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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How to use YouTube's latest engagement tool
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The ChatGPT copy-editing trick you'll wish you knew sooner
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Discover how to grow your brand with short-form video on platforms like Instagram and YouTube in 2026
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How to implement human-first AI adoption in your business
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🗞️ Industry news from Gemini, Instagram, YouTube, and more
Tutorial: How use YouTube Voice Replies
YouTube is finally fully rolling out a feature that allows you to reply to video comments using voice messages—directly within the YouTube Studio app. While it appears limited to Partner Program accounts for now, this small but powerful update signals a broader trend toward more personalized, human interaction on the platform.
This quick walkthrough from Nick Nimmin demonstrates how the feature works, its current limitations (e.g., video comments only), and why it's worth considering as part of your engagement strategy going into the new year.
For marketers and content creators navigating an automated digital landscape, this tool offers a lightweight but meaningful way to build stronger audience relationships. Watch more here.
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A Smarter Way to Edit Copy With AI
Ever wish ChatGPT could work more like a real editor?
Nicole Leffer has a simple prompt tweak that transforms your AI from brainstorming buddy to red-pen pro. No extra tools, no plugins—just a smart way to see exactly what's been added or cut from your draft, so you can keep control of your voice while saving serious time.
This method is especially handy for quick, low-stakes edits—think social captions, email subject lines, or polishing that blog intro you've rewritten six times. It's not meant to replace deeper editorial feedback or strategy-driven revisions, but it does bring back the satisfying clarity of "track changes" (with none of the clunky software).
Curious how it works—and which tools don't play nice with this method? Click through for the exact wording to try in ChatGPT or Copilot, plus a few caveats if you're using other platforms. Read more here.
What's Working With Short-Form Video Right Now
Short-form video has become impossible to ignore. YouTube Shorts generates approximately 100 billion views daily, and platforms like Instagram and TikTok continue to prioritize this format. For business owners and marketers, the question isn't whether to use short-form video—it's how to make it work.
Pat Flynn, founder of Smart Passive Income and creator of YouTube channels Deep Pocket Monster and Short Pocket Monster (which have accumulated over two billion views), and Brock Johnson, Instagram strategist and founder of Instaclub Hub, address the fundamental challenge: short-form video can feel like a hamster wheel—constant content creation with unclear business results.
There's a difference between making short-form content as a content creator wanting it to directly correlate with revenue versus making it as a business owner where you already have a business that will continue even if your content flops.
For content creators who depend entirely on views and engagement for income, the pressure to maintain consistent output is much higher. For business owners, short-form content serves as one component of a broader marketing strategy.
The key lies in understanding that short-form video works differently than traditional marketing channels, requiring both strategic thinking and authentic execution.
YouTube Shorts: Maintain Consistency and Repeatable Frameworks
When creators ask Flynn what's working with YouTube Shorts, he tells them two things.
First is consistency. If you're not consistent on short form, it won't work. You have to stay persistent and continue to show up.
Flynn runs a daily show called "Should I Open It? Or Should I Keep It Sealed?" that's now on day 508. It was only after about forty days that he started seeing results. He thinks people are too impatient for results, so his advice is to keep going because every single video becomes a learning moment.
The math behind daily publishing is compelling. Someone publishing daily has 365 days per year to learn and compound results versus someone publishing weekly. That's six times more days you have to grow, discover, and learn as a marketer.
The second element is finding a repeatable framework to structure your videos around.
Jefferson Fisher is a lawyer who uses short-form content strategically to build his practice, and he's casting a very wide net. If he created attorney content and educated people about law-related topics, not many people would care.
Instead, Fisher creates content around communication, a much broader topic. He has a clear and repeatable format and starts his videos by saying something like "What to say when somebody's mean to you," and then goes right into it.
Because the situations he's addressing are very relatable, whether a person's interested in an attorney or not, when someone in his audience eventually needs one, he's top-of-mind.
Instagram Reels: Refocus on Fundamentals
For Instagram, Johnson has observed a significant shift in what drives results.
The biggest change over the last year is focusing on fundamentals. Many creators and businesses have been chasing trends, trying to figure out the latest hack or newest strategy.
What's working is focusing on fundamentals of building an engaged audience, creating strong hooks, honing in on storytelling and captivating people's attention, and being consistent. Those fundamentals consistently drive results.
This shift represents moving away from growth hacks toward sustainable audience building, where quality and consistency matter more than gaming the system.
Johnson shares the example of Mobility Duo, a husband and wife team that helps snowboarders ride until they're seventy years old through daily yoga and functional strength activities. The business has built over 300,000 followers by creating short-form content that's hyper-focused on their audience.
They also do a great job of visually hooking you in. Instead of starting with a home gym workout demonstration, they open with compelling snowboarding footage that provides an aspirational result that can be achieved if the viewer does yoga and other strengthening activities.
Other topics discussed include:
Today's advice is provided with insights from Pat Flynn and Brock Johnson, featured guests on the Social Media Marketing Podcast and speakers at Social Media Marketing World.
Human-First AI Adoption: Getting Your People Ready for Change
AI is transforming the workplace, but deploying AI tools alone won't lead to transformation.
When ChatGPT was first released to the world at the end of 2022, Kristin Ginn, the product marketing lead for AI adoption and usage at Microsoft and founder of the consultancy TransformAItion, started playing around with it. She explored how she could use AI both at work and in her personal life, and realized just how powerful the technology would be.
Around the same time, research started showing that people using generative AI at work were being more productive, and the quality of their work was improving.
Fast forward a year to 18 months to early 2024, and a different narrative started emerging. Organizations that had invested in AI were saying they weren't really seeing impact from their AI investment and weren't sure if it was actually worth it.
Ginn had seen first-hand how powerful AI can be at the individual level, so she had a fairly difficult time understanding how those individual productivity gains didn't translate to productivity gains at the organizational level.
She started researching this disconnect, talking to leaders, colleagues, and friends. That's when she realized the issue isn't a technology challenge; the technology itself is relatively easy to use. The issue is a human readiness challenge.
It's human nature to avoid change, so your task is to help your people overcome that avoidance and embrace a new way of working. To do this, you have to understand what might hold them back and how you guide them from avoiding AI to embracing it.
Include the Four Mindsets Framework for AI Adoption to Help People Know How to Start Using AI
Simply making tools available overwhelms people with too many options and unclear starting points.
With countless use cases for generative AI, people often struggle to identify where to start. Too many options can become paralyzing rather than empowering.
Ginn developed a framework using four mindsets or lenses that she teaches in workshops. The framework helps people pause when facing a new task and ask themselves, "Can this mindset help me with that? Can I do it with AI?"
The Assistant Mindset
The assistant mindset focuses on using AI to complete tasks faster. AI handles the bulk of the initial work while you complete the final portion.
The Explorer Mindset
The explorer mindset helps you use AI to think in different ways, gain different perspectives, and weigh pros and cons.
Ginn shares a concrete example from her nonprofit work. The team receives a lot of open comments as part of the surveys they send out. In the past, a team would divide 6k comments among 10 different people who would spend a month tagging and categorizing them. Then they would meet and try to identify trends based on what each person had found in their lot of comments, so they could take action.
Using the explorer mindset, Ginn uploaded all the comments to AI. She asked it to review the comments, give her the top 10 trends, and then give her two action items for each trend the team could execute on in the short term to address the issues that came up.
What used to take 10 people a month took Ginn just 15 minutes.
The Editor Mindset
The editor mindset helps you use AI to improve existing work—whether you created it yourself or started it with AI through the assistant mindset.
You might rewrite something to make it sound more professional, more concise, or more persuasive, or you might analyze data and extract the key findings from it.
The Coaching Mindset
The coaching mindset is what Ginn considers the most powerful yet most underutilized approach to AI.
This mindset shows you how to use AI to learn and grow in ways that resonate personally.
Imagine you want to learn about blockchain technology, but the articles are complicated and difficult to understand. Now imagine you've played tennis your whole life and understand it inside and out. You can ask AI to explain blockchain technology to you using tennis analogies.
Other topics discussed include:
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3 Types of AI Users to Address in Your Organization's AI Rollout
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The 3-Layer Implementation Strategy
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3 Ways to Help Your Team Build Sustainable AI Habits
Today's advice provided with insights from Kristin Ginn, a featured guest on the AI Explored podcast.
Gmail's Gemini-Powered Inbox and Writing Tools: Gmail is rolling out a suite of Gemini-powered features aimed at transforming email into a more proactive, personalized experience. AI Overviews now summarize long threads and answer user questions directly from inbox content, while new tools like Help Me Write, Suggested Replies, and Proofread streamline email drafting with contextual and stylistic assistance. A new AI Inbox, currently in testing, filters out less important messages and highlights high-priority items based on user behavior. These capabilities are powered by Gemini 3 and are launching first in English for U.S. users. Google
YouTube Revamps Search Filters: YouTube is rolling out updates to its search filters to help users more effectively find the content they want. A new Shorts filter allows for precise format selection, while the 'Sort By' menu has been renamed 'Prioritize' to better reflect its function. The 'View count' option is now labeled 'Popularity', incorporating multiple relevance signals beyond views. YouTube is also removing low-impact filters like 'Last Hour' and 'Sort by Rating' to streamline the experience. These updates aim to make the search process more intuitive and user-friendly. Google
X Rolls Out Priority Notifications: X is updating its Notifications design across iOS and web with a new Priority tab that highlights interactions from mutuals and prominent accounts. Designed to ensure users don't miss important engagements, the Priority tab becomes available once a user surpasses 500 followers. X
TikTok Launches Channel Sales Partner Program to Boost SMB Growth: TikTok has expanded its Marketing Partners Program with the introduction of the Channel Sales Partner Program, aimed at helping small and medium-sized businesses scale on the platform. The program certifies high-volume partners like C-4 Analytics and LocaliQ that integrate TikTok ads directly into the digital tools SMBs already use. Through automation, API integrations, and cross-channel reporting, these partners simplify campaign management and drive performance. The initiative extends TikTok's indirect sales model, making short-form video advertising more accessible and effective for SMBs. TikTok
Instagram Reset Email Confusion: Instagram has clarified that it was not breached following user concerns over unsolicited password reset emails. The statement counters a claim by cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes, which alleged that data from 17.5 million accounts had been compromised and listed on the dark web. According to Instagram, an external party exploited a flaw that allowed reset emails to be sent without account access. The platform says the issue has been resolved and advised users to disregard the emails, though it has not disclosed further technical details or the identity of the external actor. TechCrunch
Instagram Adds Powerful Reels Insights Tools for Creators:Instagram has rolled out a suite of new tools under its Edits Insights tab to help creators better analyze and optimize their Reels content. Users can now sort and filter their reels by top engagement metrics and timeframes, identify high-performing content, and share insights as images or PDFs with brand partners. The update also includes an AI-powered comment summary feature for content inspiration and a Compare Reels tool to evaluate engagement trends across posts. Instagram via Threads
Anthropic Launches Cowork: Claude-Powered Agent for Everyday Tasks: Anthropic has introduced Cowork, a new feature for Claude Max subscribers that transforms the AI into a task-completing agent with access to local files. Available now in research preview on macOS, Cowork allows users to assign complex tasks—like organizing folders, drafting documents, or creating presentations—by granting Claude access to a specific folder. The tool uses a plan-and-execute model familiar to Claude Code users, and supports added capabilities through connectors and browser integration. Designed with safety in mind, Cowork limits access to user-approved folders and asks before taking major actions. Claude
Veo 3.1 Adds Vertical Video and Enhanced Visual Control: Google DeepMind has released Veo 3.1, a major update to its Ingredients to Video feature that turns reference images into dynamic, engaging videos. The update introduces native support for vertical video (9:16), making it ideal for short-form content platforms. Enhancements include better consistency for characters and backgrounds, more expressive video generation from short prompts, and seamless integration of objects and textures. Veo 3.1 also supports 1080p and 4K upscaling, enabling high-quality outputs suitable for both casual creators and professional filmmakers. These updates are available via Gemini, YouTube, Flow, Google Vids, Gemini API, and Vertex AI. Google
Apple Taps Google's Gemini to Power Next-Gen AI Features: In a significant collaboration, Apple and Google have announced a multi-year agreement that will see Google's Gemini models and cloud infrastructure support Apple's next generation of Foundation Models. This partnership will enhance Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri expected later this year. Apple emphasized that its AI tools will continue running on-device and through its Private Cloud Compute, maintaining the company's strict privacy standards. The decision follows Apple's assessment that Google's AI technology offers the most advanced foundation for its future AI experiences. Apple and Google
Gemini API Expands File Support with GCS and 100MB Uploads: Google has announced major enhancements to the Gemini API, introducing support for file input via Google Cloud Storage and HTTPS/signed URLs. Developers can now register GCS files or securely ingest content from cloud platforms like AWS S3 without re-uploading. Additionally, the inline file size limit has been raised from 20MB to 100MB, enabling faster prototyping and real-time processing of larger files. Google
Google Unveils Tools to Power Agentic Shopping and Boost Retailer Sales: Google is introducing a new suite of AI-driven tools to support retailers in the era of agentic commerce, where AI handles tasks on behalf of shoppers. Central to the update is the launch of the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard enabling smooth interactions between agents and systems across the retail journey. UCP will power an AI-driven checkout in Google Search and Gemini, allowing users to purchase directly from eligible U.S. retailers. Google also debuted Business Agent, a branded AI assistant for Search that lets consumers chat with retailers like Lowe's and Reebok. Additional updates include new product data attributes in Merchant Center and Direct Offers, a Google Ads pilot that delivers targeted discounts in AI Mode. Google
X Limits Grok's Image Tool to Paid Users: Following widespread condemnation over misuse, X has restricted access to Grok's image-generation feature to paying subscribers only. The change comes after reports surfaced of the tool being used to create sexualized and nude images of women and minors. While this restriction now applies to X's platform, the Grok app still allows image generation without a subscription. Elon Musk emphasized that illegal use of Grok would be treated the same as uploading such content directly to X. TechCrunch
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