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12/13/2025

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12/13/2025

7 Communication Pitfalls Every Growing Organization Should Avoid

Ever wonder if small missteps in communication are quietly chipping away at your team’s success? It’s more common than you might think—many mid-sized organizations overlook issues that can hurt reputation, frustrate employees, and impact results. Our latest blog breaks down the top mistakes we see and shares practical ways to spot and fix them before they become costly headaches.

Have you noticed any communication challenges in your workplace? Let’s talk about what’s worked for you (or what you wish would change)!

Uncover the most common communication mistakes that can hinder your mid-sized organization

12/12/2025

No. 3. Brands are diving into channel diversification.

The web landscape is always changing and evolving, particularly with the expansion of generative AI. As new channels emerge and gain virality, others can drop in effectiveness or ROI within weeks or months.

HubSpot's survey found that:

- 73% of global respondents say they use three or more distinct marketing channels (e.g., email, ads, social platforms, video, SEO, AEO, podcasts, influencers, etc.).

- This experimentation is ramping up even more in the US, where 56% of respondents say their brands have over five marketing channels, compared to one-third of global respondents. ~ Pamela Bump via

Key takeaways from HubSpot's 2025 Loop Marketing Landscape Report for growth-minded businesses.

12/12/2025

Stealthy Browser Extensions Waited Years Before Infecting 4.3M Chrome, Edge Users With Backdoors and Spyware

That’s what happened with this seven-year campaign by Chinese hackers to build useful tools, which, over time, were quietly updated with malware, backdoors, and spyware. According to The Register, the malicious extensions ended up on the systems of over 4.3 million Chrome and Edge users. At the time they published their story, five of those extensions were still available in the Microsoft Edge store.

Some of the offending extensions were so useful that they even ended up as featured add-ons, boasting their features at the top of their respective app store. The developers exploited lax review and testing policies by Google, Microsoft, and other app store owners to initially publish useful tools, and then, with subsequent updates, gradually add malware over time.

So take this as a sign: if you haven’t gone through and removed old browser extensions you no longer need, do it now. ~ Alan Henry via PCMag

From record-breaking DDoS attacks to millions infected by malicious extensions, this week delivered some of the most alarming cyber incidents of the year.

12/11/2025

Repurpose your email newsletter content for your website or blog, making sure it’s optimized for search engines as well as AI engines like ChatGPT or Gemini.

While you don’t have to worry about duplicate content with emails, it’s still good practice to switch things up. Buyer behavior and the mediums of content you can share on a website are dramatically different from those in email. For instance, you can share a video that plays directly on a webpage, but in an email, you’re limited to a gift or thumbnail with a link.

Keep these differences in mind and lean into them to create an optimized experience. ~ Ramona Sukhraj via HubSpot

What does the future of newsletters look like for brands and businesses like yours? Here are six trends and changes that marketers will face in 2026.

12/11/2025

When students used AI to draft SAT-style essays, their creativity initially spiked. Yet those who started with AI-generated ideas showed reduced alpha-wave activity (a marker of creative flow), “tended to converge on common words and ideas,” and their “output was very, very similar” to one another’s.

And in a 2025 study spanning 20 European countries, workers in highly automated jobs reported less purpose, less control, and more stress, even when their work became technically easier.

Together, these studies capture some of the many dualities of using AI at work. The same tools that relieve drudgery can also remove the challenging friction that gives work its meaning. Such tools can make work easier but sand away the struggle that builds skill and satisfaction. ~ Rebecca Hinds, Robert Sutton via Harvard Business Review

The introduction of AI into the workplace inherently creates tension. The same tools that relieve drudgery and make work easier, for example, can also remove the challenging friction that gives work its meaning, builds crucial skills, and increases satisfaction. Which tensions are most common in wor...

12/10/2025

No. 1. Acknowledge the mistake: Own up to it!

Social media mistakes are inevitable, whether cultural missteps, offensive remarks, or unethical engagements. However, recognizing what’s wrong and acknowledging your shortcomings can make a difference. Your target audience will appreciate more if you admit your mistake instead of trying to sweep it under the rug.

Maryanne Fiedler, Director of Marketing at Psychic Source, underscores the importance of acknowledgment right at the outset. She believes it’s the first step to take when committing mistakes. “Remember that your target audience understands that no brand is perfect. However, it takes courage to admit it—own up to your mistake!” ~ Catherine Schwartz via Bulldog Reporter

There’s no denying the role of social media in shaping modern public relations and brand awareness. However, some companies tend to commit social media mistakes inevitably. Think of publishing culturally insensitive articles, posting offensive comments,

12/10/2025

The evolving role of leadership in today’s dynamic business environment requires leaders to understand the distinction between coaching vs. managing, as well as developing skills for both.

With shifting market trends, remote workforces, and evolving employee expectations, leaders must be more than decision-makers — they must also be developers of people, culture and growth.

“Coaching and managing are different tools that leaders must have to drive success in their organization,” says Christine Courtney, President of The Leadership Program in New York City. “There are equal benefits to managing, such as making sure we’re hitting KPIs, and coaching, as it allows leaders to develop their people in ways that pay off tremendously.” ~ Vistage Worldwide

Learn how coaching vs. managing differ and why today’s best leaders master both to drive performance, culture, and long-term business growth.

12/09/2025

For more than a decade, social media platforms acted as powerful distribution engines for publishers and marketers. A single popular Facebook post could send tens of thousands of visitors to a site. X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Reddit all funneled audiences into the open web, powering a playbook that intertwined content creation with predictable referral traffic.

That era is now over.

Sharing still happens. Engagement still happens. Social platforms still occupy a large share of people’s attention. But the ability to convert that attention into website traffic has collapsed. Links that once triggered surges now produce barely measurable impact, and organic reach continues to shrink month after month.

This change didn’t arise because users lost interest. It happened because the platforms rewrote the mechanics of visibility, engagement, and link handling—shifting from outward-facing discovery tools to inward-focused engagement machines designed to keep audiences inside their own walls. Add to this the saturation of automated posting and an industry-wide pay-to-play model, and organic social as a reliable referral channel has all but disappeared. ~ Douglas Karr via MarTech Zone

Discover why social sharing no longer drives meaningful traffic as platforms suppress links, prioritize in-app consumption, downgrade automated posts, and shift to pay-to-play visibility—and learn how brands can adapt by turning social engagement into owned audiences that convert.

12/09/2025

Lesson 3: Share your unique struggle

As our conversation drew to a close, I asked Venardos what he would do differently if he could time-warp back to 2014 and do it all again.

“It might be a trap to torture oneself with such a question. Our identity as The Little Circus that Could was forged absolutely, and only, because I made so many mistakes,” he said and stared into the middle distance.

The first time I saw the Venardos Circus, the show ended as the ringmaster himself came out to thank the audience. His voice quavered as he explained how close the show had come to not making it. How he bet everything on a rented tent and a circus dream. How each one of us there was supporting a whole family of dreamers. I was hooked.

“I don’t wish pain on anyone, but pain is a spoon that carves out space in your heart for gratitude. I think that’s something that connects with people. There’s an emotional resonance.” ~ Curt del Principe via HubSpot

The founder of Venardos Circus opens up about what he learned growing his show from tiny tent to two touring troops across 45 cities.

12/08/2025

The Zero-Click Squeeze

Zero-click searches are already a fact of life and I can’t see them going away anytime soon. According to multiple studies, 58.8% of B2B search queries end without a user clicking through to a website. It’s important to note that customers aren’t choosing to skip the click; they’re just getting what they need in the AI-generated summary at the top of the results page.

This puts enormous pressure on brands, especially those in the B2B space. If a customer’s question is answered before they reach your site, how do you still create a relationship? How do you make sure the impression builds trust, even when there is no traffic to count in Google Analytics?

It’s not impossible to grow both visibility and credibility in the age of zero-clicks. The trick is to get your brand cited in those AI-generated summaries. To do that, you need to think in terms of answer-based content. ~ Bonnie Moss via MarTech Series

Full transparency, I’m a fan of the AI-powered search engines, such as Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.

12/08/2025

The holy grail of technology — artificial general intelligence (AGI) that can match or outdo humans — is on the horizon, Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis says.

But the risks of something going seriously wrong are also in sight, and some are even happening now, he warns. ~ Ben Berkowitz via Axios

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