Techcetera 8.21 Is AI Art?

This week is full of news. I included a small editorial at the bottom if you're into that on what I think about IHOP coffee and how it relates to Martech.

AI "art" can't be copyrighted. This is pretty bad news for creators that have learned to leverage AI to create. (Source) After you read that, watch this and ask... "Is this art?" Could an AI put this together on it's own?

Google - Miscellaneous Google Related News

• Google is changing Discovery Ads to Demand Gen. While this is promoted as an improvement, it's another move to continue to hide information.
• Google Business Profiles are still the easiest lead generation mechanism for small businesses and it just got a bit better. Now businesses can add their socials to the profile. (Source)
• Is SEO is dead? Not really, but now you can use an AI to summarize all the AI content from your searches about AI. AKA Google has added a summarize feature to Chrome. Pretty awesome and troublesome at the same time. Affiliate marketers probably going to take L on this one. (Source)

Social Media

Meta recently removed news from it's feed for some countries reacting to new laws. Now those same news companies that fought for some of these laws are now upset that Meta removed them. There's a bunch of these stories (particularly in Canada) but here's one from CNN (Source)

X

• You can no longer run ads to increase your followers on X. (Source)
• X is moving toward a digital id with their X verification. (Tweet)
• There are a bunch of stories about minor feature updates to twitter and another one about whether or not you can actually block people on there. It's just noise.

Facebook

Facebook put out a pretty amazing slide deck. Here's the takeaways:

1. Consolidate Ad Sets: Speed up AI learning by merging similar ad sets and minimizing changes.
2. Use Automation: Opt for end-to-end automation for flexibility, or automate specific campaign elements like creative or audience.
3. Diversify Creative: Create varied ad assets to cater to different customer motivations, using multiple formats.
4. A/B Test! to validate the effectiveness of your marketing strategies.

(Source)

TikTok

• TikTok is banned on Gov't phones in NYC. Something to watch, nothing to take action on yet. (Source)
• Is Tiktok the MTV of Gen Z. This great article makes the point from the music angle. (Source)
• Tiktok has a new resource to help you be a better marketer. It's really, really good but everything they put out leaves me feeling "blah." Check it out for yourself (Source).
• Tiktok launches music app in Singapore, supposedly to rival Spotify. (Source)

Instagram

• Instagram gave some insight into it's "Two Towers" model, that offers real-time, relevant content. The algorithm uses multiple stages to rank content, emphasizing user engagement like likes and shares. (Geek Out Here)

Amazon

A while back I mentioned I was doing a side hustle as an Amazon Influencer (see my page). They made an offer for $25 per video you make but you have to make 500 videos to qualify for the payout. This has led to a backlash from creators who routinely get many multiples of that for that. This "who cares" story isn't about the payouts. It's about the UGC that Amazon is amassing. When are they going to launch their own Tiktok?

Other

• Advertise on Amazon? Now you can push ads to Pinterest and Buzzfeed. Big win for Amazon Ads user. (Source)
• Youtube is trialing some anti-adblocker in an effort to "protect creator revenue." :eyeroll: (Source)
• You can no longer run ads to increase your followers on X. (Source)
• Threads added some features. (Source)

AI

• Great post about the AI hype cycle from Gartner (Source)
• Meta has plans for it's own code-bot, Llama. (Source)
• Amazon is using AI to summarize the reviews. The problem is that if the reviews are fake the AI can't tell us. (Source)
• OpenAI hired some ex Instagam employees.

This might not seem connected to MarTech but it's a play right out of the MarTech handbook.

Right now, the buzz in SEO is parasite sites. The short version of that is when a site like Forbes (or outlookindia), known for news, decides to start cranking out articles about the best VPN, most stylish Nike's or best vacuum for college kids. They have no real authority in that space but are able to rank because of their overall brand authority.

More businesses should consider ancillary business models and leverage their brand authority to create a new revenue stream. The danger? It takes you off your main focus and divides your vision. (Source)