We were lucky to catch up with Taylor Gaines recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Taylor, thanks for joining us today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

The top two trends changing social media management are consolidation and artificial intelligence.

Trend 1: Consolidation

The average social media user is on 3-5 apps, which doesn’t sound like a big deal until you’re the business owner trying to grow your market share using social media as your primary marketing and sales tool.

The good news is, platforms like Meta, have consolidated their social networks (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) into one management suite to make it easier for brands to manage the customer relationship.

Trend 2: Artificial Intelligence

Generative AI is changing how we work. It’s going to speed up the content production process, and it will dramatically improve the customer service process.

With content, it will bring the cost to produce a social content calendar, an ad spot, etc. down. It will also aid in ideation and provide tremendous benefit to push creative boundaries.

The only challenge, is we will see a flood of ‘bad content’ enter the social feeds as busy professionals will see generative AI as a quick-win solution for content production.

Secondarily, AI will help improve customer service processes. This is probably the most beneficial for brands as a bad customer experience can ruin a reputation. Being able to leverage AI to help address customers in real-time and be able to resolve problems faster than a human agent will only improve the experience all around.

Taylor, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Taylor Gaines and I’m the founder of Social Gaines.

We are a social-first marketing agency helping companies connect the dots between strategy and tactics.

I started my career at a national advertising agency when I was 19 years old and quickly rose through the ranks. Within three years, I developed and deployed international social strategies and was responsible for building the internal policies for how a social department should be run.

At the time, social media was a relatively new field, so it was a great opportunity to shape how a social media department should be run to maximize client value.

From there, I started my own business with the mission to help clients maximize time, money, and resources by helping them connect the dots between strategy and tactics.

Social media is integrated across the various aspects of business – marketing, sales, and customer service. However, social media is also not the only tactic available to businesses.

We enjoy working with our clients to identify what the business challenge is so we can create the solution that will best fit their business and budget.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Staying true to my word and willingness to always do the right thing.

Let’s be honest, sh*t happens. Perhaps you goofed up a deliverable, or there was a miscommunication or something else entirely occurred.

The one thing people will always appreciate and remember is how you handled a situation. Whenever there is an opportunity to make it right, a client or customer will appreciate that SO much more and more often then not, stick with you.

Mostly because the time and energy to try someone or something new is taxing and risky. When you already have an invested customer, it’s important to remain true to your word and do the right thing whenever possible.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I’m pivoting constantly. As I learn new skills, the business expands, the market changes, I’m always looking at market indicators for pivoting the business.

More recently, we’ve pivoted from being a social media management company to a social-first marketing agency.

This is because social media is integrated across all aspects of marketing and our value is really derived when we’re able to help oversee ‘the big picture’.

Additionally, we’re also expanding into marketing management software. While this is a product extension, it could also be seen as a pivot because we recognize that the volume of boutique marketing agencies continues to rise and thus with market saturation being incredibly high, we want to be sure that we remain competitive.

Contact Info:

• Website: socialgaines.com
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/taylorgaines