Social Media CX Podcast

Saying thank you doesn't cost much. But for brands that do it well, the impact on customer loyalty can be significant.

In this episode, Brooke Sellas explores how gratitude can become one of your most effective customer retention strategies, especially on social media.

From the brands getting customer appreciation right to three simple ways to build gratitude into your social care program, Brooke shares practical ideas for making customers feel seen, heard, and valued.

Plus, learn how AI can help you recognize opportunities to show appreciation, why those moments are worth tracking, and...

What happens when the data doesn't back up your big idea? You dig deeper.

A new Meltwater study of 7 million AI citations found that social media accounted for just 7.2%, while customer reviews made up a surprising 1.3%. Meanwhile, earned media and news accounted for nearly 30%.

Those findings raise some big questions for brands looking to boost their AI visibility through social media.

In this episode, Brooke Sellas puts her Social Trust Loop framework to the test, unpacking where AI gets its information, what the research actually tells us, and what brands should be paying...

Someone complains about a suspicious charge on your brand's social media page. Before your team responds, a fake support account steps in, using your logo and offering to help.

What happens when scammers answer your customers before you do?

In this Halloween-themed episode of Social Media CX, Brooke Sellas explores how social media impersonator scams exploit frustrated customers and why financial services brands are particularly vulnerable.

From the infamous Eli Lilly Twitter impersonation to fake customer support accounts hiding in public comment threads, Brooke reveals why slow social media response times aren't just...

Your brand could be losing customer trust in places your social media reports never capture.

An unanswered complaint. A Reddit conversation. A customer service issue moved into DMs but never publicly resolved. Each interaction can influence how prospective customers perceive your brand, often before they ever contact you.

The Social Trust Loop, a four-part framework developed by Brooke Sellas of B Squared Media, connects the places where customers form opinions about your brand: brand-controlled social, peer conversations, social care touchpoints, and AI answer engines.

At the center is one simple idea: Every interaction...

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...

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 re...

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...

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.

Quick Answers

What does a chargeback usually mean for a brand?

A chargeback is rarely the first sign of trouble. It's typically the end of a chain that started with a smaller...

“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 custom...

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...

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 comm...

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 peo...

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 wh...

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 "...

Fast replies aren't the same as solved problems. Here's what actually proves it.

Most leadership dashboards answer one question: How is the team performing? What they often miss is an even more important one: What are customers trying to tell us before those issues become expensive?

Response time, follower growth, and engagement may look good in a report, but they rarely reveal whether your organization is solving customer problems, protecting trust, or uncovering operational issues before they spread.

In this episode, Brooke shares four customer signals already hidden inside your social care data...

Every marketing team now has access to AI. The challenge isn't finding the right tool—it's teaching AI what makes your brand worth listening to.

This week, Brooke Sellas talks with Mike Allton, Chief Storyteller at Agorapulse, about why so much AI-generated content sounds the same and what leaders can do to change that. Their conversation explores why AI needs more than a clever prompt, how better context leads to better results, and why the real competitive advantage comes from giving AI a deeper understanding of your audience, your voice, and your business.

Mike also de...

What if the reason your leadership message isn't landing has nothing to do with the words you're using?

Most organizations spend countless hours refining executive messaging. But as leadership communication shifts to video, AI is revealing another factor that influences whether people trust what they hear: the alignment between what leaders intend to communicate and what audiences actually perceive.

Brooke sits down with Deirdre Breakenridge, founder of Pure Performance Communications and creator of FIQ.ai, to explore how AI is helping leaders uncover communication blind spots before those messages reach customers, employees, or stakeholders.

The biggest risk with AI isn't that it gets customer interactions wrong. It's that it gets them almost right.

When AI responses become generic or inconsistent, most organizations assume they have a prompt problem. Susan Westwater argues they're solving the wrong problem. Those results often point to weaknesses in the workflows, governance, and brand systems behind the AI.

In this episode, Susan explains why AI doesn't create inconsistent customer experiences—it scales the systems already in place. If your AI doesn't sound like your brand, the answer probably isn't another prompt. It's a better workflow.

Every company is investing in AI. Fewer are asking the harder question: What should AI actually do, and where do humans create the most value?

The companies pulling ahead aren't necessarily using more AI. They're making different decisions about where automation ends, where human judgment begins, and how those choices shape customer trust, operational efficiency, and long-term competitive advantage.

In this episode, Brooke sits down with globally recognized B2B AI strategist, keynote speaker, fractional CMO, and five-time author Pam Didner to explore what has actually changed since AI first exploded into the workplace—and wh...

Reddit isn't just a forum anymore.

It's one of the most influential sources shaping what AI says about your brand.

As AI search becomes a bigger part of how customers discover, evaluate, and compare companies, the conversations happening on Reddit are increasingly influencing recommendations, perceptions, and purchase decisions.

The challenge?

Those conversations are happening whether your brand participates or not.

In this episode, Brooke Sellas sits down with Danny Kirk, founder of ReddiReach, to explore why Reddit has become a critical part of AI visibility, customer intelligence, and brand...

Most brands treat engagement as a scorecard.

The smartest brands treat it as a source of customer intelligence.

In this final episode of the CARE Framework series, Brooke Sellas explains why meaningful engagement isn't something you chase through algorithms, hacks, or more content. It's something you earn through conversations, trust, and consistent customer care.

You'll learn how conversations, acquisition signals, retention insights, and engagement work together as a flywheel that helps brands uncover what customers are thinking, feeling, struggling with, and considering long before those insights show up in a report.

...

Most companies don't discover customer churn until it's already too late. By the time a customer cancels, they've often spent weeks or months signaling frustration through questions, complaints, and unresolved issues.

In this episode, Brooke Sellas explores the "R" in the CARE Framework: Retention and shares the story of BCU, where an unanswered complaint over a holiday weekend revealed how quickly trust can erode when customers feel ignored.

The lesson goes far beyond customer service.

Customer complaints are often early warning signals of churn. When organizations learn how to identify and act on...

What if your company is already having sales conversations every day—and not counting them?

Most brands assume inbound social activity is primarily customer support. Questions. Complaints. Troubleshooting.

But what happens when the data tells a different story?

In this episode, Brooke Sellas shares the surprising findings from a customer intent study with Brother International. After analyzing inbound customer inquiries, one division discovered that nearly 80% of interactions were happening before a purchase decision had been made.

Customers weren't looking for support. They were comparing products, asking about pricing, evaluating features, and tr...

Every time we publish forgettable content, we teach our audience there's no reason to pay attention.

That's the hidden cost of cliché content—and one of the biggest reasons brands struggle to generate meaningful engagement, customer insight, and measurable social media ROI.

In this episode, I'm introducing the C in the CARE Framework: Conversations. I explain why social media works best as a conversation channel, not a broadcasting channel, and why conversations are the foundation for everything that follows in CARE—from acquisition signals to retention insights to business intelligence.

If your audience isn't...

Your brand content might be too safe to build trust.

In this final episode of the Social Penetration Theory series, I’m talking about the deepest layer of human connection online: feelings.

Because while most brands say they want loyalty, advocacy, and emotional connection, their content is often designed to avoid risk instead of create relationships.

And customers can feel it.

I share the story behind how getting laid off in 2009 eventually led me to build B Squared Media, why “think conversation, not campaign” became our foundation, and what 14 years in social...

The algorithm doesn't care that you posted. It cares that you said something worth responding to.

This week, I'm breaking down why so much "safe" content underperforms, why applause isn't the same as engagement, and what platforms are actually rewarding right now.

It's layer three of Social Penetration Theory: opinions. The layer where real conversations start, trust builds, and brands either become memorable or disappear into the noise.

We'll get into the difference between controversy and conviction, why disagreement is often a sign your content is working, and how to drive conversation without...

Most brands think they have an engagement problem when they actually have a conversation problem.

Because facts matter. Credibility and data matters. But if your content stops at “here’s a statistic,” you’re probably creating passive engagement instead of real conversation.

This week, I’m digging into why some of the smartest, most accurate brands online are still struggling to get people to respond and why algorithms are increasingly rewarding conversation over broadcasting.

It’s part two of our May Series on Social Penetration Theory—and how it can help explain why so much brand...

Most brands are publishing more content than ever — yet trust, engagement, and loyalty still feel harder to earn.

For enterprise marketing leaders, the challenge is rarely a lack of content. The problem is that much of today’s brand messaging stays at the surface level: polished announcements, safe language, and transactional responses that create visibility but not connection.

In this episode of the Social Media CX Podcast, Brooke Sellas explores the communication framework that has quietly shaped relationship-building for decades: the Social Penetration Theory, also known as the “Onion Theory.” Originally developed to explain how trust fo...

AI is everywhere in customer service right now. But faster doesn’t always mean better.

In this episode, I’m joined by Matt Price, founder and CEO of Crescendo AI. We talk about what’s actually changing in customer experience, and where I see a lot of brands getting it wrong.

We get into why “just adding a bot” often makes things worse, how so many teams are still operating like production lines, and what shifts when you stop thinking about efficiency and start thinking about engagement.

Matt shares what he’s seeing across hundr...

Most brands think they’re doing social care well.

They’re responding to comments, they have a team, and they might even have the right tools in place.

But when you actually look under the hood, there’s often a gap between perception and reality.

In this solo episode, Brooke Sellas breaks down the B Squared Social Care Maturity Model and walks through the five levels most organizations move through, from reactive to fully experience-led.

If you’re investing in social, this is the framework to understand where you really stand and what...

At Social Media Marketing World, the most valuable conversations don’t always happen on stage.

In this special replay episode, Brooke Sellas shares real, unfiltered hallway conversations recorded immediately after her session at Social Media Marketing World 2025.

From navigating B2B2C audience challenges to rethinking engagement metrics, sparking real conversation on social, and deciding how (and when) to respond to comments, this episode captures what social media strategy looks like in practice, not theory.

If you’ve ever struggled to get people to engage, measure what matters, or prove the value of soci...

Customer experience doesn’t usually break all at once. It’s often a series of small moments that aren’t handled quickly enough.

In this episode, I’m joined by Rani Parkinson, our Senior Social Care Account Manager at B Squared Media, to talk about what’s actually happening inside social care day to day—and why the brands that feel “calm” are usually the ones handling the small stuff well.

We talk about why good CX often feels invisible, how small issues turn into public escalations, and why consistency matters more than any big viral moment.

Customer experience doesn’t break in one big moment. It breaks in the gaps.

In this final episode of the CX Under Pressure series, I’m pulling together the biggest patterns from the last four conversations and where things tend to break down.

It’s usually not one big failure. It’s gaps in how teams operate, how decisions get made, and how customer signals actually get used.

This episode is a look at what’s behind that—and what separates teams that stay reactive from the ones that don’t.

In this episode:

Most banks collect customer feedback. Very few actually use it.

In this episode, I talk with Scott Lee Holloway, Head of Customer Experience at APS Bank, about what it looks like to actually turn customer insight into action.

We get into how his team gathers feedback across channels—and how that insight makes its way into real decisions across the business. We also talk about automation and where human support still matters most, especially in a trust-heavy industry like financial services.

If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to move from collecting feed...

AI is moving fast — but is your brand keeping up in a way that builds trust or quietly erodes it?

In this episode, I sit down with Lisa Martin — former NASA scientist, tech media strategist, iHeartRadio host, and host of CMOs Unscripted — to unpack one of the most pressing questions in business today: How do you use AI in customer-facing environments without sacrificing the trust you've worked so hard to build?

Lisa brings her signature blend of scientific rigor and journalistic clarity to the conversation, and she doesn't hold back.

In this episode, you'll...

What would you do if someone started posting across your social media saying your company was a scam?

That’s exactly what happened to Katie Robbert, co-founder and CEO of Trust Insights. One day their notifications started blowing up with accusations that they were stealing money from a customer.

There was just one problem… she had the wrong company.

In this episode, part of our CX Under Pressure series, Katie shares how she handled the situation and why responding with empathy instead of defensiveness turned a potential reputation crisis into a trust-building moment.

As part of our March series, CX Under Pressure, we’re exploring what’s really shaping customer experience in 2026, from rising CAC to fragmented journeys and the human side of loyalty.

In this episode, I sit down with Tyler Stambaugh to unpack why acquisition is easy to test, but retention is personal. We talk about discount dependency, vanity metrics, and the uncomfortable truth that many brands are training customers to expect incentives instead of value.

In this episode:

👉Why retention feels “emotionally distressing” for founders

👉How discounting creates transactional behavior

👉The “Pavlov...

Customer experience feels more exposed right now. Budgets are tighter, AI is louder, and trust is thinner than ever.

And most organizations are still running systems built for what social media used to be, not what it’s become. In March, I’m launching a four-part series called CX Under Pressure. It’s where we’ll unpack what actually holds up when systems crack, listening fails, and automation starts replacing empathy.

Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss it.

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Marketing metrics focus on output: content published, engagement generated, and response times. But customers don't come to social media to be engaged. They come to be helped.

When social care is measured with marketing metrics alone, teams optimize for volume and speed. A team that responds to 500 tweets in a day but leaves frustrated customers without real solutions creates churn.

In this episode, we break down the signals that help leaders understand whether social is influencing acquisition and retention—not just activity.

Mentioned in this Episode:

We need to talk about the silent risk happening on your social media team.

In this episode, I unpack the very real consequences of treating social care like social media marketing. You’ll find out why this structural misalignment creates burnout, buried risks, and missed opportunities.

I also share how we got here and why fixing this isn’t about your people or your tools, it’s about your setup. If your social team is being measured by engagement but handling service issues, this one’s for you.

Mentioned in This Episode: