Welcome to Part II of Edition No. 45 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
ICYMI Tuesday: A Real ChatGPT Content Creation Example
Contents
I. Meta Jumps on Another Bandwagon
II. AI Search Bots are Expensive
III. Gen Z (and the Rest of Us) Still Goes To Google First for News
IV. Search Console Data Now More Useful
V. LinkedIn: Customizable Profiles, Page-Post Scheduling
VI. The Minimal Affect of Continuous Scroll on Google’s SERP
VII. ChatGPT isn’t the End of Journalism
VIII. A Funny Elon Tweet
I. Meta Jumps on Another Bandwagon
We’re testing Meta Verified, a new subscription bundle that includes account verification with impersonation protections and access to increased visibility and support. …
Meta Verified is available for direct purchase on Instagram or Facebook in Australia and New Zealand starting later this week. People can purchase a monthly subscription for (USD) $11.99 on the web and (USD) $14.99 on iOS and Android.
-Meta
On one hand, I get it. Meta is a business – and a robust but declining one at that – and it needs to make money.
On the other hand, what the heck?! Nearly $15 per month for the following, per the press release:
With Meta Verified, you’ll get:
A verified badge, confirming you’re the real you and that your account has been authenticated with a government ID.
More protection from impersonation with proactive account monitoring for impersonators who might target people with growing online audiences.
Help when you need it with access to a real person for common account issues.
Increased visibility and reach with prominence in some areas of the platform– like search, comments and recommendations.
Exclusive features to express yourself in unique ways.
Here’s Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri:
🛠 Why does this matter? Some of these things kind of make sense for which to pay. Others seem almost predatory.
Making people pay to have their identify protected? Kind of disgusting.
For customer support? Super frustrating. But then again, I run my website on WordPress, for example, and the customer support is much better paid than it is when you only use the free version of their platform. That makes sense. They can only give dedicated attention to a finite number of people.
Considering Meta has billions of users, it’s understandable.
What about increased visibility and reach?
This doesn’t really make sense because if paid users will have increased reach, they must be taking reach from somewhere else. If a significant group of users’ reach will increase, it logically follows that the rest of the group’s will decrease, since there’s only a finite amount of “Feed” to go around.
I could go on, but one last thing. Meta is losing out to TikTok (and others) because the younger i.e. up-and-coming generation barely uses Instagram, and is practically non-existent on Facebook. Charging people $15 a month for the platforms’ best features is only going to drive a wedge further between younger users and Facebook + Instagram.
Credit to Mosseri for giving a shoutout in the video above to all the other platforms that had this idea first. At least they’re self-aware. Kind of like AI. Just kidding. Or am I?
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II. AI Search Bots are Expensive
In an interview, Alphabet's Chairman John Hennessy told Reuters that having an exchange with AI known as a large language model likely cost 10 times more than a standard keyword search, though fine-tuning will help reduce the expense quickly.
Yikes! More from Reuters:
Morgan Stanley estimated that Google's 3.3 trillion search queries last year cost roughly a fifth of a cent each, a number that would increase depending on how much text AI must generate. Google, for instance, could face a $6-billion hike in expenses by 2024 if ChatGPT-like AI were to handle half the queries it receives with 50-word answers, analysts projected.
🛠 Why does this matter? I think this will have a much larger effect on Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, etc. than it will on the end user.
Then again, OpenAI is already offering a paid version of ChatGPT, so maybe that’s how they’ll pass the cost down the chain to the end user.
I received early access (don’t ask me how) to Notion’s in-app AI feature (I love it). After about 15 minutes of using it, I was told I reached my query limit and was asked to pay if I wanted to continue.
I didn’t plan on upgrading, but when I continued to checkout out of curiosity, I saw that it was “only” $10 per month. Even better? I had a $20 credit (again, don’t ask me how), which will cover the first two months.
With demand for AI at a fever pitch, on top of the fact that these companies have a war chest of cash, I doubt the increased costs of AI-driven searches will have a noticeable effect from the outside. That is, I don’t think any of these companies will slow their AI arms race, and I don’t think it will affect those of us on the outside other than financially.
Eventually, it may be a question of which platform you’re willing to pay for. And depending on their differentiation, you might be willing to pay for more than one. After all, don’t you already have an account with Netflix, Apple+, Hulu, Disney+, Paramount+ – you get the picture. (No pun intended.)
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III. Gen Z (and the Rest of Us) Still Goes To Google First for News
In February, 14% of Gen Z adults reported using TikTok to start researching a major news event, significantly higher than the share of all adults (2%) saying the same.
But that’s barely more than a third of the 39-percent share that goes to Google first.
Meta platforms don’t even crack the top four.
🛠 Why does this matter? Baby Boomers are the only generation that goes directly to a news publisher’s website for news more than 10 percent of the time.
News brand loyalty has probably never been lower. (The study doesn’t say that, but I think we can draw the conclusion.)
Also, I was surprised to see Twitter so low on each generation’s list.
My takeaways are that, when it comes to news, SEO is as essential as ever, while YouTube and Facebook still hold the most trans-generational sway.
If you are going for brand loyalty, the best way to build it up – in news, or any industry – is probably to develop a strong relationship with users through all these other platforms first. Exceptions may be long-time print products that also have an established online presence.
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