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KIMP’s Picks 22nd March: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Another week flies by! And the social media space has been buzzing with updates. Feeling a little overwhelmed and unsure where to start catching up? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

The KIMP’s Picks 22nd March Edition is your weekly social media catch-up! We’re talking about trending posts everyone’s sharing, hidden gems you possibly missed, and thought-provoking ideas that’ll get your creative juices flowing.

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? So, if you are ready for a quick recap of the social media buzz in AI, marketing, design, and other realms, then buckle up. You’re in for a treat! 

In the Marketing Realm 

Microsoft Advertising tests Google Ads-inspired interface

Search news provider Search Engine Land is a great place for marketers to get the latest search updates and marketing inspiration. They shared the below post on their X page discussing some changes coming to Microsoft Advertising. 

According to the article shared, the major changes include changes in the navigation wherein the latest update will resemble the Google Ads interface. This change is meant to make it easier for advertisers to find what they are looking for. 

The other part of the change is to accommodate Copilot updates. On the whole, these changes mean that advertisers might find it easier to work with Microsoft Ads. 

How relevant is X in B2B marketing?

TopRank Marketing, a popular full-service B2B marketing agency shared the below insightful discussion about the relevance of X in B2B marketing. We liked this post because, with the changes happening on X it’s tough to understand where the platform is headed and where it stands from a marketing point of view. So, the post delves into the nuances of the changes so far and what they mean to B2B marketers. 

To analyze the relevance of X in B2B marketing, the post talks about a few important questions for marketers to ask themselves. It discusses how the platform still remains valuable for brands whose audiences are active on X. Additionally, the post also delves into the fact that several people browse X mainly for instant news updates and how providing these might benefit businesses. So, if you are contemplating the relevance of X in your B2B strategies, do give this post a read. 

Amp up your marketing strategies for spring 

A new season means new shopping opportunities. Hence, for businesses, this means that it’s time to revamp their marketing strategies. So, Google shared the below post on their Google Ads page discussing a few insightful tips on how businesses can make the most of the shopping season by leveraging AR & VR. 

The post gives a recap of some of the recently introduced AR tools including style filters in fashion shopping. There are also notes about the benefits of including 3D product images to provide immersive AR shopping experiences. So, if you are looking to take your Google Ads to the next level this spring, then this post is for you. 

Changes coming to image thumbnails on the search results page 

Renowned SEO consultant, Brodie Clark shares the latest SEO news and updates on his X page. He shared the below post discussing some possible upcoming changes in Search’s multi-image thumbnail interface. 

The article featured here discusses some of the dos and don’ts and basics for businesses adding images to their category pages. From keeping the images relevant to ensuring good quality and keeping the count less than 8 and adding relevant Alt Text there are several relevant tips discussed in detail. 

The demand for unique high-quality images for your products and services is increasing day by day. And particularly if you are looking to boost your organic website traffic. So, now is a good time to invest in a long-term solution for your business’ graphic design needs. 

Branding in the social-media-driven era 

Social media is no longer just about networking. It has become a valuable marketing tool. Popular management magazine Harvard Business Review shared an insightful discussion regarding branding in the social media age in the below post. 

Some might argue that social media makes it easier for brands to get in touch with their audiences, to establish their brand. However, there are some challenges that come with these benefits. And this post talks about these challenges. So, it’s definitely something that several marketers and entrepreneurs struggling with their branding strategies might be able to relate to. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Creating content in bulk 

Growth Hackers is a popular growth hacking agency. They discuss the challenges that several small businesses encounter and some practical solutions for them. In the line-up of insightful posts on their X page we noticed the below post recently. The post discusses an idea for businesses to tackle content marketing effectively – creating content at scale. 

The post delves into the potential benefits of creating content in bulk including time and cost-cutting as well as a significant improvement in the reach and quality. However, there are also some challenges that come with this approach like the time it takes to create content in bulk and the need for creating fresh content ideas to stay relevant. Finally, there are some tips for businesses trying to find the sweet spot between these hurdles and solutions. 

Tips to build a strong SEM strategy 

Are you struggling with search engine marketing for your business? Then this post from the popular digital marketing agency NP Digital is for you. 

The thread briefly discusses some of the common mistakes that businesses make when it comes to the SEM strategy. From not paying attention to identifying relevant keywords to focusing merely on short-term results, and compromising on the quality of the content, the post discusses some of the commonly overlooked mistakes that can hamper your search engine marketing performance. 

In the Design Realm 

A summary of recent Canva updates 

Blink and you miss a Canva update. If that’s relatable, then this feature round-up shared by Canva is for you. This post gives a quick peek into the recent updates on the platform. 

From the newly launched TypeGradient app that helps add gradient details to text to the option to create, customize, and save gradients in the Brand Kit, there are exciting design updates to check out. 

The post also gives a peek into the option that lets you customize the timing at which different design elements appear in the frame and the ability to combine several photo editing effects in design. 

Find it hard to keep up with the updates on Canva, let professional Canva designers take over and save you time and effort. 

Rebranding a decades-old brand 

Rebranding on its own is a challenging process. It gets particularly tedious when it involves rebranding a business with a rich heritage, one that has established a strong identity over the years. Because customers have a conceived notion about the brand and have become familiar with its identity. So changing the identity means losing this familiarity. 

If you are looking for branding and creative inspiration on X, The Brand Identity page is a great space to check out. They shared the below rebranding project where a fresh identity was created for Bar Bauma, an iconic bar in Barcelona. 

Given the 80-year-old history of the brand and how the locals have gotten attached to the brand the creative team chose to draw inspiration from the original identity while infusing a touch of modernity into it. From the typeface to the menu changes, all the updates made for this rebranding show how you can rebrand a business without losing its original charm. 

Adobe’s tool for creating accessible designs 

Designers today are more considerate when it comes to designing for accessibility. As brands are prioritizing inclusivity in every aspect, teams are doing their best to create ads and graphics that accommodate the needs of diverse types of audiences. 

Adobe shared the below post spotlighting one of their useful tools that help designers create designs that are optimized for those with color blindness. 

The Color Blindness Simulator tool from Adobe is a handy plugin that designers can use in order to check if the chosen color palette makes their design easy on the eyes of color-blind users. The tool can also simulate various types of color blindness to let designs ensure that no key detail is missed. 

Looking for more tips on designing for accessibility, check out our blog here. 

Packaging designed with the target audience in mind 

The best kind of brand packaging is one that prioritizes their audience’s likes and dislikes. After all, this tangible brand asset is going to be the face of your brand, the first solid encounter. Wondering how to optimize your brand’s packaging design? The below example shared by Dieline, a great source of packaging design inspiration, is a good one to start with. 

The post features the packaging design created for Uoga Uoga Kids, a brand that creates organic skincare products for kids. 

The design keeps it simple featuring big illustrated faces with ample negative space meant to allow kids to decorate these tubes and bottles with stickers. Given that bathtime is a struggle in several households, making the packaging fun and playful is a good idea! 

One of the best things about this project is that the new design is optimized for the eco-friendly packaging that the brand uses. 

In the AI Realm 

Stability AI releases Stable Video 3D

Stability AI has released Stable Video 3D (SV3D), a new generative model based on their Stable Video Diffusion model. This new model promises significant advancements in 3D technology, particularly in the areas of novel view synthesis (NVS) and 3D generation.

Compared to previous models like Stable Zero123, SV3D generates 3D videos with improved quality and consistency across different viewing angles. Moreover, SV3D can create realistic and detailed views of an object from any angle, overcoming the limitations of prior NVS approaches.

Reportedly, this one is available as 2 models one for generating orbital videos without requiring camera calibrations and the other to create 3D videos based on specified camera paths. 

Users with a Stability AI membership will also be able to use the model to create designs for commercial use. 

Humanoid robots are changing – NVIDIA’s Project GROOT is here

NVIDIA has been making significant progress in robotics. And a major announcement from them recently was Project GROOT. This is meant to be a foundational model designed to power humanoid robots. 

Only last week we had spoken about OpenAI’s collaboration with Figure and the subsequent work on the humanoid robot Figure 01 powered by ChatGPT. Now as another big step in this field, NVIDIA has joined the race. 

These humanoid robots are all set to change labor forever. And models like GROOT aim to impart intelligence to these bots so that they can understand conversational commands. Additionally, they might also help these bots observe and learn from human actions. 

Google’s AI tool for animating still photos – VLOGGER

While the last year marked big steps in the generative AI image generation sector, this year has been a lot about generative AI video generation. Google is the recent big tech company to join this league. 

VentureBeat brings all the latest news and updates in the world of tech and they shared the below post about Google’s VLOGGER, an AI model that is designed to animate still images. 

Based on the discussion shared by VentureBeat, VLOGGER takes an image and an audio clip as the input and generates a video based on them. Moreover, based on whatever details are available at the moment, VLOGGER will likely be able to render people of various ethnicities, ages, and surroundings and can animate entire videos and not just faces.

The post delves into all other information available about VLOGGER so far. From this, it sure looks like a promising leap in the generative video space. 

Grok AI is now open source 

Last week, Elon Musk announced that he would soon be making Grok Open Source, and the time has come. Described by xAI as the “314 billion parameter Mixture-of-Expert model” Grok is currently available as an open-source model without its training code. Modeled on a custom stack, Grok is also licensed to permit commercial applications. But to see how developers tap into this open-source model we’ll have to wait for more updates from xAI. 

Elon Musk’s decision to make xAI’s model open-source sets a new trend and exemplifies the benefits of making AI more accessible. 

Freepik’s AI tool, Reimagine, is here 

The market is filled with generative AI design tools that can create images from text prompts. Now Freepik has announced a different kind of generative AI tool for creatives – one that can instantly create image variations. 

Once you upload the image you can select from the available styles and the level of variations to apply. While free users can access these features, Premium users can alter the whole prompt or give custom prompts to fully optimize the image to their liking. This can be a handy tool for users looking to use stock images but with a creative twist! 

Google’s Screen AI helps understand UI & infographics better 

Several AI tools available in the market right now are adept at analyzing and processing images. However, there is some level of complication involved in perceiving the details in a UI design or even in an infographic. Google’s new AI model, ScreenAI is meant to overcome these challenges and decipher the details in UI designs and infographics. 

This level of understanding is meant to help enhance human-machine interactions and also help in better user interface designs. With models like this one, information presented in UIs and infographics can be made accessible to diverse kinds of users. Google shared the below post featuring an article that delves into the technical details of this new AI model. 

Generative AI by iStock gets some new features 

Several stock photo tools now offer generative AI capabilities. iStock is one among them. The generative AI tool by iStock is powered by NVIDIA Picasso. With flexible size options and a host of other features, this generative AI tool helps users generate commercially safe designs. 

This model works like any other generative AI design tool and takes in text prompts to create designs based on them. In the below post, iStock announced the launch of 2 new features in this generative AI tool namely Refine and Extend. 

Of these, the Refine feature is to let designers refine their designs by adding or removing specific elements in the design. On the other hand, the Extend feature is meant to help users extend existing images to custom aspect ratios by adding natural and optimal elements within the frame. These let users not just generate images but also tweak them to their liking. 

iPhones might possibly come with Gemini AI features 

Reuters shared some news from the tech world that Google and Apple are in talks. This is possibly regarding the introduction of Gemini AI features in iPhones. 

In January, Google announced some major AI updates for smartphones including Circle to Search. Now that several Android phones are likely to get them, iPhones cannot be left behind. To tackle this, Apple is reportedly in talks with Google to bridge this gap. This could possibly be the answer to Apple’s slow adoption of AI technologies in their devices. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

Threads is getting swipe gestures 

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, announced on his Threads page that the platform is getting new swipe gestures. The interface of Threads today is much more evolved than what it was when it was introduced. From search changes to the profile interactions, various tweaks have been added. 

From the time of its launch, Threads has been labeled as a contender for X. And most of the new features introduced, like the Trending posts option, have made the platform a lot similar to X or what it once was. 

In the below post from Adam Mosseri, he talks about the new interaction features that let users swipe right on a post to like it and swipe left to show that they are not interested in it. This is a step to make it easier for users to interact with posts and help the algorithm understand what kinds of posts interest the user. 

Post by @mosseri
View on Threads
You might soon be able to add more frames to Instagram carousels 

Carousels are some of the most popular formats on Instagram and also the format that gets the most engagement. Therefore Instagram has been adding several subtle yet significant refinements to their Carousel post format. 

And a recent post from the popular social media news site, Social Media Today, discusses some more changes coming to Instagram Carousel. Reportedly, the platform is testing the option to add more frames to carousel posts. Currently, you can only add 10 frames per carousel. But if you think that you will need more frames to communicate the information, then this new update will likely let you add up to 15 frames. 

YouTube makes it mandatory for creators to be transparent about the use of AI 

With AI tools making it easy for people with no prior design skills to generate realistic photos and videos, it’s becoming hard to trust anything you find on the internet. You see a lot of AI-generated videos on YouTube and AI images on various websites. To tackle the issues caused by Deepfakes, YouTube is reportedly making it mandatory for creators to declare the use of AI in their content. 

This means that they would have to label content generated on AI and maintain transparency. This step is meant to help prevent AI image and video abuses. Inc Magazine shared the below post discussing this upcoming update. 

TikTok revamps Creator Rewards Program 

TikTok recently announced some major updates coming to their Creator Rewards Program. Reportedly, the program will reward creators based on parameters like originality, watch time, search value, and audience engagement. Combined with the introduction of the Creator Search Insights tool, these changes are meant to help improve the search value of content. 

The Creator Search Insights Tool is meant to help creators identify the most searched content and topics among their target audience and thus help them create content that gets a good reach and engagement. 

Overall, these changes indicate a shift in TikTok’s strategy, encouraging creators to produce discoverable content that aligns with user search queries. This could benefit both creators, who can earn more through the program, and viewers, who will see more relevant content.

On a Final Note 

This wraps up the KIMP’s Picks 22nd March Edition. We hope this curated selection fueled your creative fire and kept you in the loop on the latest social media buzz. Stay tuned for next week’s edition, where we’ll dive back into the world of online conversations and spark your inspiration all over again! We can’t wait to see what the next week brings!

Posted On

22 Mar, 2024

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