other videos to find more videos related to that topic.
Once you click on a hashtag and land on the search results page, you will see how many videos and channels there are related to those hashtags and you will see videos that are popular at the top and as you scroll down you’ll find other videos from smaller accounts too. It’s a great way to discover more channels and videos you might be interested in.
It’s also useful for us, marketers, because we can see the attention particular topics are getting and how much content is being created. So it’s up to you to turn this into a useful tool to understand consumer behaviour.
Youtube has been trying to implement hashtags for a few years now, but it’s never been a feature that got a lot of attention. Now it looks like Youtube has turned an idea into a really useful tool. Let us know what you think!
LinkedIn Stories Get a Swipe-Up Feature
People have had mixed feelings about LinkedIn stories since they were rolled out in September 2020. Now there is a new addition to LinkedIn stories, the swipe-up feature.
You’ll probably be familiar with this feature from Instagram & Snapchat stories. And this is probably why people are sceptical of how relevant this feature is to a more ‘professional’ social media platform and audience.
With this new feature you can now add links to your LinkedIn stories and direct people to a website.
Professionally used, it can be a great way to promote your brand and reach your target audience on the right platform.
The main thing to pay attention to is to make sure you understand why your audience is on LinkedIn, and what they’re looking to get out of being on this platform. Chances are that they don’t go on LinkedIn when they’re looking to get wardrobe inspiration or buy a new toothbrush! Share links which provide value to your audience.
What kind of links will you be adding to your stories?
Google Search Console releases Google News performance report and enhances its coverage report
Google has released a new performance report on Google News that is available to all news publishers within Search Console, helping them measure the performance of this type of content more accurately.
Until now it was only possible to check the performance of Google News within the report in Google Search by choosing the performance report and selecting the content type “News”. However, this data did not provide direct information on the metrics of the Google News site (nor of its apps) but now you can find a much more detailed data report within Search Console.
Google said “Today we’re launching a new Search Console performance report to help news publishers better understand user behaviour on Google News. This new report shows clicks, impressions and CTR on Google News apps for Android and iOS apps, as well as for the news.google.com website”
How to access the performance report on Google News?
You can access this report by clicking on “Google News” in the “performance” section of the left-side navigation panel within Search Console.
According to Google, the Google News performance report will help publishers answer questions such as:
- How many times were my articles shown to users in Google News?
- Which articles performed well in Google News?
- How does user behaviour change by country?
The report in Google News is active in Search Console for any website that appears in the Google News section, but if you do not see it active do not worry, as it will be gradually implemented over the coming days for all users.
Google changes Terms of Service and Privacy, as of 25 January
An email is currently circulating informing us of the new terms of use that will come into force on 25 January 2021. By that date, we will have to choose how to set our privacy, here’s what it says.
“You recently received an email informing you of the upcoming launch of two new settings for Gmail, Chat and Meet, that give you more control over your information and support compliance requirements. These settings allow you to choose how your information is used in Gmail, Chat and Meet and other Google products. If you’ve already made your choice, you can ignore this email.”
So, what do we need to know?
Smart features and personalisation in Gmail, Chat and Meet is the first setting and allows you to choose whether your Gmail, Chat and Meet data can be used to provide smart features within these services. Smart features in Gmail, Chat and Meet that depend on your data include:
- Automatic filtering/categorisation (Main/Social/Promotions) of emails
- Smart Writing and Quick Reply in emails
- Summary tabs on top of emails (shipment tracking, travel and more)
- Extraction of event details to create calendar entries
Smart features and customization in other Google products is the second setting and allows you to specify whether Gmail, Chat, and Meet data can be shared with other Google products to enable customization features.
Features in other Google products that depend on Gmail, Chat and Meet data include:
- Assistant reminders for due bills.
- Maps showing restaurant reservations
- Google Travel, which groups your itineraries together
- Google Pay showing your loyalty cards
What should we do?
If you want to continue using these and other features after 25 January 2021, you should choose to keep them active in your Gmail settings. Users can change these options at any time within Gmail.
So these are the novelties explained in detail by Google, fundamentally it will share the data collected to improve the functions of its platforms.
1 comment
Hey, Su Naulls
It’s really a wonderful read. Sure will follow the points you have suggested. There is a lot to learn from your articles.
Thanks for sharing changed Google’s terms of service and privacy and Youtube hastag search results and so on.
Suketu | Web strategist
Keep writing. Thanks much!