To those of you in the US like me, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving weekend. For me, it was a time spent with family, but also a time to begin planning 2021, and what I want out of it.

I’ve obviously talked a lot about my desire to start an agency. Happy (and thankful!) to say I signed my first client this week. So, my books are officially open for business.

I’m narrowing my focus to help B2B SaaS companies with marketing, so if that’s you, and you need digital marketing help — then reach out to me here. Or, if you refer someone that signs on to become a customer, I’ll give you $250 after their first paid month. ☺️

Alright, on to this week’s news!

Social and creators

• It’s the time of year for roundups, and TikTok is going first. They published their first-ever Culture Drivers list, which celebrates the year’s best brand and creator partnerships.
• Is the future of the music industry on the blockchain? It could be, as startup Royal took some funding this week to help put royalties back in artists hands, and away from labels.
• A data point that will shock zero people: Forrester revealed that TikTok has taken over the crown from Instagram for Gen Z. Let’s read that back in 2021 speak: IG is cheugy now.
• If you haven’t dipped your toes into TikTok, here’s how to make the most of it in 2022.
• TikTok hired a head of diversity and inclusion this week. Shavon Charles’ charter is to help amplify the stories of underrepresented creators. Charles’ resume includes VSCO, Instagram, and Twitter. What a legend.
• Jason Derulo is helping Twitter launch e-commerce stuff. Sure. Twitter has big plans for live shopping, so tapping influencers for help is a logical first move.
• Did you know you can scan food with Snapchat and get instant recipe recommendations? Now you don’t have to read some recipe blogger’s life story just to find out what to do with the stuff in your fridge.
• Just as social and commerce were getting along, cosmetics brand Lush decides to quit social media altogether. It’ll be interesting to see where this experiment lands in a year.
• Because they wanted to dominate this section of the newsletter, Instagram also began testing longer videos in stories. Everyone might soon be able to post 60-second video to stories, instead of the current 15 seconds.
• Ok, one more Instagram update (last one, I promise!). Here’s a super handy cheat sheet of all Instagram image sizes for 2022. It’s every Instagram image and video size you’ll need in one place.

SEO and content

• Local SEO can be tough, especially if you have multiple locations in different areas. Here’s how to form an effect local SEO content strategy for a business serving multiple areas.
• Regarding local SEO and business profiles, Google claims that having a mix of positive and negative reviews makes you more trustworthy.
• Google rolled out a new PageSpeed Insights update that does a better job of explaining speed for Core Web Vitals. Core Web Vitals is the gift that keeps on giving. If you’re not familiar, Core Web Vitals is a new-ish speed and usability framework that Google will be using to influence your website’s rank in search results.
• You can’t have SEO and content without a website. Last week, I extolled the benefits of Webflow over WordPress. Here’s a new data point for that: WordPress 5.9 is delayed because it was on track to be rushed to the point of being a dangerous update.
• Here’s a great twitter thread on how to use Google Trends if you work in SEO for news media.
• There are countless metrics you can track within Google Analytics for SEO. But, it’s best to understand how organic traffic contributes to your business through revenue. Here’s how to measure quality in GA.

Copywriting, branding, and advertising

• KFC’s Colonel Sanders could be on the chopping block as the company’s mascot.
• It’s hard to know how to get your marketing strategy off the ground when you’re a startup. Among this great list of tips:don’t hire a marketer until you’ve found product-market fit. As marketers, we’re here to accelerate existing fit, not manufacture it.
• Why is $19 Apple’s favorite price for accessories? Apple’s polishing cloth is the latest in a line of accessories at this price point. Check the article to find out why.
• What if we could offset carbon emissions via advertising? A company named Good-Loop is creating the tools to make online advertising more environmentally friendly (as if that will make us want to watch ads more).
• The GrowthTactics Twitter account shared a thread of evergreen discount strategies that work, regardless of what time of year it is.

Fun

• The history of poop is really the history of technology. This article in Wired explains not only what gives poop its smell(s), but how humans used waste to further our civilizational advancements throughout the years.

That’s it for this week’s news. If you enjoy reading each week, I would appreciate a share to someone you know — it really helps me out!

-- Forge

PS: Here's the link to hire me, just in case you still need it :)