Hi y’all –

Let me guess what you’re thinking: you’re pumped to read the latest digital marketing news. 

Oh, that’s not what you were thinking? Well, it will be (see, I can tell the future too)! Anyways, here’s the scoop for ya!

• Let’s review the features and potential benefits of OpenAI’s SearchGPT. The reviewers in this SEL article felt SearchGPT outperforms Google’s AI Overviews. It had two distinctive differences in the areas of citations and conversational search:
  • The citation sources are more visible in SearchGPT and more likely to promote click-throughs.
  • The conversational search interface creates a thread of iterative/expanding queries which turns the conversation into a broader, topical discussion that is exactly what we are targeting with our SAIO strategy.
  • SearchGPT is still being tested, but we’ll be ready when it launches.

• Is AI becoming more humanized? OpenAI claims their new “o1” model has human reasoning. One of the cool features is that it breaks things out in a “chain of thought” to correct mistakes before the final answer. Honestly, my human reasoning says that human reasoning is also flawed – how can we teach a robot to do it right? We’ll have to see what users say when it’s available.

Special Event!

Tomorrow at noon (ET), our team is sharing our successes and insights with members and guests of the International Association of Business Communicators (NY Tristate Chapter) via Zoom.

Join our Director of SEO & SAIO, Marc Engelsman, and our President & CEO, Niki Fielding, as they present the opportunities to use AI chatbots as a marketing channel. Register for the free virtual event today!

• Does ChatGPT help high school students learn? An experiment conducted at the University of Pennsylvania found: access to ChatGPT while practicing math problems led to worse performance on a math test compared to students without ChatGPT access. Not a super shocker, but “the chatbot only answered the math problems correctly half the time.” Accuracy aside, another reason for poor performance is that access to AI chatbots can “substantially inhibit learning” and become a “crutch” for problem solving.
  
  As a person who grew up with calculators in the classroom, I can vouch that I am terrible at simple, mental math problems. I think there needs to be a balance of technological assistance. We need to know the mechanics, but we don’t always need to execute.

• DBE’s long-time friend and well-traveled marketer Ruth Stevens recently posted an article in MarTech about the “5 key trends we’re seeing in B2B marketing.” It covers concepts ranging from the generational shift of buyers from Boomers to Gen X and Gen Y to the expansion of ecommerce across the customer journey (i.e. less reliance on sales reps) to the increasingly important role of video in B2b marcom toolbox.

• Peer-to-peer resale with major brands… why would brands want this? We know the secondhand market allows customers lower-priced alternatives and is less wasteful. The business hurdles are doing this at scale to justify the costs. Overall, it is a great idea, but this model has already been working for places like REI and eBay. It’s just interesting to see brands like Walmart in the mix.

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

I had a call last week that offered me an opportunity to change the wellness class I teach. It wasn’t a big change, but it meant rearranging my week.

Being hesitant, I told the person I’d think about it.

Taking time to think it over, what was keeping me from jumping into this opportunity? I didn’t want to let go of the community I built and break the schedule that I’d had for over a year. But, this was a great new opportunity to expand that community and explore a new side of teaching.

Next day, I called and said yes.

Lesson learned: Fear of change can hold you back from new adventures. Sometimes, you have to let go to greet the new opportunities in your path.

Have a lovely rest of your week,

Natalie

September is known as “Local Summer” to all my Jersey shore friends. We know it’s time to enjoy the sand and sun while the waves are still warm. If you’re not around a beach to enjoy the month, here’s a list of fun things to enjoy this fall anywhere you are!

P.S. to the P.S.: The P.S. title was a pun off of both Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends”… just making sure you caught that. 🙂

Hiya!

We missed ya last week. It was for a good reason, we promise! (All explained in our “Drumroll Please” section.) So, we’ve got 2 weeks of digital marketing rolled up into one edition!

• The Department of Justice ruled that Google violated the antitrust law. The case revealed that Google was paying Apple $20 billion annually for default search status on iPhones. Future proceedings will determine remedies to address Google’s monopoly. What does this mean? This sets a precedent for future cases involving other tech giants.

• Have you heard about SearchGPT? OpenAI created a prototype to combine their AI models with web citations. Honestly, the screenshots look a lot like Perplexity AI. I think our future in AI chatbot usage will depend on what we do. I have different favorite chatbots for writing guidance, citation summaries, and general knowledge queries. You just have to keep trying them out to find which works best for you… SearchGPT may be one to add to your list. You can sign up for a waitlist, if you’re still curious.

• ClickZ asks “How long does SEO take eCom brands?” The author’s initial answer: it depends. The article lists the reasons why, including SEO neglect, brand impact, backlink profile strength, age of domain, and competitors. He concludes it generally takes 3-6 months to start seeing SEO results. Ironically, for years we have been telling our SEO clients across all industries (not just eCom) it takes 3-6 months to begin to see significant results.

• Bing is testing a new generative search experience. The screenshots show a split screen with the GenAI response and source citations on the left and traditional search results on the right. So, it’s a SERP that has potential for both SEO and SAIO visibility on the same page! It’s another reason to be leveraging a dual approach to your optimization strategy.

• “Search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing” is the second highest area that brands outsource to agency partners. The accompanying article includes data on how brands evaluate agency success. No surprise that business impact in terms of ROI and revenue growth top the list, with key performance indicators (KPIs) like lead generation and engagement metrics being in the next tier as signs of success. Check out the Marketing Charts article based on Wpromote and Ascend2 data.

• What is your favorite 2024 Paris Olympic event? How about the Viral Video Vault, the Meme Marathon, and Extreme Tweeting? (Okay, not real sports, but it seems like they are with these increases in online engagements.) According to Marketing Tech with Hootsuite research, “Paris has racked up 211.8 million online engagements, marking a staggering 216% increase over Tokyo’s 67 million engagements during the lead-up.” While it’s not a surprise that people are more present online, it is a surprise to see the Olympic-style sharing of the 2024 games!

• Threads reached 200M – it took just over a year to reach this milestone. Why might this growth be spiking? Andrew Hutchinson from Social Media Today suspects it has to do with U.S. elections and the volatility of X and Elon.

• In the movie Short Circuit, there’s an iconic scene where Ally Sheedy’s character is trying to teach a robot that’s gained human-like intelligence. However, the robot keeps asking for “more input” even after he’s read everything in her house. We’ve reached that point with our AI. Running out of internet data to feed them, some scientists are trying to train large language models on AI-created data. This MarTech article intro is definitely a LOL read with a list of great AI-powered tools at the bottom.

Drumroll Please… 🥁

A world with better workplaces can be within our reach, but there is strength in numbers.

Discover the kind workplace movement and its pioneers. Find positive workplace events, training pros, research, tools, tips, organizations, suggested reading/listening, news, and so much more on  A Better Paradigm, our new online, kind workplace tool. Let’s create positive work environments together!

Happy August!

Natalie

Speaking of Short Circuit, if you haven’t seen the movie, it’s def worth a watch. If anything, just watch it for the awesome soundtrack. El DeBarge’s “Who’s Johnny” is an upbeat earworm waiting to brighten up your day.