Digital Marketing News: YouTube Beats Facebook, Twitter Verify for All, Gen Z Bailing on Social

Social Networking Platforms’ User Demographics Update 2018 – The most widely-used social media platform in the US isn’t Facebook. It’s YouTube. This new report from Pew Research explores data from the top social networking platforms for 2018 including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter and WhatsApp. MarketingCharts

Forrester Says Only 15% of B-to-B Marketers Are Fully Compliant With GDPR – According to results of a report released this week by Forrester, only 15 percent of b-to-b marketers are fully compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), while 18 percent are still wondering what to do. In fact, of the 66 marketing professionals surveyed in January, less than half of marketers had even even assessed all points from which they collect data. AdWeek

Why Consumers Leave E-Commerce Sites and Apps Without Purchasing – An item’s price and its shipping costs, along with not being able to find the right item are among the top ten reasons why consumers have abandoned a brand’s online shopping system, according to an Episerver report compiled from a survey of over 4,000 consumers worldwide. Ayaz Nanji of MarketingProfs takes a look at this report in his recent piece “Why Consumers Leave E-Commerce Sites and Apps Without Purchasing.” Marketingprofs

Twitter may eventually let anyone become verified – Someday Twitter may allow any user to get a verified account, If the intentions company chief executive Jack Dorsey recently made come to pass. During a recent livestream Dorsey expressed a desire to allow more Twitter users to achieve the blue checkmark giving to verified profile, as part of a goal to increase openness through the firm’s health metrics proposal. Colin Lecher explores Dorsey’s statements in his recent article in of The Verge, “Twitter may eventually let anyone become verified.” The Verge

Twitter moves to boot meme stealers and accounts that force tweets to go viral – Twitter has taken suspended the accounts of several users with hundreds of thousands and up to millions of followers in an attempt to counter so-called “tweetdecking” and other methods for gaming the firm’s current system. Adam Rosenberg takes a look in his Mashable piece, “Twitter moves to boot meme stealers and accounts that force tweets to go viral.” Mashable

Gen Z is quitting social media in droves because it makes them unhappy, study finds – Generation Z consumers may be spending less — or in some cases no — time on social media, because the platforms can make them unhappy, according to recent research from Hill Holliday, despite nearly 80 percent of participants in the study noting generally more benefits than drawbacks to social media site use. Oliver McAtee takes a closer look in Campaign US’s “Gen Z is quitting social media in droves because it makes them unhappy, study finds.” Campaign

‘An engineered feel-good factor’: Why autoplay video will persist – Autoplay video ads may be one of the industry’s biggest collective sins yet are not likely to go away anytime soon, according to a survey explored by Lucinda Southern in her recent Digiday piece “‘An engineered feel-good factor’: Why autoplay video will persist.” Digiday

The 5th Wave Of Branding: Brands That ‘Do’ – The latest insight into five waves of branding first begun by emotional branding pioneer David Ogilvy are being continued and expanded in Ogilvy & Mather chief executive Miles Young’s newly-released “Ogilvy on Advertising in the Digital Age.” Joe Mandese takes a look at some of the book’s new research in MediaPost’s “The 5th Wave Of Branding: Brands That ‘Do’” MediaPost

Why So Many High-Profile Digital Transformations Fail – Harvard Business Review examines the failure of several high-profile firms to successfully implement meaningful digital transformations, laying out the lessons we can learn from strategies that didn’t pay off. Thomas H. Davenport and George Westerman explore the details in “Why So Many High-Profile Digital Transformations Fail.” Harvard Business Review

AI, Content & Search: 5 Macro Market Trends for Micro Marketing – AI-enhanced content marketing campaigns, personalization, and increased awareness of the customer journey are all pieces of today’s online selling puzzle, each explored in the new piece by Andy Betts in Search Engine Journal’s “5 Macro Market Trends In AI, Content & Search.” Search Engine Journal

Google Images update: Captions added to images, pulled from the page title tag – Google Images has moved to show captions alongside mobile search results, and Michelle Robbins of Search Engine Land takes a look here. Search Engine Land

Google search results page displays answer without any search results – Google is showing answers in the search results without showing any organic listings or ads or anything but the answer. Search Engine Roundtable

On the Lighter Side:

Microinfluencers
Welcome to the world of “micro-influencers” and “nano-influencers” – Marketoonist

Amazon Says It Has Fixed Randomly Laughing Alexa Speakers – Bloomberg

TopRank Marketing (And Clients) In the News:

Steve Slater – Top 3 Tools For SEO – Digital Kaizen
Rachel Miller & Lee Odden – Top 100 Social Media and Marketing Influencers – Digital Scouting
Lee Odden – Top 30 Marketing Influencers for 2018 – ExoB2B
LinkedIn – Hotter than Hot: Introducing the New Secret Sauce Recipe for Marketing on LinkedIn – LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog

Be sure to check in next week when we’ll be sharing all new marketing news stories or you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for daily news. Also, be sure to check out the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.