Latest Digital / Social Media Marketing News & Insights

​Presented by Neal Schaffer​

In this week's newsletter:

• If your content calendar is full of pieces that could have been written by anyone, that's the problem Google is telling you to fix.
• If you're offering consulting or coaching services, LinkedIn’s “Get Advice From Me” is worth activating immediately.
• If you've been waiting to invest in Reddit, this is the signal that the barriers are coming down.

Hey Reader,

I took some time off these past couple of weeks — and I'm glad I did. I got to visit my niece (isn't she adorable?) and reconnect with old high school friends in the Bay Area for a mini-reunion.

Here's the thing about spending time with people outside the marketing world: they see AI completely differently than we do.

One friend — an avid reader of AI books and podcasts, not a marketer — dropped a point I haven't heard anyone in our industry make: "Neal, all of these companies investing billions in AI with so few short-term returns means that our use of AI is being temporarily subsidized."

That stopped me cold. Think about what that means. What happens when the free tier of ChatGPT gets more limited? When Claude doubles its pricing? When the VC-subsidized era of cheap AI access ends?

My takeaway: now is the time to go all-in on building AI into your workflow. The access we have today to enterprise-grade AI at consumer prices is a window, not a permanent state. The marketers who build their AI muscles now will have an enormous advantage when that window closes.

OK, with that food for thought — 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 News

Why Your Marketing Team's AI Problem Is Actually A Workflow Problem - 88% of organizations say they use AI, but nearly two-thirds are still stuck in pilot mode. The problem? It's not the technology — it's the workflow. Most marketing teams are using AI as disconnected copilots: generate copy here, summarize there, copy-paste everywhere. No context carries from one step to the next. This piece makes a compelling case that before you add another AI tool, you need to map how your work actually flows — then identify where AI can slot in as a participant, not just an assistant. The crawl-walk-run framework here is practical: start with one well-defined task, add AI support, observe, refine, repeat. If your team's AI excitement has quietly stalled, this is probably why. CMS Wire​

Claude Skills For SEO And Marketing: What They Are And How To Use Them - If you've ever found yourself re-explaining the same voice rules, formatting preferences, and examples to AI every single time — Claude Skills fix that. A skill is a saved playbook that fires automatically when Claude recognizes the task. No re-prompting, no drift. This Ahrefs walkthrough covers how to build your own, from picking a repeatable task to writing descriptions that actually trigger. The sharpest insight? A skill is only as good as the expertise you encode into it. One content director built a 23-skill pipeline that produces publish-ready articles in under 12 minutes — but it took 13 years of editorial experience to know what to put in those files. Worth trying with one task you repeat every week and seeing if it sticks. Ahrefs​

The Reddit Earnings Story Most Marketers Missed - Reddit's Q1 earnings made headlines for 74% ad revenue growth and 126.8 million daily users — but the real story is what the CEO said between the numbers. Steve Huffman publicly committed to tearing down Reddit's karma walls that have blocked brands from participating, making it easier to launch communities, and doubling down on human conversation as the thing AI can't replace. The growth target? 100 million daily U.S. users — and the audience is already there, they just need to convert from weekly to daily. For marketers watching AI reshape search, Reddit is positioning itself as the platform where validation happens — where people go to feel okay about decisions before they make them. If you've been waiting to invest in Reddit, this is the signal that the barriers are coming down. Search Engine Journal

Google Wants Non-Commodity Content. These B2B Brands Show You What It Looks Like. - Google's Danny Sullivan just split content into two buckets: commodity and non-commodity. Commodity is the generic listicles and how-tos anyone could write. Non-commodity is content only your team could create because you lived it — founder stories, tests that surprised you, strategic decisions and what they cost. Guess which one wins in AI search? The sharpest takeaway: audit your next six weeks of planned content and ask whether a competent writer could produce each piece without any input from your subject matter experts. If yes, it's commodity. The brands winning AI visibility — like 6Sense, Clarify, and Beehiiv — all built content engines around real expertise, not AI-generated filler. If your content calendar is full of pieces that could have been written by anyone, that's the problem Google is telling you to fix. Foundation Inc.​

The AI-Powered Consumer: Why Use Is Surging While Sentiment Slides - 73% of consumers now use generative AI, up from 45% in 2024 — but here's the twist: enthusiasm is actually declining. Prophet's study of 2,000 consumers across five countries reveals a growing paradox: people are using AI more than ever, but they're increasingly anxious about losing human connection and judgment. The use cases are far beyond basic search — consumers are uploading medical records, running purchase simulations, and monitoring discounts autonomously. For marketers, the most important finding might be this: 61% use AI for pre-purchase product research, making it the #1 use case globally. If your brand isn't showing up in those AI-powered moments, someone else's is. Prophet.com​

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More Recommended Reads

The 10 Best AI Facebook Post Generators In 2026 Compared - In my latest post, I tested nearly every major AI Facebook post generator on the market and narrowed it down to the 10 that are actually worth your time. The biggest gap in most guides? They ignore Meta's own Advantage+ creative tools, which are trained on actual Facebook performance data and are often stronger than third-party options for ads. My honest take: the best tool is usually the one you already pay for — Canva, Buffer, or Hootsuite's native AI will beat a premium tool with lazy prompts every time. I also share the five-part prompt framework I use with clients to make AI output sound human instead of generic. The bottom line: AI drafts save hours, but publishing them unedited is why your reach keeps dropping. Neal Schaffer​

Google Adds More AI Search Links, Still No Click Data For SEOs - Google keeps changing how it talks about AI search clicks — from "no data to share" to "remaining clicks are higher quality" to "bounce clicks" — but one thing hasn't changed: Search Console still doesn't separate AI Overview clicks from regular search. This week Google announced five new link features for AI search, including inline citations and subscription labels. But none of them include reporting. Meanwhile, the independent data keeps piling up: click-through rates drop 58% when AI Overviews appear, and a controlled experiment found removing AI Overviews increased organic clicks 38% with no change in user satisfaction. If you're trying to measure your AI search performance, you're still flying blind — and Google isn't in a hurry to hand you the instruments. Search Engine Journal​

LinkedIn Will Enable Consultants To Book Business Direct From Their Profile - LinkedIn just added a feature that could change how consultants, coaches, and creators monetize their network. Premium Business subscribers can now add a "Get advice from me" button directly on their profile — enabling paid 1-on-1 consultations with booking, payments, and video calls all handled in-app. No external scheduling tools, no friction between discovery and conversion. For anyone who's built a LinkedIn network but struggled to turn connections into revenue, this removes the biggest gap in the funnel. It's rolling out to U.S. Premium Business subscribers this month. If you're offering consulting or coaching services, this is worth activating immediately. Social Media Today​

What Is Social Listening? Everything Marketers Need To Know In 2026 - Most marketers are flying blind — posting content and hoping it lands without ever checking what their audience is actually saying. In my latest post, I break down social listening in 2026: what it is, how it differs from monitoring, and why the brands skipping it are losing ground every quarter. The biggest shift? AI has removed the manual labor — today's tools catch sarcasm, parse emojis, detect your logo in untagged videos, and surface trends before they peak. But the strategic thinking still has to be human. I walk through a five-step framework for building a listening strategy, what to track (and what to exclude), and real examples like Stanley turning a viral car-fire video into a brand reputation win. If you've never audited what people say about you when they're not talking to you, start with three keywords this week. Neal Schaffer​

Lessons Learned From Adobe’s 2026 Q2 AI Traffic Report - Twelve months ago, AI-referred traffic to retailers converted at half the rate of other channels. In March 2026, it converted 42% better. That's not gradual maturation — that's a complete sign flip in one year. Adobe's Q2 report shows AI traffic to US retailers grew 393% year-over-year, with engagement up 12%, time spent up 48%, and revenue per visit up 37%. The reason? People arriving from ChatGPT or Perplexity have already done their research — the click to your site is the last step, not the first. But here's the catch: the lift only applies to sites AI can actually read. Two quick tests to run this weekend: disable JavaScript and see if your key content renders, and check whether your pages lead with facts or brand theater. No Hacks​

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