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It’s National Iced Tea Month, Reader! Make our Director of Editorial’s Earl Grey with a spoonful of black currant jam, please.

In today’s edition:

• Today's Tip of the Day is for working with AI

• Changing your YouTube viewers to customers

• LinkedIn company page dashboard tabs

• Additional industry news from TikTok and more

If you're getting bland AI-generated content when you use a writing assistant to create blog posts, you might need to help your AI help you.  

Let AI Ask You Questions

By prompting the AI to ask you questions, you're allowing it to gather more information, better understand the task at hand, and generate more accurate and relevant content for you.

After you deliver the prompt for your article, add the following phrase:

Ask me all the questions you need me to answer in order to do this. Ask me each question one at a time. I will answer the question, and then you'll ask me the next question. We'll continue this pattern until you have all the information you need.

This conversational approach allows the AI to continuously learn and adapt based on your responses, resulting in a blog post that meets your specific needs and goals.

Today's tip is inspired by Dustin W. Stout, a featured guest on the AI Explored podcast.

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A Formula for YouTube Videos That Convert

YouTube has become much more than just a platform for entertaining videos. It's now a powerful tool that businesses can leverage to attract their ideal customers and generate leads. Creating valuable video content and optimizing it for viewers and search engines can turn your YouTube channel into an evergreen source of new customers or prospects. 

Whether you're new to YouTube or looking to get better results from your existing efforts, these tips will help you better use YouTube for business.

By incorporating these four elements, you'll infuse your videos with variety and momentum, take viewers on a journey from problem to solution, and make your content irresistible:

Epiphany: Opening With an Explicit Value Proposition

Nearly 70% of YouTube viewers will stop watching a video within the first few seconds if it doesn't capture their interest. That's why your video intro must immediately demonstrate the value viewers will get from watching the whole thing. 

Don't start your videos with common but ineffective phrases. 

"Hey guys, just popping in real quick to share something with you." 

Instead, open with an explicit value proposition that clarifies the key "a-ha" moment you want viewers to take from your video so they immediately know it's for them. 

"In this video, I'm going to share the exact system my clients use to lose 10% of their body weight every month without relying on diet pills, shakes, or crazy exercise routines. Stay tuned because this could be a game-changer for you."

Lesson: Make the Process Crystal Clear

People don't just buy products or services—they buy outcomes, experiences, and transformations. Your job with your YouTube videos is to guide viewers along that journey from where they are now to where they want to be.

Start by vividly describing your audience's problems and pain points so they know you understand what they're going through. Then, shift into painting the vision of what's possible when they find the right solution. What will their life look like? How will they feel? What opportunities will open up for them?

Position your products or services as the bridge that helps them reach those results. Explain how you've helped others in their shoes transform. When you can show that you have a proven path to getting them to their goal, working with you becomes the obvious choice.

Pro Tip: When weighing options, consumers rarely (if ever) choose the more difficult path. If you want customers to choose you, make it easy for them to understand what they're committing to. If you're a coach, lay out your teaching in an easy-to-follow way using numbered lists, subheadings, or other organizational frameworks. If you offer a product or service, break down the process of using it into specific steps.

Story: Handling Objections Head On

Sharing stories can help you overcome consumers' doubts or hesitations about your offer. However, stories shouldn't be fictional.

Illustrate your lesson with concrete examples, case studies, or personal experiences. Show how things play out in the real world.

You can walk viewers through case studies to provide social proof or discuss your own journey to build trust and support your expertise.

Application: Moving Viewers Into Your Sales Funnel

End each video by giving your audience a relevant action step to implement what they just learned. This could be an exercise to complete, a no-cost resource to download, or an offer to consider. Spur them to take the next step.

The key is that it should be a logical next step that builds on the content of your video.

"By the way, be sure to stick around until the end because I've got a no-cost cheat sheet that will walk you through everything I cover step-by-step." 

Then, at the end of the video, spend 30–60 seconds explaining the benefits of your resource and telling people how to get access. Put the link in your description and direct people there verbally.

Today's advice is provided with insights from Marley Jaxx, a featured guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

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LinkedIn’s New Pages Admin Dashboard: LinkedIn is rolling out a new Pages admin dashboard. The Dashboard tab provides an overview of Page activity, performance, and recommended actions, with four main modules: "today's actions," "manage posts," "track performance," and "join conversations." Two additional tabs, Feed and Page posts, allow for easier engagement with employee and followed Page content and streamlined management of the Page's content. Source: LinkedIn Ads Blog

LinkedIn Updates Linked Previews:  LinkedIn is changing link previews in organic posts, displaying smaller images than the previous design. Sponsored posts will retain the larger preview images, and when an organic post is promoted as a Sponsored Content ad, the thumbnail will be converted to a larger image. This change also applies when a sponsored post is re-shared as an organic update. Source Social Media Today

Mid-Roll Ads Test on TikTok: Some users report seeing ads placed toward the end of videos that are over a minute long. Source: @lindseygamble via Threads

Threads’ Rolls Out Desktop Redesign: Threads is rolling out a redesign of its desktop site to all users globally. The new layout allows users to customize their homepage by pinning various feeds, such as their Following feed, For You feed, saved posts, and recent notifications. Users can scroll horizontally to view all the pinned feeds or display a single feed. The redesign includes an auto-update feature that refreshes the feeds in real time. The redesign is accessible for free to all users. Source: @mosseri via Threads

TikTok’s US-Only Algorithm: Reuters reported that TikTok is developing a US-specific recommendation algorithm independent from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Sources claim TikTok engineers have been separating code to create a version not linked to ByteDance's Chinese app, Douyin, which could allow for a divestiture of US assets. TikTok denies the report, stating the required "qualified divestiture" is not feasible within the 270-day timeline. Reuters stands by its reporting, and sources estimate the project could take over a year to complete. Source: Readwrite

Did You Know?

Wheels of Parmesan cheese were used as currency in parts of Italy during the 16th century. Its value was derived, in part, from its long shelf life.