If the story of Mic.com is any indication Facebook reliant websites face a bleak future if they don’t quickly adapt to the new reality of much lower Facebook referrals. This follows changes earlier this year by Facebook to emphasize posts from friends or family instead of news sites.
According to Digiday, Mic.com pageviews dropped 95 percent since they hit a high of 192 million in April 2017, receiving only 11 million in March 2018. The question is can Mic.com pivot from a large audience of millennials to a niche publication that charges a premium for advertising? Its financial backers certainly hope that their $52 million in funding doesn’t disappear with the pageviews.
Co-founder and CEO Chris Altchek believes that the company will not only survive but prosper. The company has been busy changing their original strategy of Buzzfeed style click-bait to quality original journalism and he says this approach is already paying off. Mic just posted its best quarter ever and Altchek projects the company to break-even in 2019.
Clearly, the era of driving bulk pageviews to websites via Facebook is over. This is especially true for viral social sites, which is why Buzzfeed is also aggressively pushing original long-form journalism that will get backlinks and do well in Google. Websites are finding that creating great original content is the only sustainable method to driving traffic.
LinkedIn Wants You to Share Your Story
It’s not every week that you can reach potential customers for free, but you are in luck! In a celebration of National Small Business Week LinkedIn is reaching out to businesses asking them to share their story on the platform:
We want to hear from you, too! Whether you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, or a proud small business employee — we want to hear your story. Share a video on LinkedIn, telling us what are you in it for.
Critical Security Features Announced for Microsoft 365 Business
Microsoft has added new ways to protect small businesses with up to 300 employees from phishing, ransomware and data security breaches. Microsoft 365 Business now includes AI-powered analysis of attachments and link landing pages to find phishing and ransomware before it impacts your business. This is a significant security improvement that will prevent your team from accidentally infecting your vital data.
The 365 team has also added new capabilities to project key customer data such as social security and credit card numbers. For example, businesses can now set encryption rules to prevent an email from being forwarded, copied, or pasted into other programs.
Square Buys Weebly to Help it Become a One Stop Shop for Internet Business
Digital payments company Square has announced plans to acquire Weebly for approximately $365 million in cash and stock. The purchase was in line with Square’s objective to provide a cohesive solution to entrepreneurs in running their businesses across all channels.
With the merger, a start-up company doesn’t have to shop around separately for applications, hardware, and platforms compatible with each other to have a presence online and offline. It is one of the challenges in setting up an eCommerce site, especially for those without the know-how to do so. In a statement, Square CEO Jack Dorsey pointed out that the strategic move aims “to bridge these channels, and we can go even further and faster together.”