👋 Hello everyone, I’m back with another roundup of everything of the latest from the marketing world. Forgematic as an agency has been humming along (this is the last time I’ll shill for 2021, I promise), and I have room for one more B2B SaaS client this year. Hit me up if you need help!

And with that, let’s get into this week’s news!

Social media & the creator economy

• 2021 was the year TikTok solidified its lead in social. In fact, it became more than just a social media tool, it became a place where culture is shaped and shifted. The company recapped 2021 with this great list of top creators, top clips, and top songs. You might end up on this page all day, fair warning!
• Not to be outdone, Twitter also ran a “best of 2021” awards. Detailed are the most tweeted about brands, best brand tweets, and the most tweeted branded hashtag.
• Not wanted to be left out of the party, Reddit released their recap of 2021. Included in the recap are overall stats for Reddit, the top subreddits, the most upvoted posts, and more.
• Twitter has been booming the past couple of years as a place to build a following for an individual. Elizabeth Yin details tips that helped her grow from 2K followers to 75K. As with most things, it requires consistency!
• Instagram might soon bring back a chronological feed. Adam Mosseri (Head of IG) detailed the company has been working on a version of this for months. It will likely not be the default setting, but instead enabled via a toggle or drop down.
• All IG users recently got the ability to add story links. This week, Instagram made it possible to add custom text, and choose different colors for story links.
• If you’re running social for a brand, you need goals to measure your progress. Here are 9 S.M.A.R.T. goals to keep you on track.
• A new study revealed a pay gap for influencer marketing. The gap between white and Black influencers is 35%.
• Discord is launching paid memberships to servers, which could help creators with a following monetize access to their servers.
• Another bullet point in TikTok’s influence: the top beautify products sold on Amazon all began on TikTok.
• Facebook rolled out new tools for live-stream creators. You can now include links in your streams and add guests.

SEO, content marketing, & email

• Another one. Google recapped the year in search for 2021. My favorite thing is that Birria tacos are the top food search term. Love to see it.
• Writing great content should not come cheap. It should either require you/your team’s internal time — or money for a freelancer. Elise Dopson details her process for writing blog posts that she charges $1500 for, and it’s quite impressive!
• SEO for B2B companies is challenging, especially when you’re doing keyword research. Here’s how to do B2B keyword research the right way.
• If you run a local business, you might be interested in a forthcoming Google update for local search results.
• Paid search isn’t just for Google. It’s becoming so prominent on Amazon, that almost 25% of search results are paid ads. The FTC may soon step in to protect consumers.
• I’ve been shilling Webflow pretty hard the past few newsletters. Not everyone is ready to leave WordPress behind, and SEO is often as a reason. Here’s how to optimize a WordPress site for Organic Search.

Copywriting, branding & advertising

• Once the pandemic became a thing, OOH (out of home) advertising experienced a renaissance. On the other side (🤞) of the pandemic, we could see a massive return of experiential marketing. Case-in-point: this IRL Bombay Sapphire ad, which features a QR code for free drinks at a nearby bar.
• Get ready for an influx of purple and blue tones across the internet this year, as Pantone revealed its Color of the Year for 2022: ‘Very Peri.”
• Google is rolling out image extensions for Google Ads on desktop. Now, your ads can show relevant visuals of your products, adding a little extra pop to your ads.
• This week, TikTok shared some tips to help lift conversion rates on ads. Included are some universal tips like shooting in high resolution, using the full screen, and keeping it short.

Fun

• This story by the New York Times details how the supply chain crisis got so bad. It’s complicated, but the animations are super helpful.

That’s it for this week. Thank you all so much for reading along for another week, I really appreciate you for reading!

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