Instagram Email Subscriber Tactic, No-Ad YouTube Strategy, and Industry News

Here's a recap of the most important insights, trends, and updates you need to know about today! Catch up in minutes and go into the rest of the week prepared.

In today's edition:

Get email subscribers from Instagram

More business from YouTube without ads

🗞️ Industry news from Instagram, YouTube, and more

The 24-Hour Reset and DM Automation Strategy That Generates Email Subscribers on Instagram

What if one Instagram Story could add thousands of people to your email list in 24 hours? This two-step strategy will help:

Stop posting all content for a full 24 hours. This “reset” creates a gap in your audience's feed, so when you do post again, Instagram treats it as a fresh signal and pushes it harder. Your next piece of content gets a visibility boost because the algorithm re-engages your audience after the pause.

Immediately after the 24-hour reset, post a high-value “give.” Offer a free resource your audience genuinely wants, such as a downloadable guide, checklist, or template. Use a DM automation tool like ManyChat so that when someone comments a specific keyword, they automatically receive the resource via direct message.

Track the full funnel from that single post: total views, number of keyword comments, DM open rate, and click-through rate on the download link. These numbers tell you exactly how engaged your audience is and how effectively you are converting viewers into subscribers.

Michelle Gifford shared a real-world example of this strategy in action. Her client, a Disney travel agency, posted a Story offering a “Top 40 Guide” after a 24-hour reset. That single Story generated over 200,000 views. Of those viewers, 6,400 people commented the keyword to trigger the DM automation. 88% of recipients opened the direct message, and nearly 70% clicked through to download the guide. The result: 5,000 new email subscribers from one Story in one day. Because these subscribers have already engaged with your content and opted in through a DM conversation, they are warm leads, making them far more cost-effective to convert with ads or email sequences than a cold audience.

This tip was shared by Michelle Gifford at Social Media Marketing World 2026.

2027 Speakers Just Announced

Social Media Marketing World just dropped its first speaker lineup for 2027. Two dozen experts — personally recruited, pitch-free sessions, covering AI and marketing, organic and paid social, and marketing strategy. These are practitioners who work the way you do and teach what's actually working right now. Tickets are on sale at discounted prices.

Check out the lineup.

How to Use YouTube to Grow Your Business Without Spending a Dollar on Ads

Most businesses treat YouTube like a digital filing cabinet, dumping content without a real strategy and wondering why nothing gains traction. Video marketing strategist Derral Eves, author of The YouTube Formula 2.0 and chief strategy officer behind The Chosen TV series, says the problem starts with who you think you're talking to. If you shift your approach, YouTube's algorithm will find your ideal audience for you and deliver results that rival paid advertising.

Why Targeting Customers Instead of Viewers Is Costing You
Derral explains the critical mindset shift that separates channels that grow from those that stall. Learn why focusing on psychographics over demographics changes everything and how understanding your viewer's emotional needs unlocks the kind of content YouTube's AI actually wants to recommend.

The Curiosity Factor That Earns the Click
Find out how to craft titles and thumbnails that make your ideal viewer stop scrolling and why the first few seconds of your video matter more than anything that comes after. Derral breaks down the exact window you have to prove your content is worth watching.

A Value-First Approach That Turns Viewers Into Buyers
Discover why the marketers who resist the urge to sell in their videos are the ones generating the most revenue. Derral shares real examples of businesses that built massive sales pipelines with zero ad spend by leading with value and letting trust do the closing.

How to Find Your Authentic Voice on Camera
If you freeze up on camera or sound too polished and scripted, you are not alone. Learn the simple reframe Derral uses with his clients to unlock a natural, magnetic delivery and why talking to your audience like a friend at dinner outperforms any elevator pitch.

Content Formats and Mechanisms That Keep People Watching
Learn the specific video structures Derral recommends for keeping viewers engaged all the way through, including a storytelling framework that works even if you have never considered yourself a good storyteller. Plus, find out how to use YouTube's analytics and competitor comments to validate your content strategy before you hit record.

Want to Learn More?

Watch on YouTube

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

Read the show notes on Social Media Examiner

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Instagram Lets Users Add Tagged Posts to Their Main Profile Grid: Instagram is rolling out a new profile customization feature globally that allows users to move posts they're tagged in onto their main profile grid. Users can add eligible posts through their DM tag notifications, from the post itself, or via the Tagged tab, making collaborations and shared moments more prominent on their profiles. Posts can later be removed from the main grid without affecting the original content or its presence in the Tagged tab. Social Media Examiner via Instagram

Snapchat Launches Commerce Power Pack for Performance Advertisers: Snapchat has introduced Commerce Power Pack, a suite of commerce advertising updates designed to help brands turn product discovery into purchases and optimize campaigns around business value. The package brings Dynamic Product Ads into Sponsored Snaps globally, while adding beta capabilities for ROAS-focused Value Optimization and third-party web measurement signals. Snapchat is also testing Omnichannel Optimization, which lets campaigns capture purchases across web and app through a unified setup. Snapchat

Threads Expands Insights With AI-Powered Performance Analysis: Threads is upgrading its analytics to give creators more context around what drives account and post performance. The expanded Insights experience includes post-level summaries explaining potential performance drivers, deeper audience demographics, and clearer breakdowns between followers and non-followers. Meta is also using AI-generated summaries to surface broader patterns in account performance, giving creators more actionable context for refining their content strategies. Head of Threads via Threads

YouTube Adds Co-Viewed TV Metrics and New Branded Content Controls: YouTube is expanding creator analytics with Views (Co-Viewed), a private metric that estimates how many people are watching together on connected TVs and can help creators demonstrate their broader reach to brand partners. Separately, YouTube Studio is introducing more granular age and geographic restrictions for branded content, refreshed viewer-facing disclosures, and automated labeling of promotional material that has not been declared by creators. YouTube