Good news: my presentation put only one attendee to sleep! Had a wonderful time at Compass Con - our client-only marketing conference. Our experts shared their latest digital marketing, SEO and AI marketing insights with our 100+ attendees. THANK YOU to our fantastic clients for taking the time to learn and connect with us. We appreciate you! AND, thanks to our amazing team - this event takes a lot of planning, and they knocked it out of the park. And thanks to Mac & Cheese, our golden, for greeting and mingling with our guests today.

I'm the CEO of a rare marketing agency that never uses AI to write copy - for clients or ourselves. Claude's announcement that watermarks are coming to its text generation illustrates one of the many reasons for our stance. This is bad news for the MANY marketing agencies that rely on AI for copywriting and have eliminated their human copywriters. Thankfully, we have amazingly talented copywriters who know how to write for the web at @BlueCompass. While we do occasionally use AI tools to help generate ideas, proof, or refine wording, we never use it to actually write the copy. WHY? Because fully AI-written copy is inauthentic. It's similar to a stock photo - it looks good, but users can tell it's fake. It's not original - it's a duplicate by its very nature because it's created based on the words and sentences it finds around the web. Plus, it performs poorly on web pages. Google, ChatGPT and other platforms dislike it. It goes against Google's policy of helpful, original, high-quality, and people-first content (E-E-A-T). Yes, AI copy is quick and easy - but real, authentic copy performs better and serves our clients' audiences better.

We just did the first (to my knowledge) survey of Iowans' AI habits. We uncovered fascinating insights into how Iowans are using AI, the tasks they spend the most time on, their level of trust in the technology, and much more. For instance... Believe it or not, nearly 70% of adult Iowans use at least one AI platform weekly, a higher rate than the national average. ChatGPT is Iowa's favorite AI, followed by Gemini. I was actually surprised that more Iowans aren't using Claude. Find these results, and other intriguing findings, in our new Iowa AI habits study on the @BlueCompass blog.

Google recently announced several major updates to search at its I/O conference. Here are the four most important SEO takeaways that will help your website continue to stay relevant in the new era of AI search, from our experts at @BlueCompass.

The @BlueCompass team split into groups for volunteer opportunities this quarter. I visited one of my favorite places: Meals From the Heartland. @MftH rallies volunteers and donors to pack nutritious meals that fight hunger for kids and families, both right here in our communities and around the world. It's super easy to jump in, pack meals together, and actually help save lives one meal at a time. Also..... man, do I look good in a hairnet.