ICYMI: The Best Books for Marketers 2023 📚🍁
Plus Meta's new research tool is indispensable!
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
Get inspired by ICYMI’s “Best Books for Marketers” list
Meta will now let you search for any paid influencer campaign in Ads Library
Threads is rolling out a web version this week
A Competitive Insights dashboard is where you'll find me hanging out (I'm just nosy like that)*
💻 ROADMAP
📲 Meta Updates
Meta’s Ads Library now lets you search for branded content posts, Stories or Reels with the Paid Partnership label (as first spotted by Lindsey Gamble).
This is HUGE for marketers doing competitive research or creators looking for insights on how others have collaborated with their favorite brands since you can now easily search for branded campaigns in a curated format versus manually hunting for one-off ads.
Threads is rolling out on desktop over the next few days at Threads.net — just be aware that you’ll need to dig up your Instagram username and password to log on.
Meta also announced a new Reposts tab on your Threads profile so you can see all the threads you reposted in one place.
Instagram users in Europe will be able to scroll a chronological feed of Reels and Stories only from people they follow as part of Meta’s effort to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
Meta announced an AI-powered translation engine that can translate nearly 100 languages across text and speech.
📲 Twitter (X) Updates
X announced it would no longer allow ads to drive follower growth.
Headlines and preview text in X posts will soon disappear — any accounts that regularly shares articles will need to adjust their posting strategy since the links no longer provide context and you’ll need to use the character count to describe the payoff for clicking through versus relying on a headline to explain that for you.
Elon Musk announced users would no longer be able to block other accounts, only mute them. Musk then proceeded to block people who mocked the plan.
Most images and videos attached to tweets posted before 2014 temporarily disappeared. They’ve been reinstated but for how long? Contrary to popular belief, the internet does not last forever.
📲 LinkedIn Updates
LinkedIn's newsletter product is getting a refresh. (I publish here and to LinkedIn and have shared previously about the advantages of posting to both places.) Updates include:
Easier editing and publishing functionality
Every new newsletter subscriber will automatically follow the newsletter creator (if they aren’t already)
Creators can start and manage up to five newsletters all in one place
LinkedIn rolled out a new brand partnership feature that allows users to let their network know if a post is sponsored.
📲 TikTok Updates
TikTok released a Songs of Summer recap with the earworms we could not shake off this season. And the most popular TikTok track in the U.S. is — drumroll — Makeba by Jain.
TikTok will stop supporting Shopify storefronts in September, pushing creators to migrate to TikTok Shop.
TikTok released a 2023 Holiday Marketing Guide for advertisers.
📲 Twitch Updates
Twitch is testing a TikTok-style feed. Starting Tuesday, select users will be able to scroll vertically as part of an experience called the Discovery Feed.
📲 Snapchat Updates
Snapchat will soon roll out a generative AI feature called “Dreams,” that would place users selfies in “fantastical places and scenarios.”
REPORTS THAT ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE
First, a brief message from our friends at Dash Hudson for SMMs looking to get their time back. May you never have to manually pull a bunch of data and dump it into a spreadsheet again!
Dash Hudson’s social analytics and reporting tools let you track your performance across all key channels in one centralized place. From there, you can easily pull visual insights reports by content type, monitor essential social media metrics and keep an eye on your competitors' content.
Now you have the time and data to do the real work: spin up that new creative strategy, share those actionable insights with your team, make those data-backed decisions, email out your wins in a very ✨ aesthetic ✨ report that your boss will actually understand or log off and take a walk (yes, I'm giving you permission to do that).
*sponsored
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
🏈 Former NBA Employee Calls Out The League For Low Pay On Its Facebook Page
A former NBA employee went rogue on the league’s Facebook page — bashing the job’s low pay and lack of timely benefits — and then promoting their own social media consultancy. Two things can simultaneously be true: People working in sports media are being exploited and deserve better AND there are more productive ways to quit and set yourself up for future success. As a hiring manager, hijacking a brand account would be giving a lot of red flags.
💰 Influencers Balk at Amazon's Absurd Offer to Pay $25 Per Sponsored Video
Amazon sent out a widely circulated email offering influencers up to $12,500 to create 500 shoppable videos. That amounted to just $25 per qualifying video to script, shoot, edit and upload content — plus, creators were responsible for the costs incurred to feature two or more Amazon products per video. At that price, Amazon can expect quantity over quality — but if it ever hopes to compete with content posted to social platforms, those rates will need to go up.
📚 The Best Books for Marketers
In honor of back-to-school season, I asked media and marketing pros for their book recommendations. Not just marketing textbooks or new releases but any books they read this year that challenged their beliefs, opened their minds to new possibilities, or helped them become better creators or marketers.
Happy reading!
The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever: More than 350 inspiring ideas! By Mark W. Schaefer
“I’m a big fan of Mark Schaefer’s work — and his new book The Most Marketing Book Ever is really a collaboration with Mark and his friends. Lots of ideas, insights and perspectives all together to help marketing professionals come together with creative and strategic ideas.”
-Karen Freberg, Director The Bird's Nest Student Agency and Professor of Strategic Communications, University of Louisville
More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say) by Elaine Welteroth
“More Than Enough” is a book I’ll revisit as my career evolves. It’s about self-discovery, representation, and the confidence to take up space in rooms despite challenges. It’s my reminder to keep going and to remember my WHY.”
-Kehinde Ade, Creator and Creator Partnerships, TikTok
The News: A User's Manual by Alain De Botton
“I've recently felt an emotional tipping point with news and content. There's too much — it's hard to decipher what's good and what's not. I was very close to shutting it all down. Luckily, I stumbled upon this book while browsing a book store in NYC. News: a User's Manual is a philosophical view into why we might be feeling bored, lost and confused by the news today. I've found it extremely helpful in coming up with my own process for consumption. Surprisingly, it's helped me come up with my own predictions of where the creator space might be heading in the next 5 years.”
-Danny Desatnik, Creator Initiatives Manager, #Paid, and Creator Culture podcast host
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
“It's a really good read that has a lot of interesting insights about human behavior that you can apply to different areas of your life. Each chapter has a different psychological principle of persuasion and gave me a better understanding of how people make decisions.”
-Laura E. Davis, Stylebot founder and Digital Journalism Professor, USC
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Dr. Peter Attia, MD
“This book is transforming the way I approach health! Because I work in the food space, I've always prioritized nutrition first, movement second, and then everything else. Now, mental health, which was generally ignored as part of "everything else," is first, especially for those of us who live online.”
-Sarah J. Gim, Creator and founder The Delicious Life
Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins
“The former Navy SEAL turned ultra-marathon runner explores various facets of his life, with one key takeaway being that embracing discomfort is essential for growth. Keeping this in mind has encouraged me to continue to try new things, even when faced with uncertainty, and more often than not, these experiences have led to some form of growth.”
-Lindsey Gamble, Top Creator Economy Expert and Associate Director, Influencer Innovation, Mavrck
For the Culture by Marcus Collins
“Full disclosure; his episode of my podcast is launching next week. I am actually not a big reader of business books, but I tore through this one. He had so many amazing (and fun) real world examples, and I find myself using his tips and concepts a lot.”
-Danielle Wiley, CEO Sway Group and The Art of Sway podcast host
MY PICKS 📚
Extremely Online by Taylor Lorenz
It’s a fascinating recap of the past 20 years in Silicon Valley. Sure, you might have heard some version of these stories but Taylor goes deeper and talks to the key creator economy players for added insights and juicy details. The collapse of Vine timeline, from someone who actually worked there, was riveting.
An Influencer’s World, A Behind the Scenes Look at Social Media Influencers and Creators by Caroline Baker and Ted Baker
I wish they had had textbooks like this when I was in school. This examination of the influencer marketing industry is written by academics but there’s nothing dry and stuffy about it. Every element of influencer marketing is broken down and analyzed through 70+ entertaining interviews with creators, managers, journalists, CEOs and academics. It’s a great read.
UPDATE: The winner has been selected and will be announced next week.
✨ Giveaway:✨ Share this newsletter or one specific recommendation from the Best Books for Marketers list on social media with a link back to the ICYMI newsletter by August 31st 2023 and I’ll randomly select one person to receive one (1) book on this list of their choice. Make sure to tag me or send me your post/story so I know to add you to the list of entries!
📖 ON YOUR RADAR
The Streamy Awards, honoring the best in online video and the creators, streams live on Sunday.
Teens prefer YouTube for gaming content over other channels like Twitch. Part of a fascinating report on teens video consumption habits -Digiday
A Draft Of TikTok’s Plan To Avoid A Ban Gives The U.S. Government Unprecedented Oversight Power -Forbes
Younger generations expect news to come straight from creators. But when creators are wrong, the news ecosystem quickly breaks down -The Verge
MrBeast’s Olympics video is a geopolitical nightmare -TechCrunch
Shake Shack is hiring a Chief Avocado Officer, on the heels of Slice’s recruiting a Pizza Influencer
How is Meta’s news ban affecting communications amid Canada wildfires? -The Guardian
Sorry, But LinkedIn Is Cool Now -Bloomberg
Last week it was elf Cosmetics, now Net-A-Porter, J. Crew, and High Noon are launching aerial campaigns -Marketing Brew
Here’s a great example of social listening from the Revlon team who jumped on a random TikTok mention and turned it into an opportunity to have some fun with one of their products.
*all book links are Amazon affiliate links