Today's Guide to the Marketing Jungle from Social Media Examiner...
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Here's a recap of the most important insights, trends, and updates you need to know about today, Alluser! Catch up in minutes and go into the rest of the week prepared.
In today's edition:
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Is your Meta Ads setup disabling Advantage+?
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Instagram updates for marketers
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Explore how AI agents will reshape the customer journey, and how to position your business for an AI-first future.
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π️ Industry news from Instagram, YouTube, and more
Why and How to Use Meta's Value Rules With Your Ads
Small setting changes in Meta's Advantage+ campaigns—like targeting by age, gender, or device—can unintentionally turn off the very automation designed to improve performance. For marketers balancing control with efficiency, this presents a challenging tradeoff.
Fortunately, Meta's rules offer a strategic solution. Instead of restricting settings and losing the benefits of Advantage+, these rules allow you to guide budget allocation based on your own customer insights—without disrupting automated delivery.
In this article, Jon Loomer outlines four practical scenarios where these rules give you the precision you need while keeping Advantage+ fully active. Whether it's reducing wasted spend on low-quality leads or improving demographic targeting without hard exclusions, these examples illustrate how to align Meta's automation with your business priorities. Read more here.

On this week's Social Media Marketing Talk Show, host Jerry Potter and Chelsea Peitz break down the latest Instagram news and what it means for marketers like you.
Expanding Your Story Reach Beyond Your Current Followers
Historically, Instagram Stories have been a sort of sacred space for content primarily seen by people who already follow you. While this creates a casual, stress-free environment for community building, it has traditionally offered limited pathways for discoverability.
Instagram is changing this dynamic by making all publicly shared Stories shareable by anyone, even if they aren't tagged in the post. This update is particularly powerful for brands looking to amplify user-generated content (UGC) or collaborate with customers who might be using their products.
To maximize this feature, encourage your viewers to share your Story if they find it helpful or interesting. If you prefer to keep your Stories private to your community, you can navigate to your Story settings and toggle this feature off.
Leveraging Early Access Reels to Drive New Followers
Instagram is introducing Early Access Reels, a feature that acts as the opposite of a trial reel because it is initially pushed only to your followers.
This feature is designed to help you guarantee that your content is placed in front of the people who have already said they are interested in you. Non-followers who encounter an Early Access reel—either on your profile or via a shared Story—will see a teaser with a follow prompt. To watch the video immediately, they are prompted to follow your account.
You can use this feature to reward your community with a first look at important announcements or build anticipation for a new product or service using psychological triggers like FOMO (fear of missing out). You can also test a double-dip strategy by posting a reel first as early access to gain social proof from followers, then later uploading it as a Trial Reel to reach guaranteed non-followers.
More Features, Tools, Changes, and Updates Discussed Include:
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The Bulk Caption Editor
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Automated Audio Control With Volume Ducking
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The Latest Creative Editing Features
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Personalizing Your Experience via the Reels Algorithm
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The Impact of Emojis on Social Interactions
This week's insights provided by Chelsea Peitz, a featured guest on the Social Media Marketing Talk Show.

The Future of AI and Marketing: What's Coming and How to Prepare
While many marketers are still getting used to generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude, the technology is already shifting toward agentic AI.
Unlike standard large language models (LLMs) that primarily generate text or chat with you, AI agents are designed to complete tasks. They function as virtual workers that can operate autonomously to achieve a goal.
According to Jeremiah Owyang, a true AI agent performs four distinct functions:
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Sense: It perceives the world around it, whether that is inside a software application or via physical cameras.
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Decide: It determines the best course of action based on its inputs.
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Act: It completes the action (e.g., booking a meeting, purchasing a product, or updating a CRM record).
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Learn: It improves its performance over time based on outcomes.
For small- and medium-sized businesses, this technology offers the potential of a 24/7 staff, and while we are currently in the experimental phase, agents are quickly evolving to handle complex workflows.
For example, a travel-focused agent could research flights, negotiate prices, and book tickets without human intervention. In a marketing context, agents can already autonomously handle tasks like competitive research, content creation, or CRM management.
Despite the automation of tasks, the human element becomes more valuable, not less.
If AI native companies can automate repetitive labor and back-office operations, they free up resources to invest in the customer experience. This creates a premium on humanity.
When the chores are handled by software, you have more time to greet customers, tailor experiences to their specific needs, and provide high-touch service. In an AI-saturated world, the businesses that use automation to enhance—rather than replace—human connection will ultimately win.
Two Ways AI Agents Will Disrupt the Marketing Funnel
The rise of AI agents will fundamentally alter the traditional marketing funnel.
Historically, the customer journey involved a human searching on Google, visiting a website, reading content, and clicking a "Buy" button. In the near future, personal AI agents will handle much of this top-of-funnel work.
Bill Gates predicted that whoever dominates the personal agent market will disrupt search engines, productivity sites, and even Amazon. Why? Because your personal agent will do the research, compare products, negotiate pricing, and execute the purchase for you.
AIO: Optimizing for AI Agents
Just as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) became a critical industry, a new field is emerging: AI Optimization (AIO).
Platforms like BrandRank are helping companies understand how they are perceived by major large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. These tools analyze what the AI thinks about your brand by scraping its training data, which comes from sources like Wikipedia, Reddit, and consumer reviews.
To stay competitive, you will need to ensure your brand's data is structured in a way that AI agents can easily consume and verify it.
KYA: The Know Your Agent Protocol
As agents begin making purchases, businesses will need to verify that these bots are authorized to spend money.
New protocols like Know Your Agent (KYA) are emerging to parallel the banking industry's Know Your Customer (KYC) standards. Services like Skyfire allow users to create verified agents tied to their government ID.
In the future, your CRM won't just track human leads; it will track authorized AI agents acting on behalf of humans. You may even deploy your own sales agents to negotiate directly with buyer agents, turning ads into dynamic offers.
Other topics discussed include:
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Five Organizational AI Cultures: Where Are You?
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Three Strategies to Embrace AI Forward or AI First Business Culture
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Examples of AI Native Businesses
Today's advice provided with insights from Jeremiah Owyang, a featured guest on the AI Explored podcast.
OpenAI Launches Faster, Smarter Image Generation: OpenAI has introduced ChatGPT Images powered by GPT‑Image 1.5, delivering faster and more precise image creation with up to 4× improved generation speed and stronger instruction following. Users can now perform nuanced visual edits while maintaining key image details, making the tool ideal for both expressive design and practical tasks. A new ChatGPT sidebar interface offers presets and trending prompts to inspire creativity. Available to all ChatGPT users and through the API, GPT‑Image 1.5 is also 20% cheaper than its predecessor, supporting faster iteration across creative, marketing, and e-commerce workflows. OpenAI
Gemini Deep Research Now Creates Interactive Visual Reports: Google has upgraded Gemini Deep Research to generate visual reports that blend deep analysis with custom images, charts, and interactive simulations. Available to AI Ultra subscribers, this new capability helps users turn complex information into clear, engaging insights—whether planning budgets or modeling scientific theories. By integrating visuals and simulations directly into reports, Gemini transforms dense data into tangible, decision-ready outputs. Users can begin by selecting "Deep Research" in the Gemini app. Google
Meta Unveils SAM Audio for Intuitive, Professional-Grade Sound Editing: Meta has launched SAM Audio, an AI model that enables users to isolate sounds from complex audio environments using text, visual, and time-based prompts. As part of the Segment Anything collection, SAM Audio introduces new ways to interact with sound, allowing creators to filter out background noise, extract vocals or instruments, and fine-tune audio with greater precision. This unified model supports applications across music, video, accessibility, and scientific research. Users can try the model in the Segment Anything Playground or download it today. Meta
Instagram Tests TV App for Watching Reels: Instagram is testing a new way to enjoy Reels on the big screen with the launch of Instagram for TV, now available on Amazon Fire TV devices in the US. The app offers channels curated by interests—such as music, sports, and travel—where Reels play automatically for shared, lean-back viewing. Users can add up to five accounts, and Instagram plans to introduce features like phone-as-remote control and shared feeds. Designed with safety in mind, content follows PG-13 guidelines and incorporates teen protections from the mobile experience. Instagram
YouTube Tests Image Posts in Shorts Feed: YouTube is experimenting with displaying image posts in the Shorts feed, giving creators a new way to share stories and engage audiences visually. Creators can include up to 10 images per post, with eligible content created through the "Create" button being featured in the test. YouTube is also exploring the addition of music to image posts, signaling further development of creative tools for the platform's short-form format. YouTube
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