The TwoSix team is here to share what’s On Our Radar for June so that you can stay ahead of the always-evolving digital marketing landscape. This month our team discusses adding video to your Google business profile, YouTube dropping stories, new Photoshop beta, and so much more! Keep reading to find out what we’re keeping On Our Radar for June 2023.
ADD VIDEO TO YOUR GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
Your Google Business profile is essential to your online presence if you are a small business in any destination. The presence on the most significant search engine and integration with Google Maps is often the first place customers look for up-to-date information about your company.
As you may know, you can add all types of information like hours, amenities, and images to your listing, but one feature we are seeing grow in popularity is the addition of video. The application allows you to upload a video with a duration of up to 30 seconds long in a resolution of 720p or higher.
When consumers are looking through numerous listings on the Google Maps applications, the videos auto-play within the images windows and the movement is a great thumb-stopper as users scroll through the listings on their mobile devices.
YouTube has announced that they are retiring their Stories format on June 26, 2023. Did you even know YouTube had Stories? Probably not! Regardless, this news is worth paying attention to in regard to the larger scheme of things because YouTube isn’t the only one! LinkedIn killed their Stories. Twitter dumped their Stories too. Could this be an indication of the overall decline in the Stories format across other major social networks?
We all know about Instagram Stories. Probably the most popular. Many have used them religiously for quite some time to promote upcoming events or to create highlights for their account. If you’ve been using Stories, it’s probably pretty clear that they aren’t getting the attention that they once used to. With the prominence of vertical, short-form video, Stories appear to have perhaps lost their thunder. This isn’t totally a bad thing. Stories take time. Reels take time. TikToks take time. So do Shorts. It’s becoming clear that prioritizing your time to focus on short-form videos rather than Stories could open up some much-needed bandwidth to maximize your efforts in these other areas where you see more success.
Right now, on Instagram, you’re going to move the needle much more by using Reels and Carousels. Even the single-image post is dying! If I were you, I’d move any focus you’ve given to any Stories formats and shift that energy toward vertical short-form and carousel formats (this includes Facebook albums) immediately. Over on YouTube, don’t forget that you’ve got a great opportunity to jumpstart your efforts by using newer formats. It’s clear that YouTube wants users to leverage their new Shorts format and their underutilized community posts. Together, these formats can help to breathe some much-needed life into the second-largest search engine in the world.
At the end of the day, I think it might be time to drop your Stories, across all networks. It’ll save you some time and allow you to focus on where the action is truly at in the ever-evolving digital marketing environment.
Have you ever tried using Photoshopping something out of a photo? Usually, it takes a while. A few hours, even.
Those are the old days now.
With Photoshop Beta’s new “Generative Fill” option, you can harness the power of Artificial Intelligence to do the hard work for you. It can easily — and I can’t stress this enough — add anything to a photo that you want. Check out how it takes just a few seconds to add a castle in the background of TwoSix Digital team photo. And it looks pretty good.
In terms of digital marketing, honestly, this is a revolution. How many times have you had a wide photo that you need cropped to a different dimension? No problem, it can easily fill in gaps. How about needing a summer shot when the only one you have is of autumn? No problem, ask for trees in summer.
Obviously, it’s only in beta right now. It’s not so good at creating people (to be candid, they turn out kind of horrific), but in terms of backgrounds, it’s great. If you have a Photoshop license, you can download it. I highly recommend trying it out!
A few months ago, we explored Pinterest’s possible benefits, even arguing that the social media channel may be good for you. Here we see that running with that positive feeling may enhance your brand. According to new research, Pinterest has been labeled as a “positive and beneficial space” among users, which can be very helpful to brands. People are more likely to remember a brand or in our client’s case, a destination when seen in a positive space like Pinterest and would be more likely to make a purchase or in this case take a trip to the destination. A whopping 78% of users reported feeling positive after interacting with the platform. That’s a lot of people that your brand or destination could be in front of when they’re in a good mood. If you aren’t currently using Pinterest organically or paid, this may be your sign to start making some pins and testing out the waters. Keep the positivity flowing, make your pins neat and clean with a single photo and a call to action to drive traffic to a helpful and engaging landing page. Make their experience positive and it may just give your business the boost it’s been looking for.
Meta recently made waves by unveiling its plan to launch a new social app, tentatively named ‘Barcelona,’ which is set to compete directly with Twitter as a text-based social platform. And now, there’s even an app icon to symbolize its imminent arrival! This strategic move by Meta not only acknowledges the growing trend of younger users gravitating towards Instagram’s direct message features but also presents an intriguing opportunity for advertisers to connect with their target audience on a fresh and advertiser-friendly platform.
One of the most notable advantages for advertisers is the introduction of new ad placements beyond the realms of Facebook and Instagram apps. The best part? You won’t need to learn an entirely new system or allocate a separate budget to leverage these new advertising opportunities on the Barcelona network.
With Instagram already boasting more than four times the daily active users compared to Twitter, the potential for Barcelona to achieve greater scale is undeniable. The app’s planned seamless integration with users’ existing accounts, as well as its connection to other Meta accounts, will undoubtedly fuel rapid growth.
Although no official launch date has been announced, rumors suggest that the app could go live as early as this month – June 2023. The recent reveal of the app icon brings us one step closer, and we’re eagerly keeping a close eye on how we can make the most of this exciting new advertising placement opportunity.
Growing your email list can be daunting, especially if you’re starting from scratch, but Facebook has added some new lead-generation tools to help you! Lead-generation ads have been an incredibly successful way to increase sign-ups to your destination’s email list for some time now. By reaching out to people who already interact with your Facebook content, you can ensure the leads you are adding are people who will be interested in opening and interacting with your emails.
Facebook has recently introduced another way to gain leads through their platform. Now, you can add sign-up forms for your email list right on the top of your Facebook page with a CTA (call-to-action) button. As long as you are using the “new pages experience” on Facebook, you are able to take advantage of this new feature.
If you need some help with growing or sustaining your destination’s email list, feel free to contact us! We’re always here to help.
At Google Marketing Live this past month, the search giant announced it would be integrating generative AI (the kind of AI that can “talk”, like ChatGPT, or create images, like DALL-E) into many of its products, including Google Ads. They’re currently testing a new feature that will “analyze landing pages and ads, condensing the content to generate relevant keywords, headlines, descriptions, images, and other creative assets for Google Ads campaigns.” This is a huge change to Google Ads, with both good and bad implications.
On the one hand, this could be a really good thing! This is the next logical step in improving the Performance Max feature, which already uses a form of AI. Generative AI can help reduce writer’s block and allow for an insane amount of ad copy customization. You’ll also be able to create image assets on the fly with this feature, which could potentially eliminate the constraints of current practices.
On the other hand, leaving copywriting to the machines can certainly lead to issues. This new feature draws on on-page content to create ads and can’t receive other input. So if you have content on your website that you’re not okay with using in ads, you won’t be able to stop it from generating unapproved copy. Thankfully, human users still have the power to reject ad copy that it generates, so provided you are qualifying everything the AI produces, this shouldn’t cause any problems for advertisers.
With the ever-changing digital marketing world, we are here to keep you informed of new digital trends and what we are keeping on our radar for June 2023. Have any questions? Contact us! We’re here to help.
Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to stay in the loop on all things TwoSix Digital.
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Untitled-design-2.jpeg
1079
1080
2sixdigitaltwo6
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TwoSixDigital_logo_Stacked_RGB-300x142-300x142.jpg
2sixdigitaltwo62024-04-08 12:29:322024-04-08 12:33:16On Our Radar | April 2024
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Untitled-design-2.jpeg
1079
1080
2sixdigitaltwo6
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TwoSixDigital_logo_Stacked_RGB-300x142-300x142.jpg
2sixdigitaltwo62024-03-06 14:10:142024-04-08 11:59:06On Our Radar | March 2024
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Untitled-design-2.jpeg
863
1079
2sixdigitaltwo6
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TwoSixDigital_logo_Stacked_RGB-300x142-300x142.jpg
2sixdigitaltwo62024-02-06 13:28:012024-02-06 13:40:50On Our Radar | February 2024
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Untitled-design-2.jpeg
1079
1080
2sixdigitaltwo6
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TwoSixDigital_logo_Stacked_RGB-300x142-300x142.jpg
2sixdigitaltwo62024-01-10 13:36:482024-01-10 13:37:47On Our Radar | January 2024
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Untitled-design-2.jpeg
863
1079
2sixdigitaltwo6
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TwoSixDigital_logo_Stacked_RGB-300x142-300x142.jpg
2sixdigitaltwo62023-12-12 11:23:492023-12-12 11:23:49On Our Radar | December 2023
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-7.jpeg
864
1080
2sixdigitaltwo6
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TwoSixDigital_logo_Stacked_RGB-300x142-300x142.jpg
2sixdigitaltwo62023-11-07 11:40:472023-12-12 11:23:06On Our Radar | November 2023
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/cash-macanaya-X9Cemmq4YjM-unsplash-1-scaled-e1698759890298.jpg
1638
2048
2sixdigitaltwo6
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TwoSixDigital_logo_Stacked_RGB-300x142-300x142.jpg
2sixdigitaltwo62023-10-31 09:50:422023-10-31 09:50:42On Our Radar Highlight – Which Large Language Model (LLM) is Best Suited for Tourism Marketing?
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/sincerely-media-ylveRpZ8L1s-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg
1920
2560
2sixdigitaltwo6
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TwoSixDigital_logo_Stacked_RGB-300x142-300x142.jpg
2sixdigitaltwo62023-10-24 11:54:342023-10-24 12:08:29On Our Radar Highlight – Headings: The Most Underused Weapon in Blog Writing
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Untitled-design-11.jpg
1080
1080
2sixdigitaltwo6
https://twosixdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TwoSixDigital_logo_Stacked_RGB-300x142-300x142.jpg
2sixdigitaltwo62023-10-10 12:09:122023-10-10 13:57:15On Our Radar | October 2023
