The DBE team and I are excited to share this week’s issue of What’s Hot Wednesday for Digital Marketers with you. We have a good mix of stories about search engine and social media platforms, marketing insights, and a warning about scams too. Get your read on:

• What a blast I had talking with the ever-wonderful Michael Piperno, communications expert and coach extraordinaire and now a podcaster too. As is always the case when Michael and I chat, the conversation takes on a life of its own and Michael leads us to fascinating places. If you’re interested to know the back stories on: how Omotenashi evolved here at DBE; why we are a drama-free agency; and one of my most-treasured “better late than never” lessons, tune in to our conversation. You can listen on all the major podcast platforms or here. Enjoy! I know I did!
• Facebook projected to have its slowest US growth ever–1% projected for 2021. Don’t shed any tears for the Book yet. It’s still the #1 social platform in the US in terms of monthly users–60.9% of Internet users are using Facebook in 2021. Instagram ranks second with 118.9 million monthly users projected this year, followed by Pinterest with 91.1 million.  There’s more from eMarketer here.
• Don’t fall for it! Scams are abundant and this Techlicious article talks about one where webmasters are told their site has images that are infringing on someone’s copyright. Clicking to learn more does not go well. Here’s more.
• And an important reminder – a recent Ipsos survey reports search engines are considered by 80% of respondents to be important sources of purchase-making info. Here’s a link from Marketing Charts. Waaaait, there’s more…here’s a separate link to the press release from Ipsos that includes data on post-pandemic entertainment trends.
• We’re all aware Google Trends produces interesting insights. (Ask how DBE decided on which keyword variation to prioritize for real estate SEO – “buy a house” or “buy a home”.) Now Google is testing adding a “trending search” carousel to the search engine results page, and here’s where you can learn more.
• Google announced that starting July 1, 2021 Gmail campaigns will become “read only,” and this date is fast approaching. The status of “read only” means that after this date advertisers will no longer be able to make changes to the campaigns, including creating new ads, but the ads will continue to serve “as-is.” Although Gmail campaigns are being discontinued, advertisers can continue to serve new ads on Gmail via Discovery campaigns, which are also eligible to serve on YouTube and Google’s Discovery feed.
• The U.​S.​ data privacy landscape varies greatly from state to state and now Colorado just enacted the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA). Learn how it can affect your business in this Venture Beat article.
• Google’s TrueView for action campaigns will be transitioned into Video action campaigns in early 2022. This means advertisers will be able to create new TrueView for action ads until September 30, 2021, and existing ads will run until the transition occurs next year.

Do Good Spotlight on: EmpowerHER

This is beautiful, an organization providing mentoring “moms” to young women (18-24) and girls who have lost their own mothers. As the website explains, losing her mother can have life-long impact on a woman, going well beyond the milestones others may think about and trickling painfully into many aspects of her life. The EmpowerHER mentor moms help girls and young women transition into adulthood with guidance and support. DBE donated to help EmpowerHER do its thing and we encourage you to take a look at how you can support them too.

Okay, that’s it for this week. We hope we got you thinking in new ways and that our Do Good Spotlight inspired you to lend a hand where you can. And remember, if you have a not-for-profit you’d like us to feature, let us know about them.