editor, Author at Mediastreet

In News

YouTube’s Advice for Shorts Creators, Including Hashtags, the Algorithm and More

September 20, 2023 No Comments

Looking to get into YouTube Shorts and build a Shorts presence for yourself or your brand?

You should probably consider it. Shorts is the fastest-growing content type on YouTube, and is now driving over 50 billion daily views in the app. Built in the mold of TikTok, Shorts leans into the growing trend towards more succinct, attention-grabbing clips, and it could be a valuable pathway towards increased brand awareness and perception.

If you can create good Shorts content.

This will help. Today, YouTube has published a new interview with Shorts Product Lead Todd Sherman, in which Sherman answers some of the most common questions about Shorts, including how they’re using hashtags, how often you should post, the Shorts algorithm, and what’s coming next.

There are some interesting notes. Below are some of the key highlights.

On the Shorts algorithm

YouTube advises that creators should “think audience, not algorithm” within their creative process.

Sherman says that the Shorts algorithm is different to the regular YouTube feed, because it’s an entirely different format, with different consumption behaviours.

“For example, on long form, a lot of the times people are choosing which video by tapping on it on their phone, or clicking on it on the web, and that choice is something that drives a lot of engagement. On short form, people are swiping through a feed, and discovering things as they go. That’s one important difference.”

The variance means that YouTube can’t use the same explicit usage indicators as it does in the main feed, so the algorithm is focused more on engagement elements, while the Shorts feed is also broader reaching, meaning that YouTube has to match more content to Shorts viewers.

In essence, this means that YouTube is getting smarter about showing users what they like, based on what they watch, factoring in watch time and re-watches, along with likes, shares, and comments. A big part of that comes down to entity recognition, and YouTube is still building its algorithm to highlight more content based on these measures.

How Shorts views are counted

Sherman says that Shorts views are not measured when a Short appears on screen, but are more aligned with actual viewer interest.

“What we try and do with a view is have it encode for your intent of watching that thing, so that creators feel like that view has some meaningful threshold that the person decided to watch. It doesn’t mean it’s their favourite video ever, it just means that they are deliberately watching it.”

Sherman says that YouTube doesn’t publish its actual calculations on this, in order to stop people trying to game the system.

Extending Shorts length

Sherman says that this is not something that they’re considering, as YouTube already has other long-form options. As such, Shorts will remain 60 seconds max for the time being.

Thumbnail options

Sherman says that the Shorts team has opted not to add specific thumbnail creation tools for Shorts because most Shorts views come from people swiping through the Shorts feed, which means that most people won’t see your thumbnails anyway.

YouTube has added the capacity to select a frame from your clip as the thumbnail, but there are no plans to add custom thumbnail options.

Hashtag usage

Sherman says that hashtags are not required on Shorts, but they can be helpful in certain application.

“Sometimes a hashtag can be associated with a real world thing that’s happened, like an event, and you wanna’ associate it with it. Other times they’re focused on topics, and I think in both those cases, creators should consider using them.”

So not exactly concrete advice on whether hashtags offer any value, but they may be worth experimenting with, in terms of trending discussions and/or niche topics.

Shorts volume

Sherman says that there’s nothing in the algorithm that dictates expanded or reduced reach if you post more Shorts, but he advises that there can be negative impacts for posting lots of lower quality clips.

“If you generated a bunch of relatively lower quality videos and then posted those, and got meager engagement on them, that energy is probably better spent in just making a better video and fewer of them.”

So quality over quantity is, in general, the better approach.

Deleting and re-uploading to maximize reach

Sherman also addresses the suggestion that deleting and re-uploading a Short can help to boost its reach.

Some creators claim that re-uploading can effectively re-trigger the algorithm to expand your distribution, but Sherman says that this is not a great strategy.

“I would not advise that. I’ve heard people talk about this as like a growth hack on Twitter or something [but] I think that there’s also a risk that it gets seen as spam in our systems.”

The future of Shorts

Looking ahead, Sherman says that Shorts will integrate AI elements, though he’s fairly vague on what exactly that means.

You would assume that this would incorporate AI creation tools of some kind, generative elements that can assist in your process, but we’ll have to wait and see what YouTube has in store on this front.

It’s an interesting overview of the current stats of Shorts, and how to best approach Shorts engagement, which could help guide you in your efforts to make the most of the option.

You can view the full interview clip above.

By Andrew Hutchinson

Sourced from SocialMediaToday

In News

‘I feel manipulated’: The ‘debt help’ ads targeting struggling mums

September 20, 2023 No Comments

By Lora Jones, Deirdre Finnerty & Maryam Ahmed

“Debt help” social media posts are aggressively targeting people in financial trouble. The posts claim to help end money worries but charities warn some companies are misleading people who are struggling.

Some who sign up to the products on offer, known as IVAs, could end up worse off, a BBC investigation has found.

Shauna was £17,000 in debt with car and furniture loans when a specific sort of social media post started to appear in her feed. As she scrolled online in the evenings while her three children were in bed, she was drawn to pictures of worried-looking women alongside claims of wiping away financial troubles.

It was autumn 2020, and Shauna, then 23, was on maternity leave from her job as a care worker in a supported living facility. Costs had started to mount when she was pregnant and the bills and reminder notices were clogging up the letterbox of her south Wales home.

“I saw no end to it,” she says. “It was just building and building… I didn’t know how to cope.”

A company called Mums in Debt, she remembers, caught her eye on Facebook. It promised to write off up to 85% of debt. The more Shauna searched, the more it seemed like the perfect solution. One amount she could budget for. The belief she was taking control of her finances.

“I thought… ‘this is something for mothers, struggling'”, she explains. “That’s what sold it to me”.

She says she answered some questions from Mums in Debt on Facebook Messenger and a representative gave her a call. She was passed on to another company, which signed her up to an Individual Voluntary Arrangement – a court-approved debt solution in which debts are combined into a single monthly payment. The arrangement, she was told, would last for five years.

Shauna kept up with her agreed payments of £185 a month. But after a year, she realised her debts had barely budged.

What is an IVA?

An individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) is an agreement between a person in debt and their creditors
The person in debt agrees to make payments to an insolvency practitioner (IP) who is authorised to act on behalf of people in financial difficulty. The IP divides the repayments between the creditors, if they agree on the amount to be paid back. Interest on debts is frozen for the duration of the IVA and contact from creditors and bailiffs is stopped
IVAs appear on an individual’s credit file and will affect their credit score. The repayment period usually lasts five to six years and at the end of the term, any debt not covered by payments already made is written off by the creditors
People taking out IVAs can sometimes pay thousands of pounds in frontloaded fees. If an IVA fails, an individual might have spent months or years paying fees and still be liable for the remainder of their debts

Set up in the 1980s as a way to help owners of small companies keep trading and deal with their debt, IVAs are a booming business. Almost 90,000 were registered in England and Wales in 2022, compared to about 50,000 in 2014, according to figures from the Insolvency Service.

Although they can be a welcome solution for people who want to protect their assets, like their homes, IVAs are unlikely to be suitable for people with low levels of debt, people without much disposable income, or people whose income solely comes from benefits.

But the Citizens Advice charity says IVAs are being aggressively marketed at people in vulnerable situations by companies seeking to earn referral fees.

“You can just search online, on Google for debt advice and the [sponsored] ads will typically be from IVA firms”, explains its head of policy Morgan Wild.

“We’re seeing worrying trends of companies making false claims about IVAs, and even posing as charities on social media… these tactics lure people into IVAs which they simply can’t afford”.

Shauna, pictured in her home, looks at her phone

The BBC asked three independent debt advisers to review Shauna’s case. They expressed concerns about the affordability of her IVA payments because it was set up when her outgoings were smaller because she was living with her mother.

Fourteen other people who said they had signed up to IVAs after seeing social media posts also told the BBC they were struggling with repayments.

‘Stop bailiffs’

In a recent report, Citizens Advice deemed a sample of Facebook and Instagram IVA ads to be “misleading”. Some ads failed to mention IVAs, while others used names that could be confused with charities or claimed to offer, free, impartial debt advice.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, declined to comment when asked about social media adverts promoting IVAs on its platforms.

Ex-reality TV stars’ ‘misleading’ debt ads banned

The BBC decided to investigate what was happening on TikTok. In June 2023, the BBC’s data team searched TikTok for videos promoting IVAs, by typing in keywords like “debt help UK”, “stop bailiffs” or “debt advice”.

Of more than 400 videos the team looked at which directly promoted IVAs or linked to IVA websites, more than 75% appeared to breach Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rules.

Most of the videos that appeared to break the rules did not mention the risks, terms and conditions or fees associated with taking out an IVA, while about a third overstated the speed or simplicity involved in setting one up.

An illustration of a TikTok video indicating IVA claims to watch out for. This includes "debt write-off claims without evidence", "free advice claims", "claims IVA process is quick or easy" and "no mention of risks, restrictions or fees"

The ASA reviewed a sample of the videos. It said it had concerns about “irresponsible ads” and was “continuing to monitor and take action where they appear”.

It said: “Advertisers need to be responsible. They shouldn’t exploit consumers’ fears or lack of experience, or trivialise the decision to use IVAs.”

TikTok said it was “committed to working with the Advertising Standards Authority to ensure advertisers and creators comply with their guidelines”. It added that adverts promoting debt consolidation and debt assistance programs, which IVAs fall under, “are not allowed on our platform and are removed”.

Debt Trap: Who’s Cashing In?

As the cost of living crisis deepens, Panorama investigates the booming debt management industry and the companies signing up people for Individual Voluntary Arrangements.

Watch Debt Trap: Who’s Cashing In? on BBC One at 20:00 on Monday 24 July (20:30 in Wales and Northern Ireland) and on BBC iPlayer afterwards (UK only)

After three years of repayments, Shauna now says she feels “manipulated” by the claims she saw on social media and says she would not have gone ahead with the IVA if she had known about other options.

A statement she shared with the BBC from 2021 showed that she had paid £1,537.99 of the £3,650 in fees that she owes, with just £360 knocked off her debt.

With prices rising, she says she has found it harder and harder to make ends meet and has had to use a foodbank for the first time.

“I couldn’t afford [the food shop] because the IVA went out [of my account],” she says. “I just feel ashamed of myself.”

The BBC wrote to Mums in Debt about Shauna’s case but did not receive a response.

Experiences like Shauna’s are familiar to Morgan Wild of Citizens Advice. He says cracking down on social media content is “much needed”, but also calls for greater regulation of the IVA sector itself.

BBC Panorama called several companies in the IVA industry to see what happens when they are approached by potential customers. The team heard high pressure sales tactics being applied in some cases, with a reference to bailiff action if a potential client didn’t go ahead.

It is a complex field to navigate. Two types of companies – lead generators and debt packagers – can pass on potential customers to companies which provide IVAs. But lead generators are not regulated by the UK’s financial watchdog – the Financial Conduct Authority. They typically earn up to about £1,000 in fees for finding a customer who signs up to an IVA.

Separately, insolvency practitioners, who set up the IVAs and earn money in fees, are not overseen by a fully independent regulator, but are members of professional membership associations who oversee their work.

The patchwork of regulation could mean that people like Shauna are falling through the cracks.

The government agency the Insolvency Service acknowledged there are concerns about the use of IVAs, but said when used appropriately they are an “effective way for someone who is in financial difficulty to… pay their creditors”. The FCA said it was doing everything within its remit to ensure firms “really are supporting borrowers in financial difficulty”.

For now, Shauna is in touch with Citizens Advice and is considering her options – she could cancel the IVA and negotiate with her creditors directly, or see if she is eligible for another debt solution. Cancelling the IVA would mean she loses any money she has paid in fees so far.

She has always dreamed of owning her own home, with a bedroom for each of her three children but now feels the prospect is growing ever more distant.

“[I’m] living from pay check to pay check,” she says. “I feel like I’m getting absolutely nowhere.”

To anyone in a complicated financial situation, she urges them to think carefully before signing up to a debt solution.

“If you see an ad [online], do your research and find out exactly what you’re getting yourself into.”

What to do if you find yourself in debt

It is important to seek advice about financial difficulties before debts escalate. The earlier, the better.

If you think you cannot pay your debts or are finding dealing with them overwhelming, seek support straight away. You are not alone and there is help available. A trained debt adviser can talk you through the options available.

Information and support is available and free of charge – click here to find out about organisations who may be able to help.

By Lora Jones, Deirdre Finnerty & Maryam Ahmed

Sourced from BBC News

In News

4 Expert-Tested Ways to Get More Freelance or Contract Work

September 19, 2023 No Comments

By Amanda Pressner Kreuser

More than a third of the U.S. workforce are freelancers. Here’s how to set yourself apart–and up for six-figure success

The benefits of becoming a full-time freelancer or independent contractor are clear and compelling: being your own boss, setting your own schedule, and potentially working from your dream location anywhere in the world!

And the freelance market is growing steadily. In 2022, 60 million Americans performed some kind of freelance work, which represents an increase of three percentage points from the prior year.

However, with that growth comes increasingly fierce competition for work. I get a glimpse of that every time my content marketing agency has new work to assign; we often have hundreds of talented freelancers who are skilled and ready to take on those projects.

So how do you become the go-to freelancer who’s at the top of everyone’s lists for interesting, well-paying work? I asked some of our top contractors to share their best tips for building and scaling a top-notch freelance business. Here’s what they had to say.

Build your brand.

There are a few key ingredients to setting the right foundation for independent contractor work. A great place to start? Polish your website and LinkedIn profile.

Because you’re representing yourself as a business, it’s important to have a website showcasing your work, including some copy about the type of projects at which you excel. This is also an opportunity to highlight any key results from your projects. Did your ad copy double traffic to your client’s website? Was your article featured on the homepage? Don’t be afraid to brag–a little self-promotion goes a long way.

For LinkedIn, include an email address to make it easy for potential clients to get in touch, a few LinkedIn recommendations from your clients, and a link to your website.

Build your foundation.

As you develop your business, look for work from reputable organizations. You can get a sense of who those companies are by joining freelancer groups on Facebook and LinkedIn. Signing up with agencies (like Masthead Media, the agency I co-own) is a great way to learn about a variety of projects and clients.

Many of the most successful full-time contractors I know started their businesses as side hustles while they continued working at another job. This is a great approach if you need some time to build up your client base and get a better sense of what a full-time freelance income might look like. As you increase your client list (and earnings) from freelance projects, you may naturally shift into the mindset of a small-business owner and transition into independent contractor work full-time.

Finally, lean on technology to help you stay organized as you grow your business. Project management tools can provide structure to help you stay on top of assignments, deadlines, payments, and more.

Build your network.

Relationships are everything in business, and this is especially true for independent contractors. Fostering strong client relationships and building your network are keys to any successful freelance career.

Keep in touch with your clients, get to know their business goals, and check in on a quarterly basis. For example, did a client receive positive press or launch a new product? Did you come across an article that’s relevant to their business? These are all perfect opportunities to touch base so your contact will keep you front of mind when new projects arise.

If a potential new client reaches out with a business inquiry, even if it’s a cold email, be sure to respond! This is still true even if you’re not interested in the opportunity or don’t have the bandwidth for new projects at this time. A professional response goes a long way, and you never know where that connection may lead. Pro tip: Organize these kinds of emails in a separate folder in your inbox to keep track of potential opportunities for the future.

Build your reputation.

How can you become the type of independent contractor clients want to work with again? Submitting high-quality work is crucial, of course. But there are a few other elements that can take a freelancer from good to go-to.

First, meet your deadlines, plain and simple. If, for any reason, you’re concerned about missing a deadline, let your client know as soon as possible and propose a suitable solution. Perhaps that means offering a new timeline or sharing an abbreviated version of the work on the deadline and submitting the full version two days later. Whatever it is, be proactive and keep your client informed.

Another reputation-building tip: Take time to understand your client’s processes. Make sure you know when and where to send your invoice, and track your time, if the client requests it. Confirm how long it takes the client to pay their freelancers. If your agreement says you’ll be paid within 30 days of submitting your invoice, don’t send a reminder about payment before that time is up.

Finally, communicate! Ask questions to make sure you understand expectations, keep your client informed of your progress, and ask for feedback during and after the project. This shows your client that you value your work and the relationship–and that’s a win-win for everyone.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Amanda Pressner Kreuser

Sourced from Inc.

In News

Mailchimp Owner Intuit Launches Media Network for Small Businesses

September 19, 2023 No Comments

By Catherine Perloff

Financial services giant Intuit is launching a small business-focused media network, letting advertisers target customers across the web and tapping into a new revenue line, executives exclusively told Adweek.

The venture, called SMB MediaLabs, will let advertisers target the customers of accounting firm QuickBooks on a range of digital media properties, including audio, online publishers, social platforms like Meta, and connected TV. Intuit is working with Vizio as its exclusive CTV partner. QuickBooks had 7.1 million customers at the end of the fiscal year 2022.

Small business owners use QuickBooks to help manage their accounting and pay employees, among other tasks. Intuit also owns email marketing business Mailchimp, whose customers the company plans to eventually make available to advertisers for targeting, said Dave Raggio, vice president of U.S. acquisition marketing for Intuit’s small business and self-employed group.

“There are not that many good small-business data sources,” Raggio said, noting many data sources on small businesses come from government sources or are scraped from the web, making them less up-to-date and inaccurate. “I just looked at what we had and noticed that we could provide a lot of value for other advertisers that were trying to reach this audience.”

Intuit joins a growing number of corporations, often retailers, that have been retooling themselves as media networks in response to the proliferation of digital interfaces and the impending deprecation of third-party cookies, which has made advertisers hungry for new sources of first-party data. The bet has paid off: Retail media will attract $45 billion in U.S. ad spend this year, a 20% year-over-year increase, per Insider Intelligence.

Most entrants into the space start by serving ads on their e-commerce websites, including Marriott, a non-retailer that launched a media network last year. By contrast, SMB MediaLabs will not start by serving ads on its owned and operated (O&O) properties but on other digital channels.

Hailing from the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) world, Raggio joined Intuit to market QuickBooks to small business owners. The challenges Raggio faced there spurred the idea for SMB MediaLabs.

“The creep of the scope is not novel, but the focus is,” said Nikhil Lai, senior analyst of performance marketing at Forrester, of the rise of commerce media.

Intuit also owns tax filing service TurboTax and personal finance company Credit Karma, but these business lines will be separate from the media venture.

Filling a niche

Intuit is betting the small business audience could be a lucrative area to target for all kinds of advertisers, both business-to-business and business-to-consumer.

For example, it can be more efficient for CPG companies to ship products directly to shoppers if they are in bulk, and small business owners would be the ideal customers for bulk orders, Raggio said.

“If you’re trying to sell homeowners insurance, the fact that [someone] owns a small business makes it much more likely that they own a house,” said Eric Perko, founder of media agency Apollo Partners, which worked with Intuit to launch SMB MediaLabs.

Unlike a lot of traditional retail media networks that only run on O&O properties, we are running ads in environments where [buyers] are already investing

Dave Raggio, vice president acquisition marketing, Intuit

SMB MediaLabs will start as a managed service available via insertion orders. Intuit will place the buy with a demand-side platform (DSP) and any audiences are isolated to individual campaigns. In order to be able to deliver this offering, Intuit made several hires in data science. It’s also worked with agency Apollo Partners and has integrated tech from LiveRamp.

QuickBooks customer data is anonymized and aggregated, and advertisers cannot access customers’ personally identifiable information or financial data. The company is also letting customers opt out.

Getting on the media plan

The managed service offering may offer more privacy, but it could deter some buyers who want to test a new media channel easily, preferring the synergies in reporting and frequency management that come with buying directly via a DSP, said Janine Flaccavento, executive vice president of the retail, CPG and QSR vertical at Dentsu-owned data agency Merkle.

“Automation and self-serve are where some of these newer [retail media] brands find scale,” she said. “It’s easier for us buyers to test and learn, and the more the effort that has to go into that, the more it costs the brand that’s buying.”

Raggio said SMB MediaLabs is more open for buyers to test than most retail media networks by not acting as a walled garden.

“Unlike a lot of traditional retail media networks that only run on O&O properties, we are running ads in environments where [buyers] are already investing,” he said.

Because buyers can already execute granular targeting on Meta and other social platforms, QuickBooks will also have to prove to buyers that their audience is non-duplicative, Flaccavento said.

“I can go to Facebook and target small business owners,” she said. “What else makes it richer?”

Raggio said that along with offering basic data points like industry, location and age off-the-shelf, SMB MediaLabs can put together a bespoke targeting plan for buyers, based on when a customer is up for renewal on services, if they’re overpaying for products or their existing brand loyalties, among other attributes, for an additional fee.

“It’s about driving efficiency through finding the highest value subset of audiences within the vast SMB landscape,” Raggio said.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Catherine Perloff

Catherine is an Adweek staff reporter covering ad tech and platforms.

Sourced from ADWEEK

In News

‘They love being heard’: How Bubble built an avid fan base via TikTok and brand ambassadors

September 19, 2023 No Comments

By Julia Waldow

Bubble, a Gen Z-focused skincare brand, is taking off on TikTok.

Over the last five months, Bubble more than doubled its number of followers from 500,000 to 1.1 million people. Several of its videos, which Bubble typically posts once a day, have millions or hundreds of thousands of views.

Bubble’s business has ballooned across channels since Bubble launched at the end of 2020. Thanks to a recently-expanded partnership with Ulta Beauty, Bubble’s products — which vary from moisturizers to masks — are available in around 9,000 stores in the U.S., including CVS and Walmart locations. Bubble’s online sales have grown 1,000% year-over-year, while its in-store sales have spiked 800%. This number could be higher, though, because Bubble runs out of inventory quickly due to rising demand, CEO Shai Eisenman told Modern Retail.

On TikTok, all of Bubble’s reach is 100% organic, according to Eisenman. “It’s something we’re super proud of,” she said. Some of Bubble’s TikTok videos are educational (why the brand is fragrance free, for example), while others jump on social media trends (like rolling a product down a set of stairs to see if it breaks). One of its newest videos, which advertises Bubble’s new Cloud Surf moisturizer, racked up some 220,000 views in the first two hours. As of July 21, it had 696,000 views.

Bubble is on other platforms, too, although it has fewer followers there than on TikTok. The aforementioned Cloud Surf video, for instance, had 7,300 views on YouTube Shorts and 11,000 likes on Instagram, as of July 21.

Eisenman attributes the brand’s fast growth on TikTok to its relationship with customers. Bubble replies to nearly every comment posted on its TikTok videos, it’s amassed an ambassador program of 7,000 fans and it features user generated content (UGC) in its posts. One of Bubble’s most recent TikTok videos, which thanks fans for helping the company reach 1 million followers on the platform, includes videos of customers explaining what they like about the brand. Many Bubble fans will post videos of their product hauls or give tips or tricks for how to use items under the hashtag #bubble.

Bubble will sometimes use UGC to come up with its products. One recent example is the brand’s new plushie, a new category for Bubble. Eisenman told Modern Retail that she was watching fans’ videos showing their product hauls and noticed that many of the TikTokers had stuffed animals in the background. That observation, combined with the knowledge that one of Bubble’s most popular products is its moisturizers, led Eisenman and her team to develop a plushie version of Bubble’s Slam Dunk moisturizer. A video teasing the plushie has 547,000 views, with comments such as “BUYING WHEN IT COMES” and “OMG IT’S A SQUISHMELLOW OF BUBBLE?!”

Bubble typically enjoys a spike in sales after posting TikTok videos. In January, Bubble saw its sales through Walmart stores double after a video from a TikTok user went viral. But, Eisenman says she doesn’t think of TikTok primarily as a sales channel, although people can buy products via a link in Bubble’s TikTok bio.

“It’s really hard for us to come and say, ‘Oh, this is a sales channel,’ because honestly, most of our sales happen in-store and in retail and Walmart and CVS and Ulta,” she said. “But obviously, TikTok is fueling that growth significantly.”

Instead, Eisenman said she wants to use TikTok to build brand awareness, engage with customers and explain Bubble’s values. “We constantly adapt and post content and speak to our audience as if it’s a conversation,” Eisenman said. “And that’s, I think, something that’s very unique in terms of just our growth and in terms of our community, because they love being heard.”

Bubble’s ambassador program is key to this effort. Bubble has set up chat channels on the app Geneva to collect feedback from Bubble’s biggest fans. “Everything we want to launch, everything we want to do, they’re a part of,” Eisenman said. “We send them pictures of stuff way before they launch, and they help us choose names, and they help us choose packaging. And they’re truly a part of the ideating and the decision-making process in the company.”

Bubble’s ambassador program is so popular that it has a waitlist of more than 41,000 people. Eisenman said. She said the brand is focused on “accepting as many people as possible,” but that because many applicants are under 18 years old, Bubble needs to get consent from their parents. “That’s why it takes a very long time to actually go through the list,” Eisenman said.

Bubble’s brand ambassadors need to be at least 14 years old; have at least one valid and active social media account on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest or YouTube; and provide a valid personal email address (plus a parent or guardian email address if under the age of 18).

Kimberley Ring Allen, founder of Ring Communications and adjunct professor at Suffolk University, applauded Bubble’s community-based strategy, calling it “smart.”

When TikTok first launched, Allen said, brands wanted to churn out as much content as possible. “Everybody was spending all their time making videos, right?” she told Modern Retail. “You had just been pumping out videos, and sometimes they would get views, and sometimes they wouldn’t. And that’s because there was no strategy.”

Now, Allen said, companies are thinking about channels like TikTok more as community-building tools. It’s not enough just to post content, she said — brands have to form a relationship with consumers. This is especially important, Allen added, because today’s consumers are “very ad-aware.” “The second they see an ad, they know to ignore it,” she said.

Brands are constantly trying to formulate new and existing TikTok strategies, but some work better than others. The food-saving app Too Good To Go posts its own content, but largely benefits from viral videos of customers showing off how much food they can get for $3.99. Brands like Pepsi and Pizza Hut have found mixed success in creating their own TikTok sounds in the hopes of going viral.

Ultimately, companies that use TikTok to collect feedback from fans and interact with customers will see the benefits from that, Allen said. “They turn their customers into prosumers,” she said. “Like, you know, your feedback is important, we want you to test these new products. They make them feel super appreciated… [and] they stay engaged.”

Feature Image Credit: Bubble

By Julia Waldow

Sourced from ModernRetail

In News

TikTok’s new monetization feature invites creators to make video ads for a chance to earn money

September 18, 2023 No Comments

By Aisha Malik

TikTok is introducing a new way for creators to earn money on its platform. The company announced that it’s launching the “TikTok Creative Challenge,” a new monetization feature that allows creators to submit video ads to brand challenges and receive money based on video performance. TikTok Creative Challenge is currently in testing as with select brands.

To be eligible for the new feature, creators must be at least 18 years old and have a US-based account with a minimum of 50,000 followers. Once enrolled in the TikTok Creative Challenge, creators will be able to browse through a list of challenges, and view the reward pool, additional details and requirements.

“Submissions should be high-quality, well-edited, original content,” TikTok explained in a blog post. “Once submitted and approved, creators can see the status of their submissions, view performance and check monthly earnings. Rewards are influenced by many factors, including qualified video views, clicks and conversions. Creators will receive notifications for their submissions if revisions are necessary, with the option to revise or appeal.”

Videos that creators submit will not be displayed on their profiles. If their video is approved, it will run as an ad on the app’s For You Feed.

TikTok says creators who are enrolled in the program will get access to resources, including a dedicated Creator Community group and Mentor Program to connect with other creators.

The idea and premise behind the TikTok Creative Challenge is somewhat similar to that of Pearpop, an LA-based startup that facilities brand-to-creator collaboration as well as creator-to-creator collaboration. Pearpop allows creators and brands to buy collaborations with celebrities like Madonna and creators like Sommer Ray. These celebrities and influencers are able to sell the chance to collaborate with them. Or, they can run “challenges” that invite people to post using a specific prompt or sound on TikTok or Instagram for the chance to receive cash rewards determined by engagement milestones.

TikTok’s new offering follows the same sort of model by helping creators cut down on the amount of time and effort it takes to reach out to brands to try to get brand deals.

It’s worth noting that the new feature comes as TikTok opened its revamped creator fund, called the “Creativity Program Beta,” to all eligible creators in the United States last month. TikTok says the new program is designed to generate higher revenue and unlock more real-world opportunities for creators. To be eligible for the program, creators must have a U.S.-based account, be at least 18 years of age and have at least 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 views in the last 30 days.

The TikTok Creative Challenge is the latest addition to TikTok’s suite of monetization tools, which includes LIVE subscriptions, Series and TikTok Pulse. The company also has tips and gifts monetization features.

Feature Image Credit: Yui Mok/PA Images / Getty Images

By Aisha Malik

Sourced from TechCrunch

In News

Publishers want billions, not millions, from AI

September 18, 2023 No Comments

By Ben Smith

Barry Diller fired publishers’ opening shot at artificial intelligence platforms in a Semafor interview this April, suggesting they sue the companies that have trained models on their data.

Now his company, IAC, and a handful of key publishers are close to formalizing a coalition that could lead a lawsuit as well as press for legislative action, people at those companies said. The group crucially includes the two industry pillars, The New York Times and News Corp., as well as Axel Springer.

“The thing that everyone wants to talk about is whether AI is going take over the world to eliminate humans and all that stuff,” IAC CEO Joey Levin, who is playing a central role in the coalition but declined to discuss it in detail, said in an interview in his office on Manhattan’s West Side. An AI takeover of the media “could be more profound than that sort of sci-fi fear.”

Many publishers have begun to experiment with AI tools aimed at making writing more efficient. But executives also worry about threats to everything from their revenue to the very nature of online authority.

The most immediate threat they see is a possible shift at Google from sending traffic to web pages to simply answering users’ questions with a chatbot. That nightmare scenario, for Levin, would turn a Food & Wine review into a simple text recommendation of a bottle of Malbec, without attribution.

“The machine doesn’t drink any wine or swirl any wine or smell any wine,” Levin said.

“Search was designed to find the best of the internet,” he said. “These large language models, or generative AI, are designed to steal the best of the internet.”

Ben’s view

Neither publishers nor platform executives are eager to restart the bitter coastal wars of the last decade. And they’re bringing none of the utopianism of the early internet. Publishers are determined not to repeat what many see as the mistakes of the social media era, in which they gave away their content for free. And tech executives are eager to avoid new allegations that they’re destroying democracy and journalism — and the attendant congressional hearings.

And in conversations with leading figures on both sides of the argument, the outlines of a settlement in which AI companies pay for training data are becoming clear — with one large glitch.

Tech companies appear to hope that they can placate publishers with, perhaps, eight figures worth of pay-outs, as the Facebook News Initiative did when it doled out payments annually between 2019 and 2022, fees reportedly exceeding $20 million for the Times, $15 million for the Washington Post, and $10 million for the Wall Street Journal.

Publishers believe the numbers ought to be much bigger this time around. If these breakthrough language models rely on their inputs, they argue, the share of the value they collect should be commensurate — and should run into the billions of dollars across the industry.

Levin, other publishers and their counterparts at Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants declined to quote numbers, or to discuss the coalition they’re forming.

But the publishers, led by Diller himself, are also threatening to try their luck in court, where complex questions about how copyright law applies to both the inputs to AI training and the outputs of AI models remain largely untested. Publishers are watching with particular interest to a Delaware lawsuit over an artificial intelligence company’s copying of legal texts from Westlaw.

Payments on the scale the publishers expect would mark a dramatic change for companies like Google, which have built high-margin business in large part because they — unlike media companies from Netflix to Comcast — don’t pay for content.

Unless the publishers lower their expectations, or the tech companies adjust their fundamental sense of what it is to be a platform, this high stakes conflict is likely to escalate.

The View From The Platforms

Tech executives raise one major objection to publishers’ demands: They haven’t even figured out a business model for AI yet, and there are no profits to share in the crushingly expensive business of maintaining language models.

A Google spokeswoman, Jenn Crider, said it is “very early days” for large language models.

“As we develop LLM-powered features, we’ll continue to prioritize experiences that send valuable traffic to the news ecosystem. We’re also working to develop a better understanding of the business models for these products and on ways to give web publishers choice and control of their content,” she said in an email.

Notable

Even as some big publishers attempt to assemble a coalition, others are striking their own deals with platforms, as the Associated Press recently did with OpenAI.
Google has developed a tool it says will help journalists write articles. Some of the executives who have played with Genesis described it to the New York Times as “unsettling.”
ChatGPT wrote a novel. Slate says it’s “pretty good.”

Feature Image Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Semafor

By Ben Smith

Sourced from SEMAFOR

In News

Ten Tips For Networking Excellence In 2023

September 18, 2023 No Comments

By Dr Byron Cole

Networking is an essential skill for entrepreneurs to learn because it generates business.

The term networking can become over complicated. It is simply starting and nurturing relationships which is something that humans do throughout life.

It doesn’t have to be difficult. Practice, repetition and following the tips below will help you build rewarding professional relationships wherever you are, whether that’s at work, a seminar, a party or on a flight.

Define Your Objectives.

Who do you want to meet and why? How many networking events will you commit to attending? Where will you go to network? How will you measure your progress? What do I want to get help with?

Asking yourself these powerful questions is a great place to start. You can’t hit a goal without a target, so be strategic about your time and your intentions.

Be Mindful Of Your Personal Brand

First impressions really do count. Before attending a networking event, think about how you will introduce yourself. Do you have an elevator pitch of around 30 seconds? If not, write and practice one. Make sure you are dressed well and feel confident in your appearance (whatever that means to you). Your personal brand also follows you online, so be mindful of how you want to show up.

Find A Networking Partner

Networking can feel scary. Introverts should find someone to attend events with to take the edge off. This tip is also very good if you know that you need help staying accountable. Having a networking partner will mean you’re both more likely to show up.

Be Vulnerable

Is anybody surprised that 75% of entrepreneurs have reported concerns for their mental health? Running a business is hard and can be a lonely road. This is not to say that you should treat networking as a free talking therapy, but be vulnerable about the problems in your industry or that you’re facing in business. Vulnerability builds deeper connections more quickly, and you never know if the person you’re talking to has the perfect solution to the issue that’s holding you back.

Take Advantage Of The Internet

LinkedIn is not just an online resume. It’s the most suited platform for building professional relationships, so make sure to interact with content, post your own content and send direct messages. Aside from LinkedIn, you can network on every other social media platform. Attending online workshops and being active in forums are other ways to meet people who share your interests.

Always Add Value

When you make a connection ask yourself two questions.

How can I help this person?
Who else in my network can help this person?

Openly sharing knowledge, contacts and opportunities to help others win will create a culture of generosity within the relationship. The other person will be more likely to help and introduce you to others when the time comes.

Listen

People tend to talk more than they listen. If you can learn to truly listen, you will gather so much information about people, the industries they are in and the professional problems they face. It is said that knowledge is power.

Follow Up

Networking doesn’t start until you follow up. Aim to send a text, email or direct message within 24 hours of meeting someone. Check in with them every 3 to 6 months to further nurture the relationship.

Review Your Progress

Six months after attending a networking event, review the relationships that were built. You might start to notice trends such as which types of events are the most beneficial to your networking goals. From this exercise, you can tailor your networking strategy if needed.

Take The Pressure Off

Building relationships is a skill that you have already been practicing for years, so try not to feel intimidated by the word networking or by trying to ‘do it right’. The more you network, the more confident you will get.

Social Networking. getty

Networking is about establishing connections and creating a supportive community. Even if you don’t have a specific product or service to promote, your presence can still contribute to engaging conversations, the exchange of ideas, and potential collaborations.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Dr Byron Cole

Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website.

I’m a multi award-winning entrepreneur, author and business start-up expert with a diverse portfolio of over 21 businesses spanning the UK and UAE.

As a mentor, I’ve had the privilege of guiding countless individuals towards success, generating millions of pounds for my mentees.

My published works include “Self Made,” a comprehensive guide covering the entire business development process, from start-up to exit. It offers practical and implementable advice. Additionally, “The Business Survival Kit,” published by Penguin Random House, achieved Sunday Times Best Selling status in the UK. My most recent book, “Rich Forever,” published by Hachette, educates readers on financial literacy and the creation of generational wealth.

In 2022, my dedication and contributions to entrepreneurship were recognised by the University of Greenwich, where I was honoured with an honorary degree. This recognition further validates my commitment to excellence and reinforces my status as a prominent figure in the entrepreneurial realm.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

Six Tips For Marketing An Independent Retail Business

September 15, 2023 No Comments

By Elie Y. Katz

Retail stores have always faced the challenge of attracting and retaining customers. This challenge has become even more difficult in a world of increasing competition and evolving technology, making it even more important that businesses find ways to entice new customers and show existing ones they are the best choice.

In my experience within the industry, retail stores have to continuously strive to attract and retain customers. Achieving this requires investing in marketing, advertising, and customer service initiatives. With that in mind, here are six steps any retailer can use to market their independent business.

1. Establish brand recognition.

In my experience, the success of any business depends on its ability to establish a recognizable brand. Part of this process involves creating a memorable name, logo and slogan that help customers recognize and remember your brand. The logo should be easy to recognize and have an eye-catching design. Many studies have shown that the most memorable logos have a simple design.

It’s important to not overthink the logo’s design but also to ensure that it stands out and targets your audience. One way to do this is to conduct market research to understand your target audience’s preferences and design a logo that reflects your brand’s personality and values.

A slogan can also help to differentiate your brand from its competitors and create a memorable impression with customers. Aim to create a slogan that is concise, catchy, meaningful, easy to remember and embodies the business’s core values.

2. Market on social media and search engine advertising campaigns.

Once the logo and slogan are created, the next step is implementing social media campaigns to generate more awareness about the brand. You can create ads that appear when people search for certain products or services. This can help merchants get more leads and increase sales.

I recommend utilizing various social media platforms to reach a wider audience, although your messaging should resonate with your target audience the most. Consider using platforms such as Google Ads and Bing Ads, as these campaigns allow you to target specific keywords and demographics to ensure your ads reach the right people.

Other online marketing strategies include email marketing campaigns and working with influencers. Combining these strategies can help you create an even more effective online presence and increase your brand’s visibility.

3. Create promotions to attract customers.

Another effective strategy is to create promotions to attract customers to a business’s products and services. Promotions should be tailored to your target audience and designed to be engaging and attention-grabbing. Consider using BOGO, free shipping, free samples, coupons, flash sales and giveaways; I have found that these tactics can do a lot to increase customer engagement and drive sales.

Most people love savings and discounts, so offering promotions and exclusive deals can be a great way to attract and retain customers. Additionally, providing exceptional customer service and personalized experiences can also help you build strong relationships with consumers and encourage repeat business.

4. Build a loyalty program.

An effective loyalty program encourages loyalty by rewarding customers for their repeat purchases. This can also help your brand build long-term relationships with your customer base, giving them a sense of belonging.

Loyalty programs can include a variety of incentives, such as discounts, rewards points and even access to exclusive events. These programs encourage customers to continue purchasing from your brand, but they also provide valuable data on customer behaviour and preferences to help make more informed decisions about future marketing efforts. Many brands use a point-of-sale (POS) system that facilitates the creation and maintenance of loyalty program memberships by automatically tracking the customer’s purchases and issuing rewards at checkout.

5. Advertise at the point of purchase.

A point-of-purchase (POP) display can target potential customers already in the store. Placing ads at the checkout counter can quickly grab customers’ attention, leading them to consider a product they may not have thought of before.

POP advertising can take many forms, including displays, posters, signage and other digital media. Additionally, many retailers will use POP advertising to promote special offers, such as discounts or coupons. These ads can inform customers about new products, promote loyalty programs.

6. Analyse what works best for your customers.

Data analytics can be used to track customer purchases, in-store traffic and website visits. The store can use this data to determine which marketing strategies are most successful. This can include tracking the effectiveness of email campaigns, print advertising, social media and even word-of-mouth. With this data, you can focus your store’s marketing efforts on strategies that are proven to be effective, thus ensuring a better return on investment.

Additionally, you can survey customers to determine what motivated them to shop. Do your customers favour particular brands over their generic counterparts? Do they make choices based on impulsive or emotional needs, such as buying the latest trends and fashions? Pay close attention to what they say, then use this information to tailor your services and products to better meet their needs.

Overall, independent retail stores must continuously strive to attract and retain customers in today’s landscape. I encourage you to invest in marketing, advertising and customer service initiatives and stay up-to-date on the latest trends. Continuously improving and adapting to the changing market can help you ensure long-term success and growth for your business.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Elie Y. Katz

CEO, National Retail Solutions (NRS). POS, NRS Digital Media, NRS Pay, NRS Funding, NRS Purple, and NRS Petro: Helping retailers succeed. Read Elie Y. Katz’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

Is Your Brand Trusted Significantly More Than ChatGPT?

September 15, 2023 No Comments

By Chad S. White

Brands have two major levers they can pull to protect themselves from the negative effects of growing use of generative AI.

The Gist

AI disruption. Generative AI is set to disrupt SEO significantly.
Content shielding. Brands need strategies to protect their content from AI.
Direct relationships. Building strong direct relationships is key.

Do your customers trust your brand more than ChatGPT?

The answer to that question will determine which brands truly have credibility and authority in the years ahead and which do not.

Those who are more trustworthy than generative AI engines will:

Be destinations for answer-seekers, generating strong direct traffic to their websites and robust app usage.
Be able to build large first-party audiences via email, SMS, push and other channels.

Both of those will be critical for any brand wanting to insulate themselves from the search engine optimization (SEO) traffic loss that will be caused by generative AI.

The Threat to SEO

Despite racking up 100 million users just two months after launching — an all-time record — ChatGPT doesn’t appear to be having a noticeable impact on the many billions of searches that happen every day yet. However, it’s not hard to imagine it and other large language models (LLMs) taking a sizable bite out of search market share as they improve and become more reliable.

And improve they will. After all, Microsoft, Google and others are investing tens of billions of dollars into generative AI engines. Long dominating the search engine market, Google in particular is keenly aware of the enormous risk to its business, which is why it declared a Code Red and marshalled all available resources into AI development.

If you accept that generative AI will improve significantly over the next few years — and probably dramatically by the end of the decade — and therefore consumers will inevitability get more answers to their questions through zero-click engagements, which are already sizable, then it begs the question:

What should brands consider doing to maintain brand visibility and authority, as well as avoid losing value on the investments they’ve made in content?

Protective Measures From Negative Generative AI Effects

Brands have two major levers they can pull to protect themselves from the negative effects of growing use of generative AI.

1. Shielding Content From Generative AI Training

Major legal battles will be fought in the years ahead to clarify what rights copyright holders have in this new age and what still constitutes Fair Use. Content and social media platforms are likely to try to redefine the copyright landscape in their favour, amending their user agreements to give themselves more rights over the content that’s shared on their platforms.

A white robot hand holds a gavel above a sound block sitting on a wooden table. — Andrey Popov on Adobe Stock Photo

You can already see the split in how companies are deciding to proceed. For example, while Getty Images’ is suing Stable Diffusion over copyright violations in training its AI, Shutterstock is instead partnering with OpenAI, having decided that it has the right to sell its contributors’ content as training material to AI engines. Although Shutterstock says it doesn’t need to compensate its contributors, it has created a contributors fund to pay those whose works are used most by AI engines. It is also giving contributors the ability to opt out of having their content used as AI training material.

Since Google was permitted to scan and share copyrighted books without compensating authors, it’s entirely reasonable to assume that generative AI will also be allowed to use copyrighted works without agreements or compensation of copyright holders. So, content providers shouldn’t expect the law to protect them.

Given all of that, brands can protect themselves by:

Gating more of their web content, whether that’s behind paywalls, account logins or lead generation forms. Although there are disputes, both search and AI engines shouldn’t be crawling behind paywalls.
Releasing some content in password-protected PDFs. While web-hosted PDFs are crawlable, password-protected ones are not. Because consumers aren’t used to frequently encountering password-protected PDFs, some education would be necessary. Moreover, this approach would be most appropriate for your highest-value content.
Distributing more content via subscriber-exclusive channels, including email, push and print. Inboxes are considered privacy spaces, so crawling this content is already a no-no. While print publications like books have been scanned in the past by Google and others, smaller publications would likely be safe from scanning efforts.

In addition to those, hopefully brands will gain a noindex equivalent to tell companies not to train their large language models (LLMs) and other AI tools on the content of their webpages.

Of course, while shielding their content from external generative AI engines, brands could also deploy generative AI within their own sites as a way to help visitors and customers find the information they’re looking for. For most brands, this would be a welcome augmentation to their site search functionality.

2. Building Stronger Direct Relationships

While shielding your content is the defensive play, building your first-party audiences is the offensive play. Put another way, now that you’ve kept your valuable content out of the hands of generative AI engines, you need to get it into the hands of your target audience.

You do that by building out your subscription-based channels like email and push. On your email signup forms, highlight the exclusive nature of the content you’ll be sharing. If you’re going to be personalizing the content that you send, highlight that, too.

Brands have the opportunity to both turn their emails into personalized homepages for their subscribers, as well as to turn their subscribers’ inboxes into personalized search engines.

Email Marketing Reinvents Itself Again

Brands already have urgent reasons to build out their first-party audiences. One is the sunsetting of third-party cookies and the need for more customer data. Email marketing and loyalty programs, in particular, along with SMS, are great at collecting both zero-party data through preference centers and progressive profiling, as well as first-party data through channel engagement data.

Another is the increasingly evident dangers of building on the “rented land” of social media. For example, Facebook is slowly declining, Twitter has cut 80% of its staff to avoid bankruptcy as its value plunges, and TikTok faces growing bans around the world. Some are even claiming we’re witnessing the beginning of the end of the age of social media. I wouldn’t go that far, but brands certainly have lots of reasons to focus more on those channels they have much more control over, including the web, loyalty, SMS, and, of course, email.

So, the disruption of search engine optimization by generative AI is just providing another compelling reason to invest more into email programs, or to acquire them. It’s hard not to see this as just another case of email marketing reinventing itself and making itself more relevant to brands yet again.

By Chad S. White

Chad S. White is the author of four editions of Email Marketing Rules and Head of Research for Oracle Marketing Consulting, a global full-service digital marketing agency inside of Oracle.

Sourced from CMSWIRE

chatgpt, digital experience, search, email marketing, artificial intelligence, generative ai, artificial intelligence in marketing