By Jodie Cook

Thinking of starting a YouTube channel? This is for you. YouTube has over 2.70 billion monthly active users worldwide. People spend a lot of time consuming videos and there are business opportunities there. But the challenge is this: How do you stand out in an increasingly crowded space?

You can’t just show up and post on YouTube. You have to understand what drives people to watch videos. 70% of viewers make purchases after discovering brands on YouTube. Yours can one of them.

I spoke with seven successful YouTube creators about the pivotal moves that accelerated their growth. What did we find? Success often hinges on one strategic decision that creates momentum.

YouTube’s million-subscriber secret: the moves that changed everything

Focus on foundational topics that resonate broadly

Creating content that addresses fundamental questions within your niche can dramatically expand your reach. Jamila Musayeva, an international etiquette consultant with 1.1 million subscribers, found her breakthrough moment with basic content.

“The video that accelerated my channel’s growth tackled the most basic topic in my niche. Everyone has heard of table manners, so it resonated even with those less familiar with etiquette. Focus on foundational topics. If you’re running a baking channel, start with videos on baking bread or making chocolate chip cookies rather than more niche subjects like crème brûlée,” says Musayeva.

When viewers seek information, they typically start with foundational queries. Position yourself as the clear answer to these primary questions to capture a much wider audience than you would with highly specialized content.

Capitalize on momentum with related content batches

When you strike gold with a successful video, the algorithm takes notice. The key is recognizing these opportunities and building fast from there. Anna Tyrie, whose English Like A Native channel also has 1.1 million subscribers, attributes her growth spurt to this strategy.

Feature Image Credit: Lucy Simkins

By Jodie Cook

Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Sourced from Forbes

By Lester Mapp

A major shift is happening in social media – here’s everything you need to know for your next big move.

I’m officially convinced we are living in the weirdest timeline.

Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, TikTok was banned and subsequently unbanned, but that isn’t the weird part.

The weird part is the reaction to the ban.

Apple and Samsung devices with TikTok still installed sold for as much as $58,000 on eBay.

That’s not a typo, and I’m not trolling you.

But! It gets weirder!!!!

Other Chinese social apps started trending, some not even in English, so translation apps also started trending.

It’s all weird, but you know what blew my mind…

“Delete Instagram” and “Delete Facebook” started trending.

This is when I get my tin foil hat out, and we can discuss all the possible scenarios as to why this could be happening, what Meta may or may not have done, etc.

But this article isn’t about that.

We must discuss why Snapchat could be the biggest winner from these events and not Meta, and specifically, how you and I could benefit from the chaos.

In this article, I’ll share with you

• Why I believe Snapchat is well-positioned
• What Snapchat is doing that could be a game-changer
• What opportunities you should be looking for as an advertiser and an investor. (This is not financial advice.)

So grab your tin foil hat — I mean, your notepad — as we discuss what Snapchat has going on and how this may be the best thing to happen to you.

Quick intro

If you’re new to my work, my name is Lester. My friends call me Les.

I’m a founder with a successful exit and currently the executive chairman of a group of DTC brands. But at my core, I’m an award-winning performance marketer.

I’ve crafted and managed tens of millions in digital marketing campaigns on Meta, TikTok, and Google.

Needless to say, I have unique insight into what’s happening.

If you’re into data-driven marketing insights and strategies, check out my free newsletter, No Fluff Just Facts. 

All that said, let’s get into why I’m so bullish on Snapchat should TikTok disappear.

What is Snapchat, and why is it well-positioned to take over?

Snapchat is a social media platform that was launched in 2011 by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown to send photos, messages, and videos that disappear. The cool kids call these “snaps.”

Since its launch, it has evolved into a more mature social platform with features like Stories, filters, AI chatbots, and even Spotlight, its version of short-form video.

When comparing user adoption to platforms like TikTok and Instagram, Snapchat has definitely struggled. But like my mother would say, comparison is the thief of joy. With that as the benchmark, what they have built is impressive, especially considering how many other platforms have failed to survive in the same period.

That said, let’s dig into the opportunity I see.

When I analysed Snapchat’s performance last year, it was clear they did some things well, while some areas need improvement.

The latest data on Snapchat’s demographics show that nearly 2 in 5 users (37.4%) are between 18 and 24. This is the platform’s largest segment. The second-largest group, ages 25 to 34, makes up 24.7%.

Together, these two groups account for a massive 62.1% of all Snapchat users.

Now, here’s the thing: Young people move culture, and culture moves markets.

This group can make or break a business. They are often overlooked because they don’t have the same spending power as the 40+ crowd. But guess what? This age group is going to get older.

They are the future CEOs, business professionals, and decision-makers.

Speak to any executive, and they will tell you they are desperately trying to appeal to this audience because their core customers are aging out. The brands that win are the ones that stay ahead of cultural shifts and capture young audiences early.

Why does this matter right now? Gen Z is notoriously hard to market to. It is like high school with the “you can’t sit with us” attitude.

Trying too hard to relate is “cheugy.” That’s Gen Z slang for doing too much.

Unlike Instagram, which has become an ad-heavy, influencer-driven space, or YouTube Shorts, which is still playing catch-up, Snapchat feels personal. The app is built around private messaging, real interactions, and content that disappears instead of lingering forever. Younger users still engage with it daily, even if they do not always post publicly.

With TikTok out of the picture, Snapchat has a clear opening to capture displaced users and keep them engaged in a way other platforms struggle to do.

If Snapchat plays this right, this moment could be bigger than anyone expects.

It’s a long shot, but I’m currently bullish on Snapchat.

The road ahead

Replacing TikTok will not be easy, but let’s not forget that the first version of TikTok, Musical.ly, bombed.

So, while Snapchat does not have everything figured out, that does not mean all hope is lost.

The silver lining here is that this is not a winner-take-all situation. It is more like winner-take-most.

Before we jump into what could go wrong and what needs to be improved, let’s talk about the moves Snapchat is making that are right.

Snapchat has taken a few major steps in the right direction, notably the platform redesign.

But another move really stands out to me.

Let me explain.

TikTok’s algorithm gets a lot of credit for its success, and rightfully so, as it’s highly effective. But is it really the algorithm that makes TikTok so powerful, or is it the content driving engagement?

What truly sets TikTok apart isn’t just the algorithm but how the platform invested in creators like no other, fuelling the content that keeps users engaged.

It provided tools that empowered anyone to grow, regardless of their following. With built-in insights, easy-to-use editing features, and content creation support, TikTok made it simpler for creators to succeed, fuelling the platform’s rapid growth.

If I had to sum it up, TikTok made creators feel like active participants, not just pawns in the system. More importantly, it didn’t nickel-and-dime audience reach, and success wasn’t dependent on paying to play.

Which brings me to one of the key reasons I am bullish on Snapchat.

Snapchat’s most significant and impressive move is revamping its creator monetization program.

This is a significant step toward Snapchat putting creators first.

On February 1, Snapchat officially introduced a new, unified monetization program for creators.

For creators to qualify:

• They need 50,000 followers.
• They must post at least 25 times monthly to Saved Stories or Spotlight.
• They must post to either Spotlight or Public Stories on at least 10 of the last 28 days.

While this is a step in the right direction, TikTok’s biggest strength was that anyone could be a creator and have a fair shot at going viral or earning revenue.

In my opinion, Snapchat’s 50,000-follower requirement is not in its best interest. It would be better for them to remove barriers and let creators create and be rewarded regardless of their size.

Now, let’s talk about the challenges.

The obvious one is that Meta does not play well with others. Without question, they will make things difficult for anyone in this space.

Beyond that, Snapchat still has a stigma.

It has been known as a platform for private, explicit content for years. They need to shake that stigma fast because it will hurt advertisers’ trust and limit mainstream adoption.

Snapchat has made big moves, but if it wants to capitalize on TikTok’s potential downfall, it needs to lower the barriers for creators, fight off Meta’s inevitable interference, and clean up their brand image.

If they do that, this could be their moment.

The big opportunity

I know what you are thinking. “Cool story, but what is in it for me?”

Great question. Regardless of what happens with TikTok, I see two significant opportunities on Snapchat right now.

Opportunity 1

The most obvious one is creating content for Snapchat. Ban or no ban, Snapchat is a unique opportunity to connect authentically with Gen Z. Whether you are making funny content or telling the audience about a product or service, there is a real opportunity to grow.

With the rise of AI, launching and running a business has never been easier. AI agents, automation, and incredible tools are making everything more accessible. But because of that, finding a way to connect with an audience is now mission-critical. Snapchat offers a chance to build genuine connections with a younger demographic that will shape future markets.

Opportunity 2

If you are a marketer or someone looking to promote a product or service to a younger audience, Snapchat should be on your radar.

According to Snapchat’s website, Snapchat ads reach Gen Z and Millennials like few other platforms can. They claim to reach 90% of the 13-to-24-year-old population and 75% of the 13-to-34-year-old population across 25+ countries. That is a massive audience with a spending power of $5 trillion, making Snapchat an opportunity for businesses of any size.

I have used Snapchat Ads in the past with moderate success. Your product and the problem you are solving matter when running ads on Snapchat. In my experience, B2C brands performed better than B2B.

For example, jewellery brand Oak & Luna saw 47% higher ROI using Snapchat Ads. “Snap’s platform provided us with an invaluable opportunity to connect with fresh audiences, surpassing our initial investment expectations,” according to Eytan Korn, CEO of Tenengroup.

All that said, I am not telling you to drop Meta or TikTok for Snapchat. This is not a zero-sum game, especially for creators and business professionals.

My two cents

I will leave you with this.

When I first heard TikTok would be banned, I thought, “Wow, Meta wins again.”

But after it was briefly banned and #DeleteInstagram started trending, my outlook changed.

Call me crazy, but the more I look at this situation, the more I am convinced.

Meta is not loved. It is tolerated.

And if that theory holds any weight, the door is still open for other social platforms like Snapchat to step in and fill the void.

Remember when Facebook was all the rage, and Instagram was the platform for teens that adults did not take seriously? We could be witnessing the same shift with Snapchat. One day, Instagram might just not be cool anymore.

Snapchat fully leaning into Gen Z could be the key differentiator in how this plays out.

That said, no matter what happens with TikTok, I am bullish on Snapchat.

I would like to see Snapchat make content creation even easier for creators. One of the smartest things TikTok did was leverage CapCut, an intuitive video editing app that removes friction from the process. If you have ever used it, you know how seamless it makes content creation.

Snapchat is well positioned, but whether they can actually pull this off remains to be seen. 👀

By the way, if you want more data-driven business insights like this, sign up for my free newsletter, No Fluff Just Facts. I share what is working, the latest trends, and the occasional pep talk to keep you inspired. If this sounds like your jam, click here to sign up. It is totally free.

Hope this helps. I am rooting for you.

Feature Image Credit: Tim Robberts/Getty Images

By Lester Mapp

Sourced from ZD Net

By Gene Marks,

Over the past few years there have been countless articles and columns from people predicting how AI will be used for and by accounting professionals. Finally, these predictions are beginning to become reality. Here are some interesting uses of AI in accounting that those of us in the profession should know about.

Reducing DSO

People make mistakes when entering orders into their supplier portals. A finance platform called Tesorio aims to use AI agents to automate this process to minimize these mistakes and speed things up. The problems they’re solving include incorrectly formatted or inaccurate submissions. Their agents aim to reduce the time it takes to fill in required fields and submit invoices to various supplier portals. According to Tesorio, their agents autonomously access these portals and submit invoices and then monitors the approval process. Not only would this help customers by expediting the ordering process but it then reduces DSO – or days sales outstanding – which is the time it takes for the supplier to complete a sale and get paid

Tax Research

The U.S. Tax Code is almost 7,000 pages long and the interpretation of these rules takes up countless more pages. All of this is being turned into large language models and trained with questions to deliver fast and reliable answers. One company doing this is Thomson Reuters, who recently partnered with AI platform Anthropic to build such a system with Claude – its popular chatbot – as its interface. According to Venture Beat it’s one of the “largest rollouts in the tax and accounting industry.” Built on Amazon Web Services, the content also includes resources from 3,000 subject matter experts and 150 years of professional publications.

Expense Capture

There are a number of companies leaning heavily into AI to automate expense capturing – be it through scanning, emails and synching with banks. For example, Fyle has something called “conversational AI” where a user takes a photo of a receipt and sends it by text which is then automatically categorized. SparkReceipt not only automates scanning and categorization of receipts but also accepts information from bank statements and other documentation. Dext says that it works with every major accounting software and integrates with over 11,500 financial institutions worldwide and creates “smart supplier rules that help to efficiently process and publish invoices.” All of these applications learn with each document so that their AI algorithms can apply similar logic to other, similar documentation in lieu of a human having to do so.

AI Bookkeeping

A tech firm called Briefcase raised $3 million this past December to not only do expense capturing but use AI to automate the entire bookkeeping process. Its AI algorithms supposedly learn all the details from every transaction and then posts all the way through to a company’s general ledger. Briefcase acts more like an accountant than a bot. It’s smart enough to detect duplicate invoices and receipts. It can also detect invoices that are prepayments (i.e. insurance) and then automatically schedules monthly entries to amortize and record the amounts. It can do the same with deferred revenue. Based on prior transactions it will automatically create regular accruals and other adjusting entries.

Deliver Us From Spreadsheet Hell

Regardless of how “automated” we seem to be, most of my clients are still finding themselves in spreadsheet hell, managing various Excel or Google Sheet files and manually updating them for reporting and analysis. LiveFlow is using AI to deliver us from that place. The company recently raised more than $13 million for its AI connecter to bridge spreadsheets and popular accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero where information can be shared with teams without giving them access to the full accounting system. It positions itself as the intermediary between the accounting system and spreadsheets to enable up to the minute budget vs actual, cash flows, vendor spending and other analysis.

An AI Driven Dashboard

I like my clients to keep a thumbnail “flash report” of key information in their business. But because data is located in different places, it’s time consuming to put together. A startup called Finally raised $200 million last September to connect data from financial institutions, accounting software and other sources into a single, easy-to-access location. Using a single login Finally built a dashboard of all pertinent data like spending, account transactions, trends and other information related to a company’s financial health which can be viewed anywhere and in real time. Its AI capabilities are used to identify abnormal expenses, unusual margins or unrecognizable transactions. As it learns it makes better recommendations tailored to a company’s financial history.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Gene Marks

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work.

Sourced from Forbes

By Tonia Ryan Edited by Kara McIntyre

Are you looking to elevate your social media presence to new heights? Here are the tips and tricks I’ve used to grow my own following.

Key Takeaways

• Consistency, engaging visuals and audience engagement are pivotal for social media growth.
• Employing tactics like conversational captions, strategic hashtag use and effective CTAs can significantly increase audience interaction and brand visibility.
• Understanding peak posting times and leveraging Instagram Stories are additional methods to maintain a dynamic and attractive social media presence.

By Tonia Ryan 

Edited by Kara McIntyre

Sourced from Entrepreneur

By Georgia Coggan

Industry chat suggests Bill Gates might be wrong.

Designers are currently debating the impact of AI on graphic design jobs in more than one thread over on Reddit. After a week that saw Bill Gates’ unsettling premonition that only three jobs are safe from AI (note: graphic design wasn’t one of them), a timely discussion was started by a designer new to the industry – and many professionals have chimed in with their honest thoughts.

Graphic design was recently named as one of the jobs most under threat from AI in a report from the World Economic Forum, and with many tools that now use generative AI to create graphics that would have been made by the human hand it’s no wonder graphic designers are concerned about the future of the role. But things are much more hopeful than Bill Gates predicted, if this discussion is to be believed. Find out more here about how AI is impacting graphic design.

It’s an especially uncertain time to be starting out in the graphic design industry. As the post alludes to, a human graphic designer will always offer more than a machine – but AI’s power increases humans will need to do more to add the value to the role that AI can’t give. The Reddit user asks:

“AI is advancing rapidly, and it can feel overwhelming at times. As a beginner in graphic design, the future may seem uncertain. What steps can I take to stay relevant, grow in this evolving industry, and effectively earn money from my skills?”

On the whole, responses doubt how far AI can really go, which feels reassuring. “Be more than an operator of something AI can replicate. Humans solve problems, whether it’s fixing crap artwork or discovering what a client really needs,” said one user.

“Synthesizers and step-sequencers didn’t replace musicians,” one comment read. “I realise it’s not quite the same thing, but I think as the technology develops we’re going to find new ways to augment what designers do rather than replacing them.”

Another user agrees with this, with more points on how the messaging from major developers (such as Adobe) on how AI will fit into designer’s workflows.

“Listen this AI hype is to hold share and market value. AI will not replace graphic design but it will speed up the process,” they say. “The licensing and copy write issues aren’t going to go away. Use it for inspiration for mock ups, but I would continue to hone your craft on what is good Type and Design and what isn’t.”

All of this is certainly true, there is more skill and theory involved in graphic design than simply generating images. Added to that, there is the kind of connection and strategy humans can bring to a project that AI will never be able to replicate. As another comment says: “Good thing graphic designers solve creative problems which AI can’t”.

Bill Gates also said that how much AI is used across the jobs market is ultimately down to how far humans let it go. And according to one Reddit comment, there isn’t enough appetite for AI to worry. “To my surprise there’s actually a lot of aversion towards AI stuff. People around me don’t seem to want it.”

Read more of this discussion over on Reddit. And find out what we think the future of AI in graphic design looks like.

Feature Image credit: Getty Images

By Georgia Coggan

Georgia is lucky enough to be Creative Bloq’s Editor. She has been working for Creative Bloq since 2018, starting out as a freelancer writing about all things branding, design, art, tech and creativity – as well as sniffing out genuinely good deals on creative technology. Since becoming Editor, she has been managing the site and its long term strategy, helping to shape the diverse content streams CB is known for and leading the team in their own creativity.

Sourced from Creative Bloq

By Joe Foley

A tech startup claims it owns the Grok brand name.

Elon Musk is no stranger to branding and copyright controversies. Tesla is being sued by Blade Runner 2049’s producers for using apparently AI-generated imagery inspired by the film, and, bizarrely, SpaceX once appropriated the logo of a small English football club.

Musk’s AI company xAI has already had its copyright application for the Grok name rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) because of similarities to the AI chipmaker Groq and software provider Grokstream. But it turns out that a third company had already trademarked the exact same name as xAI’s bot.

A tech startup called Bizly claims to the own the rights to the Grok brand name in the software as a service (SaaS) sector having lodged a trademark application back in 2021. Founder Ron Shah says his company’s Grok is an asynchronous meetings platform that allows users to search their network to find experts in specific fields and then engage, contract and pay them.

Ron says he received messages of congratulations when Musk launched Grok because people assumed the billionaire Tesla CEO had bought the name from him. Not so, Ron says.

Bizly’s Grok app was still in beta at the time. Ron says he was running a pilot with the financial services company Carta and was about to close a fundraising round but that things fell through due to investor concerns about a potential trademark dispute.

Ron says his company is now facing shut down. He wants to continue to develop his product under the Grok name but is struggling to get interested because potential clients and investors raise concerns over the brand.

“We really like the Grok name, but we don’t have the financial power to compete with an $80bn company,” Ron told me. “Even if Coca-Cola let another smaller beverage company use the Coke name, the smaller Coke would never be able to get anywhere given the sheer ubiquity of the bigger Coke. That’s what we’re facing here. It’s a classic case of reverse trademark infringement.”

Ron says that so far xAI has not responded to any of its attempts to make contact, and he says he hasn’t ruled out legal action. “The bottom line is that we relied on USPTO protection when building our product and company,” he says. “We were materially damaged when the name was used in the same category as our trademark by someone much bigger and more powerful than us.”

It wouldn’t be the first time that Elon Musk has chosen a brand name that was already in use. After he rebranded Twitter to X, several companies using the X name made complaints, including a social media company that recently reached a settlement with X. There was even a musician who was using the unicode character that X chose to use as a logo.

Musk has claimed that xAI took its chatbot’s name from the 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land, in which ‘grok’ is apparently a Martian word. Ron says he came up with the name for Bizly’s Grok during a brainstorming session in which a colleague used the word as a verb meaning to ‘to understand’, which apparently common in tech parlance.

US copyright law allows different companies to use the same brand name when they’re in different categories and unlikely to cause confusion. Elon Musk’s ex partner Grimes has trademarked the Grok name for an AI-powered kids toy, which is unlikely to cause problems for xAI. The fact that Bizly’s Grok is in the SaaS sector could be more problematic, but Bizly may struggle to defend its rights considering that its product hasn’t yet made it to market.

Elon Musk may have fixed the optical illusion in the X logo, but the world’s richest man has a not shortage of controversies on his hands at the moment. Viral anti-Tesla posters show just how badly the brand’s reputation has been hit by the Cybertruck design disaster and Musk’s politics.

Feature Image Credit: xAI

By Joe Foley

Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.

Sourced from Creative Bloq

By Jenni Baker, 

From the basics to buzzwords to game-changers, this glossary of terms will help you speak the language of AI and stay ahead of the curve.

From buzzwords flooding your LinkedIn feed to the technical terms creeping into every campaign brief, AI is reshaping marketing at speed – and with it comes a whole new language.

A

Agentic AI

AI that doesn’t just respond to a prompt – it acts with autonomy. Agentic systems can set goals, plan, make decisions and execute tasks on your behalf.

Why it matters: It marks a shift from reactive AI tools to proactive marketing assistants – think campaign briefings, competitor scans or scheduling happening automatically.

AI Alignment

The process of making sure AI systems behave in line with human goals and values.

Why it matters: As brands delegate more decisions to AI, alignment becomes key for safety, ethics and on-brand execution.

AI Hallucination

When AI makes something up that sounds convincing but is factually wrong.

Why it matters: Important to catch when using AI for content creation, research or customer comms – especially in regulated sectors.

AI Orchestration

The coordination of multiple AI systems or tools to work together on a task – like chatbots, image generators and analytics all syncing in a campaign flow.

Why it matters: Marketing teams won’t rely on just one AI tool. Orchestration ensures systems integrate and deliver results seamlessly.

AI-powered Personalization

Using AI to tailor content, ads, product suggestions or experiences in real time based on customer behaviour and data.

Why it matters: Personalized content outperforms static campaigns. This is how brands drive better engagement and conversion.

AI Sustainability

A rising concern around the environmental impact of training and using large AI models.

Why it matters: As AI adoption grows, marketing leaders may need to weigh innovation against ESG and energy efficiency.

Autonomous Agents

AI systems that can think, plan, and take action on their own, often across multiple steps or tools.

Why it matters: Still emerging, but could be game-changing for automating campaign planning, performance optimization or research tasks.

B

Black Box AI

AI systems whose inner workings aren’t visible or easily understood – even to their creators.

Why it matters: Trust and transparency are critical. If your model can’t explain why it made a decision, it’s harder to justify spend or strategy shifts.

Brand Safety AI

Tools that scan content environments to ensure your ads don’t appear next to harmful or inappropriate material.

Why it matters: Keeps your brand reputation intact while running programmatic or generative campaigns at scale.

C

Chain-of-Thought Prompting

A method of guiding AI to “think out loud” by breaking problems into steps before answering.

Why it matters: Produces clearer, more reasoned outputs for strategy work, messaging frameworks and analysis.

Chatbot

An AI assistant that can converse with users via text or voice, often used in customer service or sales.

Why it matters: Speeds up response times, improves satisfaction and scales support – especially when integrated with your CRM or commerce tools.

Computer Vision

AI that interprets visual inputs – like identifying products in an image or analysing video footage.

Why it matters: Essential for visual search, dynamic creative optimization and immersive retail experiences.

Context-Aware AI

AI that adapts outputs based on the broader context – user history, location, time of day, sentiment and more.

Why it matters: Enables hyper-relevant content delivery and smarter real-time experiences across devices and channels.

Conversational AI for Sales & Support

Advanced chatbots and virtual agents designed to assist with lead capture, qualification, upsell and customer service.

Why it matters: Goes beyond FAQs – this tech can handle nuanced queries and reduce pressure on human teams.

Content Generation AI

AI that creates marketing content like headlines, blog posts, emails, video scripts or images.

Why it matters: Supercharges creative teams and unlocks content-at-scale strategies without burning out copywriters.

Creative AI

AI used specifically in the ideation or design process – whether for generating assets or remixing them in new formats.

Why it matters: It’s a productivity unlock, freeing up teams to focus on higher-order creative thinking.

D

Dynamic Pricing (AI-powered)

AI systems that adjust product prices in real time based on demand, competition and user behaviour.

Why it matters: Common in travel and retail – helps brands stay competitive and maximize margins dynamically.

E

Ethical AI

The principles and frameworks that guide the responsible use of AI, including fairness, privacy, and transparency.

Why it matters: Essential for consumer trust, compliance, and long-term brand integrity.

Explainable AI (XAI)

AI that can clearly explain how it arrived at a decision or recommendation.

Why it matters: Marketers need to justify spend, targeting or messaging decisions. Explain ability brings credibility.

F

Few-shot Learning

When an AI model learns how to perform a task using only a few examples, rather than needing massive datasets.

Why it matters: Helps generate relevant copy or product tags quickly, especially when working with niche or limited data.

Foundation Model

A large, general-purpose AI model trained on vast data that can be adapted for many tasks – eg, ChatGPT-4, Gemini, Claude.

Why it matters: These are the backbones of modern AI tools. Marketers use them via chatbots, content engines, or productivity apps.

Frontier Model

The most advanced versions of foundation models, often with the highest capabilities in reasoning, language and creative generation.

Why it matters: Expect these models to enable more natural conversations, smarter planning tools and near-human-level creative collaboration.

G

Generative AI

AI that creates new content from scratch – text, image, audio, video – based on prompts or data inputs.

Why it matters: It’s transforming everything from copywriting to ad production to audience engagement.

Guardrails

Rules or restrictions that are embedded in AI systems to prevent them from generating harmful, biased or off-brand content.

Why it matters: Vital for brand protection, especially in public-facing tools like AI chatbots or auto-generated ads.

H

Human-in-the-loop (HITL)

A hybrid model where humans oversee or approve AI outputs before they go live.

Why it matters: Ensures that automation doesn’t override brand tone, creative nuance or legal compliance.

I

Intent Recognition

AI’s ability to infer what a user actually wants based on behaviour or language – “browsing versus buying” for instance.

Why it matters: Powers better targeting, smarter chatbots, and more effective conversion funnels.

L

Large Language Model (LLM)

A type of AI trained on massive amounts of text to understand and generate natural language. The “brains” behind ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

Why it matters: These tools now assist with writing, summarizing, analysing and automating many marketing tasks.

LLMOps

The process of managing and optimizing large language models across your organization – from deployment to monitoring.

Why it matters: As more brands adopt LLMs, LLMOps ensure consistency, governance and scale.

Lookalike Audiences (AI-powered)

Customer segments built by AI that resemble your best-performing audiences based on shared behaviours or traits.

Why it matters: Key for unlocking new customers who are likely to convert – especially in paid media and CRM.

M

Machine Learning (ML)

AI that improves over time by learning from data, not explicit programming.

Why it matters: It powers predictive models, churn analysis, smart content targeting, and automated decisions across platforms.

Marketing Mix Modelling (AI-enhanced)

Using AI to analyse which marketing channels are driving results, and where to spend more or less.

Why it matters: Helps CMOs justify budget and optimize across media, creative, and touchpoints.

Model Drift

When an AI model’s accuracy declines over time because the world (or audience) has changed since it was trained.

Why it matters: Left unchecked, drift can lead to off-target recommendations or inaccurate insights.

Multi-modal AI

AI that can process and generate multiple content types (eg text, images, video, audio) at once.

Why it matters: Opens up cross-format campaigns where one prompt might produce a full storyboard, script and visuals.

N

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

The part of AI that enables machines to understand, interpret, and generate human language.

Why it matters: It’s the core tech behind chatbots, voice assistants, sentiment analysis, and AI content tools.

Neural Network

A type of machine learning system inspired by the human brain made up of layers of connected “neurons.”

Why it matters: Underpins most modern AI systems – but you don’t need to understand the maths to benefit from the tools.

O

Open-Source v Closed Models

A key AI debate. Open-source models offer flexibility and transparency, while closed models offer performance and safety guardrails.

Why it matters: Brands may soon choose between building in-house with open models or relying on best-in-class third-party tools.

P

Personalization Engine (AI-driven)

A tool that adapts what each customer sees based on real-time signals – products, content, pricing or offers.

Why it matters: Powers higher engagement, loyalty and revenue by making every interaction feel tailored.

Prompt Engineering

The art of writing effective prompts to get the desired output from an AI model.

Why it matters: It’s the new creative briefing skill – knowing how to ask gets you better, faster results.

R

Real-Time Adaptation

When AI updates content or strategy instantly based on a change in customer behaviour, environment, or signal.

Why it matters: Think headlines that adapt by time zone or CTAs that change for different traffic sources.

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

An approach where AI pulls in external sources to inform or verify its responses in real time.

Why it matters: Helps reduce hallucination and make your brand’s chatbot or assistant more accurate and useful.

S

Sentiment Analysis

AI that scans and categorizes customer emotions in text – from reviews to tweets to call transcripts.

Why it matters: Gives marketers a real-time pulse on brand perception, campaign reaction, or product feedback.

Small Language Models (SLMs)

Lean, task-specific language models that are more efficient than giant LLMs but still powerful.

Why it matters: Lower cost, faster performance, and easier to deploy for brand-specific use cases.

Synthetic Data

Artificially generated data used to train AI models – mimicking real user behaviour while protecting privacy.

Why it matters: A privacy-safe way to develop personalized experiences without exposing real customer data.

Synthetic Personas

AI-generated customer personas based on real behavioural patterns, constantly updated as the data evolves.

Why it matters: Better than static PowerPoints – these personas evolve with your audience and feed your strategy.

T

Transformer Model

The architecture behind most advanced AI tools, especially LLMs like GPT. It allows AI to understand context and predict what comes next.

Why it matters: Enables fluid, coherent responses that feel more human and helpful – key for content, support, and strategy tools.

W

Watermarking (AI)

A way of tagging AI-generated content (often invisibly) to show that it wasn’t created by a human.

Why it matters: Expect platforms and regulators to require this more. Helpful for compliance and trust in branded content.

Feature Image Credit: Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash

By Jenni Baker, 

Sourced from The Drum

By Rochi Zalani

Real-life social media campaign examples from trailblazing brands to inspire your next big project.

When you think of stand-out social media campaigns, what’s the first one that comes to mind? I’m willing to bet the likes of Spotify Wrapped or Dove Beauty are right up there.

Lauded as these examples are (rightly so!), they’re far from the only ground-breaking examples from recent years.

In fact, it was tough to trim down this list of innovative, memorable social media campaigns down to a readable number — so I’m confident there are several on this list that will stand out on your hunt for inspiration. We’ve got heartfelt stories, celebrity salads, and of course, reincarnating owls.

Anytime you feel you’re in a creative rut, come back to this list, snoop, and scoop what you can for your own social media campaigns. Maybe we’ll soon be adding yours to this list! 👀

1. Duolingo’s death of the owl

Duolingo, the language learning app, announced the death of their beloved owl mascot in February 2025. While the campaign evoked mixed feelings, it also sparked tidal waves of engagement — with the death announcement getting over two million likes and 40,000 comments.

The company continued paying tribute to the mascot for two weeks — fully committing to the act — right before Duo made a ‘legends never die’ comeback.

If you were in orbit, it was hard to miss the news. Everyone from me to Dua Lipa was talking about it. Garnering over a billion organic views across social media platforms, this was one of Duolingo’s most successful social media campaigns — which, considering how prolific the brand is on social, is really saying something.

Why this campaign was successful:

• A famous (albeit fictional) face. In Duolingo’s case, Duo was the face of the brand and a household name, famous for its unhinged antics on social media.
• It piqued people’s curiosity — since the Duolingo team kept up the charade, people wanted to know how the mascot died. Some people didn’t think the marketing department would kill their biggest asset; others said their brand was just bonkers enough to do it. Either way, everyone was interested in how it would play out.

Key takeaways:

• If your social media marketing efforts don’t have a face yet, it might be time to consider giving it one — with loads of personality. After all, plenty of brands have mascots, but few seem to have quite as much, er… character as Duo does. A mascot with personality could open doors to loads of fun, wacky, heart warming stories (read: campaigns galore). That said, it’s a tough act to balance. Ensure you maintain a consistent brand voice across social media channels, though. You’ll want a fully fleshed-out, long-term strategy for this.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment. Duolingo’s successful social media campaigns are usually chaotic in nature (in line with their overall social media marketing strategy). Their social media team is constantly pushing boundaries, making them trailblazers in their field.
• Double down on your social media campaigns by expanding them into all the social media channels you’re on. You increase the chances of a campaign’s success by involving multiple platforms.

⚠️ Note: Don’t copy-paste this campaign if your social media strategy already has a mascot (like many brands have already done).

While it might get you engagement because the topic is trending and popular, it’s generally been fairly poorly received. People want originality and authenticity true to your brand, not a copy-paste version of what’s popular.

2. Loop Earplugs social media partnerships (especially during music festivals)

Loop Earplugs is a pro at social media collaborations. They regularly partner with various creators (and adjacent businesses) to snag a spot in their social media feed. Recently, they partnered with Coachella to launch special earplugs just for the occasion.

Some of their creator affiliates shared their unique discount code to promote the product and they also used the influencer content as ads.

Why these social media campaigns are successful:

• Loop introduced vetted, trusted creators into their social media marketing efforts which enhanced the authenticity of their social media posts.
• Most of Loop’s partnerships relate to a certain segment of their target audience — people who live in loud cities, people who struggle with sleeping, and people who want to protect their ears during concerts. The relatability and diverse use cases help their target audience spot themselves in the content and see when, how, and where the product can help them.

Key takeaways:

• If you have the budget and resources, partner with influencers in your industry to improve the visibility of your social media campaigns. It’s best to do this across multiple social media platforms, like Loop.
• Find seasonal events in your content calendar where your product or services are a natural fit. This will allow you to design social media campaigns that are timely and relatable.
• Find various use cases for your product or service and ‘show’ them in your social media posts so your target audience can see themselves in your content.

3. Pringle’s Halloween product launch

Pringles launched a new product, called Pringles Mingles, in October of 2024. They created buzz by dropping hints before the launch and themed it around Halloween.

Pringles continued to post about the initial flavors post Halloween — also adding influencer reviews and giveaways to the social media campaign.

Why this campaign was successful:

• Pringles didn’t randomly drop a new product with no warning. They created excitement amongst their followers by dropping hints ahead of the launch.
• Influencer partnerships and giveaways helped create more visibility around the launch.

Key takeaways:

• A winning social media campaign about a product launch needs preparation. Embed social media posts that build excitement and drop hints ahead of your launch date.
• Raise awareness about your new product or services by partnering with influencers, reposting user-generated content, and hosting contests or giveaways.

4. Aavia’s hormone condition feature series

Aavia, a period tracking app, has embedded a genius content series into its social media strategy. They interview people about their journeys with hormone conditions, share it on their Substack newsletter, and repurpose it for social media marketing.

Why this campaign was successful:

• The people featured in these series are often Aavia customers — building social proof amongst social media users.
• The repurposed posts fill the social media marketing content calendar, promote the Substack, and help Aavia’s target audience — all with one post.

Key takeaways:

• Add more customer stories to your social media marketing campaigns. This will not only lend more authenticity to your efforts but also make your content more relatable.
• If you have other marketing efforts in motion, like a newsletter or blog posts, repurpose them to add more quality content to your social media marketing and promote your other marketing channels.

5. Tl;dv’s skits

tl;dv is an AI meeting assistant. The company regularly shares relatable, funny skits on its social media platforms that feature characters from a tech company.

The videos show common, day-to-day interactions between a sales rep and a developer — like sales promising a feature that the product roadmap doesn’t include and then requesting the dev team to prioritize it. There are other characters like customer success, founder, and product manager, too. All of these are potential customers of tl;dv, but the product is almost never directly mentioned.

While this example isn’t a ‘campaign’ isn’t in the strictest sense, it’s an ongoing social media series that has been wildly successful. The scores of videos they’ve shared have thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of views across Instagram and TikTok.

Why these social media marketing campaigns are successful:

• There’s no hard selling, just entertaining content.
• It’s the kind of content people would find funny and share with their friends.
• Some social media posts say the quiet part of working at a tech company out loud — which makes tl;dv’s content more authentic, relatable, and engaging.

Key takeaways:

• When appropriate and tasteful, poke fun at your audience’s pain points that will make them feel seen.
• Infuse more relatable and entertaining content around your target audience’s daily life into your social media marketing campaigns.
• Instead of always having the sales cap on, focus on creating memorable social media posts that foster a brand identity.

6. KFC’s new fries launch in the UK

KFC always got the same complaint: your fries aren’t finger-licking good. So, they heard their customers and launched new fries in the UK with the hashtag #NewKFCfries. For a while there, X’s feed rained fries (in the UK and Ireland).

Why was this campaign successful:

• The campaign was super interactive — every time people clicked on the tag, fries rained down the screen! It was a fun element (possible because KFC partnered with X) that made the campaign memorable.
• KFC was responding to the complaints of their devoted brand advocates. This made customers feel heard and cared for.
• They laughed at themselves. There’s something quite relatable about a brand being able to poke fun at themselves in the way KFC subtly did here. They used phrases like “Finally” and “Me either” when fans expressed they couldn’t wait for the new version.

Key takeaways:

• Practice social listening and monitor patterns in customer feedback. If you’re addressing something many buyers have asked for, show them you hear them in your social media campaigns.
• Have a branded hashtag around your social media campaigns to make user-generated content easier to track — particularly on platforms like X and Threads, where hashtags like this are easily clickable. It also makes your marketing campaigns more sticky and memorable among social media users.
• When doing a campaign for a product launch, don’t be afraid to put it front and center (KFC not only made it rain fries on X, but also changed their social media bio). Don’t let your successful marketing campaigns drown in the feed (especially if they’re time-sensitive).

7. Blendtec’s ‘Will it Blend’ social media campaign

Blendtec is a kitchenware company that sells mixers, grinders, and blenders. In 2021, they ran a ‘Will it blend?’ content series on YouTube where they’d blend various items in their mixer and see if their products could do the job. The campaign was so engaging that people are still talking about it.

Why this campaign was successful:

• It encouraged engagement. People could interact with the content and ask for what they want to see blended next — and Blendtec would actually do it.
• The freshness of the idea also made ‘Will it Blend’ a successful campaign. Not only did it prove the product’s durability, but it also engaged people in a fun and silly way.

Key takeaways:

• Effective social media campaigns are rooted in simplicity. Find fresh social media content ideas that’d spark conversation among your target audience and improve your social media engagement.
• Create content series (that hopefully don’t have to involve blending your iPhone) that can spark curiosity among your followers and make them look forward to the next episode.

8. Black Girl Vitamin’s Black History Month limited edition bundle

Black Girl Vitamins did a social media campaign around Black History Month where they sold an exclusive offer to make your own bundle and also get a limited edition box.

For the whole month, they also shared social media posts focusing on increasing awareness about Black History.

They also ran various in-person fitness classes and a few live webinars across the U.S. to empower their community and foster more real-life connections.

Why was this campaign successful:

• The focus allowed people to build a personal connection to the brand, especially if they align with Black Girl Vitamin’s values.
• The business also refocused its packaging to fully commit to the social media campaign.
• Giveaways and influencer partnerships also helped in increasing brand awareness.

Key takeaways:

• The best social media campaigns align with your brand values. Use social media marketing as a channel to show what you stand for (and/or stand against), but be wary of being performative. Customers and followers will see right through it if you disingenuously jump onto a cause to get likes and views. Here’s some great advice on when and how to align your brand with causes from small business owner, Nyshell Lawrence.
• Let your audience know when a limited-period discount or offer ends by concluding your social media campaigns.

9. Sweetgreen’s Renee Rap bowl

Restaurant chain Sweetgreen launched a new salad bowl with singer and songwriter Reneé Rapp.

Why Reneé? Because she’s a regular customer and had a custom go-to order that Sweetgreen wanted to offer all its customers. The songwriter had been a Sweetgreen fan for the last five years, so this partnership was authentic and a result of Reneé’s long-standing love for Sweetgreen.

Why this campaign was successful:

• Reneé’s celebrity status definitely lends itself to the success of this social media campaign. She’s an influential voice and her stamp of approval carries a lot of weight to not only raise awareness, but generate leads.
• Creating a new bowl with Reneé’s name also puts a whimsical touch on the company’s products — anyone who’s a fan of the singer would want to try the salad.
• The chance to see a live show in the unique setting of a restaurant and get a meet-and-greet with the singer also makes this social media campaign a success.

Key takeaways:

• You don’t always need a celebrity for this campaign’s success — find influential voices in your industry and partner with them to create content and maybe even co-create products.
• Share exclusive offers (like a meet and greet) with your influencer partners to increase the success of your social media campaigns.

10. Beehiiv’s convert to Beehiiv kit

Beehiiv is a newsletter platform that focuses on being the best in the business for creators. Recently, one of their core competitors rebranded (ConvertKit became Kit), launched a campaign to share the news.

Beehiiv capitalized on the moment by offering exclusive discounts and incentives specifically for Kit’s customers.

The campaign evoked a lot of debate on social media about whether or not dunking on your competitors is the right way to go. Either way, it generated serious buzz for Beehiiv on social media. Some people found it distasteful, but others loved Beehiiv’s edge and wanted to be a part of the movement.

Why this campaign was successful:

• The timing of this campaign was just right — Beehiiv launched their exclusive offer the same day their competitor rebranded. It was already in everyone’s feeds because Kit had been hyping up the final date of their rebrand for a while.
• This campaign was a bold and risky move — but it helped Beehiiv find customers who truly love their brand for their attitude.

Key takeaways:

• If you plan to run a head-to-head social media campaign with your competitor, prepare for the potential backlash you might receive.
• Make your potential customers an offer they can’t refuse. Beehiiv’s exclusive offer didn’t just gain traction because of the mocking, but also because the perks were unbelievably good for creators — free migration, free access to Beehiiv for six months, guaranteed premium sponsors, and early beta access to new features.
• Highlight your unique edge over competitors in your social media campaigns. You don’t need to take a go-big-or-go-home approach and name names but don’t be afraid to spotlight your product’s unique selling proposition.

11. FZK Media’s $10,000/month challenge

FZK Media is a personal branding agency helping founders reach their business goals via effective social media marketing.

Their founder started a social media challenge to reach an income milestone from her creator’s Instagram account, which she eventually shifted to her agency’s account.

Why this campaign was successful:

• The content series is about building in public — which keeps people hooked and builds trust. Everyone wants to know if you fulfill the challenge you’ve taken on. People also appreciate you sharing your setbacks, failures, and struggles — fostering a strong connection.
• The founder shares an honest look behind her workflow, struggles, and wins. It’s not a glossy portrayal of success but an accurate picture of the process for people who share the same goal.

Key takeaways:

•  People love a peek behind the curtain. Launch effective campaigns that just share the behind-the-scenes of building your business. After the brand fulfilled this challenge, its founder continued the series by increasing the stakes (a $50,000/month challenge).
• Create authentic and vulnerable social media marketing content to truly resonate with your audience and help them learn from your mistakes.The campaign showed both the ‘why’ and the people behind the brand.
• Apart from the content itself, Fiza’s video editing skills were also A+ — the camera cuts were perfect, there was no fluff in any video, and her voice was crisp and clear. All these factors combined made every video a great watch.

Use a scheduling tool to manage your social media campaigns

Creating and engaging with your social media campaign is what should be spending your energy on — the last thing you want is to get bogged down manually posting your content every day. .

The easiest way to automate this is to introduce Buffer into your social media management workflow: you can save ideas, schedule posts, measure campaign performance, and even engage with your customers from a single tab.

The best part? When you populate all your content in advance in Buffer’s content calendar, you can also spot gaps in your social media marketing strategy. For example, maybe you notice a week’s looking quite light in terms of the number of posts, so you fill it with your best-performing content types.

Have an interesting social media campaign example (perhaps yours 😉) that you think we missed? We’re always on the hunt for more fresh campaigns to feature here — share yours with us in the comments below!

Feature Image Credit: Credit: George Milton, Pexels

By Rochi Zalani

Sourced from Buffer

By Lyn Wildwood

How long should a blog post be?

What do readers prefer? How long do blog posts have to be to rank on Google?

We answer all of these questions and more in this post, starting with data-driven answers on typical blog post lengths bloggers use.

What is the ideal blog post length?

The simple answer is that the ideal blog post length varies between 1,500 and 2,500 words in most cases.

Let’s discuss a few studies that back this figure. The first comes from Semrush’s content marketing report for 2023.

The company analysed 30,000 websites and discovered that the average word count for blog posts published by high-performing sites is 1,152.

Note: Unfortunately, the link to Semrush’s 2023 content marketing report is no longer live. They have deleted it for some reason. Even though the data has aged a bit, it’s still valid.

The average word count for posts published by medium-performing sites is 902 while low-performing websites publish articles that are 668 words long on average.

In a QuickSprout study of Crazy Egg’s blog, posts that were over 1,500 words in length received 68.1% more tweets on Twitter (now X) and 22.6% more Facebook likes than posts that were fewer than 1,500 words.

Specifically, longer blog posts that were over 1,500 words received 293.5 tweets and 72.7 Facebook likes on average.

Articles that were less than 1,500 words received 174.6 tweets and 59.3 Facebook likes on average.

Finally, according to OrbitMedia’s 2024 study and survey of the blogging industry, the average blog post length is 1,394 words in 2024.

This is a 2.31% decrease from 2023’s average length of 1,427 words per post and a 72.52% increase from 2014’s average word count of 808 words.

A survey OrbitMedia conducted for this study, which included responses from over 1,000 bloggers, revealed that 63% of bloggers publish articles that are 500 to 1,500 words long on a regular basis.

37% of bloggers write articles that are between 2,000 and 3,000 words while only 3% of bloggers publish articles that are over 3,000 words long on a regular basis.

However, 31% of bloggers who do publish longer posts that are over 3,000 words on average on a regular basis say they see “strong results” from their efforts.

This is compared to only 12% who write posts between 500 and 1,000 words and 10% who publish articles that are fewer than 500 words.

Remember that blog post length is not a ranking factor

As you decide how long each one of your blog posts should be, remember that blog post length is not a ranking factor.

Here are the word counts for the top three articles that rank on Google’s search engine results page (SERP) for the keyword “what is a motherboard”:

1. TechTarget – 635 words
2. Spiceworks – 3,301 words
3. Lenovo -1,012 words

Clearly, Google did not consider word count when it was ranking blog posts for this keyword.

Domain authority likely had a much larger influence on this ranking since each of these sites has a domain authority that’s higher than 85, according to Ahrefs’ scale of this metric (DR).

Search engine optimization (SEO) experts advise smaller and medium-sized sites to write longer posts because it often takes more words to demonstrate authority on a particular topic.

However, it’s much more important to ensure your post provides value and matches search intent.

Short-form and long-form blog posts alike are capable of doing this.

When you write an outline for a post that targets a particular keyword, ask yourself what information the user is expecting to find when they enter that keyword into Google.

In your mind, when they enter “what is a motherboard” into Google, do they want a simple definition or a 3,000-word explanation that explains everything about this crucial piece of hardware?

This is why it’s so important to know your audience.

A tech blog that targets laymen and tech novices should write a shorter article while a blog that targets tech experts should really dive deep into this topic.

Instead of worrying about word count, you’d be much better off ensuring your website loads fast and is easy to navigate, that you acquire more high-quality backlinks, that you do not over optimize your posts, and that you publish a lot of articles that relate to your blog post.

What does google say about blog post length?

Google’s John Mueller tackled this subject on LinkedIn in October of 2024.

LinkedIn user Faseeh Ur Rehman asked:

“Hi John, is there an ideal content length that performs better on Google search results? Should we focus on creating longer, in-depth articles, or can short-form content rank just as well if it’s concise and valuable?”

To which Mueller replied:

“There is no universally ideal content length. Focus on bringing unique value to the web overall, which doesn’t mean just adding more words.”

User SEOBot_ followed up by asking:

“John Mueller, the industry is literally dead if you sense how the search is behaving. Also, do you have any example of content on the website that follows this and is able to get the Google love. “Focus on bringing unique value to the web overall, which doesn’t mean just adding more words.” This is a very vague and unrealistic ask if the GSC can start pinpointing this content/section as not making any sense or not adding any value. We really eager to learn and know how the content is actually generating value to the web. If all the value is being generated by top publishers/brands then what exactly the small publishers/niche site owners suppose to write to survive?”

To which Mueller responded:

“If you’re looking for a mechanical recipe for how to make something useful, that will be futile – that’s just not how it works, neither online nor offline. When you think about the real-world businesses near you that are doing well, do you primarily think about which numbers they focus on, or do you think about the products / services that they provide?”

He concluded with a final comment that read:

“If you count the words in best seller books, average the count, and then write the same number of words in your own book, will it become a best seller? If you make a phone that has the same dimensions as a popular smartphone, will you sell as many as they do? I love spreadsheets, but numbers aren’t everything. I’ll drop out of this thread now, it’s going in circles. If you want a number, go here: bit.ly/bestkwd.”

In other words, Google does not recommend you to simply use the same number of words your competitors are using. They advise you to focus on providing unique value to the web instead.

Unfortunately, Google often contradicts themselves. And so, we persist.

How to find a keyword’s optimal blog post length

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to reveal how long an article should be if you do need a number.

It’s time consuming, but follow these steps to reveal an optimal blog post length for your keyword:

1. Open Google in a browser you’re not logged into.*
2. Copy and paste the text for the first article into a word count tool, such as WordCounter.
3. Record the number, then do the same for the next nine articles. Ignore videos, forum posts and shop pages.
4. Add up each of the numbers, then divide by the number of figures you collected, which should be 10. The result is your optimal blog post length for that keyword.

*Google takes your own search history into account when it showcases search results to you. For example, if you browse Reddit a lot, you’ll see more results for Reddit posts when you search on Google. Therefore, it’s better to use Google in a browser where you’re not logged into your Google account in order to see the true ranking list for a particular keyword.

On-page optimization tools

The method listed above is free, but it’s also time consuming. A much quicker way to reveal a keyword’s ideal blog post length is to use an on-page optimization tool.

We mostly recommend Frase due to its affordability and ease of use, both of which are great for beginners. Sign up for a free trial here.

However, Scalenut, Surfer SEO, and NeuronWriter do a similar thing.

When you input a keyword into one of these tools, it’ll reveal suggestions for the following aspects of your blog post:

• Word count
• Number of images
• Related keywords
• How often you should use your target keyword
• How often you should use each related keyword

Each of these suggestions is based on the top listings for your keyword.

Word count suggestions are based on an average word count from your competitors. You can view word counts of each one individually with most of these tools.

It’s a simple way to reveal a word count range you should target in order for your post to remain competitive.

Use your own knowledge of your target audience

Again, you know your target audience better than SEO tools do.

If your audience would appreciate a shorter explanation, write a shorter blog post.

If your audience expects in-depth analyses of topics, focus on writing long-form content.

It’s great to have specific metrics to target, but if you actually know your niche and your target audience through and through, your posts will likely be exactly as long as they need to be if you write naturally.

Create topic clusters on your website

Here’s one thing that’s predictable about SEO:

Competitive keywords typically need more words in order to cover their topics properly while less-competitive keywords typically require less.

This is why creating topic clusters is so useful. They allow you to cover everything about a particular topic with long blog posts while covering individual topics that relate to that original topic with shorter blog posts.

Related posts are something search engines want to see on your site.

Creating topic clusters is also a great way to publish a mixture of long and short-form content on your site.

Final thoughts

Most studies will tell you that the ideal length of a blog post is between 1,500 and 3,000 words.

And generally, you’ll find that the more in-depth your content is, the better it will perform. You’ll get more shares, earn more links, etc.

But the most important thing is to cover the topic in as much detail as you need in order to achieve your goals.

By Lyn Wildwood

Lyn Wildwood is a member of the Blogging Wizard content team and a freelance writer for hire with over a decade of experience in the marketing space. She loves sharing new tips on WordPress, blogging, and online business as a whole.

Sourced from bloggingwizard