We understand how important it is to keep up with all the latest news related to digital marketing, which is why we include a news roundup segment in each episode of the EDGE. The latest features Site Strategics CEO Erin Sparks and Creative Studio Producer Jacob Mann along with special guest Tim Schmoyer, Founder and CEO of Video Creators. Here’s the news roundup from Episode 319 of the award-winning EDGE of the Web podcast:
Teen phenomenon TikTok taps 4 agencies to hone US strategy
From Peter Adams on Marketing Dive we learn that teen phenomenon TikTok taps 4 agencies to hone US strategy. TikTok has partnered with four North American agencies as it looks to sharpen a marketing strategy in the U.S., Ad Age reported. TikTok’s aim, beyond increasing brand awareness in a valuable market, is to stand out less as an alternative to the likes of Snapchat and Instagram, and more as a platform like YouTube, sources told Ad Age.
- Erin Sparks: The social video app owned by the private Chinese startup ByteDance will work with IPG’s Initiative, RPA, Montreal-based independent firm Sid Lee, and a small California agency called Channel. TikTok has been the most-downloaded in the Apple App Store for five consecutive quarters! Hugely popular among teens, apparently.
- Tim Schmoyer: I haven’t really gotten into it, but from what I’ve seen, it seems like a cross between Instagram and what used to be Vine. The videos are longer now, so instead of just six seconds, they can be 15 seconds, and they loop just like they used to on Vine.
- Erin Sparks: Six seconds certainly was short, but 15 seconds feels short as well.
- Tim Schmoyer: But there’s also a misperception out there that telling a story means the video has to belong. Telling a good story doesn’t have to mean an hour-and-half feature-length video. TikTok proves that.
YouTube mystery ban on hacking videos has content creators puzzled
According to Thomas Claburn on The Register, YouTube mystery ban on hacking videos has content creators puzzled. “Security professionals find the policy questionable. ‘Very simply, hacking is not a derogatory term and shouldn’t be used in a policy about what content is acceptable,’ said Tim Erlin, VP of product management and strategy at cybersecurity biz Tripwire, in an email to The Register.”
- Erin Sparks: YouTube certainly has its challenges in trying to weed out objectionable content to have a safe, clean platform. So, now they’re focusing on hacking videos that show people how to hack. My eight-year-old son watched a video about how to hack Fortnight as was changing the IP settings of the PlayStation 4!
- Jacob Mann: The interesting thing here is that there is push-back against the policy from within some quarters of the computer security community. After all, these kinds of hacking videos are often how they find out product vulnerabilities that they can then fix.
- Tim Schmoyer: It’s certainly not the only policy YouTube is having issues with. And I don’t envy the position they’re in trying to figure all this out. What’s “free speech” and what’s “hate speech” and where’s the dividing line between the two? It quickly gets very tricky. But on the hacking videos issue, I do think it’s good to have some amount of that out there so people can see and know the threats and address them. Then again, if having it out there means more people are going to have their personal information hacked and used for ill, that’s not good. There is a lot of gray areas in these kinds of issues. And for people who think the only information Google has about your YouTube video is what you tell them in the metadata, that’s simply not true. They know exactly what’s in your video and have the systems to figure it out.
- Erin Sparks: The platforms have to police their content, but at some point, it feels like they’re deciding what’s the best content for you, and that feels like a very slippery slope.
YouTubers next door: How a Knoxville couple launched their language learning channel
On Knox News, Allie Clouse reports about YouTubers next door: How a Knoxville couple launched their language learning channel. “‘I think the desire to help people is what turns it from just being a YouTube channel to a business,’ Beeler said. The couple left their previous 9-to-5 jobs to pursue WhyNotSpanish and their range of paid courses full time, so they know what it takes to succeed online. ‘You have to love what you are talking about,’ Jaramillo said. ‘I suggest focusing on a specific topic that you really are interested in.’”
- Erin Sparks: What’s impressive here is that this couple took their Spanish language weekly lesson YouTube channel and in less than a year they have 76,000 subscribers! They use games, skits, real conversation, and storytelling so it doesn’t feel like class.
- Tim Schmoyer: YouTube can be very simple while also having a wide impact and reach. I got started when I just wanted to introduce my girlfriend to my family on the other side of the country and it just kept going from there. Now I have a team of 10 people working for me and do YouTube stuff full-time. Now the Knoxville couple may or may not make their full living just off the YouTube channel, but maybe that’s not their core goal for it. The YouTube channel may be what helps them attract people into their other courses and so forth that really do pay the bills. When I decided to launch a YouTube channel for income purposes and needed it to happen within six months, I did it. At the end of the six months, I had 3,000 subscribers that the channel was bringing in $10,000/month. You don’t necessarily need large audiences to make it sustainable.
Connect with Tim Schmoyer and Video Creators
Twitter: @timschmoyer (https://twitter.com/timschmoyer)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timschmoyer/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/videocreators
Facebook: @videocreators (https://www.facebook.com/videocreators)
Podcast: https://videocreators.com/podcast
Website: https://videocreators.com
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