Share your Threads to Instagram, find out the best time to post on TikTok, and why Pinterest is where you should share your AI-free content

It may be starting to warm up outside. 2

But Threads and Instagram just got cozier: Meta just launched a feature that lets you share Threads posts directly to your Instagram Story without leaving the app.

If you’re already active on Threads, this is a near-zero-effort way to extend your reach. And it fits a broader Meta push that’s helped Threads hit 400M monthly users in a year

Timing is everything: A study of just over 7M TikTok posts found Sunday at 9 am is the single best time to post. Unlike every other platform, weekends are peak territory on TikTok.

6-11 pm is your next best bet. However, exact timings vary slightly depending on the day.

Fixing your posting schedule costs nothing, but getting it right can be the difference between buried and viral. Work with the algorithm.

If you want to grow, you need to find healthy soil: Emplifi’s 2026 Social Media Benchmarks report confirms TikTok drove over 200% median brand follower growth year-over-year in 2025.

Instagram organic reach is declining, Facebook is flat, and X is trending negative. Oof.

If TikTok isn’t working for your brand despite a platform-native approach, the engagement data suggests the content itself, not the algorithm, is worth examining first.

Pinterest is mopping the slop: The platform is actively detecting, labeling, and removing AI-generated content to protect its purchase-ready audience.

Authentic, human-made creative gets rewarded here, and leaning on AI-generated assets puts you at risk of being deprioritized entirely.

As other platforms get noisier with synthetic content, Pinterest’s commitment to the real thing could make it an increasingly valuable place to reach buyers who are actually ready to act.

Walmart’s shopping assistant is encouraging conversions, while ChatGPT is becoming a friendlier ad space every day

Bruce Springsteen said, “You can’t start a fire without a spark.”

Well, Sparky is lighting up Walmart’s customer base: The AI shopping assistant is driving 35% higher order values for users who engage with it.

Sparky understands intent, builds full baskets around life moments like a birthday party, and connects digital engagement to same-day physical fulfillment.

Half of Walmart’s app users have already tried it.

AI that understands context increases how much they spend. If you sell through retail or run product ads, basket-building AI could give your customers a nudge in the right direction.

But Amazon looms over its shoulder: The retailer has officially surpassed Walmart in annual revenue.

However, strip out AWS’s $142B cloud business, and Walmart’s retail operation still holds its own.

US e-commerce is up 27% YoY, ad revenues are climbing, and its 4,600+ store network gives it a fulfillment edge no pure e-commerce player can easily replicate.

Both platforms are growing fast, so you might not want to ignore either…

ChatGPT is becoming the coworker you actually want to grab drinks with after work: Data shows people are reducing work tasks and using it more for their personal lives.

Personal-use platforms have historically been ad gold. And OpenAI is actively testing ads, while rival Anthropic has committed to staying ad-free.

If the platform opens up inventory, it could become a high-intent channel worth serious budget consideration.

Which schema markups should you use for AI?

If you think AI is smart enough to understand your website just by looking at it, we have some bad news…

According to Gustav M, AI search engines are currently struggling with a massive clarity problem. They can find your data, sure, but they often have no clue what it means.

Enter a schema markup. Here’s how they work.

AI search isn’t just about text; it’s about context: Pages with structured data show up much more frequently in AIO because schema turns a mess of words into defined elements.

If you aren’t using schema, you’re whispering in a crowded room and hoping the person across the hall hears you. Schema ensures your How-Tos actually look like instructions and your product pricing is treated as a fact, not a suggestion.

People talk to AI like they talk to humans: When you use FAQ schema, you’re handing the AI pre-packaged answers that it can easily extract.

Don’t answer random questions. Look at things like your support tickets. Answer the real stuff, structure it properly, and watch the AI treat you like the ultimate authority.

AI engines have trust issues: If a page doesn’t have a clear, verifiable author, the AI treats it as low-quality noise. By using Author schema, you’re providing credentials and affiliations.

When an AI condenses five sources into one answer, it’s going to prioritize the one written by a recognizable expert. Don’t make your content anonymous.

Inconsistency is how you get ignored by an algorithm: Organization schema ties your website, social profiles, and founders into one unified brand entity.

Think of this as your digital ID card. Without it, the AI sees your LinkedIn, your YouTube, and your blog as three separate strangers. Link them together with an @id property so the AI knows exactly whose expertise it’s looking at.

You don’t need to overhaul your entire site by Monday: Pick one high-value page, add the relevant schema, and validate it using Google’s Rich Results Test.

Treat schema as a core part of your content strategy, not a technical chore for the IT department.

The brands that speak the AI’s language today are the ones that will be cited as the experts in 2026.

The first intentional search touchpoint is…

When users want to look up something, they have to decide where to knock first.

It turns out, Google’s front door is still heavy, but AI is installing a very popular side entrance.

The battle for the “starting line” is tighter than you might think:

• 47% of users still reflexively head to Google or other traditional search engines to begin their journey.
• A massive 37% now start directly with AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot. That is a significant chunk of high-intent traffic moving away from the ad-heavy SERP.
• Voice assistants (11%) and social media (4%) are still specialized niches, but they aren’t currently the primary “start” buttons for most.

AI is no longer a secondary check. For nearly 4 in 10 users, the search journey starts and potentially ends within a chatbot’s interface, bypassing traditional websites entirely.

Actionable tip: Claim your answer engine territory.

Use schema markup and provide clear, direct answers to common industry questions so AI tools can pull your brand’s “truth” as the first response in these 37% of new-age searches.

AI is restructuring search faster than most marketers can keep up.

Pro subscribers stay ahead with weekly intelligence on what’s changing and exactly what to do about it. $349/year covers your whole team (up to 10 people).