VMP 064: 3 New Digital Marketing Updates You Need To Check Out

Digital marketing is changing faster than ever! It is crazy, but also really exciting because I feel like we're in the golden age of marketing. Highly sophisticated marketing tools and techniques are available to everyone now, if you are able to keep up to date, which is what this week's episode is for. There have been some really big updates, and so this episode is about whats new and what you need to be keeping your eye out for. 

The three areas that I'll be covering in today's episode are: Snapchat's update, The Facebook Business Manager and why I think it is time for you and your practice to switch over to that, and lastly Instagram ads! I've been really excited for Instagram ads, and I'll definitely be doing a full episode on Instagram here shortly.

The release of Snapchat's new facial recognition animation is  a really big deal I think. Even though on the surface it might look pretty silly or not that important I think it is big for a few reasons. First let's talk about something that is important to think about when you're approaching social media, which is when should you start considering a platform/app/social media outlet so that you're not always chasing the next shiny object. Marketing is a pretty predictable pattern now, although it is unlike anything we've ever seen in history so far. Typically in the past, the established older generation would control the distribution of content, IE Radio/TV/Newspaper, but now the youth are driving what is cool and interesting with respect to content creation and consumption. So you'll get a platform like Facebook, where it is adopted by the younger generation, it comes to a point where it is adopted by older generations and finally you have days like for the first time last month there were a billion people logging in. Amazing! 

Social networks work like that, you get youth going finding new things, they put their attention there, eventually more people adopt and integrate and when you have the attention of a large number of people you get advertisers. So in any social network you have the opportunity to grow your brand before all the advertisers migrate over and hopefully you can really engage and attract clients before advertising becomes really established. Facebook is definitely reaching maturity in its ad platform, but places like Snapchat are still in a way that you can be early to the game.  The latest update really shows me that Snapchat is doing a good job at innovating and staying relevant, so you need to be checking this out, even if it just from the standpoint of a consumer so that if your practice decides to start using it you'll know how it works and what works best. Be sure to follow my snapchat @VMPBrandon. 

The next update that I think everyone needs to get on is the Facebook Business Manager, which you can find at Business.facebook.com. Here you can access a bunch of really cool features and you definitely get a different feel than just using the standard Facebook Ad Manager. The reason why I think it is great to use the business manager is because if you have mulitple people using and posting to the account you'll be able to easily manage them here. You'll also be able to access the custom audiences, the new pixels and most importantly add your Instagram account.

If you hadn't heard, Instagram is rolling out ads, and this is HUGE! I've been waiting for Instagram ads forever, and they're finally here! In order to advertise on Instagram you need to add your Instagram account to your business manager. You can do this by going to settings and clicking on Instagram account.  Facebook continues to innovate and do an amazing job with their ad product, so it is so so so so so exciting to see the same demographic choices available within the power editor to create Instagram placements. I'll definitely be doing an Instagram episode here in the near future. 

The definite theme of the episode this week is that you need to be working on becoming a practitioner of these digital marketing platforms. See how people are using the social networks, how they interact with brands,and how they engage and comment on ads. If you can see people who are having success, duplicate what they have and cut down the time on the learning curve. One thing to really take note of is what makes people angry so that you can avoid doing harm when you go to a new platform. 

If you have any questions or comments be sure to let me know: brandon@veterinarymarketingpodcast.com