Neal Schaffer

The 10 Social Media Principles Behind MrBeast's Beast Games, Lord of the Rings & Invincible

MrBeast's Beast Games. Lord of the Rings. Invincible. Jon-Stephen Stansel has run social for all of them — and today he's breaking down the 10 principles that separate brands that win from brands that just post. We cover goals, audience alignment, how to hire the right social media help, measuring ROI, and the one principle above all others: social media is fundamentally human. In this episode I sit down with Jon-Stephen Stansel — social media manager, entertainment industry freelancer, and author of The 10 Principles of Effective Social Media Marketing — for one of the most practical social media conversations I've had on this podcast. Jon-Stephen started as a university ESL teacher who turned Facebook into a classroom tool, became the first full-time social media manager at Texas State University, then took a leap of faith that led him to work on some of the biggest entertainment franchises in the world: Prime Video's Invincible, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the Avatar franchise, and currently Beast Games for MrBeast. His book distills everything he's learned into 10 evergreen principles — inspired by designer Dieter Rams — that work whether you're managing a TV franchise or a local coffee shop. This conversation covers the ones that matter most: why goals come before everything else, how to align your content with what your audience actually wants, where to find the right social media help (and the red flags to avoid), how to measure ROI in a way that means something to your business, and why the most important principle of all is that social media is fundamentally human — even more so in the age of AI. If your social media efforts aren't translating into real business results, this episode will show you exactly where to look. RESOURCES MENTIONED - The 10 Principles of Effective Social Media Marketing by Jon-Stephen Stansel: https://amzn.to/4vDYo2a - Jon-Stephen's website: https://www.jstansel.com - Jon-Stephen on social: @jstansel on all platforms Subscribe for More Digital Marketing Advice -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ https://www.youtube.com/nealschaffer?sub_confirmation=1 Grab My Free Stuff -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Ebook: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/linkedin-book-free-download/ Digital and Social Media Marketing Tools Buyer’s Guide: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/best-digital-marketing-tools-guide/ The Age of Influence (Free Preview): ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/age-of-influence-preview/ The Definitive Guide to Email Marketing: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/email-marketing-guide-ebook/ The Definitive Guide to Guest Blogging: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/guest-blogging-guide-ebook/ Sign Up to My Free Weekly Email Newsletter -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ https://nealschaffer.com/events/ Subscribe and Listen to the Your Digital Marketing Podcast: -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ YouTube: ➡︎ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhdxAC8UR7telkg-KFDpwaJyliMAEzXMi Apple: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/apple Spotify: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/spotify Other Option (Website)s: ➡︎ https://podcast.nealschaffer.com Work With Me -+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Join My Digital First Group Coaching Mastermind Community: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Hire Me to Be Your Fractional CMO: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Book Me to Speak at Your Next Event: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/social-media-keynote-speaker/ Buy My Books on Amazon: ➡︎ https://amzn.to/41XLxIw Other Inquiries: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/contact/ My Digital Marketing Toolbox (Click on Links for Special Offers) -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- My social media scheduling tool SocialBee: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/socialbee My second social media scheduling which also has AI functionality Tailwind: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/tailwind My main A.I. content creation tool Jasper: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/jasper My SEO tool of choice SEMrush: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/semrush I don’t publish a blog post before reviewing in the A.I. tool Frase: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/frase My graphics creation tool Adobe Express: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/adobeexpress My YouTube tool of choice TubeBuddy: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/tubebuddy My marketing ROI dashboard Digivizer: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/digivizer My email marketing tool ConvertKit: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/convertkit My killer Twitter A.I. content creation tool TweetHunter: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/tweethunter My podcast host AND AI show notes and transcript creation tool Buzzsprout: ➡︎ https://nealschaffer.com/buzzsprout If you subscribe through my link, hit me up if you need any help! Connect with Me in the Socials -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- LinkedIn: ➡︎ https://linkedin.com/in/nealschaffer X: ➡︎ https://twitter.com/nealschaffer Instagram: ➡︎ https://instagram.com/nealschaffer Facebook: ➡︎ https://facebook.com/NealSchaffer