Welcome to the Wolves Den, your hub for news, drama, and trends in digital marketing. Tune in every week to hear the latest in search, digital ads, social media marketing and beyond!
Topics of the week:
- New Report: Gen Z Uses TikTok like Google
- Upcoming Features for LinkedIn Creators
- Apple’s Plans to Grow Their Ads Business Leaked
- Is AI-Generated Art Good for Marketing?
TikTok the Little Search Engine That Can’t… Yet
We’ve already seen that social media is the way a lot of people consume their news, but it’s also increasingly the way younger folks search for information. In a report this week, it was revealed that Gen Z uses TikTok like Google, posing a bit of a challenge for marketers who put all their eggs in the Google Ads basket.
Due to the issues surrounding misinformation on the platform, it could end up being a reason for public concern. However, this is something we’ve seen before, and maybe TikTok will rise to the occasion… eventually.
Facebook has been under fire several times for not controlling the spread of misleading information and conspiracy theories, and even King Google itself doesn’t have a perfect track record of keeping searchers safe from scams and bad info. With election season approaching in the US, this week TikTok implemented an in-app election center for users to access details about how and where to vote, but has no plan for changing how they otherwise address misinformation.
LinkedIn Content Creators Get Flashy New Tools
Making native content on any social media platform has its downsides. Unlike a website that can be formatted to your liking, link to other places on your site, incorporate videos, photos, callouts, buttons, anchors and more, posts created for social are often plain and required to fit a certain mold. LinkedIn is aiming to change that. Or, well, at least give users a few more options.
To help your profile stand out more on LinkedIn, the company is making it easier to create “visual content” with clickable links on photos and videos. They’re also adding templates with “customizable backgrounds and fonts” and carousels to make posts more engaging. We should start seeing these features roll out over the coming weeks.
“One More Thing…” Says Apple Before Hitting You With an Ad
Remember when Apple seemed to be doing something noble by allowing iPhone users to ask third-party advertisers not to track their data? Well, turns out that it was all a strategy to eliminate the competition as Apple ramps up its own advertising business.
Ads will soon start appearing in different areas of the iPhone and iPad interface. Currently, display ads appear on the News and Stocks apps and the App Store, and it’s unclear where else ads will begin to show up, though we can definitely expect them to appear in the rest of the preloaded apps that come with your newly bought device.
While Apple can do what it wants with its own devices, the revenue hits big and small companies alike have suffered due to the iOS App Tracking Transparency feature can’t be ignored. The power move by Apple reveals a potential roadmap for them to capitalize and eventually monopolize the mobile device ad space (that is, for iOS users). However, Google is facing a lawsuit by the DOJ for that very thing–creating a monopoly in the digital ad market–so perhaps Apple will tread more carefully to stay above reproach.
AI-Generated Art: Just for Fun or Useful for Marketing?
For the past few months, artificial intelligence-created art tools like DALL-E mini have flooded Twitter feeds and Facebook timelines with somewhat disturbing mish-mash images of any text combination the human brain can conceive. AI art is not a new idea, but the way common users have jumped on it for the memes has shifted the way AI-generated images are perceived even professionally, making it an apt tool for content producers.
While some publications have already had to issue apologies for using easy-to-make AI art instead of commissioning real, live human artists requiring a paycheck, there is evidence to suggest that it’s not a trend that’s going away anytime soon. And just maybe, this is good news for marketers using visual design elements in their campaigns.
TikTok, for instance, has rolled out a text-to-image-based “AI greenscreen” that, while pretty basic at the moment compared to other, more photorealistic image generators, means no two backgrounds for videos have to be the same ever again. Given that Meta is quick to jump on anything that TikTok releases, it’s hard to imagine that Facebook and Instagram won’t implement something similar.
Where else is AI art going? What do you think? Follow us on Linkedin or Instagram to join the conversation. And don’t forget to tune in next week for the latest news from the Wolves Den!
