Episode 16 – Twitter Fiascos, Google Shaking Up Search, and If You Should Run Holiday Ads

This week, our hosts Matt, Anna, and Min take a look at some common questions, social mishaps, and Google search changes as we move closer to the holidays. Join our hosts every Monday for new and exciting information on technology, marketing, and design at www.digitalnativescast.com.

A Twitter Fiasco [5:10]
Google Shakes up Search [12:50]
Should You Run Holiday Ads? [21:30]

A Twitter Fiasco

As any of our listeners could note, Twitter has been in a state of flux for quite a few weeks now and the past week was no exception. Our host Anna came across an accidental change made when tweeting to another user that acquired some major feedback and it wasn’t good!

“Twitter accidentally released a test to the public where it replaced the @ symbol with replying to in the top right corner.” -Anna
“Twitter is almost about having your own mini shorthand and because of that they won’t really be able to get rid of the @ sign.” -Matt
“I feel like millennials are pro change and that almost makes up hypocrites because when change does come around we hate it.” -Anna
“People hate change, when Facebook switched to the Messenger app people were freaking out but prior tp that everyone was just complaining about how bad the Facebook app was for messaging.” -Min

Google Shakes Up Search

Google is constantly changing, sometimes for the good; other times, not so much. This week, our host Min discovered two small changes with a high impact to SEO and safety of users searching across the web. In addition to great changes, she also stumbled onto a clever marketing campaign IKEA is using to boost SEO and attract new customers using Google search.

“Google is planning an update to Chrome that forces you to update to HTML 5 and ultimately removes Flash once and for all.” -Min
“Google will begin flagging HTTP sites that take credit card information or passwords as insecure in early 2017.” -Min
“When the URL of a website says HTTPS and doesn’t have that S, it means it’s an unsecured website so you shouldn’t be giving them your information.” -Matt
“IKEA launched a campaign called ‘Retail Therapy’ that names products based on popular Google searches like, ‘My Friend Only Talks About Himself’.” -Min
“A few years ago, many of the marketing tactics that are used today would’ve been considered crazy. Now, the crazier the better and it’s making people more loyal to those brands.” -Anna
“As the Millennial demographic gets older and they become the buying power in the market, the way things get named, the way things get sold are changing dramatically and it’s less serious and more comical.” -Matt

Should You Run Holiday Ads?

During the holiday season shoppers are bombarded by countless companies trying to make the efforts to sell their products before the year ends. During our host, Matt’s interactions with clients he’s heard one major question about this time of year, “Should I run holiday ads if I’m not a big business?” Matt leads our hosts through a discussion to help answer that question here, once and for all.

“It’s not exactly too late to be running holiday ads, there’s a lot of last minute shoppers and after the holiday season everyone tries to hunt down the surplus gifts to buy themselves.” -Matt
“With the way ads have progressed digitally, you don’t need a million-dollar ad budget to profit from it, you can go in with $50 and come out with a few sales if you set it up right.” -Matt
“If you’re a small business and you get even just one client from an ad that’s probably worth it.” -Min
“If you have a specific target market you can narrow your search so much to target those exact individuals to make sure the right people are seeing your ad.” -Anna
“It’s weird how specific every single social media app’s ads are, they all pertain to me.” -Anna

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