In the UK it’s looking like we might finally be arriving at summer, just in time for the solstice. I personally can’t quite believe I’m closer to writing a 2025 trends piece than I am to having written a 2024 article.

However, looking at the 2024 trends, I’m not sure how much will be different. Voice Search remains a slow burn. Regular readers will know of the changes organic search is undergoing. However, while I did say AI would make you better at your job, what I didn’t see coming was the idea that AI might make you better at Job Hunting, which was the news out of LinkedIn this week.

Otherwise Meta announced upgrades to Advantage+ – maybe just not the ones your writer was hoping for. YouTube on the other hand took a genuinely interesting step with plans to pilot community notes, while there were a few other announcements going on.

This will be the last edition of this newsletter for a few weeks, with a couple of small holidays planned and a likely slowdown in digital marketing news with many key protagonists enjoying a quieter summer. So please enjoy this one, and then I’ll see you for some more in a few weeks time!

First AI took our jobs; now it’s coming for Job Hunting

You’re likely familiar with LinkedIn and its use as a platform by Job Hunters. Speaking as someone who has been on both sides of the divide, it’s maybe one small step up from useless at the best of times; hundreds if not thousands of speculative applicants meaning that the odds of your CV being seen and properly reviewed are even less than they might have been ten years ago.

Anyway, with that context in mind, LinkedIn has announced that it is further weaving AI into this process. For instance, you can now get AI tools to write cover letters for you (because as we all know, generic computer-generated content is the way to convey your passion for a role). Indeed, between LinkedIn’s frequent prompts to encourage AI to write your content, it’s starting to feel like they want a lot less of a social network and instead a series of chatbots talking to each other, based on real life personas.

It’s weird, and likely to provide further credence to the theory that quite often, the best jobs are based on your human connections, rather than those fostered on a platform such as LI.

YouTube experimenting with community notes

One of the relatively quiet wins from a few social platforms over the last few years has been the ‘Community Notes’ feature often seen on, for example, contentious posts on X.

Having seen this work elsewhere and having then liked what they’ve seen, it seems that Google will be piloting this with YouTube. Essentially, users will be able to add notes flagigng that a video is a parody or if it doesn’t depict current events. Users will then be able to flag whether or not a note is helpful. This is all with a view to combating rising disinformation, which certain sectors of YouTube are notorious for.

Meta announces further AI ad upgrades

Meta took to the stage at Cannes this week to try and tell us how great it’s Advantage+ ad tools are. Many out there would disagree, and will probably welcome the news that Meta is continuing to work on these.

Unfortunately though, rather than addressing dodgy targeting and overspend, it appears that the new advancements focus instead on the Gen AI offering, enabling more variations of ads. Which is interesting, but won’t get me using Advantage+ again any time soon.

Otherwise, updates also included the expansion of ads on Instagram Reels, allowing advertisers to reach audiences without disrupting the viewing experience. Additionally, Meta is introducing app promotional ads to Facebook and Instagram Reels, with a view to using the generally highly-engaging ads to boost app downloads.

Further Reading

Meta is putting its AI assistant tool on hold in the EU following a series of privacy objections. Related: Insta users are getting worried about AI scraping their photos.

Better news for Meta; it’s on track to overtake linear television next year in terms of total ad revenue.

As rumoured for a few months, TikTok has finally announced a photo sharing app called Whee (no, really). They’ve stated its only for sharing photos with your closest friends. It sounds a lot like Instagram’s Close Friends feature turned into an app. I wouldn’t bet heavily on this one.

Working with a small PPC budget? This Search Engine Journal piece contains a nice checklist of hints and tips to guide your path.

That’s it! Your correspondent is finally going to venture outside with Factor 50+ and will be back later this summer. Have a great weekend (and a few weekends after)!

In-between the non-stop election chat (plus the soon-to-be non stop sports chat, which I’m much more excited about) in the media, there has been plenty going on in the world of digital marketing.

Not least a ludicrous acquisition of BeReal which I refuse to dignify with analysis above the fold. Elsewhere however there is some interesting analysis of why and how politician elites are still glued to X, as well as LinkedIn scaling back targeting capabilities in the EU and what this means for us. Apple have also joined the AI party, at long last.

I’ll be back for more next week but will be scaling back updates a little over the next few weeks with a couple of summer breaks planned (and, let’s be frank, when LinkedIn scaling back targeting is major news we know that it’s a little bit on the quiet side).

Political Elites are still addicted to X

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (now X) might have led to market value, share and user engagement declines; one thing that has not changed however is its importance in political discourse.

Despite initially scurrying over to Mastodon and Threads, it does seem that political elites and media professionals alike have flocked back to X, driven by its unique position in the venn diagram of influence, audience reach and discoverability.

To some extent this is resignation; X is cheaper in terms of CPMs and ad targeting lends itself well to political messaging. It’s an interesting case study in the weird relationship politics has with social media, where strategic presence – feeling like you should be there – outweighs what you might otherwise think. More in this interesting article from Notus.

LinkedIn tightening targeting capabilities in the EU following complaint

Interesting news from LinkedIn towers this week. Over the last 4-5 years the platform has grown into one of the outstanding paid social choices thanks to its mixture of targeting and reporting capabilities (and finally adopting some formats which were pretty standard elsewhere).

One of the features I’ve been most excited about and have utilised regularly has been related to group membership and activity. Alas however, good things must come to an end and, at least in the EU, this seems to be the case here.

It appears LinkedIn is concerned about a “misconception” that ads could be indirectly targeted based on “special categories of data” following a series of complaints. Either way, this feature isn’t available for campaigns targeting the EU any longer.

The takeaway? Well, firstly, obviously that – but also just to be mindful that while platforms add new features all the time, these can also be taken away; it’s critical that we’re ready to pivot as and when needed.

Apple brings ChatGPT to Siri

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is always a noteworthy event in the tech and digital world, and this year was no exception with the debut of ‘Apple Intelligence’ among other features.

Tim Cook announced a variety of Gen AI services during his keynote, including “Apple Intelligence” and a deal with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. As The Guardian puts it: “The new Siri will be able to function as an AI chatbot and receive written instructions, and also has the ability to take actions within apps based on voice prompts. “

This marks their first major play into Gen AI (at least in relation to faster-adopting competitors) and is consistent with the general mindset of waiting longer, but with a view to getting it right.

The firm also said it plans to also integrate Gemini in the future. Elon Musk has threatened to ban Apple devices from his companies following the news, with concerns around user and business privacy.

Further Reading

BeReal was acquired this week by video game and app developer Voodoo for c. €500 million, a frankly ludicrous amount from where I’m sat given the lack of mainstream cut-through to-date and overall market saturation.

WhatsApp is adding a new automated assistant feature which will enable businesses to chat with customers using AI.

There’s been a lot of rumblings and grumblings about Meta using social posts to train AI tools this week. Unless you live in the EU, you won’t be able to opt out of this – whatever Rafa Nadal might think.

A wild story did the rounds on Reddit this week, with a man who crunched the numbers and found out that having swiped right on 14,000 women, he received 14 matches. Though there may be more to this than meets the eye, with his behaviour decidedly botty.

That’s it! I’ll be back next week but then will be taking a little summer break, with normal service resuming in July.

As ever, if you found this interesting then I would really appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and colleagues. 

If you’re feeling particularly generous, then I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!

It’s incredibly hard to believe that it’s June already! It feels like just last week that I was writing my views on the trends likely to shape 2024. Remarkably, one of them was actually kind of right, and was a key subject at MozCon this week; namely the future of Organic search. Let’s not dwell too much on the others.

Otherwise, there’s a slight silly season vibe about some of the news this week; Facebook didn’t really announce anything new, but did declare a slight change in strategy, while YouTube’s employees have some explaining to do in relation to some pretty major leaks.

Beyond that there are the usual tidbits, with Pinterest releasing a majorly self-serving study and Instagram trying to take back some advice it gave to creators last week. Plus an actually useful advertising feature from LinkedIn!

SEO is changing: Adapt or fall behind

That at least is the message this week from Tom Capper, Moz’s Senior Search Scientist. Given that Moz is a leader in all things Search, it’s fair to say that he’s worth listening to. Speaking at MozCon, he noted that traditional full-funnel search marketing is becoming increasingly problematic, particularly around informational searches.

Essentially, for everyday businesses and marketers, this means they need to rethink strategies. Instead of focusing on general information, they should target more specific, less competitive topics related to products or services they offer. 

All of this is as a result of Google’s aggressive monetization tactics which have led to a steep organic decline. It’s no longer enough to be on the first page of search results; even ranking 2nd or 3rd might not be good enough. All of this of course is designed to push more people towards PPC.

Alternatively, you can try pivoting towards less competitive commercial queries, especially in niches like arts, hobbies, and property, where there is still decent potential for organic success. Additionally, local SEO remains a viable path forward, particularly for transactional queries (i.e. I need this now). 

Ultimately, as readers of this newsletter know by now, by focusing on high-quality, authoritative, real content, you can navigate this increasingly tricky landscape.

The Kids are the future, says Meta

After years of (relatively) stagnant growth, Meta is doubling down on trying to get ‘young adults’ using Facebook again. 

To do this, Facebook is enhancing features like Reels and Marketplace, and leveraging Facebook Groups to grow interest or local community connections. The company is also promoting Facebook Dating, which has seen growth among this demographic.

It’s a really weird thing to announce, and isn’t really news as such, but is nevertheless an interesting shift in strategy and mindset; until we see some figures backing up that the audience has migrated there in terms of time and engagement (beyond just having accounts) I will be very sceptical, but interesting nonetheless.

YouTube linked with huge leaks

Here’s one I bet you never thought about; when you upload content before a major announcement and schedule that launch time, who from the platform can actually see it?

This is something The Verge took a look at this week, with concern around some pretty major PlayStation and Nintendo leaks being linked back to YouTube and Google employees.

One remarkable incident I must admit I’d missed relates to a KSI giveaway in 2022, involving $10,000 in Amazon gift cards. However, the creator and his team then discovered that all of the gift card codes had been redeemed before the video was posted, leading to an investigation at YouTube.

So, if you’re about to announce something business critical and majorly newsworthy, maybe don’t upload it to social platforms until relatively late in the day.

Further Reading

LinkedIn is expanding its video offering, now allowing firms the opportunity to promote in-stream video ads.

X is now ‘allowing’ adult content. Experts point out this isn’t exactly new in real-terms, though it still seems curious in this era to try and position a platform as being brand unsafe.

TikTok has acknowledged an issue which enabled hackers to target high-profile accounts, including CNN, Sony and Paris Hilton. There was plenty going on at TikTok this week, with Trump (who tried to ban the platform) joining and the platform implementing some measures to try and ensure accuracy around the upcoming UK election.

A bit of a mouthful this, but Pinterest is apparently driving more total attention than other apps, according to a Pinterest study. Make of that what you will.

And last but not least, after publishing advice telling creators how to ‘hack’ engagement, Instagram is now telling creators not to hack engagement.

That’s it for another week – if you found this interesting then I would really appreciate if you shared this with your friends and colleagues. 

If you’re feeling particularly generous, then I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!