Today's Guide to the Marketing Jungle from Social Media Examiner...

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In today's edition:

Today's Tip of the Day is for Instagram
Changing your YouTube viewers to customers
Easier ideation for video assets
How to improve your marketing operations
Instagram tests unskippable ad breaks
LinkedIn announces new offerings for B2B marketers
X prepares to launch video-only feed
Additional industry news from Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more

Do you need to do more product promotion on Instagram? Are your Stories doing as much heavy lifting as they should?

A Script for Selling With Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories is a great place to promote your products or services authentically. The key is to focus on storytelling rather than direct selling. Follow this framework to show your product in action and help people envision how it could help them.

Share a behind-the-scenes look at how you create your product
Highlight testimonials from happy customers
Explain what's included and how it solves a specific problem
Clarify who the product is and isn't right for
Direct people to the link in your bio to learn more or purchase

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

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A Formula for YouTube Videos That Convert

YouTube has become much more than just a platform for entertaining videos. It's now a powerful tool that businesses can leverage to attract their ideal customers and generate leads. Creating valuable video content and optimizing it for viewers and search engines can turn your YouTube channel into an evergreen source of new customers or prospects.

Whether you're new to YouTube or looking to get better results from your existing efforts, these tips will help you better use YouTube for business.

By incorporating these four elements, you'll infuse your videos with variety and momentum, take viewers on a journey from problem to solution, and make your content irresistible:

Epiphany: Opening With an Explicit Value Proposition

Nearly 70% of YouTube viewers will stop watching a video within the first few seconds if it doesn't capture their interest. That's why your video intro must immediately demonstrate the value viewers will get from watching the whole thing.

Don't start your videos with common but ineffective phrases.

"Hey guys, just popping in real quick to share something with you."

Instead, open with an explicit value proposition that clarifies the key "a-ha" moment you want viewers to take from your video so they immediately know it's for them.

"In this video, I'm going to share the exact system my clients use to lose 10% of their body weight every month without relying on diet pills, shakes, or crazy exercise routines. Stay tuned because this could be a game-changer for you."

Lesson: Make the Process Crystal Clear

People don't just buy products or services—they buy outcomes, experiences, and transformations. Your job with your YouTube videos is to guide viewers along that journey from where they are now to where they want to be.

Start by vividly describing your audience's problems and pain points so they know you understand what they're going through. Then, shift into painting the vision of what's possible when they find the right solution. What will their life look like? How will they feel? What opportunities will open up for them?

Position your products or services as the bridge that helps them reach those results. Explain how you've helped others in their shoes transform. When you can show that you have a proven path to getting them to their goal, working with you becomes the obvious choice.

Pro Tip: When weighing options, consumers rarely (if ever) choose the more difficult path. If you want customers to choose you, make it easy for them to understand what they're committing to. If you're a coach, lay out your teaching in an easy-to-follow way using numbered lists, subheadings, or other organizational frameworks. If you offer a product or service, break down the process of using it into specific steps.

Story: Handling Objections Head On

Sharing stories can help you overcome consumers' doubts or hesitations about your offer. However, stories shouldn't be fictional.

Illustrate your lesson with concrete examples, case studies, or personal experiences. Show how things play out in the real world.

You can walk viewers through case studies to provide social proof or discuss your own journey to build trust and support your expertise.

Application: Moving Viewers Into Your Sales Funnel

End each video by giving your audience a relevant action step to implement what they just learned. This could be an exercise to complete, a no-cost resource to download, or an offer to consider. Spur them to take the next step.

The key is that it should be a logical next step that builds on the content of your video.

"By the way, be sure to stick around until the end because I've got a no-cost cheat sheet that will walk you through everything I cover step-by-step."

Then, at the end of the video, spend 30–60 seconds explaining the benefits of your resource and telling people how to get access. Put the link in your description and direct people there verbally.

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

How to Use AI to Generate Video Ideas, Titles, and Hooks

Creating engaging video content can be daunting, especially when trying to come up with fresh ideas consistently. It's easy to fall into a creative rut or spend hours brainstorming without making much progress.

Using AI to generate video ideas, hooks, and titles can save you significant time and energy. Instead of starting from a blank slate, you'll have a solid foundation of ideas to build upon.

Craft a Brand Identity Document

The first step is using AI to craft a brand identity document. Your brand identity document should include the following:

Who you are and what your business does
Your unique selling proposition (USP)
Your brand voice and tone
Your ideal target audience
Your audience's pain points, struggles, and desired solutions

When describing your target audience, be as specific as possible.

"I usually work with first-time homeowners moving from Chicago to the St. Louis metropolitan area. They typically buy homes in the $80K–$250K range and have one or two cars. Most of my clients are young families."

Copy and paste your brand identity document into an AI tool like ChatGPT, and you're ready to put AI to work.

Find Video Ideas

Start by asking the AI for 5–7 video topic ideas based on the information you provided.

For example: "Based on the brand identity document I shared, please give me seven video topic ideas that would be relevant and engaging for my target audience."

If you want more specific ideas, provide the AI with additional context.

"We're launching a new email marketing workbook to help our audience improve their open rates. Can you give me five video topic ideas to promote this workbook without feeling too salesy?"

Find Hook Ideas

First, provide the AI with the title and purpose of your video. Then, share a successful hook from a previous video that resonated with your audience. Finally, ask the AI to generate seven more hooks using a similar framework.

"The title of our next video is '5 Tips for Negotiating a Higher Salary.' The purpose is to help our audience feel more confident when asking for a raise. In a previous video, we used the hook: 'Are you tired of being underpaid and undervalued at work? In this video, we'll show you how to negotiate a higher salary like a pro.' Please give me seven more hooks that follow a similar structure."

Find Title Ideas

Begin by specifying the character limit for your chosen platform (e.g., YouTube). Next, ask the AI to generate seven title ideas within that character limit. Then, indicate whether you want the titles more emotional or strategic.

"Please give me seven YouTube video title ideas, each under 60 characters, for our salary negotiation video. I want the titles to focus on the emotional benefits of negotiating a higher salary."

Evaluate and Refine Your Ideas

Finally, ask the AI to rate the quality of each idea on a scale of 1–10.

"Please rate the 7 video topic ideas you generated on a scale of 1–10, with 10 being the highest. Explain your rating and how well it aligns with our brand identity and target audience."

If the AI gives a low rating to an idea, ask it to suggest ways to improve the concept:

"You rated video topic idea #3 as a 5/10. What changes could we make to this idea to better resonate with our target audience and align with our brand?"

Pro Tip: Remember that AI is a tool to enhance your creativity, not replace it. Continually review and refine the AI-generated ideas to ensure they align with your brand voice, values, and goals.

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

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How to Onboard Your Marketing Team to New Tools

Choosing the right tools can significantly impact your marketing team's productivity and your company's line. The right tools can streamline your workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and give you valuable insights into your agency's performance.

Before you start looking at tools, closely examine your team's workflows. What tasks do you and your team spend the most time on? What information do you need to track and monitor?

Do you need to track time spent on different product lines, campaigns, and content creation? Do you need a project management tool that allows real-time collaboration?

By getting specific about your needs and making a detailed list, you'll have a much better idea of what features and capabilities to look for in your tools.

Set Up New Tools in Phases

Implementing new tools can be overwhelming, especially if your team is already stretched thin. Setting up your tools in phases will make the process more manageable:

Start with the basics. In the first phase, focus on setting up the tool's core functionality. This might include creating projects, assigning tasks, and setting up your team members. Make sure everyone knows how to find their tasks and understands the basic workflow.

Once your team is comfortable with the basics, add more advanced features like dashboards and reporting. Dashboards give you a high-level view of your projects and teams so you can quickly see what's on track and what needs attention. Setting up reports can help you track important metrics like time spent on tasks, project profitability, and team utilization.

Finally, look for ways to automate repetitive tasks using your tool's workflow or automation features. For example, you might set up an automation that assigns a due date to a task whenever it's assigned to a specific team member. Or you might create a workflow that automatically moves a task to the next stage when particular criteria are met.

By breaking the process down into manageable steps, you can help your team adapt to the new tools without added stress. Be sure to provide plenty of training and support along the way, and be open to feedback from your team about what's working and what's not.

Use-Case Example: Time-Tracking Tools

For example, one of the most important things your tools can do for your team is to help you track time. The data from these tools can give you valuable insights into how your team spends their time, which projects are taking up the most resources, and where the return on your team's efforts should be questioned.

To get the most out of your time-tracking tool, follow these steps:

Make Sure Everyone is Tracking Time Consistently: Set clear expectations for how and when time should be tracked, and hold team members accountable.
Use Descriptive Categories and Tags: Make sure your time-tracking categories are granular enough to give you meaningful data. For example, instead of just tracking time under "social media," break it down by specific product and platform.

Once in place, set aside time each week or month to review your time-tracking data. Look for patterns or red flags, such as projects taking longer than expected or team members consistently overbooked.

Then, use your time-tracking data to make informed decisions about budgets, project scoping, and resource allocation. If you notice that certain types of projects consistently yield low returns, consider ceasing them. If certain team members are overloaded while others have capacity, consider redistributing work or hiring additional staff.

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

LinkedIn's New Pages Admin Dashboard: LinkedIn is rolling out a new Pages admin dashboard. The Dashboard tab provides an overview of Page activity, performance, and recommended actions, with four main modules: "today's actions," "manage posts," "track performance," and "join conversations." Two additional tabs, Feed and Page posts, allow for easier engagement with employee and followed Page content and streamlined management of the Page's content. Source: LinkedIn Ads Blog

LinkedIn Updates Linked Previews: LinkedIn is changing link previews in organic posts, displaying smaller images than the previous design. Sponsored posts will retain the larger preview images, and when an organic post is promoted as a Sponsored Content ad, the thumbnail will be converted to a larger image. This change also applies when a sponsored post is re-shared as an organic update. Source Social Media Today

Mid-Roll Ads Test on TikTok: Some users report seeing ads placed toward the end of videos that are over a minute long. Source: @lindseygamble via Threads

Threads' Rolls Out Desktop Redesign: Threads is rolling out a redesign of its desktop site to all users globally. The new layout allows users to customize their homepage by pinning various feeds, such as their Following feed, For You feed, saved posts, and recent notifications. Users can scroll horizontally to view all the pinned feeds or display a single feed. The redesign includes an auto-update feature that refreshes the feeds in real time. The redesign is accessible for free to all users. Source: @mosseri via Threads

TikTok's US-Only Algorithm: Reuters reported that TikTok is developing a US-specific recommendation algorithm independent from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Sources claim TikTok engineers have been separating code to create a version not linked to ByteDance's Chinese app, Douyin, which could allow for a divestiture of US assets. TikTok denies the report, stating the required "qualified divestiture" is not feasible within the 270-day timeline. Reuters stands by its reporting, and sources estimate the project could take over a year to complete. Source: Readwrite

Instagram's New 'IG Boost Signals': Instagram is introducing the "IG Boost Signals" project, which allows partners and advertisers to determine whether their media is eligible to be boosted as an ad before doing so through an API. Additionally, Instagram is launching a feature (i.e., boost_ad_list) that will allow developers to retrieve the ad ID and status (i.e., active or inactive) for current and past advertisements. Source: Meta

Instagram's New Carousel Photo Sizing: Instagram has introduced a new feature that allows users to share Carousel posts containing photos of various sizes without changing their original dimensions. When editing a carousel post, users can now click on a resize icon that presents three options: Original, Portrait (or Horizontal, depending on the aspect ratio of the first photo), and Square. Source: Lindsey Gamble

Instagram Tests 'Ad Breaks': Instagram is testing a new feature called "Ad Breaks," which displays unskippable ads to users while browsing content on the app. These ads include a countdown timer that prevents users from scrolling past the ad until they have viewed it. Source: Tech Crunch

Instagram Tests 'Trial Reels': Instagram is globally testing a new feature called "Trial Reels" that allows creators to experiment with posting Reels without having them displayed on their profiles or to their followers. After posting a "Trial Reel," Instagram will provide the creator with insights about the Reel's performance, such as plays, likes, comments, and shares. Based on these insights, the creator can share the Reel with their followers or archive it. Source: Tech Crunch

Threads Tests 'Swipe this post': Threads is testing a new feature called "Swipe this post" that allows users to provide feedback on posts in their feed by simply swiping. Users can swipe a post to indicate that they like it or tell Threads they are not interested in seeing similar content. Source: @zuck via Threads

YouTube Updates: Over the coming weeks, YouTube will be rolling out access to post broadly on the platform. Additionally, YouTube is updating its Studio Inspiration tab (formerly Research tab) with AI-powered "Ideas and Outlines." This feature is available on Studio desktop within Analytics and can be accessed by most creators globally, except in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and India. YouTube is also introducing "Breakout Videos" to the INspiration tab for Studio mobile and desktop. "Breakout Videos" will highlight videos from similar channels that have performed well. Source: Youtube

YouTube Tests Dream Screen: YouTube is testing a new AI-powered feature called Dream Screen, which generates image backgrounds for Shorts videos based on user input. To access the feature, creators in the experiment group can follow a set of steps and then type their desired background idea into the tool. YouTube is rolling out this experiment to a small group of Shorts creators. Source: YouTube

Instagram Tests Text Overlays on Carousel Posts: Instagram is currently testing a new feature that allows creators to add text overlays to individual images within Carousel posts. Users who have access to this feature can now include captions directly on the carousel images through the text option in the carousel composer. Source: Social Media Today

Instagram's New Features for Broadcast Channels: Instagram is introducing new features for creators to personalize their Broadcast Channels. These updates include the ability to go live exclusively with channel members. Creators can now recognize their most loyal fans by giving shoutouts and granting exclusive access. Additionally, Instagram allows creators to customize their channel's theme by uploading an image of their choice. Creators can also choose which emojis their community can use to react within the channel, hiding any that don't align with their community or brand. Lastly, creators can leverage IRL (in real life) events to grow their channel by sharing a QR code that directs fans directly to their Broadcast Channel. Source: Instagram

LinkedIn's New B2B Offerings: LinkedIn has introduced new offerings for B2B marketers. Currently being tested with a limited number of publishers, the Wire Program allows marketers to promote in-stream video ads alongside trusted publisher content. LinkedIn is also expanding the capabilities of Accelerate, their AI-powered campaign creation tool, by integrating Microsoft Designer for creating and customizing ad creatives, enabling targeting refinements through data exclusions, and providing conversational assistance via an AI marketing assistant. Source: LinkedIn

Reddit's Partnership With Sprinklr: Reddit has expanded its partnership with Sprinklr, a leading customer experience management platform, to connect enterprise customers with Redditors. The partnership includes the Reddit Data API integration, allowing Sprinklr customers to access and analyze public conversations on Reddit in near real-time, and the Reddit Ads API integration. The expansion also marks the public launch of the Reddit Ads API, now available to developers and advertisers. Source: Reddit

X's Video-Only Feed: X is preparing to launch a new video feature that will compete directly with TikTok and Instagram Reels, according to sources. The feature will provide users with a stream of short- and long-form videos based on their interests, and it is expected to be available in beta to a select group of users later this summer. Source: New York Post

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