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It’s 🔭 Astronomy Week, Reader! Do you have a favorite ⭐ constellation, 🪐 planet, or 🌕 moon to look at?

In today’s edition:

• Today's 👉 Tip of the Day is for LinkedIn

• Managing the 🦺 strategic threats of AI

• X expands 💲 annual fee for new accounts

• Meta tests 🤖 AI chatbot

• TikTok partners with 🎟️ global ticketing company

• 📣 Additional industry news from Instagram, Threads, and X

Does your business have a LinkedIn page? Is your marketing struggling to deliver leads?

Whether you’re using ads or organic content, it is almost impossible to generate leads on LinkedIn. LinkedIn ads have low conversion and lead generation rates, and only 2% of posts in the LinkedIn feed come from organic company content. 

Leads shouldn’t be the goal for your marketing team.

Focus on Brand Awareness

When your marketing focuses on brand awareness—getting your business name, products or services, and ethos in front of as many people as possible—your sales team can follow up with individual sales prospects to build relationships and convert them into leads.

Today's tip is inspired by Richard van der Blom, a featured guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

Struggling to Produce High-Quality Content on LinkedIn?

Consistently keeping up with a content calendar can be challenging. But what if there was another option? 

Learn practical strategies for using LinkedIn Live to engage with your audience from LinkedIn Pages expert Michelle J Raymond. Discover how to create one live video that can be easily adapted into a variety of content types, helping you fill your content calendar much more efficiently.

This training is only available to members of the Social Media Marketing Society. Join today, and you’ll get instant access to over 100 training sessions—including this one.  

I’m ready to make my content creation easier.

Navigating the AI Revolution: How to Future-Proof Your Business

As AI advances rapidly, it's becoming clear that businesses must adapt to stay competitive. We’re all looking for ways to work smarter, not harder. But with so many marketers using AI, it can be challenging to make sure you stand out from other businesses using AI-generated content.

But if you use AI strategically, you can position yourself for success and differentiate your business from the competition.

These tips will help you future-proof your business in the face of rapid technological change:

Develop AI Literacy

Take the time to educate yourself on the latest AI developments and how they could affect your business and industry.

Start by researching the specific AI tools and technologies relevant to your field. Learn how they work, what they can do, and their limitations. Follow industry blogs, attend webinars and conferences, and join online communities to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and best practices.

It's also important to understand the ethical implications of AI. As AI becomes more advanced, it raises questions about privacy, bias, and job displacement. Stay informed about these issues and consider how they might impact your business and customers.

Conduct a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis can help you understand your strengths, weaknesses, potential benefits, and threats concerning AI. Compare your skills to AI's capabilities to identify areas where you need to improve or adapt.

Start by listing your strengths. What unique skills, knowledge, or experience do you bring to the table that AI can't replicate? Maybe you have strong interpersonal skills, creative problem-solving abilities, or deep industry expertise.

Next, consider your weaknesses. What tasks or skills do you struggle with that AI might be able to do better or faster? Maybe you need to improve at data analysis, or you need help with repetitive tasks.

Look for ways to leverage AI to enhance your strengths or overcome your weaknesses. For example, if you're a skilled writer but need help generating ideas, you could use an AI tool to help brainstorm topics or outlines.

Finally, consider the threats posed by AI. What tasks or skills might become automated in the future? How might AI disrupt your industry or change customer expectations? Use this information to plan and develop strategies to stay relevant.

Diversify Your Products and Services

To prepare for the unexpected, consider diversifying your products and services. If AI hits one area of your business, you'll have other offerings to fall back on. This can help you stay resilient in the face of rapid change.

Think about ways you can expand your offerings or target new markets. Can you develop new products or services that complement your existing ones? Can you adapt your skills to serve a different industry or niche?

Look for ways to collaborate with others or form strategic partnerships. By joining forces with complementary businesses, you can expand your reach and offer more value to your customers.

Today's advice is provided with insights from Ben Angel.

🗞 Instagram’s ‘Creator AI’ Influencers: Meta’s new "Creator A.I." initiative will allow Instagram influencers to create AI bot versions of themselves to interact with their followers. The chatbot would mimic the "voice" of the Instagram influencer to respond to messages and comments. Under the new program, Meta plans to train these bots using the creators' Instagram posts, DMs, comments, and audio from Reels and Stories to capture their voices accurately. Source: Social Media Today

🗞 Instagram Notes: Instagram is making its status update feature, Notes, more prominent within the app by displaying it directly on users' profiles. Additionally, the platform is experimenting with "prompts" for Notes, which will enable users to share questions for their followers to answer in their updates, similar to the collaborative "add yours" templates available for Stories. Source: Engadget

🗞 Meta Tests AI Chatbot: Meta has confirmed that it is conducting trials of its AI chatbot, Meta AI, with WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger users in India and parts of Africa. Source: TechCrunch 

🗞 Threads’ Tests Search Features: Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, confirmed Threads is testing the addition of “Top” and “Recent” to its search results to help users find relevant results in real time. Source: @mosseri via Threads 

🗞 Threads’ Tests Messaging Features: Meta has begun testing messaging features for its Threads app. While the new messaging capabilities do not introduce a separate DM system for Threads, they allow users to initiate new messages from the Threads app, which are then sent through the existing Instagram inbox. Some Threads users have reported seeing a "message" button on other users' profiles, replacing the previous "mention" feature. Source: Engadget  

🗞 TikTok Partners With AXS: TikTok has announced a new global partnership with AXS, a leading ticketing company, to provide fans with a convenient way to discover and purchase tickets for live events. The partnership, currently available in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, and Australia, allows Certified Artists on TikTok to promote their AXS live events and connect with fans worldwide by adding event links to their videos before publishing. Source: TikTok

🗞 X’s Annual Fee for New Accounts: X is expanding its one-off fee initiative for all new accounts to combat the "relentless onslaught of bots" on the platform. Under this new system, users can create an account and browse the app at no cost, but engaging in interactions will require payment. However, Elon Musk clarified that new accounts will be allowed to interact after three months without additional cost. Source: Social Media Today 

🗞 X Previews New Grok AI Model: xAI, the AI arm of X Corp, has previewed the upcoming Grok-1.5V AI model—Anthropic’s first-generation multimodal model that can process visual information and its text capabilities. This means that users can pose questions using various types of visual media. According to xAI, Grok 1.5 is competitive with existing frontier multimodal models across multiple domains, including multi-disciplinary reasoning, understanding documents, science diagrams, charts, screenshots, and photographs. Source: xAI 

🗞 X’s Verified Incentives: X has introduced a new incentive for brands to sign up for its Verified for Organizations program. The platform is offering ad credits equal to the cost of the subscription package chosen by the brand. Advertisers who opt for the Basic Verified Organizations package, priced at $2,000 per year, will receive $2,000 in X ad credits added to their account. Similarly, those who choose the Full Access offering at $10,000 per year will receive $10,000 in ad credits. Source: Social Media Today

Did You Know?

Bananas are berries.