Social Media CX Podcast

Brands are paying closer attention to creator content than most people realize. They're looking beyond follower counts to understand audience fit, engagement, and whether a partnership is worth the investment.

But what happens to all that information? And are brands using what they learn to build better relationships?

Danny Gardner, founder of The DataZone, joins Brooke Sellas to explore social listening from both sides of the creator-brand relationship. Drawing on his experience as a brand marketer and creator, Danny explains how brands evaluate potential partners, why creators rarely receive meaningful performance feedback, and what traditional social media metrics fail to capture.

You'll also hear how a single organic post caught a brand CMO's attention when Danny had just 5,000 followers, and why even expensive social listening tools can fall short without the right people and processes behind them.

We Talk About:

• How brands use social listening to discover and evaluate creators
• Why successful creator campaigns don't always lead to repeat partnerships
• The missing feedback that makes creator relationships feel transactional
• What likes, comments, and impressions don't tell you about audience behavior
• How organic brand mentions can reveal potential partnerships
• Why social listening requires more than purchasing the right software

Start Listening Smarter

Put social listening to work with B Squared Media's free Listen Smarter workbook.

Using the BIC framework, it walks you through three areas to track: brand, industry, and competitor. You'll learn what to listen for, which questions to ask, and how to use what you find.

Download it at https://bsquared.media/social-listening-workbook.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• The DataZone - https://thedatazone.ai/
• Connect with Danny on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielgregorygardner/
• Conversations That Connect - https://bsquared.media/conversations-that-connect-book
• Connect with Brooke on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookebsellas

Meta is testing paid limits on external links from Facebook and Instagram — and for brands that rely on social to drive traffic, that news may feel like one more platform change you have to scramble to solve.

But the bigger issue isn’t what Meta is charging for today.

It’s what the change exposes about the way brands have built their social media strategies.

Brands have mistaken access to an audience for ownership of a customer relationship. Your followers may feel like your audience, but the platform still controls how — and whether — you can reach them.

In this episode, Brooke Sellas breaks down seven strategic shifts brands can make to become less vulnerable to whatever the platforms change next.

You’ll learn why it’s time to move beyond followers and viral views as your headline metrics, how to turn social conversations into customer and business intelligence, why your content should be built around customer problems instead of a posting calendar, and where AI can create more value by understanding conversations instead of simply creating more content.

Because the answer isn’t to abandon social media.

It’s to recognize what social actually is: a customer experience channel.

And the brands that build stronger customer relationships — while creating systems that turn social attention into conversations, intent, owned connections, sales, retention, and customer intelligence — will feel platform changes like this the least.

Stay ahead of the next social media fire drill.

Platform news moves fast, and too often it lands on your desk when someone forwards an article with one question: “Thoughts?”

Sign up for Social Care Weekly for Brooke’s weekly breakdown of the platform changes, data, and news that actually matter to your social team, care team, leadership conversations, and customers.

Subscribe: bsquared.media/newsletter

Promoters love you. Detractors have a problem. But the sevens and eights in the middle often get left out of the conversation—even though their feedback may tell you exactly what’s keeping them from becoming loyal advocates.

In this episode, Brooke Sellas talks with Chris Boivin about why those neutral responses deserve more attention, what the comments behind the score can reveal, and why asking why someone chose a seven or eight may be more useful than simply tracking the number.

They also explore how social media sentiment can help fill the gaps between NPS surveys and how AI can help teams identify patterns across the customer feedback they’re already collecting.

• Why your NPS sevens and eights deserve more attention
• What the comments behind the score can tell you that the number can’t
• Why “neutral” doesn’t mean negative—or unimportant
• How social media sentiment can fill the gaps between NPS surveys
• How to connect themes across NPS and social feedback
• How AI can help teams identify patterns in customer feedback

NPS gives you one snapshot of what customers are thinking. Social care gives you signals every day.

If this episode has you thinking differently about the customer insights hiding in your data, subscribe to Social Care Weekly. Each week, Brooke shares one social care story, one tactic you can use in 15 minutes, one piece of data to back it up, and one move to bring to your leadership team.

Subscribe to Social Care Weekly → https://bsquared.media/newsletter/

Chris Boivin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisboivin/

Dovetail: https://dovetail.com/

The A Player by Rick Crossland: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1630479926

Chargebacks, cancellations, and bad reviews rarely come out of nowhere. Customers often show signs of frustration first through comments, DMs, unresolved questions, or escalation language.

In this episode, Brooke Sellas explains how brands can identify those early customer warning signs, audit what happened before a dispute, and use social listening as an early warning system for customer experience problems.

A chargeback is rarely the first sign of trouble. It's typically the end of a chain that started with a smaller, public signal, like a comment or DM, that went unanswered.

Audit chargebacks and cancellations against your social and DM history from the 30 days prior. Most brands find the warning was already there, in a comment or message that never got resolved.

Legitimate frustration usually comes with a public warning first, a comment or message saying something isn't resolved. Friendly fraud typically skips that step. You can only tell the difference if you're monitoring early enough to see whether the warning existed at all. Social listening helps with that!

Social listening surfaces frustration signals, comments, DMs, and mentions, before they escalate into a chargeback, cancellation, or public review, giving teams a chance to intervene while it's still resolvable.

• Why chargebacks and cancellations often start with earlier customer warning signs
• Where customer frustration appears before a formal dispute
• How to audit your last five chargebacks or cancellations
• What escalation language can signal that a customer is about to take action
• How to distinguish customer frustration from potential exploitation
• How social listening can help identify customer frustration earlier

Not sure your team would catch customer frustration before it becomes a dispute, cancellation, or bad review?

B Squared Media’s Social Intelligence and Social Listening services help brands identify customer frustration earlier, while there’s still time to respond.

Learn more at bsquared.media/social-intelligence.

• Is AI Making “Friendly Fraud” Easier? — Brooke's conversation with Matt Brightman about why some chargebacks may start with customers who feel they've run out of options. https://bsquared.media/ai-friendly-fraud/
• Conversations That Connect: https://bsquared.media/conversations-that-connect-book
• Connect with Brooke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookebsellas

“Friendly fraud” doesn’t sound particularly threatening. But for businesses, one disputed transaction can mean thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

And AI may be changing the equation.

In the travel industry, customers can dispute charges after a trip is over—and AI could make it easier for someone looking to game the system to figure out what to say, what to document, and how to make their case.

But not every chargeback starts with someone trying to commit fraud.

Sometimes it starts with a legitimate complaint that never gets resolved. A customer gets passed from person to person, struggles to get an answer, or hits so much friction that calling the credit card company becomes the easiest path forward.

Brooke Sellas and Matt Brightman explore where AI, “friendly fraud,” social media, and customer experience collide—and the window brands have to resolve customer frustration before it becomes a much bigger business problem.

We Talk About:

• What “friendly fraud” looks like in the travel industry
• Whether AI could be making it easier to game the system
• The growing connection between fraud and social media
• How unresolved customer frustration can lead to chargebacks
• Why taking every public complaint immediately into the DMs can leave spectators without a resolution
• What slow responses to public complaints can cost a brand
• Why frontline employees need the ability to help solve customer problems
• How exceptional service recovery can turn a bad experience into loyalty and word-of-mouth

Mentioned in This Episode:

• NFNPPOD: https://www.nfnppod.com
• The Scam Economy & The Daily Admin Tax of Being Alive: https://www.nfnppod.com/the-scam-economy-the-daily-admin-tax-of-being-alive-nfnp-2x27
• Wrexham AFC Just Won a Fan for Life: https://www.nfnppod.com/wrexham-afc-just-won-a-fan-for-life
• Connect with Matt Brightman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-brightman-5807b371

AI has made it easier than ever for competitors to see what’s working for your brand and create their own version of it.

But they can’t copy how you show up.

Last week, Brooke shared the results of Planable’s experiment comparing human-run and AI-run Instagram accounts. Both followed the same brief, yet the human accounts received 88 comments compared to just two across the four AI accounts.

This week, Brooke looks at what that gap reveals about the difference between a content strategy and a conversation strategy—and why that distinction matters as content becomes easier to replicate.

She also shares a simple way to identify where your brand may be posting consistently without actually showing up for the people on the other side of the content.

We Talk About:

• Why your competitors can copy your content, but not how your brand shows up
• The difference between a content strategy and a conversation strategy
• How to spot the presence gaps keeping your brand from creating real conversation

Want to create content that gets people talking?

Brooke’s free Talk-Worthy Content course walks you through how to design social content that gets a response and creates the kind of meaningful engagement social media algorithms reward.

Learn more at https://bsquared.media/courses/talk-worthy-content.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• 88 Comments vs. 2: What Happens When AI Runs Your Social Media: https://bsquared.media/ai-social-media-management/

AI can create the posts. But can it actually run your social media?

Brands are moving fast to bring AI into their social media workflows. But a new experiment from Planable suggests there’s a big difference between creating social content and actually managing a social presence.

In this episode, Brooke talks with Miruna Dragomir about Planable’s experiment putting human social media managers head-to-head with AI-run accounts. Seven accounts started from scratch with the same brand guidelines, budget, and goals.

The results went beyond which accounts created better content. Human-run accounts generated 88 comments. The AI-run accounts generated just two. And even though engagement was part of the goal, the AI accounts largely treated social media strategy as a publishing plan.

Brooke and Miruna dig into what created that gap, why the human + AI approach didn't necessarily save time, and what leaders should consider as they bring more AI into their social media workflows.

Because the question isn't simply whether AI can help your team create content. It's whether your social strategy is still creating the conversations and relationships that make social valuable.

We Talk About:

• What happened when AI competed against human social media managers
• Why humans generated 88 comments while AI generated just two
• Why AI treated social media strategy like a publishing plan
• The surprising downside of the human + AI approach
• Why people preferred some of the AI accounts that performed the worst
• What brands risk losing when social media becomes focused on publishing instead of conversation

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Planable’s AI vs. Human Social Media Manager Experiment - https://planable.io/blog/ai-vs-smm/
• Connect with Miruna Dragomir on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirunadragomir/

Is Your Social Media Actually Creating Conversation?

If your team is publishing consistently but you're not sure what happens after the post goes live, the problem may be bigger than your content strategy.

B Squared Media’s Social Care Audit looks at how your brand is handling conversations, customer interactions, and social care so you can see where the gaps are and what needs to improve.

Start with the Social Care Audit: https://bsquared.media/social-care-audit/

Fewer brand mentions can look like a win. Fewer complaints, a quieter inbox, less noise.

But silence doesn’t always mean things are going well.

In this episode, Brooke breaks down the three reasons brand mentions decline, why only one is actually good news, and how fewer conversations can quietly drag down your reach.

You’ll also learn how to spot gaps in your social listening, audit your content for “reply-ability,” and figure out whether your content has simply stopped being talk-worthy.

If your audit shows that your content isn’t giving people much reason to respond, that’s the problem to fix next. Brooke’s free Talk-Worthy Content course will help you create content designed to spark the conversations, shares, and meaningful engagement social platforms are rewarding.

Take the free Talk-Worthy Content course:

https://bsquared.media/courses/talk-worthy-content/

Mentioned In This Episode

• Talk-Worthy Content: https://bsquared.media/courses/talk-worthy-content
• Sprout Social: https://sproutsocial.com
• AlertMouse: https://alertmouse.com
• Agorapulse: https://www.agorapulse.com

We spend a lot of time measuring engagement. But what is that engagement actually doing for your business?

A comment can tell you a customer is about to leave. A DM can signal someone is ready to buy. And the conversations happening on your social channels can affect everything from reach and retention to what you pay for ads.

Brooke Sellas calls the value behind those interactions Return on Conversation—and it may be the missing link between social care and the business outcomes leadership actually cares about.

In this episode, Brooke explains why likes and engagement rates don't tell the whole story, how comments and DMs can reveal buying signals, churn risk, loyalty, and advocacy, and why those conversations increasingly matter for AI visibility, too.

You'll also learn how to start treating conversations as business intelligence instead of interactions to clear from an inbox—and how to connect what happens on social to outcomes like acquisition, retention, and revenue.

If you're ready to start looking differently at the conversations happening across your social channels, Brooke takes this kind of thinking one step further every week in the Social Care Weekly Newsletter. Each issue breaks down one social care concept with real data and a practical next step you can put to work.

Keep learning: Subscribe to the Social Care Weekly Newsletter

You can also explore the latest B Squared Media State of Social Care Report for more data on the business impact of social care.

Your website isn't the only thing AI reads before it decides what to say about your brand. Your Yelp reviews are. So is that unanswered DM from three weeks ago.

Katie Artz spent 90 days optimizing her own company's website, testing every AI visibility best practice on herself before she sold a single client on it. The thing that actually got her cited by AI? Not the website. Her personal LinkedIn, a mention on Reddit, and third-party coverage.

In this episode, Brooke talks with Katie, founder and CEO of No Fluff, about how AI builds a "trust graph" for your brand from reviews, social conversations, third-party sources, and the rest of your digital footprint. They explore why the questions and complaints your social care team handles every day are becoming strategic intelligence — and what leaders should do with that information instead of letting it stay inside the social team.

We Talk About:

• Why AI reads your entire digital footprint
• Why Katie's company got cited by AI — and why it wasn't her website
• What happens to brands that don't respond to complaints or reviews
• How to turn one customer response into three places AI can find it
• A 5-minute test you can run right now to see what AI already thinks about your brand

Want to know what AI is already saying about your brand?

Katie's five-minute test is a great place to start. But if you want to understand how your brand actually shows up across AI search, where competitors are being recommended instead, and what you can do to improve your visibility, the AI Visibility Benchmark™ goes deeper.

No Fluff benchmarks your brand across the questions buyers are actually asking and gives you a roadmap for improving how your company shows up in AI-generated answers.

See where your brand stands with the AI Visibility Benchmark™: https://nofluffmktg.com/ai-visibility-benchmark/