Welcome to Fresh van Root newsletter #78.
A fresh collection of content and apps awaits you below. And… some good news in the Fresh van Root section. Let’s get to it!
Hello to 34 new subscribers. Here’s what this newsletter is about: We are exploring content and apps at the intersection of marketing, productivity, tech, content creation, and social media – for curious minds. This bi-weekly newsletter is a summary of that exploration.
🧠 Hand-Picked Content
“Pinterest remains vibrant and useful” (Blog post, 5min)
What’s happening in the world of Pinterest, and for what do people use it? This post on substack explains it for non-Pinterest users. More
AI-Powered Everything (Blog post, 10min)
Until recently, AI mainly worked in the background. Now, with AI-powered text2image services, the discussion about the implications of an AI-powered future is reaching a larger public.
There are typically three stages of looking at AI:
- First, we think, “that isn’t that good,”
- Second, “This is getting interesting. I should take this seriously,” and
- Third, “Holy moly, this will have huge implications on how I do my job; I need to integrate it or up-level into a different space.”
An interesting read if you are interested in AI, and who isn’t these days? More
Social: How Washington Post Runs Their Accounts (Blog post, 5min)
The Washington Post grew its Instagram account from 600K to 6mio followers. On average, the team posts up to 10 times a day on Instagram. How do they do it? What does the team size and structure look like? This interview with the manager running the whole team sheds some light on how such a social media operation is run. More
Use Natural Language On Websites (Product Demo Post, 5min)
What if, instead of clicking on a website to get what you want, you could type about the task and save ten clicks? Adept is working on a solution for that. Watch the video snippets in the post to understand the concept. More
Do You Need That New Phone? (Blog post, 1min)
If you are unsure if you need that new phone, here’s a handy guide to help you to make that decision. More
🛠️ Tools & Apps & Services
Beautifully Designed Slide Decks
There is some dynamic in the market of slide share apps. Tome is also a fresh take on the segment. Instead of fixed-size slides, you create expendable cards. Using drag and drop, you can integrate 3rd party content in your decks, like tweets, Airtable, Figma, or Miro files.
Other notable features: You can work on slides in a collaborative mode or record your webcam right in Tome and add it as a narration to your slide deck. Tome is currently in free Beta. More
- Bonus: In the last issue of this newsletter, I featured Gamma, which takes a similar (fresh) approach to slide creation. More
Lowkey Party Planning
If you have a private party coming up, check out Partiful, a website to organize events in a fun design. It takes just minutes to set up. Potential attendees can RSVP by leaving a phone number. Organizers can update all attendees via text blast and post photos to the page. Screenshot | More
Stock Photos Made With AI
I am sharing this more for reference, not so much as a recommendation (yet). With the rise of text2image AI services, it was only a matter of weeks until stock photo sites showed up that offered to download those images. StockAI.com and PromptHero.com are the first ones I discovered, and I am sure dozens more are under development now.
Online Conferences For Marketers
There are two conferences that you might want to check out:
Icons For Your Next Project
“World’s largest icon collection” on Streamline.com. More