Drip Sequence💧

In case you missed it:

I sent out a report detailing the comp survey, if you missed the first newsletter the URL for the LookerBI Dashboard can be found right here.

Headline Overviews

• Biden just signed a potential TikTok ban into law. Here’s what happens next President Joe Biden signed a bill that could lead to a nationwide TikTok ban, giving the app's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, nine months to sell TikTok or face a ban from the United States. Failure to sell would result in TikTok being prohibited from US app stores and internet hosting services supporting it. TikTok plans to challenge the law in court, arguing it is unconstitutional and would harm its users and businesses. The potential ban's impact and TikTok's ability to succeed without its algorithm are key uncertainties.

• Why B2B marketers are advertising more like consumer brands to break through a crowded marketplace B2B marketers are adopting B2C strategies by investing in emotive and humorous ads on platforms like TikTok and streaming services to stand out in a crowded market. This shift includes a focus on storytelling, influencer marketing, and flexible messaging to connect with decision-makers on a personal level, recognizing the need to go beyond traditional sales pitches for brand relevance and audience engagement.

• Meta could launch Threads ads this year Meta is considering launching ads on its Threads platform as early as the second half of 2024 (just in time for the next holiday season), offering us a new way to reach our audience outside of FB and IG. Despite not having as many users as Facebook or Instagram, Threads has gained 50 million followers within 24 hours of its launch and now has about 85 million monthly active users. The discussions have mainly focused on the rollout timeline, with beta testing for ad options expected soon, though exact dates remain unknown.

• Google Is Delaying 3rd Party Cookie Deprecation AGAIN
  Google just announced that the phase-out of third-party cookies on Chrome won't be completed in the second half of Q4 due to ongoing challenges and the need for time for review by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Google aims to conclude discussions with regulators this year and start the phase-out early next year, pending agreement. This impacts us as it signals a delay in the removal of a key tool for tracking user behavior online, which is great for a lot of advertisers who still do not have a new strategy yet.

What’s Going on with B2B Influencers on LinkedIn?

Influencer marketing is evolving, it isn’t just selling beauty products or hyper-caffeinated pre-work out supplements anymore. As you may have seen on LinkedIn or from workplace-themed TikToks, B2B influencers (Binfluencers?) are becoming a thing much to my chagrin.

Some people have called me a B2B influencer and my response to that is this:

If you’re reading this, that means that social algorithms are showing you humorous workplace content. Where influencers make the same joke over and over with a tripod setup on their desk, with a ring-light in the background recording themselves having an imaginary conversation with their colleagues in front of their laptop complaining about work in a dead-pan voice.

Whether you like them or not (I hate all of them, except for you Jack), those B2B influencers are stacking massive loads of cash with sponsorship deals from B2B companies who previously did not have a way to leverage influencer marketing the way B2C brands could. 

There’s also some wild stuff going on on LinkedIn these days. It has without a doubt transformed from a corporate networking site into a full on social platform. The transition has been evident with the additions of LinkedIn Creator Mode in 2021 and its Top Voices program. 

Creator Mode allowed users to host live broadcasts, publish on-platform newsletters, and receive better analytics tools. Most importantly, was the addition of the ‘Follow’ button that allowed users to set their profile up to let people follow them, without being connected. Creator Mode was discontinued earlier this year and instead set as a default option for all profiles, signaling LinkedIn’s interest in everyone becoming a creator on the platform. 

LinkedIn has also been amplifying and celebrating the best creators on the platform with Top Voices, an invitation-only program for leaders and execs that create what LinkedIn deems the best content on the platform. The program started in 2012 as the Influencer Program, but rebranded to Top Voices in October 2022 and has been picking up traction since, giving selected profiles expanded reach and a blue Top Voice verification badge.  

Previously, creators could use their audience to promote themselves, their own company, or use their influence to negotiate a better job offer. But they lacked a way to directly monetize their content. Now, LinkedIn has taken the next step in its evolution as a social platform. It recently released Thought Leader Ads for brands, allowing companies to sponsor content from any LinkedIn member, not just their own employees. But don’t worry you won’t have to work too hard to decipher whether or a post from a LinkedIn creator is sponsored, as LinkedIn now has the ability to label posts as brand partnership. 

We spoke to early adopters who said that these ads are actually working. Brendan Gahan, a Top Voice on LinkedIn and founder of influencer marketing agency Creator Authority, said that Thought Leader ads are earning 1.7x higher CTR than traditional LinkedIn Ads.

The real question is how LinkedIn influencer culture will evolve without being incredibly cringe. We’ve all winced while reading sensationalized inspirational stories from CEOs on LinkedIn that end with a not-so-subtle pitch about their business solution.

“LinkedIn has done a lot to stamp out the cringe, 'broetry' and faux-inspiration content. In 2023, adjustments were made to the feed. LinkedIn is prioritizing posts from your direct connections and wider community, specifically filtering for content centered on knowledge and advice. Essentially LinkedIn is going for depth of breadth, relevance over reach, community over clout.”  Gahan said.  

This highlights one of the key advantages LinkedIn has over other platforms: the social graph. Other social platforms have moved on from being truly social platforms and have instead become media broadcast tools. LinkedIn has remained social-first in that their algorithm shows users content from people they actually know or are closely connected with. 

Compared to B2C, B2B brands have been slower to adopt influencer marketing. Mainly because of the lack of B2B creators making thought-provoking business content on TikTok and Instagram, and these platforms focusing on entertaining content rather than informative business-related content. 

As LinkedIn continues to develop as a platform for business creators, we’ll start seeing more B2B companies putting LinkedIn at the center of their go-to-market strategy, leveraging their own team and a roster of creators on the platform to drive customer acquisition. 

Business creators have been eagerly awaiting new platforms to be “early” on and build an audience. We saw this with the flood of people jumping on Clubhouse in 2020.  The next “new” social platform for creators may just be the two-decade-old LinkedIn. 

The Mood Over at TikTok

This morning President Joe Biden signed a bill that would effectively start the countdown for TikTok to divest from ByteDance or effectively face a ban inside the US on the Android and iOS app store. While this was a surprise to many, I asked for some input from people over at TikTok and the mood was essentially “business as usual” over there. The following are anonymous submissions from TikTok employees:

“Moisturized, in our own lane, banned.”

“BAU figuring out what’s for lunch.”

“Nobody gives a fuck. Everyone’s still annoyed about Performance Reviews.”

“Same shit, different day.”

At the time of this writing, TikTok employees are reported to have an all-hands meeting with CEO Shou Zi Chew over in NYC. Inside sources say the mood at the all-hands does not depart from the current mood from “Keep calm, carry on. Business as usual.”

Mark Valasik, who has been following this subject for a lengthy amount of time says, “Hardly doubt there’s any commotion. They can file a lawsuit and drag this for YEARS before any action is taken. Whats worse though, the way the bill is structured affects ALL Chinese and Russian apps, including WeChat, Baidu but potentially even AliExpress, Temu, Shein (the criteria is “adversary” controlled app, that has 1,000,000 MAU, allows users to create profile and ANY type of content (e.g. wishlist) and allows at least 1 other user to see such content. Mark has a 4 minute video on YouTube that breaks down the issue that can be viewed right here.

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