“The more sort of AI slop that’s out there, the more we will break through by truly having opinions, truly being human, and truly trying to be helpful to those that we serve.”
Carter Hostelley
One of the reasons I was so excited to sit down with Carter Hostelley is that our conversation brought me back to something I believe deeply: marketing has always been about people.
Carter Hostelley
Carter has spent nearly 15 years immersed in B2B social media, community building, and relationship-driven growth. At a moment when seemingly every marketing conversation begins with the newest AI capability, I loved the opportunity to roll up our sleeves together and talk about something much more fundamental.
Trust.
Because as AI makes information easier to create, human credibility becomes harder to earn, and much more valuable once you have it.
We Do Business With People, Not Brands
Social media was never meant to become another email list.
Yet that is exactly how many organizations still use it: broadcast, promote, repeat.
Carter offered a much better analogy. Think about meeting someone at a cocktail party. Would you immediately launch into your product pitch? Of course not. You would ask questions, listen, find common ground, and build a relationship.
The same rules apply online.
As Carter put it: “We do business with people, not with brands. And the easiest way I always say to reflect the brand is to showcase the people behind the brand.”
That idea has become even more important as AI fills our feeds with increasingly polished content. The answer is not simply producing more. It is giving people a reason to believe what they are seeing.
Fellow strategist John Golden, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Coevera, reinforced this during his appearance on recent StrategyCast Episode 602: “…at the end of the day, you don’t do, I mean, you do business with people and you do business with, and the personality of the company comes out through the people, right?”
John Golden
Your executives, employees, customers, and advocates are not simply distribution channels. They are the living expression of your brand.
Community Is Relationship at Scale
One of my favorite ideas from Carter was his description of community and advocacy as “relationship at scale.”
That does not mean creating a LinkedIn group, opening a Slack channel, and declaring that you have built a community.
The community already exists, and your job is to become a valued member of it.
That requires shifting the question from, “How can we sell to these people?” to, “How can we help these people?”
The economics of that shift are compelling. Help one person, and you may create an advocate. That advocate may introduce you to three more people. Suddenly, the objective is no longer closing one transaction. It is creating a network of credibility.
Buyers Are Looking for Human Validation
The data supports Carter’s argument.
Forrester’s 2026 research, based on more than 17,000 global business buyers, found that social media has become the second most meaningful source of purchase information, just behind generative AI search tools. Buyers are using social channels to interact with and validate information through trusted analysts, customers, subject matter experts, and business leaders.
That is a remarkable signal.
AI may increasingly tell buyers what to consider. Trusted people may determine what they believe.
This is why community, employee advocacy, executive visibility, and authentic thought leadership should not sit on the periphery of your demand strategy. They belong at its center.
Stop Trying to Manufacture Thought Leaders
Carter also challenged something marketers need to hear.
AI has made it possible for almost anyone to sound like a thought leader. But sounding like one and actually leading thought are two very different things.
Every marketer should read the above line one more time.
True thought leadership requires an opinion. It requires experience, curiosity, and occasionally the courage to say something different.
Carter’s alternative is powerful: instead of obsessing over becoming a “thought leader,” ask how you can become a valued member of the community.
That is a much higher bar.
The Pendulum Is Swinging Back Toward Human
Marketers absolutely should be exploring AI. But we should spend just as much time asking how buyers are using AI and how that changes what they need from us.
As information becomes infinite, credibility becomes scarce, and that scarcity creates value.
The brands that win will not necessarily be those producing the most content or automating the most interactions. They will be the organizations whose people show up, contribute something meaningful, help others, and earn trust before asking for the sale.
Carter captured the opportunity perfectly: “The more we talk about AI, the more we think about that, the more I’m like, it’s about creating more human experiences.”
I could not agree more.
Questions to Ask Yourself
- Are you using social media to broadcast, or to build genuine relationships?
- Who are the people behind your brand that customers should know and trust?
- Is your content expressing real opinions, or simply adding to the volume?
- How could your organization become a more valued member of the communities it serves?
- As AI becomes more powerful, where can you deliberately become more human?
If you want to explore these ideas further, I encourage you to listen to my conversation with Carter Hostelley on StrategyCast Episode 604, where we discuss community, advocacy, social media, LinkedIn, AI, changing buyer behavior, and why the most powerful competitive advantage in an automated world may simply be being human.
