Collaborate or Complicate: Is Instagram’s Latest Idea Just “Digital Graffiti”?

Follow us: LinkedIn • Instagram • TikTok • Mastodon • more
Follow Tod: Mastodon • LinkedIn • TikTok • more
Check out: Our Daily News Podcast • Our Slack Community

In This Issue:

📸 SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram experiments with allowing users to add stickers, images, and videos to your brand’s existing posts.

🔗 SPAM CONTROL: YouTube will ban clickable links in Shorts comments, in an effort to reduce spam.

🔍 SEO: CNET deletes a huge amount of older articles, aiming to improve its Google Search ranking.

🚗 MEDIA BUYING: Lyft unveils in-app advertising, letting brands reach riders during their journeys.

🤖 E-COMMERCE: Amazon offers new AI tool designed to craft compelling product descriptions.

🎥 SOCIAL MEDIA: TikTok introduces a new process for users to indicate when content is AI-generated.

📺 ADVERTISING: Google updates its naming conventions, after controversy around its 'In-Stream' video ads.

💻 CYBERSECURITY: Adobe releases a series of patches, addressing a multitude of vulnerabilities across its software suite.

✍️ PRODUCTIVITY: Google finally will launch an eSignature beta for Google Docs and Google Drive.

🌐 FEDIVERSE MARKETING: Threads integrates with Mastodon, allowing users to verify their profiles on the decentralized platform.

📦 OOPS: A Canadian woman is begging Amazon to stop continuously sending her unsolicited shoe boxes.

Instagram Tests Letting Others Add Content to Your Post

Reverse software engineering has found that Instagram is working on a new option that would let regular users add their own images and videos to your brand's existing posts. It's sold as a new collaboration tool that will boost engagement.

The feature would let viewers submit their own content to the post — luckily, account holders will be able to review the content, and the submissions would remain hidden until approved.

But even so... for busy brands, that could add up to a lot of busy work — reviewing submissions and declining most (probably). It's also not likely to make it to the API at first, or even at all, meaning this work would be done on a phone, not via a third party social media management tool.

The trend is, of course, inspired by TikTok, where remixes and duets have become key engagement tools.

Of course, it could be a net positive for brands — rather than prompting consumers to add specific hashtags and search for user-generated content, account managers could ask them to add their own content to the original post.

🚨 Feed Distribution Challenge

But Social Media Today notes there may be an issue with whether these posts will be re-eligible for feed distribution after editing.

For instance, if a retailer posts an update and asks customers to add their own product images, and approves them a few days later, will the updated content get any reach, or would it be better to share each update as a separate new post to maximize distribution?

This could determine whether this feature is a viable promotion tool, or if it's better suited for creating shared group photo albums among friends.

For now, things are as they are — no word on official testing or roll-out yet.

Images: Instagram / X via Alessandro Paluzzi

YouTube’s Banning Clickable Links From Shorts

YouTube’s link spam problems are so bad that links on Shorts videos will soon be banned. This means that any of your brand's content that includes links in Shorts descriptions, comments, or vertical live feeds will no longer be clickable as of August 31st.

Earlier today, the company said it will have a new approach in place for creators to link their Shorts viewers to other YouTube content by the end of September.

YouTube is also taking away clickable social media icons from channel banners on desktop, claiming them to be a “source of misleading links.” This change, of course, presents a challenge for brands and creators who rely on these links to drive viewers to other platforms and generate revenue by linking to ads and affiliate content.

To address this, YouTube plans to introduce a new space on channel profiles for prominent, clickable links to websites, social profiles, merch sites, and other links that comply with the platform’s Community Guidelines. This feature will start rolling out on August 23rd and can be found near the “subscribe” button.

Image: YouTube

Google's Side-Eye: CNET Deletes Old Articles for Search Supremacy

How does old content on your site affect your Google Search ranking?

Gizmodo recently reported that tech news site CNET has deleted thousands of older articles from its site because it thinks it will help game Google Search results, according to an internal memo.

The memo explains that this content pruning “sends a signal to Google that says CNET is fresh, relevant, and worthy of being placed higher than [its] competitors in search results.”

The company considers several factors before deprecating an article, including:

• SEO quality

• The story's age and length

• Traffic

• Google's crawl frequency

CNET also weighs historical value and other editorial aspects before removing an article. Stories slated for deletion are archived using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, and article authors are alerted at least 10 days ahead of time.

🧓 Google: Old is Gold

Google, however, does not recommend deleting articles just because they are considered "old." The tech giant's Search Liaison posted a PSA on Mastodon saying:

“Are you deleting content from your site because you somehow believe Google doesn't like "old" content? That's not a thing! Our guidance doesn't encourage this. Older content can still be helpful, too.”

Lyft Launches In-App Ads

Lyft is riding Uber's tail. The ride-sharing app launched in-app advertising today, which places an ad on a rider's ETA screen when they match with a driver, and during their trip.

The company says campaigns can be tailored based on the rider's location. For instance, a consumer might see an ad for a new movie if their destination is near a movie theater or they could receive an ad with a discount code while heading to a nearby store.

Lyft has partnered with ad tech company Rokt to sell ads through its marketplace. The company also partnered with measurement firm Kantar which will let marketers track their ad buys’ effects on factors such as brand awareness and purchase intent.

Images: Lyft

Amazon's New AI Copywriting Tool: ChatGPT But for Sellers

Amazon is rolling out a new ChatGPT-like tool for sellers on its marketplace that generates titles and descriptions for product listings.

According to a report from The Information yesterday, the feature prompts merchants adding new items to the site to enter keywords describing their products. The tool will then generate possible titles, descriptions and bullet points for the listing.

But the AI tool doesn't entirely replace copywriters. The e-commerce giant has strict rules about what words and phrases can be used in product descriptions—and the tool warns sellers to double-check the AI-generated content to make sure it complies with the company's listing guidelines, which prohibit obscenities, customer testimonials, and false information.

🤖 From AI Copy to AI Oops

And speaking of false information from our robot overlords... if you are using ChatGPT to answer any questions about code, a new study has found that the chatbot produces wrong answers to software programming questions more than half of the time.

In Brief

TIKTOK seems to be rolling out AI-generated content labels for videos. A new “AI-generated content” toggle has appeared for some users under the “more options” section before uploading a video. Users must now disclose deepfakes and AI-generated content in the video's caption or use an identifying sticker under TikTok's content policies.

GOOGLE: A report back in June claimed that 75% of ads bought via Google's TrueView video campaign offering didn't meet placement standards. Google denied this but has now renamed its 'in-stream" ads to "skippable ads" without changing campaign processes, possibly to address this issue. This name change eliminates the "in-stream" label, making it harder to criticize alternative ad placement.

ADOBE recently released more than 30 patches to fix vulnerabilities in Acrobat, Reader, and other software. Of these, sixteen of the bugs are rated as critical, potentially letting attackers gain admin rights, access data, install software, and create accounts.

GOOGLE is adding support for eSignature for Docs and Drive to make it easier for users to request signatures and sign documents. The feature is now available in open beta for select Workspace plans.

META now lets you verify your Threads profile on Mastodon. It's not a free blue checkmark, but rather uses Mastodon's self-verification system, where you put a bio link to a site you own, and that site has some code to confirm that.

And finally…

Image: Shawn Foss/CBC

A Canadian woman says she has been bombarded by a relentless Amazon shoe delivery spree of more than 50 packages containing women's shoes. The problem? She didn't order them.

Each box includes a return slip and shoes from a North American Amazon buyer who shipped their rejected footwear to her address.

She believes that Amazon sellers stole her information from a dormant account and are exploiting her personal details to offload unwanted return items. The Better Business Bureau told media that it sounded like a vendor-return scheme common in the U.S., where foreign sellers dodge fees associated with storing and shipping return items by sending them anywhere but their own business.

She said couriers dump packages on her porch, so she can’t even refuse them. So far her predicament has resulted in more than $300 in Collect-On-Delivery customs charges from UPS – Thanks, Amazon!

@cbcvancouver

A Langley, B.C., woman says for the past two months, she has had more than 50 packages containing women's shoes delivered to her house, ev... See more

🗣️ JOIN US! Follow our social channels or join our Slack community

🎧 Listen to the free daily podcast

📈 Reach thousands of digital marketers! Check out our ad options.

This newsletter is powered by Beehiiv.