Today in Digital Marketing - That Time I Made a Barista Cry and Learned About Communication

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

A/B testing comes to Reels… A new API will let you post Stories easier… LinkedIn’s new AI is a little underwhelming… HubSpot buys a major B2B data player… and social media use is steady — well, except for one site..📰 Get our free daily newsletter🆘 Need help with your social media? Check us out: engageQ digital🌍 Follow us on social media or contact us.Securing your traffic has become EssentialRecent studies show that over 27% of internet traffic is invalid, costing advertisers billions annually. And it's only getting worse!CHEQ Essentials operates advanced algorithms and real-time monitoring capabilities to detect and block all fraudulent sources. Implement CHEQ Essentials to protect your ads and websites, divert your resources towards human traffic and unlock your marketing activity's full potential.Visit https://b.link/gocheq to enjoy an extended trial AND a 10% discount exclusively for our listeners.·GO PREMIUM!Get these exclusive benefits when you upgrade:✅ Listen ad-free✅ Meta Ad platform updates with Andrew Foxwell✅ Google Ad platform updates with Jyll Saskin Gales✅ Back catalog of 20+ marketing science interviews✅ Story links in show notes✅ “Skip to story” audio chapters✅ Member-exclusive Slack channel✅ Member-only Monthly livestreams with Tod✅ Discounts on marketing tools✅...and a lot more!Check it out: todayindigital.com/premium·ABOUT THIS PODCAST🆘 Need help with your social media? Check us out: engageQ digital⭐ Review the podcast.ADVERTISING📈 Advertising Options📰 $20 Classified Ads·GET MORE FROM US🎙️ Our other podcast "Behind the Ad"📰 Our “The Top Story” LinkedIn newsletter🤝 Our Slack community🆘 Need help with your social media? Check us out: engageQ digital·UPGRADE YOUR SKILLS• Inside Google Ads with Jyll Saskin Gales• Google Ads for Beginners with Jyll Saskin Gales• Foxwell Slack Group and CoursesSome links in these show notes may provide affiliate revenue to us.·Today in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin and produced by engageQ digital on the traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada.Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is Thursday, November 2nd. Today, A-B testing comes to Reels. A new API will let you post stories easier. LinkedIn's new AI is a little underwhelming. HubSpot buys a major B2B data player. And social media use is steady. Well, except for one site. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. Facebook will soon let you conduct A-B testing on Reels, providing valuable insight into what your brand's social media audience responds best to. It will let you test up to four different thumbnails and captions for a single video. These variations are then shown to different audience segments for 30 minutes, with the most played version declared the winner. This is currently mobile only. And Meta has also enhanced the professional dashboard for creators. They can now view performance data for all posts, hide or delete posts directly from the dashboard, and get an extended 90-day view of their content's

performance. Some new metrics have also been introduced, including comparative performance data, viewer retention rates, and view counts that factor in replays. Facebook is also making it easier for brands to share content as stories. Meta has launched a new API that allows direct uploads of Facebook stories from third-party desktop and web apps. Previously, marketers had to download their creations from sites like, say, Canva, and then upload them to Facebook.

Soon, provided your third-party social media platform adopts this, you'll be able to send that media to Facebook directly as a story. Instagram stories were a direct copycat of Snapchat Stories and were introduced in 2016. Facebook added Stories to their app a year later. The new API also includes the option for a one-tap share to Facebook Stories button directly inside the app, but those third-party platforms will have to offer Facebook login authentication so that the user gives access to their personal or business accounts. LinkedIn Premium members will soon be able to have AI summarize their news feed for them.

Yes, rather than going through the laborious process of, you know, reading, AI will do that heavy lifting for you and present a quick brief on your friend's promotions and how they learned a valuable business lesson by being nice to a barista. Perhaps more problematically, they're also adding that summary tool to job listings. This is how LinkedIn described it, quote, from seamlessly assessing if a particular job is a good fit for you to identifying the best way to position yourself for it, we'll help you find your dream role and build your confidence. With this experience, researching roles, company, and even preparing for interviews become a part of a seamless, delightful interaction on LinkedIn, unquote.

I mean, sure, I guess. As Andrew Hutchinson at socialmediatoday.com noted in his coverage of this, quote, if you don't understand the job ad, or if you can't even be bothered reading, it's probably not for you, right? I don't know. It seems like LinkedIn's trying to wedge AI tools into places where they probably shouldn't be. But I can also see the potential time savings benefits for job seekers who are applying to a lot of jobs at once. Gaining knowledge is important. And using AI at this stage of the process

seems to be guiding people towards using it for even more elements, even beyond this, and feigning expertise that they don't have. Unquote. HubSpot is acquiring Clearbit, a B2B data provider. The acquisition will bring more than 400,000 users and 1,500 business customers to HubSpot. The financial terms have not been disclosed, but Clearbit was valued at a quarter of a billion dollars in early 2019. Once the deal is completed, Clearbit will operate as a subsidiary of HubSpot

and its offerings integrated into HubSpot's AI-powered customer platform. But the merger might raise some concerns about market competition. Martech.org, in its coverage of this, noted that as Clearbit's independent data source will no longer be available, this could lead to higher prices in the data space. Today's episode is sponsored by Check Essentials, the top self-serve marketing security platform against ad fraud and invalid traffic. A recent study shows that over $100 billion will be lost this year because of acquisition efforts that result in fake leads. Check Essentials detects and blocks fake and fraudulent users in real time using thousands of cybersecurity tests on every user. Malicious bots, competitors, and spam, Check blocks them all, ensuring that every cent you spend reaches valid users who can convert

and provide you with pure, clean data to rely on for your decision-making. Join over 15,000 companies that secure their ads and websites with Check. For today and digital marketing listeners, an exclusive 10% discount and a one-month free trial is yours. Tap the link in the show notes or go to b.link slash gocheck. That's b.link slash g-o-c-h-e-q. And finally, social media's grip remains firm, but trust is wavering. A report by the Y Group indicates that while overall social media usage has remained stable, trust in these platforms is declining, particularly for X, formerly Twitter.

The number of study participants who say they'll maintain or increase the use of X next month fell by 12 points from April to August. And while almost all the platforms say they are deprioritizing news on their sites, the number of people who said they use social media for news and learning about current events grew 7% from last year. Follow us on threads. We are at Today in Digital Marketing, or you can follow my personal account. I'm at Todd Mappin. Thanks for listening.

See you tomorrow. Just two eyes looking into the stars Looking back, the stars are wondering where you are. Just one pair of footprints in the sand. Step into the sea.