Brand Hacking with Katt Wagner

New YouTube features, Gmail spam rules, TikTok lead generation, and Local SEO Updates | Marketing News Digest

• Katt Wagner • Episode 9

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Marketing News Digest: Social Media and SEO News for Week of November 1st

In this marketing news digest, we look at weekly social media and SEO updates worth knowing and share tips for getting the most out of them. This week, we have new AI rules, Gmail announcements, a TikTok and HubSpot collaboration, dozens of new YouTube features, and a cool look at the "Near Me" local SEO trick (and whether or not it actually works). 

View this digest on my blog: https://kattwagner.com/marketing-news-digest-week-of-november-1/

Watch on YouTube instead: https://youtu.be/miLjd8tYkEU

Topics:
0:00 G7 Update on AI Regulations
2:15 Gmail Bulk Email Rules for 2024
4:10 Hubspot Integration for TikTok Lead Generation
6:30 New YouTube Update and Growth Tips 
11:06 Does A Near Me Business Name Really Work? Google SEO Tricks
12:31 BONUS Local Marketing Tips


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Let's look at the latest social media and SEO news so we can grow our brands and businesses a little bit more each and every day. We're going to talk about the dozens of new features YouTube has rolled out, how TikTok and HubSpot have partnered up, gmail's new rules for bulk email, And a cool look at does the " Near Me" brand name really work? Does it really trick Google? If you want to jump to a specific topic, you can use the timestamps in the description. And if you're watching this on YouTube, smash that like button. I'm going to tell you why you should start saying that if you also do videos. It's a really cool new feature for YouTube. And while this is meant to be a curated news digest to keep you up to speed, if you do want to take a deep dive into anything we discuss here, check the description for my blog post. You'll see under each section, you'll see a link to the deep dives. But let's jump in. So I think the biggest buzz this week, even outside of the marketing world, is what's going on with AI rules. Because we had U. S. President Joe Biden make an executive order, and we also had the G7 leaders release an 11 point international code of conduct regarding AI technology. Speculation for regulations regarding AI technology, art, creation, all that... Has really become a common talking point this year specifically, and now we're starting to see the regulations catch up. The common goals between the G7 and Biden's executive order is on one hand to promote a safe, secure, and trustworthy AI worldwide, and to provide some voluntary guidance for organizations that are using and developing AI technology. I summarized the G7's 11 guiding principles in my blog, and you can also grab the link to the Forbes article. But in short, really they're calling to identify and minimize risks, find ways to monitor AI systems for misuse and abuse. they also provide transparency on what's currently capable for AI. You know, if consumers know that certain AI technology is possible, they might be able to make more informed decisions, while they're evaluating what they see in front of them. And the G7 wants to encourage organizations, people, developers, to share information with each other about developments and risks. So my key takeaway here is that we probably all expected that regulations were going to come along as AI technology became Increasingly adopted and discussed and used. And in general, it's good to just be aware, both as a consumer and in your own business, to be aware of what's possible. For our next news to know, Gmail is introducing new bulk email rules. This is going to start in February of 2024, but it's probably a good idea to prepare now if you use Gmail or Google Workspaces in your business or work with clients that do. The goal, of course, is to enhance email security and reduce spam. And there's really three pathways that Google plans to use to make sure this happens. One is that they're increasing authentication requirements. So, if you're sending bulk emails, you'll have to go through stronger source verification. now The biggest thing this relates to is domain spoofing. So if you've ever gotten a spam or phishing email from someone that appeared to be using a proper domain name as their email address, this is really what this is aimed to start reducing and, I think that's good for business owners and consumers. Now if you have a managed domain or you hired someone to set up your domain and email and everything else for you, you may have already set up DKIM. And if you're using an email service provider, they should be well aware of this update. You should be good to go. But if you're a DIYer, you'll definitely want to go and make sure this is set up. I'll throw this help link in the blog post for you. the second thing Google's doing is one click unsubscription. You might already see that at the top of your own Gmail, where if you're viewing a message, you can click right next to the sender information, there's an unsubscribe button, and it'll take you through that company's unsubscribed steps. It's really convenient and it's way easier than trying to find it hidden in the bottom of some of these emails. And then the third thing they're doing is also changing their spam rate threshold. And this is good for businesses because they're going to make it clear what that spam threshold is. So, they haven't listed here, but they say they're going to give us a solid threshold. And as they say, this is an industry first. So, as a consumer, I'll be happy to see less spam in my inbox. But the key takeaway here is, especially if you're using Gmail and Google Workspaces, but even if you're not, because a lot of these principles may carry over into other email services, You'll want to keep up with things that keep your email content out of the spam filter. Next, and I really love this one, I think TikTok has some of the cheapest advertising rates, as long as you know what type of audience you're trying to reach, it can be really great for a local business with a small budget to do some type of advertising, even if it's just boosting content. But if you want to take it to the next level and create a whole lead funnel out of a TikTok ad, you might really love this news about HubSpot and TikTok partnering together. With just one click, you can now seamlessly integrate your HubSpot to your TikTok business profile. And when you launch a TikTok ad with the goal of lead generation, when you capture a lead, it will be synced to your CRM in real time. That means you can set up instant drip campaigns and whatever other action you want to do, alerts for your sales team, and so forth. The great news about this is it can help you get some of your TikTok audience into other channels and get them engaging there. With the Sales Hub integration, You can watch where your prospects are moving. So, if they come to you through TikTok, or you've had them in your system, but they click a TikTok ad of yours, you can see all that behavior, and you can set up certain alerts to trigger maybe a sales call, or a sales email, knowing that they might have higher intent now to use your service, or transact with your business, because of an action they took on TikTok. And lastly, I kind of love this because TikTok does give you insights, but HubSpot will give you a lot more. So, By getting a TikTok user into your HubSpot CRM, not only can you get more information about that specific user's behavior and their customer journey, but you can also get a bigger picture through HubSpot of what role TikTok plays in your business. It's just my speculation, but I do believe similar types of integrations that are not exclusive to HubSpot might be announced by TikTok in the future. The key takeaway here is you can reach new audiences on TikTok, get more of your TikTok audience over into other engagement channels, watch their journey, and even be able to see when your existing leads from any source interact with you by taking action on any of your lead generation ads. I don't use HubSpot in some of my personal niche brands, but I've used them for clients. I'm familiar with the inside of HubSpot and how it integrates with platforms, so I'm excited to hear about this TikTok integration. If you use HubSpot or... If you're a HubSpot implementation specialist, make sure you let us know in the comments. For one, you never know who's looking to get set up with HubSpot. And two, you could help someone figure out if HubSpot is worth adding to their tech stack. So for me, it's a tie over whether these YouTube updates or our next story on the Near Me brand name, can actually trick Google or not. It's a tie. I love both of these news updates. For YouTube, we've got dozens of new feature updates. If you've signed in recently, you might notice that you have a YouTab over here on desktop. And you can now go here to look at your, your library, your history, and your account information all in one place. But I think there's some other cool features we should talk about that might not be as noticeable. They are great for users and for creators, so this is especially great if you do both. One of the features I love is stable volume control, so if you've ever gone from one video to the next, or you've just been watching a video that had bad audio mixing, you're not gonna get that blaringly loud video jumping in when something was previously quiet, and also, if you're washing dishes and can't go and fix the volume on your phone. And a video is too quiet, YouTube should now adjust that for you. So, really stupid, small, but convenient feature. There's also two new features that together are going to make it really easy to have a clean, well formatted description for your YouTube videos. The first feature is that links to your social profiles in your description will now populate social buttons. You can see how they look in the first. This is what an existing description that updated and then what I went and did is I went and reformatted my video description to move the links to the left so they're aligned all neat and then I put a quick summary of them nice short and sweet right after them so people have an idea what each of them are for. This is great for users who just want to be able to find someone's Facebook or LinkedIn or whatever social profile link. It's really easy without having to look through all the links that get added to YouTube video descriptions. It's also great for you as a creator because it looks neater, it's more appealing. One thing to note though is, when YouTube takes your link, your social profile link, and generates this button, it's pulling from the tail end of your URL slug. So... If you haven't set a custom URL slug for a social profile or you think it's time to refresh and update them, this might be a good time to do so. And you'll also be able to use better formatting in your description, such as italics, bolding, and strikethrough text. Now, another feature that I love is that the video seeking, you know, if you're trying to scroll from a video to a certain point in the video, It's called Scrubbing. That is much easier than ever before. You're gonna have larger thumbnail previews of the chapter you're scrolling through, and there's actually going to be a haptic, that means a sensory touch, if you're scrolling on mobile and have Vibrate turned on. You'll be able to feel a little vibration when you're getting back to the part that you originally left off on. So if you've ever scrolled forward to see what's coming up but you want to go back to where you left off, you'll now feel a little vibration to tell you exactly where that is. Now, this is really cool as a user, right, it'll make it easier than ever for you to jump to certain parts that you want to see, go back to where you were, or re watch a part. I think this is also great for a creator because, if you've heard me preach before, YouTube no longer cares if someone watches your entire video. If there's a part of your video that has high watchability, or it answers a really specific question, YouTube and even Google... will push people to the video and understand that this video, that part, answers this question really well. So this is a better time than ever before to use chapter markers and descriptive keywording for the different parts of your video, whether it's a step or one tip or a specific question and answer. Because not only is it great for user experience, but it's also great for your search visibility. Some other cool features... You've got a new lock screen feature, so, you know, if you've ever tried to watch a video and then put your phone in your pocket and then you mute your video, it shuts off. There's a better lock screen feature for the YouTube app. You can also now search for a song by humming, singing, or playing it. So, it's like Shazam on another level. you can now ask YouTube, hey, what's that song that goes like? And then hum away. Lastly, if you heard me emphasize saying smash that like button at the beginning of this video, and you are a creator yourself, this is a good habit to get into, because YouTube is rolling out a whole bunch of animations and visuals to help creators, both in stream and for pre recorded videos. If you watch this video here, you can see he's saying thanks for watching, I love you, please subscribe. And then when he says that, this button flashes and lights up. It even highlights the little bell notification reminder. So start using those cues in your video. You should be doing them anyway. You shouldn't be afraid to do it. But hey, if you really are shy, YouTube's getting really good at showing people that didn't subscribe more of your content in the future if they think that they would watch it again. But yeah, so there's a ton of new features. If you want to explore all three dozen, I link to that in my blog post. Let me know if you've noticed any of the new features, by the way. And then our last topic is, Does the near me brand name really trick Google search? Now, what I'm talking about is, if if you've ever seen a business or brand name put the keyphrase near me in their name. So, "Barbershop Near Me" would be the actual name of the barbershop. That's what we're referring to here. Well, last week, The Verge dove into this unconventional naming strategy, specifically focusing on a restaurant in New York City named Thai Food Near Me. And what this means is, this restaurant is going for online search visibility over appealing to walk by customers. And at the top level... That shows how influential Google search and online discoverability are for business and brand growth. And again, this is far from the only business that has done this. it's kind of become a meme. So, you know, with Thai Food Near Me, we've got this viral tweet that says, Big Brain Business Name. But we've got Dentist Near Me, which has more than one location with the same name. I'm not even sure if they're affiliated. We've got a Sushi Near Me. And we've got this one, best chicken and ribs Greek food. So, that one's playing on the best SEO search visibility. But does it really work? No matter what, to rank in local search, you need to focus on relevance, distance, and prominence. Those are the three factors that Google prioritizes. So, just because you call your business 3D printing near me, does not mean your business is going to be found by anyone anywhere looking for 3D printing by me. There is a GPS factor. Now, if you're struggling to reach a local audience through Google search, or you're just not getting certain keywords about what you do to rank for local searches. Don't be afraid to think outside the box, right? Just because your website doesn't appear in search results for a local keyword search, doesn't mean you can't get in there through other methods or be found by other people that live in your community. So, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but it's three short tips anyone can take advantage of. One is to encourage your customers and guests leave reviews on places like Yelp and TripAdvisor, anything like that. Why? Because they pop up in the top of search engines.. Google loves to show those types of sites when the search intent relates to making a purchase or a decision. The second thing you can do is collaborate with local social media influencers. This might be someone that's making videos on TikTok, or does review videos on YouTube, or it might be someone that runs a local page or group on Facebook. And remember, some of that content can appear in Google searches, and honestly, even though everybody wants more traffic to their own website, it can be really powerful to have another person describing what your business is, what you do, And why someone should check you out. The next thing, and this has been a huge tool for growth for me, for national and local brands, is to share your business in local groups or groups that are based on your topic. So, if someone doesn't need to visit your store in person to start communicating with you or take advantage of your service, I think real estate is a great example of this. You know, real estate might involve someone wanting to move to where you live, but it doesn't mean they live there yet. but that person could be exploring Reddit groups about a community, Facebook groups about a community, or on Nextdoor. So you can reach them and locals by being a part of these communities. Feel comfortable sharing what you do when it's appropriate to do so. And remember to keep your profile optimized. So if someone were to click to see more about who you are, make sure they can at least see what your business is somewhere on your profile. but anyway, that's my roundup of social media and SEO news this week. I hope you liked the tips that I threw in there in between each topic. We have some wait and sees about the future of AI regulations, but we have some already known and released features that are really cool for YouTube, for TikTok, and beyond. I hope at least one of these news stories or the tips sprinkled in in between give you some inspiration to help grow your business a little more each day. Please share your own comments and ideas in the comments if you're watching on YouTube, or on LinkedIn if you're reading this newsletter there, or connect with me on any of the socials listed to join or spark a conversation. Also, I always love to hear about wins, so if you want to celebrate in the comments, throw it in there, we're going to celebrate with you. As a personal win, I've really worked hard over the last two quarters to pave a runway, strip up my technology. I'm doing my own PC build this weekend because the video card on this one's kind of going. so I'm really excited to do some upgrades and have the runway strip to invest in producing content like this. So if you like marketing news digests like this and want to see other deep dives into Marketing tips, tricks, and tutorials. Make sure you subscribe, make sure you hit that like button on the way out. Because this channel and what I'm calling the Brand Hacking Project is all about practical tips to help small business owners with limited time and resources grow practically and efficiently through content. So, cheers for now and happy brand hacking!

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Katt Wagner

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