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What is Copy.ai? A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Great Copies

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By Prakriti Chanda

Discover the magic of Copy.ai! Our blog provides a step-by-step guide on what Copy.ai is and how to effortlessly create outstanding copies that captivate your audience. Don’t miss it!

In the digital era, generating compelling content is no longer a luxury but a necessity for businesses. However, crafting engaging content can be a time-consuming task. For those who aren’t professional writers, it can be daunting. But what if an artificial intelligence (AI) tool could handle the heavy lifting for you? This is where Copy.ai comes into play. If you’re looking to learn what Copy.ai is, stay tuned to this blog.

Collection of top AI tools to use for different tasks.

This detailed guide will walk you through the ins and outs of Copy.ai, how it could be your secret weapon in content creation, and why it is making waves in the digital marketing world.

Diving into Copy.ai: What is it?

AI Webinars by Copy.ai | Learn to use Generative AI

Introducing Copy.ai

Copy.ai is a cutting-edge content creation tool that leverages AI technology to automate the copywriting process. It utilizes OpenAI’s GPT-3, a sophisticated language prediction model trained on over 175 billion machine learning (ML) parameters. This gives Copy.ai the power to generate high-quality content that sounds as if a human wrote it.

Founded by Paul Yacoubian in 2020, Copy.ai is an AI-powered platform that offers an extensive library of more than 90 use cases and delivers top-tier AI content in mere seconds. It’s currently used by over three million active users and well-known companies like Microsoft, Nestle, and eBay.

A step-by-step guide to using Copy.ai

Now that we have a grasp of what Copy.ai is and what it offers let’s dive into how to use it:

Step 1: Visit the Copy.ai website

The journey with Copy.ai starts with visiting its official website. Here, you’ll find a brief introduction video and an overview of the guide.

Step 2: Choose your desired template

Copy.ai offers a plethora of templates for different types of marketing copies. Pick the one that best suits your needs.

Step 3: Customize the template for your business

Replace the placeholders in the template with your business information. This might take a couple of tries to get it right, but the tool will update it for you automatically.

Step 4: Generate your copy

Once you’ve filled out the template, click “Create Copy”. The AI will then work behind the scenes to generate your marketing copy.

Step 5: Review and finalize your copy

The final step is to review the generated copy. Spend some time refining it to match your brand’s voice and style.

Explore the ins and outs of Nichesss – a powerful AI copywriting tool and dive into the world of exemplary copywriting skills to stay ahead of your peers!

what is copy.ai

Guide on how to use Copy.ai – Image via Pixabay

Breaking down the features of Copy.ai

Copy.ai is packed with a variety of features that make it one of the top AI writing tools for generating high-quality content. Let’s delve into its pivotal features:

Wide range of copywriting templates

Copy.ai boasts more than 90 pre-built copywriting templates, making it an all-in-one solution for any type of copy – be it email marketing, website copy, social media posts, or even personal copy support like journals and resumes.

High-quality and unique content

Copy.ai is designed to generate unique and engaging copy. Every template gives a different approach to the content’s main subject, thus ensuring a diverse and fresh perspective for your audience.

Support for multiple languages

Copy.ai isn’t limited by language barriers. It supports content creation in over 25 languages, making it a versatile tool for businesses aiming to reach a global audience.

Chrome extension for easy access

For writers who constantly switch between tabs for research and writing, Copy.ai’s Chrome extension is a game changer. Additionally, this innovative feature lets you use Copy.ai alongside your regular work and productivity apps like Google Docs and Gmail.

Check out Bearly AI and 13+ other AI writing tools and their comprehensive review in our blog.

In-built plagiarism checker

Copy.ai goes above and beyond by providing an in-built plagiarism checker, ensuring that your copy is both original and effective.

Exploring the pros and cons of Copy.ai

Copy.ai is an AI-powered copywriting tool that assists users in generating content for various purposes. Here are the pros and cons of using Copy.ai:

Pros

  • Time-saving: Copy.ai can significantly speed up the content creation process. It quickly generates content suggestions, headlines, blog intros, social media captions, and more, reducing the time and effort required to come up with an engaging copy.
  • Versatile writing styles: Copy.ai offers various writing styles, allowing users to adapt their content to different tones, moods, or target audiences. From professional and persuasive to creative and conversational, the tool covers a wide range of writing styles.
  • AI-powered creativity: This tool leverages AI algorithms to provide fresh and creative ideas. It can help overcome writer’s block by offering unique angles, alternative phrasings, and unexpected content suggestions.
  • Ease of use: The user interface of this tool is intuitive and user-friendly. It requires minimal technical knowledge, making it accessible to users with varying levels of expertise.

Cons

  • Limited customization: While this tool offers versatile writing styles, the level of customization is somewhat restricted. Users may not have complete control over the output and may need to spend additional time editing or refining the generated content.
  • Reliance on AI capabilities: This tool heavily relies on AI algorithms, which means that the quality and accuracy of the output may vary. Users might need to review and validate the generated content to ensure it aligns with their specific requirements and brand guidelines.
  • Learning curve: While Copy.ai is designed to be user-friendly, there can still be a learning curve involved in understanding its features, options, and the most effective ways to utilize the tool. Users may need to invest time in experimenting and exploring different functions to get the most out of it.

Teleport to our treasure trove of 110+AI copywriting tools that can add that sprinkle of magic to your content creation journey!

Copy.ai pricing

Copy.ai offers two pricing plans: a Free plan and a Pro plan. The Free plan offers 2000 words per month and access to over 90 copywriting templates. On the other hand, the Pro plan, priced at $49/month ($36/month when billed annually), offers unlimited words, priority email support, and access to a blog wizard tool.

Using Copy.ai

Users leveraging Copy.ai to create amazing copies – Image via Unsplash

Final thoughts: Is Copy.ai worth it?

In a nutshell, yes, Copy.ai is worth it. This powerful tool can save you time and effort in creating engaging content. Furthermore, while it might not completely replace a human writer, it’s a valuable asset that can enhance your digital content and streamline the copywriting process. If you’re ready to take your content to the next level, give Copy.ai a try today!

By Prakriti Chanda

Prakriti is a Content Writer at AMBCrypto. She describes herself as a passionately creative individual, with a dash of strategic prowess. With over 3.5 years of experience in the field of content writing and marketing, she is dedicated to churning out top-notch content in domains like Crypto, Web 3.0, AI and contributing to quench the thirst for technical knowledge of her readers.

Sourced from AMB Crypto

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7 Easy Ways to Make Money by Blogging 2023

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By Dinistan Ajay

Do you want to make money blogging? Let’s get into it.

Here are the seven best ways.

So, the first idea is to

Put ads on your blog.

If you’re getting a lot of traffic to your site, there are pages that could earn a significant income from strategically placing ads on them. You could use a service like Ezoic, Mediavine, or Google AdSense.

This is the most passive way to earn income from your blog. If you build up traffic and keep it steady, you can earn thousands of dollars every month from ads alone.

The second idea is to

Sell a service.

First, you want to define your offer — what it is you can help people with and what people are willing to pay for. Then, spend some time creating content around your expertise. For example, if you’re a highly skilled divorce attorney with thousands of hours of experience, you can write about your personal experiences working with clients and how you’ve helped them.

By doing keyword research and writing about topics people are searching for, you’ll start to build an audience and become an authority on the topic. From there, you can offer your services and build up a client base purely from blog traffic. This can work in just about any field you have experience with.

The third idea, in my opinion, is the best way to monetize your blog

Affiliate marketing.

When done right, your income grows the more time you put in. Affiliate marketing is all around you, but you might not be aware of it. Let’s take TVs as an example. People often look up TV reviews and comparisons before making a purchase.

Review sites like ratings.com, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide include links to each TV, and every link makes money whenever someone clicks through and makes a purchase.

Affiliate marketing has tremendous earning potential. Just look at NerdWallet, for example. Their main revenue source is affiliate marketing, and they made $379 million last year.

It’s the best way to build passive income in 2023.

The fourth way to make money blogging is by

Doing sponsored product reviews.

When you build up a sizable audience and get a decent amount of traffic, you become attractive to potential sponsors. Reach out to companies whose products align with your blog’s niche and share your traffic stats with them. Offer them the opportunity to be featured prominently in your content for a set monthly fee. Most companies will want that top spot because it generates the most visibility and influences purchase decisions.

Here is to go where the money is.

People often think of blogs as hobbies or online journals, but those people aren’t really making any money. If you want to turn your blog into a real source of income, think in terms of niches that make the most money. Avoid oversaturated niches or subjects that are not easy to monetize.

The most popular topics that make money include health, wealth, personal development, and dating. Create content around those topics and monetize them through services, digital products, physical products, and affiliate marketing.

Build an email list

Marketers often say that money is on the list, referring to an email list. To make money from blogging, you need to build a relationship with your readers.

Encourage visitors to sign up for your email list by providing multiple calls to action on your website. Building an email list ensures you always have a direct connection to your audience, allowing you to market to them whenever you have promotions or want to share new content.

Another way to monetize your blog is by

writing on Medium and earning money.

Medium is a popular online platform where you can publish your articles and reach a wide audience. It offers a Partner Program that allows writers to earn money based on the engagement their articles receive. When you join the program, your articles can be eligible for earnings based on member reading time and engagement, which includes claps and responses.

Writing on Medium provides an opportunity to showcase your expertise, connect with a community of readers, and earn income through your published content. Consider exploring Medium as a platform to expand your blogging endeavours and generate additional revenue.

By combining these strategies or selecting the ones that align best with your blog’s niche and target audience, you can create a diversified income stream and maximize your earning potential.

Remember, success in monetizing your blog requires dedication, consistency, and a commitment to providing valuable content that resonates with your readers. With determination and the implementation of these methods, you can transform your blog into a profitable venture and achieve financial success in the world of blogging.

Feature Image Credit: Photo by Rahabi Khan on Unsplash

By Dinistan Ajay

Sourced from Medium

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ChatGPT and the Art of Affiliate Marketing: Expert Tips for Maximizing Conversions

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Sourced from mint

Let’s dive in and discover how ChatGPT can empower your affiliate marketing journey and help you achieve remarkable results

In the world of affiliate marketing, conversions are the lifeblood of success. As an affiliate marketer, your ultimate goal is to drive users to take action, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a service, or clicking on an affiliate link. To achieve this, you need effective strategies that engage your audience and maximize conversions.

One powerful tool that has revolutionized the way affiliate marketers engage with their audience is ChatGPT, an AI-powered language model. ChatGPT allows marketers to create dynamic and interactive chat experiences that address user queries, provide personalized recommendations, and guide potential customers along their buyer’s journey. By integrating ChatGPT into affiliate marketing strategies, marketers can optimize conversions and unlock new possibilities. So, let’s dive in and discover how ChatGPT can empower your affiliate marketing journey and help you achieve remarkable results.

Personalized Recommendations

Personalized product recommendations are one way in which incorporating ChatGPT into your affiliate marketing approach may benefit you and your audience. Using ChatGPT’s AI features, you may examine a user’s data, preferences, interests, and browsing history to produce recommendations that meet their unique requirements.

According to Jitendra Vaswani, you may leverage information from user registration forms, surveys, and other channels to provide personalized recommendations using ChatGPT. This can include your age, gender, location, interests, income, and online shopping behaviours. ChatGPT can then generate customized product recommendations based on the information provided.

Create Conversational Experiences

Conventional advertising methods typically include broadcasting information to consumers without soliciting their feedback. But with ChatGPT’s help, you can have lively chats that feel genuine to your users. By integrating ChatGPT into your affiliate marketing plan, you can give your customers a more personal and engaging experience.

There are many benefits to affiliate marketing conversations that can help increase conversions. Users are encouraged to join the conversation rather than receive information, making for a more exciting and involved experience. When users are actively involved in the process, retention rates, user satisfaction, and conversion rates all rise. When designing conversational experiences with ChatGPT, consider the following techniques:

  • Prompt Engagement: Use open-ended questions, quizzes, or prompts to encourage users to participate in the conversation actively. You create a sense of involvement and investment by asking for their opinions, preferences, or experiences.
  • Address User Queries: Incorporate ChatGPT to address user queries in real-time. According to Rand Fishkin, Co-founder of Moz: “ChatGPT empowers you to provide immediate answers to user questions, overcome objections, and guide potential customers towards making a purchase. You establish trust and demonstrate your commitment to excellent customer service by providing immediate responses to their questions or concerns. This level of responsiveness and support can significantly improve conversion rates in affiliate marketing.”
  • Guide Through Decision-Making: Use conversational experiences to guide users through decision-making. Ask probing questions, offer comparisons, and provide helpful insights that help them make informed choices.
  • Personalize Interactions: Tailor the conversational experiences to the individual user by using their name or referencing their past interactions. Personalization creates a sense of connection and familiarity, leading to higher engagement and conversions.
  • Use Multimedia Elements: Enhance conversational experiences by incorporating multimedia elements such as images, videos, or GIFs. Visual and auditory stimuli can capture attention, convey information more effectively, and evoke emotional responses.
  • Storytelling Approach: Frame the conversation as a narrative or story that unfolds gradually. This approach captivates users’ attention, keeps them engaged, and creates a compelling journey toward conversion.
  • Call-to-Action Prompts: Strategically place call-to-action prompts within the conversation to guide users toward the desired action. Well-timed prompts can nudge users to purchase, subscribe to a service, or explore further.

Creating conversational experiences with ChatGPT transforms the traditional marketing approach into an interactive dialogue. Users feel more connected to your brand as they actively participate and engage with your content. This heightened engagement increases their likelihood of taking the desired action and ultimately boosts conversion rates. Experiment with different conversational styles, analyse user responses, and iterate to optimize conversational experiences over time.

Guide Users Through the Buyer’s Journey

To maximize conversions in affiliate marketing, it’s crucial to guide users effectively throughout their buyer’s journey. By implementing ChatGPT at various touch points along this journey, you can provide valuable assistance, address concerns, and ultimately nurture users toward making a purchasing decision.

  • Initial Research: At the beginning of the buyer’s journey, users are typically in the research phase, seeking information and exploring their options. Implement ChatGPT-powered chatbots on your website or landing pages to engage with users, answer their queries, and provide relevant information about the products or services you’re promoting. By assisting users during this crucial stage, you establish credibility, build trust, and position yourself as a helpful resource.
  • Comparison and Consideration:  As users progress along the buyer’s journey, they begin comparing and considering different options. According to Jitendra Vaswani, a renowned affiliate and SEO expert,” ChatGPT can assist by offering side-by-side comparisons, highlighting the products’ or services’ unique selling points, and addressing specific concerns or questions. This personalized guidance helps users make informed decisions and increases the likelihood of conversion.”
  • Decision-Making:  When users are on the verge of making a purchase, they often have final questions or may need reassurance. ChatGPT-powered chatbots can provide that extra level of support and encouragement. They can highlight customer testimonials, offer limited-time promotions, or address last-minute hesitations. By providing this personalized support, you instil confidence in users and help them finalize their decision.
  • Post-Purchase Support: ChatGPT can continue to play a role even after the purchase is made. Use chatbots to offer post-purchase support, such as order tracking, product usage tips, or troubleshooting assistance. Providing a seamless post-purchase experience enhances customer satisfaction, encourages repeat purchases, and potentially generates positive word-of-mouth referrals.

Remember, the goal is to make the buyer’s journey as smooth and seamless as possible, providing users with the necessary information and support at each stage. By guiding users effectively with the help of ChatGPT, you can create a positive user experience that leads to higher conversion rates and long-term success in affiliate marketing.

Measure and Analyse Performance
To maximize conversions in affiliate marketing, measuring and analysing the performance of your ChatGPT-powered strategies is essential. Set clear objectives, track engagement metrics, monitor conversion and click-through rates, and utilize A/B testing to identify practical elements. Analyse user feedback, integrate with analytics tools, and continuously refine and optimize your approach based on the insights gained. You can optimize your affiliate marketing efforts by leveraging data-driven decision-making and driving better results.

Wrapping Up

To sum up, maximizing conversions with ChatGPT and affiliate marketing can be a game-changer for your business. To achieve this, you should choose the right platform, create an engaging chatbot, use targeted messaging, optimize your affiliate marketing strategy, and leverage customer feedback. Remember to test and tweak your approach for maximum results continually. Overall, it’s important to remember that maximizing conversions takes time and effort, but the results are well worth it. Using these tips and taking action will make you one step closer to achieving your business goals. Best of luck!

Disclaimer: This article is a paid publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times does not endorse/subscribe to the content(s) of the article/advertisement and/or view(s) expressed herein. Hindustan Times shall not in any manner, be responsible and/or liable in any manner whatsoever for all that is stated in the article and/or also with regard to the view(s), opinion(s), announcement(s), declaration(s), affirmation(s) etc., stated/featured in the same.

Feature Image Credit: Jitendra Vaswani, Founder, Bloggers Ideas

Sourced from mint

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Elevate Your Brand with a Leading Marketing Agency

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Sourced from Affiliate Marketing

Elevating your brand to new heights requires a strategic approach and the guidance of a leading marketing agency.

In today’s competitive business landscape, it’s crucial to have a strong online presence and effective marketing strategies to stand out from the crowd.

With the help of a reputable agency, you can leverage their expertise, creativity, and industry knowledge to propel your brand forward and achieve remarkable results.

In this article, we will explore the benefits of partnering with a leading marketing agency and how it can positively impact your brand’s success.

Table of Contents

Driving Brand Awareness

One of the primary goals of a marketing agency is to enhance brand visibility and awareness.

Through strategic marketing campaigns, they can create a strong brand identity and convey your brand’s unique value proposition to the target audience.

By leveraging various channels such as social media, content marketing, and advertising, a leading marketing agency can effectively position your brand in the minds of consumers and increase brand recognition.

Targeted Marketing Strategies

A skilled marketing agency understands the importance of tailored strategies to reach the right audience.

They conduct thorough market research and develop comprehensive buyer personas to identify your target customers accurately.

With this information, they can craft personalized marketing campaigns that resonate with your audience, leading to higher conversion rates and improved ROI.

Creating Engaging Content

Content is king in the digital landscape, and a leading marketing agency knows how to create compelling content that captivates your audience.

They have a team of talented copywriters, designers, and videographers who work together to produce high-quality content, including blog posts, videos, infographics, and more.

Engaging content not only attracts potential customers but also establishes your brand as a thought leader in your industry.

Expanding Online Reach

In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for success.

A reputable marketing agency will employ various tactics to expand your brand’s reach across different online platforms.

From search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to social media advertising and influencer partnerships, they will utilize the most effective channels to increase your brand’s online visibility and attract a wider audience.

Analysing Data and Insights

One of the key advantages of working with a leading marketing agency is their ability to analyse data and derive actionable insights.

By monitoring and tracking the performance of your marketing campaigns, they can identify areas of improvement and make data-driven decisions.

This helps optimize your marketing strategies and ensures that your brand’s efforts are focused on the most lucrative opportunities, resulting in better outcomes and increased ROI.

Optimizing Search Engine Rankings

Securing a prominent position in search engine rankings is vital for driving organic traffic to your website.

A marketing agency specializing in SEO can employ proven techniques to improve your website’s visibility on search engine results pages.

By optimizing on-page elements, conducting keyword research, and building authoritative backlinks, they can help your brand rank higher in search results, leading to increased website traffic and better brand exposure.

Harnessing Social Media Potential

Social media platforms offer immense opportunities to connect with your target audience and build brand loyalty.

A leading marketing agency can create and execute effective social media strategies that engage your audience, increase followership, and drive conversions.

From crafting captivating posts to managing social media ad campaigns, they know how to leverage the power of social media to elevate your brand and foster meaningful relationships with your customers.

Questions and Answers

How can a marketing agency help my brand stand out from competitors?

  • A marketing agency can help your brand differentiate itself from competitors through strategic positioning, unique messaging, and creative campaigns that highlight your brand’s strengths and value proposition.

Can a marketing agency help my brand gain more online visibility?

  • Yes, a leading marketing agency can employ various tactics like SEO, content marketing, and social media advertising to increase your brand’s online visibility, allowing you to reach a wider audience and attract more potential customers.

How can a marketing agency improve my website’s performance?

  • A marketing agency can conduct a thorough website audit and implement necessary optimizations to enhance your website’s performance.
  • This includes improving site speed, user experience, mobile responsiveness, and search engine rankings.

Will a marketing agency help me generate more leads and sales?

  • Absolutely!
  • A marketing agency will develop targeted lead generation strategies and implement conversion-focused campaigns to drive more qualified leads and boost your sales numbers.

How do marketing agencies measure the success of their campaigns?

  • Marketing agencies track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, conversions, engagement metrics, and return on investment (ROI) to measure the success of their campaigns.
  • These metrics provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.

Can a marketing agency assist with brand reputation management?

  • Yes, a reputable marketing agency can help manage and monitor your brand’s online reputation.
  • They can implement strategies to address negative reviews, manage customer feedback, and cultivate a positive brand image.

Conclusion

Elevating your brand’s success requires a strategic approach, innovative marketing techniques, and a deep understanding of your target audience.

By partnering with a leading marketing agency, you can tap into their expertise, creativity, and industry knowledge to take your brand to new heights.

From driving brand awareness to expanding your online reach, a marketing agency can provide the essential tools and strategies to enhance your brand’s visibility, engage your audience, and generate meaningful results.

So, don’t hesitate to collaborate with a reputable marketing agency and unlock the true potential of your brand.

Sourced from Affiliate Marketing

Our website specializes in affiliate marketing. Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions and we will certainly help you. We are glad to have you on our website. Affiliate Marketing Website facebook twitter instagram pinterest tumblr linkedin

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4 times big brands roasted each other

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By Joseph Foley

We love an ad with a good brand battle.

Big brands usually try not to dis each other, at least not in public. Marketing that criticises a rival instead of extolling a brand’s own virtues is generally frowned upon, and serious beef is saved for the courtroom.

But we do see some exceptions. They can be very funny when they hit the mark, and totally cringeworthy when they don’t. Below we recap examples of both in four of the best brand vs brand battles we’ve seen recently. For more on branding see our pick of 20 iconic brands and the best branding books.

01. Peacock vs HBO

HBO Max’s recent rebrand to Max left many people dumbfounded as to why it would drop the best-known part of its name. Some genius at NBC’s rival streaming platform Peacock saw the perfect opportunity for a little dig.

It joined in with the general public incredulity by clarifying that it had no intention of dropping the first half of its own name, a move that would, of course, have rather NSFW results. The cheeky jibe caused much hilarity on Twitter and suddenly made NBC seem a lot cooler (I’m not sure when brands started referring to themselves in the first person singular though).

02. McDonald’s vs Burger King

ChatGPT has become the latest weapon of brand warfare (Image credit: David São Paulo)

The burger wars have seen McDonald’s and Burger King trade blows in advertising multiple times over the years (remember Burger King’s Mouldy Whopper ad and its app that invited users to burn rival’s ads?) For the most recent bout, the two fast-food giants had a new weapon at their disposal: AI.

When McDonald’s asked ChatGPT ‘What is the most iconic burger in the world?’ The bot spat out a typically ChatGPT answer that dutifully granted the title to the Big Mac (“First introduced in 1967, the Big Mac has become synonymous with fast food…). McDonald’s proudly turned this into a type-heavy poster in São Paulo.

But the very next day, Burger King responded with its own poster right alongside it, in which it asked the question ‘And which is the biggest?’ to which ChatGPT replied the Whopper. It was impressive how quickly the agency David São Paulo reacted to get its retaliation up so fast.

03. Pepsi vs Coca-cola

Pepsi vs Coca-cola is a rivalry on the same scale of McDonald’s Vs Burger King but for colas. In one recent episode, Pepsi took packaging from restaurants that serve Coke (including both Burger King and McDonald’s, as it happens), and managed to find its own logo lurking therein.

Using some clever photography (and perhaps a little Photoshop), the ads read: ’Even when we’re not on the menu, we’re always in the picture’. Part of the brand’s #BetterWithPepsi campaign, the ads work so well because of how they make light of Pepsi’s underdog position, but the brand also claimed to have some evidence to back it up, alleging that in blind taste tests, 60% of participants preferred their Big Mac or Whopper with a Pepsi.

04. Samsung vs Apple

Samsung vs Apple is a scrap in which the blows all seem to go one way. No matter how much the Korean tech company continues to bait it, Apple just carries on acting all cool and aloof like it doesn’t care (we know the ads probably hurt its feelings really).

Samsung’s thrown increasingly blunt jabs at Apple over the years, but most recently its attacks have taken the form of mocking the Cupertino company for its lack of a folding device. It even made a video showing an army of Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4s performing a Mexican wave to drive home the point, the suggestion being that Apple would make a folding iPhone if it could and hasn’t yet managed it.

However, Samsung’s attempts to troll Apple, are starting to feel a bit cringeworthy. And this is one brand battle that shows the dangers of criticising rivals so publicly. Samsung ended up deleting old posts in which it had criticised Apple for no longer providing power adapters with its phones after it ended up doing the same thing.

For more successful advertising, see our picks of the best print ads and the best billboard advertising. We also have a piece of the histories of the best 21st century logos.

Feature Image Credit: Image credit: Coca-Cola / PepsiCo / Burger King / McDonald’s / Samsung / Apple)

By Joseph Foley

Sourced from CREATIVE BLOQ

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Social Media Marketing: What It Is, How It Works

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By Lisa Anthony 

Social media marketing can be cost-effective when you pick platforms suited to your business and consistently deliver messages that engage your target audience.

Social media marketing, a type of digital marketing, uses social media platforms to deliver online content to a business’s target audiences. Content is generally designed to build brand awareness and promote products or services, but it can also help a business increase visitors to its website and gather information about followers that can be used in email marketing and other campaigns.

Social media marketing allows you to engage in a more direct way with your target audience, even in one-on-one conversations in some instances. It can be less expensive than other forms of marketing, but it’s also highly competitive due to continuous streams of social posts vying for the attention of consumers. Creating an intentional social media marketing strategy can help you maximize your efforts and improve your return on investment.

How to create a social media marketing strategy

Social media marketing works like other forms of marketing as far as defining goals, identifying a target audience and creating content. However, to keep an active social media presence, a business will need to post regularly on their platforms of choice and regularly monitor brand mentions and customer comments.

Determine your social media marketing goals

Plotting out your goals from the outset will help guide you in the other decisions you’ll need to make, such as which social media platforms to use and the type of content to post.

Here are some general goals that are common to social media marketing:

  • Increase brand awareness.

  • Gain customer insights.

  • Increase sales.

  • Develop leads.

  • Increase website traffic.

  • Respond to customer complaints.

  • Retarget visitors to your website who don’t make purchases.

  • Get followers to share your content on promotional events.

  • Draw attention to a charity or non-profit organization you support.

When possible, be specific when setting goals, but also keep in mind that the success of some of your efforts may be hard to document. For example, it can be more difficult to measure an increase in brand awareness, but the goal of higher website traffic can be documented through marketing tools such as Google Analytics.

Define your target audience

Knowing your customers is important to any marketing effort. Customer information, such as interests, buying behaviors, pain points and demographic details like age, gender and annual income, can help you create content that will interest your target audience.

Also, demographic details may influence your choice of social media platforms. For example, if your target audience is primarily women, you may want to market on a platform that has a higher percentage of women than men. Or, if your target audience is younger, you may want to use a platform that is popular with that age group.

However, with daily users numbering in the millions on many popular platforms, your target audience may be well represented on any platform. Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram are a few of the platforms that offer audience insights tools you can use to learn about the people using the platform. Talking directly to your customers about which platforms they frequent most can also help inform your social media strategy.

Pick your social media platforms

You may choose to target even more niche social platforms based on your type of business and customers, but here are some of the most popular and how they’re used:

  • Facebook: Text, image and video sharing. A Facebook business page can provide important information about your business and build community.

  • YouTube: Video sharing.

  • Twitter: This social networking platform is mostly used for text-based Tweets, but you can also incorporate images, videos and GIFs.

  • Instagram: Photo and video sharing.

  • TikTok: Video sharing. Compared to YouTube, this is best for shorter videos.

  • Pinterest: Image sharing.

  • LinkedIn: A professional networking platform, LinkedIn is primarily used to market to businesses rather than consumers, or to increase brand awareness by participating in industry-specific forums.

  • Snapchat. Instant messaging, image and video platform.

  • Reddit: Forum-style discussions.

Assess your content needs

The type of content you’ll post on social media will depend on your business, goals and which platforms you’re using. It can range from promotional to educational and should reflect the human characteristics and voice that best define your brand, or your brand personality. For example, if your business sells outdoor gear, your brand personality might be rugged and adventurous. Or, if your business sells products and services for small children, your brand personality might be playful but nurturing.

Social media content can include text, images and videos. You may also be able to link to other content you’ve created such as articles, blogs, e-books and videos. Depending on the platform, there may be limits to what can be included in posts. For example, on Twitter, a Tweet can contain up to 280 characters plus up to four images, videos and/or GIFs.

Your social media marketing efforts might also include the use of digital ads on multiple social media platforms and search engines such as Google and Bing. Each platform will have its own requirements for ads and typically offer content recommendations. For example, YouTube offers step-by-step instructions on creating video ads, with pre-made templates and other tools.

Post consistently

Posting consistently is an important factor in successfully promoting your business on social media. Each business’s posting cadence, whether it’s daily, a few times a week or weekly, will depend on its goals and audience. You’ll also want to factor in the time it takes to produce quality content — a video or high-quality photos may take longer than a text-only Tweet, for instance.

Creating a posting schedule can help your business post consistently — and marketing software can help automate the process. While you can post the same content on all your platforms, it’s better to customize the content for the audience of each individual platform. Plus, as discussed, each platform has unique requirements for postings.

Posting regularly can help a business to:

  • Increase brand authority, credibility and reputation.

  • Build followers.

  • Gain familiarity with the platforms and tools.

  • Establish its brand voice.

  • Improve content rankings on platform feeds.

  • Support paid advertising efforts.

Monitor mentions and respond quickly

It’s important to monitor the mentions of your brand and comments made on your posts. Customers frequently take to a business’s social media when they have customer service questions or complaints. In those instances, responding quickly and positively is key, but aim to resolve the issue privately, by encouraging them to direct message or email your business.

Monitoring mentions — and encouraging customers to post about your business (while tagging your account) — can also help you identify brand advocates and gather user-generated content to repost, which can ease the burden of content creation.

It may take months before you see noticeable progress toward your marketing goals, but social media management tools like Hootsuite, Zoho Social and Buffer can help you monitor your content as well as help with posting, scheduling and measuring results.

By Lisa Anthony 

Lisa is a small-business writer at NerdWallet and has more than 20 years of experience in banking and finance. Read more

Sourced from nerdwallet

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Re-Envisioning The Role Of Data In Marketing: From An Action-Oriented To A Process-Oriented Approach

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By Derek Rucker

As a marketing professor, a common question I receive concerns what has changed in the modern era of marketing.

Defining the modern era can be tricky, especially since some accounts date the origins of marketing to be as far back as 1500 BCE. For simplicity, one can take a narrower scope and inquire about the last decade. If one takes such a lens, channels have certainly changed; platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch were either in their early stages, lacked an advertising capability, or did not even exist.

One of the most significant changes is the rise of informational currency. Marketers now possess the ability to rapidly build, access, and process massive repositories of data. With so much data available, shifts have occurred in the marketing function. It has become more action-oriented; marketers take the data they have access to—market share by geographic region, consumer purchase habits, changes in website traffic, consumer comments in forums— and generate an action or response. For example, if sales are down in a region, marketers might react by pushing advertising toward that region. If a TikTok influencer receives a lot of likes, a brand might seek to sponsor the user. If a consumer lingered on a website with items in their cart, but did not purchase, the brand might send an email promotion. A staple of what we term an action-oriented approach is that marketers collect data in droves and react to it.

This might all seem well and good, but as I have recently written with my co-author[1], Aparna Labroo, we view this action-oriented thinking as leading to potential short-term thinking, data tunnel vision, and precarious decision making. For example, focusing on the data that is coming in offers no guarantee that one is using the most important or the most relevant data. Indeed, we have found ourselves perplexed at brands that favour data because it is cheap or accessible, even though it provides little relevance to a problem at hand. Even when brands have good data—for example, clean data that establishes a decline in online sales— the presence of good data does not necessarily mean the appropriate action is taken. Knowing sales is down might tell you a problem of some form exists, but it does not tell you whether the solution require a change in the product, the advertising channels, the message, the creative work, or some other element.

What is the alternative? As we train the strategists we develop at Kellogg and in practice, rather than adopt a reactionary, action-oriented approach, marketers can instead develop and execute what we term a process-oriented approach. A process-oriented approach eschews a reactionary measure to data. Instead, it uses the data as a starting point to ask why a problem is occurring and what additional data will confirm or reject the hypothesis. A process-oriented leader uses the power of hypotheses to cut to the heart of a problem in a manner than leads to the development of successful long-term solutions as opposed to immediate (and potentially ineffective) short-term ones. A way to contrast the action-oriented and process-oriented approach is as follows: an action-oriented approach sees a problem and begins pulling levers in response to the problem; the hope is that one of the levers will do the trick. In contrast, a process-oriented approach sees a problem and steps back to ask what lever to pull and why.

How does one generate hypotheses, you ask? Although that’s a longer story for another time; it begins with applying what we call our INSIGHT framework. More specifically, marketers must understand the (I)ndidvidual consumer, the (N)etworks they belong to, and the (S)ituation that surrounds the consumer. Each of these involve curating the right data. Next, marketers can explore the (I)mportance of elements within each of these prior factors to understand the weight they carry. Notice, each of these steps involves seeking to understand the data as opposed to immediately reacting to it. Next, the fun part begins. With these elements in place, it becomes possible to (G)enerate (H)ypotheses and engage in (T)esting of these hypotheses. Essentially, via investing in developing and understanding insight, brands can direct their efforts to both gather better data and test ideas to avoid roads to ruin and identify how to pave paths to success.

In the modern era of marketing, it is all too easy to fixate on data in a way that ignores the real problems brand face and, as a result, leads to reactionary efforts that fail to solve the problems. Marketers need to take back the reigns of strategy by adopting a process-oriented approach that places a greater emphasis on understanding the root that underlies a problem as opposed to the rotten fruit on the branches.

Feature Image Credit: GETTY IMAGES

By Derek Rucker

Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website.

I am a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management. For over a decade, I have researched, taught, and consulted on the topics of advertising and persuasion. My endeavors have led to numerous academic publications, a textbook on advertising strategy, and cases written on effective advertising. In addition, I co-lead an annual review of Super Bowl advertising with Kellogg MBA students. Beyond my expertise, I am driven by a passion to better understand the human mind to allow marketers to create, execute, and evaluate advertising in a more effective manner. I hate to see ineffective advertising, and I want to do my part to make it better.

Sourced from Forbes

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How the Best Brand-Influencer Partnerships Reach Gen Z

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By Janet Balis

If you haven’t heard about Alix Earle, it may simply be a matter of time. This young influencer — who just graduated from the University of Miami — has more than 5 million followers on TikTok and was recently signed by United Talent Agency (UTA), one of the top three firms that represent talent globally across the media and entertainment ecosystem. She has leveraged her personal brand to partner with beauty companies like Tarte and Rare Beauty.

Watching the myriad of Alix Earle videos online makes her formula quite clear. She has model-like beauty, checking the box for sheer aesthetics. She’s perfected the “get ready with me” (GRWM) format (among others), a short-form video in which she goes from natural beauty to flawless perfection, displaying professional yet replicable makeup techniques and product use. As she applies her look during “selfie” videos, she offers a mix of storytelling, humour, vulnerability, aspiration, relatability, and product mentions in a fast-talking, effortless monologue. She feels just approachable enough to be just another college student.

That approachability is why Earle resonates so much with Gen Z. Authenticity is among this generation’s most important values. As recent EY research highlights: “After an era of fake news and filtered photos projecting the ‘perfect life,’ Gen Z is over it.” They feel empowered to ask and answer their own questions in a variety of social forums on any topic — from beauty to health to home improvement to technology to science. And their view of authority has expanded from traditional sources, like academic institutions or reputable editorial voices, to perceived influence — as demonstrated by Earle’s meteoric rise.

Studying Alix Earle’s success offers brand marketers five powerful lessons for how to tap into this era of influencers — and make authentic connections with Gen Z.

1. Find the right influencers for your brand

Simply force-ranking top influencer lists is not the answer. Brands want to find the person or people who reach their target audience.

Once brands define the category in which they compete, marketers can look for the influencers who have the most engagement and who have a voice and style that resonates with the brand. AI and other tools to analyse data can help you figure this out — for example, data analytics can reveal followers, creative approaches, and communities in common between influencers and brands. There are also companies, from Gallery Media, for example, to leading talent agencies, who curate influencers and manage more complex relationships and execution for brands.

2. Create brand stories for mobile consumption

Gen Z fills their spare moments by scrolling through their algorithmically driven, personalized “for you” feeds on their phones, filled with photos, videos, and memes. Ideally, brands should empower the influencers they work with to create content that is short, compelling, and made for mobile.

Embracing vulnerability and openness, like Earle does in short one- to three-minute stories, enables brands to connect with younger generations in a way that’s personally relevant and authentic. However, brands must understand that this is not a 30-second scripted television spot, and the influencers will take the story in a direction of their own choosing. This is a complement to other brand storytelling — not a replacement.

3. Motivate consumers to make brand content their own

Unlike previous generations, Gen Z does not “broadcast” their posts to social networks writ large. They share more often with far fewer people via “private stories.” Engagement is much higher because of the frequency and the intimacy of these posts, and with this shift, we also see Gen Z moving away from prior generational behaviours of broadcasting their happy moments widely on their social media accounts to sharing more raw moments like personal crisis and tears in more private circles.

A young person who sees a beauty product in a GRWM video from Earle on TikTok who subsequently endorses that product with their friend group in their private story on Snap is an example of how the brand journey goes from high-profile social media influence to deeply personal influence. A brand must earn the right to access this sacred space — and it must understand the opacity and new risks of these more personally intimate venues.

4. Cross boundaries to stand out

It’s going to take new sources of inspiration and creativity to stand out as generative and conversational AI are applied in creative contexts at scale. As all influencers now have access to the same technology to drive research, enhance ideas, and accelerate production, forward-thinking brands will look to differentiate through human originality or true celebrity. The bar for real creativity will only get higher, requiring unorthodox juxtapositions of brands or new invitations to consumers to co-create. Our current definition of influence may shift rapidly as AI manipulates both the targeting and creative driving the algorithms.

5. Avoid clone culture

As marketers, we may prize the opportunity to drive consumption at all costs by engineering trends to have velocity through influencers. But if we succeed too much on the science of it all, are we creating trend echo chambers that contradict our commitments to diversity and inclusion, or cloning repeat behaviours within certain social archetypes? And if influence relies on at least the veneer of originality, will it be harder as everyone uses similar AI-driven insights? Brands drive their commercial ambition with precision using a combination of creativity and data (or art and science), but increasingly, they may seek to broaden strategies to find new audiences, voices, and inspiration to diversify their base of consumers and ideas.

The creator economy is thriving, creative, and valuable, particularly as technology-enabled economic models motivate strong talent to make it a true professional endeavour. Brands that harness its new dynamics to create value will differentiate themselves and drive exponential growth. The key to success is to lean into the newest sources of influence along with all the latest dynamics of risk and reward.

The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.

By Janet Balis

Janet Balis leads EY’s consulting professionals in the Americas focused on the customer agenda and revenue growth, including commercial excellence, customer experience and product innovation and also leads EY’s CMO practice. She has also served as a partner at Betaworks, publisher of The Huffington Post, and EVP Media Sales and Marketing at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Balis is on the global board of the Mobile Marketing Association and the International Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she is also an advisor to the Harvard Business School Digital Initiative. You can follow her on Twitter: @digitalstrategy.

Sourced from Harvard Business Review

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Top Ad Blockers for Online Privacy (2023)

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By Prathamesh Ingle

The most effective ad blockers are now indispensable for everyone using the modern web. Regardless of the sites you frequent, you will need robust security against the countless pop-up adverts, activity trackers, and malvertising that plague the web. The FBI itself advocates for their use.

It’s easy to discover safety now that browser add-ons and specialized ad-blocking programs are available. They’re up there with the top VPN and anti-virus programs as crucial resources. Several ad-blockers are available, so the only questions are which one to use and whether or not the drawbacks are acceptable to you. However, if you feel the benefits outweigh the costs, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the most effective ad blockers and privacy enhancement applications. They support every browser and operating system imaginable so that you may surf the web without worry.

AdBlock Plus (ABP)

AdBlock Plus (ABP) has plugins for common browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Opera. With ABP, blocking most advertisements, spyware, and social media links is as easy as loading a preconfigured list of filters and clicking a button. To keep their advertising income positive, savvy users can select additional block lists, implement custom filters, or whitelist their preferred websites. While AdBlock Plus’s “non-intrusive advertising” filtering feature may annoy some users, it can be turned off in the settings menu. The AdBlock Browser for Android provides a Firefox-based browser that blocks incoming advertising, and the AdBlock Plus app for iOS combines with the content blocker system effortlessly and without requiring configuration block advertising on Safari.

AdBlock 

AdBlock is by far the most widely used ad-blocking software worldwide. AdBlock can stop banner advertising, video commercials, and pop-up windows from appearing. Trackers, employed by marketers to keep tabs on your online movements, are also blocked. AdBlock does more than eliminate annoying advertisements; it also increases your online privacy and security. AdBlock does this by obstructing trackers, which advertising uses to follow you as you navigate the web. This can make it harder for them to track your online activities and provide adverts. AdBlock is compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge. It’s also compatible with iOS and Android devices. The “Get AdBlock Now” button may be found at GetAdBlock.com, where AdBlock can be downloaded. After that, the AdBlock browser add-on will be recommended to you. The installation of the add-on triggers immediate ad blocking via AdBlock.

Ublock Origin

Ublock Origin is an ad blocker for web browsers that prioritizes lightweight, effective blocking. The plugin ships with preconfigured filter lists for common advertising and malware domains, and you may download more filter lists or read and write your filters using host files. uBlock Origin does more than block adverts; it also prevents tracking. Small pieces of code called “trackers” are often inserted into websites. They collect data about what websites you visit and share it with advertisers. If you use uBlock Origin, you can prevent certain trackers from accessing your data. In short, uBlock Origin can be set up and used with minimal effort. Once it’s set up, all you have to do to allow adverts on specific sites is add them to a “whitelist.” You can tailor uBlock Origin’s ad blocking to exclude only certain formats—for example, video advertising or pop-ups.

Poper Blocker

Poper Blocker (also known as Pop Up Blocker For Chrome) was not created to replace existing adblockers but to work with them. Poper Blocker is an extension for blocking advertisements focusing on pop-ups, pop-unders, overlays, timed pop-ups, and pop-ups appearing as you scroll down a page. When pop-ups are being prevented, you will see a small notification. Poper Blocker may be kept running in the background with minimal impact alongside other adblocker extensions, and it also allows you to examine your blocking statistics.

Stands Fair AdBlocker

Stands Fair AdBlocker is a quick and lightweight ad-blocking plugin for Chrome. The fully functional add-on prevents annoying pop-up adverts and other tracking forms from appearing in your browser. Stand’s Fair AdBlocker allows you to choose which advertisements to block down to the individual element. You can even choose to have Facebook advertisements blocked. The “Fair” in AdBlocker refers to the option to whitelist ad-supported websites you don’t want to deprive of revenue by blocking all advertisements from or allowing only specific types. Compared to other ad blockers, this one doesn’t go all-out to achieve its goal.

Ghostery 

Ghostery can help you focus on the content while you browse. However, Ghostery’s true worth rests in the privacy safeguards it provides. You can check who is attempting to collect information about you online by using Ghostery to view trackers. You can prevent such tracking with Ghostery as well. If you’re concerned about maintaining your privacy, you can use Ghostery’s Enhanced Anti-Tracking feature. You can get Ghostery without spending a dime, and it will keep you safe online. Premium security begins at just $4.99 monthly, and the $11.99 plan includes a VPN. Ghostery is available for both iOS and Android devices.

Adblocker for YouTube

Ads on YouTube have become increasingly intrusive, prompting developers of ad-blocking add-ons to create even more sophisticated solutions. Whether it’s the pre-roll commercial that loads before your movie or the text and banner advertising that load during it, Adblocker for YouTube is a Chrome extension that promises to block all of YouTube’s advertisements automatically. There is also an AdBlocker for YouTube add-on for Firefox if you want to use something other than Chrome. Same name as a seemingly new creator, but still able to filter out commercials from both videos and websites. This is also compatible with Android smartphones.

Privacy Badger

Privacy Badger is a free and open-source browser extension to safeguard your privacy when surfing the web. It functions by obstructing any tracking attempts made by websites automatically. Privacy Badger is an ad blocker that does not rely on a database of recognized trackers. Instead, it adapts to recognize potential trackers through their actions. This means that Privacy Badger will be effective against even previously unknown trackers. Privacy Badger does more than prevent tracking; it also uses the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal to prevent your personal information from being sold or shared. If you don’t want websites to share your data with third parties without your permission, you can send them this signal. Using Privacy Badger is a breeze. After installation, it will function exactly like any other web browser. When Privacy Badger detects a tracker, it will immediately shut it down.

AdLock 

AdLock is a complete ad blocker that protects you from pop-ups, flash banners, video advertisements, malware-infected banners, and tracking bugs on the web. It eliminates all advertisements from your web browser, mobile apps, games, and IM client. AdLock is compatible with Mac OS X, Android, iOS, and Windows. The free version filters most advertisements, while the premium version stops trackers and viruses and provides other benefits. AdLock is a powerful ad-blocking software. It filters out commercials from numerous websites, including those used for social networking, news, and video streaming. Apps, games, and IMs are also protected from invasive advertisements.

AdGuard 

AdGuard is a mobile, desktop, and tablet ad blocker that protects you against annoying adverts, tracking software, and malware. It’s a cross-platform app with Mac OS, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS without cost or restrictions. AdGuard prevents advertisements by preventing requests from reaching ad servers. Ads won’t load and won’t show up on your screen. AdGuard also protects you from tracking technologies. This is for your safety and privacy. When used in conjunction with other security and privacy measures, AdGuard can greatly enhance your online safety and anonymity. It’s accessible from a multitude of devices and has an intuitive interface.

By Prathamesh Ingle

Prathamesh Ingle is a Mechanical Engineer and works as a Data Analyst. He is also an AI practitioner and certified Data Scientist with an interest in applications of AI. He is enthusiastic about exploring new technologies and advancements with their real-life applications

Sourced from Marktechpost

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Meta’s latest AI model is free for all

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Melissa Heikkilä

The company hopes that making LLaMA 2 open source might give it the edge over rivals like OpenAI.

Meta is going all in on open-source AI. The company is today unveiling LLaMA 2, its first large language model that’s available for anyone to use—for free.

Since OpenAI released its hugely popular AI chatbot ChatGPT last November, tech companies have been racing to release models in hopes of overthrowing its supremacy. Meta has been in the slow lane. In February when competitors Microsoft and Google announced their  AI chatbots, Meta rolled out the first, smaller version of LLaMA, restricted to researchers. But it hopes that releasing LLaMA 2, and making it free for anyone to build commercial products on top of, will help it catch up.

The company is actually releasing a suite of AI models, which include versions of LLaMA 2 in different sizes, as well as a version of the AI model that people can build into a chatbot, similar to ChatGPT. Unlike ChatGPT, which people can access through OpenAI’s website, the model must be downloaded from Meta’s launch partners Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Hugging Face.

“This benefits the entire AI community and gives people options to go with closed-source approaches or open-source approaches for whatever suits their particular application,” says Ahmad Al-Dahle, a vice president at Meta who is leading the company’s generative AI work. “This is a really, really big moment for us.”

But many caveats still remain. Meta is not releasing information about the data set that it used to train LLaMA 2 and cannot guarantee that it didn’t include copyrighted works or personal data, according to a company research paper shared exclusively with MIT Technology Review. LLaMA 2 also has the same problems that plague all large language models: a propensity to produce falsehoods and offensive language.

The idea, Al-Dahle says, is that by releasing the model into the wild and letting developers and companies tinker with it, Meta will learn important lessons about how to make its models safer, less biased, and more efficient.

A powerful open-source model like LLaMA 2 poses a considerable threat to OpenAI, says Percy Liang, director of Stanford’s Center for Research on Foundation Models. Liang was part of the team of researchers who developed Alpaca, an open-source competitor to GPT-3, an earlier version of OpenAI’s language model.

“LLaMA 2 isn’t GPT-4,” says Liang. And in its research paper, Meta admits there is still a large gap in performance between LLaMA 2 and GPT-4, which is now OpenAI’s state-of-the-art AI language model. “But for many use cases, you don’t need GPT-4,” he adds.

A more customizable and transparent model, such as LLaMA 2, might help companies create products and services faster than a big, sophisticated proprietary model, he says.

“To have LLaMA 2 become the leading open-source alternative to OpenAI would be a huge win for Meta,” says Steve Weber, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Under the hood

Getting LLaMA 2 ready to launch required a lot of tweaking to make the model safer and less likely to spew toxic falsehoods than its predecessor, Al-Dahle says.

Meta has plenty of past gaffes to learn from. Its language model for science, Galactica, was taken offline after only three days, and its previous LlaMA model, which was meant only for research purposes, was leaked online, sparking criticism from politicians who questioned whether Meta was taking proper account of the risks associated with AI language models, such as disinformation and harassment.

To mitigate the risk of repeating these mistakes, Meta applied a mix of different machine learning techniques aimed at improving helpfulness and safety.

Meta’s approach to training LLaMA 2 had more steps than usual for generative AI models, says Sasha Luccioni, a researcher at AI startup Hugging Face.

The model was trained on 40% more data than its predecessor. Al-Dahle says there were two sources of training data: data that was scraped online, and a data set fine-tuned and tweaked according to feedback from human annotators to behave in a more desirable way. The company says it did not use Meta user data in LLaMA 2, and excluded data from sites it knew had lots of personal information.

Despite that, LLaMA 2 still spews offensive, harmful, and otherwise problematic language, just like rival models. Meta says it did not remove toxic data from the data set, because leaving it in might help LLaMA 2 detect hate speech better, and removing it could risk accidentally filtering out some demographic groups.

Nevertheless, Meta’s commitment to openness is exciting, says Luccioni, because it allows researchers like herself to study AI models’ biases, ethics, and efficiency properly.

The fact that LLaMA 2 is an open-source model will also allow external researchers and developers to probe it for security flaws, which will make it safer than proprietary models, Al-Dahle says.

Liang agrees. “I’m very excited to try things out and I think it will be beneficial for the community,” he says.

Feature Image Credit: STEPHANIE ARNETT/MITTR | GETTY, ENVATO

Melissa Heikkilä

Sourced from MIT Technology Review

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