💾 Social Media marketing in the age of AI

How Google’s AI Search Will Change Marketing Strategy

Social media is vital to marketers, but many users are getting tired of it. According to a new study from Hootsuite, 59% of people who follow brands on social media think there’s too much advertising there. More than half (52%) say self-promotional brand content is exhausting. And a third would prefer no brand content on social media at all.

In short, users want more thoughtful, intelligent and fun content from brands. And, Hootsuite found, the payoff is pretty big. Seven in 10 people who follow brands on social media have explicit plans to purchase from them, and nearly six in 10 have already done so. 

When choosing brands to follow, users want them to have a relatable social presence, with compelling points of view on topics within their areas of expertise. And while this means something different to every user, brands can generally find success if they post about their core area, like brands with sustainability at their core posting about upcycling, or an athletic apparel brand posting about sports. 

It’s not necessarily more work, it’s being more thoughtful and understanding of a brand’s core fans.

Social media success is getting more important as search engines are moving toward integrating AI into their search platforms. Google has been experimenting with adding its Gemini AI to search, and is making optional generative AI search available to some users for beta testing. 

This creates a completely new paradigm for marketing, and it shifts the entire search experience.

💸 Why Reddit isn't a 'performance marketing machine'

Social media giant Reddit made its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange last Thursday under the ticker RDDT. On Wednesday, the stock was priced at $34 a share. The stock climbed as much as 70% to $57.80 shortly after trading began at 1:15 p.m. ET on Thursday. 

Don Butler, Managing Director at Thomvest, summed up how he is evaluating Reddit’s stock. He told Yahoo Finance, “it's sort of similar to buying on Pinterest or similar to buying on Nextdoor or these other communities where you have very high engagement, but at the same time, it's not the performance marketing machine that you have with companies like Meta, Google, or Amazon these days.”

📰 Nvidia Reveals Latest AI Chip; Meta Offers to Reduce Subscription Fees Under EU Privacy Review; YouTube Now Requiring Realistic AI Content Disclosure

Nvidia revealed its latest AI chip, the Blackwell B200 GPU. Named the world’s most powerful chip for AI, it also reduces cost and energy consumption by 25 times that of an H100 – the Nvidia chip which turned the AI giant into a multi trillion dollar company. 

Following discussions with EU privacy regulators, Meta has offered to almost halve the monthly fees for its platforms’ ad-free subscription plans. Staying in the orbit of social platforms, YouTube is now requiring creators to disclose realistic content made with AI. Realistic looking content includes any in which a viewer could easily mistake altered or synthetic media for a real person, place, or event.

🎉 Google Marketing Live 2024 registration opens

Google Marketing Live registration is now open. The conference is Google’s annual event for showcasing its latest ad products, formats, developments, and updates. You can register for Google Marketing Live 2024 here. Here’s what Google is teasing:

“Get a front row seat to see Google’s newest Ads innovations and learn how you can put Google AI to work for your business. Watch the live keynote and access on-demand sessions to see how to drive next-level growth for your business.” Google Marketing Live is where Google typically announces a slew of new products and features. Google Marketing Live 2023 was heavy on AI announcements.

• Watch me get 9 social post ideas from one sentence - ericasmyname on X

• Exporting reports broken for everyone else? - PPCGreg on X

• In case you wonder how the creative metrics for a viral ad should look like… - williamkast on X

Marketers utilize less than 20% of available Martech tools: Julie Woods-Moss, Thoughtworks

In 2023, CMOs invested over a quarter of their marketing budgets on technology, according to a Gartner report. 

Even though 25.4% of budgets were allocated to tech tools, utilization of their organization's overall Martech stack’s capability dropped to just 33% on average this year, marking a third consecutive year of decline (42% in 2022 and 58% in 2020).

Julie Woods-Moss, CMO, Thoughtworks agrees that marketers are still not utilizing Martech tools to their full potential. “I'm definitely in the camp that marketers probably use less than 20% of what's available,” she told exchange4media in a recent interview.

From cost pressures around investment in Martech tools to whether clients are worried about the cookie-less future, Moss delved deep into decoding what is the need of the hour in the Martech landscape today.

• The Future of Marketing Efficiency - MarTech Conference 2024 - CHEQ on YouTube

• The BS-Free Guide to Building Communities That Last More Than 3 Months - everyonehatesmarketers Podcast

• Meta advertising issues: What is happening and what you can do about it- Reshift Media on YouTube

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