Latest Digital / Social Media Marketing News & Insights

​Presented by Neal Schaffer​

In this week's newsletter:

• Pages ranking #1 are 8x more likely to be human-written than AI-generated.
• LinkedIn's automated comment crackdown matters for your engagement approach.
• If you're using AI for content and still doing heavy edits, your guide is the problem, not the tool.

Hey Reader,

Greetings from a sunny Irvine, California!

I want to let you in on a secret of mine—I haven't even posted the below picture on social media yet, but I have been working hard on my next book, and you are looking at the exact process I am using to write it!

I am literally narrating the first draft of my book while I go out on my outdoor walks, which I do every day for an hour. That roughly equates to "writing" one chapter a day!

And if you were curious, my next book is going to be a slight departure from being a general book about "marketing" but a broader book that lives at the intersection of personal branding, artificial intelligence, and actually writing and publishing a book.

Sound intriguing? Click here to let me know of your potential interest in joining my launch team! You'll get an early digital copy before anyone else, plus a behind-the-scenes look at the AI workflow I used to write it. The link will take you to Amazon to check out all of my books in case you missed buying one of them, but you will be tagged and your interest will be registered!

Now, on to 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 News

OpenAI Is Hiring Ad-Tech Firms To Make ChatGPT Ads Talk Back To You - OpenAI's ChatGPT ads hit $100M in annualized revenue in just six weeks — and now they're building something far more ambitious. The company is partnering with ad-tech firms like Smartly and Criteo to create conversational ad units that actually talk back to users inside ChatGPT. Think: click an ad, enter a chatbot experience with tailored suggestions. They've hired a former Meta VP to run a permanent ad sales org, and self-serve tools for small businesses launch this month. With 800M weekly users and only 5% paying, the ad machine is just getting started. Worth watching how this reshapes the AI landscape. The Next Web​

Does AI Content Rank Well In Search? [Survey + Data Study] - Semrush analyzed 42,000 blog posts and the results are clear: pages ranking #1 are 8x more likely to be human-written than AI-generated. Yet 72% of SEOs believe AI content ranks just as well. Both are technically right — the gap only shows up at the very top. From position 5 onward, AI content holds its own. The real takeaway? Use AI to move faster through research and drafting, then invest the time you save into expert insights, original data, and the kind of depth that earns top positions. Speed is the benefit — not a shortcut to #1. Semrush​

AI Tools Are Your Buyers’ New Search Engine. Here’s How To Rank In AI Search Results For B2B. - Nearly two-thirds of B2B buyers now use AI as much as or more than traditional search when researching vendors — and for tech buyers, that jumps to 80%. This WebFX guide lays out a practical five-step framework for making sure your brand shows up when buyers ask ChatGPT or Copilot to compare solutions. The most actionable tip? Open the major AI tools and search your own product category right now. You'll quickly see whether AI gets your value proposition right — or positions your competitor more favorably because their content was easier to parse. SEO isn't dead, but it's no longer enough on its own. WebFX​

We Need To Have A Conversation About Garbage AI Content - Chima Mmeje's take on Moz is refreshingly blunt: the problem isn't AI content — it's lazy AI content. Her process? Never use AI output verbatim. Start with your own outline, let AI find gaps and improve flow, then infuse it with your examples and storytelling. The bigger shift she's pushing: stop obsessing over organic traffic and make brand affinity your north star. When people scroll past higher-ranking results to click on your content, that's the moat AI can't replicate. Her advice on distribution, trend-jacking, and full-funnel thinking is especially sharp. If you're rethinking your content strategy for the AI era, this one delivers. Moz​

This Week's Sponsor

​Experience The Future Of Social Media Management With Sendible!​

If you’re looking for a more organized, less stressful way to manage your social media, Sendible is worth exploring. It brings your scheduling, publishing, and insights into one place, helping you stay consistent without feeling overwhelmed. Take a moment to sign up and see how it fits into your workflow—you might find it makes showing up online feel a whole lot easier.

More Recommended Reads

LinkedIn Is Rewriting The Rules Of Visibility - AJ Wilcox says 30–40% of his leads now come from AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude — up from a trickle just six months ago. That alone should change how you think about LinkedIn content. His strategy: publish on your own site first, let Google index it, then republish as a LinkedIn newsletter article to feed both search and LLMs. The article also covers which new LinkedIn ad features are actually worth testing (spoiler: most aren't), why LinkedIn's automated comment crackdown matters for your engagement approach, and a sharp breakdown of the new Premium All-in-One tier. If LinkedIn is part of your strategy, this is essential reading. Social Media Examiner​

2026 LinkedIn Benchmarks - Socialinsider just analyzed 1.3 million LinkedIn posts and the 2026 benchmarks are full of surprises. Overall engagement is up 8% year-over-year, but here's what caught my eye: native documents (think carousels and PDFs) are now the top-performing format at 7% engagement — while video views dropped 36% across every page size. That's a major signal if you've been going all-in on video. The data on multi-image posts, polls, and audience growth is equally eye-opening. If you're planning your LinkedIn content strategy, these are the numbers to benchmark against. Social Insider​

LinkedIn Pulse Lost 89% Of Its Google Traffic. - LinkedIn Pulse articles lost 89% of their Google traffic — dropping from 33M monthly visits to just 3.6M. Meanwhile, standard LinkedIn posts surged 250%, now pulling 11M organic visits. The old advice to "write LinkedIn articles for SEO" has completely flipped. Posts are getting indexed at scale, accumulating backlinks, and aligning with the freshness signals Google now prioritizes. Even more telling: posts are becoming the training data and citation sources for AI models. If your thought leadership strategy still leans on Pulse, it's time to rethink your format mix. Foundation Inc.​

AI Brand Guidelines: The Key To Better Prompts And Outputs - Most people hand AI a one-line prompt like "write in a conversational tone" and wonder why the output sounds generic. Kaleigh Moore's guide on WordStream breaks down how to build a brand voice guide specifically designed for AI tools — not the loose style doc sitting in your Google Drive. The secret? Concrete "do this, not that" examples, hard boundaries, and full comparison paragraphs that show AI exactly what on-brand sounds like. If you're using AI for content and still doing heavy edits, your guide is the problem, not the tool. The 13-point checklist alone is worth bookmarking. Wordstream​

Recommended Newsletters Of The Week

​Maximizing LinkedIn For Business Growth​

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

12 Types Of Facebook Ads In 2026: Complete Guide To Formats, Specs And Best Practices - In my latest post, I break down all 12 types of Facebook ads available in 2026 — from image and carousel to AR and playable ads — and more importantly, when to use each one. The most common mistake I see? Advertisers defaulting to the same format regardless of their goal. With Facebook's CPC still averaging under a dollar compared to Google's $2.69–$5.26, the opportunity is massive — but only if you're matching the right format to the right objective. Consider this your complete cheat sheet for smarter ad spend. Neal Schaffer​

15 Best Social Media Marketing Tools For 2026: Organized By What You Actually Need - I've been testing social media tools for over 15 years, and the landscape in 2026 is more crowded than ever. In my latest post, I cut through the noise and organize 15 tools by what you actually need — scheduling, content creation, or analytics. No fluff, just honest assessments with real pricing and pros/cons. The surprise? Some of the strongest options start under $30/month and rival tools costing 4x as much. Whether you're a solopreneur or running an agency, this is your shortcut to the right stack without the overspend. Neal Schaffer​