👀 AI Insight: Instant Video Coming Soon?

This week, our fam @ Ahrefs asked a big question: does going viral help with SEO? The results might surprise you. In the post, Patrick Stox dives into the popular conception (or should I say, misconception?) that going viral has a significant effect on SEO success, and more-or-less debunks it.

The conclusion reached is an interesting one: "SEOs may overvalue links from media sites," which "don't seem to have much impact." It's not that virality doesn't help at all— instead, it's that the SEO impact of "going viral" is often overestimated.

Anyway, you should click that link and read the piece to see how Stox gets to that. It’s good stuff and might have you re-considering the efforts to which you’d go to get huge on TikTok or whatever

→ The AI wars rage on as Microsoft is threatening to withhold vital internet-search data to rival search engines (unless they stop utilizing it in their own AI projects)-- which AI products this impacts with any seriousness is, as of now, up in the air.

→ In another take on the same basic premise we’ve been reading for months, this post explores the possibility that ChatGPT and other generative AIs have already ended the era of the classic search engine. In your opinion, does this opinion make more sense now than it did 3 months ago, or less sense? IMO, the plug-ins mentioned in the post definitely help the argument.

→ it’s worth checking out @rustybrick’s piece analyzing recent comments from Google’s John Mueller on AI-generated content. TLDR; even if ChatGPT is starting to churn out 80% unique content, "unique" does not = "good," and that 20% can be- as Mueller says- "toxic"

→ This NYT piece suggests instant videos are the next big step in the AI movement, looking at Runway AI and others pioneering this tech. Looks like Google and Meta have also made huge advancements in generative video AI, but have withheld them from the public because of the whole "definitely gonna be used to create extremely convincing misinformation" thing

→ Suddenly, Meta’s stock is rising, surging over 140% since November— guess all it took was TikTok being assaulted by a coalition of international governments & also Twitter descending into a state of chaos; this article explains how, after almost $14B lost on the Metaverse, the focus has shifted hard to AI; Meta’s AI advancements include this impressive model that can identify specific items within images; Next step? Using generative AI to create ads

→ Snapchat is upping its generative AI game with new profile backgrounds

→ While a lot of the panic & straight-up hate directed toward Twitter is absolutely extra, this piece identifies two genuine existential threats to the platform: 1) employee lawsuits and 2) fines of the FTC / regulatory variety; speaking of, here are some more lawsuits and also some more that Twitter’s gotta deal with; if Twitter was hoping that the campaign of stealing back people’s Blue-checks would drive Blue subscribership & make up for some of these losses? Bit of a fail;

→ When it rains, it pours: TikTok just took a $15.9M fine in the UK for failing to prevent underage users from joining;

→ this week in "things you could not have seen coming": is Substack trying to be the new Twitter?

What is and isn’t working is hard to gauge in real time. And it’s also the kind of thing that can change in the… I don’t know… 5 weeks since an article like this goes public. Still, the insights in this handy article by Impressa Solutions are backed by sound data and the perspective seems worth taking seriously.

So, what are four data-backed tips from the article that I think are worth considering?

So glad you asked:

1. "Brands invest even more in high-quality video content."
→ Up to 73% of marketers polled in 2022 deemed the importance of video on the rise. Seems like the formula goes something like this: creating solid video ads helps you make meaningful connections with potential customers, which attracts leads, so you can convert leads and achieve better ROI. It’s a science and an art, baby.

2. "LinkedIn is still prevalent in B2B."
→ LinkedIn saw a 22% rise in engagement on organic and paid marketing campaigns in 2022. LinkedIn ads have a comparatively strong likelihood of building buying intent and convert up to twice as high as other social media platforms. Get on that LinkedIn grind, it’s on the way up.

3. "Short-form video is here to stay"
→ I’ve said it before. Short-form was arguably the shining star of content forms in 2022 and it would be surprising if anything else even competed with it in 2023. It's TikTok's fault, but don't tell me you don't love it— as a consumer (cheap thrills) and as a marketer (low-maintenance, kinda lazy and fun). The good people at eMarketer break down the likelihood of engagement of short-form by platform: TikTok (48.5%), YouTube Shorts (25.3%), or Instagram (20.1%).

4. Get Creative
→ This is a sad one. The B2B institute found that 71% of B2B ads scored a 1 in creativity on a 1-5 scale. Bruh… And no, they aren’t using golf rules… Be creative. And if creativity isn't your strong suit... Hire some creatives. They're worth the investment.

Oh yeah, and before I forget…

two genuine existential threats vital internetsearch data rival search engines same basic premise other generative AIs classic search engine convincing misinformation thing new profile backgrounds Social Media Roundup The AI wars next big step

👀 AI Insight: Instant Video Coming Soon?

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