EPISODE 67 – SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESSIBILITY, OUTDATED BLOGGING TECHNIQUES, AND GOOGLE’S MOBILE FIRST INDEXING

The Digital Natives are BACK after a much-needed holiday break. This week, your hosts Rai, Kyle, and Min discuss how marketers (and everyone) can help visually impaired users get the most out of their social media experience, some blogging techniques that are probably better left in the past, and Google’s imminent rollout of mobile-first indexing. Be sure to tune in every Friday for the latest in tech, marketing, and design from the Digital Natives!

Social Media Accessibility [5:00]
Outdated Blogging Techniques [12:30]
Google’s Mobile-First Indexing [23:30]

Social Media Accessibility

Although the topic of web accessibility is gaining more traction recently, social media is an area where it can be improved. Min fills us in on the tools that are already available to us to make Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook easier to use for the visually impaired. Here’s a link to the video by Tommy Edison where he shows us what it’s like to browse Twitter as a blind user. His YouTube channel is full of awesome education on the blind experience so be sure to check it out!  

“Web accessibility sparked a bit of conversation between us in the office last week. We didn’t really know that there were accessibility issues on social media and that there are certain settings that you need to change to allow blind Twitter users to be able to ‘see’ the images that you’re posting.” -Min
“What you have to do [on Twitter] is to go on your settings and privacy, click on accessibility and there is an option that you have to turn on called ‘compose image descriptions’.” -Min
“Instagram is one of the most friendly social media platforms for blind users. When you think about it, you’re posting a photo and then writing a description, so automatically those screen readers are going to read your caption” -Min
“Accessibility isn’t a conversation that’s normally had on social media. It’s an ‘if you’re not in it, you don’t think about it’ type mentality.” -Kyle
“In 2018, more and more people are starting to have conversations about web accessibility, so it’s just got to carry over to social media now.” -Min

Outdated Blogging Techniques

Rai started up a new blog during our break, so she decided to spread a little knowledge on some really outdated blogging tactics so that you know what NOT to do if you plan on starting a blog of your own. Check out her website to see if she’s been following her own advice.

“There are so many bloggers out there that are consistently producing great content. Just because you’re doing your research, writing a really awesome quality post, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be seen.” -Rai
“Instead of writing for huge media sites, guest blog for smaller sites within your niche and really focus on building relationships.” -Rai
“Don’t use comment sections in other blogs to spam your link and self-promote. Instead of just saying ‘great post, check out my blog’ make sure you’re actually reading their post and adding value with your comment.” -Rai
“Make sure that you’re writing detailed long-form content. Don’t just jam a bunch of keywords into low-quality posts. Google Knows.” -Rai

Google’s Mobile-First Indexing

Google has announced that they are finally moving forward with mobile-first indexing starting in 2018. Kyle gives us an overview of what you need to know about this major shift and how you can get your website ready so that you’re able to be seen! His new blog post on this topic will be up soon on Keystoneclick.com so check back soon!

“Google is finally moving forward with its mobile-first indexing. This is a buzzword that’s been thrown around a lot since 2016, but recently Google said that they’re finally going to start rolling it out.” -Kyle
“Human beings love good content. It’s like a joke. You just want to tell that joke over and over and over again.” -Kyle
“Meta Data is important to mobile indexing. These are things like Schema markup or if you’re posting a picture you want to say where the image is taken or the size of the image. This allows the crawlers to find out more about what you’re posting and categorize it.” -Kyle
“Google dings you for having an m. website rather than a responsive web design.” -Min
“Now that Google is putting all of their eggs in the basket, or hands in the food, people have to hop on it with mobile first indexing.” -Kyle

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