Hey y’all!

Buckle up – we’re rolling right into the digital marketing news!

• Is Google taking a page from Perplexity? (pun courtesy of Marc Engelsman) Google is testing moving the citation link cards in the AI Overviews responses from the bottom (where they are essentially invisible) to the top where they are prominent (like Perplexity does). This is good news on the SAIO front as this move should improve click through rates from the link cards.

• In related Search Engine Results Page (SERP) news, Google is discontinuing the continuous scroll feature. There will be a Page 2 again, and a Page 3, 4, 5, etc. It’s unclear how this will impact Impressions and Clicks as reported by Google Search Console. FYI, Google said they are doing this to speed delivery of search results. However, we suspect a motivation may be to allow more ads to appear when you flip to the next page.

• ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, silently launched Whee, a competitor to Instagram in June. In case you’re wondering, it’s not available in the U.S. yet. Mashable reports the big issue is that no one knows about it. Will this one flop like previous photo apps? We’ll have to see.

• The first thing I said when I saw this article: why? Meta is launching its AI Studio for Instagram influencers, which allows them to create AI versions of themselves to react to fan DMs. To me, it sounds like Meta is opening up a whole can of crunchy. 😖 How will creators assess brand voice and response quality? It’s exciting not to have to answer the same questions repetitively, but are we sure users want to interact with another bot?

• Which channel/tactic contributes most to the success of B2B customer acquisition efforts? {Pause while you consider your response.} Did your answer include one of these four – digital advertising, email, live events, social media? According to a Stirista/Ascend2 survey, the most influential channel is social media with 22% share of responses. Digital advertising was next at 16%, then email at 13%, and live events at 11%. Surprised? See the chart and read the summary for more details.

• We’ve discussed LinkedIn Collaborative Articles in the past. Here’s a cool feature: they have a big page with ALL collaborative articles by topic. Some topics of interest… Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Search Engine Marketing.

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

What could the workplace be if…

… we were cognizant and compassionate of unknown struggles others may be facing?

… we allow people to work in ways they feel are most productive?

… we were able to sense when we needed a break and it was honored by others?

… we had programs that cared about wellbeing as much as productivity?

… we cared about the planet as much as profits?

The wonderful possibilities of kinder workplaces are innumerable. Stay tuned as we work on a new resource to help you build better workplaces.

Best Wishes,

Natalie

Did you know the brain is made of 60% fat? 

How about that your brain isn’t fully formed until 25?

Did you know that slurping a slushie too fast can give you sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia (brain freeze)?

Check out these cool facts on the brain!

🧠 I’ve Been Thinking…

I get super curious when I meet people whose work lives are very different from mine. And after a series of these interactions last week, I gained a new appreciation for the need for 360° respect and appreciation in the workplace.

Leaders cannot expect employees to just blindly follow orders anymore; and employees cannot expect their leaders to have all the answers. Our world has gotten much too complicated. And employees often don’t know the challenges their co-workers are experiencing.

By opening up dialogues so communication flows in all directions, we share our realities and pave the way for positive change.

Here’s an idea to try out this week: have a conversation with someone whose work is very different from yours–either inside or outside your own company. What are their biggest challenges? What do they enjoy most and least—and why? See if what they share provides insights for your workplace and the roles in it. I’m going to wager that respect and appreciation are huge factors in their answers. Let me know how it goes!

🚀 Information & Resources to Help You Drive Change

Here are my shares for this week: 

SPECIAL NOTE: If you hit a paywall on any of the stories I share, go to Google Search, enter the name of the publication and something about the story (author, title, subject) to get a natural search link that usually by-passes the pay wall.

• J.J. Mazzo hits the right points in this short piece for Forbes on what he learned when his company grew from 1-20 employees. Especially love his share about hiring carefully–a valuable lesson I, too, learned the hard way. 

• This WSJ piece is written for consumers, but it applies to business banking too. AI is helping the bad guys–heads up.

• If it seems very quiet the week of July 1, it is not your imagination, according to this article from Inc.

• I get it…some employees are dishonest, need supervision, and don’t perform to expectations. But I think we need to “get off the clock” and innovate better ways to set performance goals and assess productivity. “The clock” is too subjective for today’s workforce. That being said, I understand the deception needed to be punished, but true confession, I clicked through to the article because the link said it was about mouse jigglers and I didn’t know what those were. Now I do and you can too. 😂

• Now this is cool: blue collar talent is finding lucrative side hustle work—as social influencers.

• Practicing gratitude seems to be on everyone’s list of important skills for leaders to cultivate, including this list from Rolling Stone. Rock on!

• Is it possible to be “too nice” at work? Absolutely! When we’re focused on being “nice” as a mask to our anxiousness, we can come across as disingenuous and untrustworthy. This TEDTalk by social psychologist Tessa West shares her research on how people mask anxiety with overly polite feedback. She, also, gives three tips to be more clear and consistent with feedback.

🌟 Do Good Spotlight: The American Heart Association (AHA)

Founded in 1924, the AHA has become the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. Heart Disease is the #1 killer worldwide and AHA continues to provide research funding and programs to help people live healthier. Learn more about aiding their cause: American Heart Association.

💞 Better Workplaces Intention Pod

We’re revamping the intention pod and will be bringing it back in a new format with new times so more of you can participate. It’s an uplifting way to help keep yourself centered throughout the business week (and on the weekend too). Stay tuned…

⏳Until Next Time…

Do you have good plans for the weekend? Active or chill? Do what you need to do to stay refreshed and focused. Taking care of ourselves is the best foundation for helping others, so make sure to invest time in the recharging activities that work best for you. 

I’m listening to “James” by Percival Everett and loving it—that’s my chill. Dinner party at a friends’ home on Sunday—that’s my active. Saturday is me pushing myself to get back on my e-bike after the knee surgery—definitely not chill, hoping it’s active! Wish me luck!

Enjoy the rest of the week and your weekend too,

Niki

Greetings!

I’m going to change Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer” lyrics to “It’s been a hot, hot, hot summer…” (and we’re not even that far into it)! It’s also been hot from a digital marketing perspective… check it out!

• How do you know if your gen AI chatbot is hallucinating? Time recently reported “Scientists Develop New Algorithm to Spot AI Hallucinations.” The researchers came up with a formula to calculate “semantic entropy” which determines how similar the responses are when prompted with different variations of the same prompt. They are hoping that gen AI chatbots like ChatGPT can ultimately provide a button that will give you a “certainty score” to the provided response. If you don’t want to wait to see how and when this comes to pass, we have three suggestions for you:
  1) Try typing the same prompt into multiple gen AI chatbots and observe the response similarity.
  2) Only use Gen AI responses that come with citations to the sources included in their response.
  3) Use Google Gemini’s fact-checking feature to highlight verified (green) and questionable (red) parts of AI-generated responses.

• Switching from AI hallucinations to a different AI issue: “How to fight bias in your AI models.” Martech uses the lack of accurate data on loans taken out by women as an example of how an AI model will then be biased about the potential of this under-reported segment. A possible solution is creating “synthetic data” to fill in these gaps.

DBE Perspective 💬

At SMX Advanced, Elizabeth Tucker, Google Search’s Director of Product Management, revealed key insights into the future of SEO.

Some focal points include reusing the words, “satisfying,” “helpful,” and “experience” when describing content. Could these expand EEAT principles Google’s set forth in the past?

Get the details from our Director of SEO & SAIO, Marc Engelsman: Google Seeks to Satisfy with Renewed Focus on Helpful Content.

• Here’s a new concept: ban algorithmic feeds on teen social accounts. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the “Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids” act. Should the act be approved, it will prohibit addictive feeds for teens as well as sending notifications between 12am – 6am. Social Media Today sums it up well.

• We’ve seen influencers used in countless B2C product campaigns, but what about B2B? Some influencer strategies from B2C crossover into B2B, like choosing a micro- and niche influencer for their specific audience. One thing you have to keep in mind is subject-matter expertise and professional experience. Check out this EMarketer chart on the topic!

• Did somebody say bacon? Oscar Mayer did! They pulled a great fake-out to give you a giggle!

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

I’ve been hit with the “respond, don’t react” mantra frequently this year. Books, articles, and life situations have been pointing at it in one way or another. The quick overview if you’re new: it is about letting the situation sink in and responding thoughtfully instead of reacting on your first emotion.

I think one way to get closer to this is by listening. Once the situation (whatever it is) gets difficult, pause and listen.

• Listen to what’s going on in yourself. Ie., Is your heart beating faster? What emotions are going through you? 
• If you’re in a conversation, listen to the other person’s verbal and non-verbal cues. 
• If the situation is too much to handle, listen to something outside what’s going on. Maybe there’s rain on the window or a breeze picking up. Then, once you’ve grounded yourself, head back in and respond.

Responding allows us to pull out of the tunnel vision caused by reacting. We gain perspective and thoughtfulness in tricky circumstances.

Go get ‘em today – you got this!

Natalie

Love me some Coldplay… Did you know they are making their new album entirely out of plastic collected from water? They also aim to make their tours more sustainable. They’ve topped my charts as the coolest band ever. 🤘

🧠 I’ve Been Thinking…

It’s so hot. Like, really hot. So hot that I keep repeating how hot it is to anyone within earshot, who, of course, already knows it’s so freakin’ hot. There’s relief ahead, but in the meantime, it’s so freakin’ hot! 🔥

🚀 Information & Resources to Help You Drive Change

Here are my shares for this week:

SPECIAL NOTE: If you hit a paywall on any of the stories I share, go to Google Search, enter the name of the publication and something about the story (author, title, subject) to get a natural search link that usually by-passes the pay wall.

• ABetterParadigm.com, the new home for Niki’s Notes and so much more, is almost ready to launch. It will be a centralized resource for coaches, training & development programs, assessments, conferences, reading suggestions, and more. All focus is on helping business people like you build and strengthen compassionate workplaces. Special thanks to Natalie Lorenzo of DBE who has contributed significantly to the look and feel of the brand: logo, website, marketing materials, and more. Stay tuned!

• A strong golf game is an in-demand job skill. Not kidding. Here’s more from The Wall Street Journal. Oh, and just as I’m getting back into the swing of things (couldn’t resist) golf clothes for women are leveling up.

• Are you a healthy worker or a workaholic? Quick quiz gives some answers and perspectives. (Scroll down, it’s not the top story on the page.)

• According to researchers, when leaders say, “I am very grateful” rather than “thank you” it has a stronger impact on employees and their productivity. I’m not sure about this one. I think either works well when you provide details, like, “Thank you for the details you provided; going deeper helped me uncover insights I wouldn’t have had….” I think any thanks are appreciated when they don’t feel superficial. Thoughts?

• Want to live longer? Less TV the answer according to this new study.

• It’s not your imagination – air travel is becoming more turbulent. Find out how to keep yourself and your “fellow travelers” safe.

• Some people are not comfortable with the notion of seeking power. Is this you? Perhaps a new definition is in order. Here you go.

• I was at a great presentation/Q&A with former Navy Seal Gregory Hake last week. I keep thinking about a phrase he used, “break contact.” It refers to a strategy to withdraw from a situation when you don’t have an advantage. As he explained, in the movies the hero and their friends always fight through an ambush, but in real life, withdrawing when surprised (and at a disadvantage) can be the smartest move. Business is evolving to where admitting vulnerability is a strength: we can withdraw, regroup, and come back stronger. If the Navy Seals can do this, what a great model for the rest of us.

🌟 Do Good Spotlight: National Civil Rights Museum

To commemorate Juneteenth, we are supporting the National Civil Rights Museum. By remembering the past, we teach ourselves what’s important as we journey forward to equality for all. The National Civil Rights Museum continues the legacy of sharing stories that changed our nation. Learn how you can help: National Civil Rights Museum.

🎵 On a Personal Note

With kids heading off to college soon, these moving tips seem timely. Actually, they work for anyone changing homes, so check out these more-than-clever packing hacks. 😉

⏳Until Next Time…

There’s so much going on in our world, and it’s often challenging to stay focused on what you can influence. When I feel myself spending too much energy outside my areas of influence, I purposefully pause and redirect my attention where my energy has an impact. If we all do that, our ripples will become the waves of change we’re seeking. Let’s keep vibing at those higher frequencies and stay cool regardless of the temperature.

Niki

Howdy!

We’ve got 2 weeks’ worth of roundup for you, so grab your favorite beverage and let’s jump in!

• Will AI be facing a content boom/bust situation like the gold rush? An Epoch AI study “projects that tech companies will exhaust the supply of publicly available training data for AI language models by roughly the turn of the decade — sometime between 2026 and 2032.” The potential need for more content may push AI developers to mine sources like emails or text messages (goodbye privacy?). Or lead to partnerships with content sources like Reddit and Wikipedia.

• Siri (and all Apple products) will be getting an AI makeover. They’re calling it “Apple Intelligence.” The new features include enhanced photo editing, custom emoji creation, and other photo and content editing/generation capabilities. ***NOTEWORTHY: Apple integrated ChatGPT from OpenAI to help drive some of these enhancements. Microsoft, as a core investor of OpenAI, stands to benefit from this Apple/OpenAI deal. We’ll keep you posted.

• Perplexity Pages was introduced earlier this month as a form of publishable content threads that are searchable by Google. It seems some of these threads are now starting to show up in Google’s AI Overviews. We agree with this article that these Perplexity results could lead to spammy, black-hat-ish optimization abuses.

• Raise your hand if you’ve ever abandoned a cart because of extra fees. (Okay, I can’t see your hands, but I am sure a good portion of you have.) “Nearly half of US adults abandoned their online shopping cart at checkout because [of] the extra costs (shipping, tax, and fees)” as stated by EMarketer reporting on a Baymond survey. The real question is what can we do as marketers to mitigate these costs?

• Marketing Charts surveyed high-level marketing leaders with this question: “In the next year, what effects do you anticipate AI will have on your organization’s funnel?” Interestingly, improving and scaling lead management variations were mentioned in 3 out of 5 top results. Another one was “optimizing messaging and content.”

• We’ve talked about creative being a true ad differentiator in the past. LG Ad Solutions released data expressing that “49% of customers believe they can distinguish between traditional and AI ads on CTV.” While 30% of respondents stated they would like their ads personalized with AI, 80% believe it should be regulated. We all need to be careful how we step with AI ad/content creation.

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

Have you ever seen a toddler experience something for the first time? They pick up rocks and sticks in amazement – with consistent wonder of the world unfurling around them. 

What if we applied more of that amazement to our day? 

We could watch planes pass by the sky with astounded awe. We could experience how amazing it is that we can flick a switch and have light flood a room. We could see our jobs from a beginner’s perspective. 

Could uncovering amazement, awe, and wonder make us more aware of and happy with the lives we have?

That’s a wrap – enjoy the rest of the week!

Natalie

Speaking of awe, this is one of my favorite articles. Here’s an excerpt from Outside magazine contributing editor, Florence Williams:

“A heightened awe experience stimulates the vagus nerve, which calms us, and releases a pleasant rush of dopamine and oxytocin, increasing a sense of connection.

It also dramatically shifts which brain networks are firing up. Imaging studies show that awe reduces activation in our self-referential default-mode network. The findings help explain two significant features of a classic awe experience: a relatively diminished sense of self, and a tendency toward altruistic behavior.”

Awe changes the way we think and how we experience, #SoCOOL!

🧠 I’ve Been Thinking…

…about how to get more “deep sleep.” There’s lots of information about getting “better” sleep and I’m doing all of it, but I still cannot get more than 30 minutes or so of deep sleep each night. According to my Oura, it should be at least 90 minutes per night. Any info out there to help me get more of this restorative level of sleep?

🚀 Information & Resources to Help You Drive Change

Here are my shares for this week:

SPECIAL NOTE: If you hit a paywall on any of the stories I share, go to Google Search, enter the name of the publication and something about the story (author, title, subject) to get a natural search link that usually by-passes the pay wall.

• Consider: “A 2024 Gallup survey indicates that the percentage of employees who strongly agree that their organization cares about their overall well-being has plunged from 49% in 2020 to 21% in 2024, while a previous survey found that improving well-being and culture rated much higher than increasing compensation among the things “quiet quitters” would like to change about their work.” This article from Harvard Business Reviews talks about what employees really need and what companies need to avoid.

• Going “gray rock” isn’t a go-to strategy for all tough situations, but when you have someone in your sphere who just wants to argue for the drama of it, this does work wonders for your peace of mind.

• I’ve talked about the loneliness epidemic and how it affects young people. Here’s some good news and an idea that could work for more of us than just the Gen Z’s reading today.

• I was going to share this video because I thought it made the point about management leading with support rather than leading with force…but then I read the comments, and frankly, I’m sharing this for another reason now. Why is it some people feel the need to turn any post whatsoever into an argument. Some of the comments are relevant, e.g., there is one from someone who said they don’t like being touched, and another from someone who said he uses the “walk and talk” technique, but there were so many other comments that were either irrelevant or missed the point (purposefully?). It’s a serious question, because I post a lot of curated content, and sometimes the post makes a point I want to share but I hesitate when I scan the comments. Thoughts?

• How is your company exploring gen AI? Here’s a tip sheet—well, much more than a tip sheet—on mitigating risks as you and your colleagues wade into the AI waters. Via Öykü Isik, Amit Joshi, and Lazaros Goutas for Harvard Business Review.

🌟 Do Good Spotlight: Home Sweet Hudson and Their Comedy Night Fund Raiser

Navigating the transition for special needs children reaching the age of 21 can feel like “falling off a cliff.” This critical period, when individuals are no longer eligible for IDEA (federal) services and must depend on State vocational rehabilitation and Medicaid waivers, is often challenging and confusing. The team at Home Sweet Hudson provides inclusive aid to families with special needs children during this transition. They assist with accessing unknown services, mentoring, direct community engagement, legislative advocacy, and consolidating resources for parents and caregivers in Hudson County, NJ.

Of special note to my readers in northern NJ, there’s a comedy show fund raiser on Thursday, June 20 in Hoboken. It starts at 7:00 p.m. and features 5 comedians. Sure to be a fun time. Shout out to the founder of Home Sweet Hudson, David Tornabene, I love how you found a community in need and built an organization to support it!

🎵 On a Personal Note

What kind of friend are you? (I’m a firefly).

⏳Until Next Time…

Enjoy your time with family and friends this weekend–life is fleeting, and those connections are everything. And Happy Father’s Day to everyone celebrating!

Niki

🧠 I’ve Been Thinking…

… about how enjoyable it was planting flowers on my deck this past Saturday. It was a lot of work, but it looks really pretty out there now. I ventured into uncharted territory with begonias, a calla lily, and another hibiscus. Since I’m still healing from my knee surgery, I took breaks throughout the afternoon to listen to Huckleberry Finn to prep for listening to a new book, “James.” It’s narrated by the character Jim, and I wanted to absorb the original before moving to the new one.

Intermixing planting and listening was a perfect way to spend an afternoon: sunshine, exercise, and nature. All on the microcosm of my deck. 

How are you integrating activities? If you can’t do everything all at once, can you break it into segments?

🚀 Information & Resources to Help You Drive Change

Here are my shares for this week:

SPECIAL NOTE: If you hit a paywall on any of the stories I share, go to Google Search, enter the name of the publication and something about the story (author, title, subject) to get a natural search link that usually by-passes the pay wall.

• DEI. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Neela Singh talks about DEI as the new Macarena. Everyone’s doing it but not everyone knows why. This article is well constructed, and she shares personal experiences that provide interesting elements.

• Piggybacking off the DEI Macarena piece, here’s an interesting take on DEI by Alain Hunkins for Forbes. Did you know DEI means different things to different generations of workers? Where do your definitions fall? Helpful stats and research, dig in.

• Sean Kernan talks about curiosity as a basis for relationships. While the focus of this piece is on personal relationships, we need more of this at work too, so here you go.

• I couldn’t wait to share this one: HBR Ideacast podcasters (Juan Martinez and Tom Stackpole) and their guest (Ethan Mollick, a management professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania) do such a great job making comparisons between how we looked at the pros and risks of early digital technology and considerations businesses are facing with gen AI now. There’s the 39-minute podcast and a transcript: take your pick, but do peruse.

Do Good Spotlight
🌟 Out & Equal 🌟

To celebrate Pride month, this week’s charity is Out & Equal, a global nonprofit working exclusively on LGBTQ+ workplace equality. They leverage Fortune 500 partnerships, worldwide programs, and conferences to create inclusive company cultures. See what they do and how you can help: Out & Equal.

🎵 On a Personal Note

I always thought most trees had roots that went down as far as the trees went up. Or maybe not quite so far, but I always assumed they went very deep.

Guess what…most trees, even very large ones – have roots that go down about 2-6 feet! They do, however, spread out horizontally, below the ground, 2-4x the diameter of the tree’s crown.

What does this have to do with creating better workplaces? I could find a metaphor but honestly, I just was amazed by this and wanted to share.

Now, my editor, Natalie Lorenzo, on the other hand, thought this was cool and too good not to go for the metaphor, so here’s her note:

One way forest trees communicate with each other is through the fungal network at their roots. Redwoods, in particular, can grow above 300 feet in the air, while their root system is only ~10 feet down. Their roots interlace with each other to hold all the trunks up together.

So by communicating through interconnection, the whole forest is healthier.

How’s that for a metaphor?

⏳Until Next Time…

Please take good care of yourself. We only have one you, and you touch many lives in many ways. Stay strong, stay focused, and keep bringing your best self to all you do. It’s appreciated! Thank you!

Niki