Today's Guide to the Marketing Jungle from Social Media Examiner... | Presented by |  |
It's Snack Food Month, Alluser! Is your go-to salty, sweet, or savory?
In today's edition:
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⏹️ Today's Tip of the Day is for Instagram
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⚙️ Faster, more accurate analysis
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🫰 Optimizing processes for greater ROI
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🎦 Creating viral organic videos with broad appeal
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OpenAI deep research
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YouTube ads review
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Custom feeds go public on Threads
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Snap's AI image generation
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Meta ads updates
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🗞️ Additional industry news from LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube, and more
Has your Instagram profile grid swapped over from square to rectangle? Wondering how to get your feed aesthetic back on point?
Use Adjust Preview
Open your profile and open a post. Tap on the 3-dot menu in the top right corner of the post, then tap on 'Adjust preview.'
Now you can drag and move the image so you're happy with its new rectangular preview.
Apply this change to the latest 12-15 posts in your feed and you're all set!
Today's tip was inspired by Michelle Gifford, a featured speaker at Social Media Marketing World.
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🎯 Michelle Gifford — Empower women-owned businesses with proven tactics.
🎯 Eden Hazan — Master short-form video to build strong communities.
These experts aren't just speakers; they're here to answer your questions!
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How to Optimize the Customer Journey With Microsoft Clarity's AI-Assisted Analysis
To get the most value from Microsoft Clarity, begin by using the built-in features and pre-defined segments. Get comfortable with the interface before creating the custom segments and advanced analyses described below.
Then, you can start using screen recordings to understand complete user journeys rather than isolated page views. This helps you identify patterns in how users navigate through your site.
Pro Tip: While Clarity provides valuable insights, it works best as part of a comprehensive analytics strategy. Consider using it alongside tools like Google Analytics 4 for a complete picture of your site's performance. GA4's attribution modeling and advanced marketing metrics complement Clarity's behavior-focused insights.
Prepping for Landing Page Analysis
First, clearly outline what you expect from each page on your website. For example, with a sales page, you might expect users to behave in the following ways:
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Spend at least 10 seconds on the page
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Scroll halfway down within 45 seconds
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Engage with pricing information
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Progress to the cart page
Next, you'll need to save the custom audiences that will give you the most actionable insights. Clarity allows you to save custom segments based on specific criteria, including:
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Traffic source (e.g., email, social media)
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Device type (mobile, desktop, tablet)
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User behavior (high intent, serious readers)
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Time periods
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Page paths
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Funnel stages
These segments help you focus on the user groups and behaviors most valuable to you, making your analysis more actionable. You can even exclude segments, such as filtering out existing members who use your login button, to focus on new visitor behavior.
Now, you can review the insights for each of your landing pages. Here's a sample of what Clarity can tell you…
3 Advanced AI-Powered Analysis Features
Microsoft Clarity's integration of artificial intelligence, powered by its partnership with ChatGPT, brings marketers three powerful and time-saving analytical capabilities.
First is automated analysis. Instead of watching countless hours of screen recordings or heat maps to identify trends, you can use Clarity's AI to quickly analyze and summarize the user behavior exhibited by actual website visitors. You'll get up-to-date insights about common patterns and potential issues that negatively impact your landing page performance.
This brings us to behavioral interpretation analysis. The platform will automatically identify specific user behaviors that indicate problem areas, such as:
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Rage Clicks: When users repeatedly click on elements that aren't responding
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Dead Clicks: Clicks on non-functional elements
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Excessive Scrolling: Users searching for content
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Quick Backs: When users quickly return to previous pages
Finally, unlike Google Analytics, which typically has a 24-hour delay, Microsoft Clarity provides real-time insights. This immediate feedback is particularly valuable during launches or email campaigns when you need to monitor user behavior as it happens.
We use this feature effectively for split testing. For example, when testing different variations of our conference speaker page, we can analyze traffic patterns immediately after sending promotional emails.
We've set specific time ranges (down to the second) to compare user behavior between variations, looking at metrics like user intent levels and scroll depth. This real-time analysis helps us identify which version performs better based on actual user behavior rather than just conversion rates.
Bonus Analysis: Clarity also allows you to create and analyze specific user journeys through your site. You can track how users move through multiple pages or steps, identifying where they drop off or encounter difficulties. This is particularly valuable for analyzing sales funnels or content engagement paths.
Today's advice is provided with insights from Chris Mercer, a featured guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast and speaker at Social Media Marketing World.
Moving from AI Experiments to Company-Wide Process Integration
Many companies have taken their first steps into AI implementation by providing employees access to ChatGPT or conducting initial experiments. While this represents important progress, it can also trap your company in experimentation without meaningful change.
To shift from random AI use to true integration into business processes, you must view AI as a core enabler of business growth and tie it to business metrics.
The companies that do that best will leapfrog those that do not. The following steps provide a guide to help you achieve the best results.
Set Up an Effective AI Council
This group drives AI transformation across the company, sets goals, defines pilots, creates roadmaps, and establishes policies.
First, ensure you have the right people in the room. An AI council filled only with senior leaders will generate strategic dialogue but little action.
Instead, balance the team with action-oriented contributors, typically mid-level managers or practitioners who can own experiments and drive progress.
Then, your senior leaders can function as executive sponsors to provide guidance and break down barriers across departments.
Identify Potential Cases for AI Implementation
The next step is identifying the right processes and use cases for AI implementation. Start with a comprehensive brainstorming session to document your key work processes—the essential activities that deliver value to your clients, customers, or consumers.
Prioritize AI-Implementation Use Cases by Business Impact
AI needs to be viewed as an enabler of your top priorities and not a distraction from them; experimenting in areas that aren't business-critical often leads to stalled efforts because they don't resonate with your leadership or drive meaningful outcomes.
After identifying the potential processes, apply two critical filtering questions:
First, is the work process repeatable and completed regularly? Focus on tasks that occur frequently rather than one-off projects.
Second, is the work process business-critical? The process should directly impact your organization's ability to deliver results and drive growth.
Once you've filtered your list through these questions, use a prioritization matrix to evaluate the remaining use case candidates.
On the Y-axis, consider how much you dislike doing the tasks—look for activities that are repetitive, time-consuming, or drain team morale. On the X-axis, evaluate the potential impact—the ability to save time, reduce costs, or drive business outcomes if AI enhances the task.
For example, writing business proposals often emerges as a prime candidate for AI enhancement. It's a process that occurs regularly, is typically time-consuming, and directly impacts business success. Similarly, creating brand content represents another substantial opportunity, as it's both frequent and crucial to business success.
Run and Assess Your AI Pilots
Next, set measurable success criteria for your AI implementation pilots. Consider KIPs such as time saved, accuracy improvements, or increased closure rates.
Monitoring pilots against these measurable outcomes ensures that you objectively evaluate the experiment's success and can directly relate them to ROI.
For example, when measuring the success of AI-enhanced proposal writing, start by tracking time savings, then progress to monitoring improvement in proposal acceptance rates. For brand content creation, initial metrics might focus on production speed and volume while maintaining quality standards, then evolve to measuring engagement rates and lead generation.
Strive to get your pilots up and running within 30 days to avoid getting stuck in planning mode.
As the pilot proceeds, monitor progress closely throughout a 90-day duration so you can gather feedback and iterate your approach rather than waiting until the end to evaluate results.
Scale Successful AI Implementations Across Your Company
After validating success through pilots, the focus shifts to scaling these implementations across the organization. Schiavone outlines three critical steps for effective scaling.
First, understand what needs to be true to scale. This means identifying all requirements for successful expansion: which stakeholders need to be aligned, what resources are required, who needs training, and whether any policy updates are needed. This comprehensive assessment provides a clear roadmap for scaling efforts.
Second, build a compelling case for leadership buy-in by demonstrating the pilot's business impact and potential value at scale. This is where careful measurement during the pilot phase becomes crucial—articulating concrete improvements in time, cost savings or better outcomes significantly strengthens your case.
The final step involves documenting your new AI-enhanced process and creating simple guides and templates that make adoption as straightforward as possible.
Today's advice provided with insights from Lauren Schiavone, a featured guest on the AI Explored podcast.
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A Reliable Formula for Engineering Viral Video
Why do some videos skyrocket to fame while others get ignored? Wondering what strategies experts use to replicate success and break through the noise?
In this article, you'll discover the proven tactics behind the Billion View Formula and how it can transform your content strategy.
First, Understand That Vitality is Subjective
It's important to note that what's viral for one brand doesn't match what's viral for another. Viralish defines virality as 5 million views, but if your typical video gets 300 to 400 views, virality to you might mean 40k.
Let's explore 4 steps to creating viral organic videos with broad appeal.
Craft a Hook to Retain 90% of Viewers for 6 Seconds
The hook is critical—nothing else matters if you don't get it right. Your goal should be achieving 90% retention in the first six seconds of your video. While this is challenging, aiming high ensures better results even if you fall slightly short.
Adley Kinsman, founder of Viralish, teaches what she calls the "combo method" for creating effective hooks. Every hook must have two non-negotiable elements:
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A curiosity gap that won't be satisfied until the end of the video
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An emotional response from the viewer
The combo method involves combining two things that don't usually go together. For example, Kinsman once put a rack of ribs on a car engine in her opening shot. This unusual combination creates both curiosity ("What is she doing?") and an emotional response ("She shouldn't be doing that!").
Other effective hook examples include using controversial statements about polarizing topics, addressing divisive issues that spark immediate emotional reactions, or combining unexpected visuals with serious topics.
For educational content creators, this might mean combining controversial statements or unexpected visuals with your message. Kinsman cites the example of Dr. Julie, who draws on her skin with Sharpies while discussing trauma, creating an unusual visual anchor for serious content.
Storyboard Suspenseful Storytelling
Suspense is what separates good creators from great ones. Kinsman recommends what she calls the "Missy Elliott method"—put it down, flip it, and reverse it. Instead of starting with your end goal (like a tax-saving strategy or recipe), begin by describing your opening shots and building curiosity.
For example, if you're creating a cooking video, don't start by announcing you're making no-bake cookies. Instead, begin with an attention-grabbing scene—perhaps spooning peanut butter into a jar of oats in the middle of a grocery store while security approaches. This approach maintains viewer interest by raising questions that need answers.
When planning your video, describe it beat by beat, starting from the top, and test each segment with a focus group. Ask them, "Would you keep watching?" The moment they say they'd scroll, you need to revise that section.
Deliver the Payoff
The payoff, occurring in the final 3-10 seconds of your video, is where you finally satisfy the curiosity gap created by your hook.
This is the "defining the relationship" moment with your audience—where they decide whether to follow you, share your content, or engage further.
You can choose between a satisfying or unsatisfying payoff depending on your goals. An unsatisfying payoff might lead viewers to part two, while a satisfying one could prompt shares and comments.
Proactively Engineer Engagement
Rather than hoping for engagement, design it intentionally. Kinsman recommends planning your comment section in reverse—envision what you want people to say and create content that inspires those responses.
This can be done through several methods:
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Strategically misspelling common words to prompt corrections
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Using unique accessories (like a paperclip in your beard or wearing just one earring)
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Making relatable statements that invite viewers to share their experiences ("I don't know if any other moms do this, but...")
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Creating opportunities for viewers to demonstrate their expertise by leaving intentional gaps in your content
Today's advice is provided with insights from Adley Kinsman, a featured guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast and speaker at Social Media Marketing World.
ChatGPT Deep Research: The new feature conducts comprehensive internet research and analysis, completing hours of research in minutes. Powered by a version of OpenAI's upcoming o3 model, deep research analyzes hundreds of online sources, including text, images, and PDFs, to create detailed reports with full citations. The feature is designed for professionals in finance, science, policy, and engineering, as well as consumers seeking detailed product research. It's currently available to Pro users, with Plus and Team access coming soon. Users can initiate research by selecting 'deep research' in ChatGPT's message composer and providing their query with the option to attach contextual files. Research takes 5-30 minutes, with progress visible in a sidebar. The feature will soon include embedded images and data visualizations in reports. Source: OpenAI
Meta's 4th Quarter and Full-Year 2024 Financial Report: The company saw a significant increase in revenue, rising 21% year-over-year in the fourth quarter and 22% for the entire year, reaching $164.5 billion. Ad impressions increased by 6% in the fourth quarter and 11% over the year, while the average price per ad rose by 14% in the fourth quarter and 10% over the entire year. The company's Family of Apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, remains central to its business model, with 3.35 billion daily active people using these platforms. Looking ahead to 2025, Meta projects revenue growth of 8-15% in the first quarter, with expenses expected to rise due to investments in AI, infrastructure, and regulatory compliance. Source: Meta
Pinterest 2025 Marketing Guide: The document outlines specific marketing opportunities by month and theme. Brands can use the guide to develop strategies aligned with their products and values, such as car brands promoting drive-in movie nights or beauty brands aligning with New Year's resolutions. Source: Pinterest
Snapchat+ Platinum: The new subscription tier allows users to opt out of most advertising within the app. The primary benefit of the Platinum tier is the removal of Sponsored Snaps, Story ads, and Lens advertisements from the user experience. Some advertising will remain visible to Platinum subscribers, specifically in sponsored places and My AI responses. Source: Snapchat
YouTube's AdBlitz: The program has launched for the 2025 Super Bowl, marking its 19th year as a centralized platform for Super Bowl advertisements. It organizes ads by genre, including full commercials and upcoming campaign teasers. Digital viewership significantly outperformed traditional TV for Super Bowl ads in 2023, with 88% of adults aged 18-49 watching ads on YouTube compared to 68% on linear television. AdBlitz serves as a resource for marketers studying creative approaches and trending advertising styles from top brands and agencies. Source: Social Media Today
YouTube Communities Expansion: Communities is a mobile-only feature that enables two-way conversations where both channel owners and viewers can create and share posts, with creators having moderation controls over who can post. The existing Community tab is being renamed to "Posts" but will retain all current functionality, allowing creators to share updates and viewers to engage through comments. Creators will receive email notifications and mobile channel page banners when invited to enable Communities, with the option to activate or disable the feature through their channel settings. Source: YouTube
Grok Personalization: X rolled out the ability for users to give Grok specific knowledge about them and how they would like the AI to respond to them. The details can be used one time or enabled for all future chats. Source: @XDaily via X
Meta AI-Generated Advertisement Transparency: The company began labeling ads created or significantly edited using their generative AI creative features in their advertiser marketing tools last year. The labeling system helps users identify when images and videos have been created or significantly edited with Meta's in-house generative AI tools. These labels appear either in the three-dot menu or next to the "Sponsored" label on advertisements. Meta uses specific criteria to determine label placement: ads with minor AI edits and no photorealistic humans receive no label. In contrast, ads with significant AI edits get a label in either location. Advertisements featuring AI-generated photorealistic humans specifically receive labels next to the Sponsored label rather than in the three-dot menu. The company began implementing these labels gradually last year and will continue the rollout this year. Source: Meta
Snap AI Image Generation for Mobile: The model can create high-resolution images in approximately 1.4 seconds on an iPhone 16 Pro Max. The model runs entirely on-device rather than requiring server processing, reducing computational costs. It achieves high-quality results by transferring knowledge from larger diffusion models into a more compact format. Snap plans to incorporate this technology into existing AI features like AI Snaps and AI Bitmoji Backgrounds in the coming months. The company expects the in-house solution to provide faster performance and lower operating costs. Source: Snap
Custom Public Feeds on Threads: A new Feeds tab will appear on profiles, allowing users to explore public feeds and pin their favorites for quick access. Users can make their custom feed public by tapping and holding the feed at the top of the Threads app, selecting "Edit feeds," and toggling the feed to "Public." To share a public custom feed, users can tap and hold their created feed, select "Edit feeds," and tap "View feed." From the view feed screen, users can also post a preview using the quote icon or share the feed as a link or DM using the "Share feed" button. Source: Meta
X Communities Integration: Community posts and responses are now visible to all followers and other X users. While anyone on X can respond to Community posts, replies from Community members receive priority placement. If a Community is deleted, posts made within that Community will remain visible on X. Users can delete their own posts at any time. Source: @HiCommunities via X
YouTube TV Guest Profile: An update has removed the guest option from the platform's TV apps, starting with Apple TV, Roku, and Fire TV platforms. The change replaces the Guest profile with a "use signed out" button that provides identical functionality, allowing users to watch content without an account. When using the signed-out option, the app displays a "switching to guest mode" message and maintains the ability to retain account details for later sign-in. The update currently affects Apple TV, Roku, and Fire TV apps but hasn't yet reached Android TV/Google TV platforms. This change appears to align with YouTube's 2023 strategy of encouraging logged-in viewing, following their decision to limit recommendations for users with disabled watch history or those using guest/signed-out modes. Source: 9to5Google
ChatGPT Search: OpenAI opened access to its web search feature to all without users having to login. Source: @OpenAI via X
Google SynthID Watermarking: Google Photos is integrating SynthID watermarking technology into its Reimagine feature in Magic Editor. SynthID embeds invisible digital watermarks into AI-generated images, helping users identify AI-modified content. This extends SynthID's existing use in Google's Imagen text-to-image model to include partially AI-edited photos. Minor edits made with Reimagine may be too subtle for SynthID to detect and label. Users can check for SynthID watermarks and metadata through the "About this image" feature. Source: Google
Mistral Updates: Updates to Le Chat include a new mobile app for iOS and Android platforms and a major web interface upgrade. The new mobile app features a standard chatbot interface where users can query Mistral's AI model and engage in conversational follow-up questions. Mistral is also introducing a Pro tier priced at $14.99 per month (€14.99 in Europe), which provides access to their highest-performing model, suggesting free users have access to a different model tier. The Pro subscription includes higher usage limits and the option to opt out of data sharing with Mistral, introducing a pay-or-consent model for AI assistants. Source: TechCrunch
Facebook Performance Max Tools: Performance Max is expanding LinkedIn Profile targeting to six major markets, allowing advertisers to use professional targeting data, including company, industry, and job function signals. New reporting features will enable advertisers to analyze performance by audience segments and track individual asset performance. Conversion value rules are being introduced to adjust real-time values based on location and device usage. A new customer acquisition goal strategy will allow advertisers to target new customers specifically. As of January's end, all remaining smart shopping campaigns have been converted to Performance Max. Search DSA campaigns can now be upgraded to Performance Max. Bulk location targeting has been introduced for new search campaigns in the Microsoft Advertising Platform. Impression-based remarketing is now available globally, including in China, and is supported by Microsoft Ads Editor. Multi-format campaigns for Audience ads have been introduced as the new default method, allowing advertisers to combine different formats across native, display, and online video under the same budget and targeting. Microsoft has launched support for impression trackers on display and video ads, expanding beyond the existing native ads support. Source: Microsoft Advertising
LinkedIn Video Updates: Video engagement has increased 36% year-over-year on the platform, with video creation growing twice as fast as other post formats. The platform introduced a video tab on mobile and a 'Videos For You' module in the feed, both of which are now expanding to desktop. LinkedIn is implementing new search features, including a swipeable video carousel for topic-specific searches. New features include a profile preview within the full-screen video player, enhanced follow buttons, and video analytics showing average watch time. Source: LinkedIn
Meta Advantage+ Improvements: A new streamlined setup will include an Advantage+ 'on' label to indicate when advanced AI optimizations are being applied through Advantage+ audience, placement, and campaign budget features. Advantage+ shopping campaigns will be renamed to Advantage+ sales campaigns to better reflect their broader applicability. The opportunity score system, which rates campaigns from 0-100, has helped advertisers achieve a 5% median decrease in cost per result when following its recommendations. Meta plans to combine the streamlined Advantage+ setup with opportunity score recommendations for select advertisers in the coming weeks to evaluate the effectiveness of this integrated approach. Source: Meta
Snapchat Features for 2025: Snapchat+ subscribers will get access to Snap Modes, allowing for self-destructing Snaps that vanish if not viewed within a set timeframe. US Snapchat+ subscribers can now generate AI stickers that match their message text by using the sticker search button in chat. Bitmoji's wardrobe expands with new long skirts, dresses, and Valentine's Day-themed items, including a heart-shaped purse and heart costume. A new AI Lens feature lets users see themselves and a friend digitally placed onto movie posters. Source: Snap
YouTube TV Metrics: To help creators better understand TV viewership of their content, the platform is making device-type viewing data more accessible in the audience tab across desktop and mobile platforms. The feature is currently rolling out to all creators. Source: YouTube
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Did You Know?
Amazon River dolphins are born gray but gradually turn pink as they age. Their pinkness varies based on blood vessel expansion, excitement, or even water temperature.
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