Do Good Spotlight
🌟 Wikipedia 🌟

If you have a smartphone, you’ve probably used Wikipedia to win a disagreement or two. “When did this movie come out?” “Who originally sang this song?” We’ve been there. That’s why we’re choosing them as our spotlight this week. They’ve saved us a few times, it’s time to give them a little support back: Wikipedia.

• Many of us think AI is smarter than us on all levels. 🤖 Even though some AIs can pass the bar exam, they are missing out on a crucial, simplistic element (most) humans have: common sense. This TED Talk by Yejin Choi outlines why AI is not yet the sharpest crayon in the box. Even though the talk took place last April, the point still rings true. When testing a variation of her prompt: “Would I get a flat tire by bicycling over a bridge that is suspended over nails, screws, and broken glass?” I get the same “Yes” response from ChatGPT. I even explained why it was wrong and asked the same prompt with a car. No change. AI still has a ways to go for ultimate knowledge domination…

• Google is moving where the reports are found in the UI for some accounts. If you need some help finding it, here’s SEL to the rescue!

• We’ve been hearing stories about how some in the executive suite/board don’t understand marketing goals and capabilities. For example, the Snoop Dogg ad for Solo Stove was a witty awareness play. Because the ad did not derive significant revenue in six weeks, Solo viewed the campaign as a failure and replaced the CEO. CMI points out the failure wasn’t the revenue, but the missing CTA that could have engaged audiences and guided them down the customer journey if sales, not awareness, was the real goal.My thoughts tie into the intro. Perhaps if there were more thoughtful pauses throughout the campaign creation process, maybe they would have picked up the mistakes in marketing CTA and analysis. Thank you to Amy Masters for sharing this with us.

Before you go off for the rest of your day, take a moment to pause. See how it might give some distance between you and the demands or stresses of Wednesday.

You’re awesome,

Natalie

What’s the new coolest trend?📈🤳😎

1. Find your digital marketing friends.
2. Creatively bring up WHW in all conversations with them. Examples of totally not-awkward conversational K-turns:
   • “That’s cool you got a new car… Have you heard of the What’s Hot Wednesday newsletter??”
   • “You need help finding your phone? I’ll help! Once I do, I’ll show you how to sign up for What’s Hot Wednesday!”
   • You: Knock, knock.
     Your Friend: Who’s there?
     You: What’s Hot
     Your Friend: What’s Hot, who?
     You: What’s Hot Wednesday! You should sign up today!
3. Okay, maybe don’t use those. But you should bring us up with your friends. Send them all the signup link. 😁

Do Good Spotlight
🌟 No Kid Hungry 🌟

1 in 5 kids in America live with hunger today. No Kid Hungry is working to solve problems of hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. They offer school meals, grants, advocacy, research and more to help their cause. They even have a “Free Meal Finder” to help anyone find help near them. Learn more: No Kid Hungry.

• Social Influencer campaigns are super nuanced and require the right touch. SocialFly, a highly recognized social media agency in NY, has a quick influencer marketing post to make sure you get the most from your programs!

• The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the only company in the world that can reliably make the world’s most advanced AI chips. In AI expert Rob Toews’ Ted Talk, he discusses the major problems with this fact including: 1. rising political tensions between Taiwan and China and 2. no other company (including Samsung and Intel) can reliably make these chips at scale. TSMC chips are pivotal for tech giants like Google to progress in AI development. The talk gives perspective on how global politics can enhance or impede our advancement of technology.

  Our thoughts: this is a situation to watch, but technology–or the people behind it–seem to find a way to move forward and we bet AI chips are no different. But, as John Lennon said, “Imagine….”

Why We 💗 What We Do…

We love our Do Good Spotlights, so we’re going to give them another shoutout here! If you have the ability and want to donate time or resources to good causes, here’s a list of reputable organizations to consider: Do Good Spotlight Roundup 2023.

I hope you’re having a wonderful, happy, healthy December. If you are celebrating anything, I hope it’s seriously awesome. Wishing you the best in the new year, as well!

Natalie

Here’s some fun facts about penguins: 🐧

• Their cute ‘lil tuxedo appearance is a feathery camouflage called “countershading.” Any fishy predator looking up will see the white belly blending into the water’s surface – all those below will see the back blending into the dark sea floor. #genius
• A group of penguins in the water is called a “raft.” When they’re chilling together on land, it’s a “waddle.”
• Penguin ancestors came from Australia… why some species decided to move that far south is beyond 🥶

Why am I talking about penguins this week?

They’re cute. Do I need a better reason to talk about penguins? 🤷

Anyway, send your friends this signup link to join the WHW “waddle!”

Do Good Spotlight
🌟 Toys for Tots 🌟

Quick quiz: what organization has distributed 652 million toys to 291 million deserving children? If you guessed Toys for Tots, you’d be right! The Marine Toys for Tots Program’s mission is to collect new unwrapped toys and distribute those toys to less fortunate children at Christmas. Learn how you can support them: Toys for Tots.

• Have you ever been to an all-you-can-eat buffet with none of the dishes labeled correctly? That same confusion you get wondering if that dish on the back burner is chicken or pork is what advertisers feel on the Google Search Partner network (GSP). Advertisers have reported finding their ads on questionable websites, some of which were blocked. And this is why DBE tends to avoid the GSP network for our clients….

• Listening is one of the hardest skills to learn. It’s not something you can take a seminar on and call it a day. It’s an everyday practice. A constant choice. A meaningful awareness of yourself. A heartful connection with another. Quick Study posted a thoughtful piece on listening in marketing. I especially recommend reading the part about “transit hub” vs. “community” brands. Knowing where your brand lies in that mix is crucial to how you can best serve your customers.

• Marketing Charts has data from Dentsu on what roles CMOs are prioritizing for the next 12 months vs. the last 12 months. Top priorities include “ensuring effective brand management” and “developing the overall customer experience.” The story notes that B2C CMOs are held more accountable for customer satisfaction and advocacy while B2B CMOs are more likely to be responsible for the delivery of digital transformation programs.

See you on the flipside, friends. Have a superb week!💖

Natalie

Tap dancing is an incredible skill… and these brothers make it look easy! 🕺🏻🕺🏻

I don’t know about you, but I am inspired. 🤩

Perhaps you’re inspired enough to share us with your friends…. Here’s the link!

Do Good Spotlight
🌟 Adaptive Adventures 🌟

Adventure is for everyone.

Adaptive Adventures’ vision is to ensure that all individuals with physical disabilities have access to participation in outdoor sports regardless of their location, equipment needs or economic status. As another member of REI Cooperative Action Fund, they are an organization working to make outdoor activities inclusive to all! Learn more about their mission and programs: Adaptive Adventures.

• Search Engine Land reassessed the value of links. One of the key takeaways: links are a great signal that users value in your content. They reinforce the Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trust (EEAT) elements of your content that are core to Google’s current algorithm.
  LinkedIn and other social posts with links provide similar signals that reinforce EEAT and influence not only SEO rankings but also SAIO citations. See our latest blog below: ⬇️⬇️⬇️

DBE Insights 💭

As part of our ongoing “human” learning process on conversational AI searches, we’ve been talking with the chatbots themselves about their “machine learning” processes. We shared a recent Q&A session with Google’s Bard with an important question:

How would you rate LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Facebook in terms of relevance and trustworthiness?

We made the table below based on Bard’s answer. Learn more in our latest blog!

• We’ve all heard interviews that range on the scale of not-so-great to absolutely-crushed-it. It may seem like the focus is only on the interviewee, but the interviewer is a major driver of the interview outcome. Dave Purdy goes over some true and hard-tested tips to conduct great interviews.

Look for the small sparks of joy in your day. They’re scattered about in every direction. You just have to look for them. 🙂

Happy Wednesday!

Natalie

Did you know Wednesday was named after the Norse God, Odin?

Actually, all the weekday names are based on Norse mythology.

Before I give you the link to learn more on that, send your digital marketing friends this signup link!

Okay, here it is: Norse Gods & Days of the Week.

Do Good Spotlight
🌟 Black Girls Do Bike 🌟

With over 100 chapters across the globe, Black Girls Do Bike is promoting equality in the biking community for women – especially women of color. They offer support, organize rides, and promote skill-sharing in a supportive community of passionate cyclists. As an REI Cooperative Action Fund nonprofit grantee, they’re connecting people to the outdoors, which is a fabulous mission to have! Learn more about their mission and how you can support: Black Girls Do Bike.

• When’s the last time you took a hard look at your competitors? 68% of the senior marketing leaders surveyed believe they will be facing stiffer competition with B2B product companies putting that figure at 73%. What’s causing the competitive concern? Innovation and the emergence of new global competitors show the biggest gains when compared with the same data captured 5 years ago. More from Marketing Charts.

Wishing you a fabulous rest of your week.

Happy Wednesday!

Natalie

P.s. If you’re looking to live more mindfully, a friend and fellow yoga community member, Cynthia O’Connell, recently co-authored a book, The Elevation Principles: Ascend the Ladder. It’s a wonderful reminder of the importance of mindful awareness, giving easily actionable techniques to get started!

Send your buddies this signup link to join our dazzle! (Yes, a group of Zebras is called a dazzle. With all those stripes ya can’t be surprised! 🦓)

Do Good Spotlight
🌟 Smile Farms 🌟

Smile Farms has become a nonprofit leader in creating meaningful jobs in agricultural settings for adults with developmental disabilities, almost none of whom have worked before.Their founding story is super sweet, too. Jim McCann, Founder/Chairman of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., had a brother living in Independent Group Living Home (IGHL), a residence for people with developmental disabilities, so he teamed up with the home’s CEO, Walter Stockton, to create this program. Learn more about what they’re doing: Smile Farms.

• How is AI being used by companies like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Sprout Social? (Hootsuite is another platform using an AI generative chatbot function.) Read the sections on “Responsible AI use in marketing” and “The consequences of losing consumer trust” to understand the potential issues associated with the use of AI marketing tools.

• Speaking of ethical AI, Hans van Dam’s Ted Talk, “What happens when AI writes a TED Talk…” struck a chord with me. He talks of overcoming AI bias by allowing more “poets” into the AI project room. By “poets,” he means those interested in how language and people influence each other. What I loved is the idea of “teaching AI to help us become better people” by instilling thoughtful values from the start.

• Google removed the individual and ad-group keyword forecasting in Keyword Planner due to the lack of use. This doesn’t affect us as we can still conduct Google keyword research for our clients.

• The constant notification pings on our phones leaves our brains in a perpetual state of alert. Turning off non-essential notifications, setting app timers, and leaving the phone out-of-sight can help give your brain a reprieve and, hopefully, get you back to appreciating the moment. 😊

Toodles,

Natalie

Why shouldn’t you gossip in a corn field? Too many ears around. 🌽

What is a scarecrow’s favorite fruit? The straw-berry. 🍓

What should you wear to keep warm in autumn? A har-vest. 🎃

Welp, That’s fall folks! 🍂

*insert pause as the audience roars with laughter*

Tell all your friends these awesome, autumn jokes, AND send them a link to join our digital marketing party!

Some Thoughts… 💭

Speaking of SAIO knowledge, we put together this SAIO and SEO FAQ to answer and breakdown some top questions on chatbots. Could we BE any more serious about this awesome new strategy???

Now let’s pivot, pivot, pivot onto Snapchat and this week’s Do Good Spotlight!

• Snap and Microsoft are partnering to leverage Chat Ads API in Snapchat’s My AI. This will create a more targeted approach to ads.

Do Good Spotlight
🌟 Operation USA 🌟

Operation USA (otherwise known as OpUSA) has been helping people across the world recover from disasters, disease, and poverty for 44 years. They’ve delivered $450 million in aid for relief and development projects worldwide. Learn more and how to support: Operation USA.

Have a magnificent rest of your week!

Natalie

If you got something good outta this fun edition of WHW, here’s a link to share with your friends at Central Perk. ☕

P.S. There were 6 references. How many did you get? 😁

Do Good Spotlight
🌟 American Bird Conservatory 🌟

For more than 25 years, American Bird Conservancy has been standing up for birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. Their emphasis is on results and working in partnership. They innovate and build on rapid advancements in science to halt extinctions, protect habitats, eliminate threats, and build capacity for bird conservation. Check them out: American Bird Conservatory.

• How confident are you in your ability to measure ROI? The bad news is fewer than two-thirds of marketing professionals answer this question with “High Confidence.” The good news is the channels that marketers have the highest confidence in ROI measurement are digital: social media, video, search, and display. The raised eyebrow we have with the data is the higher confidence in social media over search – really?!

• Amazon sponsored products will appear on Pinterest, Lifehacker, Hearst Newspapers, Buzzfeed, and more. Shopping is going next level with convenience. Seriously.

• X (previous alias: Twitter) has partnered up with Integral Ad Science (IAS) “to provide brand safety and suitability certification for advertisers.” Ads that are certified will appear according to Global Alliance for Responsible Media guidelines.

¡Adiós, mis amigos!

Natalie

You know those songs that seem like they were written about your life?

Sean Callahan hit the nail on this head with these bops that can relate to marketing.

(I’m cracking up at “Going Mobile” by The Who. 😂)

Anywho, now’s the time for me to remind you to tell your digital marketing friends to join us – here’s the link!