Weekly Digital Marketing & Generative AI for Marketing News from Your Digital Marketing Coach
Every Friday I provide a curated newsletter for thousands of marketers, entrepreneurs, business owners and content creators that covers the latest news as well as actionable advice on all things digital, content, influencer, and social media marketing. I try my best to also provide advice on the latest developments of generative AI and how to leverage it for marketing as well as personal branding for your digital presence.
Share
From Search To Social: Inside The Billions Shifting To Social-First Marketing | LinkedIn Boolean Search Explained | Search Everywhere Optimization: 5 Places To Optimize Beyond Google + More!
OMG - it has been awhile since I was last in touch with you ... hope all is good?
For those that follow me on Instagram (https://instagram.com/nealschaffer), you would have known that I was in Mongolia for a week and then Japan for another.
After getting back from two weeks of travel, I have been hunkering down on finalizing the revised and expanded version of Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth. It will be double in size, and I am preparing paper/hardback and audio versions as well!
As a reminder, if you have bought the first version and submitted a review online, please send me a screenshot so that I can send you a free upgrade when it is ready! And if you have read it and haven't submitted a review, what are you waiting for? ;-)
Now on to this week's Top 10 news!
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.
Meta just dropped a game-changer: AI-powered voice translations with lip sync for Reels. This means your content can now speak Spanish (with more languages coming), using your voice—just in another language. If you create Reels, this could seriously expand your reach and help break language barriers. Not perfect yet, but the chance to grow your global audience just got real.
Brain.fm is music made in collaboration with neuroscientists, to help high performers sharpen their edge. Whether you're coding, creating, or crushing your to-do list, scientifically-optimized audio can help you find your flow state faster and stay there longer. It’s what elite minds use to go from focused... to unstoppable.
→ Improve productivity, block out distractions
→ Categories for deep work, creativity, learning, and more
→ ADHD mode for brains that need extra stimulation
→ Try it free for 14 days and unlock your next level
A new peer-reviewed study shows that LLMs often favor AI-written content over human text—especially in product descriptions, abstracts, and movie summaries. This raises the risk of a “gate tax,” where brands may feel forced to use AI tools just to stay visible in AI-driven discovery systems. While still early, the research signals a future where AI-friendly copy may outperform human-only writing, making this a key trend for marketers to watch.
Buffer is turning its entire team into creators—not just using their own tool, but living the full creator journey alongside their customers. Through Slack channels, workshops, shared resources, and even leaderboards, Buffer teammates are posting consistently, building confidence, and bringing fresh voices to the brand’s channels. The result? Authentic connection, stronger community ties, and a brand culture that’s hard to copy. A bold bet—and it’s already paying off.
Klaviyo just bought Gatsby to solve one of marketing’s biggest headaches: turning social engagement into owned relationships. With social commerce racing toward $6 trillion by 2030, this move helps brands capture emails and SMS signups straight from DMs, tags, and mentions—no website visit needed. The result? Richer profiles, better personalization, and stronger ROI as Klaviyo unifies social signals with customer data in one platform.
Google isn’t the only search game in town anymore. People now turn to AI assistants, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, and Pinterest to discover products, get reviews, and make decisions. That’s where Search Everywhere Optimization (SEvO) comes in—ensuring your brand shows up authentically wherever your audience looks. This guide explains how to optimize across platforms so you stay visible, trusted, and competitive in the new search landscape.
Google’s AI Overviews are reshaping SEO—and landing your content there can drive huge visibility. These AI-generated summaries favor long-tail queries, clear structure, fresh updates, and authoritative sources. To rank, you’ll need to optimize with schema, build credibility, refresh top content, and make sure pages are crawlable. This article shares 7 pro tips to future-proof your SEO so your brand shows up in Google’s AI-powered answers.
Social-first marketing is no longer optional—it’s the new norm. With 80% of marketers shifting budget from search and TV to social, brands like Unilever, Duolingo, and Lowe’s are proving that social drives real business growth. If you're still treating social as a side channel, you're missing out. This article breaks down why social is now the center of strategy, and how smart brands are tying every post to ROI.
Instagram SEO is now bigger than ever—your posts can show up not just in-app, but on Google too. That means optimizing captions, alt text, and hashtags is no longer optional if you want new audiences to discover you. This guide breaks down how Instagram ranks search results, how to refresh old posts for visibility, and the exact steps to make your profile and content search-ready both on Instagram and beyond.
Recommended Newsletters of the Week
Strategic AF
by Adriana Tica
Tired of marketing advice that’s either obvious or outright shady? Strategic AF flips the script. It's the only newsletter that treats solopreneurs, founders, and marketers like grown-ups, not toddlers looking for the next shiny toy. Subscribe to get sharp, no-nonsense strategy advice without the cringe. No bro-marketing, no fluff — just real, sustainable growth tactics. Subscribe if you want results. Scroll past if you prefer gimmicks.
Named as a top thought leader and one to follow by Forbes and LinkedIn for Nonprofits, Julia Campbell is a nonprofit digital consultant, speaker, and author on a mission to make the digital world a better place. Host of the acclaimed Nonprofit Nation podcast, she’s written two books for nonprofits on social media and storytelling, and her online courses, webinars, and talks have helped hundreds of nonprofits make the shift to digital thinking. You can learn more about Julia at www.jcsocialmarketing.com/blog
Check out the resources I offer below and sign up for my newsletter!
I help aspiring course creators turn their ideas into a profitable reality, regardless of their starting point. Hi, I am Alan Martin! Social media guy turned Course Launch Coach. I’m the founder of Freedom Hackers and Chat Marketing. In my weekly newsletter I share tips and strategies and mindset hacks to help you create and launch your course as quickly as possible.
If LinkedIn search ever feels noisy or unhelpful, Boolean search is your secret weapon. In this blog post of mine, I break down exactly how to use AND, OR, NOT, quotes, and parentheses to refine searches and uncover hidden opportunities—whether for client prospecting, partnerships, recruiting, or competitive research. Mastering these strings helps you save time, find the right people faster, and make LinkedIn a powerful business growth engine.
Here I break down the digital marketing funnel—from awareness to purchase—and show how each stage guides prospects closer to becoming customers. I also share common mistakes (like focusing too much on top-of-funnel or neglecting mobile) and strategies for optimizing every step. A well-built funnel isn’t just about conversions—it’s about building trust, long-term relationships, and sustainable growth.
P.S. Pressing the unsubscribe button at the bottom will remove you from all communication from me. If you'd like to keep in touch and only receive monthly, instead of weekly, newsletters, please click here. Thank you!
Weekly Digital Marketing & Generative AI for Marketing News from Your Digital Marketing Coach
Neal Schaffer
Every Friday I provide a curated newsletter for thousands of marketers, entrepreneurs, business owners and content creators that covers the latest news as well as actionable advice on all things digital, content, influencer, and social media marketing. I try my best to also provide advice on the latest developments of generative AI and how to leverage it for marketing as well as personal branding for your digital presence.
Read more from Weekly Digital Marketing & Generative AI for Marketing News from Your Digital Marketing Coach
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...
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...
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...
