COMING AT YOU THE WEEK OF 8.2.22
This week’s most important Marketing News
INSTAGRAM IS BACKTRACKING SOME OF ITS CHANGES
After receiving a lot of negative feedback from many celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, Instagram has decided to phase out the test version over the next one to two weeks and reduce the number of recommended posts in the app as it works to improve its algorithms.
META REPORTED LOWER REVENUE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY
Total revenue is just 1% lower than last year, but Meta is predicting a further drop by the end of the third quarter. Mark Zuckerberg says its marketers adjust their budget due to an economic downturn.
A COMPANY CALLED META IS SUING META FOR HAVING THE SAME NAME
An art company, META, claims that they can no longer provide services under the same name. Why? because “Meta is now associated with the toxicity linked with Facebook.”
META IS ALSO FACING ANOTHER LAWSUIT BLOCKING IT FROM BUYING A VR FITNESS-APP
The FTC is suing Meta because “Meta chose to buy market position instead of earning it on the merits. It’s an illegal acquisition, and we will pursue all appropriate relief.”
GOOGLE ANNOUNCED THAT PRIVACY SANDBOX WON’T BE READY UNTIL LATE 2024
Privacy Sandbox is Google’s potential privacy-preserving cookieless solution. It will phase out third-party cookies and cross-site tracking, but Google is postponing it. While Google figures things out, the cookieless future remains in limbo.
GOOGLE JUST ANNOUNCED A NEW PRODUCT REVIEW UPDATE
The new rollout will gradually be introduced; keep a close eye on your rankings.
GOOGLE IS AUTOMATICALLY SWITCHING ATTRIBUTIONS ON SOME OF THE CAMPAIGNS
Google is prioritizing data-driven attribution, a machine learning model that includes the entire conversion journey and credits each touchpoint. It’s been emailing some advertisers to say they’re automatically switching the attribution on some of their campaigns.
TWITTER IS TESTING ADDING STATUSES TO TWEETS
Now, you can add statuses to tweets, including “unpopular opinion,” “spoiler alert,” “need advice,” and more.
USEFUL LINKS
This guide helps you find your way around Google’s business profile while you’re getting used to the new changes.
This article enables you to understand where all your money goes in Google ads and helps with transparency.
This guide helps you learn how to improve your reels on Instagram.
The Content Marketing Digest helps overwhelmed B2B owners become better content marketers in less than 5 minutes each week. Sent every Sunday.
the marketing power of embodiment
A few years ago, I was a part of a group of people who felt politically homeless. (Yes, I’m going to talk about politics but only as a case study about a marketing principle. So don’t stress.) We weren’t sure what we believed. Were we republican or democrat? What did we stand for? What values guided our vote?
We tried to figure it out, but we struggled to build trust with most news sources because they seemed so wrapped up in their political biases. How could we be good citizens and use our votes wisely and knowledgeably? Did we have to scream and hate other people to have political opinions? We all felt a tiny bit of an identity crisis over this.
Then, over the last few years, we found Sharon. All of a sudden, we knew what we believed. The problem wasn’t that we were incredulous or didn’t have values; we just couldn’t articulate them because we had never really seen them embodied before. Then there they were on Sharon McMahon’s Instagram account, @sharonsaysso.
We believed in empathetically listening to people who disagree with us, doing our research so we can make an informed vote, and that making small, consistent efforts could impact our lives and country.
I’m not raving to try and convince you to go follow Sharon, or jump on my desire for more than two political parties in the US. I’m trying to illustrate the marketing power of embodiment, or in other words, the power of electing a person to represent your brand.
What do I mean by “embodiment”?
I’m talking about someone who is consistently talking about your company and your industry on social media and other “stages.”
If you walked up to someone who’s been exposed to your brand a few times, what would someone say if you asked them “Who do you consider the face of [ company name here]?”
Would a random person on the street know? Would your customers know?
What does it take to be a brand embodiment?
First, let’s talk about the plain, ol’ verb embody. Here are some of the definitions that Merriam-Webster gives. 👇
Embody
Verb
Em – body | im-’bä-dē
- To give a body to (a spirit)
- To make concrete and perceptible
- To represent in human or animal form
Reading that definition made me think that embody and developing a brand is eerily similar. And I did not have that in mind when I developed most of these thoughts on representing our brands through people. Because that’s my main idea here: I’m particularly intrigued by the usefulness of real people who publicly represent their organizations to the extent of a full-time job.
Humans are social creatures; I’m sure you’ve heard. And we respond to seeing people connected to companies.
Progressive wasn’t memorable before it started using Flo in 2008. But once the cause had a single person to champion it, it became stronger and more clear. Having that one person’s face to represent the cause changed the tide.
Electing an employee as a brand ambassador
I think having a true brand ambassador is ideal here. We see this happen the most often and the most naturally from founders. When you establish a company, you are very invested in the cause. You need it to succeed, and posting about it all the time on social media and going to conferences to focus on the pain point that inspired your company or the reasons the world needs your solution is completely natural.
But some companies have people like this who aren’t founders like Tim Soulo for Ahrefs. He’s their CMO, and he posts often about the industry and company and fulfills a lot of that role.
If your company doesn’t have someone acting in that brand ambassador role right now, here are some other tactics to work on as well.
Have your social media manager feature themselves and insert their face and personality in their social content.
Some organizations have their social media managers act like their brand embodiment. They let the social media manager feature themselves in the videos, and people become naturally accustomed to their faces and personality.
I’ve noticed this recently from the Skimm’s social media
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CdbeFtipcV2/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CcyPdbRpC_c/
And NPR’s social
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CcOGZsYAcw-/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CcyIL-rJ2-3/
And Morning Brew’s
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfXCgnmpFJr/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfHe4ZDPoyn/
Create a mascot
Some brands don’t have real people as their embodiment; they create a personality. I’m thinking of Wendy’s through their Twitter account recently. Duolingo is another example, giving a personality to their bird mascot and using it in marketing.
Add employee pictures and authentic bios to your About Me page
This is a small way to show off the people that make up your company, but it’s comforting and builds trust.
Build a figurative brand avatar
You could build a real avatar and have a fake person be the head of your company. You can build up your brand even though it doesn’t have a person’s face associated with its personality. The personality is clear and strong, and everyone knows who it is even if they don’t have a person to connect that with. That’s pretty much what branding has been so far. And when it’s done right, it’s still effective. But it isn’t an easy thing to do.
INTERESTING STUFF