Most businesses treat social media like a task to check off. Post something, hope it performs, repeat. But according to today's guest, that's exactly why most businesses are getting mediocre results — because social media isn't a task. It's a craft.

I sit down with Jon-Stephen Stansel — social media manager turned entertainment industry freelancer and author of The 10 Principles of Effective Social Media Marketing — for a conversation about what actually works on social media in 2026. Jon-Stephen has managed social for Texas State University, worked on Prime Video's Invincible, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the Avatar franchise, and is currently working on Beast Games for MrBeast. Through all of it, he's distilled social media into 10 principles inspired by designer Dieter Rams — evergreen enough to be true a decade ago and still true today.

We cover why goals — not followers or viral moments — are the only real starting point, why audience alignment needs to happen before any content gets created, how to find and hire the right social media help without getting burned, how to measure social media success in a way that actually means something to your business, and why the most important principle of all is that social media is fundamentally human — even in the age of AI.

If you've ever wondered why your social media efforts aren't translating into real business results, this episode will show you where to look.

KEY TOPICS

• Jon-Stephen's career path: from ESL teacher to university social media manager to entertainment industry freelancer
• How a personal brand on Twitter led to a freelance career working on Invincible, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Avatar, and Beast Games for MrBeast
• The inspiration behind The 10 Principles of Effective Social Media Marketing — Dieter Rams' 10 Principles of Good Design
• Why goals are the foundation of any social media strategy — and how to make them realistic
• The Texas Department of Transportation example: when C-suite goals and audience needs don't align
• Why audience alignment must come before content creation — not after
• How Jon-Stephen researches audiences: Reddit, burner Facebook accounts, fan communities, and tools like Brandwatch
• How to find a passionate audience even for a brand nobody is talking about yet (the "fandels" scented candle community example)
• Why social media is a craft, not a chore — and what that means for who you hire
• The social media mechanic analogy: you can pump the gas, but sometimes you need an expert
• Where to find good social media help: LinkedIn, community referrals, and spotting brands doing it well
• Red flags when hiring: promises that sound too good to be true and bought followers
• What to prepare before handing social over to anyone: brand voice documents and tone guidelines
• How to align social media metrics with business goals — and why follower count

Learn More:

• Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon
• Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon
• Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/
• Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo
• Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/
• Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer
• All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

Two years ago, 60% of consumers said they were fine with AI-generated content. Today that number has dropped to 26%. Consumers are rejecting AI content faster than marketers can create it — and the brands that ignore this are paying a steep price.

In this episode, I'm sharing the full breakdown of the keynote I delivered at DigiMarCon West in Hollywood — a presentation called People, Not Prompts. It's built around the SES framework from my book Digital Threads: Search, Email, and Social working together as one connected system. But more importantly, it's about the layer on top of that system that AI simply cannot replicate: people.

I walk through why the bottleneck in marketing has shifted from execution to strategy, what the SES framework looks like with an updated AI-era lens, how brands like Lego, Levi's, and Intuit got burned by going all in on AI without a strategy, and how LinkedIn has become the single platform where search, email, social, and people all converge.

Plus — I'm giving away a free copy of Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth to podcast listeners and YouTube viewers. Details inside.

KEY TOPICS

• Why consumer trust in AI-generated content has dropped from 60% to 26% in two years
• How 78% of consumers now say they trust content featuring real people over AI-generated content
• Three brand cautionary tales: Lego's AI Ninjago images, Levi's AI diversity models, and Intuit's TurboTax AI advisor
• Why the bottleneck in marketing has shifted from execution to strategy
• Introduction to the SES framework: Search, Email, and Social as three connected pillars
• Pillar 1 — Search: building a library of content for the entire discovery layer (Google, ChatGPT, TikTok)
• ChatGPT's 900 million weekly active users and AI search visitors converting at 4.4x the rate of organic search
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) — the new content game
• Only 12% of URLs cited by AI rank in Google's top 10 — why this is a different game from traditional SEO
• Pillar 2 — Email: why 98 out of 100 website visitors leave without converting and how to fix it
• Email ROI: $36–$44 per $1 spent, 4.24% conversion rate vs. social media's 0.59%
• Pillar 3 — Social: platform-authentic content, the zero-click approach, and the Duolingo example
• The Duolingo 'Death of Duo' campaign and its 25,000% increase in brand mentions
• The people ecosystem: employees, customers, partners, and creators as your content layer
• UGC stats: 88% peer trust, 137% higher purchase likelihood, 161% higher conversion rates
• Deloitte's 250-person internal creator program: 400M impressions, 10,000 leads, $13M earned media
• Why LinkedIn is the proof of concept for the entire SCS framework
• LinkedIn as the #1 most-cited domain across ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity

Learn More:

• Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon
• Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon
• Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/
• Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo
• Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/
• Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer
• All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

I've been saying for years that marketing is increasingly visual — whether it's social media, YouTube, websites, or even AI-generated content. But most of us aren't designers, and we're winging it when it comes to visual branding. My guest today is Jim MacLeod, author of The Visual Marketer, and he's someone I've known for about a decade — back when I co-founded the Social Tools Summit and invited him to speak about visual social media from a B2B perspective. Jim has a rare combination of graphic design expertise and deep marketing strategy knowledge, and in this conversation he breaks down how to think about visual identity from a customer-first perspective, why consistency matters more than creativity when building your brand, and how to align your visual content strategy with actual customer research. Whether you're a solopreneur designing your own graphics in Canva or a marketing leader managing a creative team, this episode will change how you think about the visuals that represent your business.

KEY TOPICS:

• Jim's career path from graphic designer to B2B marketing strategist at Extreme Networks
• Why designers who understand the end customer produce dramatically better marketing assets
• How to develop a visual brand identity that resonates with your audience, not just looks good
• The importance of customer research and focus groups in shaping your brand identity
• Why consistency matters more than creativity — and when to resist the urge to rebrand
• Repurposing visual content: building a content calendar around a pillar piece with pre- and post-promotion
• When to brand heavily vs. when to keep it subtle (thought leadership vs. solution content)
• Applying lean startup thinking to visual content strategy and product development
• How people visually move through an image and why that matters for engagement
• Tools and approaches for non-designers to create effective visual marketing

RESOURCES & LINKS:

• The Visual Marketer by Jim MacLeod —https://amzn.to/4vc1BWn
• Visual Marketer website: https://visualmarketer.co
• Jim MacLeod's website: https://jimmacleod.com
• Jim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmacleod

Learn More:

• Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon
• Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon
• Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/
• Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo
• Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/
• Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer
• All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com