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YET ANOTHER GLOBAL STUDY SAYS INSTAGRAM AND TIKTOK ARE BAD FOR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH

A new global study tied to the World Happiness Report 2026 finds that algorithm-driven platforms are more strongly associated with poorer mental health than communication-focused apps like WhatsApp and Facebook. The distinction is how people use social media rather than how much, with passive scrolling and curated content linked to lower life satisfaction, while direct interaction shows neutral or positive effects. The impact is strongest among younger users, particularly teenage girls, where heavy daily use correlated with significantly lower happiness levels.

WHAT KEEPS VIEWERS WATCHING FACEBOOK REELS?

Facebook Reels performance is driven by early hooks and format, not trends. Videos with speech in the first 3 seconds see +24.7% higher 10-second retention and +5.6% more engagement than music-only content. Vertical videos boost reach by +20.9% and 30-second retention by +38.5%. Showing a person early increases short-term retention by +10.1%. For very short clips, seamless loops lift replays by +18.7% and reach by +23.6%. Prioritize voice, human presence, and vertical format to keep viewers watching.

RETENTION TEAR SHEET

Start small by focusing on one high-dropoff point, like onboarding or re-engagement, and build a targeted program around it. Work closely with customer success to understand real user pain points, and track behavior that signals progress like activation or feature use, not just email metrics. Repurpose existing content instead of adding tools, and formally define lifecycle as a function so it can be owned and measured. Tie your first program directly to a revenue metric like activation, churn, or expansion to prove impact before scaling.

THREAD WALLETS MARKETING BREAKDOWN

Thread Wallets grew by turning a basic product into a personality-driven accessory and validating demand before scaling. It proved demand early through Kickstarter, where its second campaign raised $35,000 against a $5,000 goal. The company scaled fast by using micro influencers, campus distribution, and Facebook Marketplace ads, which drove a 41% increase in return on ad spend. It focused on a clear audience, which ended up being about 90% female, and used customer data to guide decisions and avoid wasted effort.

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SYNTHETIC USERS FOR PRODUCT DISCOVERY: WHAT PEOPLE MISS (WEBINAR)

Most attempts at synthetic user research produce plausible-sounding nonsense due to poor setups or wrong use cases. Caitlin Sullivan, former Head of UXR at Spotify, will talk about how to use synthetic users in research at this event, which will take place on March 26 at 9:30 AM ET. The session will cover what you need to know before you waste time on bad outputs.

HOW TO BUILD YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY IN CLAUDE

Most marketers get weak results from AI because their strategy is unclear or disconnected from daily work. This article shows how to fix this by building a central /marketing-strategy skill in Claude that acts as a living strategy document used in every task. It outlines 7 exercises, like ICP prioritization, positioning, and revenue levers, to create a structured and usable strategy. Teams should use this skill daily for briefs, content reviews, and prioritization so work aligns with core goals instead of random execution. Storing and updating the skill in GitHub keeps it consistent across the team and ensures strategy evolves with the business.

THE FUTURE OF CONTENT BELONGS TO THE TASTEMAKERS

THE INTERNET RUINED CUSTOMER SERVICE. AI COULD SAVE IT

The internet scaled commerce but weakened customer service, turning people into tickets. Concierge-level care stayed limited to luxury brands because it's expensive. AI changes that by making always-on attention cheap and scalable. Companies can now offer high-touch service to everyone. Customer service shifts from a cost center to a driver of loyalty and revenue.

WALMART SAYS CHATGPT CHECKOUT CONVERTED 3X WORSE THAN ITS OWN WEBSITE

Walmart saw in-chat purchases convert at about one-third the rate of its website.

GOOGLE SEARCH TEST REPLACES HEADLINES AND WEBSITE TITLES WITH AI

Google is testing AI-rewritten search headlines, raising concerns about publisher impact.

EVERYONE HATES ADS ON SOCIAL MEDIA. OR DO THEY?

Social media ads aren't as disruptive or as disliked as people think.

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FUTURE MARKETING TEAMS WILL LIVE IN GITHUB

Marketing teams will centralize work in GitHub to move faster and reduce chaos from scattered tools. It replaces fragmented systems like docs and analytics platforms by storing all files, history, and updates in one repo. This setup lets teams track every change, access real time business context, and avoid time lost searching for information. Pairing it with AI tools like Claude Code allows instant analysis across files and faster campaign creation. Small teams under 5 people and large teams over 100 people can improve output speed by up to 10x through better organization and shared context.

WHY THE ERA OF THE MADISON AVENUE HOLDING COMPANY IS ON ITS WAY OUT

The advertising holding company model is being dismantled across Madison Avenue, with WPP reorganizing into four operating divisions and competitors pursuing similar consolidation. Publicis Groupe is the furthest along, having spent 10 years integrating its agencies into a single company and delivering 5.9% organic growth in Q4 2025. Analysts note the shift is driven by both Wall Street pressure and preparation for AI, as firms move toward platform and subscription-based revenue rather than traditional time-and-materials billing.

HOW FISHWIFE BUILDS MOMENTUM THROUGH NEWNESS

Fishwife treats social media as an expression of constant brand momentum, maintaining at least one major announcement per month and dedicating roughly 75% of the brand marketing manager's time to planning newness. When the sardine health trend took off online in early 2026, retail unit velocities tripled and DTC sales doubled compared to the previous quarter. The team invests in creators who are already part of the Fishwife community rather than running broad discovery campaigns, and spent almost nothing on influencer marketing until about 18 months ago.

5 OF MY FAVORITE NEW RETENTION TECHNIQUES THAT YOU MAY NOT HAVE TRIED

Retention improves when companies reduce friction and give users flexible ways to stay engaged and pay. A downgrade option like a $5 Lite plan captured about 10% of churn attempts and improved long-term retention even though short term revenue dropped. In-product alerts for failed payments increased recovery by 50% and lifted successful payment updates from about 20% to over 30%. Daily free credits and credit rollovers kept users active and reduced churn by maintaining perceived value and encouraging return usage. Adding top-ups improved overall retention by 7% and showed that better monetization fit leads to stronger user loyalty over time.

2 WAYS TO START USING CLAUDE SKILLS

Start by building a reference library from product docs, case studies, sales demos, and CSM transcripts. Train Claude on this library along with tone and ICP to create skills like ad copy, headline, creative brief, and cold outbound email generators. Next, gather and enrich company and persona data with Clay and Apollo. Have Claude analyze ICP tiers for both accounts and personas, then feed those insights back into the skills. This setup allows personalized campaigns and outbound sequences for every audience and account type.

ONBOARDING WEEKLY REPORT WITH CLAUDE

This post shows how an automated report built with Claude Cowork can deliver a full onboarding performance breakdown to Google Drive each week. The report covers trends, issue detection, and audience insights, saving time and improving visibility. Key features include a weekly snapshot highlighting important metrics and a signup profile showing team size and industry mix. A setup guide and plug-and-play template are available, with the link provided in the comments.

HOW LINKEDIN IS HELPING B2B MARKETERS REACH AUDIENCES AT SCALE WITH CREATORS AND VIDEO

LinkedIn is helping B2B marketers scale influence with video through Top Voices 360 sponsorships, enhanced BrandLink features, and flexible CTV buying. Brands can sponsor content across shows, co-branded posts, and events. BrandLink expands reach to 40+ publishers, simplifies campaign setup, and streamlines payments via Stripe. Flexible CTV buying through The Trade Desk offers programmatic options. Video and creator campaigns drive results, with 82% of marketers citing ROI, 81% noting faster sales cycles, and 56% of buyers relying on creator input to finalize decisions.

NOTHING GOES VIRAL BY ACCIDENT

Virality is often manufactured through tactics like clipping, which helped Braden Peters generate over 1B views in a month from 34,667 videos and 645 clippers. Clipping acts as a paid distribution engine, and it is now standard practice for creators and brands that want scale. Marketing is shifting toward extreme segmentation and personalization, as AI lowers production costs from about $100,000 for ad variants to near zero and enables highly tailored content for micro-audiences. This shift improves ad ROI and relevance, but it also increases content volume and competition for attention. Brands must balance this noise with a clear narrative, since fragmented messaging weakens positioning while consistent storytelling strengthens it across channels.

WHY BRANDS RISK LOSING ‘BRILLIANT LEADERS' BY FAILING TO VALUE PARENTS

Parents in marketing develop stronger time management and leadership skills. 83% of mothers report improved multitasking and around 70% of fathers cite increased empathy. However, many companies fail to recognize this value. Nearly 45% of working mothers say their career progression has been impacted, pushing many toward flexible or independent work. Companies that overlook these contributions risk losing high potential leaders.

HOW TO DO PRODUCT MARKETING BASED ON BUSINESS GOALS

PMMs should align every initiative to core business goals and clearly explain the ‘why' before jumping into tactics.

TUBI JOINS FORCES WITH POPULAR TIKTOKERS TO CREATE ORIGINAL STREAMING CONTENT

Tubi has launched a "Creatorverse Incubator" in partnership with TikTok, giving selected creators support and potential funding to develop original series.

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THE BRAND TAX: HOW GOOGLE PROFITS FROM DEMAND YOU ALREADY OWN

Paid search performance looks strong because branded search takes credit for demand that already exists. An analysis of 99B sessions finds that ad costs rose 30%, cost-per-visit rose 9.4%, and conversion rates fell 5.1%, while paid search bounce rates hit 59% and paid social reached 65%. Branded campaigns claim 1,299% ROAS versus 68% for non-branded, yet branded keywords rarely drive new revenue. Most conversions come from repeat visitors, while paid channels bring low quality traffic that leaves quickly. As search shifts beyond Google and AI answers reduce clicks, investing in brand visibility and AI SEO can lower wasted spend and improve overall returns.

PINTEREST SPRING TREND REPORT 2026: PERSONALIZATION IS IN BLOOM

Pinterest trends show a shift from perfection to feel-good living. People are embracing self-expression at home with bold colors and small upgrades. Food trends favor comfort and creativity over dieting. Social moments are more casual with low-effort gatherings. Activities are more local with small outdoor spaces and simple escapes. Cleaning and organizing are now framed as self-care. Overall, the focus is on improving daily life, not reinventing it.

YOUTUBE SOCIAL LISTENING: HOW TO FIND ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS IN A VIDEO-FIRST WORLD

YouTube social listening requires a different approach than text-based platforms because API restrictions limit comment data collection at scale. Instead of chasing volume, marketers can focus on comments across their own videos, competitor channels, and creator content to surface product feedback, content requests, and sentiment shifts. A structured strategy involves categorizing comments into themes like pain points, purchase-intent signals, and competitor comparisons, then translating those patterns into content and positioning decisions.

WHY GMAIL IS CLIPPING YOUR EMAILS — AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

Gmail automatically hides any part of an email that exceeds 102 KB, showing a "Message clipped" link that most readers never click. This quietly damages open rates because the tracking pixel typically sits at the bottom of the email and gets cut along with the hidden content. Common culprits include uncompressed images, heavy inline CSS, and long newsletters with multiple formatted sections.

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HOW TO BUILD A PROFITABLE PERSONAL BRAND (WEBINAR)

This webinar with Matt Gray on March 24 will teach founders how to build a profitable personal brand using systems instead of constant effort. It covers content strategy, growth frameworks, and simple team structures that drive revenue.

ANTHROPIC ACADEMY

Anthropic Academy offers 13 free courses from beginner to developer level. The courses cover AI fluency, Claude Code, and more.

‘AI-DESIGNED' HURTS SALES

Research shows that labeling products as “AI-designed” can hurt sales, with purchase intent dropping by up to 29% compared to human-designed items and people perceiving 75% less human involvement. This happens because consumers struggle to connect with products that lack a human creator, especially when identity plays a role in the purchase. However, framing AI as a tool used by humans improves outcomes, with human-AI collaboration increasing purchase intent by 3.5% over fully human designs and 12.8% over AI-only ones.

WHY CMOS AND ICS SEE AI SO DIFFERENTLY

While 83% of marketers say leadership is committed to AI, 62% of CMOs report being able to prove ROI compared to just 12% of ICs. Leaders focus on efficiency and outcomes, while ICs deal with workflow challenges, governance delays, and untracked effort. This divide is driven by gaps in visibility and ownership, which leads leaders to push scale while teams grow cautious.

AMAZON EXPECTED TO MOVE PRIME DAY SALE TO JUNE

Amazon is expected to move Prime Day from July to late June, shifting the sales surge into the second quarter and changing revenue timing. The timing is critical for third-party sellers and competing brands. With Amazon accounting for about 40% of US ecommerce spend, the timing shift could impact the broader retail calendar, especially around back-to-school and holiday planning.

TECHNICAL SEO TIP: THE NEW YORK TIMES' BRILLIANT SITEMAP

The New York Times "Today" sitemap allows search engines to immediately crawl and index their highest priority content.

OSCARS RATINGS DOWN 9 PERCENT FROM LAST YEAR, SMALLEST AUDIENCE SINCE 2022

The decline largely mirrors drops at the Golden Globes and Grammys earlier this year, suggesting a broader linear TV trend.

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WHY LINKEDIN MIGHT HAVE 2 ALGORITHMS & WHY MARKETERS SHOULD CARE

LinkedIn likely runs two separate systems that work together to determine what shows up in the feed. Retrieval decides if a post is shown at all by matching it to a viewer using signals like profile clarity and past positive engagement. If a post never enters this pool, it will not be seen. Ranking then orders those posts based on predicted interest, factoring in relationship strength, dwell time, early engagement, and content relevance. This also explains why some posts seem random when they take off. The system may need time or new signals to identify the right audience, allowing a post to gain traction later or outperform larger accounts if it is highly relevant to a specific group.

THE ATROPHY PARADOX

Aviation research found that overreliance on automation weakens pilots' manual skills, prompting calls to keep practicing them. A similar pattern is emerging with AI. While it boosts productivity, it can erode writing and domain expertise, the same skills needed to use it well. Studies show reduced cognitive engagement and weaker thinking with heavy AI use. As more people offload work, output starts to converge, creating sameness. The key distinction is between routine tasks, which can be automated, and judgment, which must be actively practiced to avoid skill atrophy.

I STOPPED GUESSING WHAT TO WRITE AND STARTED EAVESDROPPING INSTEAD

Instead of relying on keyword research, gather real audience conversations from communities, calls, or support data, and analyze them systematically. Extract verbatim signals like pains and objections, then cluster them into recurring themes and prioritize based on frequency and emotional intensity. Build detailed theme profiles with motivators and anti-patterns, then layer in insights on emotion and competitors. Finally, turn themes into content ideas mapped to funnel stages, ensuring each topic is grounded in real demand and uses the audience's own words.

HOW OPENAI ADS AFFECT ORGANIC STRATEGY

The launch of ChatGPT ads in February 2026 reinforces the importance of organic strategy rather than replacing it. Ads appear below the AI's answer and only on Free and Go tier accounts, meaning paying subscribers see brands exclusively through organic citations. With zero-click searches now at 60%, the priority has shifted from driving site visits to being the source AI models repeatedly reference. Brands with thin third-party coverage or poor technical accessibility for LLMs are especially vulnerable, as competitors can place ads directly beneath unfavorable AI-generated mentions.

PAYWALLS: EXPERT TIPS FOR TECHNICAL AND EDITORIAL SEO

Publisher paywalls require both editorial and technical alignment to avoid damaging SEO performance. Engagement signals like Navboost penalize pages with high bounce rates, and paywalled stories tend to have shorter visibility in Top Stories as a result. A strong editorial approach links free top-of-funnel content to locked premium pieces, creating a second click that moves readers closer to converting. Technically, the most common issue is missing or incorrect structured data, particularly the "isAccessibleForFree" attribute and CSS selectors that help Google properly crawl gated content.

THE AI MARKETING PLAYBOOK (WEBINAR)

This webinar will cover using AI to understand customer needs, improve campaign effectiveness, and guide prioritization and experimentation. The session will break down practical ways to apply AI as part of a structured growth system. It will take place on March 26 at 9 AM PT.