👋 Hi everyone, and welcome to all the new people that joined this week! It was a record week for new followers, and I’m really humbled people keep signing up to read each week. Reply and introduce yourself if you’re new (or if you’re not!).

This week I have something new that I hope to continue, which is a curated list of jobs! In the newsletter, I’ll feature a couple of cool ones each week, but we’ll also have a full job board you can subscribe to updates to as well!

Social media & the creator economy

• Hopefully, by the time this edition hits your inbox, people will have stopped doing the milk crate challenge. I’m in pain just watching most of them, and it’s giving me PTSD from my DJ days when I used to carry crates full of records. Phew.
• There’s no debate that TikTok and music are intrinsically linked, which becomes more apparent by the week. More evidence: TikTok now has its SiriusXM radio station. The station will play trending songs and feature creators from the platform.
• We recently shared a report about the best times to post on Instagram, but now let’s take a look at how often you should post. Later analyzed 81 million feed posts in this recent report. They determined that the more you post per week, the greater your reach will be. That makes sense because math. It gets more tricky when you examine rate of engagement. So, hit the link and find out more about how often you should be posting. Side note, I’ve been slacking on posting lately.
• TikTok and Shopify expanded a partnership this week to pilot TikTok shopping. The partnership allows TikTok creators to sell products directly via their TikTok profile — if they also use Shopify, of course.
• Say goodbye to swiping up on Instagram to follow a link. Say hello to link stickers instead. Get the lowdown on the changes here.
• Some Twitch streamers are going on strike on September 1st to protest hate speech and toxic behavior on the platform. Many users feel Twitch has not done enough to combat this behavior.
• Ever wanted to post and manage your brand’s Instagram account from a desktop computer instead of from your phone? Here’s a guide on how to do that with Instagram Creator Studio.
• TikTok recently allowed videos of up to 3 minutes to be uploaded, and now they’re testing a 5 to 10 min long limit. It’ll be interesting to see where this develops over time, since the gold in TikTok is in short video.
• Here are 5 tips to maximize Twitter to grow your network. Twitter is one of the most misunderstood social platforms, even though it’s been around forever.
• After a week’s worth of backlash from creators, OnlyFans reversed its decision to ban explicit content. Many creators feel it’s too little, too late and are moving to other platforms.

Email marketing

• iOS privacy changes be damned, email is still going to be an effective marketing channel for a long time. Here are some email marketing best practices and trends for the rest of 2021.
• Email marketing works best when it’s human and not robotic. Find out how Typeform keeps theirs human in this interview over at Really Good Emails. There’s a really great Black Friday subject line example in the article that I thought was brilliant.

Advertising & Branding

• LVMH brand Tiffany & Co’s upcoming ad campaign features Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and a never-before-seen Basquiat (which just so happens to be Tiffany blue). Oh yeah, plus the famous Tiffany Diamond makes an appearance. On the surface, this is the kind of campaign any marketer’s dreams are made of. There’s so much greatness going on here, but the unwritten item: Beyoncé is only the fourth woman to wear the Tiffany diamond, and is the first black woman to do so.
• A recent Nielsen study found that only 1% of advertising features people with disabilities. Approximately 26% of the US population lives with a disability, so the ratio is obviously off.
• Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has a new name: Comirnaty. Yeah, you read that correctly. It’s been getting roasted thanks to the internet, as it should.
• OOH (out-of-home) advertising, AKA billboards and other physical ads in the real world (you know, outside) are having a bit of a moment lately. This new report suggests ad spending on OOH is going to increase to almost $7 billion in 2021.
• If you use Google Ads, you might notice a new interface. It’s being met with some resistance, but hey — it can’t be worse than the latest version of Google Analytics, right? Right?!? 💩

Search and Content

• If you ever wondered if SEO work ever pays off, just ask Shopify. They have a single landing page that produces approx $540k per month. Per month! Here’s the story of the business name generator and how it brings a boatload of traffic and actual money.
• Google is apparently changing page titles in the search results, which kind of sucks if you’re an SEO because you probably spent a lot of time planning your page titles.
• Google is going to pay Apple $15 billion to remain the default search engine for Safari for 2021. They’ll likely pay even more in 2022. Sheeesh.
• Here’s what not to do if you’re running SEO for local search / local businesses: 15 local SEO mistakes and how to avoid them.
• Rounding out search this week is a breakdown on how Instagram search works. If you want to optimize your profile for search, it’s worth checking out.

Jobs

• Head of Growth Marketing at Current — if you want to be on the forefront of fintech for creators, check this one out.
• Social Media Community Manager at Shake Shack — selfies and cheese fries, why not?
• And finally, a marketing designer role for Dreamworks TV — this one seems super dope.
• Right now, we have 20-30 jobs posted, and I hope to add more! If you have an open job, you can post directly or reply and let’s talk.

For Fun & For Thought

• Wookmama is a cool app I came across this week which helps pair color palettes for packaging, web design, and more.
• Check out How I experience the web today, which is an accurate representation of how most websites work now — especially media websites.
• Do marketing roles need to require college degrees? Lots of companies are moving away from the requirement, stating that it increases their talent pool and opens up a bigger window for diversity. I’m pretty biased (and lucky) because I don’t hold a college degree, but have a senior level marketing position. What’s your take on it?

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• Share this newsletter, either by forwarding to someone or sharing the website to your network.
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Thanks, as always!

—Forge