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JB's LI
#1 - Fathom
I used to think meeting recordings were a solved problem.
We were using Fireflies and it did the one thing we needed at the time - recording Google Meet calls. But I soon found myself dreading the part AFTER the meeting.
I’d open up the transcript to find a question a customer asked or next steps we’d all nodded to and it was always a mess.
Scroll…scroll…CTRL+F…guess a keyword…scroll again. Just to grab one insight? OML.
So we started looking for better options. We demoed Avoma because the idea made sense. But the bugs threw us off, and the interface felt heavy. Too many clicks to get to anything.
@Fathom was also on our radar. We went back and forth with their team before switching over.
And I’m glad we did. The search experience in Fathom is so stupidly fast and simple that I caught myself smiling while using it.
I can simply ASK Fathom about something I vaguely remember, and it surfaces the part of the conversation in a jiffy.
That has not only made our lives easier but also influenced how we’re thinking about building SocialGPT.
The pain I had with transcripts is the same pain social marketers have with comment sections. There’s signal buried in there - objections, love, hate, confusion, curiosity - but you’re stuck scrolling through noise to find it.
So we’re borrowing the Fathom lesson. We don’t want to give you another dashboard tool, clunky analysis interface, or anything that confuses you even more.
We want social teams to be able to just ask what people are talking about, go straight there, connect that insight with other insights, and make them actionable ASAP.
I never expected a meeting tool to shape how I think about social media marketing. But here we are.
If you’ve felt this pain, either in transcripts or TikTok comments, let me know. Curious what you’re using and what you wish existed.
#2 Buying martech
I got this unfiltered text from the CMO of a $350M D2C brand the other night (sharing with her permission ofc).
In 2025, there’s no room for nice-to-haves. Companies are reviewing every tech subscription right now. So, how do you make your solution a must-have? Start with:
DON’T talk about:
Every CMO I meet needs to justify their tech stack. So every tool they buy needs to prove its ROI.
What has worked out for you in 2025?
#3 Social reporting
I’ve spent 9 years working with execs, sitting in pitch rooms, and learning how to get decision-makers to buy into a point of view.
Sometimes it’s about the numbers. But most of the time, it’s about how you present them.
These days I spend a lot of time selling to marketing teams and I get to see firsthand how social media reports get built and where they fall short.
Here’s how I help social teams rework their reports so leadership actually listens.
1. Break your report into two sections: Reach and Signal
Reach is how far your content spread. Signal is what people said or did in response. I like putting those two side by side at the top of the report because it immediately sets context. It also helps shift attention from pure volume to actual responses - something leadership finds more useful.
2. Summarize themes from comments instead of just quoting them
Pull out the patterns. For example:
-21 comments asking about restock
-8 comments requesting another size for our black jeans
-10 saying they bought and loved it
When I worked with a $125M CPG brand this year, we used this format and got product and ops leads looping into our weekly meetings.
3. Add supporting data that connects posts to outcomes
It doesn’t need to be overly complex. Something as simple as “this post drove 542 product page visits, 78% from new users, 90% from non-followers” is enough. If you tag your posts with UTMs and track basics in GA or Shopify, you can surface this without much friction.
4. Always include a short section on what you’re testing next
It could be small things like:
-changing the opening hook on a Reel
-testing creator-led vs brand-led content
-using polls instead of stickers
It shows you’re not just posting and calling it a day, you’re actually experimenting and trying to figure things out. That’s the mindset execs trust.
—
I’ve helped social teams revamp their reporting in a single working session. The format isn’t hard, and the clarity it gives you and your stakeholders is massive.
When the CMO starts using YOUR language to describe the brand’s social presence, you know you’re doing it right.
#4 Using SocialGPT to send emails
After 9 years of doing outreach that lands meetings and builds pipeline, I’ve learned one thing:
The best cold emails don’t feel cold at all.
At Scrollmark, we’re always looking for creative ways to personalize outreach at scale. For our latest campaign, I wanted to see how far we could push that by using our new tool, SocialGPT, to surface signals our competitors aren’t even thinking about.
We skipped LinkedIn bios and scraped websites and went straight to Instagram. Akshay helped me create scripts to pull data right into Instantly to make our convo open with:
“Subject: Your Spider-Man Homecoming yellow jacket IG giveaway in March
I checked out your Instagram and noticed that your recent giveaway post got 1,786 likes and 383 comments, while your other posts get, on average, 129 likes with 15 comments.”
The campaign led to replies, meetings, new conversations, and waitlist signups. More than half of them told me they felt we’d manually researched their brand because the engagement quoted was so accurate.
I’ll keep testing this with SocialGPT to see what other signals I can turn into useful messages and report back.
In the meantime, I’d love to know what’s the most creative way you’ve used personalization lately?
#5 Pura Vida
In 2010, two college friends took a trip to Costa Rica, met a local artist on the beach, and came home with 400 handmade bracelets.
Those bracelets sold out in California.
That moment birthed Pura Vida.
What gets less airtime is how they scaled from that moment WITHOUT a single ad.
And that hit home for me.
Because back when I was running DTC growth, I used to think the only way to scale was to get your MER right and then pour fuel on it.
What I’ve learned since, and seen again and again, is that community can be a far better flywheel.
Pura Vida figured that out early.
Paul and Griffin would walk into a college campus in San Diego, hit up sororities, and ask to speak at chapter meetings.
Not to pitch, but to tell the story about Costa Rica, the artist on the beach, the phrase ‘Pura Vida’.
Then they’d HAND OUT bracelets to anyone who’d listen.
That’s it. That was the whole play.
What would happen next is:
▪️ girls would post about it on Instagram
▪️ friends would ask where they got it
▪️ orders would spike in that ZIP code the next day
They saw this as the repeatable loop it was and launched the Ambassador Program.
By 2021, that Ambassador Program had grown to over 126K micro-influencers.
That scale gave them, along with HUGE sales, something most brands chase with paid and still don’t get - steady, authentic word of mouth.
They didn’t have to beg for UGC or keep launching new campaigns to stay visible.
Ambassadors shared their codes, posted unboxings, showed off new stacks, and tagged their friends.
That ongoing stream of UGC helped grow their Instagram account to 2.1M followers.
When you have that much earned attention and people actively selling your product for you, it changes your leverage.
In 2019, Vera Bradley bought 75% of the company at a $130 million valuation.
Here are 4 things I think every brand can take from the Pura Vida playbook:
⏩ DON’T WAIT TO START A PROGRAM
Paul and Griffin didn’t build a dashboard or loyalty platform first. They printed cards, sent DMs, and collected names in spreadsheets. The first wave of ambassadors came from people they’d met on campus and talked to in person. They only started layering on structure once they knew the engine worked.
⏩ FOCUS ON WHO, NOT JUST HOW MANY
In the beginning, they didn’t partner with celebs. They partnered with girls in college dorms who loved bracelets and had a social circle who’d actually ask about them. They scaled by depth instead of reach. That built word of mouth that kept going long after the first post.
⏩ MAKE THE EXPERIENCE WORTH TALKING ABOUT
Ambassadors got personalized codes with their own names, welcome kits, tiered gifts, and share-worthy unboxings. Each new level unlocked something physical. That gave people a reason to keep going and keep sharing.
⏩ TREAT YOUR AMBASSADORS LIKE REAL PEOPLE
Griffin Thall, the CEO, said in an interview: “50% of the people in my phone are influencers. The other 50% are my friends.” He made time to grab food, travel with, or stay in touch with the people promoting his brand. That kind of relationship isn’t scalable in the traditional sense but the culture it creates definitely is.
—
This is something we’ve been thinking about a lot at Scrollmark.
Most brands today have micro-influencers already commenting, tagging, and posting but there’s no system in place to catch them.
Scrollmark helps fix that.
We automatically spot creators who are already engaging with your content, especially the ones flying under the radar, and let you tap them instantly for ambassador invites, collabs, or product seeding.
A few things our customers are doing with it right now:
▪️ Setting up alerts when someone with 10K+ followers mentions them
▪️ Auto-DMing UGC creators to get usage rights and reward them
▪️ Running always-on journeys to recruit new ambassadors from post comments
▪️ Tagging creators in their CRM with product interests for future launches
It’s still early, but this is the direction that makes the most sense to me.
Turn fans into distribution. Build loops instead of chasing spikes.
And do it in a way that doesn’t depend on platforms being generous with reach.
If you’re building something similar, or want to, happy to share more.
#6
Chasing ROAS might be killing your growth strategy.
Lately, I've been seeing a lot of brands aim for the highest ROAS they can get by any means.
And those means usually mean investing in cheaper formats like branded search or sponsored product listings.
They look efficient. But they rarely drive INCREMENTAL sales.
Sponsored brand takeovers and conquesting cost more, but they’re the ones that create net new demand.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot in my work with social teams.
Social teams often prioritize content calendars and response rates.
Comments and DMs are treated like customer service tickets.
Low-effort, low-priority, low-cost.
But when you look closely, that’s where most of the signals come from.
I’ve seen:
⏩ A post comment asking “is this the water-resistant bomber jacket?”
→ becomes a sale (and 2 cross-sells) when answered instantly with product links in the DM.
⏩ A viral giveaway with 61,000 comments
→ becomes 3,600 NEW email leads, all opt-in, all high intent.
⏩ Social loyalty program set up in 30 minutes
→ converts frequent engagers into fans and customers with rewards like 10% OFF and BOGO.
When brands rely on the cheapest or most convenient ways to handle social, they miss the incremental impact sitting right in front of them.
When they treat it like premium media, like something worth investing in, they get a new revenue stream.
And if you're serious about growth, that’s where more of the budget should go.
Below comes 4 days after posting:
P.S. Scrollmark exists to make that shift possible. Because the highest iROAS might actually be in your comments.
#7
“I’m still not sure if leadership takes my role seriously.”
A few days ago, a social media manager told me something I’ve heard more than once.
He runs a growing Instagram account, manages influencer partnerships, and community campaigns.
But he still gets introduced internally as “the person who posts stuff.”
I’ve never been a social media manager myself. But at Scrollmark and GRIN, I’ve worked closely with the people behind the accounts - SMMs, influencer managers, creators.
The same patterns come up over and over.
Social teams are often seen as reactive, low-leverage, and separate from strategy.
But when you look closely, most product discovery now STARTS on social.
Most high-intent signals now happen in DMs, replies, and mentions.
And a huge share of first-party data gets collected through these interactions, if teams are set up to capture it.
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