Posts about Market Trends (2)

Last week we published a post on Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44 billion. The deal has opened up wide-ranging conversations about where Twitter’s strategy on moderation and free speech might be headed once Musk is officially at the helm of the social media platform. Let’s explore the possible directions in which the Elon Musk Twitter era might take us, and how publishers can plan to navigate them and come out ahead.

It's official.

Much like we saw at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many brands are currently demonstrating a natural reflex to avoid any and all content related to the war in Ukraine.

Google’s plans for third-party cookie deprecation have become an evolving saga that continues to keep both advertisers and publishers on their digital toes. The phaseout of the legacy technology – at the behest, according to Google, of consumers clamoring for more privacy – has big implications for how advertisers can target and track consumers across channels and devices and how publishers can monetize their audiences. Since Google’s initial announcement, both buy and sell sides have been trialing different solutions that will enable them to continue driving results and revenue in an era without third-party cookies.

Each month, it seems, there's a new Next Big Thing that everybody is talking or tweeting about—an idea or concept that seems poised to completely revolutionize the world (or the world of digital media at the very least). It seems like just yesterday that the concept of the metaverse was the talk of the internet, but look out—there's a new kid on the block.

Nearly ⅓ of the American population listens to podcasts at least once a month. But one key feature has been missing from podcasts - an interactive community. Pre-recorded podcasts miss the opportunity to engage with an audience in real-time.

Over the last 6 weeks Facebook has both banned and reversed course on news content in Australia. This is scary! It demonstrated that publishers are at the whims of Facebook for traffic and, in turn, revenue and audience. Although Facebook has since reversed its decision, the message is clear: Facebook isn't always a dependable platform for publishers to reach their audience.

Disqus, like many of our publishers, partners with Google to monetize ad inventory. The recent announcements and blog posts from Google (and others) can often be hard to interpret. Advertising funds the continued operations of most of the modern web. One of the most important things you can do is ensure you are working with vendors that are partnering to provide you continued access to a competitive marketplace of suppliers. We wanted to share our early thoughts and some helpful advice.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has affected many businesses and their marketing strategies. If you planned on hosting an in-person event like a conference, trade show, or networking event, it’s probably been canceled or delayed. For many companies, hosting or attending in-person events are a great source of lead generation. As many as 19% of B2B marketers said that in-person events were their top source for securing leads.

The rise of content marketing has propelled blogging to new heights. And while blogging is an effective way to deliver content to your audience, there’s another method that doesn’t quite get the attention it deserves. Enter the humble podcast. Data released by Edison Research and Triton Digital states that 22% of Americans listen to podcasts on a weekly basis. That’s more than 72 million people!

Many of us remember the dreaded Snapchat update back in 2018 when they announced the redesign to the layout of the app, immensely confusing the majority of their users. The change was so disruptive that even Kylie Jenner took to Twitter to admit she no longer was using Snapchat, resulting in a loss of $1.3 billion from the company’s market value (6% decrease to their stock price). However, in the last year and a half since the drastic interface changes, Snapchat’s global user growth has actually exceeded expectations! Don’t believe me? TechCrunch reported that Snapchat has apparently added 7 million new daily active users in just the third quarter alone, bringing their daily active user base to 210 million (compared to the 166 million they IPO’d in 2014). It’s also estimated that Snapchat would reach 297.7 million monthly active users by the end of this year. On top of that, their share prices have actually tripled since the beginning of the year, according to TechCrunch. 📈

If you’re anything like me, you may be wondering… what the heck is TikTok, anyway? You’ve probably seen their branded content syndicated to a number of social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and maybe not even given it a second thought, but this quickly growing app is not one to ignore. It may seem like only teens are using this new, popular social channel, but it’s important to understand how TikTok can work for digital publishers too! We want to jump right into how TikTok can help publishers increase engagement and reach, but if you’re interested in learning more about the background and history of the platform, check out some great information here. To start, let’s dive into the offering of this trendy new platform.