Disappointing Q2 results for Samsung
July is slower than usual online. But it still looks pretty good if we compare it to Samsungs Q2 results.
LinkedIn uncovers its news feed algorithm
After making a lot of changes to its news feed algorithm over the last year and a half, LinkedIn's Senior Director of Product Management, Pete Davies, shared some insights this week. LinkedIn – like Facebook – is aiming to increase user engagement. The company is therefore placing greater weight on niche-specific professional conversations, moving away from ranking trending content.
To determine which posts rank higher in someone's feed, LinkedIn's algorithm uses AI to identify niche conversations specific to their occupation. Davies writes: "We know from our data that members are more interested in going deep on topics they're interested in. Consistently, we see better conversation around niche ideas (e.g. #performancemanagement) than broad (#management)."
After revealing that much of the engagement on posts in the LinkedIn news feed was driven by the top 1% of power users on the platform, LinkedIn introduced creator-side optimisation to give more attention to creators with smaller audiences. According to Davies, LinkedIn does not favour specific post formats (videos, images, links, articles) over others. Instead, the algorithm values posts that encourage engagement: "Post things that encourage a response," writes Davies, "If you're posting a link, express an opinion with it."
Global trade fights impact Samsung greatly
Samsung expects its second-quarter operating profit to fall by more than 50%, to about $5.6 billion. This profit is still better than analysts' expectations, but this is only due to a one-time gain in its display business.
The second-quarter report showed how an escalating series of trade fights is impacting the global economy.
First, the ongoing conflict between the United States and China has created trouble for Samsung. The Trump administration's restrictions on sales to Huawei, a significant buyer of Samsung's memory chips, have reduced demand for Samsung's chips and forced it to cut prices. Also, even if Samsung's smartphone division might win when Huawei cannot sell competing products, the decline in Samsung's memory chip business will likely be more significant.
Samsung is also dealing with additional costs following import tariffs on washing machines imposed by the Trump administration to protect American businesses like Whirlpool. Additionally, Japan recently decided to limit exports of materials used to make displays and computers to South Korea, which is expected to hurt Samsung and its top competitor, SK Hynix.
We don't want to pay for the hassle of buying
A new report from the global performance marketing agency Merkle finds that 66% of consumers rate experiences over price when making an online purchase decision.
A recent report (registration required) indicates that delivering excellent digital customer experiences is critical to driving revenue. Merkle surveyed 500 US consumers to analyse how and why customer experiences affect where consumers choose to spend their money.
Over half of those surveyed (52%) reported leaving a website while shopping due to a poor site experience. Respondents also indicated that the top three most important factors in delivering a successful experience are ease of use, customer service, and speed.
"Now more than ever, consumers expect brands to offer personalised and seamless experiences," said Rives Martin from Merkle. Nike, Amazon and Apple were the top-mentioned brands for delivering a personalised experience, and the same three brands were the top-mentioned for a superior online experience.
Tool of the week: Hunter
Have you ever wanted to contact someone by email instead of via LinkedIn, but didn't know the correct address? Hunter is a neat (and perhaps scary) little tool that collects email addresses and makes them searchable. So, if you know the right email address domain (for instance amazon.com or wholefoods.com) you can most of the time find the full address with Hunter.io's search engine.
Sure, it might feel like an invasion of privacy, but every single email address Hunter.io collects and distributes in their Domain Search has a public source that they disclaim, along with its discovery dates. So, they've just done the stalking for you.
Also, it comes in handy very often.
