We’re back with another week of news and jobs. Hope everyone had a great week!

As I mentioned last week, I ordered some sweet holographic stickers for all of you as a thank you for the early support. I should hopefully have them this week to begin sending out. Fill out this form with your mailing address if you want one!

Ok, on to the week’s news

Social

• This week, TikTok overtook YouTube for average watch time in the US. TikTok users in the US averaged 24 hours of video watch time, compared to the almost 23 hours on YouTube. There’s a small catch: this focuses only on Android. Still, this represents a turning of the tide in a way as TikTok continues its hold on the masses.
• Twitter is testing edge-to-edge images on the timeline (iOS only for now) to make media more rich. Or, Instagram like.
• And staying with Twitter, they are also testing a new feature called Communities. It’s similar to Facebook Groups or Reddit, and is another bullet point in Twitter’s attempt to keep riding the creator economy wave.
• LinkedIn rolled out a few feature this week that lets you instantly compare your brand’s page to competitors across a few different metrics.
• Here’s what influencers expect of your brand when it’s time for sponsored content. Fun fact, 70% of the influencers who responded to the survey at this link expect to be paid in a combo of product and cash. If anyone reading this wants to pay me in a combo of dollars and food, I’m all the way in.
• In a recent issue, we covered the best time to post on Instagram. If you’re big into building your brand on LinkedIn, you might find this guide on the best time to post on LinkedIn in 2021 pretty handy. Spoiler alert: it’s on weekdays during working hours.
• Ray-Ban and Facebook partner to make camera sunglasses. They’re called Ray-Ban Stories, inspired by the stories feature that was lifted from Snapchat. Oh hey, remember Snapchat Spectacles?

Content, SEO, & Email

• Here’s a workflow to find low-competition keywords fast. To follow the guide, you’ll need to be an SEMRUSH user, as it was written by them and for their platform.
• I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: SEO is full of snake oil, and there are many agencies (or pretenders) that scam folks out of money. Here are 10 of the most common SEO scams and how to avoid them.
• LinkedIn rolled out a new feature
• Emailisnotdead.com is a domain that actually exists and is full of stats on why email is basically the best channel still for reaching people.

Advertising and branding

• With the release of Certified Lover Boy, Drake wrote a modern playbook in marketing and advertising — going as far as to form an extended partnership with ESPN. As Dan Runcie of Trapital points out, this isn’t new for Drake — but is a bigger evolution.
• Here’s an interesting deep dive into Taboola and Outbrain, and why big brands are still buying up their inventory. TL;DR: brands just can’t say no to that sweet revenue.
• You can buy ads for the 2023 Super Bowl already, and the starting price is $6 million for 30 seconds.
• What goes into a high performing TikTok ad? Find out, directly from the source.
• What about top-performing ads in general? Check out Adsets, which breaks down top ads by industry.
• If you’re a performance marketer or digital advertiser, you may be falling victim to the conversion fallacy, AKA what digital advertising gets wrong. The article seeks to explain that purchases that happen directly from an ad are misleading, and those people were already likely to buy anyway.
• Want to make sure you’re not wasting your Google Ads budget? Here are 11 lessons learned from a PPC auditor of common money-wasting mistakes, and how to fix ‘em.
• What performs better: Instagram Reels or TikToks? Hootsuite tried to find out. Spoiler alert: TikToks win by a mile.
• Dispo users might soon be able to sell their photos as NFTs. NFTs have taken the internet by storm since early Spring. With so many wild success stories not only for artists, but for sellers, this seems like great progression for the app — and a way to set itself apart from the rest of the social media pack.
• For the first time ever, you’ll be able to livestream the Met gala, via Vogue. Get the details here and check it out tomorrow!

Jobs

Here are a couple of interesting jobs that are over on the Forgematic job board now:

• Growth marketing specialist @ Hungryroot. Hungryroot delivers groceries and recipes to help with meal planning and nutritional support.
• Social media coordinator @ Curie. Curie is personal care products for today’s generation. Their products and photography seem perfect for social, so this is a great opportunity!

Just for fun

• Have you ever wondered why links on the internet are blue? Mozilla gets to the bottom of it in this deep dive that goes all the way back to 1964, complete with screenshots of browsers and operating systems along the way. Fun fact, the links in this email should to be pink, so head to the website if you ever want to see them in all their true glory.

You made it to the end! Thank you so much for reading with me for another week, I super appreciate it! If you enjoy the newsletter and want to keep it going, here’s how you can help with that:

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Thanks again, and see you next week.

Forge