April 2021 Digital Marketing News Updates

Facebook News Updates

Facebook Working on Newsletters – Following LinkedIn and Twitter, Facebook is working on integrating newsletters. This could be a powerful way to communicate with your audiences.
Facebook Adds more Newsfeed Controls – These include adding up to 30 favorites that are prioritized in your feed and controlling who can comment on your posts.
Facebook Raised Over $5B for Charities – This is a huge milestone and shows how many people are making charitable donations through Facebook. Remember seeing your friend’s birthday fundraiser? All of that goes to charities. If you are (or support) a charity, make sure they take advantage of this powerful tool.
Facebook Working on Audio Rooms – Their Clubhouse Clone is apparently underdevelopment and could launch soon. Stay tuned!
Facebook Cuts Analytics – This isn’t really a big deal as they aren’t cutting Page insights or Ad analytics. Facebook Analytics was a website analytic product to compete with Google Analytics. It never achieved a mass following and Facebook is now sticking to measuring Facebook vs. the entire journey.

Instagram Launches Tools to Make it Safer for Teens – A variety of tools including a parent guide, reminders about privacy and flagging conversations between adults and teens aims to make Instagram safer for teens.
Instagram Launches Remix Option for Reels – This allows Instagram users more creativity on the platform and shows how they can quickly replicate features for their users. You can now remix content easily.

LinkedIn Cover Videos, Gender Pronouns, and Creator Mode – These features enhance profiles for LinkedIn and allow you to share your story more powerfully.
LinkedIn Launches Campaign Planning Template – This template walks you through step-by-step how to make smart strategic choices when setting up your ads. It is a great resource.
LinkedIn is Developing Audio Rooms – Similar to Clubhouse, LinkedIn announced the development of audio rooms as a new way to connect business audiences.

TikTok Launches AutoCaptioning – This makes the platform more accessible and also works with sound off.
TikTok Launches New Browser Video Editor – This allows users and businesses to create content on their desktop that looks native to TikTok and uses TikTok features. This will make planned and produced content feel more integrated into the platform.

Clubhouse Adds Creator Payments (Limited Test) – You can now send money instantly to your favorite creators on Clubhouse. This is in test mode, but shows the platform looking to monetize.
Clubhouse Launchest Accelerator Program – This is limited invite only (and applications are closed). They are working with Creators to get feedback and improve their product. They also launched a number of small enhancements to the program.

Mircrosoft Bing Launches Visual Results – The search results are highly visual and look more like an infographic. Could this be the future of search results?
Google My Business Provides More Data – In addition to the insights launched last week, Google My Business now provides additional insights around how people found you. This is a great resource to understand your audience there.

62% of Purchasers More Likely to Buy with User Generated Photos – A study by emarketer shows that user-generated photos increases purchase intent.
Facebook Study Shows Top of Funnel Boosts Sales – A new study of campaigns, shows that even top-of-funnel awareness and branding campaigns can have a significant impact on sales. Check it out to see how a full-funnel approach can grow your business.
Instagram has Highest Engagement Rates – Significantly outperforming Facebook and Twitter.
Hootsuite Image Size Guide for 2021 – Hootsuite shared their guide to ideal image sizes for each network.
30 Second Video Ads are Taking Over – Previously 15 second ads dominated. This shows that advertisers are getting better at driving longer view times of ads. It may be time to rethink your digital ad lengths.