Every month we report on the news from the industry. This month there has been more noise than ever, with noise from SEO changes, to GEO and LLMO being the buzzwords of the month, as AI Mode launched into more countries.
We’ve cut through all the noise to update you on the marketing news that actually matters and what it means for your marketing strategy and tactics.
We understand that you are probably very busy, so the TL:DR is:
- Metrics have levelled up, social media platforms have started offering more behavioural metrics to track and monitor. Also GA4 and YouTube have added an LLM to help users understand what their metrics mean.
- Google AI Mode has launched in the UK.
- TikTok may or may not be leaving the USA?
Contents
SEO Updates
There are many movements in the SEO world at the moment, as AIO is rolled out to more of the world (including, here in the UK). Whilst we continue to unravel the impact, we can look at the top SEO news from last month and the changes these updates will have to your strategy.
- After already hearing about this in many other countries, Google AI Mode has launched in the UK, it appears to have been rolled out to most users.
- New versions of Google’s AI Max have been seen in the wild looking much different to previous ads. Headlines are longer than typically allowed. Also, Ads pull content directly from blogs, not just landing pages.
- With more automation brands lose control over their brand safety, performance consistency and user experience.
- Google Trends API is available for early testers, allowing users to compare & merge different trends with consistently scaled ‘search interest’ data, rather than individual scales on the Trends website.
- Google launches a Model Context Protocol for Google Analytics 4. This allows users to “chat with their data” by directly connecting an LLM to their analytics data.
- You may have seen a study claiming only 1% of users click on AI Overviews. Google has disputed this study, stating the study’s methodology does not represent overall search traffic.
- GSC shows a filter for ‘Discussion forums’ in the Search performance report. This shows the importance of understanding brand sentiment and perception online.
- AI Mode integrates into Circle to Search on Android devices. These two technologies now communicate directly to provide AI-powered responses in real time, such as providing gaming tips and advice for mobile gamers.
Social Media Updates
Social media made a political impact last month, with the UK government hosting an influencer event (no, seriously). Around 80 influencers were invited to 10 Downing street as a report highlighted that 8/10 young adults use social media as a way to get their fix of regular news and information.
It’s a great time for the government to take a closer look at social media and the impact it can have, as there have been plenty of updates all focused on improving user experience and making content creation easier. Here are the updates from last month:
Instagram updates in July
- Your Instagram content can now show up in Google. This is arguably the biggest update from Instagram recently. Here’s how you can make Instagram appear on Google:
- STEP 1: Make sure you have a professional and public account
- STEP 2. Do detailed keyword research
- STEP 3. Optimize your bio
- STEP 4. Enhance your subtitles with SEO techniques
- STEP 5. Don’t forget the alt text
- STEP 6. Create evergreen content
- Instagram’s Edits launches a ‘cut silences’ feature to help remove the millennial pause from your videos. This feature scans your entire video and removes all the silences from the clip.
- Instagram’s Edits adds new features to the ‘ideas’ tab, which allows users to save audio, leave sticky notes on audio you want to create with, mark stickies as done and filter stickies by status.
- Meta has announced that it’ll “crackdown” on “unoriginal” content.
- We’ve already seen YouTube declare this and it’s rumoured LinkedIn does the same.
- Although AI may help you save time, it looks like it could severely impact the success of your social media performance.
- Instagram has added a lot of new metrics for creators to better understand the performance of their content.
- A chart that indicates the exact moment a viewer LIKED your reel.
- Carousel insights that show like counts for individual slides, is in testing.
- Instagram is testing the ability to see insights for reels posted by OTHER creators.
- New features have been added to the insights tab, including: reach and new follower metrics, alongside being able to sort Reels by most likes, comments and saves.
LinkedIn updates in July
- LinkedIn has also added more metrics to the platform.
- You can now see the number of link clicks for any links included in a post on the platform.
- After many posts flooding the feed about how nobody liked seeing three-week old posts, LinkedIn is allegedly reversing the feed algorithm change, so hopefully you see fresh and new content on your feeds again soon!
X updates in July
- X ads with more than one emoji in will experience higher pricing.
- X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, has stepped down.
- This isn’t the best sign for X as a company. Unless you are sure your performance on this platform is successful and your audience are active, we would recommend considering if your time would be better investing into a different social media platform.
Threads updates in July
- Threads is another platform jumping on the metrics hype, with the platform offering deeper insights.
- Users can see where people saw their posts.
- Threads has also added more follower details.
- New data shows that Threads is nearing X’s daily active users on mobile (DAU), with Threads reaching 115..1 million DAU, compared to X’s 132 million DAU in June.
TikTok updates in July
- We can confirm that TikTok is either staying in the US or maybe not staying in the US.
- As of publishing, TikTok is still available to use and download in the US.
- However, the US ban will come into place on the 17th of September. There is lots of noise around TikTok selling to a US based company, or speculation on what the future of the platform may look like – however this is all noise at the moment.
- To get around the company having to sell, a draft bill created proposes letting TikTok operate in the US as long as it provides transparency into its content moderation and keeps US user data out of countries like China.
- Creator search insights will be brought to desktop.
- We may also have the ability to schedule content soon (I am very excited by this)!
YouTube updates in July
We had a mini-debate at SocialB on whether YouTube is classed as a search engine or a social media platform. We decided that, as most of these updates are regarding content creators and viral content features, these should sit in the social media section of the digital round-up.
- YouTube has made it clear that they focus on human creators and want them on this channel.
- Monetisation is only available for original content using real voices.
- Creators can share their channel and audience data directly with advertisers and brands.
- YouTube is testing, Ask Studio, an analytics review bot which analyses your channel and gives you performance summaries, alongside tips on where to improve.
- YouTube has phased out Trending and Trending Now pages, a feature that showcased popular content. The platform is leaning into AI-driven recommendations and genre-specific charts that reflect each viewer’s preferences.
AI LLM Updates
- OpenAI is trying to make the platform more accepted by teachers and students, launching a ‘study mode’. This mode introduces features such as interactive prompts, quizzes and deeper personalisation to allow users to learn, not just let ChatGPT do the work for them.
- Safety concerns for Grok (X’s AI chatbot) sparked as the platform was found posting antisemitic comments.
- A new AI-powered browser experience has been launched by Microsoft, Copilot Mode in Edge.
- There seems to be a significant difference in AIO on Google and ChatGPT, when asked the same question. The difference is that AIO provides information, whereas ChatGPT provides links to tools.
Stay Up To Date With Marketing
Digital marketing is ever-evolving, with new social media channels, new forms of searching for content and updates to algorithms and consumer changes. It’s important to stay up to date with the latest information to ensure your marketing is moving towards hitting your goals and targets.
There’s a lot to keep up with in marketing, which is why we offer a range of online and face-to-face marketing training courses and 1-2-1 consultancy packages that cover the latest trends and best practices that your organisation needs in order to succeed.
Never miss what’s happening in the industry again, with monthly news highlights and tips from digital marketing experts delivered straight to your inbox.
