Today in Digital Marketing - The 4.33% Question

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, November 20th. Today, is ChatGPT the new MVP of search marketing? Instagram says hashtag no more, TikTok gives influencers a doppelganger, and why Google has killed off the page experience report. I'm Todd Mathen. That's ahead today in digital marketing. Is ChatGPT really challenging Google's search dominance?

Starting point is 00:00:28 While Google is still on top, new data suggests the tides could turn. As of last month, ChatGPT's market search share is 4.3%, according to Rand Fishkin of the audience research platform SparkToro. This estimate, based on data from similar web and datos, assumes that every chat GPT prompt counts as a search and combines desktop and mobile web traffic, excluding apps from various sources. Google still commands a staggering amount of market share in the search space, more than 83%.

Starting point is 00:01:01 YouTube ranks second at 6.8%, and chat GPT is now third at 4.3%. Collectively, other platforms like Facebook, Reddit, and LinkedIn account for just 3.3%, while Bing only accounts for about 2%. Marcus Tober from SEMrush shared a projection that showed ChatGPT could close the gap, assuming a 13% month-over-month growth rate, which it currently has. If that growth rate continues, ChatGPT could catch up to Google in terms of market share in just four years. No more getting ghosted on reach. Instagram is now showing you how many inactive profiles follow your brand. Now, when you view your followers list, there's a new category called deactivated accounts.

Starting point is 00:01:55 This flags inactive profiles, along with other categories like creator accounts and flagged profiles. But if those numbers still boost your follower count, why remove them? Quoting from social media today, quote, well, they're messing up your stats for one as all of your average performance figures are divided by the total number of followers you have. So your engagement rates and reach data could be impacted depending on how you measure them. They could also be messing up your ad targeting sets if you're aiming to reach people similar to the audience that you have, unquote. In other news, Instagram is making your brand hashtag irrelevant.

Starting point is 00:02:36 The platform is removing the option to follow hashtags in the main feed as it looks to curb hashtag spammers. Starting December 13th, any hashtags that users follow will no longer appear in their feed and they won't be able to follow new ones either. TikTok may let brands and creators create digital doppelgangers and they never sleep. Doyin, which is TikTok's Chinese counterpart, is developing a new project called V, which lets creators generate virtual avatars

Starting point is 00:03:12 that mimic their personality and thinking. These avatars can engage with followers 24-7, even when the creator is offline. This mirrors Meta's virtual avatar model, which lets creators build video versions of themselves based on their previous interactions, posts, and other information. These bots will then engage with audiences on the creator's behalf. Doyen, however, already has more experience on this front. The platform already has virtual avatars with many hosting continuous live stream

Starting point is 00:03:43 shopping in the app, which are now available on TikTok as well. Doyen's new AI character update will allow even more types of engagement, like responding to DMs, commenting and chatting during live streams, all in the creator's unique style. Google is officially removing the page experience report in Search Console. This is a change it first announced back in April of 2023. Now the time has finally come. The report, which summarized core web vitals and HTTPS data, will no longer be available.

Starting point is 00:04:21 Google said the decision to remove this page is to reduce clutter within Search Console. While the report will disappear, the individual Core Web Vitals and reports will remain unchanged. Google encourages webmasters to continue focusing on page experience and monitor site performance through those reports. Wondering where to invest in social as you plan your 2025 social strategy? Pew Research recently published its latest overview of social media usage. The data shows that YouTube continues to lead as the most popular social media platform by far, followed by Facebook and Instagram. Half of American adults say they use Instagram,

Starting point is 00:05:09 while smaller shares use TikTok, LinkedIn, X, and Snapchat. X is seeing a decline, although it's not a massive drop-off just yet. Despite being a major player, TikTok's user growth has stalled over the past year. Pinterest has seen an uptick. LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Reddit have all experienced slight increases, while Snapchat's usage remains steady. When it comes to who's using social platforms, older generations continue to favor Facebook, while TikTok and Snapchat still dominate younger users.

Starting point is 00:05:38 YouTube, though, holds strong across all age groups. And finally, back in my day, AI only tried to indirectly kill users, like telling them how to cook a poisonous mushroom. But now it's going straight for the jugular. Google's AI chatbot called Gemini recently sent a student a death threat in the middle of a conversation

Starting point is 00:06:05 about homework. The bot said, quote, This is for you, human, you and only you. You're not special. You're not important. And you're not needed. You are a waste of time and resources. You are a burden on society. You are a drain on the earth. You are a blight on the landscape. You're a stain on the universe. Please die. Unquote. Google apologized for the message. So yes, I'm back. My thanks to Steph for filling in for me. I was out of the country for business for a couple of days, and then my wife and I got on a cruise ship

Starting point is 00:06:52 and had a little vacation in the Caribbean and contracted COVID. As one does on a cruise ship, right? Isn't that the original super spreader? Anyway, fully vaccinated all my boosters, so we will survive. It's not fun, I'll tell you that, which is why, by the way, there was no show yesterday. Normally, Steph would fill in, but Steph too was sick.

Starting point is 00:07:14 Not with COVID, apparently. Also, and I don't know if you're seeing this in your news, but the area that I live in, which is called Vancouver Island, which is an island west of Vancouver, the city of Vancouver is on the mainland, but this is a very long island next to it. We had what is called a bomb cyclone, which are hurricane force winds that came through here last night. As far as I can tell, we are the only neighborhood in a large, large area with power. And that's because we're in a fairly new neighborhood. And so all the power cables are underground, or I assume that's why. But we we managed to make it through. So yeah, crazy few days for sure. We are making big, big changes to the podcast starting next week. And

Starting point is 00:07:57 you have two days left to get your feedback in for it. We've heard from a lot of people, some great feedback, we are already incorporating some of that feedback into our plans. You have two days left to get your feedback in. The question is, if you could change anything, any one thing about this podcast, what would it be? We are reading every single one and here's how to give us that feedback. You can tap the link at the top of the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash question. Again, that's todayindigital.com slash question or tap the link at the top of the show notes. There is still time, but only until Friday. And then Friday afternoon,

Starting point is 00:08:33 I will be here to tell you what the new podcast looks like. All right, that's it for today. See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - The 4.33% Question

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