Presented by

It’s National Moth Week, Reader... How beautiful is the Luna Moth?!

In today’s edition:

• 🖊️ Today's Tip of the Day is for writing copy

• 🧩 Your next marketing hire

• OpenAI releases GPT-4o Mini

• Instagram expands Notes feature to Reels and posts

• X launches Trend Genius for ads

• 🗞️ Additional industry news from Meta

Experimenting with jokes in your messaging or your customer journey? Concerned about offending customers? These tips can help:

Calibrating Your Humorous Copy

First, remember that humor is subjective. What works for one brand or audience might not work for another. Find your own style.

Second, remember that while every joke won't land perfectly, you shouldn't let one negative comment discourage you from trying again. People who respond with deep offense might not be your target audience.

Finally, you don't want to ignore important warnings that signal you're too far off the mark. If you consistently offend your ideal customers, it's time to recalibrate.

Today's advice is provided with insights from Lianna Patch, a featured guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

Best Marketing Conference—Lowest Price on Tickets

Social Media Marketing World is THE place to discover the latest marketing strategies. And now is the best time to secure your ticket.

Why? Because right now, you can get your All-Access ticket for 50% off! Who doesn’t love saving money, right?

And to help you achieve an incredible return on your investment, we recruit the top speakers and provide the best training available in the industry.

“The speakers and attendees were some of the most distinguished people in social media sharing their knowledge first-hand,” said attendee Noah Stanley.

I want my All-Access ticket for 50% off.

Hiring the Right Person for Your Marketing Team

Are you looking to grow your marketing team? Want to be sure you hire the right person the first time?

Before you start hiring, you must understand your strengths and weaknesses as a leader. If this is your first hire, consider choosing someone who complements your skills. 

For example, if you're great at strategy but struggle with content creation, look for someone with strong copywriting and video skills. 

This approach allows you to focus on your strengths while addressing areas where you need support.

Job Descriptions for Marketing Roles

When crafting a job description, focus on your team's specific needs rather than copying generic descriptions. Instead, highlight the experiences and skills most relevant to the role you're filling. 

While you want to learn about each applicant, avoid asking them to include unnecessary details. For example, if you're hiring for a digital marketing role, focus on obtaining relevant experiences rather than unrelated past jobs.

Pro Tip: Potential applicants will research your company before they apply. Ensure that your company's profile is up-to-date and reflects your agency's culture and values.

Narrowing the Field

To find your top candidates, ask each applicant to create a short video explaining three reasons why they're awesome and three reasons why they think your company is awesome. This helps you assess their creativity, resourcefulness, and genuine interest in your company.

Keep the instructions for this video intentionally vague—don't provide a timeline or a preferred video length. This will allow you to see how candidates handle open-ended tasks and whether they take the initiative to ask questions or research your company.

Interviewing Candidates

During interviews, pay attention to how candidates talk about their current or previous jobs. Look for candidates running toward a chance to work with your company, not away from problems at their current job. It could be a red flag if a candidate speaks negatively about past experiences. 

Be sure to involve any team members who will work closely with the new hire in the interview process. This helps ensure a good personality fit and gives current employees a sense of ownership in the hiring process.

You’ll also want to focus on how candidates react to problems and interact with others to gauge whether someone is a good cultural fit. 

Pro Tip: Skills can be taught, but personality and work ethic are harder to change. Look for people who can handle stress well and maintain a positive attitude when facing challenges.

Onboarding Your New Team Member 

When you've chosen your new hire, set clear expectations from the start. Have upfront conversations about potential challenges and how to navigate them. For example, "We will have difficult conversations in the future. But how we navigate them is going to be super important. What are your thoughts?"

Pro Tip: Consider using a virtual office platform such as So Works to create a sense of community for remote workers. This tool allows new and existing team members to have impromptu conversations and feel more connected, similar to an in-person office environment.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is holding onto underperforming employees for too long. While giving someone multiple chances may seem kind, it can harm your top performers and overall company culture. Hire slow and fire fast.

If an employee is underperforming, have an honest conversation about expectations and provide specific steps for improvement. If the employee doesn't meet these expectations within a set timeframe, it may be time to part ways.

Today's advice is provided with insights from Karen Hite, a featured guest on the Marketing Agency Show.

OpenAI Launches GPT-4o Mini: OpenAI has launched GPT-4o Mini, a cheaper, more compact AI model aimed at developers. It outperforms GPT-3.5 and will replace it for most ChatGPT users. The model supports text and vision, with plans for additional multimodal capabilities. Source: OpenAI

Instagram expands Notes Feature: Instagram is expanding its Notes feature to Reels and grid posts. Users can now leave temporary, semi-private comments that disappear after three days. These Notes appear as bubbles on content and are visible only to close friends or mutual followers. Content creators can opt to disable Notes on their posts. Source: @Instagram via Threads

Meta’s Verified Subscription Plans for India: Meta has launched Meta Verified subscription plans for businesses on Instagram and Facebook in India. The service offers four tiers—Standard, Plus, Premium, and Max—each providing a verified badge, account support, and impersonation protection, with additional features in higher tiers. Source: Meta

X’s New Trend Genius for Ads: X has launched Trend Genius, a new ad product that automatically deploys ads based on real-time conversation trends. Advertisers can select topics they want to align with, and ads are activated when discussions peak on the platform. The system also integrates third-party data for localized advertising based on events like sports outcomes or weather. Source: @XBusiness via X

Did You Know?

Parrots aren’t the only birds who can mimic human speech. Ravens and crows can also speak.