Today in Digital Marketing - Instagram is Completely Devoid of Original Thought and Here's Proof

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

What a surprise... Instagram's copying yet another popular app! The marketing job market's great (if you're a contractor)... Meet Meta's new AI experiment... Spotify hopes to do for ads what it did for podcasts... and a security breach at a popular marketing platform.Go Premium! No ads, story links in show notes, deep-dive weekend editions, better quality, live event replays, audio chapters, earlier release time, exclusive marketing discounts, and more! Check out https://todayindigital.com/premiumfeedFor information on advertising, our social media, contact info, and everything else, please go to https://todayindigital.com/shownotes➡ Join our Slack at todayindigital.com/slackOur Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today, what a surprise! Instagram is copying yet another popular app, the marketing job market's great if you're a contractor, Meet Meta's new AI experiment, Spotify hopes to do for ads what it did for podcasts, and a security breach at a popular marketing platform. It's Monday, August 8th. I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. At this point, I can't decide if it's funny or just sad. But Instagram, the hodgepodge app made up almost entirely now of ideas from its competitors, is about to copy yet another one. This time, Mark Zuckerberg's new muse, Be Real. We reported on Be Real several months back. It's the photo app that pops up a notification, asks you to take a photo of what's in front of you at that moment,

along with a capture of your face from your front camera. The idea is that it's an unvarnished look at real life. And as predictably as the sun rises, Instagram has taken note and is testing a couple of B-Real's key features. Instagram recently launched a new dual camera mode, which, just like on B-Real, lets users capture content using the phone's front and back camera simultaneously. Now the platform is testing another B-Real-inspired feature that lets you add a QR code to each of your posts. This QR code directs users to a map which shows your followers

exactly where you were when you posted in comparison to more traditional QR codes that direct customers to your website or promotions. So will it be a welcome update for brands though? It could be another tool to get foot traffic in if your brand has a physical location or it could just end up being one of the growing number of enhancements later dumped on Instagram's cutting room floor in favor of pushing everything to reels. Watch this space. Job growth appears to be eclipsing economic slowdowns, but more companies are relying on contract professionals to meet their needs.

According to a new report, three out of five hiring managers in the marketing and creative industries plan to hire more contract professionals by the end of the year. The report found one of two respondents are filling vacated positions with those contractors. Only two out of five plan on adding new positions near the end of the year, and only two percent plan to reduce their workforce. In terms of employer obstacles, 90 percent of managers who responded to the survey said it's difficult to find skilled professionals. Two out of five said this is primarily due to a lack of talent, followed by salary expectations that exceed what the company can offer. To attract skilled workers, employers are using a variety of recruitment tactics, including increasing starting salaries. About 40% are doing that. Nearly a third are offering remote options. They're also providing signing bonuses, loosening education skills or

experience requirements, and evaluating candidates outside of their company's geographic area and allowing new hires to live anywhere. Despite job growth, 8 out of 10 hiring managers remain concerned about their employees quitting. The data was provided by Robert Hath's survey of more than 575 hiring managers in the marketing sector. Meta started testing its next-gen AI chatbot late last week. It's called BlenderBot. Quoting Meta, BlenderBot 3 is capable of searching the internet to chat about virtually any topic, and it's designed to learn how to improve its skills and safety through natural conversations and feedback from people in the wild.

Most previous publicly available datasets are typically collected through research studies with annotators that can't reflect the diversity of the real world. Unquote. A big feature is this chatbot is able to search the internet to provide answers to specific topics, and users can click on the responses to see where the information came from. With fully automated bots capable of responding to user queries 24-7 and directing customers to the right products and services according to their needs, a more human-like chatbot could make maintaining brand relationships more efficient. But public testing comes with risks, as we saw when Microsoft released its AI system in 2016, and within 24 hours, Twitter users had the AI sharing a range of racist remarks. According to Meta, a focal point of its research is to ensure appropriate safety measures for the chatbot during this process.

Quoting Meta again, We developed new techniques that enable learning from helpful teachers while avoiding learning from people who are trying to trick the model into unhelpful or toxic responses. Unquote. So far, here's what some Twitter users have discovered about BlenderBot 3. It is not sure if women should be allowed to vote. And that Facebook tracks us all over the internet. And it may or may not have been involved in rigging the 2016 elections. If you are a U.S. resident, you can now check it out yourself at BlenderBot.ai.

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Get the Rakuten app or join at Rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N.ca. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters.

Get customized coverage today, starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Spotify may have revolutionized podcasting, or at least it thinks it did, but Adweek has a great piece up today that asks if it can do the same for podcast ads. In spite of exclusive deals with big creators and dominant position in podcasting, there is still a lack of infrastructure to support a thriving advertising industry there. While Spotify boasts of having more than 4 million podcasts on its platform, the piece notes that only 15% of them are currently generating revenue for the company.

Bringing brand safety to audio content is another challenge that remains unresolved. There's also the issue that Spotify remains unprofitable, which we recently reported on. Even though Spotify has increased heavily in podcasting, the company still makes most of its money through subscriptions and ad-supported music streaming. The piece indicates that while podcast advertising has a small market compared to other channels, it is remarkably effective. Research found that two in five listeners have bought podcast merchandise, and a third intend to purchase a product or service they hear about on a podcast. As a result, ad growth has accelerated.

Though ad spend has increased, Spotify still faces a number of challenges to turn the median profitable. A mere 2% of its revenue came from podcast advertising last year. The streaming giant has invested heavily into its ad technology with several new products, but will it be enough? And finally, the popular marketing platform Klaviyo today confirmed it was the victim of a hack which compromised some account data on their servers.

One of Klaviyo's employees apparently got phished and that got the hacker into both the records and some internal support tools. Apparently, they were looking for lists about crypto and then downloaded the marketing lists from about 38 crypto-related accounts. Those lists contained names, email addresses, phone numbers, and some account-specific custom fields. They also downloaded a couple of Klaviyo's own marketing lists with similar information. The company says no passwords or credit card numbers were exposed and that it was not a ransomware attack. Not much to say here. I hope you had a good weekend. We had a good weekend. I'm still getting used to my progressive lenses. I think

it's getting better. It's hard to say. See you tomorrow. It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first.

Join free at Rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at Rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A.