What social media marketers actually think about AI

Every social media marketer is being told to use AI to work faster and smarter. Most are figuring it out on their own—there's no shared playbook, and what works in one workflow doesn't always translate to another.

To discuss this ongoing tension, Rebrandly brought together three social media practitioners to talk honestly about what they're actually using AI for, where it breaks down, and what a real AI-assisted workflow looks like.

Watch the full discussion here, or read the highlights below:
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Where AI is genuinely useful

When asked where AI shows up most in their day-to-day work, the three panelists gave different use cases with a similar theme: use AI on the more tedious parts of your workflow to free up time for the parts that require real human creativity.

Lindsay Ashcraft, Social Media Manager for Rebrandly, said AI has been most useful for data-heavy admin work that used to eat up hours—turning a year's worth of program data into a one-page executive summary, for example. That frees her up for the work she actually enjoys: creative ideation and copywriting.
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Christine Colling, Head of Social and Video for Durable, used AI to build a high-volume video series highlighting three to four businesses per week. Eleven Labs handled the voiceover, businesses supplied their own B-roll, and Christine didn't need on-camera talent or heavy production support. "I didn't need as many resources as I needed before."

Travis Tyler, Social and Creative Lead at AirOps, doesn't think of it as saving time so much as getting more done in the same hours. He walked the group through how he set Claude to build a social performance presentation while he went to change a diaper. "This would have taken me a week to put together. Claude did it in like an hour and a half." He also uses Claude Co-work to generate launch posts for multiple executives at once, each trained on that person's writing style.

Where it still falls short

Raw creativity is still a weak spot. Travis was direct: "I don't feel that AI has made me more creative."  For example, tried using Claude to rewrite song lyrics for a comedic skit and found it couldn't do create a passable version. Lindsay said the same, especially for video and humor. "If you've ever tried with a tool to have it understand a concept that's humorous, it is just a huge waste of time." Her verdict: "I better just not do this and just use my brain."

Both said the same thing about AI slop: the problem isn't the tools, it's how people use them. Slop existed before AI—it's just easier to produce at scale now. Output quality is a function of input quality, and if you're unhappy with what you're getting, you're probably not giving the tool enough context. Lindsay and Christine both said they're actively pushing back on the quantity-over-quality pressure that AI often leads to.

Hallucination is a practical day-to-day issue. Christine flagged that Claude sometimes reverts to older brand positioning she's explicitly told it to ignore, producing influencer briefs that list features the product no longer has. Human review before anything goes to external partners is non-negotiable.

Tools the panelists are using

• Claude — used by all three for copy, briefs, reporting, and storing brand context
• Granola — AI meeting notes; Travis uses it integrated with Claude to pull from past conversations
• Wispr Flow — voice-to-text dictation into Claude; Travis uses it because he thinks faster than he types
• Sprout Social — Lindsay uses its AI features for sentiment analysis and reporting
• Eleven Labs — Christine used it for AI voiceover in a high-volume video series
• Hey Parker — Christine has been testing it for short-form paid ad copy

How Rebrandly fits into a smarter social workflow

Rebrandly also has AI features built for social workflows:

• AI-generated link metadata — When you share a link, the title and description are usually pulled from the page's SEO metadata—written to rank, not to get clicks. Rebrandly lets you rewrite that metadata, or generate it with AI in one click. Useful when you're posting at volume and don't want to rewrite every link by hand.
• AI scheduling suggestions — Instead of guessing when to post or relying on generic industry benchmarks, Rebrandly analyzes click data across active links and surfaces the time your audience is most likely to click—based on their actual location and behavior.
• MCP integration — Rebrandly's MCP connector lets you create, update, and organize links directly through Claude, without switching tools. Useful for generating links as you draft posts, or for bulk operations like updating destinations across a campaign.

If you're building out a more efficient social workflow, link management is one of the easiest things to get right. Start with a free account and see how it fits.

Start for free →

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