[Ep74/13Sep21] - YouTube Shared How Its Recommendation System Works & Other Digital Marketing Updates from the Week of Sep 13, 2021

#TWIMshow - This Week in Marketing

1. LinkedIn Rolls Out Articles, Live Events for Pages & Creator Accelerator Program - LinkedIn users have long been able to publish longer content from their personal accounts. Company pages, on the other hand, have been restricted by an arbitrary character count. LinkedIn’s new Articles For Pages gives companies the ability to publish long-form content for the first time, rather than being restricted by a character count.

In addition, company pages are getting a new way to produce live content through an all-new product called LinkedIn Live Events, which combines live streaming with event planning. The simplified experience allows companies to:

• Promote a livestream in advance to a targeted audience
• Notify registrants and select Page followers when the event goes live
• Generate views on the event page from anyone on LinkedIn, whether they’ve hit “Attend” or not, during and after the show.
• Share the replay of the live content for further reach and engagement.

LinkedIn is rolling out additional updates to Live Events to make the feature accessible and easy to use.

• Fewer followers are required for access to LinkedIn Live
• Automated and expedited review process for LinkedIn Live applicants
• All Page admins can go live once a Page is approved
• An expanded registration form for Events
• A lead management integration with Zapier

It may not seem like the most obvious choice for creators, but LinkedIn is also looking to tap into the emerging creator economy, with the launch of its own ‘Creator Accelerator’ initiative to support in-app talent, and keep its top voices posting to the platform. The ultimate goal, of course, is to get these popular users to keep posting to LinkedIn more often, which will help drive on-platform engagement. You can find out more info, and apply for a spot in the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program here.

2. Facebook’s Invoice Fast Track Program & a New In-App Application Process for Grant & Loan Opportunities - Facebook’s launching an expansion of its Invoice Fast Track program, which enables SMBs to apply for Facebook to buy up their outstanding invoices, providing immediate cash flow benefits.

As explained by Facebook:

“For a low, fixed fee, eligible businesses can get cash immediately for the goods and services they’ve invoiced their customers for but would otherwise have to wait months to get paid - time and capital they can now use to invest in the recovery and growth of their companies. We will fund up to $100 million in invoices on an ongoing basis and are operating the program in partnership with Supplier Success and Crowdz.”

Through the program, eligible businesses can submit their invoices to Facebook, which Facebook will then pay immediately. Facebook then notifies the relevant customers that they’ll pay the Facebook Invoice Fast Track program when the invoices reach term – so essentially, Facebook becomes a debt collector of sorts on the business's behalf, while the business doesn’t have to wait around for the cash.

Businesses can find more information on the program at the dedicated Invoice Fast Track mini-site.

And on the opportunities side, Facebook is launching a new in-app application process for grant and loan opportunities, making it easier for SMBs to access resources and information.

The new resource showcase will highlight grant opportunities and business education programs, as well as SMB groups that can help provide guidance and support. Facebook’s partnering with a range of ‘mission-driven’ organizations for the initiative, which are focused on providing resources to owners from underserved communities, in order to ensure that such opportunities are reaching those most in need.

Business Page Admins will be able to access this new experience on Facebook by clicking on Business Resources and Small Business Funding.

As per Facebook’s latest State of Small Business report, more than 60% of small businesses are facing some form of difficulty in paying business-related expenses, as the COVID crisis drags on, and while the end is now seemingly in view, it’ll still be too far off for many to remain in operation at the current impact rates.

3. Shopify Makes it Easy to Market to Specific Countries - Up until now, if a business wanted to reach a global market, they’d have to sell on a marketplace or through another retailer. Shopify Markets is a new solution that will allow businesses to manage cross-border storefronts from a central hub. This eliminates the the need for a third party and allows businesses to sell directly to international consumers.

With Shopify Markets merchants can sell outside of their home country without having to worry about complexities like currency conversion, language localization, providing local payment methods, and duty and import taxes. All cross-border tools are available to Shopify merchants right out of the box.

With Shopify Markets, you can:

• Easily enter new markets
• Create tailored experiences for each market
• Customize variable such as:
  • Local currencies and payment methods
  • Pricing and price rounding rules per market
  • Product availability per market
  • Local languages
  • Local domains with automatic SEO optimization
  • Automatically show the right currency / language based on buyer country
  • Duties and import taxes on behalf of the buyer to eliminate surprise costs at product delivery
  • Gain access to actionable insights and smart settings for each market
• Manage everything from a single place

Shopify store owners can target single country markets, or create custom markets by grouping multiple countries together.

Shopify Markets is available in early access globally as of September 14, and will roll out to all merchants in the coming months.

4. Changing WordPress Themes Can Impact Your Google Rankings - Google's John Mueller said in one of his #AskGooglebot short video answers that changing your WordPress theme can directly impact your rankings in Google Search. It obviously depends on what is changing with the website when you change the theme, but in general, it can impact your Google rankings.

John first said that often when it comes to site themes, it is often more than just a splash of color on your web site. Often, the theme can impact how:

• Content is displayed including, headings, text and images
• Internal linking and the site navigation
• Page load time and speed
• Content options Structured data use

John then gave some tips on how to see if changing a theme impact your rankings at a high level, so watch the video here.

5. Google: Ignore Mobile Usability Issue Notices If Your Site Passes Live Test - Google's John Mueller said that if your page passes the live mobile usability test - that means you can ignore the Search Console notices of "new mobile usability issues detected for site." So as long as you pass the live mobile friendly test, you are good to ...