SparkToro Blog

Posts by Rand Fishkin:

Data Industry Marketing Predictions

AI-Generated Content is the New Floor

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Anyone can make it. Most of it is at least OK. Some of it’s pretty good. A few folks are already sharpening their skills at prompting AIs to generate increasingly high-quality material. But, the core problem with content created by large language model (LLM) outputs is that it’s so cheap, so accessible, so ubiquitous—it’s not merely table stakes; AI content…
Data Product SparkToro

NEW: Custom Search & Custom Audiences Offer Incredible New Ways to Use SparkToro

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Updated April 10, 2024: We relaunched SparkToro with new data sources. In that update, we also renamed “Custom Search” to “Advanced Search.” If you have a paid SparkToro account, you can access Advanced Search in your dashboard. — Three years ago, if you wanted to uncover which podcasts Data Scientists listened to, or find out which social accounts were most…
SparkToro

SparkToro’s Prices Are Going Up (but not for everyone)

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Here’s the short version, friends: Starting February 9, 2023 (one week from now) we’re rolling out new, higher prices for each of SparkToro’s pricing tiers We’re also adding more features and benefits to those tiers, including unlimited searches per month* for all subscription levels If you’re a subscriber to SparkToro at any tier today (or you sign up before Feb.…
Hiring Industry Psychology Team

You can’t hire ambitious people and then ask them to stop being ambitious.

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Hiring managers, executives, CEOs—especially those in tech—are proud to say that we only consider applicants with an unrelenting drive for success and a track record of impressive accomplishments. These qualities often correlate with what we perceive (accurately or not) to be our own reasons for success, and we want to find people like us: individuals with intrinsic motivation, constantly striving…
Industry Marketing Psychology Tactics

Too Few Marketers Grasp the Difference Between Strategy vs. Tactics; We Need to Fix That

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Look, I get it. For (at least) the first decade of my career, I, too, foolishly conflated strategy and tactics. I’d say things like: “we need to be strategic with our paid search spend,” or “let’s get tactical with the pricing tiers.” Did I sound smart? No. Did I *think* I sounded smart? Yeah, probably. Here’s the short version: Strategy…
Advertising Industry Marketing

The Creator Economy Is Far From Overblown

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
I came across Alex Kantrowitz’s The Creator Economy Was Way Overblown in my weekend reading. It’s well-written, but completely wrong. Here’s an excerpt of the core arguments: “After years of hype, the Creator Economy is slamming into reality. Influencer programs are shuttering. Investment is drying up. And worsening economic conditions are threatening to crush creators and the tech infrastructure behind them. While…
Industry Marketing Predictions Tactics

Why Marketers Should Follow Their Audiences, Not Predict the Future

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
It’s 2017, and you convince your executives to be early adopters of the #Web3 trend. Blockchain-based product investments, marketing with NFTs, perhaps your own crypto coin. It’s fun, interesting, and it feels like you’re ahead of your competition on a rising tide that will lift all ships. Only trouble is, your target audience—the people you hope will become customers—aren’t adopting…
Industry Marketing Predictions Tactics

Why Marketers, Creators, and Brands Should Start Using Mastodon ASAP

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
I joined Twitter in June, 2007. It turned out to be a very smart move; over the next decade, that network had a massive impact on my professional success. Some of that is because I did interesting or valuable things, but a lot of it was a combination of timing and serendipity. There are plenty of articles about why you…
Marketing Personal Tactics

How Rand Makes Those Split-Screen Videos You See on LinkedIn and Twitter

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Several times a week, I post videos that look like this on (usually) LinkedIn and Twitter: They tend to get a lot of engagement (in this case, 10,000+ “impressions” which translates to a respectable 2,880 “viewers” according to LinkedIn). And inevitably, I get comments, DMs, or emails that ask “how do you make those split screen recording videos?” It’s easy…

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