Author: tom

It feels like social media platforms have dominated global headlines over the past week. However, I started this newsletter to take a step back and think about what trends mean for digital marketers, rather than just regurgitating news headlines. So instead, I’m focusing this week on an interesting story – about how we’re seeing (anecdotal) signs that Gen-AI search ‘platforms’ are driving traffic and sales.

Then, we can have a look at how various social media platforms are descending into chaos. Let’s get to it!

Users are actively engaging with ChatGPT search. Are you ready?

Recent developments indicate that users are actively engaging with links provided in ChatGPT’s search results, signaling a shift in how audiences interact with AI-generated content. This trend is supported by data showing that ChatGPT’s traffic has recently surpassed Bing, with referral traffic growing by triple digits.

For digital marketers, this evolution underscores the importance of optimizing content for AI-driven platforms. How do you do this? Well, largely, by indulging in the same healthy SEO practices you have been for the last few years. If you’re well set up for SEO, you’re already most of the way there.

However, ensuring your website is indexed by ChatGPT’s OAI-SearchBot is crucial, as it directly influences your content’s visibility in the platform’s generated search results. 

Additionally, maintaining high-quality, authoritative content will enhance your site’s chances of being referenced by AI models, thereby driving traffic and engagement.

So what does this all mean? Just keep doing the right things, writing real, authentic content, and ensuring your website is indexed in the right places, and you’ll be in good shape.

The world of social media continues to go mad

Your writer sighs as he starts drafting this copy. This week alone we have seen:

• After months (years?) of speculation, TikTok wasn’t banned in the US after all, with Donald Trump giving the platform a temporary reprieve. It seems to be business as usual for the time being, and it feels unlikely that we’ll just see the platform banned in 3 months instead. But, one to keep an eye on nevertheless. 
• With the TikTok ban still a relevant source of interest, both X and Bluesky have announced custom vertical video feeds. I expect neither will quite capture the imagination in the way they hope, but can’t blame them for trying.
• A UK minister this week said that while TikTok was an “exhilerating” platform, there are genuine “propaganda” concerns in news which (hopefully) will surprise no-one reading this newsletter.
• While the news that 50 Reddit communities have banned X links following Elon Musk’s salute earlier this week has caught a few headlines, given that there are over 100,000 subreddits, it probably isn’t quite the landslide that some are hoping for.
• Meta employs a 63% male workforce. Mark Zuckerberg claims it needs more masculine energy. Just leaving that here.
• Nick Clegg, formerly of Meta, also leapt to the defence of the organisation and its decision to scale back on fact checking this week.
• Although, on this note, one important thing we need to keep in mind – community notes will not display on paid ads on Meta. So, organic posts need to be truthful, but there’s a reasonable chance that false ads could slip through the net.

So, all in all, another thoroughly ordinary week in social media land.

Further Reading

There has been some grumbling lately about the changes to the grid made by Instagram to make posts seem more vertical; this article includes some handy tips to fix yours if you aren’t happy.

Only one other thing really caught the eye this week, but I found it quite interesting as I’ve seen so many pictures in my feed featuring these kinds of signs; The Instagram Effect: Why Neon Signs Are a Must-Have for Hospitality Businesses.

That’s it! If you found this interesting, I would appreciate it if you shared it with your friends and colleagues

If you’re feeling particularly generous, I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Otherwise, I’ll be back next week. See you then!

Happy Thursday folks! It was naive of me to think we might be closer to a resolution on the TikTok saga by the time I wrote to you today, but I’ve done my best to sum up the situation below. I’ve also taken a look at Bluesky and what’s happened since we last spoke about it, as well as a look at the other key stories affecting the world of digital marketing this week.

What’s the latest with TikTok?

• TikTok are said to be preparing to shut down the app in the USA on Sunday, and it seems ByteDance is resigned to this.
• There are numerous names linked with a potential acquisition of TikTok, most prominently Elon Musk. It seems unlikely however that this will be resolved by Sunday.
• Donald Trump is said to be considering an executive order to “save” the app. Of course, he would only be able to do this from Monday; it sounds, however, like he is on the side of keeping the platform up and running. Joe Biden and his team (let’s face it, it’s his team) are also said to be looking for solutions.
• Those same articles also state that the Supreme Court in the States is sceptical that a short-term reprieve is legally possible, so this may all just be bluster.
• In the meantime, a lot of TikTok users are turning to rival Chinese app Rednote. Indeed, the platform topped app store charts this week in the US.
• Obviously, this is a live situation, and its possible that by the time you’ve gotten round to reading this there will have been a reprieve. 
• Either way, if you’re in the US, it’s fairly obvious to say you should be avoiding investing resources in assets or ads for the platform until we know more; if you’re based in the UK or other English-speaking markets, it would be worth thinking about alternatives, as with the loss of so much English-language content from a major market, this has to have an overall effect on TikTok’s usability.

And what about Bluesky?

If we take ourselves back five weeks, it was hard to avoid conversations about Bluesky and how it was about to change the internet. I think we all knew that the reality would be far more prosaic. I’ve pulled together the key developments over the last few weeks below.

• The first isn’t really a new development, but is that I haven’t seen any figures on users or usage since the platform announced it had reached 26 million in December. This probably means that the figures frankly aren’t impressive, and anecdotally from my own experience on the platform, it feels like we’ve reached a plateau – though I can’t find data just yet to back that assumption up.
• The platform has however added a trending topics section which, while obviously calling back to Twitter, does make it feel like a more engaging experience.
• Somewhat inevitably, the platform has started to see an influx of bots and bad actors. The platform has said its tackling this and has quadrupled its moderation team, but these are inevitable growing pains. 
• There’s been a lot of talk about Bluesky’s ownership model, and how they are keen to avoid another scenario similar to Elon Musk buying up Twitter, or the dominance of Mark Zuckerberg at Meta.
• The platform will be getting a sibling “Instagram-style” app called Flashes, probably aimed at reaching disenfranchised Instagram users looking for new pastures.

In short, Bluesky has entered something of a lull. Until it can start to raise funds to drive user growth, as well as launching a sophisticated advertising offering, its not something I would worry too much about for corporate social marketing, outside of ensuring you have your handle tied up!

Further Reading

Social Media Today pulled together an interesting piece asking if this is the year social media will see a shake up (in a word, no).

Mark Zuckerburg took to the Joe Rogan podcast to criticise Apple over its random rules and “lack of innovation”. I suspect they won’t be losing any sleep, but its hard to argue too much with him on many of the points.

Google will be integrating AI into its free Gmail and Docs apps – but raising the cost of Workspace as a result.

That’s it! If you found this interesting, I would appreciate it if you shared it with your friends and colleagues.

If you’re feeling particularly generous, I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Otherwise, I’ll be back next week. See you then!

Happy 2025! I had originally planned to send out a newsletter last week, but with the Supreme Court hearing TikTok’s arguments on Friday, it felt pertinent to push back a few days, with my reaction below on what this all means for the likes of us. Spoiler alert: I might as well have sent this out on Friday.

I should be back in your inboxes every Thursday now for the foreseeable future. With that said, let’s get to it!

US Supreme Court reportedly leaning towards TikTok ban

TikTok made its arguments to the Supreme Court on Friday, but the news doesn’t look positive for ByteDance. The key question that the conversation kept returning to was around national security and potential Chinese interference, and it appears that the Supreme Court is inclined to uphold the proposed law.

It’s important to note that, as the BBC puts it, “the legislation does not forbid use of the app, but would require tech giants such as Apple and Google to stop offering it and inhibit updates, which analysts suggest would kill it over time.”

Donald Trump has stated a decision should be delayed until he takes office, however, as things stand, unless ByteDance sell up in the US (they’ve said they won’t), the app is due to “go dark” in the US from January 19 (i.e. this coming Sunday).

Presumably if you already have a major stake in this as a marketer, you’re already looking at alternative options in the US. Reuters have put together a useful article on what would happen next, speculating that brands might try to spend money event after January 19. It’s a rapidly evolving situation and hopefully I’ll have some clearer advice when I next send a newsletter in a few days time!

What does Meta’s 180-turn on fact checking mean for us?

Last week we also saw the headline news that Meta will be switching to a community-based fact checking approach, effectively reversing its previous policies on content moderation.

If it feels like a knee-jerk reaction following Donald Trump’s re-election, that’s because it is. There have definitely been mistakes – the time Facebook suppressed a New York Post story about Hunter Biden which turned out to be true, for instance – but standing back and allowing the spread of misinformation feels like A Bad Thing. Though for the sake of balance, The Economist have put together an interesting retort to that opinion.

We’re not here for my own views however – what does it mean for marketing? For the time-being, I don’t see this having a huge impact on Meta’s ad offerings, but much in the same way as we’ve seen brands spooked by ads appearing next to inappropriate content on X, I fully expect that we’ll start to see these cases surface over the next 12 months.

For all his detractors, Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t cut as divisive a figure as Elon Musk, so I’d be surprised if we saw an advertiser boycott on the same scale – but it wouldn’t shock me to see some brands turning away.

Further Reading

Google’s VP of global search ads has said that they are making a massive AI push in 2025. Users of the platform won’t be surprised by this development, but worth noting nonetheless.

Amazon is opening up its ad tech to other retailers, who’ll be able to use their targeting/placement functionalities.

X has noted that an upcoming algorithm update will focus even further on ‘entertaining’ content. Though if the idea of making content which entertains on some level is devastating, you’re probably in the wrong line of work.

The UK Government is due to announce on Monday how it plans to use AI to revolutionise services in the coming months and years.

That’s it! If you found this interesting, I would appreciate it if you shared it with your friends and colleagues.

If you’re feeling particularly generous, I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Otherwise, I’ll be back with more on Thursday. See you then!