2022 is nearly at an end, and as we round out the last business quarter of the year, now is the perfect time to take another look through some of the major news stories of the online marketing world.
Meta Faces Major EU Fines
Meta – the tech giant that owns and operates popular social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp – has come under some political fire in recent years for its handling of users’ data. Now it seems that, depending on an upcoming decision from the European Data Protection Board, the company may well be facing fines of over €2 billion.
While the exact details of the fines are not yet publicly known, what we can say is that this is a serious hit to Meta and could potentially change the way big tech companies operate and handle data. In fact, it’s likely that a harsh decision would contribute towards a culture of increased caution around data privacy issues for the foreseeable future.
Google Expert Predicts More Short-Form Content
2022 was the year of short-form content, with both TikTok and YouTube Shorts seeing more engagement than ever before, and, according to one Google Expert, this is a trend we can expect to see continuing over the next few years.
Writing for Think With Google, Dyana Najdi (Google’s Managing Director of Video and Display for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) stressed the value of “snackable, short-form videos”, for an audience whose “viewing habits are diversifying.”
In practice, this means that those looking to use videos as part of a strategy to grow their online presence should seriously consider the benefits of short-form content.
Will AI Change The Way We Approach SEO?
Another headline grabber it’s been hard to escape in 2022 has been Artificial Intelligence. From AI art to programming assistants, there have been a number of impressive and exciting developments in machine learning and, naturally, many people are wondering what to expect next.
It should come as no surprise, therefore, that there are now a variety of companies offering some form of AI as a marketing tool and/or assistant. But is AI the next revolution in online marketing technology?
Machine learning is still in its early days and, while the term AI is often thrown around as a buzzword, there are a few places in which AI is already beginning to shift our approach to SEO strategies. Those include:
Assessing the value of keywords
Improved backlink choices
Recommending trending topics within specific niches
Content generation
While it’s too early to say whether AI will prove dominant across these fields, it’s certainly an important space to watch over the next few years.
Is Mastodon a Viable Marketing Alternative To Twitter?
Last month, we discussed the implications of Twitter’s new $8 monthly fee for verification badges and what that might mean for the future of the platform, but what about those who are choosing to leave?
Well, over the last few months, a small but significant number of Twitter users have been leaving the platform and migrating over to Mastodon – an open-source, server-driven alternative.
Proponents of Mastodon argue that because the platform is built around servers, users tend to group together into smaller communities leading to a slower and more comfortable pace of discourse.
On the other hand, because Mastodon is open-source, it is completely ad-free, meaning that if brands wish to use the space to advertise, they will have to do so by engaging with communities. In general, marketers will find it harder to get a foothold on Mastodon, but the more people show up, the more return early adopters will see on their efforts.
