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It’s Cotton Candy Day, Reader! You can even call it candy floss or fairy floss… It’s always a sweet treat.

In today’s edition:

• 🔭 Today's Tip of the Day is for improving discoverability

• ✍🏿 🎙️ ▶️ Create strong content with less effort

• YouTube continues crack down on ad blockers

• Meta launches AI Studio

• TikTok rolls out new Ap Center for advertisers

• 🗞️ Additional industry news from Instagram, X, and more

Are you creating content for channels that aren't improving your discoverability? Should you adjust your strategy?

Rethink Discovery Content

While exceptions exist, most business professionals have three choices when deciding which content to focus on.

Images don't contribute much to discoverability because if someone is trying to find you, they're probably not going to search via images on Instagram or Pinterest.

Instead of wasting time, effort, and financial resources creating splashy images, focus on creating written, audio, and video content that can be reused in multiple formats on multiple platforms and aligns with consumers' search patterns.

Today's tip is inspired by Mark Schaefer, a featured guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know…   

One of the biggest challenges we face as marketers is knowing where to invest our time and energy to get the best results. If you focus on the wrong thing, you’ll fall down a rabbit hole, which will cost you time and money. 

But what if there was an easier way? 

If you’re looking to fast-track your marketing results, attend Social Media Marketing World. It’s the place marketers go to learn proven strategies from experts. 

“This conference changed my life in many ways. It changed my vision. It changed the way that I was approaching my strategies in marketing. And I made wonderful connections,” said attendee Fidan Alizada.

I’m looking for a better plan!

How AI Can Help You Be a Better Content Creator

Content creation can be time-consuming and challenging. But with the help of AI, you can streamline your process and enhance your creativity.

For example, the AI tool Notion can maximize your content creation potential.

Set up Your Content Workspace

Click on the "+" icon next to "Workspace" in the sidebar and name your workspace.

In your new workspace, click the "+" button in the sidebar to create a new page. Name this page "Content Ideas" or something similar.

Repeat these steps to create additional pages for different content you produce. For example:

• Video Scripts

• Blog Posts

• Social Media Content

• Newsletters

Create Templates Quickly to Produce Different Content Types

To create a template, navigate to one of your pages and click the "+" button to add a new block.

Type "/template" in the new block and select "Create template" from the options.

Now, you can design your template to include relevant sections. For example, a content idea template might include:

• Idea title

• Target audience

• Key points

• Potential angles (e.g., "past vs. present," "myth-busting," "listicle")

Video script templates should feature sections for your intro, main points, and call to action, while blog post templates should include placeholders for the title, subheadings, and key points.

Save your template, and it's ready for use whenever you create new content in that section.

Store Content Ideas for Easy Recall

To ensure you don't lose any content ideas, create a database to house them.

Open your Notion workspace and click the "+ Add a page" button in the sidebar.

From the options that appear, select "Table" under the "Database" section and name your database something like "Content Ideas Database."

In the table view, you'll see default columns like "Name." Use this column to indicate the title of each content idea. 

To make it easy to categorize and track your ideas, add a property for:

• Content Type (Select: Blog, Video, Social Post, etc.)

• Status (Select: Idea, In Progress, Completed, etc.)

• Target Platform (Multi-select: Instagram, YouTube, Website, etc.)

• Tags (Multi-select: for themes or topics)

Simply click the "+" button next to the existing column headers to add a property. Choose the type of property you want to add (e.g., Select, Multi-select, Date, etc.) and name your new property. 

To add a new idea to your database, click on a new row and fill in the details.

Find Connections Between Content Ideas to Inspire New Content

Open your Notion workspace and navigate to your content ideas database.

In the database view, select multiple items (ideas) between which you want to find connections. You can do this by holding down the Ctrl key (or Cmd on Mac) and clicking on individual items, or by using the checkbox on the left side of each row to select multiple items.

Once you've selected the items, look for the AI button in the top menu bar of your Notion page. If you don't see it, you can use the "/" command to bring up the AI options.

Click on the AI button or type "/ai" to bring up the AI command prompt. In the AI prompt box, type a request like:

Find connections between these selected ideas.

or

Identify common themes or patterns in these content ideas.

Then, press Enter or click "Ask AI" to generate the response.

If you want more specific information, you can ask follow-up questions using the AI prompt. For example:

How could these ideas be combined into a content series?

or

What are the unique angles each idea brings to the common theme?

Now you can move on to creating your blog post, video, or social media posts.

Today's advice is provided with insights from Nicky Saunders, a featured guest on the AI Explored podcast.

Discover Marketing Strategies That Work…

Want to go even deeper with your marketing? Check out the Social Media Marketing Podcast! 

Publishing weekly since 2012, the Social Media Marketing Podcast helps you navigate the constantly changing marketing jungle with expert interviews from marketing pros. But don’t let the name fool you—this show is about a lot more than social media marketing. 

With over 600 episodes and millions of downloads each year, this show is a trusted source for marketers all over the world. 

Check out the Social Media Marketing Podcast now.

Apple Intelligence in Beta for Developers: Apple has launched the first preview of Apple Intelligence, its new AI suite, in the iOS 18.1 developer beta. The public release is planned for later this year. Source: CNBC

Instagram Tests Notes Filter in Reels Tab: Instagram is testing a new Notes filter in the Reels tab, which will display only Reels with attached Notes. Notes allow mutual followers to leave comments on Reels and posts, and they will be visible for three days. Source: Social Media Today

Meta Launches AI Studio: Meta is launching AI Studio, a platform allowing users to create and share custom AI characters without technical skills. Built on Llama 3.1, it enables the creation of AIs for various purposes through ai.meta.com/ai-studio or Instagram. Users can customize AI personalities and share them publicly or privately. Creators can use AI Studio to build AI extensions of themselves, answering common questions and reaching more fans. The platform includes customization options, safety measures, and is available in the United States. Source: Meta

Pinterest’s Publisher Partnerships: Pinterest is testing a new program allowing news outlets and publishers to sell ads on its platform through an auction system. The program includes a revenue-sharing model between Pinterest and publishers. Source: Search Engine Land

TikTok’s New App Center for Advertisers: TikTok has introduced its App Center, a platform offering third-party tools to enhance advertising for businesses of all sizes. The center provides apps across various categories, including eCommerce, creative tools, campaign management, and analytics. With flexible pricing and no-cost trials, TikTok is making these tools accessible to all advertisers, particularly small and medium-sized businesses. Source: TikTok for Business

Google Tests Removal of X Branding on Search: Google is testing a change in its search results that may replace the "X (Twitter)" heading with "Latest Posts From" when displaying recent posts from the platform. This update would further reduce X branding on Google's search pages. Source: Search Engine Roundtable

X’s Data Sharing: X has introduced a new setting allowing users to opt out of sharing their data to train its AI chatbot, Grok. The setting is enabled by default and permits X to use posts and interactions to improve Grok, potentially sharing data with xAI. Source: Social Media Today

YouTube’s Crack Down on Ad Blockers: YouTube has escalated its fight against ad blockers by implementing unskippable blank or black screens in place of ads. Users with ad-blocking extensions now face waiting periods equivalent to standard ad lengths before their desired content plays. The platform is testing server-side ad injection, which makes ads harder to block by integrating them directly into video streams. While some ad blockers can still hide ad content, they can't bypass the wait times. Source: Mashable

Did You Know?

There’s a whole internet conversation about Disney’s original animated Cinderella not having any ears. The internet is wrong.