Latest Digital / Social Media Marketing News & Insights

​Presented by Neal Schaffer​

In this week's newsletter:

• The best marketing teams often have a Marketing Engineer in their ranks
• LLMs are not as complex as everyone is making them out to be
• It’s often the enthusiastic AI adopters that get burned out the most

Hey Reader,

Let's be honest — some weeks, the content creation hamster wheel wins. You fall behind, lose momentum, and the blank screen starts to feel like a personal failure.

Here's what I've learned after 15+ years in this space: those "off" weeks can actually be your most valuable ones.

Instead of forcing out a post you're not proud of, take that same 30 minutes and do something most marketers skip — genuinely engage with your network. Like. Comment. Share. Start a real conversation.

Will your impressions drop? Maybe. But here's the thing: one meaningful connection is worth more than a hundred passive views. A single thoughtful comment puts you on someone's radar in a way that passively scrolling never will.

Your audience doesn't just need your content. They need to know you're paying attention to theirs.

Something to keep in mind as we dive into this week's updates — and there's a lot to cover!

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 Podcast Episode

​People Not Prompts: The Marketing System AI Can’t Replicate​

In this recent podcast episode, I share the full framework from my DigiMarCon keynote — and it starts with a stat that got a real reaction from the audience: consumer preference for AI-generated content dropped from 60% to just 26% in two years. AI solved the execution problem, but execution without strategy just produces more of the wrong thing faster. I walk through the SCS framework — Search, Email, Social — and the people ecosystem layer that makes the whole system work. The proof? Deloitte activated 250 internal creators on LinkedIn, generating 400 million impressions and $13 million in earned media value. No prompts did that — people did. If you want to see how it all connects, this one lays out the complete roadmap.

This Week's Video

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​Stop Being Creative. Start Being Consistent.​

I recently sat down with Jim MacLeod, author of The Visual Marketer — someone I first met a decade ago when I invited him to speak at my Social Tools Summit conference. Jim's unique edge? He's a trained graphic designer who became a marketer, and that combination shapes everything in his approach. His biggest takeaway: consistency matters more than creativity when it comes to visual identity. The moment you get sick of your branding, your audience is just starting to recognize it. He also shares a smart framework for aligning visual content with your customer research and content calendar — from industry-focused thought leadership (lightly branded) to solution content (fully branded). If your visuals feel disconnected from your strategy, this conversation will help you fix that.

This Week's News

LinkedIn Expands AI-Powered Conversational Search - LinkedIn just expanded its AI-powered conversational search to all users — no longer limited to Premium members. Now you can describe what you're looking for in natural language and get contextually relevant results for people, pages, and posts. The platform also added AI-generated summaries on profiles in search results explaining why that person is being surfaced for your query. It even handles nicknames and misspellings now. For marketers focused on LinkedIn visibility, this matters: your profile content, keywords, and verification badges are becoming even more important as search gets smarter about matching intent. Worth optimizing your LinkedIn presence with this shift in mind. Social Media Today​

LLMs Are Not As Complex As You Think: Here Are 10 Strategies To Improve AI Visibility - Chima Mmeje's latest on Moz cuts through the GEO hype with a refreshingly practical take: LLMs are not as complex as everyone is making them out to be. Instead of answering queries, you're now answering conversations — and models favor digestible formats like FAQs, listicles, and clearly structured content. The standout insight? 85% of AI citations come from third-party sources, which means your wider online reputation matters more than your website alone. The panel's budget advice is equally sharp: invest in digital PR, original research, cross-team training, and offline brand building. If your PR, social, and SEO teams are still operating in silos, no amount of optimization will close the gap. Moz​

Google’s Task-Based Agentic Search Is Disrupting SEO Today, Not Tomorrow - Google's Sundar Pichai says the future of search is "agentic" — and it's not a future prediction. Google just rolled out AI-powered restaurant booking globally, where you describe your group size, time, and vibe, and agents scan platforms to find bookable spots in real time. That's not search — that's task completion. Cloudflare's framing nails the shift: the old web was a restaurant with a fixed menu; the new web gives everyone a personal chef. The implication for marketers? Your website needs to be readable and actionable by AI agents, not just humans. WordPress 7.0 is already building for this. The SEO fundamentals don't change, but how your content gets discovered and acted on is transforming right now. Search Engine Journal​

This Week's Sponsor

​The AI Video Generation Tool Loved by Creators.

If you’re a business owner, marketer, or content creator looking to get more mileage out of your content, Pictory can help you easily turn blog posts, webinars, or ideas into engaging videos. It’s a simple way to expand your reach without adding more complexity to your workflow. Feel free to check it out and see how it can support your content strategy at your own pace.

More Recommended Reads

Introducing The Newest Edition To Your Team: The Marketing Engineer - Profound just formalized what's already happening on the best marketing teams: the Marketing Engineer — a hybrid role that builds the agents, automations, and systems that make every function faster. The gap between "using AI" and "building with AI" is becoming the gap between teams that scale and teams that don't. There's a massive difference between drafting a blog post in ChatGPT and building a system that monitors 200 competitive surfaces and pushes updated talk tracks to sales before the next call. The ideal candidates? Growth marketers, SEOs, and ops people who taught themselves to connect APIs and architect workflows. If someone on your team is already doing this without the title, name it and give them the mandate to go deeper. Foundation, Inc.​

Google Analytics For Social Media: Track Traffic & Conversions - If you can't answer "how much traffic is social media actually driving?" — this guide fixes that. SocialPilot walks through the full GA4 setup for social media tracking, from installing your measurement ID to configuring conversion events. The most overlooked step? UTM parameters on every link you share. Without them, GA4 labels your social traffic as "Direct" — making your reports useless. The platform-specific tips are especially practical, covering where to place tagged URLs on Instagram (bio, Stories, Reels) versus LinkedIn or TikTok where the rules differ. If you're reporting social media ROI with any guesswork, this is the infrastructure piece you're missing. Social Pilot​

AI Is Making Us Faster, More Productive, And Worse At Thinking - Goldman Sachs found no meaningful relationship between productivity and AI adoption at the economy-wide level — even as companies spend $667 billion on AI infrastructure this year. The productivity gains that do exist are strikingly narrow: roughly 30% improvements in customer support and software development. That's it. Meanwhile, a UC Berkeley study found AI doesn't reduce workloads — it intensifies them through "workload creep," where faster tasks just raise expectations. The most burned out? Not the skeptics — the enthusiastic adopters. And here's the stat that should give every marketer pause: 35% of consumers simply said they don't need AI on their devices. This is a sharp counterweight to the hype worth sitting with. The Next Web​

Recommended Newsletters Of The Week

​Maximizing LinkedIn For Business Growth​

Unlock LinkedIn’s full potential with Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth—your go-to guide for building a powerful brand, generating leads, and driving real business results. Whether you're a business professional looking to attract clients, a job seeker wanting to stand out, an entrepreneur building your personal brand, or a sales professional focused on social selling and lead generation, this fully updated and expanded 2nd edition of Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth delivers a proven, practical playbook for maximizing LinkedIn in 2026 and beyond.

Latest From My Blog

AI In E-commerce: How To Boost Sales, Cut Costs, And Stay Competitive In 2026 - I break down how AI is reshaping e-commerce in 2026 — and the numbers are hard to ignore. The market hit $7.25 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $64 billion by 2034. But the real story is agentic commerce: during Cyber Week alone, AI agents drove $67 billion in sales, with AI influencing 20% of all retail orders. Imagine telling your AI assistant you need a winter jacket — it already knows your style, searches dozens of retailers, waits for price drops, and completes the purchase. That's not hypothetical; ChatGPT, Google, and Amazon are all building it right now. Whether you're running a Shopify store or an enterprise operation, this is your roadmap for where to start and what ROI to expect. Neal Schaffer​

How Much Do TikTokers Make? The Real Earnings Breakdown For 2026 - Here's what TikTokers actually earn in 2026 — and the gap between perception and reality is massive. TikTok's Creator Rewards Program now pays $0.40–$1.00 per 1,000 views, a 20x improvement over the old Creator Fund. But here's the truth: platform payouts are still pocket change compared to brand deals. Creators in the 100K–500K follower range report $3,000–$8,000 monthly from sponsorships alone. The smartest creators treat TikTok as a top-of-funnel discovery engine, then direct audiences to platforms with better monetization. With the creator economy projected to hit $480 billion by 2027, understanding these numbers is essential whether you're a creator or a brand investing in influencer partnerships. Neal Schaffer​