This Company Has a Perfect Ecommerce Website Design for Inbound Marketing

There's more to ecommerce website design than you might think. Everyone gets it sort of right, but not every site out there does it all -- except perhaps ModCloth.

I may not shop there personally, but I’m a huge fan of the ModCloth ecommerce inbound marketing model. When breaking down the anatomy of an amazing ecommerce site, ModCloth seems to have it all, from an elegant and intuitive design, to pre-transactional educational content, to email marketing that rarely relies on coupons.

As marketers, we have to get beyond the echo-chamber of sites we personally shop with to find great examples of inbound marketing for ecommerce in action. I don't normally shop ModCloth, but many others do, and they've been highly successful. Let’s take a look at what makes ModCloth such an inbound marketing powerhouse.

Homepage Design

Okay, so saying they do everything well is a bit of a cop out. However, if we look at the welcome banner visitors see upon visiting the page, we see how easy various components of a great ecommerce site are to find.

In one place, we see the page identity, the personalized welcome, a link for customer service, a search bar, special offers, the shopping bag, and an easy-to-understand menu. Wow. That’s a lot of stuff in one space, and yet nothing is crammed or hard to see.

Blog Design

ModCloth must know that business sites with a blog get 55% more visits than sites without. Of course, as you can see by the menu image above, the blog must be part of the main ecommerce site for those visits to be counted in ModCloth’s metrics.

ModCloth uses their blog to move potential buyers through the marketing and sales funnel, just as it’s designed to do. The blog features products, how-to videos, images from customers, and general lifestyle information. In addition to working hard for the business, the blog is also a great way for people to spend a few minutes of downtime.

Their great strength in blogging is that they're targeting the lifestyle, or psychographic dimensions, of their buyer personas. They're not just churning out keyword rich content to rank in search engines; they're building an audience of relevant consumers that they can nurture toward a purchase.

Filtering Options

In addition to the search bar at the top right corner, ModCloth also offers a very intuitive filtering process for every item. Users can search by size, price, designer, and popularity. The easy-click buttons leave little room for error, so customers can quickly narrow down options to find exactly what they need.

As a bonus -- and this shouldn’t be a bonus so much as a way of life -- the filtering options really do return only relevant search results.

Customer Service

While ModCloth customer service does offer an email option, the company also make employees available through a live chat option or by phone for those buyers wanting immediate service. These options can all be found in one spot, too, by simply clicking on their Customer Care link.

But ModCloth doesn’t stop there. Not only can you find someone to talk to about the questions or problems you might have, but you can also reach out to a stylist to receive personalized suggestions and recommendations.

Secure Checkout

Buyers love ModCloth’s checkout process because it’s clear and linear. You can see from the progress bar at the top of the page that you’ll be taken through each step in the process with no links back to previous pages or unnecessary paths toward other pages.

They also make sure to show their security certificates with large icons so they’re visible. This gives buyers the warm and fuzzies, letting them know personal information will be protected at all costs.

Finally, they also offer alternative payment methods so buyers don’t need to share credit card information if they don’t want to. The ability to purchase through PayPal is just one more way ModCloth makes buyers more comfortable.

Up-Front Info

One of the biggest reasons buyers abandon shopping carts before finishing the purchase is because the cost of shipping is a surprise. Well, ModCloth makes sure buyers get up-front info about shipping. As you can see, buyers willing to wait a bit for their new threads can also take advantage of free shipping. Cha-ching.

Fun Product Descriptions

It’s easy enough (and conducive for search engine optimization) to simply list the basic stats, but ModCloth gives whimsical descriptions that still manage to convey the most necessary information. Sometimes, it’s fun to just read about the products even if you can’t afford to buy them all.

Again, the key factor here is the customization of the website experience to the psychographic dimensions of their buyer personas. They're not cold, clinical recitations of the manufacturer specs, they're written with the tone and information that their best customers want to read.

Social Media Integration

This company does a great job of including and engaging with followers and friends on social media. As you can see, visitors have several chances to connect with various social platforms during the shopping experience.

The first time comes on the main page, where all the different accounts are listed. Next, buyers have a chance to Tweet or Pin the items they’re about to buy or just recently purchased. In addition to bragging rights for the customers, it’s also good press for ModCloth.

Finally, the company does a great job of keeping social outlets current. Facebook includes images contributed by users and not just those posted by the company. Twitter asks random questions throughout the day to boost engagement and make followers feel included.

Instagram features heavily on the site as both a user-generated style guide and a place where customers can share videos with their thoughts on the products and the brand.

Pinterest is used for various reasons, but perhaps most importantly as a secondary product catalog. Whoa. These guys are busy.

Customer Voice

Various social media channels aren’t the only ways customers get to share their experiences. Located on each product page is a list of reviews for that particular item.

ModCloth doesn’t censor, either. For each less-than-stellar review, the customer service team reaches out with offers of assistance. Not only do the buyers get a chance to say exactly what they think, but ModCloth also uses that opportunity to improve customer delight.

Smart Email Marketing

Sure, ModCloth sends out discounts for their most loyal customers, but they don’t simply rely on coupons to keep their email marketing on track. Check out this particular email that simply informs users of new features coming soon. What a great way to keep building a relationship between buyer and seller.

Email follow-ups for abandoned carts are just as effective. Images are used to remind the user what they almost purchased, and a fun subject line prompts a smile instead of a growl. Well done, ModCloth.

Responsive Design

Because so many purchases are made on mobile devices, responsive design is a must. Fortunately, my favorite commerce site also makes shopping on smartphones easy.

First, the menu is very easy to read, and there’s plenty of white space around the links to make clicking easy for thumbs.

The images are quite large, and adding them to your cart just takes one click.

Even the filtering options are easy to use, meaning you can drill right down to the very thing you want to buy right there on your phone instead of having to wait until your laptop is in reach.

So, yeah. ModCloth’s ecommerce site is a veritable treasure trove of must-haves, and I’m not just talking about the cool clothes. If you’re looking for a role model, you could do much worse.

 

 

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Facebook New Subscription Service for Creators and Pausing Messenger Chatbots

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore Facebook’s New subscription service for creators and pausing Messenger chatbots with Luria Petrucci, Facebook privacy updates, and [...]

This post Facebook New Subscription Service for Creators and Pausing Messenger Chatbots first appeared on Social Media Examiner.

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LinkedIn Prospecting: How to Find and Connect With Future Customers

Do you want more clients? Wondering if LinkedIn can help you acquire more business? To explore how to use LinkedIn to find leads and turn them into customers, I interview John Nemo. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help [...]

This post LinkedIn Prospecting: How to Find and Connect With Future Customers first appeared on Social Media Examiner.

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Resume Format Tips You Need to Know in 2018 [Sample Formats Included]

Think of a really good print advertisement you've seen lately. What did you like about it? Chances are that while the content of that ad was important, the design played a big role in drawing you in.

It's important to think of your resume like an advertisement to job recruiters. Writing a standout resume goes beyond the content you put in there -- the format plays an important role, too. To recruiters, it speaks volumes about how you collect your thoughts and organize your ideas. So you'll want to make sure it's easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to digest. That means choosing the right sizing for your headers, picking the right fonts, bolding and italicizing where appropriate, and so on.

Get 10 free marketing resume templates right now.

To learn how to format a resume properly, check out the infographic below from Resume Templates 101. Then, under this infographic, see an example list of things a great resume format includes to truly stand out from the other candidates.

The Best Resume Format

There's no such thing as a perfect resume. But depending on your industry, you can pick the right assortment of attributes above and create something the hiring manager won't soon forget.

Here's an example of a resume for an entry-level graphic designer -- a role that some say faces the highest standards for resume format, given the expected skills of the applicant.

Font Type: Century Gothic

This font is a more wide-set sans-serif typeface. Modern design is all about clean typography, making tail-less fonts ideal. The wide-set appearance helps entry-level applicants make good use of empty space when they don't have much experience to report on.

Font Size: 12pt

Anything bigger than 12pt body text in Century Gothic can risk looking a bit unprofessional. This size works well for those who have limited content, and continues to work well as his or her career grows.

Font Style: Bold Name and Job Title

Between underlines, boldface, and italics, boldface is this applicant's best bet for the font type they're using. Italicized Century Gothic isn't distinguished enough from standard Century Gothic to use both in the same document, and underlines can dilute the clean appearance you get with this font type.

Bolding the first and last name at the top -- and every job title, skill, and field of study beneath it -- establishes a clean but obvious hierarchy from the top of the resume to the bottom.

Header Style: Standard, 15pt

Headers over Education, Experience, Skills, and similar resume sections should be visibly bigger than the body text, but not overpowering. A standard (unstylized) header in 15pt font governs each section of the resume nicely and doesn't clash with the boldfaced skills and job titles beneath it.

Name Style: Standard, 17pt

The first and last name should be at least another 2 points larger than each header. No matter what your industry or experience level, it's important that your name is the biggest text on your resume. Hiring managers look at a lot of these things every day, and you need them to remember your name -- if nothing else.

Why standard and not bold? I happen to think Century Gothic looks best as is, especially as the font size increases.

Resume Layout

As for the resume's layout, consider this order: Name, Contact Info, Education, Skills, Experience, and Awards. New professionals need to front-load their education because it's the most relevant item on their resume, while their "Skills" section showcases the editing software and equipment that is critical to their qualifications for any job opening.

Even if you're not an entry-level designer, the above infographic -- and following example -- is a model for how you can highlight the parts of your background that are most important to your employer. Now, get to writing!

 

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Here's What Facebook Says It's Doing to Protect Election Security

Earlier today, members of Facebook's staff held a small press event with a status update on efforts to prevent its platform from being weaponized to influence major national events like elections.

Last year, Facebook came under fire when it was revealed that it had been weaponized by foreign actors to spread misinformation and divisive content in hopes of influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Facebook published a transcript of today's remarks, where VP of Product Management Guy Rosen indicated the network would be focusing on four core areas of election protections:

1. "Combating foreign interference"
2. "Removing fake accounts"
3. "Increasing ads transparency"
4. "Reducing the spread of false news"

Here's a look at the work Facebook says it's doing in each area.

1. "Removing Fake Accounts"

This might be the most complex and far-reaching area where Facebook will be putting new efforts into place. In order to remove fake accounts, Facebook's Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos explained, the network will have to identify fake identities and audiences alongside false narratives and facts.

Doing so begins by identifying motives, which boils down to three main areas: influencing public debate, money, and what the "classic internet 'troll,'" Stamos said. 

Fake accounts motivated by the first item on the list range from what Stamos called "ideologically motivated groups" to state intelligence agencies, whose target audiences could exist within their own countries or others.

The second motivator, money, is the most common one. Many times, these bad actors stand to financially profit by driving traffic to their sites -- even if it means, speculatively, doing so by linking to false or divisive content.

Countering that, Stamos said, will require decreasing the account's profits by increasing its operational costs -- which is how Facebook has previously curbed activity from spammers. Facebook has made similar efforts in the past to penalize content with "clickbait" link titles that don't necessarily lead to quality or genuine content.

These motivations can vary or even be combined according to the event the actor is trying to influence. That's why Stamos said Facebook will be enlisting the help of external experts who are familiar with the various geographical or cultural factors that could play a role in what different actors are trying to accomplish.

2. "Combating Foreign Interference"

Samidh Chakrabarti, a product manager at Facebook, spoke on how proactive measures to combat bad actors of foreign origin relate to some of the efforts to combat fake accounts -- which, he said, is one of the most common ways such bad actors "hide". 

At this point, Chakrabarti explained, Facebook blocks "millions" of fake accounts on a daily basis as they're being created, which can help stop them before they can create and distribute content. Machine learning is said to play a major role here, which has been trained to identify suspect activity without having scan actual content.

Previously, members of the Facebook community were responsible for reporting what looked like suspicious activity, especially anything that might pertain to an election. Now, Chakrabarti said, Facebook will deploy an "investigative tool" that proactively looks for this kind of activity, like the creation of Pages with foreign origin that are sharing misinformation. Once these Pages are identified, they are sent to Facebook's security team for a manual review to determine if Community Standards or Terms of Service have been violated.

The efforts here appear to be two-fold: machine learning capabilities that stop the creation of these pages before they can distribute content, as well as technology that seeks out existing Pages engaging in such activity. For the latter, Chakrabarti said the manual process is quick, though he didn't provide a specific average time frame. 

These tools were utilized as recently as last December during a special Senate race in the state of Alabama, when efforts to identify foreign interference led to the discovery of politically-focused bad actors based in Macedonia, who seemed to be spreading misinformation leading up to that election. They were later blocked from Facebook.

3. "Increasing Ads Transparency"

Part of the effort to remove fake accounts also plays into actions that will verify the authenticity of the ads that accounts want to post.

That will include a new feature called View Ads, which has been tested in Canada and will be rolled out globally this summer. As the name suggests, it allows users to view any ads the Page is running under its "About" section. 

The summer rollout will come in the months leading up to the 2018 U.S. midterm elections -- and prior to that, said Product Management Director Rob Leathern, a new ad review and verification process will begin, which will require all Page admins to submit government-issued IDs and provide a physical mailing address before they can publish any promoted content. 

That way, Facebook can confirm the physical location and identification of advertisers, in part by physically mailing a letter to the address provided with an access code that can only be used by that specific admin for that particular Page. In addition to this process, advertisers must declare which, if any, candidate, organization, or business they represent.

And once the verification process is complete, Leathern explained, ads pertaining to an election will be clearly labeled as such in both Facebook and Instagram feeds, including the individual, business, or organization that paid for it.

And this summer, he said, Facebook will unveil a public ad history archive that contains any such content with a political label. Each entry will include details like the amount spent on the ad, as well as the number of impressions it received and demographic information about the audience it reached. The archive will keep this information for up to four years after the ad ran.

4. "Reducing the Spread of False News"

Finally, Product Manager Tessa Lyons spoke to Facebook's effort to curb the spread of such misinformation as false news, which will largely be powered by partnerships with fact-checkers.

To determine which content needs to be fact-checked, Lyons said, the platform will use various "signals" that include reports from Facebook users themselves. From there, fact-checkers can rate a story as false -- and if they do, its ranking in the News Feed will be dropped, which leads to an average of 80% fewer views.

Anyone who's shared the story in the past will be warned about this fact-check, as will anyone who tries to share it in the future -- and if it does appear in someone's News Feed, it will be displayed with information from those who fact-checked it. That information will help to teach a machine learning module to identify these stories quicker, without human intervention. 

These efforts will apply to text, photos, and videos -- and will also play into efforts to increase ad transparency and combat fake accounts. Any Page that habitually shares false news, Lyons said, will face reduced distribution, and lose its advertising and monetization privileges, "stopping them from reaching, growing, or profiting from their audience."

Currently, Facebook has fact-checking partners in six countries, including the U.S., where the platform has joined forces with Associated Press reporters to identify misinformation and false news relating to the country's upcoming elections, whether local, state, or federal. These reporters will also be tasked with disproving false claims made by such stories.

Lyons noted that these efforts are "a place to start."

"Like any company that’s had a PR crisis, Facebook is trying to take control of and own the misinformation narrative," said HubSpot Social Campaign Strategy Associate Henry Franco. "It looks like the company is taking some pretty serious steps to address it, too, both in terms of identifying and prohibiting bad actors."

But as Lyons remarked -- it's a start. "What remains to be seen," Franco said, "is whether it's enough to earn back the trust of users."

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Facebook Will Limit Data Available to Advertisers

Facebook announced yesterday that it will be shuttering Partner Categories: the product that allows third-party data providers to supplement advertisers with targeting information directly through Facebook.

In the announcement, Facebook noted that "this is common industry practice," but will still shutter the product to "help improve people’s privacy on Facebook."

Source: Facebook

For Facebook and marketers alike, the announcement is what ProPublica reporter Julia Angwin called "a big deal." Here's what's going on -- and why it matters.

Where Facebook Advertisers Get Their Data

Prior to these recent changes, advertisers on Facebook had a few primary sources of user data that they could use for targeting purposes, including data that Facebook itself has from what users provide on their profiles, as well as their activity on the network. It's not entirely unlike what's available in your downloadable Facebook data archive file, which I wrote about here.

That data could be used in combination with other sources of information that the advertiser might have on its own, like email contacts or survey responses.

Finally, there are the third-party data providers, which are the ones Facebook has severed ties with. These companies possess and provide advertisers with data that are often based on non-social-media activities, like shopping history and income -- which is part of what Angwin and her team discovered when ProPublica started investigating the breadth of Facebook user data in 2016.

We also found that 600 of the 29,000 categories Facebook offered to advertisers were from data brokers. They were extremely specific and often financial, such as income between $100k and $125k or frequent shopper at dollar stores. /6https://t.co/S4Yo2nEa1T

— Julia Angwin (@JuliaAngwin) March 29, 2018

The data from these providers are often synthesized in tandem with information that Facebook has from user profiles, helping to match (or target) promoted content to the most relevant audiences. It's a powerful combination that could be at least partially responsible for Facebook's growth as a valuable advertising platform -- to the point where 98% of its 2017 global revenue was rooted in advertising.

And again, as Facebook said itself, these practices are not limited to Facebook advertisers, and are frequently promoted as a value-add by some of the larger data providers involved, like Experian and Acxiom. The latter calls it a "data package" that can help advertisers "accurately identify relevant audiences for all of your media campaigns."

It's no secret, then, that providing these services is a source of revenue for the data providers, too. According to the Wall Street Journal, Acxiom stands to lose $25 million in fiscal 2019 revenue and profit. And while it seems possible for advertisers to still independently enlist these third-party services, a barrier to access is now in place that was previously removed by direct data availability through Facebook.

Acxiom's stock price at 2:25 PM EDT March 29, within 24 hours of Facebook's announcement. Source: Google

What This Means for Marketers

But how much do advertisers stand to lose from these changes? Well, that depends who you ask. When I first tweeted this news after it broke last night, one of my followers suggested that he'd be losing a major source of information for his work.

Of course that’s the targeting foundation of all my current campaigns...

— Scott DeRuyter (@SDMad) March 29, 2018

The extent of the setback to marketers and advertisers also depends on the industry -- those who depend on a consumer's shopping habits and history, for example, could potentially lose out by not having access to detailed, third-party data on it.

But keep in mind that Facebook has quite the cache of user data entirely on its own. Remember that downloadable data file I alluded to earlier? Have another look.

The file shows that Facebook possesses a decent -- if not confusing -- amount of information on users' interests and activities. And where that data really comes into play for most advertisers is in its own ad-targeting platform.

That doesn't necessarily reveal individual user data, but it allows advertisers to customize promoted content audiences based on it -- interests, location, and so forth. Here's a page from my own file with some of the "interest" data Facebook uses to help target ads:

That data isn't exactly minuscule, and some advertisers could still be able to effectively reach audiences with it. "The reality is that Facebook’s targeting tools are so powerful," says Henry Franco, HubSpot's Social Campaign Strategy Associate, "some analysts think this change won’t make much of a difference in overall targeting capabilities."

Why Is Facebook Doing This?

Here's the thing about the user data in Facebook's possession (the kind that's used within its own targeting tools): Most people don't really want advertisers to have direct access to that information in a way that attaches it to specific people.

Instead, it seems, the widespread preference is for it to be anonymous and general enough that, for example, an advertiser can target Boston-based women in a certain age bracket who are interested in KitchenAid and BarkBox -- but not be able to do is know who, specifically, the women are within that targeted audience.

That's part of what got Facebook into this situation in the first place. Previous policies allowed third parties like app developers and academics to access user data for things like research purposes -- but prohibited them from transferring that information to others. But when it came to light that one app developer may have violated that policy by supplementing data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica with that information, the social network began making changes to the availability of and policy clarity around user data.

The suspension of direct access within Facebook to data from third-party providers is just the latest in a series of changes. "More than anything else, it looks like Facebook is trying to clean up its act in the wake of the recent data scandal involving Cambridge Analytica," says Franco. "While this change might be a little reactive, it’s a step in the right direction for a company of Facebook’s stature."

Facebook isn't alone in its recent onslaught of privacy and other policy changes. Companies ranging from Apple to Venmo have also been notifying users of modifications, at least partly in response to the heightened scrutiny of Facebook and some of its Big Tech counterparts. (In addition to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, chief executives from Twitter and Google have also been asked to testify before Congress in the wake of these ongoing events.)

Wow, Apple with the timely shade in OS update form. pic.twitter.com/YL34i4DKnn

— M.G. Siegler (@mgsiegler) March 29, 2018

But it may not be entirely in response to this particular situation. On May 25, which is less than two months away, the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) comes into force and will impact the way organizations obtain, store, manage or process the personal data of EU citizens -- which some believe is also behind these recent policy changes and notifications.

But all things considered, this is likely not the last policy change expected from Facebook. And as the story continues to unfold, I'll be monitoring it. Questions? Feel free to weigh in on Twitter.

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14 Ways to Get Free Advertising for Your Business

When you work at a small business with a limited budget, it’s not really possible to shell out $340,000 for a 30-second TV commercial, or $10,000 for an email marketing campaign.

It can be frustrating when your budget dictates how many people your business can reach.

Surprisingly, there are a lot of free ways to supplement your paid advertising efforts. By incorporating free advertising tactics into your strategy, you can remove some nonessential costs and dedicate your budget to deeper, more longterm plays.

In fact, we suggest some of these methods regardless of your budget.

To help you spread the word about your business without breaking the bank, we’ve compiled 14 ways to get advertising for free.

Ways to Get Free Advertising

1. Use Google My Business to Optimize for Local Search
2. Check Out Yext
3. Write Guest Posts for Other Blogs
4. Answer Quora Questions
5. Publish Content on LinkedIn
6. Offer to Do Interviews on other Business’s Podcasts
7. Promote Your Website on Your Email Signature
8. Send Email Newsletters
9. Network at In-Person Events
10. Speak at an Event
11. Do a Free Product Giveaway or Contest
12. Put Up Brochures or Flyers
13. Create YouTube Videos
14. Take Advantage of Your Partnerships

1. Use Google My Business to Optimize for Local Search

One of the most powerful free ways to advertise your business is through Google My Business, which enables companies to manage their presence on Google Search and Google Maps. The tool can bolster your rankings in local search results. Ranking high in local search shows you’re a legitimate and relevant company: you wouldn’t rank #1 in Google for “pizza places near me” if you’d closed down six months ago. Plus, if you rank high in local search, more consumers will choose your business over a competitor’s. In today’s fast-paced world, convenience is key.

2. Check Out Yext

The more places your business is listed online, the better your chances of showing up in search results, and the easier it is for potential customers to find you. To ensure great local SEO, the details of your listings on every website and online directory need to match up. For instance, if your website lists your company’s new phone number, but Yelp lists your old one, this inconsistency could hurt your SEO. Yext scans the web to find every place your business is listed, so you can tweak your listings to guarantee accuracy.

3. Write Guest Posts for Other Blogs

There are a few major advantages to guest posting for a well-established blog. You can benefit from connecting to that blog’s audience, and you can also start establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Since guest posting on a popular blog allows you access to an established audience and high domain authority, this practice can sometimes be more beneficial than posting to your own blog. Plus, you can link back to your own website from your article, giving you an inbound link that boosts your domain authority and can increase your own website's ranking in search engines.

4. Answer Quora Questions

Writing content for Quora can expose your business to a large audience: TechCrunch reported that some of Quora’s active contributors receive more than 30,000 monthly views. Besides the large built-in audience, your business can answer direct questions from prospective customers. This lets you interact with high-quality potential leads and establish yourself as an expert in the subjects that matter most in your industry.

5. Publish Content on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an platform to connect with professionals, which is why it’s also a great place to share business-related content. LinkedIn’s blogging platform lets you demonstrate your expertise within your industry. Your connections and other LinkedIn members will engage with your posts and share them, doing the free promotion for you. With almost half of all social media traffic coming to B2B company sites from LinkedIn, it’s a missed opportunity if you don’t publish and promote content on LinkedIn.

6. Offer to Do Interviews on other Business’s Podcasts

To figure out which platforms your team should priortize, it’s important to diversify your promotion platforms to discover where your audience is already consuming content. Some of your audience might prefer listening to podcasts over reading articles. To reach those people, contact a few businesses with podcasts and pitch interview ideas.

7. Promote Your Website on Your Email Signature

With all the emails you send every day, it’s a shame if you aren't taking advantage of the promotional potential of your email signature. Your email signature can also be unexpected property to promote a sale, contest, event, or even a new blog post. Add a link to your business' website on your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles, as well.

8. Send Email Newsletters

An email newsletter can be a useful vehicle to promote content, share business-related news, and build deeper relationships with both potential and existing customers. There are plenty of free tools out there that assist you in designing, sending, and optimizing your newsletter. With the right time investment, an email newsletter can be the perfect place to share quality content with leads and potential consumers, establishing your brand as helpful and informative.

9. Network at In-Person Events

Connecting with fellow professionals at industry networking events is a great opportunity to meet potential consumers in a place where they are eager to discuss your business. The niche topics of networking events ensures you’re meeting high-qualified leads. For example, a “Best Technology Startups of 2018” event will primarily be filled with participants who are interested in technology and startups. Particularly for small businesses looking to make their first connections, networking is a chance to get your name out there, meet potential partners, and find opportunities for growth. Plus, it’ll keep you up-to-date on trends in your industry.

10. Speak at an Event

Similar to networking, speaking at an event about a topic related to your industry is another way to exhibit your expertise. Giving a thought-provoking and powerful speech will draw attention to you and, by association, your business, which can increase brand awareness and prove your business is qualified to tackle consumer’s challenges. To start, brainstorm different topics and volunteer at various upcoming networking events and trade association conventions. If you’re afraid of public speaking (don’t worry, a lot of us are), you could enroll in a local Toastmasters chapter to improve your game.

11. Do a Free Product Giveaway or Contest

A product giveaway or contest is an easy way to incentivize new viewers to check out and subscribe to your social media channels or website. Plus, handing out inexpensive branded products like t-shirts or mugs is a good way to spread your brand name. Word of mouth is alive and well -- and a little swag can go a long way.

12. Put Up Brochures or Flyers

Putting up brochures or flyers in local libraries, coffee shops, and businesses is a unique way to market to offline locations where people spend a good deal of their time. You can create free brochures and flyers on PowerPoint. Depending on your industry, it might even help you reach an ideal clientele: if you’re a physical therapist, for example, perhaps you could hand out brochures to local gyms or nearby hospitals.

13. Create YouTube Videos

YouTube has more than a billion active users, which accounts for almost one-third of everyone on the internet. Plus, 59% of executives -- i.e. decision makers -- go to videos before written content. Creating engaging and informative YouTube videos is one of the most efficient ways to sell your brand. If done right, your YouTube videos will entertain viewers enough to seek out your website.

14. Take Advantage of Your Partnerships

Partnerships are an opportunity to offer supplementary services that you don't provide. For example, a web design company and a copywriting agency might choose to partner together, so when a client requires written content for her web pages, the web design company can offer copywriting services from their partner. This increases consumer satisfaction, and it also provides exceptional advertising opportunities. When your partner’s consumers need your services, your partner will point them in your direction.

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New Facebook Advertising Research for Marketers

Is Facebook part of your marketing plan? Wondering if Facebook ads are still worthwhile? In this article, you’ll discover stats from recent Facebook advertising research. You’ll also find insights to help you make more informed choices for your advertising campaigns. #1: Facebook Revenue & Growth Statistics No one wants to invest in a platform that’s [...]

This post New Facebook Advertising Research for Marketers first appeared on Social Media Examiner.

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An Introduction to Black Hat SEO

What is Black Hat SEO?

Black hat SEO is a practice against search engine guidelines, used to get a site ranking higher in search results. These unethical tactics don’t solve for the searcher and often end in a penalty from search engines. Black hat techniques include keyword stuffing, cloaking, and using private link networks.

Appearing in search results is vital for business growth, but there’s a right and wrong way of doing search engine optimization. The dark art of black hat SEO is the wrong way. Black hat SEO seeks to game search engine algorithms, rather than solve for the user. Instead of earning the right to rank highly on search engine results pages black hat SEO uses shady tactics to get you there. Sustained use of black hat SEO techniques is likely to damage your presence in search engines rather than improve it.

If you are new to the search space, the purpose of search engines like Google is to provide the best results when someone completes a search. They want people to have a great search experience and ensure the results they provide do not include spam. They do this automatically through algorithms or manual actions that aim to recognize and penalize those engaging in black hat SEO.

Search engine algorithms have gotten more sophisticated over time, which is why you should avoid black hat SEO at all costs. White hat SEO is a much better method of doing search engine optimization. It’s a more ethical approach that abides by the terms and guidelines set out by search engines. White hat SEO consists of creating quality content and a better overall user experience for people visiting your site.

Black Hat SEO vs. White Hat SEO

Black hat SEO goes against the guidelines set by search engines and manipulates them to gain higher rankings. It can lead to being wiped completely from search results or gaining a lower position. White hat SEO is a more ethical way of doing SEO by creating quality content and a good user experience.

This article will explain what black hat SEO techniques involve so you can make sure to avoid them when devising your organic search strategy.

Black Hat Techniques in SEO

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of filling your content with irrelevant keywords in an attempt to manipulate where the page ranks on search results pages. Adding multiple variations of keywords where they add no value creates a bad experience for users. It may also cause your page to rank for irrelevant queries.

Google explains keyword stuffing as:

• Lists of phone numbers without substantial added value.
• Blocks of text listing cities and states a web page is trying to rank for
• Repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural.

Here’s an example of keyword stuffing for a website selling outbound marketing software:

“We are in the business of selling outbound marketing software. Outbound marketing software is what we sell. If you are thinking of getting outbound marketing software get in touch with one of our outbound marketing software consultants.”

I think you’ll agree, that sounds like a broken record. It’s pretty easy to spot and Google will be able to tell that the content sounds unnatural.

You may have heard the joke “an SEO copywriter walks into a bar, grill, pub, public house, Irish, bartender, drinks, beer, wine, liquor…”. This joke is about keyword stuffing and it is another perfect example of the practice. The words are all similar to each other, but they are of no value as they don’t even string up a sentence.

You can do keyword research to find out what people are searching for but overusing these keywords in your content is not a good idea. Rather than filling your content with irrelevant keywords, concentrate on creating useful content that focuses on topics over keywords.

Cloaking

Cloaking involves showing one piece of content to users and a different piece of content to search engines. Websites practicing black hat SEO will do this in order to make content rank for a variety of terms irrelevant to their content. Spam websites will often do this to try and avoid a search engine bot finding out the spam content they serve to users.

Tailoring your content to different groups of users is acceptable. For example, you might shrink the size of your website when someone visits from a mobile device. You might also change the language of a page based on the country someone is visiting from. A publisher like Forbes or Inc might change the ads that appear on a page in order to fund their content. These examples are completely acceptable. As long as you are not just changing the content that appears for search engine crawlers.

While there is no hard and fast rule to determine what's acceptable and what’s not, my best advice is to ask yourself, does what you intend to do solve for the user? If it does, then it’s acceptable. You should treat search engine bots that crawl your site the same as any other user.

If you are curious to find out how Google sees your website you can use the fetch as Google tool and compare this to what users see.

Sneaky Redirects

A redirect involves sending someone to a different URL than the one they initially clicked. Black hat SEO uses redirects outside of the purpose they are intended for. Along the same lines as cloaking, this might include redirecting a search engine crawler to one page and all other users to another page.

Another example is redirecting a highly authoritative page with lots of backlinks into another irrelevant page, just to boost its position in search results. A 301 redirect passes the majority of authority from one page to another. This means someone practicing black hat SEO could use redirects solely for the purpose of manipulating search results.

Redirects should only be used for the purpose they were designed. This might be in the event you change website domain or consolidate two pieces of content. It’s also acceptable to use JavaScript to redirect users on some occasions. Take for example, LinkedIn redirecting you to someone's full profile when you are logged in, rather than show you the public version of a users profile when you are logged out. Sneaky redirects, on the other hand, should be avoided. They violate the guidelines of search engines such as Google and Yandex.

Poor Quality Content

Poor quality content that’s of no value to the searcher is also a common practice in black hat SEO. This includes content scraped from another website either by a bot or a person. At one point search engines like Google weren’t good at recognizing content that had been copied from other websites. The Google Panda update in 2011 resolved this issue. Many sites with duplicate content took an instant hit in search rankings. Since then, Google has gotten much better at recognizing duplicate and low-quality content.

Adding invisible keywords to your content is also a prohibited practice. Some websites that engage in black hat SEO do this by making the text the same color as the page background. This means the page may appear in search results for those invisible keywords, even though there’s no visible content about them on the page. When a user clicks on the result thinking it’s going to be about the topic they searched for, they don’t find any of the content they were looking for as the keywords are invisible. If you’re solving for the user, there should be no need to hide content on your website.

The “bait and switch” is another black hat means of misleading search engines. This involves creating content surrounding a topic you want to rank for. Once the page is ranking in results for this topic, the content is swapped out for something else. This creates a negative experience for searchers as the content they click-through to see no longer exists. These practices trick users and search engines and they are not a good way to do SEO.

Writing original, quality content is an important part of white hat SEO. Not only is it required to avoid a penalty from search engines, it will also set your website apart. Creating high-quality content builds trust with your target audience and turns visitors into customers.

Paid Links

Search engines like Google strictly ban the buying and selling of links. They state on their website that “any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.” This includes sending a website free products in exchange for links. If you’re not sure of what’s an acceptable exchange, Matt Cutts, the former head of Google’s webspam team recommends looking at FTC guidelines.

You should avoid paying any other site to link to your content. Google asks users to tell them about instances of people buying or selling links. They state they will penalize both buyer and seller of links once the practice is detected.

If you’re reading this having purchased links without realizing this is a black hat SEO tactic, you should have them removed as soon as possible. You can also use the disavow links tool if you can’t get webmasters to remove the links.This tells Google to disregard the paid links when calculating your Pagerank.

Abusing Structured Data/Rich Snippets

Structured data is also known as rich snippets and schema. It allows you to change how your content is displayed on search engine results pages. It makes your content stand out from competitors and also gives you more real estate on results pages. You can add structured data to a page displaying a podcast, recipe, book among other products and services. Reviews schema markup is probably one of the most popular types of structured data.

Black hat SEO involves providing inaccurate information in structured data to fool search engines and users. For example, someone practicing blackhat SEO might award themselves five stars from a fake review site and add structured data so they stand out on search results pages. This is a very risky practice as search engines like Google encourage users to report websites misusing structured data.

 

 

This should not put you off marking up truthful, accurate information on your web pages. In fact, I highly recommend adding structured data the white hat way. We added review markup to HubSpot product pages and saw a 10% increase in clicks to those pages.

You have nothing to worry about, if you provide truthful information that is helpful to users. Google has documented the rules around adding structured data to your website and also have a helpful tool for testing your structured data.

Blog Comment Spam

As the name suggests, this black hat technique involves including a link to your website in blog comments. This practice happens less often nowadays as search engines like Google updated their algorithm to discount any links in blog comments. Most authoritative blogs now make links in blog comments nofollow by default. This means search engines like Google do not follow the link nor does it the link pass any authority.

Despite the decline in the number of people engaging in the practice, you’ll still find a bunch of people on Fiverr advertising blog commenting services. Blog commenting, with links to your website is a spammy way of getting links to your website and we highly recommend avoiding the practice.

If you own a publication, forum or community that allows comments you need to take care to ensure that your comments section can’t be spammed by either bots or people. Search engines like Google will demote or completely remove pages containing spam from the search results. Using anti-spam tools like Google’s free reCAPTCHA tool is one way to mitigate the risk of spam user generated content.

Link Farms

A link farm is a website or a collection of websites developed solely for the purpose of link building. Each website links out to the site or sites they want to rank higher on search engines. Search engines rank websites by looking at the number of links that point to the website, among other factors. Black hat SEO exploits this by using link farms to inflate the number of backlinks a particular site has.

Link farms often have low-quality content and lots of links. The links normally contain the keyword they want the site to rank for in the anchor text. Search engines like Google can easily detect link farms and using them should be avoided. Instead, you should use white hat SEO tactics like creating amazing content, graphs, data, interviews or any other content that allows you to acquire backlinks naturally over time.

Private Blog Networks

A private blog network (PBN) is a bunch of authoritative websites used solely for link building. They are similar to link farms in that they both aim to exaggerate the number of links pointing to a website. Each PBN site links to the site they want to boost in the search results but do not link to each other.

Black Hat SEOs wanting to build a private network will normally buy expired domains that have already built up authority. They’ll write content similar to what already existed on the domain before it expired and add links to their own site. They hope that search engines won’t notice they’re controlling a network of websites and rank their main website mucher higher in the search results.

Search engines have gotten clever at spotting PBNs and your site could be hit with a severe penalty if you are using PBNs to improve your search presence. Rather than put effort into spinning up fake websites focus on creating quality content under your own domain. Keeping your content under one roof means your site will be highly authoritative as everyone will link to the one domain.

Examples of Black Hat SEO

Groupon’s Bait and Switch

Groupon was accused of doing a bait and switch by San Francisco Comprehensive Tours. The tour company ran a one of promotion with Groupon but the voucher website continued to advertise the promotion on Google long after it had ended. When searchers clicked on Groupon’s page there was no discount to be found as the content had been swapped out. This bait and switch happened in a PPC advertisement but they often happen on organic results too.

J.C. Penney’s Black Hat Links

J.C. Penney ranked at the top of search results for a vast number of keywords from “skinny jeans” to “home decor”. The retailer’s exceptional performance in search results was perfectly timed around the holiday season. This outstanding performance in search results was thanks to black hat SEO link building techniques that slipped under Google’s radar.

Just over 2,000 backlinks were discovered by Doug Pierce. These links contained anchor text with the very keywords J.C. Penney wanted to rank for on search engines. Many of the links were found on websites of no relevance to J.C. Penney. The topics of these websites ranged from casinos to cars. J.C. Penney claimed no responsibility for the links that were found in an interview with the New York Times.

Google confirmed the actions of J.C. Penney went against their webmaster guidelines and revealed that they also had violated webmaster guidelines on three previous occasions. J.C. Penney received a Google penalty that saw them drop down close to seventy positions on Google for terms such as “living room furniture.”

Sprint’s User Generated Spam

In 2013 a user called Redleg x3 posted on Google’s Webmaster Central forum explaining Sprint got a notification from Google warning of user-generated spam on their website. Google’s Matt Cutts commented on the thread saying he could see the majority of spam had been removed from the website. He explained the company should “...try to catch the spam a little faster or see if there are some ways to make it a bit harder for the spammers to post a large amount of messages on the community pages.”

Forbes Selling Links

Someone appearing to be from Forbes posted on the Google Webmaster Central forum seeking help with a link violation notice. The notice asked Forbes to remove unnatural links from their site’s content.

Google’s Matt Cutts commented in the thread that he had confirmed multiple times that paid links that pass PageRank. Cutts recommended that Forbes remove the paid links that pass PageRank to have the penalty reversed. TechCrunch reported that Forbes began to remove the paid links back in 2011 after receiving the penalty.

Google Chrome’s Paid Link

Even Google messes up their own SEO from time to time. On one occasion they included a follow link in a sponsored post about Google Chrome. This falls under black hat SEO as the link was included as part of sponsored content that was paid for by the company. The Google webspam team applied a penalty to www.google.com/chrome, reducing its Pagerank for a period of sixty days. The black mark against Google Chrome caused them to drop in position on search results for the term “browser”.

Why You Should Avoid Black Hat SEO

While black hat SEO is not illegal, it does violate webmaster guidelines set out by search engines. In other words, it’s still against the rules. This means if you engage in black hat SEO, you must be willing to get hit with a nasty penalty as punishment. Getting a penalty from search engines will cause your website to drop down in the search results or worse, it could be removed completely. This means your website will gain less traffic and ultimately, fewer customers.

Search engines have gotten better and better at spotting black hat SEO techniques. Nowadays getting caught for practicing black hat SEO is pretty much unavoidable. Black hat SEO does not solve for the searcher nor does it solve for the search engine. While you may see short-term gains from black hat SEO over time search engines will pick up on your black hat ways damaging your presence in search.

The Blurred Lines of Grey Hat SEO

You won’t find grey hat SEO in the middle of a Robin Thicke song, but you will find it somewhere in the middle of black and white hat SEO. If there’s an SEO tactic you find hard to categorize as black or white hat SEO, then it’s probably a grey hat technique.

What is Grey Hat SEO?

Grey hat SEO consists of slightly shady SEO tactics. While they are not against search engines prohibited practices, they are slightly unethical and could be banned in the future.

Grey hat SEO threads close to the line of black hat SEO. Grey hat tactics are normally not listed in webmaster guidelines as prohibited practices but they are a little dubious. Many grey hat practices have become black hat practices over time, once search engines found out about them.

How To Avoid Black Hat SEO

There’s no doubt black hat SEO is a risky business that’s not worth engaging in. Here are best practices to avoid black hat SEO:

• Treat the searcher and search engines the same way. Avoid “cloaking” or tricking search engine crawlers by redirecting them to another page. You should always focus your efforts on solving for the searcher and create a great user experience from search engine to site.
• Write only good quality original content that avoids keyword stuffing. Never scrape, duplicate or reword content that belongs to others. Google’s content guidelines and our content creation kit may be helpful.
• Abide by the rules when adding structured data to your website. Ensure any schema markup you add is accurate and not misleading to users.
• Never buy or sell links and remember, it’s not just money that’s considered a black hat exchange. Providing free products in exchange for links is also prohibited. If you are unsure if an exchange might be unethical lean on the FTC endorsement guidelines and consult this detailed blog post about paid links from Google.
• Avoid setting up a private blog network for the purpose of getting links. Differentiate your website and content so people link to you naturally rather than fake it till you make it. That never ends well.
• Stay up to date on webmaster guidelines so you can avoid black hat tactics prohibited by search engines. Here are the webmaster guidelines for Google, Yahoo and Yandex.

Don’t make your next search “how do I get rid of a Google penalty?” If you need to question whether something is black hat or not, it probably is. A white hat SEO strategy is a much better approach to search engine optimization. In the long run, it will pay dividends and you can sleep at night knowing you’ll never see a dip in your rankings due to a nasty penalty. So for the love of search engines, never do black hat SEO. After all, they are the ones that keeping us SEOs in the business.

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What is Ecommerce? [Quick Guide]

Ecommerce, short for “electronic commerce,” is the process of buying and selling physical or electronic items online.

In 2018, ecommerce is more popular than ever before. For many people, it has replaced brick-and-mortar stores as the preferred way to shop. Mobile devices have greatly contributed to the rise of ecommerce: it’s estimated that mobile will account for 70% of all ecommerce traffic by the end of this year alone.

Social media sites like Facebook have further helped ecommerce gain popularity. Facebook reported an advertising revenue of $9.16 billion in the second quarter of 2017 (which is a 47% increase since the second quarter of 2016), and 87% of Facebook’s overall advertising revenue comes from mobile devices. As social media sites merge with ecommerce platforms like Shopify, more people will begin integrating ecommerce into their daily shopping habits.

Ecommerce isn’t going anywhere, and it’s only going to keep getting bigger: According to Digital Commerce 360, ecommerce will account for 17% of all retail sales by 2022.

What is ecommerce?

Ecommerce is short for “electronic commerce,” and is any business or commercial transaction conducted electronically. Ecommerce is most well-known as the process of buying and selling physical or electronic items online. Examples include online retail shopping, auction sites like eBay, trading goods and services between corporations, and online banking.

Types of Ecommerce

There are three primary types of ecommerce transactions:

• Business to Business (B2B), in which one business sells directly to another business.
• Business to Consumer (B2C), in which a business sells directly to consumers.
• Consumer to Consumer (C2C), in which one consumer is selling to another via auction or social media (eBay and Craigslist are good examples of this, but so is Facebook marketplace).

Although online shopping is the most obvious form of ecommerce, online banking is technically also considered ecommerce.

Benefits of Ecommerce

Ecommerce is beneficial for businesses in a few major ways: it can reduce costs by limiting the expenses of owning and running a physical store. It's faster and more convenient than most traditional business transactions, and it can reach consumers in areas where geographical barriers would have prevented the expansion of physical retail locations.

Investing in ecommerce can also increase revenue: it allows businesses to reach more customers than physical locations alone, and also has big potential to influence more in-store purchases.

For consumers, ecommerce reduces costs by offering you more options. For example, if you go to Best Buy, you must pay Best Buy prices for a TV. Online, you can compare Best Buy TV costs to Target TV costs, or you can check out identical TV brands on eBay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and countless other sites. Essentially, ecommerce lets you compare prices with the entire world, rather than just your geographical region, which can afford you the luxury of choosing the best brand for your budget.

As ecommerce evolves, it's important to keep an eye on ecommerce trends. Even if you’re a brick-and-mortar shop, you can still benefit from learning about ecommerce, since ecommerce is a good indicator of what consumers expect and want from their shopping experience.

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Facebook Is Updating Its Privacy Tools. Here's a Look at What to Expect.

Facebook announced this morning that it will roll out changes to its privacy tools to make them clearer and easier to find.

The announcement, penned by Facebook's VP and Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan and VP/Deputy General Counsel Ashlie Beringer, led with an acknowledgment of how confusing the privacy tools were previously -- with a claim that the new updates "have been in the works for some time" but were prompted by "the events of the past several days."

Those events, of course, refer to the fallout Facebook has experienced from the alleged spread and misuse of personal user data from analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.

These changes will be made "in the coming weeks," the announcement said -- and when I re-downloaded the Facebook mobile app (the latest version available on iOS after the announcement was published), I didn't see the updates described and illustrated in this morning's statement. 

That said, here's what Facebook says we can expect.

1. "Controls That Are Easier to Find and Use"

According to Egan and Beringer's announcement, the settings menu has been redesigned on the Facebook mobile app to help make controls easier to find. Previously, account (and other) settings were distributed among 20 different pages -- but now, Facebook says, they'll be accessible from one place.

Here's a before-and-after snapshot:

Source: Facebook

Again, when I tried to access my own account and privacy settings, I didn't see any changes. Here's what mine looked like:

 

Additionally, the statement says, Facebook has "cleaned up outdated settings so it’s clear what information can and can’t be shared with apps."

2. "New Privacy Shortcuts Menu"

There's been a "privacy shortcuts" menu on the Facebook mobile app for a while now, but according to the statement, users can expect major changes.

Here's what they look like now, on my app:

With the updates, however, these shortcuts should be "clearer, more visual, and easy-to-find." They'll include capabilities like adding such protections as two-factor authentication for more secure logins -- that's the message you receive when you log in from a new device and have to confirm if it's actually you.

The shortcuts will also include personal information controls that allow users to review what they’ve shared, and delete it if they want to -- including posts shared or reacted to, friend requests sent, and Facebook search history.

The privacy shortcuts will also include ad controls, allowing users to manage the data used by Facebook to determine which ads to show you. However, in the announcement, users are directed to the platform's ad preferences for an explanation of how ads work.

Finally, the new privacy shortcuts will include user management of who sees their Facebook posts and profile.

These features and controls are not entirely new, but the gist of the statement is that they should now be easier for users to access and change.

3. "Tools to Find, Download and Delete Your Facebook Data"

Facebook's new privacy tools will also introduce something called "Access Your Information," which Egan and Beringer describe as "a secure way for people to access and manage their information" -- things like their posts, search history, and the various other treasures that can be found in your data file.

Access Your Information will also allow users to delete anything from their timelines and profiles that they no longer want on Facebook -- with, we can only assume and hope, with greater ease.

It'll also be easier to download said data file, according to the announcement -- with the option to "move it to another service," which could be faced with trepidation by many users, given the current scrutiny around personal data ending up in the hands of others. Again, here's some of what that data file includes, and what happened when I downloaded mine.

Looking ahead, Facebook has a great deal of ground to cover in terms of re-earning user trust, especially when considering recent data from a Reuters/Ipsos poll indicating that it falls short when compared to some of its Big Tech counterparts.

The thesis of Facebook's communication in the days following these data misuse allegations is that it's open to change and transparency -- even if that means losing revenue and having to bow to the regulation it's seemingly worked to avoid.

Mark Zuckerberg is reported to be testifying before Congress -- specifically, the House Energy and Commerce, which Politico expects to take place as soon as April 12 -- and the company postponed plans to debut a suite of hardware products at its F8 developer conference in May (though it does say it still plans to eventually release them). 

I'll be monitoring the situation as it continues to unfold. Questions? Feel free to weigh in on Twitter.

Featured image credit: Facebook

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Unriddled: New Data on Trust in Facebook, Product Announcements from Apple, and More Tech News You Need

Welcome one, welcome all to Wednesday -- the day that marks not just the week's halfway point, but another edition of "Unriddled": the HubSpot Marketing Blog's mid-week digest of the tech news you need to know.

This week, we continue to wade through the very crowded pool of tech news items to help you decrypt what's happening in this vast, often complex sector. 

It's our Wednesday tech news roundup, and we're breaking it down.

Unriddled: The Tech News You Need

1. A New Poll Shows Americans Trust Facebook Less Than Its Big Tech Counterparts

In the midst of ongoing backlash from the alleged misuse of personal user data, Facebook is earning less trust from Americans than other key players in the Big Tech space, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. 

When asked how much they trust a selection of tech companies to obey data privacy protection laws, 41% of Americans say they trust Facebook, while 51% do not.

Out of the same set of respondents, 66% say they trust Amazon to obey data privacy protection laws, while 62% trust Google. The audience was also asked the same question about Microsoft (60% trust), Apple (53%), and Yahoo (48%). 

Source: Reuters

The poll results, which were released on Sunday, came shortly before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) confirmed it will be conducting a non-public investigation into Facebook's privacy practices. It's not the social network's first run-in with this particular federal agency -- in 2011, it also had to settle FTC charges after failing to make good on several promises regarding user privacy.

2. Facebook, Meanwhile, Continues to Make News Feed Changes: This Time, With Local News

Facebook announced yesterday it would continue to prioritize local news in users' News Feeds: a change that was first announced in January, while being tested in six U.S. cities.

Now, according to yesterday's announcement, the change will be rolling out "in all countries, in all languages."

The statement, written by Facebook's Head of News Product Alex Hardiman and Head of News Partnerships Campbell Brown, notes these changes to the News Feed algorithm will allow users to see more news "from local sources covering their current city and other cities they may care about."

According to the initial January pilot, a "local" news source is defined by the number of clicks its links receive by users in a certain geographic area. That means, for a user in a given region, stories from these sources are more likely to appear higher in the News Feed if you follow their Pages, or your friends share content from them.

But with this update, the scope of "local" is a bit more flexible -- and now, "we’ll consider a publisher as local to multiple cities if the people in those cities are more likely than the people outside of those cities to read articles from the publisher’s domain," write Hardiman and Brown.

These changes appear to be part of Facebook's ongoing efforts to emphasize personal-network-focused content in the News Feed. That overarching change to the algorithm was also first announced in January, following initial revelations the network had been weaponized to spread misinformation and divisive content to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

3. Uber Is Exiting Southeast Asia

In an email to the company's Southwest Asia staff, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi confirmed that the ride-hailing app would be exiting that region, and selling its shares to its largest competitor there: Grab.

Grab, which describes itself as "O2O mobile platform" (online-to-offline), currently operates across six countries in the region, including Singapore and Thailand. For Uber, this is not the first major international market exit of this nature -- in China, one of its largest geographical competitors, Didi, acquired Uber's business in that country in 2016. And in Europe, Uber merged with Russian competitor Yandex.Taxi last July, ceasing its operations there.

"One of the potential dangers of our global strategy is that we take on too many battles across too many fronts and with too many competitors," wrote Khosrowshahi. "This transaction now puts us in a position to compete with real focus and weight in the core markets where we operate."

Partnering with #grab to create the market leader and bet on @AnthonyPY_Tan and team. Huge thanks to teamUber to get us here and good result for our shareholders and partners. https://t.co/c1ANSp9qjH

— dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) March 26, 2018

To some, those "core markets" are the U.S. and Europe, where SoftBank -- Uber's largest shareholder following a $9.3 billion investment in January -- has verbally stressed it wants the company to focus its efforts.

The deal with Grab will leave Uber with a 27.5% stake in what Khosrowshahi called "the combined company," where roughly 500 Uber employees will be working once the transition is complete.

The news comes on the heels of a fatal incident involving one of Uber's self-driving cars in Arizona last week, which has led to the suspension of autonomous vehicle testing by several manufacturers -- including, according to Recode's Johana Bhuiyan, Toyota and Nvidia.

4. Twitter Has Officially Banned Cryptocurrency Ads

Following rumors it might join its counterparts at Facebook and Google, Twitter has officially banned ads pertaining to cryptocurrency.

According to Reuters, the new policies will prohibit ads pertaining to both cryptocurrency sales, as well as initial coin offerings (ICO). The rules are said to have rolled out yesterday -- and the following appears on Twitter's Restricted Content Policies for financial services:

The announcement comes among suspicions that Twitter, as well as Facebook and Google, might be facing government regulation that it has seemingly sought to avoid. Following recent allegations that personal Facebook user data was misused by bad actors, the CEOs of all three companies have been invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee (Zuckerberg has been asked to appear before two additional congressional committees, as well, and there are reports he has agreed), raising questions about the potential of a federal gatekeeping role in the area of user privacy.

It's also worth noting that the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) comes into force this May, which concerns the personal data of EU citizens -- leaving many wondering if a U.S. version might be on the horizon.

5. Apple Unveiled An "Affordable" iPad for Students

At a press event in Chicago yesterday, Apple announced it would be selling a new 9.7-inch iPad at a lower price point with a certain audience in mind: students. The product unveil came ahead of the company's June World Wide Developers Conference.

In keeping with the theme of education -- the event was held at Chicago's Lane Tech high school -- Apple also announced the iPad will be available for $299 for students and schools, compared to $329 for other consumers. It's also designed to work with Apple Pencil: a digital wand that allows users to draw and write on the device screens as they might with a pen.

Before this announcement, the Apple Pencil was only supported by the (pricier) iPad Pro, and wasn't included. Instead, it had to be purchased separately for $99.

Source: Apple

With this newest product release, the Apple Pencil still has to be purchased separately, but it's available at a lower price point for students and schools at $89 (the price point for other consumers is $99). That makes the total combined product cost just shy of $400, or more if users also choose to purchase a keyboard.

Compare that to the very first Chromebook tablet, which was unveiled the day before Apple's event, and is also priced at $329 -- and according to Google's official announcement, it comes with a stylus -- a similar digital pen -- inside the package. 

It's also being positioned as a product particularly fitting for the education sector, with the benefits to students outlined in the product launch announcement, including the tablet's augmented reality (AR) capabilities that will allow students to simulate such experiences as looking "into the eye of a miniature Category 5 hurricane or ... a strand of DNA." 

Source: Google

Promotion around Apple's new iPad also emphasizes its "immersive AR experiences" that allow students to simulate activities like dissections.

What Else Is Going Down in Tech Town?

No Smart Speaker from Facebook ... For Now

Facebook has reportedly shelved its plans to unveil an AI-powered smart speaker at its May 2018 F8 developer conference. The plans, and their undefined postponement, come among the growing scrutiny and backlash from the alleged misuse of Facebook personal user data by third-party bad actors. Read full story >>

Facebook Knows a Lot About Me

What, exactly, does Cambridge Analytica know about me -- and what does it mean for Facebook and its users? To find out, I downloaded my Facebook data, and it got very weird, very quickly. Here's what it contains, and what it all means. Read full story >>

It Looks Like Zuckerberg Will Testify

Yesterday, unconfirmed reports Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress were swirling, aligning closely with the announcement he will not agree to requests to do so from Damian Collins, the U.K. Parliament's media committee chair (Facebook says Chief Technology Officer, Mike Schroepfer, or Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox would appear instead). Zuckerberg has been invited to appear by three congressional committees, but it is not yet clear which he will answer to. Read full story >>

Changes From Instagram

Since Instagram changed its algorithm to stray from chronological order in 2016, some users have been displeased. Last week, the app announced that could change, with the possible introduction of a "New Posts" feature and more. The announcement came among rumors the app would be emulating more Snapchat-like features, including code scanning. Read full story >>

Why Are We So Infatuated With Bots?

Bots are not a new concept. But, as they permeate pop culture, customer service, and more, our obsession with them grows. So, why are we so intrigued by them? Read full story >>

That’s all for today. Until next week, feel free to weigh in on Twitter to ask us your tech news questions, or to let us know what kind of events and topics you'd like us to cover.

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