This Week: Facebook Messenger Kids, Google Reviews, SMB Ad Credits, and More!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

This week we're back with more internet marketing news and updates. Understanding these new updates and variations can help you improve your digital marketing skills and keep you on top of the game. Here, we'll be looking at Facebook expanding its Messenger Kids to more regions, incorporating new connection options. Then, we'll see Google reviews getting disabled temporarily. After that, we'll move on to find LinkedIn allowing their users to add polls to posts. As well, we'll take a look at the information on SMB ad credits and Google switching its shopping search service to mostly free listings.

Let’s dive right in!

Facebook Expands Messenger Kids to More Regions and Adds New Connection Options

As we've all seen in the news, the pandemic has led to the closure of schools. As such, Facebook decided to make its Facebook Kids available in even more regions. This feature will be coming with more tools to help kids connect with each other through the app while having to stay at home. Initially, it was only available in the US, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and Thailand. Yet as of now, many parents across the globe will now have the option to download the app for their kids and keep them busy. 

Messenger Kids has been a steadily used app since its launch back in 2017, though it encountered a few group chat issues in the beginning. However, those issues have since been corrected. Digital literacy is an essential element of kids' lives in today's society more than ever. Messenger Kids is trying to provide them with some educational value during this time. 

In addition to helping our younger generation connect, Facebook is also planning on adding some more cool connection features to enhance their experience!

To learn more about the features they're adding, click here!

Google Reviews Slowly Being Released from Quarantine

Observations made by business owners, those working in SEO, and marketers have seen a sudden dip in new local reviews. This is because Google has temporarily disabled new local reviews. As well, they've prohibited the ability for businesses to post responses to reviews.

But don't fret, there's good news! After weeks of dealing with various problems, like experiencing a delay in posting new listings, business owners can now celebrate. Google recently re-started the publication of these reviews and replies. As well, they've worked to resolve quite a lot of issues.

So, why was Google reviews quarantined in the first place?

The whole pandemic situation in the world has made it difficult for offices to function normally, as almost everyone has to work from home. Thus, Google also had many employees working from their homes. Google released an update about Google My Business during COVID-19 in its online help centre:

"During the unprecedented COVID-19 situation, we are taking steps to protect the health of our team members and reduce the need for people to come into our offices. As a result, there may be some temporary limitations and delays in support as we prioritize critical services." 

While reviews are important when it comes to boosting business during normal times, they seemed not as important during the pandemic.

LinkedIn to Let Users Add Polls to Posts

LinkedIn is working on a new feature that would allow users to add a poll to any post with ease. This feature was found by Jane Manchun Wong, who's an expert at finding these unreleased features via reverse engineering. According to the find, LinkedIn polls will function similarly to Twitter polls.

This means that users can now generate a poll with one question, followed by four responses. However, there is a difference with LinkedIn polls. This is that the polls can last up to two weeks, while the maximum length of time for Twitter polls is only 7 days. Other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, will allow polls to be created or shared in stories that last up to 24 hours.

LinkedIn has yet to announce anything regarding this feature or when it's going to be released. For now, the company has only published a few documents about using polls once the feature gets launched. You can find out more about LinkedIn polls more here!

SMB Ad Credits: Google Adds Clarity around Eligibility and Timing

It's not news to know that the COVID-19 crisis has had a huge impact on markets extensively. As a part of Google's response, ad credits have been set to roll out soon. Just last month, Google announced allocating $240 million in Google Ads credits for SMBs. This is part of an $800 million initiative to provide support during this time.

But this leads to the question: Who's eligible to receive these ad credits?

Google said that small and medium-sized businesses could get these credits if they had been actively advertising since the start of 2019. As well, if they adhere to the Google Ads policies. The company has clarified that advertisers would've needed to spent money on a Google Ads account directly or through a partner. This would've had to be in 10 out of 12 months in 2019, and in either January or February of 2020.

As such, we can conclude by saying that ad credits will go to all the small and medium-sized businesses. However, only those have been consistently advertising throughout the year before the pandemic started.

The credits are set to roll out in phases. They'll be starting in late May and all eligible advertisers will receive one ad credit allocation.

Google Switches its Shopping search Service to Mostly Free Listings

Google is going to make changes to the product search offering. This means that unpaid listings picked by algorithms will dominate the results displayed on the Google Shopping tab, rather than the mostly paid product listings.

In a blog post announcing the move, Bill Ready, president of Google's commerce division, said the current situation in the world is a big reason for Google to speed up a pre-existing plan. 

The tech giants of the world are looking to support retailers who are struggling during this time by making the shopping listings available for merchants:

"Beginning next week, search results on the Google Shopping tab will consist primarily of free product listings, helping merchants better connect with consumers, regardless of whether they advertise on Google," wrote Ready. "With hundreds of millions of shopping searches on Google each day, we know that many retailers have the items people need in stock and ready to ship, but are less discoverable online."

However, the expansion of free listings is set to be completed by the end of April. Get ready if you're a retail business!

Conclusion

A lot of updates are rolling out lately, and we've seen some of the most significant ones here. We saw how Facebook is helping kids to connect during this time through Messenger Kids. Not only that, but how Google reviews slowly died down during this Global quarantine. LinkedIn is coming up with something similar to Twitter polls. As well, updates have come out regarding ad credits rolling out in May. Finally, Google is switching its shopping search service to free listings!