Latest Digital / Social Media Marketing News & Insights

​Presented by Neal Schaffer​

In this week's newsletter:

• Stop framing Shorts and long-form as an either/or.
• Why keep writing for keywords when your buyers now vet you through AI?
• LinkedIn just made co-marketing native.

Hey Reader,

Hey [first name],

You may have noticed my podcast has been quiet for about two months. That's been on purpose.

I made a deliberate call to pause a few parts of my work and pour that time into building out my AI Workflow Flywheel instead. The logic is simple: the hours I invest now compound later. Getting these systems right frees me up to focus on the core business and the relationships that actually grow it.

Here's the thing, though: this past weekend showed me how fast that future is arriving. I built my first Claude Skill and used Claude Cowork to update my WordPress blog. I've been intentionally taking it slow, building SOPs as reusable Claude Projects I can hand off to my staff. But now that Cowork can browse the web and act on my behalf through its agents, I'm starting to see what scaling actually looks like for a non-technical entrepreneur like me.

That's the real unlock. Most of us already know AI can draft and summarize. What's changing now is that it can do things: open the browser, take the steps, complete the task. The marketers who start building those agentic workflows into their business today are going to have a serious head start when this becomes the norm, which won't be long.

How far along are you on your own AI journey? Hit reply and let me know. I want this to be more of a two-way conversation than a broadcast!

Now for this week's updates!

Please note: Some links in this newsletter are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you.

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This Week's News

4 Warning Signs Your Marketing Team Is Next For AI Cuts - Before the layoff headlines arrive, the signals are already sitting in the data. A new analysis of millions of company records and job postings flagged more than 1,300 companies showing all four markers of AI-driven restructuring, patterns that tend to surface 12 to 18 months ahead of public cuts. If you run a marketing team, the value is in seeing it early: the four signs give you a checklist to read your own organization against. Treat it as an early-warning system, not a doom forecast. Search Engine Journal​

What Actually Gets You Cited In AI Search (2026 Data) - If you are still chasing backlinks to win AI visibility, this one reorders your priorities. A meta-analysis of 54 studies found that brand mentions across the web correlate roughly three times more strongly with AI citations than backlinks do. It also quietly retires the viral "4.3x fresher content" claim, replacing it with a real but modest 25.7% edge. The practical shift: fund digital PR and category presence, not another round of link building. That is where AI visibility is being won this year. Digital Applied​

Influencer Ads: How To Run Creator Content As A Performance Channel - I have spent years watching brands treat influencer marketing as an awareness line item, then wonder why it never ties to revenue. In my latest post, I make the case that creator and influencer ads are now the format buyers most want to grow, with 57% planning to increase their focus in 2026, the number one ad priority. I break down how to run creator content as a measurable performance channel: pairing creator credibility with paid-media precision, the setup that works, and the mistakes that quietly burn budget. Done right, influencer spend stops being an awareness cost and starts reading like pipeline. Neal Schaffer​

AI-Recommended Brands Saw 2.5x More Site Visits: Similarweb - Here is the number that turns AI visibility into a revenue conversation. A new clickstream study found that brands recommended in ChatGPT were 2.5 times more likely to earn a site visit within a week, and those visitors went deeper, averaging twice the pages and double the time on site of everyone else. More than half of that traffic arrived through branded search. Few numbers make the case for AI search as cleanly as that 2.5x. Search Engine Journal​

How To Use LinkedIn For Business: The 2026 Strategy Guide - I have been building business on LinkedIn since long before it had a video feed or an algorithm worth gaming. In my latest guide, I push back on the misconception I still hear most: that LinkedIn is a job board. It is a business engine with 1.3 billion members, where 4 of 5 drive business decisions. I show how to put it to work in 2026, from positioning your profile to building presence that turns connections into clients. If LinkedIn still feels like a resume parking lot, this resets it. Neal Schaffer​

More Recommended Reads

Win The Gatekeeper's "Yes" With Stakeholder Co-Citation Gap Analysis - Most GEO advice stops at "get cited more." This one gets specific about how. The method, co-citation gap analysis, maps the buying committee behind a decision, checks which sources AI already cites for each role, and surfaces the evidence gap your content has not yet filled. Instead of chasing keywords, you build the exact proof each decision-maker needs to hear. It is one of the more actionable AI-search playbooks to land this month. Why keep writing for keywords when your buyers now vet you through AI? Search Engine Land​

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Baden Bower AI Visibility Index: Forbes #1, Wire Services Near Bottom - Your PR plan probably still leans on press releases, and this index is a wake-up call. Researchers logged 12,040 AI citations across six engines to rank the publications that get quoted when buyers ask for recommendations. Forbes ranked first, while press-release wires landed near the bottom. Two findings matter for you: earned editorial coverage was cited 2.3 times more than wire distribution, and coverage from the past year was cited 2.9 times more than older stories. Keep leaning on the wire and you are funding the least-cited channel in the study. The Next Web​

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YouTube Shorts vs Long-Form Content: How To Find The Right Mix - Stop framing Shorts and long-form as an either/or. Sprout's 2026 data shows audiences split almost evenly between them, 52 to 49 in favor of Shorts, which means a smart channel runs both with different jobs. Lean on Shorts as your discovery engine to get found, and long-form to build the trust that converts. One stat worth sitting with: 48% of viewers want to hear directly from company leadership. The real question is not Shorts versus long-form, but what job each format does for you. Sprout Social​

LinkedIn Adds Collaborative Posts - LinkedIn just made co-marketing native. A new "Add Collaborators" option lets you and another person or Company Page co-author a single post, with every contributor credited at the top and the post surfacing across all of their networks. For partnerships, guest content, or employee advocacy, this is built-in reach you used to engineer by hand. It is rolling out gradually after testing at Cannes. Jump on it the week it reaches your account and co-authored posts are still a novelty in the feed. Social Media Today​

8 Examples Of Small Businesses Building Community On Social Media - For small teams, community is the one advantage a big budget cannot buy. This roundup walks through eight small businesses that turned ordinary followers into a community that markets on their behalf. The throughline is not flashy production, it is showing up consistently, replying like a human, and giving people a reason to belong. For anyone whose social presence has gone quiet, these examples are a practical reset, with tactics you can copy at any size. Community is slow to build and nearly impossible for a rival to steal. Sprout Social​

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