Breaking Stories and Top Articles for June, 2015.
Here are the Stukent picks for June. Do you see important news we missed? Let us know in the Comments. Your suggestions are always appreciated!
1. GOOGLE ANNOUNCES THE NEWS LAB
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Internet Marketing [/highlight]
Key Point: Calling it “a new effort … to empower innovation at the intersection of technology and media,” Google announced the launch of the News Lab in June. Getting a story into the news flow can be a huge help for SEO in particular and branding/publicity in general. Check out the announcement and explore the lab. It’s more than “just another tool,” it’s a collection of tools to help you do your job better.
[line]2. THE BEST TIME TO TWEET
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Social Media Marketing[/highlight]
Key Point: Buffer analyzed 4.8 million tweets and made data from the study public in this article. When is the best time to tweet? Well, that all depends on what you hope to accomplish. Are you seeking retweets? Click-throughs? Replies? It’s a fascinating look at user behavior. A download link to data charts is included. Again, here’s that link: Tweet Study.
[line]3. THE VIRAL EMAIL REPORT
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Email Marketing[/highlight]
Key Point: Here’s another epic study – Litmus looked at 400,000 email sends to compile data focused on email forwards: how often does your sent mail get passed on to others by the recipient… and is there anything you can do to affect that rate? Read all about it when you access the Viral Email Report.
[line]4. BUY DIRECT FROM PINTEREST WITH “BUYABLE PINS”
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Online Advertising[/highlight]
Key Point: Pinterest says users should be able to click and buy from businesses – right on Pinterest. They’re in the process of rolling out Buy button capability. To find it, look next to the Pin it button. For more information about the launch, read this article from Social Media Today or go directly to the Pinterest Blog for info.
[line]5. TWITTER TARGETING GETS EVEN MORE GRANULAR
Topics: [highlight type=”dark”]Online Advertising[/highlight]
Key Point: Twitter’s already robust advertising machine added another capability in June: installed app category targeting. Marketers can now show ads to Twitter users based on app types. Would it be helpful, for instance, to show your ad only to users who use a mobile financial application? No problem. Read all about it on the Twitter Blog.
6. SEO SUCCESS FACTORS – 2015 EDITION
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Search Engine Optimization[/highlight]
Key Point: Search Engine Land released their new “Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors” in June – and there are three new elements in the mix: Vertical Search, Direct Answers, and HTTPS. The publication is free to embed or download – best of all, it’s available to study. Check this important resource out and get an excellent overview of primary takeaways on the Search Engine Land website.
[line]7. BING ANNOUNCES MOVE TOWARDS DEFAULT HTTPS
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Search Engine Optimization[/highlight]
Key Point: Secure access via HTTPS is an increasingly important topic in SEO. That point was highlighted by June’s announcement by Microsoft that this summer will find “that traffic originating from Bing will increasingly come from https://www.bing.com as opposed to http://www.bing.com.” To find out more (and to begin thinking about the ramifications for SEO) go to the Bing Webmaster site.
[line]8. APPLE ANNOUNCES AD BLOCKING FOR SAFARI
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Mobile Advertising[/highlight]
Key Point: Given the opportunity to see ads or not see ads, many users choose to go ad-free. That’s fine – except that ad revenue supports product development and is the primary means of funding for many. Why would Apple support ad blocking? Some say it’s a dig at Google. Read the story and draw your own conclusions via this article by NiemanLab.
[line]9. GOOGLE TRENDS GETS A FACELIFT
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Web Analytics[/highlight]
Key Point: Calling it the “biggest expansion since 2012,” Search Engine Land drew on Google’s mid-June announcement about real-time trends to consider how adding YouTube and Google News data to Google Trends will affect monitoring of user interests. Kudos to Amy Gesenhues for covering the story in this Search Engine Land article.
[line]10. SEARCH BEATS DISPLAY
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Online Advertising[/highlight]
Key Point: Microsoft is ridding itself from the display ads business and will focus more on paid search advertising.
“We are deeply committed on the search side. We see it as a business that we’ve built out over the past six years as sustainable and standalone,” said Rik van der Kooi, the vice president who heads Microsoft’s ad business, when we talked today about Microsoft’s moves.
Read the announcement.
[line]Congratulations! You’re all caught up on your digital marketing news and updates for the month! Tweet your excitement!
Wrapping it up, there was plenty more to talk about in June than we can report here. These nine developments give us plenty to talk about, though, so let’s get the discussion started!
Wishing you an excellent summer 2015.
