Casey Dolan

Why Every Social Media Post Suddenly Looks the Same (And How to Use AI Without Losing Your Voice)

By |2026-02-11T14:52:27-08:00February 11th, 2026|Social Media|

Spend five minutes scrolling LinkedIn or Facebook and you’ll notice something strange. Different companies. Different industries. Different audiences. But the posts all look, well, suspiciously similar. Big statement. Short line. Another short line. Maybe an em dash. A rocket emoji. Three hashtags that could apply to literally anything. I’m not anti-AI. I use it all the time. But lately I’ve found myself reading posts and thinking, “There’s no way a human actually talks like this.” AI didn’t create the sameness problem. It just poured gasoline on it. What’s Actually Happening Most AI tools are trained on existing internet content. And let’s be honest, a lot of internet content already sounds formulaic. So when someone types, “Write a social media post about marketing,” the model does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It generates something statistically safe. Clean. Polished. Optimized. Also completely interchangeable. Short dramatic lines Overused formatting tricks Generic motivational tone Emoji added “for engagement” Hashtags dropped in automatically None of that is evil. It’s just predictable. And predictable [...]

What a “Limited Marketing Budget” Actually Means (With Real Numbers)

By |2026-02-03T09:49:55-08:00February 3rd, 2026|Digital Marketing|

“We have a limited marketing budget.” I hear this phrase constantly. From small businesses, nonprofits, event organizers, and pretty much anyone who has ever tried marketing before and walked away a little bruised. Sometimes it means “we’re being cautious.” Sometimes it means “we got burned by an agency.” And sometimes it means “we genuinely have no idea what this is supposed to cost, but we’re hoping it works.” All of that is normal. What usually causes problems isn’t the budget itself. It’s the expectations attached to it. So let’s talk honestly about what a “limited marketing budget” actually means in real numbers, what it can realistically do, and how I usually recommend thinking about priorities when money is tight. […]

LinkedIn Ads: When They Work, When They Don’t, and Why Expectations Matter

By |2026-01-30T10:00:10-08:00January 30th, 2026|Digital Marketing|

LinkedIn ads come up a lot when I talk with business owners. Usually it sounds something like this: “Should we be advertising on LinkedIn? That’s where the professionals are, right?” On the surface, that logic makes sense. LinkedIn is a professional network, so advertising there must be effective. The reality is more complicated. This is a clear-eyed look at how LinkedIn ads actually perform, what the data says about engagement and cost, and when they realistically make sense. It’s not anti-LinkedIn. It’s just honest. […]

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