Funny how everyone on LinkedIn uses the Summary portion as a buzzword garden - you've got the whole experience section for that.

But hey - I've got 15+ years working in agencies, with a heavy emphasis on social, content, influencers, and campaigns. As a Director of Creative Strategy, I've lead Social AORs and campaigns for Microsoft, Beats By Dre, Verizon, Spotify, Minecraft, Bethesda, Rock Band, and a slew more - a bunch of details on all of that below.

Besides that? Huge NBA fan who plays ball 4 days a week, vinyl record collector, colossal music fan, and guy who Postmates far too much. Let's make something cool.

Jack Appleby

Okay, I’ve identified seven ways to know if someone’s using AI to write their LinkedIn:

I actually haven’t, I just think it’s ridiculous that anyone cares. If the content in front of your eyes is good, enjoy it! If it’s not good, scroll on right past. But there’s nothing more silly spending time wondering who’s using AI or having emotions about it.

Social Media / Creator Consultant | Work: Microsoft, Beats By Dre, Verizon, Twitch, Morning Brew, Rock Band, Community (six seasons and a movie!) & a slew of video games.

Should your brand only hire Social Media Managers who have their own personal brand and social following?

OF COURSE NOT. It's okay if social's just a job to them. Not everyone needs to build a personal brand in their free time. Does it help? Sure! Can it help show how someone thinks? Yes! But should it be a determining factor? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

“Industry experience required.”

Easily the dumbest, most self-sabotaging phrase in hiring.

If I'm hiring a social media manager for a shoe brand, they don't need five years of footwear experience—they need to understand marketing. They need to get storytelling, and community, and human emotion, and how to make engaging content.

MARKETING IS A TRANSFERABLE SKILL, FOLKS. What, are we in a post apocalyptic society where whatever task you're assigned in the zombie wasteland is your new career for life? Come. On. 

None of your industries are special snowflakes, folks. Yeah, there will be some industry specific things; maybe it's legalities, or demographic preferences, or who knows what. Any half decent marketer can learn that stuff in 30 seconds. Stop pretending like your field is rocket science. 

What's funny is I benefited from this silly way of thinking! Check my LinkedIn—over half my jobs are in the video game industry because once I had gaming experience, those companies kept on calling me. Funny thing? I wasn't allowed to play video games as a kid. And honestly? I don't think my ~gaming experience~ is what made me good at those jobs—it was my social experience.

So uh, hiring managers and companies? Maybe we get a littleee more creative and a littleee less lazy with how we hire people, yeah?

Welp, I did it. I built a 2nd media business around my 🏀 passion, that’s now a 2nd major income stream.

This is the TikTok payout for How To Hoop Forever last month. That's not counting brand deals or in-kind trades.

I'm being paid to play basketball.
You can follow along: https://lnkd.in/eFHFcG_s

ChatGPT can now turn off em-dashes.

What will the LinkedIn AI Police who wanna scream about "I CANT BELIEVE PEOPLE USE AI" complain about now?

Every. Single. Brand. Should. Post. YouTube. Shorts.

Here's 3 very simple reasons why ↓

YOU CAN LITERALLY JUST REPURPOSE YOUR REELS + TIKTOKS
Short-form vertical video is short-form vertical video. These platforms are the sameeee. You've already made the content, so why not just post the content on another massive social network?

YOUTUBE IS THE 2ND LARGEST SEARCH ENGINE
We've heard a lot about the importance of social SEO—Gen Z loves to search YouTube and TikTok the way us millennials usually google things. Getting your social content on YouTube ensures you're in the mix for searches

YOUR BRAND'S YOUTUBE IS PROBABLY DUSTY
Let's be honest, you probably just dropped old TV spots onto your brand's YouTube. Shorts suddenly give that channel purpose, AND will give your next commercial better lift when you inevitably toss it on this channel!

Why isn't your brand on YouTube shorts? What's stopping you? Lemme know in the comments.

I’m super proud of this week’s newsletter.

I’m writing about moving SLOWER in social.

Why speed doesn’t get us anything, how we’ve held ourselves to a reactionary standard that’s honestly not worth much, and why slowing down and being more deliberate are what get you the best social media results. 

Sub here to get it tomorrow: Futuresocial.beehiiv.com

BIG NEWS: my newsletter Future Social just hit 80k subs, and we've kept a 39% open rate!

I'm so proud of this thing. I've never spent a dime on advertising—Future Social has solely grown from readers sharing my articles & encouraging other to subscribe. Hell, I don't even promote it very much, but I really pride myself on writing strategies & case studies that help our beloved social media industry to keep getting better.

If you're not subbed yet, would love to see ya:
https://lnkd.in/eCGxAWpJ

What are your Social Media Predictions for 2026?

I'm gonna feature my favs in the newsletter!

Here's a list of areas to challenge your thoughts—just drop a comment here with your predictions!

- What’s one big social platform shift you think everyone’s underestimating?
- Which social network is due for a major glow-up… or a major collapse?
- What’s one content format you think is about to explode?
- What’s a trend we’re all obsessed with right now that won’t survive 2025?
- How will AI realistically change the day-to-day job of a social media manager?
- What’s one new feature Instagram/TikTok/YouTube WILL roll out next year?
- What’s the biggest skill social pros will need by 2026?
- What’s a type of content brands should immediately stop making?
- What’s the next “For You Page” evolution? (More personalization? More curation?)
- What’s one creator behavior you think brands should steal?
- What’s a metric that will matter way more than it does today?
- What’s a metric we’ll all stop caring about?
- Will Threads actually become a thing? (Or… lol no?)
- What do you think the TikTok algorithm will look like post–ownership change?
- What’s one consumer behavior shift we’re all sleeping on?
- What’s a category of brands that will win big on social in 2026?
- What’s a hot take about the future of paid social?
- What’s your prediction for UGC creators in 2026?
- What new job title will emerge for social teams next year?
- What’s one way social media marketing will look completely different 18 months from now?

Or pick your own!

There's one major mistake I'm seeing brands make over and over in their Influencer Marketing efforts ↓

Brands are giving influencers unreasonably short timelines to create the content, then giving themselves what feels like eons to approve the content... then turning back and asking the creators for edits within 24 hours.

Influencer partnerships are just that—partnerships. It's gotta be a team effort on both sides. You're immediately alienating influencers when you ask for impossible deadlines, or when your brand doesn't deliver timely feedback after asking influencers to drop everything to make content.

Like, think about it. If you've identified an influencer as someone who can successfully drive business for your brand, you probably wanna do everything to make sure they have a great experience, because the last thing you want is them no longer supporting you!

The solves are simple:
- Be realistic in timelines, for both creators and approvals
- Have a clear approval process on the brand side
- Suggest timelines to influencers, but specifically ask them to feedback on the timeline and see what works for them.

Pink Instagram backgrounds now exist!

Buttt you can’t get them. The details ↓

So Instagram started a very exclusive awards program called Rings—basically the Oscars for Insta. Only 25 creators were selected worldwide for the honor.

Two of the benefits of winning Rings:
- creators get custom background colors
- your IG stories ring turns gold (example on left)

Personally, I don’t love the colors look (it’s hard to read & at a glance, it’s impossible to know why they have colored backgrounds when no one else does), but would you want the option to change your color?

No alternative text description for this image

Hot take: your brand’s social will fail if it’s all trend content.

You need to make real, original IP. Unique content!

Your social strategy can’t just be reacting to whatever’s new and hot on the For You Page. The celeb memes and popular songs you’re using? Yeah, those are copyrighted.

YOU DON’T NEED TRENDS. Your brand is interesting all on its own, I promise! And really, your content should constantly pay off the EMOTIONAL BENEFIT of your product, which really doesn’t need any ~culture~ (oh, I’m yelling again, sorry).

If you want relevance year-round, you need content that’s recognizable, repeatable, and uniquely yours. This is cliche, but the best brands in the world don’t join trends, they leverage social insights to start them.
So, I partnered with Hootsuite to create a simple checklist to help you build evergreen content that’ll do numbers without ever checking what’s trending. 
👉 Head to Hootsuite’s LinkedIn page for the full breakdown: https://lnkd.in/eSa3qpNS

#HootsuitePartner

Brand partnership • Social Media / Creator Consultant | Work: Microsoft, Beats By Dre, Verizon, Twitch, Morning Brew, Rock Band, Community (six seasons and a movie!) & a slew of video games.

Can we stop trying to reboot Vine?

TikTok and Instagram have already won. You don't even want Vine back—you just don't realize it.

The nostalgia for the app is cute, but here's what'd happen:
- you'd log in on day 1 out of curiosity
- you'd love the shortest videos ever again
- by week 2, you'd forget its on your phone as your habits go back to Instagram (where your friends and creators are) and TikTok (where the best algorithm in the world knows what content you want).

VINE 2 IS NOT GONNA HAPPEN STOP IT!!!

If you get upset when your brand's social media comments turn negative... you've probably put too much of your identity into your job. 

You're not the company your work for, or the product, or even the social media content you make for the company. It's all work. And sure, you should be proud of when the work does well! But when it doesn't? Or when the company's under fire for some reason that has literally nothing to do with you? That shouldn't bother you.

But I see farrrr too many social media professionals (especially young ones) tie their self-worth to their social media jobs. That's always a recipe for disaster. 

Maybe I'm lucky—my social career began on 3 hated products. I worked community management for some EA video games: Battlefield, Need For Speed: The Run, and Mass Effect 3... also known as a massive game that launched with major glitches, the most hated rendition of a beloved franchise, and the long-awaited trilogy ender with an ending blasted by fans. All 3 got tonssss of negative comments, and I knew up front that those comments weren't a reflection of me.

So please, make sure you're not tying too much of yourself to your brands. Touch grass, as they say.

graphical user interface, text, application

Yeah, you could post memes & lols on LinkedIn...

Anddd it'll do truly nothing to help your career.

I loved a LinkedIn post I saw from Shannon Kelly Ash this morning. She ran a little experiment on her personal account:

"I posted a bunch of unhinged nonsense daily and gained 1,500+ followers and 400,000+ impressions in just over a month. Sounds pretty neat on paper, right? 

Except … visibility ≠ opportunity.

When I used to post polite content tips [3 likes], my inbox was full of job offers and freelance opportunities. Now? With exponentially more reach? Nothing."

This is the number one mistake I see people make in content. We think all engagement is good engagement. We think being the funny guy means we'll get attention... but it's not the attention you want.

You want to be an authority! You want to appeal to bosses & budget holders, not be one of those LinkedIn people who complains about the industry or pokes fun at things. That doesn't get you noticed by the right people.

So please, use LinkedIn, but if you're here to better your career? Share content that shows off that big ol' brain of yours.

And hey, if you need an easy way to start? I've got a $5/month thing I built that gives you daily LinkedIn writing prompts meant to mine your brain for thinking & ideas that are specific to YOU. Give it a look over here if you like: https://lnkd.in/gTTZVf4e

If you're using AI for brand social content, it's gotta be commercially viable.

That's why I'm big on Adobe Firefly—every image is created by an algorithm that's squeaky clean and trained properly without stealing anyone's art! #adobefirefly #adobepartner

What's the best piece of advice you'd give to someone who wants to work in social media?

Black F̶r̶i̶d̶a̶y̶
Black F̶r̶i̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶W̶e̶e̶k̶
Black F̶r̶i̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶C̶y̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶M̶o̶n̶d̶a̶y̶
Black F̶r̶i̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶E̶x̶t̶e̶n̶d̶e̶d̶
Black Existence

Reply with your take, I'm gonna feature a bunch in my newsletter!

Sabbatical

Working on my doctoral dissertation and spending more time with my wife and kids

Sabbatical break to work on my doctoral dissertation

ShareBuilder 401k

•	Led Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Product, Finance, HR, Accounting, IT Infrastructure, & Facilities

•	Crafted a $200M acquisition of a competitor that has generated more than $25 million in profit

•	Drove M&A event from Capital One with an on-time closing, final price 50% under budget, & $3M in year 1 profit

•	Achieved more than 4X EBITDA/Net Income goal for fiscal 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023

•	Grew assets at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 35%

•	Piloted sales increases of more than 20% annually

•	Created a customer success organization that saw FinTech SaaS renewals at a 99% rate

•	Constructed handbooks, manuals, & plan documents in house saving over $2 million at startup

•	Vetted & contracted all vendors (Insurance, HRIS, Payroll, VPN, Security, Salesforce, Five9, Jira, Meraki, etc.)

•	Oversaw modernization of all technological systems savings of more than $3 million annually while leading to greater efficiency, risk mitigation, & business continuity

•	Distilled brand partnership efforts to concentrate on affinity, ISV, strategic, and influencer efforts to dive a 12% increase in partner leads and 12 new national partner agreements

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Capital One

•	Collaborated with 8 Director teams across 6 sites to create the rhythm of the business (ROB), resulting in improved execution alignment for 850+ associate stakeholders including Sales, Presales, Sales Operations, Partners, Marketing, Services, & Customer Success, 52% Y/Y pipeline growth, & an 11% reduction in account whitespace within 9 months

•	Directed cross-functional teams, bringing together small & mid-size (SMB) business customer data, expanding whitespace customer interaction opportunities by 30%, & driving an increase in SMB product penetration by 23%

•	Public relations media spokesperson for radio, TV, & events (SXSW, GROWCO, Dreamforce, etc.)

•	Grew revenue by 32% compounded annual growth rates (CAGR) over 8 consecutive years

•	Increased assets under management (AUM) by 35% CAGR over 8 consecutive years

•	Boosted customer acquisition by 18% CAGR over 8 consecutive years

Vice President, Business Strategy, Acquisition & Retention

•	Saved over $100M in annual spending by moving Capital One from 26 instances of Salesforce to 2 (Business & Consumer) while also increasing whitespace business customer opportunities by 47%

•	Mentored startup founders on business fundamentals, financial discipline, & the FinTech landscape as an advisor in Capital One Lab’s startup accelerator. Three advised companies generated $300 million in profit for COF

•	Delivered on aggressive sales growth of $500M & $750M Y/Y

Senior Director, Business Development & Retention

•	Led a cross-functional cohort to craft Capital One's first diversity, inclusion, & belonging mission (later DE&I)

•	Expanded external sales team to 6 regions capturing $1.5B in mid-market and enterprise accounts over 3 years resulting in $10M in new recurring annual revenue

•	Initiated business banking referral program including crafting all messaging, training, & program details to increase customer whitespace opportunities by 78%

Director, Sales & Customer Services

•	Pushed external sales team to 3 regions & captured $180M in new SMB & enterprise sales in the first 12 months
 
•	Began managing call center customer service teams, quickly solving customer issues & driving an increase in Net Promoter Score (NPS) from +11 to +42 over 12 months

•	Created a Fee Fighters superhero campaign (piggybacking on the superhero movie craze) where employers & employees could receive social badges by uploading newly legislated fee disclosure documents increasing upmarket leads by 29

Senior Manager, Sales & Customer Service

•	Initiated & led a multi-year partnership with Costco resulting in a 57% annual increase in sales

•	Established external sales role to push "upmarket” resulting in the company's first $1M, $2M, $5M, & $10M sales

•	Segmented sales roles by customer type & associate experience creating 5 sales roles & 8 customer archetypes resulting in sales gains of 13% Y/Y & increased revenue of 26%

•	Led partnership acquisition strategy (affiliate, affinity, cross-marketing, distribution, influencer, ISV, strategic, referral, & white label) resulting in 47 agreements in the first 12 months and a 27% increase in qualified leads

•	Launched a reseller program, collaborating with external firms as authorized resellers to increase product reach resulting in a sales boost of 19%

Senior Manager, Sales & Marketing

•	Refined sales process & technique to increase sales by 234% in 12 months

•	Crafted dynamic customer journeys resulting in a 94% conversion increase & a 56% gain in sales Y/Y

•	Reformed product marketing messaging & voice driving a 187% increase in leads, 119% increase in opportunity creation, & a 62% increase in sales Y/Y

Manager, Sales & Marketing

AutoNation

•	Built, optimized, & refined sales processes & engagement framework for internet sales departments across multiple regions & then nationwide, reducing engagement time from days to minutes, resulting in sales increases of 387%

•	Designed & deployed Microsoft Dynamics, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), increasing revenue by 7% & earnings by 15%

•	Led product team that evaluated paper processes for digitization, eliminated $30M in annual spending, & increased on-time financial EOM close by 26%

•	Developed positioning, messaging, & campaign materials to propel AutoNation's $21 billion revenue, including messaging, pitch decks, creative, & datasheets.

Director, Sales Process & Operations

Younger Kitchens

Founder/Owner

People Leader | COO | CRO | CEO | Creating Efficiency | Accelerating Growth & Revenue | Satisfying Customers | Change Management | GTM Strategy | Fintech | Capital One | ING | AutoNation | Founder

An inclusive hands-on executive focused on finding talented people, optimizing processes, and disrupting markets with winning strategies. This is an approach that has equaled 20 years of explosive sales growth, brand-loving customers, and huge increases in revenue and earnings. Always examining challenges with a creative entrepreneurial approach while also applying business fundamentals through a rigorous financial lens. Utilizing Organizational Change and Leadership expertise acquired through doctoral studies at the University of Southern California to achieve impactful and lasting change!

Known for:

✓ Ability to Get Things Done
    • Always Meeting Deadlines & Quota
    • Providing Targeted Problem-Solving
    • Influencing Cross-Functionally Throughout Organizations

✓ Leading Initiatives that Spark Significant Gains in: 
    • Efficiency
    • Productivity
    • Operational Effectiveness

✓ Leveraging Interpersonal Acumen & Superior Communications Skills to Establish Relationships of Trust that Drive Growth & Exceed Objectives

✓ Bringing Extensive Enterprise SaaS sales, Go-To-Market, Product Marketing, Business Development, Customer Success, Finance, Accounting, & Partnering Expertise to Ignite Transformational Growth

✓ Being an Intellectually Curious Problem-Solver who is Successful in Identifying & Overcoming Business Obstacles

✓ Creating Diverse & Inclusive Cross-Functional Cultures that Empower and Instill a Shared Vision – Aligned with Aggressive Business Objectives & Goals

✓ Managing by the Numbers by Directing the Creation of Ambitions, Concrete, & Aligned OKRs/KPIs to Create Action-Oriented Achievement

✓ Being an Excited Father, Dedicated Husband, Early Adopting Technology Enthusiast, Sports Junkie, Whiskey Connoisseur, Indulgent Epicurean, & Flawed, but Ever-Evolving Man

Specialties: Revenue Growth | Strategy | Profit Optimization | Go-To-Market Leadership | Technology Solution Innovation | Account Management | Growth Strategy | Major Project Management | Sales and Marketing | B2B | B2C | Multichannel | Executive Vision | Organizational Development | Business Turnaround | Customer Acquisition | Customer Retention | Operations | Operational Excellence | P&L | Strategic Planning | Tactical Execution | Digital Transformation | Global Go-to-Market Planning | GTM Leadership | Continuous Improvement | Customer Success Management | Process Engineering | Digital Channels | Brand Strategy | Team Building | Analytics | Business Development | Client Relations

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The Battle

Jack Appleby

Robert Younger

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Performance ScoreJack Appleby's LinkedIn Performance

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The Battle

Jack Appleby

Robert Younger

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jack Appleby's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJack Appleby's LinkedIn Performance