Today's Guide to the Marketing Jungle from Social Media Examiner...
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The weekend is almost here, Alluser! Here's a recap of the most important insights, trends, and updates from the week. Catch up in minutes and go into next week prepared.
In today's edition:
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Get the ideal Instagram settings to use with the Edits app
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The GA4 social tracking playbook you didn't know you needed
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Stop paying for the wrong ad clicks
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How to truly master a new marketing skill, tool, or technique in less time
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4 ways marketers can use NotebookLM
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TikTok Updates: Image animation, new ads, direct messaging, and more
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Here's when to use GPTs vs Projects in ChatGPT
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Optimizing for AI search
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🗞️ Industry news from Anthropic, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more
Update Your Instagram Settings for the Edits App
Think you know the best video settings for Instagram? If you're using the new Edits app, some of what you thought was right might be due for an upgrade. Adam Mosseri confirmed the ideal settings, and they might surprise you.
Whether you're chasing crisp detail, cinematic vibes, or lightning-fast edits, this post from Lucas O'Keefe breaks down exactly what resolution, frame rate, and dynamic range settings to use—and why they matter more than you think.
There's even a tip that could boost your video quality just by using the right export button. Read more here.
Track Social Traffic Like a Pro in GA4
Think you know how your social media is performing? Think again.
You've got engagement metrics like likes, comments, and shares—but what do they tell you about traffic, behavior, or conversions? Not much. That's where GA4 comes in... if you know where to look.
This post from Andy Crestodina breaks down the exact reports, settings, and filters you need to uncover what's happening when people come to your site from social media. It's not a light skim—this is a deep walkthrough for marketers who want answers—not guesses, not vibes, not answers.
Curious which social platforms are driving meaningful visits? Want to know which blog posts are quietly crushing it from a LinkedIn share? Wondering if your paid traffic is secretly underperforming compared to organic? Or what happens when you factor in mobile vs. desktop?
It's all in here—with screenshots, filters, and pro tips that'll make you look like a data genius in your next meeting. Read more here.
7 Hidden Ad Leaks Killing Your LinkedIn ROI
If you're pouring budget into LinkedIn campaigns and wondering why the ROI still feels underwhelming, this post from Anthony Blatner might help.
He reveals seven dead-simple exclusion tactics that could instantly tighten your targeting and boost your results.
It's not about working harder—it's about wasting less. And once you see the logic behind these exclusions, you'll wonder why you didn't implement them sooner.
Chances are, you'll find at least one that applies to your business—and fixing it might just be the quickest win your ad account's seen in a while. Read more here.
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Mastering Anything: A New Way to Faster and Better Results
Are you struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation in marketing? Wondering how to absorb just enough to make meaningful progress without burning out?
Pat Flynn's comprehensive micromastery framework provides marketers and entrepreneurs with practical tools for mastering a new skill level or technology without succumbing to information overwhelm.
The approach combines the systematic development of small skills with strategic risk-taking and community support to create sustainable learning that produces measurable results.
Establish Your Why: The DeLorean Exercise
The framework begins by establishing how what you want to learn will enhance your life, business, and personal brand. This motivation becomes crucial when challenges arise during the learning process.
The process begins with what Flynn calls The DeLorean Exercise, named after the time machine from Back to the Future.
Imagine stepping into the time machine, traveling one year into the future, and emerging into a world where your mastery has achieved exactly what you wanted.
If you're interested in mastering AI, you might envision reducing your work week from sixty or seventy hours to a more manageable forty hours. You have extra time for family and passion projects and are becoming more valued as an employee through increased efficiency and productivity.
This vision provides the crucial why that will sustain motivation throughout the learning process.
How to Learn Through Micro Mastery
The cornerstone of Flynn's approach is micro mastery, which involves breaking large, intimidating subjects into small, manageable pieces and focusing on mastering one piece at a time. This approach allows you to build expertise incrementally while avoiding the overwhelm that comes from trying to learn everything simultaneously.
The power of micro mastery lies in recognizing that improving any single component of a complex system can enhance overall results. Each focused improvement creates a foundation that supports and amplifies subsequent learning.
When approaching a new field or skill, the sheer number of potential focus areas can feel overwhelming. The key to selection lies at the intersection of three factors:
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What interests you personally
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What represents a foundational step in the overall process
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What will create the biggest downstream impact
Flynn suggests visualizing these factors as a Venn diagram where your energy and interest overlap with what will move you furthest forward.
For example, breaking down a single area like email marketing reveals countless components: DMARC compliance, BIMI compliance, verified mark certificates, call to action optimization, storytelling, image usage, split testing, and many others.
You could write the most compelling emails in the world, but your messaging will never be seen if no one opens them. If you increase email open rates, everything downstream improves. In this light, open rates become a logical first domino that enables everything else to function effectively.
In many cases, there is no definitively right answer for where to begin. The only wrong answer is continuing to worry about the first step while wasting time in analysis paralysis. Sometimes, the solution is flipping a coin or throwing a dart to force a decision because taking action on any reasonable starting point will provide the feedback needed to determine the next steps and understand what's working or not working.
The key is to begin somewhere logical and adjust based on experience rather than trying to optimize the perfect starting point through endless research and planning.
Implement a Voluntary Force Function
A voluntary force function is a strategic method for creating artificial pressure and accountability by deliberately setting up future situations that will require you to perform or deliver results. Think of it as voluntarily putting yourself in a position where you have no choice but to follow through on your learning goals.
Here's how it works: If you want to master storytelling, you don't just read about it or practice it privately. Instead, you sign up to speak at an event sixty days from now, knowing you'll need to tell compelling stories to succeed. This commitment creates several powerful dynamics. You have a non-negotiable deadline that prevents endless preparation without action. You have public accountability since backing out would damage your reputation. Most importantly, you have genuine stakes that motivate consistent daily practice.
Execute Monthly Why-FI Check-Ins
Why-Focused Introspection is a monthly fifteen-minute practice that helps ensure your learning activities remain aligned with your underlying motivations and goals. This practice prevents shiny object syndrome, where new opportunities and learning possibilities constantly distract from established priorities.
During these monthly sessions, you zoom out from daily activities and ask whether your current learning and actions align with your fundamental reasons for pursuing growth. The goal isn't extensive analysis but rather a quick calibration to ensure you haven't lost sight of your primary motivations.
Are you still on track, or have you unconsciously drifted away from your core objectives?
If you discover misalignment during these sessions, you can make conscious adjustments to realign your activities with your goals.
Today's advice is provided with insights from Pat Flynn, a featured guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.
Watch the full interview on YouTube
NotebookLM for Business: Unlocking Valuable Insights
Drowning in documents, meeting notes, and scattered data? Wondering how to extract meaningful insights without wasting hours sorting through files?
Lisa Monks, a social media and AI strategist and founder of Chip Monk Media, describes NotebookLM as "one of the most underrated AI tools out there."
The platform's specialized features and efficiency in content summarization makes it particularly valuable for marketers who need to pull information from various sources and create content summaries, study guides, and briefing documents.
Plus, whether you're working with one document or fifty files, NotebookLM allows you to develop comprehensive overviews while maintaining factual accuracy.
4 Ways for Marketers and Content Creators to Use NotebookLM
Identify Content Gaps
You can use the mind map feature to see what content is missing from your catalog. For example, if you're a podcaster, create a notebook that contains all your podcast episodes, then generate a mind map.
Take a screenshot of the mind map, upload it to ChatGPT, and ask for suggestions about additional topics to cover or potential interview guests who could address unexplored areas.
Learning and Content Curation
Monks, who listens to multiple podcasts, has developed a systematic method for maximizing learning from audio content.
Her process begins with listening to podcasts during daily activities like driving or walking. When she returns home, she uploads the audio podcast into NotebookLM using a YouTube link, assuming the podcast has a transcript available. Alternatively, she can upload audio files directly or use transcript documents.
Monks has created separate notebooks for different podcasts she follows regularly. As new episodes are released, she adds them to the appropriate notebook. This systematic approach allows her to build comprehensive libraries of information organized by source so she can create study guides for specific episodes.
These guides help her educate herself on new concepts and test her knowledge with AI-generated questions and answers. She can also generate briefing documents that summarize key points from individual episodes or multiple episodes combined.
The process extends beyond individual learning. Monks can create audio overviews that function like secondary podcasts, providing a conversational summary of the original content. These audio overviews allow her to interact with the content through questions, diving deeper into topics that interest her most.
News Curation and Research
To stay current with rapidly evolving AI developments, Monks uses the Discover Sources feature to curate weekly news. The curated news can then be ignored or pulled into her knowledge base, where she can analyze trends, create summaries, and identify important developments she might have missed.
Meeting Documentation and Follow-Up
One of Monks' most impressive use cases involves helping a tourism industry client manage a massive trade show with up to one hundred meetings over three days. The Australian Tourism Exchange functions like speed dating for the tourism industry, with eight-minute meetings between international tourism operators and Australian businesses.
The client recorded audio from each meeting using the iPhone's built-in Notes app. After downloading the audio files, they uploaded them into NotebookLM, organizing them by day. NotebookLM transcribed all the meetings automatically, providing complete written records of every conversation. From these transcriptions, they could select individual meetings or groups of meetings to work with.
The next step involved creating detailed meeting notes using specific task prompts that outlined exactly what information should be included. Once NotebookLM generated the meeting notes, they converted these notes back into source documents within the platform, creating a searchable library of all meeting content.
The final step involved generating follow-up emails for each meeting with key discussion points, action items, and relevant next steps. This automation transformed what could have been weeks of manual work into an efficient, systematic process that ensured no crucial details were lost and that all follow-up communications were comprehensive and professional.
Today's advice provided with insights from Lisa Monks, a featured guest on the AI Explored podcast.
Watch the full interview on YouTube
On this week's Social Media Marketing Talk Show, Jerry Potter and Keenya Kelly discuss the latest TikTok news and what it means for marketers like you.
AI Alive Animation
TikTok's new AI Alive tool lets users animate still images directly within the platform, transforming them into engaging, motion-based content. While it doesn't include voice synthesis (yet), creators can pair animated visuals with music or text-to-speech overlays. It's an accessible way to boost engagement without shooting original video content.
Keenya tested this feature by animating an image of herself promoting TikTok courses. She noted the result was visually striking and felt similar to the early wow-factor of Facebook's 3D photos. While the animations are basic for now, she sees this as a powerful and accessible way to stand out—especially early adopters looking to increase reach.
Direct Messaging During Lives
TikTok is expanding its live video functionality with a new feature that allows creators to prompt direct messages from viewers—without requiring them to type anything. This functionality, part of the Service Plus program for coaches and course creators, enables a simple one-tap DM prompt during a live broadcast. For creators without clickable links in their content, this is a smart workaround to generate leads or capture emails.
As part of a TikTok pilot program for coaches and course creators, Keenya uses this feature to gather email addresses during live sessions. She loves how it simplifies lead capture, especially for creators who don't have access to advanced integrations. Even without business-level tools, she's generating high volumes of DMs and follow-ups thanks to this direct prompt.
TikTok Shop Updates
TikTok is investing heavily in making its e-commerce platform more trustworthy. As the platform is expanding into new markets like Ireland and Spain, it's enforcing stricter quality and IP protection standards. Over 7 million products have already been removed for IP violations.
The platform is also rolling out an AI-powered seller assistant for TikTok Shop. Sellers can ask natural language questions like "How did my shop perform last week?" and receive detailed analytics and personalized recommendations. This AI tool is especially useful for small businesses and agencies managing multiple shops, helping them access performance insights and support instantly.
Keenya appreciates the increased accountability TikTok is bringing to its shop ecosystem, especially with IP protection and customer trust. She also praised the AI seller assistant for making it easier to understand shop performance without digging through dashboards—particularly helpful for agencies and creators juggling multiple product lines.
Free Ads for Small Businesses
TikTok is allocating $1 million in ad credits to small businesses in the U.S. through a new initiative that also includes access to coaching and live workshops. This makes it easier for small and mid-sized businesses to test TikTok ads without financial risk.
While she hasn't been able to join the free ad program herself (because she doesn't sell physical products), Keenya says the support being offered—free ad spend and expert coaching—is incredibly generous. She recommends this opportunity to any service- or product-based business, especially those new to the platform.
Alternative Messaging for Promote Ads
TikTok is testing a new feature allowing brands to use Promote Ads to initiate conversations through alternative messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Line, and Zalo—even if the user doesn't have a TikTok account. This alternative messaging capability bridges the gap between app-less users and businesses, allowing marketers to reach people in their preferred communication channels.
Keenya highlights that this alternative messaging strategy is smart because it removes friction. She points out that many TikTok viewers don't actually use the app, so connecting via other platforms makes it easier for businesses to follow up and convert. She also hints at possible partnerships with tools like ManyChat powering the backend for automation.
Premium Ad Placement: Pulse Suite Expands
TikTok's Pulse Suite is expanding with two standout ad placement options. Pulse Premiere allows ads to appear next to top-tier publisher content (Disney, NFL, Warner Bros.) during high-traffic events or throughout the year. Pulse Max/Core enables placements beside top-performing user-generated content—specifically the top 4% of all content on TikTok, categorized by niche or seasonal themes.
Keenya breaks down the psychological advantage of both options, saying Pulse Premiere lets brands borrow credibility and visibility from major media brands—ideal for big campaigns. Pulse Core (or Max Pulse) lets advertisers tap into the virality of trending content without having to create it themselves. She recommends adjusting ad creative to match the tone of the content it appears next to for better viewer experience and performance.
Watch it on YouTube
ChatGPT: Should You Use a Custom GPT or a Project
Ever wondered whether you should build a GPT or a Project inside ChatGPT? You're not alone—and the answer isn't as obvious as it seems. At a glance, both tools look pretty similar. But once you peek under the hood, the differences start to show up in surprising ways.
If you're leaning toward sharing your setup with others, plugging into tools like Zapier, or generating repeatable outputs on demand, GPTs might be your best bet. But if you're looking to create a personal workspace with stored files, flexible context, and total control over which model you're using, Projects could be the smarter choice.
Most people don't realize the limitations until they've picked the wrong tool. Fortunately, this post from Nicole Leffer breaks down the tradeoffs in plain language—no jargon, no guesswork—and gives you a clear, high-level way to decide which option fits your use case.
Think of it as your shortcut to choosing the right ChatGPT tool the first time around. Read more here.
How to Crack AI Search Traffic
90% of Google searches now include an AI overview. ChatGPT handles over a billion queries daily. And if you're not showing up in these new answer engines, you're basically invisible to a huge chunk of how people search now.
A few weeks ago, Sam Hogan experimented with how AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity actually find and surface answers. Within 10 days, he started seeing traffic from places he'd never gotten traffic before, specifically AI overviews and chatbot citations.
In this post, he documents what he did, the tools he used, and how you can set this up for your own site in under 48 hours. Read more here.
Instagram Messaging Updates: Voice message transcription allows users to read text versions of audio clips they receive in DMs through a "View transcription" button. The platform has also extended the maximum length of voice messages from one minute to five, giving marketers more time to deliver detailed audio content or personalized messages to their audience. Additionally, the platform added a Follow All button in group chats that allows users to quickly follow every participant in a conversation, which could be valuable for marketers managing community groups or facilitating networking among participants. Social Media Today
YouTube Voice Replies to Comments: The platform expanded its voice replies to comments experiment to Android users. The test was previously open only to users with iOS devices. YouTube
WhatsApp on iPad: The platform is now available on iPad, bringing all its core features, such as video and audio calls with up to 32 people, screen sharing, and support for both cameras to a larger screen. Designed for multitasking, it supports iPadOS features like Stage Manager, Split View, and Slide Over, and works with the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil. Using multi-device technology, WhatsApp for iPad stays synced across iPhone, Mac, and other devices while maintaining end-to-end encryption and added privacy features like chat lock. The app is available for download from the App Store, with more updates to come. WhatsApp
YouTube Monetization Changes: The platform is implementing changes to improve the accuracy of monetization decisions for creators, which has significant implications for marketers working with YouTube content creators and advertising on the platform. The platform is adding automatic additional reviews for videos that initially receive yellow dollar icons (limited or no ads ratings) rather than requiring creators to appeal these decisions manually. Marketers working with YouTube creators should be aware that content review timelines may be slightly longer, so campaign planning should account for potential delays in video publication. YouTube
Voice Mode for Claude: Anthropic has launched a beta voice mode for its Claude mobile app, enabling users to have spoken conversations with the AI chatbot powered by Claude Sonnet 4. The feature is rolling out in English over the coming weeks and allows users to talk to Claude and receive voice responses, with key points displayed on-screen during conversations. The voice mode includes capabilities for discussing documents and images, making it particularly useful for hands-free interactions. However, voice conversations count toward regular usage limits, with free users typically getting 20-30 conversations, while paid subscribers gain access to Google Workspace integration for Calendar and Gmail functionality. TechCrunch
Instagram Adds 3:4 Aspect Ratio Photo Format: The platform has expanded its supported photo formats to include the 3:4 aspect ratio, which is the native format for most smartphone cameras. This significant update means that when users upload a 3:4 image, it will appear in their feed exactly as it was captured, without cropping or adjustment. The new format support applies to both single-photo posts and carousel posts with multiple images. Instagram continues to support the traditional 1:1 square format and the taller 4:5 aspect ratio. Instagram
LinkedIn Removes Website Hyperlinks to User Profiles: The a feature was previously available through Creator Mode. Going forward, website links will only be supported through a custom button feature that is exclusively available to Premium Business plan subscribers, as well as Sales Navigator and Recruiter customers. LinkedIn
LinkedIn Expands Post Analytics: The new analytics include tracking when posts drive profile views and new followers (available to all members), plus clicks to Premium custom buttons such as websites or newsletters (exclusive to Premium subscribers). Users can access these new insights by clicking "View analytics" on any recent post, where they'll find two new sections: "Profile activity" and "Link engagement." LinkedIn recommends that creators watch how profile views and follower growth metrics evolve with consistent posting to identify which content resonates most with their network and better achieve professional goals on the platform. LinkedIn
Facebook's Ad Copies API Updated: The tool has been enhanced as of May 5, 2025, allowing developers to edit top-level creative parameters when duplicating ads. This improvement means that essential elements such as titles, link URLs, URL tags, body text, and numerous other parameters can now be modified in the copied ad. This optional update requires no immediate action from users but provides significantly more flexibility when creating variations of existing ads. The enhanced functionality allows for more efficient ad testing and deployment workflows by eliminating the need to create entirely new ads when only specific creative elements need modification. Meta
Meta Rolls Out New Ads Report: Building a Suite of Truth: A Hybrid Approach to Measuring Incrementality gives marketers a three-step process for marketers to develop their own incrementality-focused measurement suite. First, review current measurement practices by assessing data quality and coverage while upgrading from last-click attribution to models that include multiple touchpoints. Second, calibrate measurement models like multi-touch attribution or MMM using experimental results to accurately reflect real-world outcomes. Third, conduct regular experiments across multiple channels, with particular emphasis on using these experiments for single-channel evaluations and in-channel optimization. Meta
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