All of the illustrations used in today’s Daily Carnage are from Peter Greenwood. His work is uhhh-mazing. 

Social Media Marketing is becoming such a big deal that universities are beginning to do research studies on social media content. Good news for us marketers.

Today’s Listen is an interview with Kartik Hosanagar, a professor of Operations & Information Management Department at Wharton (aka professional Smart Guy). In this interview, Kartik discusses the types of content that gets maximum engagement on social media and how to create more of that content.

A few of the v important points he makes:

• If you’re after engagement, use more emotional content. This content connects with people and builds a stronger relationship with your fans.
• If you want more sales, use more promotional content. This type of content works, but it lacks engagement.
• The best companies do a great job of blending “brand personality” posts with promotional posts.
• Mentioning holidays in posts actually leads to lower engagement because so many other brands are doing it.

Like what you’re reading? This is from our marketing newsletter, The Daily Carnage. Get more here and become the smartest marketer in the room.

Not-so-spoiler alert: no matter what area of marketing you work in, you need to know SEO. It will help your job, look good on your resume, and impress your parents. (Kidding about that last one. We’ve been trying to explain SEO to our parents for years and they still don’t get it.)

Anyway, it’s 2017, time to learn SEO — or brush up on what you already know — with today’s Read.

Ahrefs put together a guide with everything you need to know about SEO in 2017. The best part? They include links to a bunch of free resources for learning more about:

• The Basics of SEO
• Keyword
• Competitor Research (one of the most overlooked tactics)
• On Page SEO/Content Audits
• Off Page SEO
• Technical SEO/Website Audit
• SEO Tools
• Analytics (we <3 analytics)
• Conversion Rate Optimization

But wait, there’s more! Ahrefs also provides links to Facebook groups about SEO, podcasts, blogs, books, YouTube channels, and SEO conferences. Our faces right now…  

Major blessings from Ahrefs on this one. You might wanna just go ahead and bookmark this bad boy.

Did y’all hear about the guy who got hit in the head with a can of soda? He was lucky it was a… soft drink.

Boooo, get off the stage!

Okay, but for real, today’s Watch is no joke. Well, maybe a little (the dialogue is heavy on the puns), but the artistry is serious. Entirely effervescent, this crafty Coca-Cola ad creates new ways of delivering a not-so new idea: Recycling.

Using exclusively recycled plastic bottles, the spot takes you on a journey through the life of a bottle, all filmed in stop motion. Sure, the bubbly dialogue is a bit cheesy, but the set and production itself is so dang lovely, we just couldn’t look away. What makes it even more enjoyable, though, is this BTS video, showing viewers the meticulous eye it took to create this all-plastic-everything stop motion world. Watch both vids for a boost of midday energy only a caffeinated drink could give you.