Instagram’s Denies It’ll Prioritize Accounts that Pay for a Checkmark

Today In Digital Marketing is a daily podcast and daily newsletter showcasing the latest in marketing trends and updates. This week, Tod touches on:

• Instagram denies reports it will increase reach for paid-verified accounts.
• RedCircle introduces Multi-Scripts for personalized host-read podcast scripts.
• Snapchat unveils 'After Dark' feature to boost user sharing during nighttime.
• Moz SEO tools reveals new “Brand Authority” metric.
• Amazon discontinues numerous in-house brands.
• Meta advises group admins to stay active or risk being replaced.
• Amazon plans to reveal your dirty little secret purchases to your neighbours

Instagram's "Verified-Only" Feed Denied… for Now

Could a Verified users only feed be coming to Instagram?

According to a new discovery in the app's code, Meta appears to be working on a feed option for Instagram that would show only those with a blue check, which could be a step towards boosting visibility for Verified accounts — similar to what X has done.

Verified Users Only

A reverse engineer recently revealed that both the iOS and Android Instagram apps are now displaying a new “Meta Verified” feed filter alongside the chronological Following and Favorites feeds.

But the company denied testing the feature.

Meta didn't say if the feature was an internal development in progress or one it had considered but abandoned. According to the app researcher, the feature was added to the Android app code on August 4th and to the iOS app this week.

It remains to be seen whether Meta moves forward with the concept of a designated feed for its paying subscribers.

Image: X via Alessandro Paluzzi

RedCircle Introduces Host-Read Ads at Scale

Podcasting platform, RedCircle, launched a new multi-script feature for advertisers today. With the tool, brands and agencies can now take a single script, and generate endless personalized versions for each podcast — each with their own unique promotion code. Prior to this, that work had been done manually.

This gives podcasters a call-to-action and promotion code link to include in their show notes during script creation, which can be tracked back to individual podcasts to determine which performed best.

Full disclosure: Our podcasts use the RedCircle platform.

Images: RedCircle

Snap ‘After Dark’: Where Nighttime Stories Come to Life

Cue the sexy sax music... Snapchat has launched a new "After Dark" Story feature, which lets brands and creators post exclusive content when the sun goes down from 8 PM to 5 AM. But only on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

How It Works

Once the clock strikes 5 AM, users can watch the Snaps shared on the Story to see what their friends posted. However, access to view the After Dark Story is only granted if they also posted that previous night. The feature is also limited to one post per night, similar to BeReal.

The new option is being rolled out to all users this week and might make something fun to play with if that aligns with your brand's voice.

Images: Snap

How Does Moz's New ‘Brand Authority’ Score Measure Up?

This week SEO company Moz introduced a new metric called "Brand Authority," designed to gauge brand strength.

The new metric measures the strength of the brand based on broader online conversations using a scale of zero to 100. The number measures popularity, meaning that even highly disliked brands could have a high score.

Moz says this score reflects brand online value through search engines' perspective.

The company released the top brands based on its metric. Given the score measures popular discussion, the top 5 are:

1. Google
2. YouTube
3. Facebook
4. Amazon
5. Walmart

Comparing that list with Kantar's most valuable brands based on financial valuation, Google and Amazon retain top spots. But, different companies also show up, like Apple, Microsoft, and McDonald's.

So while you can get a Brand Authority score now, what is it really telling you?

Quoting Content Marketing Institute:

“Brand value is highly subjective. It’s most accurately measured across multiple attributes, including financial, trust, and popularity. As marketers and stewards of the brands, you help orchestrate – because you can’t control it – the perceptions of your brand over time. They are the sum of promises kept – the spaces in which your customers create their value and look at you in a different way.”

“Moz’s new Brand Authority score certainly seems to offer marketers a useful tool to measure their efforts to move the brand. But the one thing to keep in mind is that an increase in score may not be the right goal.”

What’s a Brand Authority Score? | CMI News

Images: Moz / Kantar

Amazon Bids Farewell to Dozens of In-House Brands

The biggest e-commerce company in the world is "Marie Kondoing" its product lineup, and giving its private label brands a minimalist makeover.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Amazon is slashing the number of in-house brands it offers on its marketplace, and plans on cutting 27 of its 30 clothing brands as it battles costs and regulators.

The company has created several private-label brands across a variety of departments, most of which operate without Amazon branding, such as:

• Wag
• Mama Bear

Less is More?

This cutback will leave Amazon with just three in-house brands:

1. Amazon Essentials
2. Amazon Collection
3. Amazon Aware

The shift also extends to some private-label furniture brands. Sources say Amazon plans to sell the remaining inventory from the now-discontinued brands until they run out.

Meta Warns Group Admins to Stay Active... or ELSE!

Heads up, Facebook group admins: Meta has been sending out notifications to some group admins this week urging them to step up the moderation game or face replacement.

Admin SOS

The warning says that admins either need to be more engaged or if they do nothing, Facebook will automatically find someone else within a week.

And we all know how well this kind of ultimatum went down with Reddit moderators.

The change differs from Meta's current policy, which states that:

“If a group has no admins, Facebook may suggest that some members become an admin based on many signals. Signals include their current level of participation and whether they are an admin of any other Facebook groups. Facebook may also archive the group if there are no admins for a while.”

While groups without active admins may get archived, there’s no mention of automatically replacing them.

Image: Meta

And finally…

Amazon is changing up its deliveries by sending orders without extra packaging to cut costs and reduce environmental impact.

But, this stripped-down approach has its downsides — your neighbors might get a front-row seat to your orders of kitty litter, toilet paper, and self-help books. There's also concern about theft or damage. To soothe these woes, shoppers can select extra packaging at no additional charge for items in their orders.

So, the next time your neighbor gives you a knowing nod about your bulk toilet paper purchase, just remember you're saving the planet one package at a time.

Credit to Tod Maffin and the Today In Digital Marketing podcast, Produced by engageQ.com

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