Start your Monday off with some important lessons about social media.

First up, TikTok is not a music license. Just because you can access music tracks via TikTok does not mean you have the right to use them as you wish, especially if you’re a well-known brand with plenty of money. Just ask Crumbl and DSW.

As MarTech contributor Jay Mandel points out, this is just as much about taking shortcuts in your marketing as it is about copyright violations—our advice: avoid both. 

Also, contributor Stephane Trovato looks at paid special efforts. If your efforts there aren’t paying off, Stephanie has three pieces of advice for you.

Mike Pastore
Editorial Director

 
SEMrush AppCenter ad promoting video marketing tools. Text reads 'Grow your views faster with top video marketing tools.' Includes a woman smiling in front of a camera and an orange 'Try It Free' button.

Salesforce

Salesforce introduces new Agentforce pricing models

Salesforce-Tower

Salesforce offers new Agentforce pricing models as business leaders express concern over AI spending and value.

Content marketing

How to make your content stand out in the ocean of AI slop

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AI isn't replacing writers -- it's making them more important. Expertise, point-of-view and foundational SEO techniques are still the keys to content.

Social media marketing

Crumbl’s legal trouble shows the risks of shortcut marketing

Crumbl-Sora-generated-image-by-Jay-Mandel

Crumbl faces a $24 million lawsuit for using unlicensed music on TikTok. Here's how to avoid the same mistake.

Agencies

When clients ask "Did it work?"—here’s your answer

marketing-meeting

The Cross-platform Measurement in 2025 How-to-Guide helps agencies turn campaign metrics into client-ready insights. Prove brand impact with insights clients understand and value.

Digital advertising

3 ways to get more from your paid social ad spend

Social-media-engagement-concept

Make paid social profitable with smart platform choices, strong creative, sharp targeting and advanced tactics that amplify ROI.

Search Engine Land 2025 Awards ad with the message 'Win big. Save big.' A green badge notes 'Best Rates End May 23'. A pink 'Begin Your Entry' button features a clicking cursor icon over a textured purple background.

Salesforce

Salesforce announces initiatives to bring trust and governance to AI agents

Salesforce-signage

Without governance and guardrails, AI agents are a disaster waiting to happen. And Salesforce wants no part of AI agent disasters.

Marketing artificial intelligence (AI)

5 ways marketers are actually using AI to get more done

AI-That-Works

This guide covers five grounded, real-world ways marketers are using AI right now to improve efficiency without sacrificing quality.

Marketing artificial intelligence (AI)

If your teams aren’t ready for AI, then your tools won’t matter

Digital-and-AI-transformation-concept

AI alone won't transform your company — your people will. Learn how to lead mindset shifts and build trust to drive real AI transformation.

What else we're reading

Good reads and conversations to help good marketers get better.
 

MarTech research

Surveys and research reports to make you a more-informed marketer
  • NEW! Get the 2025 State of Your Stack Survey report by downloading the PDF, flipping through a carousel, listening to a discussion of the results or watching the keynote session from the Spring 2025 MarTech Conference — all without registration.

MarTech Intelligence Reports are in-depth, independent and indispensable. They’re designed to help marketers navigate the martech landscape with questions to ask during the buying process, vendor profiles and more.

Download your Intelligence Report today:

 

What they're saying

  • “These search engines don’t even know where this is going, It’s still going to change again and again and again. So if you keep trying to pivot on every change, you’ll lose your mind.” – Noam Dorros, director analyst on search marketing and AI for Gartner in How to make your content stand out in the ocean of AI slop
  • Brands move fast, chasing virality and often skipping the fundamentals. When success comes quickly, there’s little incentive to slow down and ask, ‘Are we doing this legally? Are we doing this ethically?’” – Jay Mandel in Crumbl’s legal trouble shows the risks of shortcut marketing
 

From Search Engine Land