Latest Digital / Social Media Marketing News & Insights

​Presented by Neal Schaffer​

In this week's newsletter:

• How sure are you with your email A/B test results?
• Google’s AI Inbox could do to email what AI Overviews did to search.
• Have you checked what AI is telling potential customers about your brand?

Hey Reader,

Sorry for missing you last week — I was literally paragliding in Switzerland when I should have been writing last week's newsletter!

But here's the thing: sometimes you need to be 2,000 feet above the ground to see things clearly.

We spend so much time buried in dashboards, engagement rates, and algorithm updates that it's easy to forget — the best marketing insights don't come from a screen. They come from conversations with real people, from experiencing new places, from stepping far enough outside your routine that your brain actually has room to think differently.

Every major shift in my business has come not from analyzing data, but from a moment of perspective — a conversation at a conference, an observation while traveling, a question someone asked me over coffee that I couldn't answer.

So if you've been feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or like you're just running the same playbook on repeat, my honest advice? Close the laptop. Go somewhere. Talk to someone. The strategy will still be there when you get back — but you might see it completely differently.

OK, back to earth (literally). Let's get into 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.

This Week's Sponsor

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This Week's Podcast Episode

​Stop Treating LinkedIn Like Social Media: Introducing The 4-Cylinder LinkedIn Business Engine​

In my latest podcast, I share the full framework from my recent keynote at NOVA Southeastern University's Digital Marketing Summit — what I'm calling the LinkedIn Business Engine. The core idea: stop treating LinkedIn like just another social network. It's the only platform where search, email, and social converge in one place. I break down the four-cylinder engine — profile, network, content, and relationships — and why most marketers only have one or two firing. The stat that gets the biggest reaction? 95% of AI-cited LinkedIn content is original, and long-form articles account for more than half of it. If you're not publishing original expertise on LinkedIn, you're invisible to AI search. I also share a 30-day challenge to get your engine running.

This Week's Video

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​The 10 Social Media Principles Behind MrBeast's Beast Games, Lord Of The Rings And Invincible​

In this video interview, I sit down with Jon-Stephen Stansel, author of The 10 Principles of Effective Social Media Marketing — a social media pro whose resume includes Invincible, Lord of the Rings, and MrBeast's Beast Games. His guiding principle? Social media marketing is human, and that matters more than ever in the age of AI. The practical advice is sharp: start every engagement by listening to your audience first, solidify brand voice before posting anything, and if you're a solopreneur with limited time, 15 minutes in the morning and 15 at the end of the day is enough to build the habit. His take on goals hit home too — when he asked one organization's C-suite for their top three social media priorities, not a single answer matched. Worth a listen if you need a reset on fundamentals.

This Week's News

Google’s Quality Threshold Is Quietly Killing Scaled AI Content At Ranking - Every "Mt. AI" traffic graph you've seen on LinkedIn tells the same story: a surge, then a cliff. But the real culprit isn't AI — it's scaling content production without scaling quality control. Google's freshness boost temporarily masks weak strategy, and once it fades, the quality threshold kicks in. Google samples your new URLs, checks how users engage, and decides whether to keep investing crawl resources — or pull back. The takeaway? Stop chasing volume. Quality maintenance at scale is the only strategy that survives past the initial boost. If your content could be written by anyone with a keyword list, Google will eventually treat it that way. Search Engine Journal​

Your Email A/B Test Winner Might Be Lying (And It’s Costing You) - If you've ever had an A/B test "winner" that didn't actually perform better where it mattered, this one will hit close to home. Kath Pay makes a sharp case that most email marketers are declaring winners based on a single metric — and missing the full picture. A subject line that drives more clicks might attract less qualified traffic, lower your AOV, and reduce revenue per recipient. The real shift? Stop using tests to find winners and start using them to understand behavior. Short test windows, audience variability, and inbox context all shape results in ways we rarely account for. Worth reading before you run your next test. MarTech​

Cloudflare Says AI Made 1,100 Jobs Obsolete, Even As Revenue Hit A Record High - Cloudflare just cut 20% of its workforce — 1,100 people — while posting record revenue of $640 million, up 34% year-over-year. CEO Matthew Prince was blunt: this isn't cost-cutting, it's AI making roles obsolete. Internal AI usage jumped 600% in three months, with some employees becoming 10 to 100x more productive. The kicker? Prince says they'll likely have more employees by 2027 — just different ones. For marketers watching the AI transformation unfold, this is the clearest signal yet: the roles that survive are the ones embracing AI tools daily, not the ones supporting people who don't. TechCrunch​

More Recommended Reads

Gmail’s AI Inbox May Redefine Deliverability - Gmail just announced AI Inbox — and it could do to email what AI Overviews did to search. Instead of scrolling through messages, Gmail's AI will decide which emails surface and which disappear into the background. Six email experts weighed in, and the consensus is striking: deliverability is no longer pass/fail — it now has shades of visibility. The good news? AI will reward genuinely useful content and punish generic blasts. The bad news? Your emails now need to convince both the reader and the algorithm. With Gmail controlling 25% of global inboxes, sender reputation, engagement history, and clear copy have never mattered more. The inbox is becoming algorithmic — plan accordingly. MarTech​

How To Find And Fix What AI Gets Wrong About Your Brand - AI tools are now a first stop for product research — and when they get your brand wrong, most people won't question it. They'll just move on. This Semrush guide walks through how to audit what ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity are saying about you, trace where incorrect information is coming from, and fix it at the source. The most useful insight? AI trusts third-party sources over your own website, so an outdated G2 review or stale Reddit thread can override your actual pricing page. If you haven't checked what AI is telling potential customers about your brand, that's your first to-do this week. Semrush​

Course Correction: Google To Link More Sources In AI Overviews - Google is making a notable course correction with AI Overviews — adding more links to source websites in several new ways. New "Further Exploration" sections will link to relevant articles, "Expert Advice" snippets will surface content from publishers and forums, and hovering over source links will now show preview pop-ups. There's also a subscription integration pilot that showed users were significantly more likely to click through when their subscribed sites appeared in AI answers. Google still won't admit AI Overviews have hurt website traffic, but these changes tell a different story. If you've been worried about zero-click searches eating your traffic, this is a step in the right direction — though whether it's enough remains to be seen. Ars Technica​

Recommended Newsletters Of The Week

​Maximizing LinkedIn For Business Growth​

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Latest From My Blog

Welcome Email: How To Write One That Turns New Subscribers Into Loyal Fans (With Examples) - Your welcome email gets an 83.6% open rate — the highest of any email you'll ever send. So why are most businesses still sending a generic "thanks for subscribing" and calling it done? In my latest post, I break down a complete framework for welcome emails that actually convert, including why a 3–5 email series generates 51% more revenue than a single message. I walk through what to include, what to avoid, and how to adapt for ecommerce, B2B, service businesses, and newsletters. Plus 7 real examples from brands like Glossier, Slack, and Duolingo that show exactly what good looks like. If your welcome email hasn't been updated in a while, this is your sign. Neal Schaffer​

Facebook SEO Optimization: How To Get Your Page And Posts Found In 2026 - Most businesses treat their Facebook Page like a digital bulletin board — post and hope. But here's what's changed: since Meta's July 2025 update, your public Facebook posts now show up directly in Google search results. That makes every caption, alt text, and Group discussion a searchable asset. In my latest post, I walk through how to optimize your Page name, About section, and content strategy for both Facebook's internal search and Google. The data point that surprised even me? Facebook referral traffic to websites grew roughly 4x by early 2026, reversing years of decline. If you've been ignoring Facebook SEO, the opportunity cost just got a lot bigger. Neal Schaffer​