Today in Digital Marketing - Was TikTok's Algorithm a Lie All Along?

Starting point is 00:00:01 It's Monday, January 23rd. Today, the man behind the curtain, TikTok's algorithm, has secret controls. Instagram chills out on reels a bit. YouTube's policy violations will be more specific. A new technology for measuring ad campaigns in the metaverse. And is your next agency intern going to be sentient AI? I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead on Today Digital Marketing. For years now, TikTok has described its For You page as a targeted feed driven by a top-secret algorithm that predicts users' interests based on their behavior in the app. But what if I told you TikTok has a secret button that can make anything go viral? According to newly leaked internal documents obtained by Forbes, TikTok employees have access to a backend tool that can instantly make a post go viral using a practice known as heating.

Starting point is 00:00:51 Quoting this document, the heating feature refers to boosting videos into the For You feed through operation intervention to achieve a certain number of video views. The total views of heated videos accounts for a large portion of the daily total video views, around 1-2%, which can have a significant impact on overall core metrics." TikTok has never publicly disclosed this, but sources told Forbes that the platform has often used heating to entice influencers and brands into partnerships by inflating their reveals that, at least sometimes, videos on the For You page aren't there because TikTok thinks you'll like them. Instead, they're there because TikTok wants a particular brand or creator to get more views. And without labels like those used for ads and sponsored content, it's impossible to tell which is which, unquote. Furthermore, sources reported that employees have abused heating privileges by boosting the view count of their own or loved one's accounts in violation of company policies. One document revealed that an incident of this type led to an account receiving more than 3 million views. In response, a spokesperson for TikTok said,

Starting point is 00:02:10 quote, we promote some videos to help diversify the content experience and introduce celebrities and emerging creators to the TikTok community. Only a few people based in the US have the ability to approve content for promotion in the US, unquote. So while TikTok wants you to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain controlling its algorithm, the head of Instagram now believes that the platform put too much emphasis on Reels last year.

Starting point is 00:02:39 So what does that mean for your brand's content strategy? Well, after a year of Instagram's algorithm pushing videos, it looks like traditional photos may be relevant again. Quoting Adam Massari, I think we were over-focused on video in 2022 and pushed ranking too far and basically showed too many videos and not enough photos, unquote. He added that the platform has since been working to restore a better balance, quote, things like how often someone likes photos versus videos and how often someone comments on photos versus videos are roughly equal, which is a good sign that things are balanced. To the degree that there is more video on Instagram over time, it's going to be because that's what's driving overall engagement more.

Starting point is 00:03:21 But photos are always going to be an important part of what we do, unquote. Well, at least for now. YouTube is addressing long-standing issues with its policy violation notifications with two new updates. First, the platform is launching timestamps for community guidelines violations. These timestamps will display exactly when a violation has occurred in the video and which policy is in question with links to more information about that policy. Users can opt to appeal reports or remove relevant segments to keep their videos up and regain monetization.

Starting point is 00:03:58 This option is only available to a few creators for now, but YouTube says it's looking to expand those alerts in the future. Secondly, the platform is working on a new guided resolution flow to address concerns. The process is similar to timestamp alerts, but with more information, including additional resources that will help you understand the policy you violated and what you can do to fix it. A big step forward for gaming and metaverse advertising, the in-game ad platform Anzu has secured a, things like average screen coverage, occlusions, virtual world position, and orientation in relation to user view. The data collected

Starting point is 00:04:50 is then combined with conversion and session data to create models that can help advertisers optimize the delivery of their campaigns in the metaverse. While AI might be a long way from becoming your next CMO, here's how one agency is taking advantage of our robot overlords. The tech marketing agency CodeWord is leaning on artificial intelligence to complete team of more than 100 people with the goal of exploring human AI collaboration in the agency world. A spokesperson for the company explained that while the interns won't work directly with clients, they'll work on tasks machines are good at, like producing content at scale. The idea is to pass the grunt work over to the AI interns and integrate them to streamline the creative process. The trainees report to the company's senior art director

Starting point is 00:05:50 and senior editor, and both will receive creative assignments and even share their experiences on the company blog and social media. And yes, they will receive performance reviews. A couple of quick updates from Google to share with you. First, you can now set personal pronouns on Google Workspace. Admins have to enable users to set their pronouns

Starting point is 00:06:13 and choose who can see them from their Google account. Google says that this feature is opt-in only and can be enabled for all users or a subset of people on your domain. User-defined pronouns will appear in personal information cards or can be accessed by clicking a profile photo across workspace apps like Gmail, Calendar, and Docs. And if you watched HBO's new apocalyptic show The Last of Us last night and are still being haunted by that weird zombie kiss scene, Google has something for you. If you search

Starting point is 00:06:41 The Last of Us on Google today, you will get a fungi surprise on screen. And finally, more ad targeting is headed deep inside the black box. Meta has started prompting some advertisers with the notice, saying that in one week, the option to focus your campaign on people who are likely to be traveling. That option will be gone. This is what the little pop-up notification says. The option to reach potential travelers is going away soon, starting January 31st. This option will no longer be available. We've made system improvements to automatically prioritize delivery to people who may be planning to travel.

Starting point is 00:07:23 You can expect campaigns to achieve similar performance, unquote. This had been a pretty good way to reach people that Meta believed would be traveling soon, based on things like the sites they visited, content they interacted with, and so on. Now, presumably, we'll just have to rely on Meta's ability for that targeting. Another quick plug for our LinkedIn newsletter. It's free. It's called The Top Story. It'll send you the top story that we cover every day right to your inbox and or your LinkedIn feed. There is a link in the show notes that will take you right there. Thanks for listening.

Starting point is 00:07:54 I'm Todd Mappin. See you tomorrow. This was supposed to be easy Second time around

Today in Digital Marketing - Was TikTok's Algorithm a Lie All Along?

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