#i hate the instagram is just 99 percent tiktoks

[pistachiotalenti]

"Am I different than what you expected?"

George lifts his head off the couch to peer at Dream past his phone. They had been sitting in comfortable silence for the past hour, occasionally interrupted by the sounds of TikTok and Instagram. But now Dream's asked him a somewhat serious question, with a look in his eye that reflects more than mere curiosity. Like the answer really matters to him.

It doesn't to George, though. He exhales softly through his lips, and stares back at the ceiling. "I don't know," he replies. "I didn't really have any expectations, I guess."

"No way. You're such a liar." In spite of the accusatory words, the fondness reads clear in Dream's voice, making George smile and look back at him. "You had to have expected something."

George shoves himself upright to a seat, now fully engaged in conversation. "Well, I expected what I already knew. Like what you had told me. Just like... a tall white guy with dark blond hair." He shrugs. "I never even had a super clear vision of that in my head. You were just a figure, a voice. I dunno."

"But did I match the voice?" Dream presses, obstinate.

"You didn't match anything," George spits, hasty and slightly annoyed, though his voice slows as he thinks on it. "It's not... When I saw you for the first time, I didn't – my brain wasn't, like, comparing you to anything. It's not like I had to replace this idea in my head with the real Dream. It was more like... I was... filling the rest of you in." George scrunches his nose. "That sounded weird."

Dream laughs. George blushes and laughs, too, but he doesn't linger long on the innuendo. "But you know what I mean, right?" he asks shakily. Through the laughter, Dream nods.

"Y-yeah, like... like a part of me was always unknown to you. Like, you had 90 percent of me figured out and archived in your brain, but after seeing me–"

"I had 100 percent," George finishes, and now it's Dream's turn to blush.

"Well. I don't know about 100," he stammers, pulling a face—a face that a month ago, George had never even seen. It's funny, how Dream's face can betray him and his flustered feelings so easily when before only his voice could give him away.

"99 percent, then," George settles, proud nonetheless. "I don't know, Dream. You're not that mysterious."

"To you, I guess." Dream scoffs as if it's a derisive thing to say, when in actuality it's more of a concession, an admittance of just how close they are, how far he's let George in. It leaves them both feeling satisfied—with the conversation, with their friendship, with the ways they view and care for each other.

God, he's in Florida. George is actually here with Dream in Florida.

He doesn't want to get too emotional out of the blue, so George takes it upon himself to turn the original question back on Dream. "So what about me? Am I different than what you expected?" he asks.

Dream's face blanks out in confusion. "I already knew what you looked like."

"Yeah, but that was on-screen. I'm talking about real life flesh and blood." George scrunches his nose again, but this time he shrugs off the suspect thoughts with a shake of his head, and luckily, Dream doesn't notice.

"Well, I dunno. You're not too different from what I'd see on stream, and... and from what Nick told me," Dream replies, sheepish. "I guess you're like... more handsome in person."

A nervous giggle bubbles out from George's chest. "...What?"

"Oh, come on." Dream rolls his eyes and pulls a hand to to the back of his neck, only to realize that George is at a loss for words and staring slack-jawed at him, waiting for an explanation. "I-I– what– I mean, George. Don't tell me you don't know you're attractive."

"Well– I mean–" George's brain short-circuits, and he hates how evident it is in his voice. "I mean, I don't know, I just– how am I more handsome in person than online?" he wheezes.

"I don't know! You're like, cuter, or something."

"Cuter." George sounds horrified mixed with something that's decidedly not-horrified.

"Like– like you smile more, and your eyes light up really bright, and it's like you're glowing or something. Like you have this presence in the room that..." Dream trails off, leaving George more stunned and slack-jawed than before. Dream laughs and flails a hand in his direction. "Okay, forget it, you're making me feel weird."

"You're the one who said it," George blurts.

"Well, you're the one who asked," Dream counters.

They fall back into silence, dizzying and confusing, until it eventually settles into that comfortable warmth and fondness that they always return to when they're around each other. They're still blushing when George's eyes slide to Dream, and Dream quietly looks back.

"You're an idiot," Dream mumbles.

"You're an idiot," George echoes. He throws his phone to the couch cushion and sighs. "I'm hungry."

"You're hungry?" Dream asks. He rocks to his feet and stretches, groaning as his arms pull upwards. "Should I make something?"

George gasps and clasps his hands together, unintentionally excited. "Yes."

Dream laughs. It turns into a heaved yawn when he brings his arms back to his sides and wanders off. "Alright, fine. Idiot."

George grins. And after years of long-distance calls and wondering when he would ever meet his best friend in person, George pushes himself off the couch and follows Dream into the kitchen.

[lambkid]

when i see white people lip synching badly to strawberry blonde

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, June 2019

Welcome to my latest summary of recent news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & ecommerce! This covers articles I came across from May 31 to June 21, although some may be older than that.

(Unfortunately, a few of this edition’s entries were lost somehow, & I could only remember one of the missing, so if you know of an article/post that should be included, please let me know, & the piece will be added here as well as to the next post.)

My busy few months are now mostly over, so I will have more time to get working on this Tumblr, new blog posts & the new forum I want to start; expect more frequent updates starting in July. 

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

Shopify is going to run fulfillment centres for its US customers within the next 2 years. “Right now Shopify will offer early access for merchants who ship between 10 and 10,000 items per day, and by the end of the year the company aims to offer two-day shipping to 99 per cent of the United States.” They announced other plans at the same time, including better shop tools. 

If you have your own website, conversion rate optimization is something you should be looking at. Why? Because “[a] simple tweak on a landing page can double or even 10x that page’s conversion rate” which can be much easier to do than doubling your traffic. [Note that this is not a short article; it’s a full guide.]

Matching searcher intent is a crucial part of great rankings. This long article tells you pretty much everything you need to know on making that happen with your content, with real examples for their site. 

Mary Meeker released her annual internet trends report; shorter summary here. “If you're looking to connect with the next generation, you should be maintaining at least some awareness of gaming culture, which is where attention is increasingly shifting.” “Some 51 percent of the world — 3.8 billion people — were internet users last year, up from 49 percent (3.6 billion) in 2017...E-commerce is now 15 percent of retail sales. Its growth has slowed — up 12.4 percent in Q1 compared with a year earlier — but still towers over growth in regular retail, which was just 2 percent in Q1...Customer acquisition costs — the marketing spending necessary to attract each new customer — is going up.

ETSY NEWS

Etsy retired several of its Support/Help email addresses, including support@etsy.com, all without any official announcement. 

You can now link photos to variations - but only with one variation, not both. 

Etsy’s annual report for 2018 is out; I didn’t see much new here, but if you catch something, please leave a comment or send me an email so I can add it to this summary. [They actually mentioned “abilities” in their list of things they accept diverse ranges of, but as usual, they only give any details about gender, race/ethnicity and sexual orientation. Disability is invisible for them.]

A new bunch of US states will have state taxes charged for online sales as of July 1. 

Ryan Scott will be Etsy’s new Chief Marketing Officer as of June 24. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Google broke with tradition & decided to warn SEOs about the core search algorithm update that started rolling out on Monday June 3 and ended on the 8th. There are multiple reports of some UK news companies taking a hard hit while others picked up visibility. It’s still too early for much comprehensive analysis, but here is a summary and another more recent one. 

At the same time, Google also rolled out an update that increases site diversity in search results, often limiting each website to 2 entries in Google’s top pages. Think of it as Google's approach to “clumping”. They insist it is separate from the core algorithm update. Early analysis finds that it didn't change much for most searches. 

Websites sometimes rely too much on Google traffic, which is dangerous whenever they change something (i.e., daily). Here are 5 ways to make your site/pages more resistant to algorithm updates. 

Most decent SEO tools cost some money to get the full value, but here is a list of 55 free tools including keyword research, stats, linking, and technical tools. (Some have paid versions as well, but just ignore what you don’t need.)

SEO sometimes requires stating the obvious; check out this tweet with a graphic from an SEO conference. 

Rand Fishkin did a major review of clicks from Google search, & found that nearly 50% of US google searches result in a click (often questions such as weather, or spelling). Only 45% led to clicks on non-paid links, & non-Google companies. But “for every click on a paid result in Google, there are 11.6 clicks to organic results. SEO is far from dead.” Search Engine Land did a TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) summary here. 

Fishkin also has some good insights on making a profit through SEO. [video and full transcript] I think the point about having a strong profit margin is really important - it is going to get more expensive to sell online as time goes on. Etsy is not the only provider trying to squeeze more pennies out of its customers. (Fishkin’s whole push lately is that you must be a known brand to survive; I am reserving judgement on that for the moment.)

Most blogs haven’t done their SEO correctly, but you can fix that. [video & full transcript]

Hate it when your site/business gets mentioned online, but they don’t link to you? There are ways to get other companies to link to you. 

The latest Google mobile search redesign has folks pitching fits about how ads now look like organic search results. For your own website & other sites where it is possible, make sure you have a favicon that stands out from paid ads. [If you Google “CindyLouWho2″ on mobile, my blue fossil coral avi shows for my website & this Tumblr blog.]

Voice search isn’t taking off like people thought it would, although around 30% of Americans use virtual assistants regularly. 

Is audio SEO going to be a thing? Dr. Pete looks at Google’s decision to post podcasts in search results. 

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

Facebook announced its move into cryptocurrency with Libra, which will launch in 2020. 

Contrary to some reports, it seems that fewer people are using Facebook regularly. While time spent on FB drops, Instagram in particular is seeing more interaction. 

Getting the right image sizes and dimensions is really important for each platform; here is an infographic on all image sizes for Facebook. 

“[T]he right time for you to post on Facebook will be different than the right time for someone else to post on Facebook.” A summary of multiple studies on the topic, with tips on using your Facebook Analytics to narrow this down for your business. 

After banning mass messaging earlier this year, WhatsApp is prohibiting sending newsletters through the app as of December. 

A decent guide on using Twitter for your business. “...tweets with images get 150% more retweets”.

Thinking of running a Twitter chat? Here’s a complete guide, including Hootsuite templates. 

You can get new content ideas from Reddit. “Reddit.com saw 542 million visitors in March 2019 alone.”

Pinterest is expanding its shopping program, now called Pinterest Partners, to provide more shopping opportunities on the site. 

A study of the 500 top-followed Pinterest accounts shows that home decor is most popular among influencer topics. [infographic with text.]

Short video platform TikTok is still showing rapid growth. “Digital wellbeing is more important than it has ever been. Since tech companies started optimising for user engagement, the user is unable to escape the app. You will always feel dissatisfied when you close the app, because the notifications keep on coming and the content never seems to end. To us it seems, TikTok has taken this idea to another level and built the user experience to deliberately create addiction.“

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

Using Google Ads for your website? Make sure you avoid these 7 common mistakes. 

Google now allows you to target people who are “regularly in your target locations” - but it doesn’t really define how they calculate that.

Instagram Shopping is most popular with younger people (at least in the UK).

Good tips on improving your Amazon ad effectiveness, especially cost-effectiveness.   

Some tips on Microsoft Audience ads, and how to get the most out of them. It includes some good general tips, like looking at your profit margin. 

Facebook produced an infographic on how to best create FB ads, especially, for mobile. 

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

Google has purchased analytics company Looker; Etsy uses the platform already. 

The Google Search Console is now giving users 90 days of data for some reports. 

Here’s a new WordPress plugin that tracks clicks on pdfs on your site through Google Analytics. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

Paypal has developed “a customizable e-commerce platform”. 

Amazon has extended 1-day Prime delivery. Their ability to do that largely depends on how they are taking control of the shipping methods used, moving away from using other big companies. 

Amazon closed Spark, its social media competitor, and it redirects to a page of customer-curated collections. 

Some Goodwill stores are now selling thrift items on online platform OfferUp.

Opinion article: is feature-driven retail preventing people from buying?

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Human brains like stories, which is why you should use them in your marketing. “Stories do another thing: They trigger the release of this neurochemical called oxytocin, which is known in some circles as the love drug. About 10 years ago, all we really knew about oxytocin is that it’s released when, say, a mother is with her baby. But what we’ve discovered since then, through the work of neuroscientists like Dr. Paul Zak, is that stories trigger the release of oxytocin in much the same way.” 

Sell luxury goods? The market is changing as younger people make up a larger chunk of the core. Millennials will make up 50% of the market by 2025. The article has some interesting stats on the luxury resale market: “Overall 45% of true-luxury consumers participated in the second-hand luxury market, and more than one-fourth (26%) have bought pre-owned goods”  which is a trend some luxury vintage sellers might want to watch.

Generation Z prefers personalized content & isn’t as worried about privacy as older generations. 

US adults now spend more time on mobile devices than they do watching tv. Much of that time is spent on mobile apps instead of browsers, & audio (podcasts & music streaming, mostly) accounts for a large chunk of time spent. 

US retail sales grew by half a percent in May, less than predicted. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

As the US looks at starting an antitrust case against Google, articles are reminding the government what other countries found, and what they should be looking at now. Businesses big & small have filed complaints. 

The Google Cloud outage on June 2 that took down YouTube, Snapchat and Shopify among other sites points to the need for everyone to have a backup system. [Remember, Etsy is also moving all functions to Google’s cloud.]

Sick of writing product descriptions? Imagine if it was your full-time job, and you didn’t have any hand in making or curating the products.