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KIMP’s Picks 1st March: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

It’s Friday! You are either heading for a digital detox or perhaps settling down to quickly catch up on anything and everything you missed this week. What big AI updates were announced? What marketing campaigns and designs grabbed attention? We know you’re curious! 

We’ve got you covered with this week’s social media roundup, featuring trending posts, hidden gems, and share-worthy content. Ready to dive in? Let’s go!

In the Marketing Realm 

Best times to post on X

X has been changing rapidly and therefore there has been a lot of confusion among marketers regarding what to post and when to post. If that’s you, then this post from Buffer is for you. Buffer is a leading social media toolkit to analyze, schedule, and manage social media content. 

For this survey, they analyzed more than 1 million Tweets to understand the current scenario and the below post summarizes the findings. A quick snapshot is that the best times to post are  11 a.m. on Monday and 11 p.m. on Friday. And reportedly, video posts are currently taking the lead followed by text posts in terms of engagement. With the fresh month ahead, this is good data to explore in order to optimize your X strategy for the days ahead. 

A quick catch-up on influencer and creator marketing trends 

Creator marketing happens to be something that the marketing world has been buzzing about recently. But is there any solid proof to show that this trend has a good scope? To show that it’s a good time for brands to invest in influencers and creators right now? Yes, the below post from Ad Age summarizes some of the recent happenings that indicate this trend. 

Popular tech creator Marques Brownlee recently became Chief Creative Partner at Ridge, a renowned fashion accessories brand. Pinterest has introduced a streaming feature. TikTok is encouraging creators to post photos and Instagram is bringing more updates to the creator marketplace. These are just a few recent trends that strongly point in the direction of a creator marketing boom. So have you started investing in creators yet? 

OOH in the digital age 

If you are skeptical about the effectiveness of traditional advertising strategies like print ads and outdoor ads, then the below post from the popular marketing news publication The Drum will change your perspective. 

This post delves into the fact that digital media makes it possible for brands to access endless data reserves to optimize their marketing strategies. And then it also talks about how this valuable data can be used to enhance OOH (out-of-home) campaigns. It particularly discusses the state of data-driven OOH in the APAC region. The post will also give you the answers to some of the most frequently answered questions about OOH in the digital age. 

Google Search could have a new feature 

Keeping up with the AI advancements, Google Search has been evolving. All the new changes aim to seamlessly integrate AI and other tools to enhance the search experience. And to help users find information quickly and more easily. As another subtle but useful update, Google is reportedly testing a Most-read Articles search filter that will allow users to look for the most popular content online. 

Search Engine Roundtable, the popular online source of search-related updates shared the below post delving into the details available about this update so far. 

For brands, this could mean that it’s time to rethink their content strategy. Creating content that creates value for readers and keeps them engaged will probably be a deciding factor in their Reach. 

Leveraging social media for brand differentiation 

Businesses have different objectives with respect to social media marketing and brand differentiation is one. If you are wondering how to get started, then MarketingSherpa, a popular online publisher of marketing-related news and updates, has some wonderful tips. 

They shared the below post that summarizes a few case studies to understand how social media can be used in brand differentiation. 

Among the many examples shared, a few notable ones include Wonderway, sales performance platform that reportedly increased the comments on their LinkedIn page by about 222% by infusing consistency in their branding and a hint of humor. 

The other example is Driva, a car loan finance company that increased its conversion by 15% by defining specific offers to promote. 

The case studies shared in the post can give you fresh perspectives to fine-tune your social media strategy for better brand differentiation. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Strategies to make the most of Shorts 

When it comes to video content, Shorts holds a special place now. And hence it is a pivotal element for brands to include in their video content strategies. But often, you have great content but do not get the intended views on your Shorts. Sounds relatable? Then the below post from Later Media is for you. 

The post briefly introduces the benefits of leveraging Shorts and then talks about 10 useful strategies to increase views. From using hooks to grab attention to adding a catchy title and keeping the video short and engaging, the post discusses several straightforward tips. 

Defining your content workflow 

Semrush is one of the most popular online marketing tools. They shared the below post discussing some useful tips to define a content workflow. The post dives into the basics of content workflows and then details some of the essential components of one. 

From establishing content goals clearly to understanding target audiences and finding the most suitable content formats to suit their requirements, and finding the right content production tools, the post discusses a whole lot of useful details for content marketers. 

Wondering what kind of goals to set in order to fine-tune your content strategy? Check out our blog here. 

How do you fix your AI content? 

A lot of teams currently use AI for content generation. But there are some limitations and not all teams manage to achieve the same level of success with AI-generated content. So, why does that happen? The below post from Search Engine Land answers this question. 

Search Engine Land is a great source of search-related updates and insights. Their post here discusses 7 reasons why AI content could fail and how teams can work on rectifying these issues to make their AI content better. 

From the lack of search optimization to poorly written content, and the presence of plagiarism, the post points out several reasons that can lead to AI content missing the mark. So, yes, even with the advanced generative AI content tools available today, you need the right level of human intervention to ensure that your content is on point!  

In the Design Realm 

Custom Adjustment Presets in Adobe Photoshop 

Photoshop’s Adjustment Presets is a relatively new feature that helps creatives apply quick edits to their designs. And now they announced the introduction of Custom Adjustment Presets that allow creators to create and save a set of adjustments. These can then be instantly applied. It’s more like creating your custom filters to maintain a cohesive aesthetic for a set of designs you are creating for a campaign. 

Collaboration on Canva just got better 

Canva has a lot of useful features that make collaboration easy. All of these updates have made it possible for teams of all sizes to make the most of Canva and collaboratively work on different kinds of designs for their marketing campaigns. 

One recent update on Canva that further enhances collaboration is the option to reply to comments and mentions on Canva directly from Slack. So teams that use Canva Slack integration might find this update pretty convenient. 

Brand identity design inspiration 

A well-crafted brand identity design is one that takes into account the various signature elements that make the brand unique. Wondering how to do that? Then here is a little inspiration from The Brand Identity. The Brand Identity is a great space to look for design inspiration.

The post discusses a recently updated brand identity for a real estate company, Makt. To begin with, there is the custom sans-serif typeface with subtle geometric details. And then there is the combination of abstract elements like the arrow meant to capture the brand’s forward-looking perspective. Finally, the vibrant yellow brand color complements the fresh personality of the brand. 

On the whole, the logo and identity feel different from the usual designs in the real estate sector. This example shows how a combination of brand elements can be used to create brand differentiation in a competitive sector like real estate. 

In the AI Realm 

Project Music GenAI Control: Adobe’s new tool is the future of “Sonic Creativity”

Generative AI in the creative space is expanding explosively and audio creation is the new trend that several tech companies are exploring. Adobe is one among them! Their new Project Music GenAI Control is a major step in audio generation using AI. 

They announced this research in the below post. Reportedly, the tool will allow users to generate music for their videos directly using text prompts. There will also be features to edit these audio tracks to customize them to suit their needs. 

Alibaba’s EMO can creatively animate photos 

There’s a new AI tool everyone’s talking about – one that can create talking and singing videos from a still photo and that is – Alibaba’s EMO (Emote Portrait Alive). Popular tech website VentureBeat shared a post discussing this. 

So, all that you have to do is upload a clear portrait. EMO can then create videos of the person in the portrait singing or talking based on the prompts you give. The life-like rendition of these actions is what everyone’s raving about. What’s even more interesting is that the model also tweaks head postures and facial expressions to make the overall animation sound more realistic. 

Talking about talking videos, the next one is yet another model that achieves this! 

Pika introduces Lip Sync 

Popular generative video tool Pika recently announced their new feature called Lip Sync. Earlier, Pika supported 3 different modes of video creation namely text-to-video, image-to-video, and video-to-video. These allow users to leverage AI to instantly generate videos. 

And now they have introduced yet another feature that helps bring videos to life – Lip Sync. This feature lets users use text prompts to define what they want the subject in the generated video to speak. And the tool then creates a talking video. Currently, the early access of this feature is only available to the Pro users. 

Stability AI and Morph Studio partner to transform visual storytelling

So far we’ve seen generative AI tools that can generate images, videos, sounds, and animations. But there has not been something more holistic in video production. One that can craft a visual story effortlessly.  Stability AI is partnering with Morph Studio to address this gap. 

It looks like this will be a disruptive tool in the filmmaking sector. The summary of how this model will probably work is to allow users to use simple text prompts to generate videos, edit them, and then combine them and clip out portions to create a seamless story out of the whole thing. That pretty much sums up the majority of the functions involved in filmmaking, doesn’t it? 

GitHub Copilot Enterprise is here 

GitHub Copilot is one of the most popular AI code completion tools in the market. Recently, Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub announced the launch of the enterprise version of this code completion tool.

This version comes with the option to train the model with the organization’s codebase and knowledge so as to make the whole process simpler. And this will likely revolutionize software development leading to increased productivity and better consistency. The new model will have a conversational UI that can understand the organization better and therefore help pull out requests faster. 

OpenAI now lets you rate GPTs

Custom GPTs have received a good response. And a few weeks ago, OpenAI introduced the GPT store. This lets users create custom GPTs and let other ChatGPT users access them. Now there’s another announcement from OpenAI – you can rate GPTs. So, if you find a GPT you like, then you can rate it and provide feedback for the builder as well. 

There have also been some updates to benefit the GPT builders. These updates let builders add detailed profiles. And with this expanded profile they can add more information like a link to their LinkedIn pages, their total number of ratings, etc. This shows that there’s a lot in store for custom GPTs. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

Audio/video calls on X – now available for free users

Talks about audio and video calling feature on X came in July last year and a few weeks after that the feature was introduced. But as with most other new features on X, this was available only to Premium users.

But last week, X announced that the feature is now available even to free users. Given that the calling feature is pretty common on social media and Meta apps already support it, it’s good news that X has finally caught up on it. 

Make the most of YouTube Remix 

Video content is reigning supreme in the social media realm. And social media platforms are introducing a host of new features to help creators create better video content and for viewers to conveniently consume them. 

One such is the Remix feature in YouTube Shorts. This is similar to the Duet feature popular on TikTok. Remix is meant to help creators collaborate with other creators from around the world. This can be a great way for creators to boost their discoverability, engagement, and traffic. 

Remix is a recently added feature and so if you are wondering how to make the most of it, then the below post from YouTube will give you a few answers. 

A few LinkedIn updates you should know about 

Social Media Today brings some of the most crucial social media updates and discussions. They shared an insightful post recently about a few updates on LinkedIn and what they mean for creators and brands. 

The post talks about some of the updates concerning content distribution in particular. For example, posts that are identified to be resourceful might be displayed to relevant audiences based on their interests for a slightly longer period. This means that posts disappearing from Feeds within a few days will not be a problem anymore. 

The post also goes on to discuss some upcoming updates like a CTA button for user profiles. So, if you are planning to revisit your LinkedIn marketing strategy, this is a post you cannot miss. 

A Final Word 

That brings us to a close! We hope that you enjoyed this quick weekly recap. We get it, social media is ever-changing, and keeping up with everything discussed on the various social media platforms can be exhausting. That’s where the KIMP’s Picks series might save you time. So, stay tuned and we’ll be back next week with a fresh set of posts that summarize the happenings of the week to come! 

Posted On

01 Mar, 2024

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