Max is here for his monthly round-up of changes in the digital industry at July's SIMS.
Every month at SIMS, Max provides a brief run-down of just some of the tech-related news that may affect small businesses, and agencies that work with small businesses and we post the links here. If any of these catch your interest, but you're not sure how they would affect you, feel free to get in touch and ask!
There have been quite a few AdWords updates including a roll out of expanded text ads. I haven't added any details here, but you can find all the updates you need on the Adwords Blog.
https://buffer.com/instagram
At our last SIMS, a social media panel event, we talked about scheduling tools which allow you to write your social media posts all at once and publish them later. One of those we've used in the past here at Measured Brilliance is Buffer, who now support scheduling your posts to Instagram.
https://about.canva.com/iphone/
We've talked about using Canva at SIMS before, as a great way to produce what we call “shareables” - images to be used on social networks. They now have an iPhone app, so go and try it out.
http://kb.mailchimp.com/integrations/twitter/grow-your-list-with-twitters-lead-generation-card
If you're running Twitter ads, here's a great way to create Mailchimp signup cards directly on Twitter. It's officially supported by both parties, so if you're running ads anyway, why not try and get an email address then and there.
http://searchengineland.com/google-business-now-offering-businesses-email-based-verification-254039
Google My Business is now offering some businesses the opportunity to verify their Google My Business account via email, rather than waiting for the postcard to arrive. As people who have to deal with an internal postal service, this potentially makes life much easier for us!
http://searchengineland.com/whats-new-markup-structured-data-253371
“What's new with structured markup.” This is a technical one, but I know some of you are using and paying attention to this and it's a reminder that structured data, schema.org and all those all other good things exist as options for you and your web developer.
http://searchengineland.com/https-setup-causing-seo-issues-254236
A little technical again, but for those of you using a web developer, this is something that may come up over the next year or two. Encryption is being rewarded by Google, but only if it's set up properly!
http://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-bug-sends-re-verification-notifications-users-253555
Don't panic, says Google -- That verification email from Google Search Console was an accident, but it may be a good time to check to see who is a verified user on your account now.
http://searchengineland.com/heck-going-google-keyword-planner-253062
“What the heck is going on with Google Keyword Planner?” Synonyms sometimes return the same amount of traffic, sometimes they don't. This article has more detail and it's a reminder that these tools are only ever an indicator from Google.
http://qz.com/720239/facebook-just-sent-a-chill-over-every-digital-news-organization/
Facebook change the newsfeed algorithm once again. This is a reminder to everyone that if you're building your audience on someone else's platform, you are dependent on them and at the whims of a large company.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/20/birkenstock-quits-amazon-in-us-after-counterfeit-surge.html
Following on from the above reminder about being beholden to someone else's traffic, this time it's Amazon who has really been struggling with counterfeit and fraudulent listings affecting retailers.
http://marketingland.com/9-new-semi-secret-facebook-targeting-options-184810
This article highlights some lesser-known targeting options in Facebook ads, but I wanted to include it to let people who haven't yet tried Facebook ads know just how targeted they can be.
http://marketingland.com/twitter-verified-application-185241
Twitter are rolling out a ‘get verified’ application process. I know you've all been dying to get a little blue tick next to your twitter handle, and the time may have finally come.