Yelp’s 100 Million Stale Reviews

YouTube’s Tips to Improve Performance 

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YouTube has provided marketers with some insight on how to improve their brand's channel performance by answering some common questions.

1. What’s the best posting strategy?

Its algorithm doesn't optimize based on how many videos a channel uploads, so there isn't a specific posting frequency that works best.

However, it does optimize recommendations for users based on how often they come back to your channel. As a result, it suggests building for the long term by focusing on your content rather than aiming for a certain number of uploads per week or day.

1. Is it a bad strategy to create content related to trending searches since there are more competing videos?

There is more competition in trending content, but that also means more reach as viewer demand for these videos will also increase.

It is important to note that tapping trends is not a long-term strategy, since the viewers you attract based on trends probably won't stick around once you switch topics.

1. Does experimenting with new topics hurt performance?

Algorithms are designed to pair viewers with videos they're most likely to watch, so experimenting with new topics shouldn't hurt performance.

1. And finally, what impact does removing offensive comments have on performance?

It doesn't. YouTube’s algorithms optimize for engagement with the video itself, so if you have fewer comments, it's not going to hurt your video performance.

Google & Meta Face Antitrust Investigations

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European and UK antitrust regulators have launched an investigation into Google and Meta's so-called "Jedi Blue" agreement — allegedly, a deal between the ad giants that potentially undermined competition.

The European Commission said in a statement that it was concerned that the agreement "may form part of efforts to exclude ad tech services competing with Google's Open Bidding programme, and therefore restrict or distort competition in markets for online display advertising, to the detriment of publishers, and ultimately consumers."

It is also being investigated by the UK's Competition Market Authority, which is concerned that "Google may have teamed up with Meta to put obstacles in the way of competitors who provide important online display advertising services to publishers.”

Meta and Google have defended the deal, saying that the investigations were misguided, and that "The allegations made about this agreement are false."

In the event that two are found to be in violation of EU competition law, they could be fined up to 10% of their global annual revenue.

Google’s Plans for Short Form Video

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Your brand's TikTok video could become a search result in Google.

Google said in a recent Search Off the Record podcast, that it is experimenting with ways to show more short-form video in search results due to how useful and informative they can be for searches. 

How would Google surface more short-form video?

The platform would crawl and index them like any other piece of content, which is already being done with self-hosted short videos, like Google web stories, it was proposed that it might be possible with other video formats as well.

This would include any videos that have a URL that can be visited in a browser, like TikTok.

Yelp’s Declining User Base 

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Can Yelp continue to grow? According to its most recent investor presentation, the company is facing some major barriers going forward as its user growth and review volume have stalled, and almost half of its reviews are stale.

The review platform did do a couple of things right during the pandemic:

1. Reduced expenses

2. Increased income to pre-pandemic levels

However, Yelp is facing some major problems despite strong sales, including low consumer desktop traffic and the fact that mobile app usage has stalled.

Also, Yelp's review count is declining.

The company highlighted an impressive 244 million reviews in its presentation, but almost 100 million of them are from 2015, or older. 

It has introduced more products and services aimed at businesses. Will it be enough? Or is it too late? 

Images: Near Media

Is Your Brand Ready to Make an AR Game?

Image: Niantic

So you've built your own AR Lens for your brand. Are you ready to build your own AR Game?

Niantic Labs, the company behind the wildly popular AR-based Pokémon Go game, has announced it is acquiring AR firm 8th Wall.  The announcement comes as the 8th Wall builds its platform, Lightship, for brands to build their own AR games.

The acquisition aims to equip developers, brands and agencies with a complete set of tools to create interactive AR experiences that are easily accessible and work on mobile devices - no app required.

The company added that joining forces "will empower more Lightship developers to realize their visions for AR in the real-world metaverse."

Twitter Makes It Easier To Escape the Algorithm 

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Twitter is making it easier for users to escape the algorithm and choose a reverse-chronological feed. 

Yesterday, the platform announced a design change, which lets you swipe between Home (algorithmically served) and Latest (reverse chronological).

This has existed for a long time under the sparkle icon in the top right corner, but now you'll be able to add "Latest timeline" as a tab at the top. 

The option is available on iOS, and it will be coming soon to Android and the web.

As for the impact on marketing, it's probably a mixed bag. For smaller brands that don't usually appear prominently in their followers' timelines, people will likely see more of their tweets if they're on the chronological feed. 

Or, it could be that there's so much volume on the chronological timeline — given that there's no algorithm ordering the tweets — that your brand's messages are lost in the pile.

Reddit Expands 'Creator Stats'

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A nice addition for content managers who post to Reddit.

The platform is rolling out 'Creator Stats' to more desktop users, which will provide more insight into how their posts are performing. 

Performance metrics will appear on the post detail page after it has received 10 views. The insights will be accessible to the original poster or a moderator, and will expire after 45 days.

These metrics will display:

• Total post views

• Upvote rate

• Community karma earned

• Total shares

Image: Reddit

Google Vehicle Ads Available To U.S. Advertisers

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Google has a new ad format out — but you'll probably only care if you sell cars.

The company today announced it will roll out vehicle ads to all U.S. advertisers beginning this month.

The format shows customers an image of the car, plus information, including:

• Make & model

• Price

• Miles 

• Advertiser name

Clicking on a vehicle ad takes the customer to the Vehicle Description Page on the advertiser’s website. From there, consumers can perform further actions such as:

• Contacting the dealer

• Filling out a lead form

• Deciding to visit the dealership

Russia Blocking Instagram

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And finally, another short update on the Russia/Ukraine conflict.

The Russian government confirmed today it will limit access to Instagram.

The Russian government said it will “restrict access” to the app stating that the platform is being used to distribute “informational materials containing calls to commit violent acts against citizens of the Russian Federation, including military personnel."