Author: Franz Malten Buemann

I have read articles and seen youtube videos saying, DIGITAL MARKETING IS DYING, AI will replace everything. Facebook is dying! SEO will be Automated You have AI Tools in marketing replacing many jobs roles such as, Copy.AI, Quillbot, Paraphraser, Design.AI, MadgicX, Etc Having been in Digital Mar submitted by /u/mrzedddd [link] [comments]

I have to screenshot my client’s amazon ranking daily. Does anyone know a way to do this automatically? submitted by /u/Acceptable-Towel-593 [link] [comments]

Almost everyone, when given the opportunity, has one oddly-specific topic they can spend hours giving a presentation about. Mine would be young adult books of the mid-2010s, while others are very into football or recreating vintage recipes.Vertical networks — social platforms solely dedicated to niche interests — are there to support those interests. Reddit may come to mind as it is essentially several vertical networks (subreddits) in one horizontal network.Rule of thumb:If there is a subreddit about it, there is a vertical social network opportunity— GREG ISENBERG (@gregisenberg) May 25, 2020

In this article, we’ll go through what vertical networks are and the opportunities for businesses to adopt them in their marketing strategy.What are vertical networks?A vertical network — or vertical social network — is characterized by an audience interested in content created to address a specific topic, interest, or industry.These platforms provide an alternative to “horizontal” networks like Twitter or Instagram, which bring together people with diverse interests into one platform – advocating specialization and specific knowledge.The increasing adoption of vertical networks and popular social networks’ efforts to replicate them (Twitter’s Communities and Super Followers features come to mind) show that audiences are increasingly looking for community online.it’s a new yearwe’re excited to share some things we’re exploring for Communities early 2022 🤞— Twitter Communities (@HiCommunities) January 5, 2022

Why brands should keep an eye on vertical networksOn paper, niche social networks are an excellent idea for brands because you can easily identify a platform with your target audience and craft appealing outreach. However, the members of these communities can be protective of their space — rightfully so.Instead of diving headfirst into a new space, take some time to consider what audiences need when they use a vertical network instead of a regular social media platform and focus on them in your strategy. Here are some tips to understand how to approach vertical social networks:1. Don’t just join them — understand themBefore joining, the first step is to research and understand the platform’s purpose and community. Pay attention to their language, overall tone, and what kind of content performs best. For example, some platforms might prefer images, while others prioritize long-form content.2. Go beyond “promotion”The most effective way to use a vertical network is to be a part of the community by joining conversations and providing valuable content. This doesn’t mean that businesses can’t use these platforms to market their products – they just have to be strategic in how they do so.It’s best to avoid the hard sell and provide helpful and relevant content to the community instead. The key is to be genuine and authentic to build trust with potential customers. Additionally, it’s important to remember that these platforms are meant for building relationships – not just for making sales.3. Get content ideas for your regular social channelsAnother – and arguably the main – value proposition of vertical networks is to use them as a content creation tool for your regular social media channels. For example, you could use Goodreads reviews to develop ideas for blog posts or Twitter threads for your indie publishing business. Additionally, you could use them to source images or videos for your website or social media channels.You want to be strategic and intentional in your content creation, which means ensuring that your content is relevant to your target audience – vertical networks can help you with that.What are some examples of vertical social networks?Vertical networks are not only growing in adoption but also in creation. As social media users look for platforms to serve their hyper-specific interests, more networks will crop up to address their needs. Here are some vertical networks you may or may not have heard of:DribbbleDribbble is a self-promotion and social networking platform for digital designers and creatives. It serves as a design portfolio platform, jobs, and recruiting site and is one of the largest platforms for designers to share their work online. Users can share their work and receive feedback from the platform’s 12 million-strong user base.SourceThe platform offers tiered plans for designers of all sizes, from individuals to agencies. If you’re a designer, you can also source clients directly from the platform in addition to getting your work out there.FishbowlFishbowl prides itself as a working person’s virtual water cooler where people can talk to each other about anything work-related, whether it’s about their role, their company’s culture, or the community they are a member of — all anonymously.GoodreadsGoodreads has been described as “Disneyland for book lovers.” The app, owned by Amazon, is where readers congregate to catalog, discuss and rate the books they’ve been reading. With over 60 million users, Goodreads is one of the most popular vertical social networks.SourceLetterboxdLetterboxd is a social film diary where users can rate, review and tag films as they watch them. Co-founded by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow in 2011, the platform is home to both cinephiles and casual viewers who use it for recommendations from friends and Letterboxd influencers.Although it’s been around for over 10 years, it reached new levels of popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Active Letterboxd member accounts nearly doubled, jumping from 1.7 million to 3 million member accounts within a year.NextdoorNextdoor operates a hyperlocal social networking service for neighborhoods. The platform allows users to get local tips, buy and sell items, and stay updated with happenings in their area.SourceBecause users need to sign up with a verifiable home address, brands with a hyperlocal focus or marketing strategy have a lot of opportunities with Nextdoor. According to Modern Retail, brands like Imperfect Foods and Stop & Shop are investing in ads on the platform.If you’re a local business, you can take advantage of the platform to reach potential customers in your area.StravaStrava tackles a significant pain point for athletes – tracking exercise. The app uses GPS data and data from other devices like wearables to automate the process of logging bike rides or runs. Users can invite friends and gain followers while showing off their workout statistics or asking for advice from the community.Fitness and activewear brands have an opportunity to reach their target market easily by participating in conversations with users on the platform.SupergreatSupergreat is a network that has narrowed in on a critical component of beauty videos — the product — and organizes content in line with this insight. Every Supergreat video is about one product, and every product has a page where users can see all of the reviews and click to buy. While watching and making videos, users earn coins they can redeem for “drops” of popular products.Beauty and skincare brands can take advantage of the platform to connect with their customers while also getting user-generated content from users who show off their products to use on other platforms (with creators’ permissions, of course).Vertical network adoption shows that people want community — give them thatThe popularity of vertical networks provides opportunities for businesses to better connect with their target audiences. And their increasing creation and adoption show that people are looking for spaces where they can express themselves to people like them.If you have an engaged audience and focus on creating an excellent experience for them, you can be anywhere, and they’ll come to you. However, it’s essential to approach these platforms thoughtfully to create meaningful relationships with potential customers.Are you using a vertical network in your marketing? We’d love to hear about your experience on Twitter @buffer.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that over 47 million Americans quit their jobs in 2021 — this is what’s now known as The Great Resignation.
As there has been a significant increase in the number of vacant positions and the number of workers who have left their position, it makes sense that hiring priorities may have changed.
In this post, we’ll discuss The Great Resignation’s impact on hiring with insight from marketing decision-makers and expert HubSpot recruiters.

Has The Great Resignation Impacted Recruiting?
Gabby Reynoso, a Marketing Recruiter, says, “What the great resignation has done is highlight the importance of flexibility, growth opportunities, and work-life balance in the workplace.” She adds that the pandemic has empowered employees, more than ever, to prioritize flexibility, growth opportunities, and work-life balance in the workplace in their current positions and those they are considering.
Kanani Rose, a Senior Sales Recruiter, says, “Anecdotally, I’ve seen a bit of a cool-down in this phenomenon as the market continues to be unpredictable, but I’m certain that one of the long-term effects of the Great Resignation is that workers will continue to be interested in the scope of their work, from a wider lens than just their general job responsibilities.” This can include health insurance, financial benefits, 401K, stock options, work from home stipends — incentives that are becoming just as important as the job itself.
She also says that compensation and job satisfaction were and continue to be top reasons candidates apply for specific positions, but the push that many businesses made to have their employees return to in-person work drove many workers to the job market in search of more flexible work opportunities.
How Has Recruiting Changed Post Great Resignation?
When it comes to the recruiting landscape, candidates are more selective: “Employer branding, pay transparency, and empathy in the recruitment process have all been key strategies on our recruitment team to make sure that we are giving candidates the power to make the best decisions for themselves in a competitive market.”
Rose says, “As a sales recruiter, I’m no stranger to candidates fielding multiple offers during the hiring process, but the market was especially tough in 2022.”
In a recent Glimpse survey, marketing decision-makers in the U.S. have stated that their hiring processes have changed in the past six months, primarily due to the economic changes that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The most commonly reported changes are:

Having a harder time getting recruitment traffic and finding qualified candidates
Using more and more virtual resources in the hiring process (like online recruitment tools and video interviews)
Hiring with remote work in mind as people want more and more flexibility in how they work
Working harder to fill positions and attract qualified candidates through things like referral bonuses, sign-on bonuses, more time off, etc.

Over to You
As recruiting and finding top talent is likely a top priority for your business, it’s important to stay on top of workforce trends and what employees are expecting from the businesses they choose to work for.
If your hiring and recruiting have taken a significant hit post great resignation, consider how your business can speak to employees’ selection criteria when applying for jobs, like offering flexible work options, virtual recruiting, increased benefits, etc. You don’t have to overhaul your entire process, but you can forge a new path to successful recruiting.

Having a strong SEO strategy is critical for reaching new audiences and generating leads for your business.
In fact, 43% of marketing directors, VPs, and C-suite executives reported SEO as one of the most effective strategies their companies currently leverage.
Creating a powerful SEO strategy requires consistent testing and iteration. Over time, certain metrics can help you identify which areas of your strategy are working — and which aren’t.
It can be difficult, however, to determine which SEO metrics actually matter. To truly evaluate the success of your SEO, what should you pay attention to? Organic traffic? Leads? Keyword rankings? Conversions?
Here, I sat down with Semrush’s VP of Brand Marketing, Olga Andrienko, to discuss the SEO metrics she’d advise leaders pay attention to in 2023. Let’s dive in.
The SEO Metrics That Matter Most, According to Semrush’s VP of Brand Marketing
1. Focus on the metrics that tie directly back to revenue — like conversions and new MRR.
You might’ve expected Andrienko to start with organic traffic or rankings as a top SEO metric, but instead, she advises leaders to start with the bottom line — revenue — and work backwards.
Andrienko told me, “When we discuss quarterly goals, we always look at new user monthly recurring revenue (new MRR). And, in that case, conversion is the only thing that matters. I think the metrics that matter are the ones that can tie back directly to revenue.”
She adds, “For instance, using analytics, you can see where the user came from, and how long it took them to convert and become a customer. So if we know most users come from organic search, then organic would be the metric I’d be focused on measuring. Whatever your success element is is the most important outcome. Rankings don’t matter much. People need to land on your website, and they need to buy or show they’re interested.”
Hearing ‘rankings don’t matter much’ from the VP of Brand Marketing at Semrush, a platform often used for online ranking data, initially surprised me. But it makes sense.
Let’s say you rank #1 for the keyword query: “What is marketing?” If your company sells products or services related to marketing, that’s great. But if that same post isn’t driving the right kind of traffic, or isn’t converting that traffic into qualified leads and revenue for the business … Does it matter, really?
Focusing on the metrics that tie back to revenue can greatly impact where you spend your time and resources. To effectively evaluate your content based on revenue, consider making a spreadsheet that tracks all your top-converting posts. Even if those posts aren’t the ones that bring in the most traffic for your site, those are the posts you’ll want to focus your historical optimization attention on — since those have proven most valuable to your business’ bottom line.

2. Don’t forget about branded keyword search volume.
Andrienko admits this next metric likely matters to her because of her role as a brand marketing leader, but it’s worth mentioning since it’s a metric that can demonstrate your brand value.
As she puts it, “For me, being a brand marketing leader, I specifically focus on branded keyword search volume — which means how many impressions and search volume the keyword ‘Semrush’ is getting over time. That gives me an understanding of how good we are at strengthening the brand and growing brand awareness.”
This is a particularly important metric if your goal is to grow brand awareness for your business. As you test strategies meant to increase brand awareness, such as co-marketing campaigns, sponsored events, or new types of content like podcasting, you’ll want to obsess over branded keyword search volume. Is it going up over time? If it is, this is a strong indicator that your brand awareness strategy is working.
While this can seem like a more superficial metric, it’s not. Consumers want to buy from companies they trust — and familiarity is a powerful factor when it comes to developing trust with your prospects.
3. Consider click-through rate and how it correlates to organic traffic.
“If you see a lot of people are searching for select keywords, but your CTR isn’t growing, then that means something is off,” Andrienko told me.
She continues, “For instance, we noticed the organic CTR on one of our keywords was dropping, and we discovered it was because Google added an AdWords top search feature — so we bid on the keyword. Ultimately, we saw that even though organic CTR was dropping, we were able to get the clicks anyway in a different form.”

“It’s important you don’t just look at organic traffic … But also how it correlates with the click-through rate. That’s a very important connection to make.”

In a world where almost two-thirds of Google searches end without a click, it has become increasingly difficult to achieve high click-through rates. And Andrienko admits it’s not always feasible. Consider, for instance, a user who searches “How can I measure click-through rate?” They’ll be shown this featured snippet, which concisely answers their query:

This is where the power of long-tail keywords comes into play.
Andrienko told me about one of Semrush’s customers, a dentist. After struggling for a while with attracting audiences to his website, the dentist decided to search for any dental-related queries. Then, he took those keywords, grabbed a recorder, and went to his doctors. After recording their answers to his questions, he put them up on his blog and started ranking for the long-tail keywords related to his industry.
While this strategy might not work for everyone, it’s worth noting that creating content that requires users’ to click on the link to get the full benefits is critical for optimizing your SEO strategy.
For instance, rather than writing a post that answers the query “how can I measure click-through rate?”, you might also create content that answers more long-form queries, like “What are the best strategies to increase CTR?”.
Informative, helpful content that leverages long-tail keywords isn’t just for attracting audiences. It’s also vital for building trust and creating stronger relationships with your audience. In fact, Andrienko told me her favorite type of content is informational. “It’s where you can really help the user because the information is a direct answer to a problem they’re experiencing. It’s not about your company. It’s about helping them, which is where trust is built.”

4. Don’t ignore rankings, backlinks, domain authority, and user behavior metrics.
Finally, Andrienko provided a list of a few other metrics that she believes still deserve a mention in this post.
For one: Rankings and positions.
She told me, “I wouldn’t focus on rankings and positions as the first metric, but you still need to see how you’re performing against competitors. So it’s an important day-to-day metric to watch.”
A few other metrics Andrienko encourages leaders to watch:

Backlinks
Domain authority
User behavior metrics, like page load speed

There are other metrics she uses for more qualitative purposes too, like bounce rate. She says, “Bounce rate is important to track because it indicates whether the content is actually interesting and compelling to your readers.”
She continues, “And pages per session is another metric you’ll want to pay attention to — because let’s say users land on ‘What is SEO?’. We know they won’t immediately convert on that page. We need to encourage them to go to another page, and another page after that, so we’re able to grab their attention and ultimately convert them. If they only visit one page per session, it means we didn’t do a good job of retaining them.”
The SEO metrics you care about ultimately depends largely on your goals as a marketing leader. As you approach 2023, you’ll want to consider your goals, and then work backwards from there to identify which SEO metrics will help you evaluate how aligned your strategy is with those goals.
Not sure which goals to focus on? Take a look at The Top Goals of Marketing Leaders in 2023, or find other helpful content related to leadership in 2023 in the post, Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader: Data from 300+ Marketing Directors on How to Take Your Team to the Next Level.

Instagram and TikTok are apps typically used to share special moments, connect with others, or promote our brands — but can we also use these platforms to create and share resumes? In 2021, TikTok launched TikTok Resumes, a program designed to “continue expanding and enhancing TikTok as a new channel for recruitment and job discovery,” according to a news release.

The New York Times calls TikTok the new search engine for Gen Z, so it makes sense that Gen Z users could also search for employment opportunities on the app. It also makes sense brands looking for young talent may turn to the app for job postings. But are marketing managers and recruiters watching TikTok videos and accepting them instead of resumes?
To find out, I asked recruiters at HubSpot and surveyed marketing decision-makers for their thoughts on resumes in the form of TikTok videos. Here’s what you need to know if you’re thinking of filming your next resume.

What is a TikTok resume?
A TikTok resume is a 60-second video posted to TikTok showcasing the job experience, skills, and creativity of a user looking for employment. To ensure the resume reaches recruiters, job candidates must include #TikTokResumes in their posts.
Below is an example of a TikTok resume:

Almost half of TikTok users in the U.S. are between the ages of 10 and 29, so the program likely targets job seekers looking for entry-level positions.
What do professionals think of TikTok or Instagram resumes?
Since videos on TikTok often find their way to Instagram Reels, I figured it’d be safe to assume users would also upload their videos to Instagram to get more eyes on their resumes. With that in mind, I surveyed 98 marketing professionals to gauge their thoughts on TikTok or Instagram resumes. Here are the results:

When asked if they’ve ever considered a candidate with an Instagram or TikTok resume, 68% said they have, and 32% said they have not.
When asked if they would review an Instagram or TikTok resume, 71% of respondents said they would.
27% said they would review one, but only with a traditional resume document. The remaining 2% said they do not know and are unfamiliar with Instagram and TikTok resumes.

I also asked respondents to explain their reasoning for why they would (or wouldn’t) accept a TikTok or Instagram resume. Respondents in favor of these video resumes often said they found the resumes to be unique, fun, creative, and interesting.
Respondents not in favor of TikTok and Instagram resumes often said the resumes were unprofessional or wouldn’t give enough insight about the candidate. Once again, some respondents said they’d rather accept the video with a traditional resume document.
I also asked HubSpot marketing recruiters for their perspectives.
“I would more likely want [a TikTok or Instagram resume) as an addition versus replacing a resume completely,” Marketing Recruiter Kassandra Pirela said. “A resume gives more insight on the experience and whatnot … I would like this as an addition to show that they put more effort into applying, and it’s just nice to get to know them a little more.”
Some HubSpot recruiters seemed to agree that video resumes like a TikTok or Reel are best as a supplement, rather than a replacement, for traditional resumes. However, other HubSpot recruiters also pointed out that video resumes can be more efficient than conventional resumes since they’re quicker to view and showcase personality.
However, a common concern brought up by the recruiters is that a video resume could trigger unconscious biases in the job-searching processes. For example, a recruiter may be more interested in the interactive video than a traditional resume, regardless of either candidate’s experience.
Should you make a TikTok or Instagram resume?
In an increasingly digital world, social media resumes could likely become more acceptable in the professional world in the coming years. However, candidates should always research the job they are applying for and adhere to the job posting guidelines.
In other words, if the job posting says to submit a resume document and cover letter — do that. You can include a link to your TikTok resume in your application to stand out, but you still need to have the materials the job posting specifies. A TikTok resume could be beneficial if you’re applying for a reactive position like a videographer or social media manager — but make sure to have a traditional resume on hand.