SEO is a crucial part of content optimization and it's still worth it. Of course,I understand the that the search engines prioritize paid ads, but organic SEO is probably the best ways to drive significant traffic to your content.
Blackhat SEO is not the best practices and it's like playing with fire. A lot of people might see it like a quick fix, but it can really bring the website down if care was not taken.
Keyword research is searching for clues and it must be what your audience is definitely looking for. You can use the tools like Google Keyword Planner to conduct your keyword research.
To execute content distribution effectively, you need to identify the right audience and you need to establish a clear goals as well. You just need to keep driving traffic to generate leads.
I haven't used AI for SEO but I heard it's a good way to optimise your content. You can use AI powered tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to optimize your content.
Social media is one of the best channels to catch up with the latest news. It's where you get to know what's happening right now. But it's crucial to be careful not to fall victim of fake news.