In this week's newsletter:

• LinkedIn says it can now detect AI slop with 94% precision.
• If you've treated social and search as separate budgets, it is time to change the math.
• Are your Instagram Stories are mostly reposted feed content and a link? Think again!

Hey Reader,

I got back from Japan on a Sunday night, and Monday morning I was driving four hours to Las Vegas to speak at a conference for marketers who work at senior living facilities. I’d fully unplugged in Japan, which is why you didn’t hear from me last week. My body is finally back on LA time.

At dinner with a few attendees, I ended up talking with a CMO who was amazingly insightful and extremely experienced at what she does. Toward the end of the night she told me, “Neal, I’d love to become a fractional CMO one day.”

Here’s the thing, though: the more she shared, the more I realized she was brilliant, and that there was no way for anyone to know it. Unless you happened to have dinner with her, you’d never find out.

Which got me thinking about how many of us are in the same spot. Fractional work, consulting, and speaking gigs go to people who have built a platform and a brand, because that’s how buyers know you exist. And buyers aren’t the only ones looking anymore. One of this week’s stories found social media links in two-thirds of Google’s AI Overview answers. If your expertise only lives in conversations, neither people nor AI can find it.

Conversations like that one are why I’m determined to finish my next book, which is all about helping you write yours. The manuscript is done, and I’m working through edits with the goal of getting it out by the end of the year (stay tuned!). To me, a book is the best way to get the expertise out of your head and into something people can actually find.

As I like to say, closed mouths don’t get fed. So where does your expertise live today? If the honest answer is “in my head and on client calls,” pick one place to start publishing it this quarter: a blog, a newsletter, LinkedIn, or even a book. Hit reply and let me know which one you choose.

OK, let’s jump 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

YouTube Retention Strategy: How To Hook, Hold, And Convert Viewers - Still giving your YouTube videos 30 seconds to hook viewers? That's outdated math. YouTube strategist Adam Ivy says the hook and the intrigue that follows need to land in roughly eight seconds, and he shares his BINGE scripting framework for keeping people watching after that. The insight that stopped me: the numbered listicle format is the biggest retention killer, because it tells viewers exactly how much is left. Retention is what earns you distribution, so script for watch time first. Social Media Examiner​

AI Favors Brands With An Active Social Media Presence - Social links appeared in 67.66% of Google AI Overview responses in a new SE Ranking study of 100,000 keywords, along with 32.39% of AI Mode replies but only 8.4% of ChatGPT answers. YouTube was the most cited social source in AI Overviews, while Reddit and LinkedIn led for ChatGPT. If you've treated social and search as separate budgets, this changes the math: your social presence is now part of your AI visibility, and each AI tool favors different platforms. Social Media Today​

Social Media Contests: 19 Ideas That Work In 2026 (And The Rules That Changed) - Contests come up in nearly every executive class I teach at Rutgers, and most of the advice out there is now outdated. Requiring the classic like, share, and tag three friends entry now violates Meta's promotions policy, and TikTok's rules point the same way. In my latest post I share 19 contest ideas that still work, plus a lesson from my own giveaways: 76 of 115 entrants from my 2020 book launch are still subscribed six years later. With holiday giveaway season approaching, now's the time to rewrite your entry rules. Neal Schafffer​

Claude Design: How To Create On-Brand Visuals With AI - Claude Design doesn't generate a single image, and that's what makes it useful. It's a layout tool, closer to InDesign than Midjourney. This walkthrough shows how to build a reusable design system from your logos, colors, and website so every slide, landing page, and PDF comes out on-brand. The smartest detail: the system saves as a portable design.md file you can drop into Claude Code, Cowork, or other AI tools. If you're a solopreneur without a designer, set this up once and reuse it everywhere. Social Media Examiner​

WordPress SEO Plugins: The 7 I Actually Run, And The 10 I Tested Against Them - I've run my site on WordPress since 2008, and in my latest post I share the seven SEO plugins that actually run it today, plus the 10 I tested against them. The surprise? Three of the seven optimize nothing at all. They handle maintenance, which is where most SEO work on an established site really happens. I also explain why my llms.txt file listed just five of my several hundred posts, and what else I found hiding in it. Plugins are table stakes, never the strategy. Neal Schaffer​

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More Recommended Reads

How To Use Instagram Story Interactive Features - If your Instagram Stories are mostly reposted feed content and a link, you're wasting the platform's best relationship tool. Reels reach new people, but Stories deepen ties with the followers you already have. This practical guide walks through polls, question stickers, Add Yours, and link stickers. My favorite tip: don't ask a question you won't use, because the answers should become follow-up Stories and future posts. Treat Stories as a conversation, never a content dump. Ignite Social Media​

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Email Marketing In The AI Era: Personalization, Automation And Deliverability - Most marketers are pointing AI at the wrong email problem: writing more copy. The bigger revenue gains sit in personalization, automation, and deliverability, and they only work when you run them as one system. Companies over $51 million in revenue already get 71% of their email revenue from automation, while nearly a fifth of sent emails never reach the inbox. There's a practical 90-day plan to fix your weakest link first. With only 34% of companies using AI-driven personalization, there's plenty of room to pull ahead. Neil Patel​

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LinkedIn Shares Checklist For B2B Marketing Campaigns - Your B2B buyers are asking AI tools to shortlist vendors before they ever talk to sales. LinkedIn says that means measuring only at lead capture misses most of the decision. Its new checklist lays out key performance principles: reach everyone who shapes the purchase, match content to each stage of the journey, and measure every stage with tools like Conversion Tracking. If your LinkedIn campaigns are judged purely on cost per lead, how much of your real influence is going unseen? Social Media Today​

69% Of Marketers Are Publishing More AI Content Than Last Year - 69% of marketers say they're publishing a bigger share of AI content than a year ago, according to a new survey of 301 marketers. Two findings jumped out at me. Claude is now the most-used AI tool for content, chosen by 83% of AI users, ahead of ChatGPT and Gemini. And only 2.7% trust AI content with no human review at all. You'll come away knowing exactly where your own AI workflow stands against your peers. Ahrefs​

LinkedIn Exec Offers Insight Into The Battle Against AI Slop - LinkedIn now says it can detect AI slop with 94% precision across every post distributed beyond your immediate network. VP of Engineering Tim Jurka explains how it works. Reports from the AI slop button train larger teacher models, which then train smaller ones. Meanwhile, policy-specific AI agents flag posts and escalate tricky cases to human reviewers. LinkedIn previously reported cutting views of AI slop by 40%. If your posts lean on generic AI drafts, your reach is already paying the price. Social Media Today​

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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.

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If I can be of any help to you or your organization, please consider joining my Digital First Group Coaching Membership Community or considering hiring me as a Fractional CMO. Need more info? Book a time with me simply by replying to this email!

Warm regards,

Neal

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