TheWayoftheWeb

Content and Digital Marketing Specialists

Video Marketing

All The Best of 2020 Reviews For Content & Marketing

By

As each year comes to an end, it’s traditional for most big technology and content services to publish a look back at what’s been successful or interesting over the past 12 months. And as content creators and marketers, they can be really useful, which is why I’m collecting the best of 2020 reviews, right here.

There’s not always a correlation between popularity and quality, or in providing business or personal value. An extremely niche article on a specific part of a product may result in more sales than a viral video of someone dancing, or pranking a member of the public. But at the same time, maybe you’ll be inspired to look differently at content which might seem a bit dull in hindsight, or which has been underperforming.

At the same time, it’s also hopefully a useful resource for numbers and statistics if you still need to convince clients or senior management to let you spend some spare time playing around with a new social platform, create some short video content, or invest in better editing software.

Obviously 2020 has been a tough year for so many, but it’s also likely that trends and habits which have emerged during the last 12 months will define the future for the next few years at least.

I’ll be updating this article over the coming months as more platforms share their reviews of 2020.

Collecting The Best of 2020 Reviews
Collecting The Best of 2020 Reviews

All of the reviews will be listed in alphabetical order below as they become available:

  • Google
  • Pocket
  • Spotify
  • TikTok
  • Youtube

Google

One useful resource Google offers to marketing professionals is the Think With Google website, which includes reports, interviews and trends on various topics. So the 10 most read articles are useful, including some guides to lockdown and Christmas advertising, plus some of the free online courses currently offered by Google.

Plus it’s handy to see what was of interest to other people working in marketing!

  • Think with Google UK: Most Read Articles

Pocket: Best of 2020

If you’re not familiar with Pocket, it’s one of the remaining survivors from the bookmarking tools which article lovers and curators find invaluable. Acquired by Mozilla Corporation in 2017 (who also run the Firefox web browser), seeing what users have saved to read later is incredibly interesting whether you’re looking for writing inspiration, or just want some interesting things to read over Christmas downtime.

Pocket has shared the top 3 Most Read articles, along with the most popular trio for “Life in 2020”, Tech, Culture, Racial Justice, Making History, Science and Long Reads, so you’re bound to find something intriguing which you might not have already seen.

Pocket: Best of 2020

Spotify: 2020 Wrapped

I’ve always been a music nerd, even before it was possible to track all of my digital listening. So the personal side of the annual Spotify run down is always interesting, although also predictable, considering more of my work is powered by a couple of playlists (ambient classical music for calmer work, and a loud punky playlist for hammering out tasks closer to deadlines).

But it’s also interesting to discover something different, and see what’s proved popular for different genres, and in the world of podcasts. Especially when our teenage tastes tend to shape our listing as we get older, and it can be tempting and reassuring to replay the same classics over and over again. Creativity is shown to come from changing routines, and when you’re not able to travel to work a different way or meet new people as easily, choosing to dive into an entirely different genre of music can help.

Spotify: 2020 Wrapped

The Year on TikTok

The video sharing network may still be relatively new, and somewhat incomprehensible to many businesses. But it’s continued to grow in importance and utility despite controversy, a nationwide ban in India, and other issues over content and privacy.

The Year on TikTok: Top 100 (2020)
The Year on TikTok: Top 100 (2020)

So it’s worth being familiar with the type of videos which are popular, even if you haven’t already experimented with TikTok or jumped all the way into using it as another marketing channel.

The Year on TikTok: Top 100

Youtube

Youtube has listed the top trending videos and creators for 2020 in the U.S, along with breakout creators and top music videos. But you can find other data on the specific Youtube Culture and Trends website.

Hopefully by collecting the Best of 2020 reviews in tech and digital, I’ve helped you discover something interesting or new. Because that’s something I love doing, whether that’s from working with clients to provide articles, SEO and more. Or via the blog, and The Cipher email newsletter, which are going to be big priorities for 2021, as TheWayoftheWeb evolves after celebrating 10 years of business in 2020.

(image credit: Fredrik Öhlander on Unsplash)

Flickr adds Downloadable Video Sharing

By

It’s not often that there’s a new feature worth talking about at Flickr. And it seems to have been so long that Flickr’s marketing team dropping it into a particularly bare email, giving it just two lines.

Flickr Photostream

But it’s actually quite interesting. Flickr has now made it possible to allow you to share videos in the same way as you can allow people to download your photos. You set your defaults and can tweak them for individual items.

It’s useful in two ways. Firstly it’s a way to allow videos to be used, modified and uploaded by others under a Creative Commons License, which is a great way to allow others to build on your work. And it also allows friends and family to potentially download and save videos which are important to them – meaning that your backup archive doesn’t just have to be on your own computer.

The first way is the most interesting though – obviously Youtube, Facebook and the likes of Instagram and Twitter are either the giants in online video or trying to get there. But although they all have ways to embed video and therefore display the original upload information and advertising, they don’t have any ways to allow people to share and download videos.

That relies on filesharing services like Dropbox, Hightail etc.

But that then relies on a personal relationship with the sender. I need to know the videos exist and be given the link to their location to be able to access them.

Flickr allowing video sharing changes that. It could really benefit a core group of video creators – although I wonder how many of them will actually be aware, given the lack of promotion about it. Strange considering how immensely important video is for big tech brands and publishers right now.

Youtube introduces Interactive Cards

By

Youtube has introduced interactive cards as a replacement for annotations on videos. There’s a new Cards tab available in the Youtube Video Editor to allow you to choose from 6 types; Merchandise, Fundraising, Video, Playlist, Associated Website and Fan Funding.

Youtube_Interactive_Cards
Youtube Interactive Cards

They’ll work across mobile and desktop and eventually annotations will be phased out to make way for the new interactive cards. Each type of card has specific settings – for instance Merchandise cards allow you to add an image, merchandise url and a call to action, while fan funding cards allow for donations to creators within the video itself.

They display as a small pop-up, and the teaser can then be clicked for more information. In addition there is an information button that shows throughout the video to see all cards at once. And the new interactive cards will also work in livestreams as well as pre-recorded video.

At the moment you can’t choose size, or position them anywhere other than on the right edge. You can have a maximum of 5 cards per video, and the colours are fixed. Plus their location will change depending on the device being used to view them – so it’s not a good idea to point to them when you’re on camera.

 

Start growing your business today Contact Us