I wrote this on 30th June,  Social Media Day. A breakdown of what changed in world of Digital Marketing Trends & Updates this month.

You can read on for recap of everything in terms of social media & content marketing that changed in June 2023.

 

TikTok - Tell me your Desire 😈

 

I have to say, TikTok is going to be the biggest e-commerce and social media platform in the US & UK. With The launch of their “Trendy Beat” shopping program in the UK and internally it is called the project “S”. TikTok is aiming to achieve higher levels in terms of live shopping and selling their products.

 

The Intent here you need to know is TikTok is great for business, they also introduced a new creative challenge encouraging creators to submit UGC content directly to brands and marketers.

 

TikTok marketing attacks consumer wants! Not what consumers need. People on Reddit & Facebook groups are there to get information about products and services they need to live.

 

TikTok & Short-form content is a form of marketing that targets the audience's desire. And Tiktok will help marketers and businesses the most to target that desire but remember to take your time off. As a marketer, I hope it doesn’t strike back at your desire to buy X, Y, and Z.

 

Google Analytics - Secure your Data Before it’s too late!

 

Less than 24 hours are left now, Google Universal Analytics will sunset and you will have to use Google Analytics 4.
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You might feel all caught up on the change to Google Analytics, but in reality, there were more than 7 Updates to GA4 announced this month.

What are the complaints about GA4:

• GA4 Native UI is not the best, I recommend moving your data to a sheets tool. For example, I use Supermetrics* to import and analyse my data.
• Combining metrics and dimensions is a huge hassle and you can use other analytics tools like supermetrics to fix that. But to move and analyse the data, I recommend Supermetrics* again.

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And the biggest complaint of all is, You can’t copy in GA4, and this is the worst thing of all.

What is Better in GA4:

• GA4 is great for data collection, not for data transformation. It is a hassle.
• Tracking elements of GA4 is improved.
• Technical elements like API & Ad integration options are better.

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If you’re fully into the Google Advertising & tracking ecosystem it is better now. For Marketers with a focus on social media Ads, Influencer marketing & Other elements you need to use a tool like Supermetrics to track and combine your cross-channel data.*

Recent News for GA4 Users: New accounts can only access Last Click and Data-Driven Attribution for now. This is a huge data attribution problem! (Link)

Supermetrics has put together a GA4 Knowledge Center with everything you need for a successful migration to GA4. Find tips and tricks for how to make the most of your GA4 data, how to store your Universal analytics data, or a migration tootlkit which helps you to easily transition your reports from using Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

 

Instagram - Good for once! 😁

 

Instagram is here to tell you all the secrets and they revealed how their feed algorithms work. And Yesterday they announced how the AI models are distributing your content on Facebook and Instagram.

 

While I’m pretty happy to see what I wrote about how social media algorithms work in one of my recent newsletters was 100%. You can read more about my social media algorithm Insights here!

 

Moving forward! Instagram continues to develop its Reels editing tools. A set of new reels features was launched this week and a huge bug got fixed by the platform.

 

Instagram broadcasts are the new hype, they’re global now. I would suggest creators & brands use them wisely. Don’t use broadcasts only as a “new post” notification center. No one likes that! Try to share more human talks on these channels.

 

• Your broadcast members can hold onto your message and share it with their stories. So, try encouraging them to do that!

 

Agencies - You need a face!

 

Other than Apple’s marketing chief shouting out that Agencies live forever. Things aren’t looking that well for smaller agencies.

 

At Cannes Lions,  The spark of new agencies was hard to catch while the campaigns that won the awards were deserving. And the AI talk was at the center of everything.

 

Coming to AI, the WPP and Nvidia-AI partnership aims to build an AI content engine while their partner Ogilvy asks Influencer marketing agencies to disclose the usage of AI in their campaigns.

 

Agencies today need an AI talk show or a major brand face like Terry Crews. Terry with the launch of his agency is going crazy. He has plans to run his brand after he dies with AI tech, meaning building an Agency face that lives forever.

 

Recession, AI, and brand face. I will say small & new agencies need to rediscover themselves to survive in this growing agency world war. What agencies need today is changing!

 

LinkedIn - We Breath AI 🤦

 

Consumers are now already sick of AI-generated content. Etsy is completely off the charts, Reddit is getting AI bots replying and AI could kill a social media app. And LinkedIn could be it!

 

If it wasn’t for layoffs & recession, LinkedIn’s growth might have been a little different. LinkedIn knows that very well. To protect the future, LinkedIn is trying to go all in on AI.

 

LinkedIn is testing an AI-powered post-creation tool and launched AI Collaborative articles. LinkedIn is also testing AI assistants & expanding AI copy suggestions.

 

While doing that from Monday, LinkedIn creators started experiencing engagement & content issues. The same day LinkedIn revealed how its algorithm works. As of me writing this newsletter, LinkedIn is recovering from this change as revealed by Taplio in their recent updates.

 

Overall sentiment: LinkedIn is pretty active for now. I hope all this AI stuff doesn’t make it worse for them in the upcoming months.

 

Meta - Listen we’re growing but traffic 🤷‍♂️

 

Giving up on Facebook or Instagram? Meta continues to share that they are growing faster with the help of AI. Earlier this month Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta will be introducing Generative AI to all of their platforms.

 

Last week, they bragged about the increase in time spent on meta platforms at their AI marketing summit. The stories on the publisher side are quite different, as web traffic from Facebook has seen a huge drop. The reason behind this is all the AI model recommendation systems.

 

Each content interaction is playing a huge role now and AI models are still in training. They do make mistakes, publisher and website content rankings are random due to this factor.

 

Quick Feature Update: Facebook reels got more than 4 updates this month with the launch of the inspiration hub, promotion reels, and editing tools for users. WhatsApp also introduced two security features and launched WhatsApp channels + discovery filters for them.

 

Youtube - Please don’t do it! 🙅

 

Vidcon happened this month. And what I have to say is “Creator's Dilemma”. This is a fact that most agency owners and marketers I meet live in their dilemma of knowing it all and they make decisions based on their own bias.

 

And this same style of dilemma can originate from events like Vidcon in the future where creators come and talk about creation. Instead of building a feedback loop from their fans. The event is becoming more corporate than ever.

 

Creators & Influencers need the best advice from their audience. And a perfect example is MrBeast, creators who listened more to his advice started copying him. Instead of just taking the short lesson and getting feedback from viewers.

 

This needs to be fixed, Tickets are getting expensive every year. In the next two or three years, there will be no fans visiting. A creator version of Cannes Lions getting ready!

 

Quick Features Update: New Youtube Shorts remix feature was launched & best of all: the Youtube thumbnail A/B testing feature is launched and will be expanding to more creators slowly!

 

Twitter - Movies are here!

 

Twitter is announcing new features and changes very quickly but the advertiser trust isn’t recovering that much. It was reported that Twitter US Ad Sales are down by 5the 9%.

 

But as promised from next week, many Twitter creators will be eligible to sign up for their share of Ad revenue. Twitter is also planning to allow creators to collect the email addresses of their followers when they want to move off Twitter.

 

The biggest shift is Twitter’s plan to move its attention to video content. There have been multiple improvements to make Twitter better for video content sharing and this week Apple made a huge announcement.

 

AppleTV posted the first episode of the upcoming series Silo on their Twitter account: watch here.

 

Video is making a spark on every platform, I will suggest waiting a while and start repurposing your video content on Twitter. Twitter is a discussion space if the platform achieves a balance between video watching + tweeting. This could work!

 

Brands - Ads & PR

 

Warner Bros. Team is blowing their budgets out on marketingBarbie. Barbie’s marketing campaign isn’t a genius, It is highly relevant. With the Barbie villa on Airbnb, the Times magazine cover, and a lot of cheeky product placement. Barbie is set to kill the cinemas this year. (Link)

 

Amazon is planning to introduce Ads to prime video. We are going back to TV-style streaming with Ads, without Ads, it will be a luxury. Have your marketing spend ready!

 

Smrinoff’s new brand strategy & MISCHIEF’s cannes lions campaign are two winners of our newsletter’s best brand campaign of the month. Both are built on the idea of consumer attention-grabbing elements.

 

And this AI-targeting campaign from Nikon was one of the highlights of the month: Watch here! 

 

Advertising - Uncontrollable 💇‍♀️

 

We started with Microsoft & Google testing AI Ads from advertiser accounts without asking for permission. And we are ending the Advertising month of June with Google getting accused of misleading advertisers with Video Ads.

 

In the advertising world, AI updates are coming in quickly but not the ones to help you. Most of the updates are focused on helping you create better Ad creatives. And the development on that side isn’t that great. Yes, AI can help you regenerate copy and get new Ads on Microsoft & Google Ads.

 

But that is AI training on your existing data and Ad creatives. To progress further, you need to create new creatives yourself.

 

The second update is that keyword-targeting Ads are now available on every single platform with the launch of conversational Ads on LinkedIn. And keyword Ad targeting is expanding on TikTok & Reddit.

 

I look forward to testing keyword Ads, but this uncontrollable access to AI Ads from Google & Microsoft isn’t a good idea. They need to stay within their policies and don’t need to test Ads created for different formats.

 

Reddit - Why Is it alive?

 

It's doomsday, Tomorrow Reddit’s new API pricing goes live. While many users are still protesting and against the change. What made Reddit survive was Google!

 

Recent research has found that Google’s User experience went down as Reddit communities went on blackout. More than 50% of Google searches are unique with only user-generated content from platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and Quora ranking.

 

With Reddit being the most trustful source, many non-Reddit users visit the platform through search engines.

 

Reddit has taken an advertising revenue hit with few communities going NSFW. But it will survive, my thoughts here might look biased but put anger aside you will see Reddit users interacting with users. While other apps have gone, only media interacts with users.

 

AI - Funds & Regulation.

 

While the EU is trying its best to put AI regulations into action. And making AI content have labels to prevent disinformation. US Big Tech is launching funds for new AI startups to help them grow.

 

With Dropbox announcing their fund and Meta launching an AI community forum. Martech will be growing in the next few months.

 

Brands are asking Influencers to use AI, Adobe is helping creators do that by launching new features for AdobeFirefly.

 

Callout: I will be releasing an AI version of what changed in Marketing in Q2 2023. You find out morehere, I suggest sharing this newsletter edition to receive it early!

 

Apple Vision - Opposite of Meta

 

Apple Vision made a huge spark within the tech space and most of what we heard from Apple wasn’t pointed at Marketing.

 

But a huge product positioning lesson here. Mark Zuckerberg targeted a point through his metaverse that was too salty and the idea of Meta Quest was you went into a different universe.

 

The positioning statement scared people away. On the other hand, Apple’s statement was simply it will be part of your existing life & Apple ecosystem.

 

Meta’s failure doesn’t mean Metaverse will never succeed. Meta’s failure showcases that your passion and bias don’t matter in the real world. Mark can be seen as someone too passionate about the metaverse and people like him exist.

 

Apple went with data and market research, Understanding what consumers fear and how they can showcase their product. Not passion!

 

Pinterest - Positivity & Agency Partner

 

Pinterest continues to focus on building a safe and positive platform. Last month, I shared they made changes to the Pinterest algorithm to share more diverse and positive content.

 

This month, Pinterest released its positivity report and pledged to make its platform safe for everyone, especially teens.

 

Pinterest has ended its contract with the US-SMB team. One of our readers was part of that team: Alex Thomas was working at Pinterest for the last two years as Agency Partner Manager.

 

Alex and I have been in connection and he is a great marketer. Now, open for work. An expert at marketing & Pinterest with 5 years of experience in Sales & 7 years of experience in Marketing.

 

You can Contact Alex Thomas for marketing work!

 

Tiny Socials - Discord, Twitch & Patreon

 

These Tiny platforms made a huge spark this month. As Patreon launched a free membership option for creators.

 

The reason behind the launch matches my vision. Those algorithms are now more about serving relevant content, instead of serving a specific brand or creator. In the future, it will be hard for creators & brands to access these audiences on bigger social media platforms.

 

Discord and Twitch are seeing recent developments and more user acquisitions from creators launching their channels. And Twitch introduced a better payout to fight the rival platform “Kick”. The monetization policy of Twitch is still not that on the side of small creators. Hopefully, we see more improvements.

 

Marketing - Influencers, Budgets

 

FTC announced a new major update to its Endorsement guides for Influencers & Brands. You can read the breakdown from one & only Rob Freund, The social media lawyer.

 

Dropping your Instagram reels & TikTok Audio to 0% removes the link back to that audio. This Tiktok marketing tactic is now debunked by Bri Reynolds, SMM at Lyft.

 

Gartner launched their Budget Guide for CMOs.

This month includes a few insightful points for all marketers looking to get CMO roles in the future.

 

iOS 17 will strike back at Marketing attribution and tracking elements. As Apple looks to have more control over link tracking in Safari. (Link)

 

Everything TL;DR - Find Weekly News on Jaskaran’s Blog

 

I have a weekly updated blog on my website, where you will find the latest updates curated from my newsletter available to read on the web:

 

Marketing News of the week

 

You can bookmark it on your browser and share it with others. And all the sources are not linked here. You can find the links to all the June updates on that page. I don’t delete and add new updates, scroll by scroll to find updates of the first week, second, and then this week!

 

Jaskaran’s Latest Writings

 

• A Complete Guide to Pinterest Marketing

• Instagram SEO: What matters on Instagram search? 

• Wendy’s Social Media Strategy

• Lindsey Gurk - The Best Mom Influencer to Hire!

 

I Ask: How do you make marketers market you?

 

Yes, I am asking you because after reading this newsletter. In case you were not planning to share this newsletter with others! I wonder what I missed?

Data shows Consumers don’t care about behind the scenes, how much time they spend on the product. If the end product isn’t fit or good enough.

 

That’s what matters, Telling you I spent hours every week writing this newsletter is salesy. In case, you liked the end product. Share this blog with other marketers.

 

Wishing you all the best for the second half of 2023!

 

Your friend,

Jaskaran Saini