Latest Digital / Social Media Marketing News & Insights Presented by Neal Schaffer In this week's newsletter: What is AI Slop, and what should you be doing LinkedIn steps up the fight against fake engagement AI SEO is reshaping how marketers think about search Hey Reader, I just came back from an inspiring week in Las Vegas attending the premiere conference for authors, Author Nation, and then presenting on the power of user-generated content at DigiMarCon (I"ll be speaking at DigiMarCon San...
8 days ago • 6 min read
Latest Digital / Social Media Marketing News & Insights Presented by Neal Schaffer Welcome to the new look and feel for my weekly newsletter! Please reply with your feedback if you feel it is better or worse! In this week's newsletter: What is the "AI visibility gap" and what CEOs need to be asking LinkedIn reports significant increases in comments and video uploads Hubspot reports a resurgence of newsletters in the digital era Hey Reader, It has been two weeks since my last newsletter, and I...
13 days ago • 7 min read
Neal Schaffer's Top 10 Weekly News October 21, 2025 Hey Reader, I had an interesting potential client visit in Tokyo today that I wanted to share my feedback with you on. This is an established global B2C brand with major market share in Japan. However they thought that their social media was just "going through the motions." And they were right. Perhaps this doesn't describe your business' social media, but if it does, you are stuck in pre-COVID mode: Using only static images instead of...
26 days ago • 6 min read
Neal Schaffer's Top 10 Weekly News October 13, 2025 Hey Reader, Greetings from Osaka Japan! "What is digital marketing? Is that like managing a company's money?" "What do you mean by digital marketing? Digital transformation?" These are actual comments I have received, in Japanese of course, when I mention what I do for a living. It might not be clear to most, but marketing as a discipline is very much outdated and undervalued in Japan. Outside of my being fluent in Japanese, it is what...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Neal Schaffer's Top 10 Weekly News September 27, 2025 Hey Reader, Greetings from Tokyo Japan! As I often say, being away from home can help you see your path more clearly. Instead of doing the same things over and over again, sometimes it's time to expand into new territory, meet new people, and even focus on a new niche. It is with these thoughts that I bring you this week's newsletter. As always, stay tuned for more news ... and make sure you follow me on Instagram where I post all of my...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Neal Schaffer's Top 10 Weekly News September 19, 2025 Hey Reader, This week I had the honor of guest lecturing for an entrepreneurship class locally at Chapman University. It was the first time that I created an interactive workshop around my work in generative AI.The title of the workshop was "Digital Content for SEO & Scaling Operations" and I am looking at refining it to be able to offer it as part of a live online workshop that I can offer for any of you that might be interested. Stay...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Neal Schaffer's Top 10 Weekly News September 12, 2025 Hey Reader, Today I did a dedicated 30-minute presentation in my Digital First Group Coaching Community about all the ins and outs of YouTube marketing. YouTube has only gained importance outside of it being the second largest search engine in that more YouTube results are appearing in Google search results and that LLMs like ChatGPT are reading the transcriptions of YouTube videos. In this way your YouTube presence might have a bigger...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Neal Schaffer's Top 10 Weekly News September 5, 2025 Hey Reader, Have you moved beyond Generative AI 1.0? As AI—and how we use it—continues to evolve, has your usage of AI evolved as well? I ask this because I think a lot of us have covered the basics of how to use a ChatGPT or Claude and perhaps are even using it to create content on a daily basis. But there is so much more to AI than just that. One thing I have realized is that AI saves you time, yet actually makes you more busy. Once you...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Neal Schaffer's Top 10 Weekly News August 29, 2025 Hey Reader, "Neal, if AI—and people—will be able to copy what you do, why do you continue to write books?" This is a question I was asked on a recent webinar. It's a good question, because as you know, we're only in the early days of AI, but we already see it impacting what we do as marketers and businesses. If you think AI can do most—if not everything—you do, and only better, it might be time to take a step back and do some deep thinking...
3 months ago • 7 min read