Hungry? Get a taste of the latest and greatest digital news with this month’s Digital Download. We think you’ll enjoy it.

 

Goodbye, Google Average Position. Hello, new metrics!

Google will get rid of the average position metric soon, which has been a stalwart of ad reporting since Google Ads was Google AdWords. They’ll replace it with several new metrics that will tell you how frequently your ads rank absolute top (meaning you are ranked no. 1). They’ll also tell you when you rank top (meaning you’re ranked in the top 3 before organic results). This is the biggest change Google has made to their metrics in years — a move to help align with the shifting state of search engine marketing.

>> Navigate the new metrics here.

 

Brands navigate 9/11 remembrance

When it comes to posting on 9/11, more and more brands are choosing to stay silent. There have been plenty of cringe-worthy remembrance posts, but going about business as usual can backfire as well. Those posts can be met with accusations that you aren’t honoring those lost. As the first major event of the social media era, it’s been interesting to watch media managers navigate how to (and if they should) post on 9/11. We hope your feeds were respectful this year and absent of the Ledo’s Pizza blip.

>> See what experts say about posting on 9/11 here.

 

Facebook ditches Discover

Last year, Facebook moved brand messages to their own Discover tab in the Messenger app. But this month, they’ve decided to kill the effort off. Facebook says the decision to get rid of Discover was made in order to make it more seamless for people to communicate with businesses in Messenger. For companies that aren’t using Facebook’s Messenger tools, this might be the time to start — users are spending a larger portion of their time in Messenger rather than in Newsfeed.

>> Dive into Facebook’s decision here.

 

Instagram influencer’s ghostwriter tells all

The influencer bubble may have burst in light of the Caroline Calloway story. The floundering Instagramer’s former friend published a tell-all essay on her experiences as Calloway’s ghostwriter and business partner. The pair frequently purchased followers to boost engagement numbers and appear more influential and failed to fulfill multiple agreements for events and a book deal. As influencer marketing takes off, it’s important to keep stories like this in mind — fame doesn’t always equal dependability.

>> Catch up on the Caroline Calloway story here.

 

“Dumbed down” Alexa has users voicing concerns — literally

Amazon has released a new Alexa Answers program. The program allows crowdsourcing for questions Alexa doesn’t have an answer for. This program has been in beta for almost a year but will now be available for the masses — meaning literally anyone can contribute answers. There are some concerns that this will result in a dumbing down of Alexa since the answers provided may not necessarily be accurate or well-researched. How will you be able to tell who answered your question? Alexa will add “according to an Amazon customer” to the end of her answer if crowdsourcing was used. As voice search continues to evolve, this move will certainly be watched by other smart device manufacturers.

>> Get answers to your Alexa Answers queries here.