Netsville presents our top 5 Best of the Week picks for Internet Marketing stories and developments from across the web.
If you see a story or feature that you’d like to suggest for Best of the Week, please include it in the comment section below!
Instagram rolls out Shopping in Stories globally, launches Shopping channel in Explore
Instagram is expanding Shopping in Stories globally and launching a Shopping channel in its Explore tab. Since it began testing the Shopping Bag icon in Stories this past June with a limited number of e-commerce brands, the company reports more than 90 million accounts per month have tapped on the shopping bag tag used in posts.
The newly released Shopping channel in Explore offers a unique space where consumers will be able to find products from the brands they follow and discover new brands.
Read more at Marketing Land
Security Firm Shows How a Second-Hand Amazon Echo Can Become a Spy
When a smart speaker aggregates customer data, or a car dashboard highlights the nearest McDonalds, the marketer and the consumer assume the devices can be trusted.
But recent research by Israeli security firm vpnMentor raises red flags about whether the Internet of Things could turn into the Internet of Spying Things.
What vulnerabilities were discovered? The company recently announced the results of work by a group of “ethical hackers” it employed in March and April of this year.
In one project, the group was able to connect an SD card reader to a first-generation Amazon Echo and install malware that could listen in to the owners’ daily life or interfere with the Echo’s control of other household devices like smart locks or appliances.
Read More at MarTech Today.
The New Customer Journey Maze: 5 Implications For Marketers
At a recent roundtable, where individuals focused on helping sales and marketing leaders gathered, Gartner presented interesting findings from its annual research project. The findings suggest that the assumption that B2B buyers progress in a linear fashion is fundamentally flawed. In a prior article, I discussed how the customer’s journey is really a set of “jobs to be done” (see article here). The consequence is that the customer journey looks more like a maze than a linear path or funnel (below).
Understanding that the customer journey is a maze and not a linear process has significant implications for marketing leaders. Below are five.
Read more at Forbes.
Content Marketing Reaches Baby Boomers
Shoppers aged 54 to 72 represent a significant portion of the total U.S. consumer market. And they have the financial wherewithal to be among the top customers of an ecommerce company. This group of potential customers can be reached with content marketing via Facebook, YouTube, and internal blogs.
The term “Baby Boomers” describes the demographic cohort born between 1946 and 1964. America’s 73 million or so Baby Boomers have significant buying power.
Read more at Practical Ecommerce
Blockchain Technology Breakdown [Infographic]
You may have heard the buzz surrounding Blockchain Technology, but what exactly does it mean? Here is a breakdown of what blockchain technology does and how it it securely manages information and databases. Our friends at Followmyvote have created this inforgraphic to break it down.
Read more at Netsville
Check back next week for more Netsville Internet Marketing picks from across the web!
Based in Rochester, New York, Netsville is an Internet Property Management company specializing in managing the Digital Marketing, Technical, and Business Solutions for our customers since 1994. For more information, please click here.
