With the American election taking an interesting turn (we’re loving the Barack and Biden memes) and the release of the highly anticipated John Lewis Christmas advert (everyone needs #BustertheBoxer in their lives) it is fair to say that November has been a roller coaster of emotions.
Now that we are at the tail end of November, it is time to heat the mulled wine and prepare to spend time with the family you love but don’t necessarily enjoy spending too much time with. Britons were expected to spend £1.1 billion during November’s Cyber Monday, and #finalfourwords of the Gilmore Girl’s Revival caused a Twitter storm. November has been a pretty big month for digital marketing, here are 10 highlights.
Brighton SEO tickets were released
Credit: http://www.clockworktalent.com/
In 2015 Brighton SEO tickets sold out within 13 minutes of being released online. On November 7th everyone watched the clock so that they could jump on the release of Brighton SEO 2017 tickets. Our very own Head of Search, Laura Hogan spoke at September’s Brighton SEO, and has been invited to speak at the next one – we’re a bit like a proud family here so get used to our bragging… You can get your Brighton SEO tickets here.
You can now add keywords, hashtags and emojis to block abusive tweets on Twitter
It’s no secret that Twitter has struggled to moderate and deal with their harassment problem that has seen multiple users subjected to racial slurs, discriminating insults and incredibly hateful snubs. Whilst Twitter is still refusing to deal with the issue at hand, they have utilised a series of keywords, hashtags, usernames and emojis that will enable people to block specific users and content from appearing in their push notifications. Although this isn’t dealing with the actual problem, we guess it’s a start… Find out more here.
The Google 2016 Round-Up Happened
We all know that Google is the Albus Dumbledore of the SEO world, but we were still surprised to see just how much power they have when it comes to everything involving search. In 2016, Google processed 40,000 search queries a second. That’s an incomprehensible 144,000,000 search queries an hour… Want to find out some more shocking stats? Then have a look at this infographic.
Real-time data is added to Google’s Popular Times tool in Search and Maps.
Everyone will understand the true perils of venturing to a restaurant, cinema or shop and finding out that it is heaving. This is especially frustrating if people are not your deal, and the idea of staying at home sipping from a mug of tea whilst binge watching Netflix is one that makes you feel warm inside. Once again Google has answered our prayers by adding real-time to their function Popular Times. This means that you can check out how busy a place is before you make the decision to leave that warm comfy bed of yours. Popular Times in Google’s Search and Maps has been around since last year, but the real-time data is a new and welcome addition. Read more about it here!
Mobile Search is changing SEO
Paying attention to mobile search is crucial, as more than 50% of Google’s daily searches comes from mobile. This means that the future of SEO is changing and adapting to our ever growing use of technology. In October Google announced that they were going to start testing mobile first indexing, making the need for your website to be optimised and responsive for mobile even more important. You can read a few tips and tricks here.
Brands are now able to advertise on Snapchat’s moments.
Snapchat has added snapcodes to sponsored geofilters, allowing brands to advertise around moments and not just locations. These personalised filters offer brands a path to link their trademark filters to a moment as well as a location. Whilst this hasn’t been used by many brands, it is a great example of businesses adapting their marketing strategies to suit their target audiences’ habits. UK high street store, New Look is the first brand to purchase a geofilter and snapcode for their AngelsxRobots campaign – have a look at it here.
Google began testing images in Sitelink extensions
On 22nd November, Ginny Marvin, an online reporter for Search Engine Land stated that Google is taking a different approach to images in text ads, in a Visual Sitelinks tests. These images will display in a swipe-able carousal, showcasing the different services and products that a business has to offer. We completely agree with Marvin, as we’re really interested to see how these Visual Sitelinks will perform in comparison to the traditional site links we’re used to seeing.
Google and Facebook crack down on fake news sites
Since America’s presidential elections on November 9th, Facebook and Google have been under scrutiny regarding the distribution of fake news on their platforms, and how it has influenced the outcome of the presidential results. Both conglomerates have fought back these allegations, and Google announced that they will ban fake news websites from using their advertising services. Facebook stated that they would no longer display advertisements with illicit and illegal content, alongside ads from fake news sites. This is a very interesting debate, and you can read more about it here.
Estimated £1.1 billion to be spent on Cyber Monday
It is predicted that Cyber Monday will see an estimated 15 million people go online to find the best deals and bargains from retailers. The final day of four day sale event, starting on Friday 25th November is expected to generate £1.1 billion, a 15% increase on last years sales. Cyber Monday has seen an ever increasing shift of online purchases being made, causing a slight decline in high-street and in store purchases. Want to find out more? Have a look here.
Instagram launches live video and disappearing content
On 21st November Instagram announced that they were launching two new features for all of their users – live video and disappearing media content. These new features are similar to the best aspects of Facebook, Periscope and Snapchat. One of the new Instagram features allows users to send other followers messages and images that will disappear after a certain amount of time. The other feature enables users to be live for up to an hour – but the broadcast is inaccessible once it is over. We’re more than happy to see social media platforms developing and meeting the wants and needs of their users. Find out more here.
What to look out for…
As we leave the penultimate month of 2016, there’s a lot to look forward to this coming December. We’re pretty chuffed to announce that Ricemedia are working in partnership with Digital Olympus on December 6th. Digital Olympus is a free online event that anyone can access anywhere in the world. Alongside this, we are taking part in Digital Marketing Radio’s Christmas special, featuring 110 live guests who are top digital marketing experts. We’ll see you there!
