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View this post on the web at https://socialsocialclub.substack.com/p/that-big-crucial-thing-social-media Hey social nerds 👋 Today we’re tackling the topic of ROI — the somewhat-feared, TLA (three letter acronym) that grips social media practitioners and, historically speaking, has throttled the development of executive level social roles. I want everyone who works in social to be equipped with practical strategies for proving their impact, so I’ll be sharing suggestions from our internal Slate Marketing team, plus insights from: Lauren Sandborn [ https://substack.com/redirect/daeca978-8bac-4219-80a8-314ae3cc8cc4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] (Head of Social at Crowdstrike [ https://substack.com/redirect/5f1a4c40-1bc4-4b57-b35c-ea25ca6fe4ca?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], former Global Head of Social at Amazon) who has the highest EQ of any creator on TikTok and regularly shares comms/social advice. Melanie Trottier [ https://substack.com/redirect/cc52a50a-3ece-423e-b231-f77c191c1919?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] (Social Media Director at Arcade Studios [ https://substack.com/redirect/95681cfe-e70e-4e04-bf04-5897456308a3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]) who also generously shares her 5-9 over on TikTok and runs the social ship at my favourite (let me have the 🇨🇦 spelling just this once!) Canadian social media agency. Also, PS, we’re doing a live AMA event with the Slate Marketing team on March 24th, with official details coming soon! In the grand scheme of typical struggles for people who work in social media, “proving the ROI of content” is up there with the most dreaded. For several years of my career I assumed there were secret formulas I hadn’t yet discovered or expensive tools I simply didn’t have access to, but after making the leap into B2B (where budget is easier to come by and SaaS tools exist for every pain point), I experienced the bittersweet realization that there is no single, magic attribution model. What I can tell you, based on many an off-record coffee chat, is that we are all piecing together compelling narratives and triangulating partial analytics. And we are hungry, starving even, for better methods to the [reporting] madness. Entering tech also schooled me in the ways of product and engineering teams, adding context to my frustrations around dealing with social media platforms that never seem to release the features we (the users, the SMMs) want, while escalating releases that miss the mark [ https://substack.com/redirect/1073e8a3-8ea4-4d2b-9167-a7fde240c3a5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]. I had no idea that product teams are capable of prioritizing features that improve quality of life for users, or are influenced by user demands — as it turns out, the architecture of what we measure and reward in an app is not fixed! [Which is to say, if Meta wanted to, it would.] But the truth is that platforms stand to benefit from black box algorithms, and “Enshittification [ https://substack.com/redirect/b15ad50b-63fb-4eea-a1d8-a5caa607259e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]” is just one of the realities we get to juggle in this evolving line of work. So until we vibe code a magical solution that calculates the exact dollar value we influence, I remain committed to my obsession with proving the ROI, complexity, and far-reaching impacts of social media. Let’s take a look at some practical tips you can implement starting today: Lauren has an excellent mind for social and PR, which means she’s always thinking about the ways in which social moments will translate to traditional media coverage (which tend to be more relevant to leadership), and eventually public perception. She encourages social teams to showcase these through lines, and offered the following: “Social Media often sits in this in-between place between Marketing and Comms, and a lot of Social teams think more about the marketing results and overlook it as a PR tool. When you’re intentional about it, a single post can inform a reporter’s story, become the hook for a media pitch, and/or end up embedded in the coverage itself. That’s pretty solid proof that social can influence the public narrative that ultimately strengthens the business over time.” She also mentioned to me that reporters often actively follow brand social accounts, which means great content helps pave the way for smoother pitches down the road. Christina 2 has a ton of B2B experience under her belt, and what I love about her approach is that it’s rooted in hard-won confidence and an air of “this ain’t my first rodeo”. “Honestly, I stopped trying to prove social’s value through marketing metrics. I started documenting when social created real business moments through things like demo requests, people organically talking about the product, or buyers referencing a post in a sales call. Once you track those signals consistently, it’s hard to argue social isn’t driving demand.” I like that her answer subverts the systems that aren’t serving us. It’s a good reminder that social ROI is a complex beast for reasons beyond are control, but it IS within our control to steer a different narrative. Solid tip: screen cap every favourable note/message/DM/etc about your brand and create a collage. Seeing them in numbers can be incredibly When I reached out to Melanie about this, she emphasized “Deep Engagements” as both an important concept, and an official term to define for clients — in essence, developing a new metric that’s particularly relevant for organic social teams. In her words, “We talk to our clients about deep engagements (comments, saves, and shares), explaining that these actions are strong signals of audience intent especially with a lot of conversations happening in private DMs these days. Being able to say, “This month, our Instagram Reels were shared 1,200 times, saved 800 times and received 150 comments.” helps put a tangible value on organic social performance for the client, even when we can’t attribute results to a concrete number.” In my own work, a stronghold I’ve come to rely on in times of reporting is correlation, the less assertive cousin to causation. Proving that X post caused Y outcome is next to impossible, but showing reasonable evidence that a spike in followers/engagement/site visits occurred in the 24 hours after a specific post is well within the realm of possibility. And something I’ve found to be particularly helpful (i.e. leadership catnip), is plotting correlation events visually so that they’re easy to absorb. If I had to distill this into an actionable tip, I’d suggest you create a “Correlation Map” at whatever frequency you submit reports (I’m partial to monthly) and frame your top three correlations as “highlights” or “standout” events, accompanied by qualitative analysis. In plain english: screen cap a line graph of your metric in question, mark the highest points, drop in some arrows and accompanying post images, then slap a title on there. The first differentiator I noticed about Pearo (I call her that because we have ✌️) is that she’s deeply embedded in the sales cycle — much more so than the average SMM. So it’s no surprise that her tip encourages getting familiar with prospects. “What’s made me better at telling the story around ROI is staying close to what sales is doing. Hopping on demo calls, hearing the pain points your ICP is expressing, and connecting that back to your strategy — that’s where it all comes together. It really helped me nail down the value of social.” She’s inspired me to hop on sales calls, which I’m embarrassed to say I never even considered seriously until Slate. It’s kind of funny to ask your own boss to provide a tactical example of how to prove the ROI of social (technically that’s my job) but luckily Eric’s a good sport. I wanted to know more about his experience at the NFL, where legacy media channels are top priority, and social was once relegated to a supporting role. "When I became the NFL's first international marketer tasked with growing fandom globally, there was no clear definition of what success looked like. I turned to social because it was a channel where we could reach fans daily in places like Brazil and Germany, without a massive budget. The high engagement numbers we garnered ended up doing two things: confirming to leadership that fandom existed outside the US, and inspiring confidence to invest in those markets (both of which now host NFL games).” In Eric’s scenario, it really came down to convincing senior leadership that engagement was evidence of appetite, which paved the way for expansion. Stuff We Posted Recently (i.e. sOcIaL mEdIa RePs) Last but not least! We crank out a ton of great content (because we edit in Slate [ https://substack.com/redirect/8f6e63be-0d7c-452d-9eea-c4c472a582a3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] 😎) and wanted to do a quick recap of our recent hits: If you haven’t had an opportunity to watch Christina 1 and Christina 2 fight publicly on LinkedIn, do yourself a favor and get caught up, but if a mock-perfume ad [ https://substack.com/redirect/069029aa-6936-43b7-9500-23ece4499a6d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] is more your style, we’ve got that too. Christina Pearo launched a new “Art & Science of Brand [ https://substack.com/redirect/7a03d8e1-fd6e-4939-942a-dc7df3a98a25?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]” series, Christina Le rambled [ https://substack.com/redirect/f236c3c8-b2ef-45ef-b67a-5581796d38a7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] all about Slate and life, (but then got into Serious Product Marketer [ https://substack.com/redirect/408862c7-0c09-481c-a43d-5810364ddf1c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] mode and recapped our latest feature features), and I summarized all my top tips about video hooks [ https://substack.com/redirect/5703e0f5-f79a-4a3b-aa7f-e2da16453ebf?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]. Also, Pedro Pascal in meme-format [ https://substack.com/redirect/d814e231-a6be-4566-9201-75c0a359ecdb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]! PS - What I think you should have on your radar [ https://substack.com/redirect/3b81fe32-06ba-4baa-b5a6-b0db5569e48b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] right now if you work in social or marketing. Thanks for reading The Social Social Club! Unsubscribe https://substack.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.JmbUSitungf9IK5-l2xwRrN56BXLCoiE21obvL2YfOo?

View this post on the web at https://socialsocialclub.substack.com/p/is-tiktok-dying-or-crying-wolf Hey folks! Today’s newsletter is about the instability of social media platforms (but specifically the US sale of TikTok [ https://substack.com/redirect/53cd2f5a-7ab5-4133-8819-6a4d160bb2b9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]) even though the 24 hour news cycle is so over it, and has since moved on to other horrors and delights. The recent TikTok “power outage [ https://substack.com/redirect/eb8cb6a9-92aa-4155-befe-9557eee12353?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]”, which took place just one year after the shutdown, feels like a warning sign we should pay more attention to. I’m particularly interested in how we future proof our strategies, and present-proof our sanity. (Though, verdict is still out on whether the latter is possible.) We’ve tapped into pragmatic analysis (I refuse to call them hot takes) from Michael Corcoran [ https://substack.com/redirect/126a47b5-10ef-4399-993c-bd9bace6b9fc?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], Sam Yehle [ https://substack.com/redirect/14c8b713-4b51-4dca-b844-6ec7b6e75c98?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], and Grace McCarrick [ https://substack.com/redirect/1c4393b6-1e5b-4345-95de-5ee037a3fdc9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] (the internet’s resident expert on “soft skills”), to give you a balanced read on the situation. WHAT A TREAT. Thanks for reading The Social Social Club! Subscribe for free to receive new posts. Almost exactly one year ago in January, Alix Earle [ https://substack.com/redirect/caa6ddf6-38f4-4ee3-9c13-ce59b74cce8b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] — the colossally famous blond haired blue eyed TikToker known for her rushed GRWM’s and NFL boyfriends — posted multiple videos of herself sobbing uncontrollably, urging fans to follow her on IG and Youtube as she publicly grieved the impending shutdown of the platform. Back then we had no way of knowing what we do now, which is that the Great TikTok Blackout of 2025 would last less than 24 hours, before the always-on FYP would be “restored” to it’s normal, hypnotic state. At the time it felt like a seismic shift that thoroughly rattled content creators and social media professionals alike, resulting in cries of “build your email newsletter list!” and “diversify your platforms!” from gurus who had something to gain from doling out this type of advice. But shortly after, and as is often the case with enormous blips on our radar that quickly turn into distant memories, we compartmentalized our anxiety, moved on to the next international news event [ https://substack.com/redirect/153e7962-76f8-439f-ad66-5508374a4501?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], and got back to business as usual. Our KPIs were waiting, after all. So a couple of weeks ago when the US sale of TikTok finally went through, the algorithm broke for a weekend, and we all experienced the familiar déjà vu of building on rented land, I decided to reach out to a few trusted friends in social who know TikTok well, in order to get their sobering perspectives. Of course, I could “hop on here real quick” and tell you what I think about all of this, but I’m a skeptical Canadian and figured I should temper my outlook with a whacky Irish man and two pragmatic Americans. Let’s dive in! First up is Michael Corcoran, former professional heckler for Ryanair, current Founder of Slice Social [ https://substack.com/redirect/f39af6bd-c6e0-47db-b1fb-9a65ed158eba?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], and bright light of hilarity on LinkedIn. Michael is based in Europe (and I in Canada) so take what we say with a grain of salt, because we both noted little to no differences in our algos (while everyone else was complaining about complete system meltdowns). He honed in on something that can be a source of anxiety for social teams, namely the increased risk of reaching the wrong demographic (geographically speaking) if US accounts get amplified or pulled from the FYP in ways we can’t control. I asked him what he thought was actually going to happen in the wake of this sale, and he offered the following: “How you use TikTok, your profile(s) set up, the creator you select, and the moments you insert yourself into must be more curated based on the geo breakdown and source of your views. You may be reaching 1 million people with your content, BUT if 80% is non-US and you sell only in the US, you have to question the value beyond the vanity.” It’s definitely high-level reporting to qualify the views you’re getting, but it’s worth it in the immediate aftermath, especially if your service/products are only available regionally. Michael recommends studying where your views and engagements are coming from, and even using a burner account if you don’t want to falsely train your algorithm while you research. Ultimately, if your target demographic and location of views are aligning, you’re golden — if not, it may be time to invest in another platform. Sam Yehle is a celestial being who understands every dimension of social media, and I love that she’s proven herself as both a director and practitioner. She made a name for herself at Frida [ https://substack.com/redirect/6fea0310-9c2a-4999-887f-7eadff393ca4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], is currently at Nara Organics [ https://substack.com/redirect/6cad3226-6768-41f5-a478-abd270d38ee6?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], and still manages to put in the reps on her personal TikTok account [ https://substack.com/redirect/e8e4b00b-4e2c-497f-9516-66b7b15b888b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]. She reminded me that what makes news in group chats for SMMs, and what shakes out IRL are ~different realities~, noting that “as social media managers, we’re so close to this that it’s easy to get swept up in the LinkedIn echo chamber and think the sky is falling. Realistically, it’s going to take a lot more than the threat of instability or even censorship to meaningfully shift user behavior—both for creators and viewers.” The truth is that we’re addicted to these platforms, right down to the UX of the apps, and change is an icky, friction-laden beast we’ll opt to avoid at just about any cost. So if you’re wondering, “Is TikTok still worth it??” (we’ll dig into this in the Q+A below 👇), keep in mind that for the time being, Sam advises “the smartest thing to do is nothing.” Finally, I texted Grace McCarrick, the inimitable queen of soft skills who radiates confidence and regularly delivers speeches to hundreds of execs, sans beta blockers (I know this for a fact because I asked her). There is no one more prolific than her on TikTok [ https://substack.com/redirect/0eef23f0-ff3d-4ff0-98ec-a5e552c59f61?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], so I take her counsel as gospel. Though the futurist in me knows it’s futile to predict what’s next, I still asked her to because I’m a pest. “If I have to future predict, I’d say the new team behind the algo may amplify some content and push it into non organic virality to keep people really in the app and consistently creating,” which I HARD AGREE with because this is the easiest trick available to platforms when they need to incentivize new creators. LinkedIn dabbled in this back in 2024 (the golden days) and made reach much more accessible to video creators. But I also appreciated that she recommended getting cozy with managing up, suggesting that there should be “people on your team committed to learning [the ways of specific platforms] and translating up the line about why certain things work on certain platforms.” This was something Zaria mentioned in our January SSC webinar [ https://substack.com/redirect/809a866a-4cb3-42d4-a74b-20c3c2e7f10e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], that we have to embrace the fact that a huge portion of our role is educating the broader org about why we’re doing what we’re doing. The Social Event Of The Season! Come hang with me and Rachel Karten [ https://substack.com/redirect/8f5cee70-4c80-41bf-a662-9ef6041aecf4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] as we tackle an honest conversation about the state of social, recent platform instability, thoughts about where things are headed, and a few pragmatic frameworks to tackle the uncertainty. Register here [ https://substack.com/redirect/d1db1c0e-d275-42b9-841b-95f350561cc9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], and submit your questions too because we’ll leave time for Q+A! PS - Some Thoughts To Consider I wanted to share three frameworks that have helped me shift my perspective towards the work I do, in the hopes that it might also release you from some of the common frustrations that plague people who work in social. I’ll try not to veer into “mantra” territory, but I make no promises… Everyone I know deals with constant change at work. My husband works in the beer industry, my good friend works in a NICU, my brother-in-law is a park ranger. All of them deal with constant changes and updates, and I think it’s so important to remind ourselves that social media is not unique in that sense. My job isn’t just to get views — it’s also to research the internet landscape and report those findings back to leadership/brand/sales/product/etc in a way that’s relevant to the business. This means that I’m not just the algorithm’s guinea pig (a passive role), but an investigator that can share actionable insights (an active role). Creating content for a personal account on the side is strangely freeing. I thought this would feel like more work, but it’s actually been a huge accelerator to my learning journey, and teaches me about what does and doesn’t work in content. Plus, I feel less like a sucker when I’m feeding the algorithm, versus solely consuming its suggestions. The Social Social Club Hotline Each week we answer (anonymous!) questions from folks in the social media community. (Submit yours here [ https://substack.com/redirect/fd1da253-982f-4163-a2b6-393c30bc1c83?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] for future newsletters). Today I chose a succinct question that cuts straight to the chase: Is TikTok for brands still worth it given instability? First of all, join me in smashing my head against a wall a few times, just to shed a few brain cells. Who needs ‘em! Two weeks ago in a meeting doc I jotted down “Should we still invest our bandwidth in TT?? Maybe not” but I was feeling reactionary, and to be totally honest, grappling with some grief over the downfall of mymost beloved platform. The technological hiccups (read, zero views) and unrest was starting to make me panic, and I was forgetting all the level-headed advice I would normally offer to others. Platform changes are constant! Fire alarms are part of the process! Don’t sweat it! It wasn’t until I read Sam’s cogent words (and saw my views return to normal rates) that I could start being rational again. My short answer is yes, TikTok is still worth it, but my longer answer has to do with who benefits most from that platform. Most B2B companies will still be leveraging their old faithful, LinkedIn. Most CPG-based B2C brands will still be leaning on Instagram as their main squeeze. And most businesses that rely heavily on TikTok Shop will charge ahead without looking back. At the end of the day, it’s the content creators and “creatorpreneurs” who will likely be most affected, and channel their rage into migrating to Youtube, Substack, and other platforms that are less shaky and more easily monetized. Grace and Sam both touched on the fact that platforms have a responsibility to the “feeders” (i.e. the SMMs and creators who supply them with content) to make the experience of publishing seamless and worthwhile. A social media prediction I’ve been ruminating on, is that platforms will need to form robust departments that focus on creator experience as time (and skin in the game) grows. All this to say, if you’re trying to build up a company’s social media presence, I think TikTok is still safe for at least the next 2-3 years, but if you’re trying to build a personal brand, I’d seriously consider a newsletter in addition to whatever you’re doing. Thanks for reading The Social Social Club! Subscribe for free to receive new posts. Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9zb2NpYWxzb2NpYWxjbHViLnN1YnN0YWNrLmNvbS9hY3Rpb24vZGlzYWJsZV9lbWFpbD90b2tlbj1leUoxYzJWeVgybGtJam8wTXpBMU1UUXhPVGdzSW5CdmMzUmZhV1FpT2pFNE56Y3dORFF3Tnl3aWFXRjBJam94Tnpjd09UTXdOekl5TENKbGVIQWlPakU0TURJME5qWTNNaklzSW1semN5STZJbkIxWWkwMU1EQTVOemM0SWl3aWMzVmlJam9pWkdsellXSnNaVjlsYldGcGJDSjkuc0hBSEV4RUdQZG1yZDlhcDFneEVKLWJvMTJ2SGhySl96NTBFXzNXWHdlWSIsInAiOjE4NzcwNDQwNywicyI6NTAwOTc3OCwiZiI6dHJ1ZSwidSI6NDMwNTE0MTk4LCJpYXQiOjE3NzA5MzA3MjIsImV4cCI6MjA4NjUwNjcyMiwiaXNzIjoicHViLTAiLCJzdWIiOiJsaW5rLXJlZGlyZWN0In0.5pHpPK8YwpPiKq2akjguLWWUTy0Ahup46VuY6jvod6M?

View this post on the web at https://socialsocialclub.substack.com/p/what-its-actually-like-to-run-social Hey Social Social Club readers 👋. It’s Carmen here swooping in to let you know that today’s newsletter is written by Slate’s co-founder Eric Stark (our resident NFL expert) as we head into the Super Bowl this Sunday. We’ve been having a lot of conversations internally about how good NFL social content is — and how much non-sports social teams could learn from their tactics. I encouraged (read: threatened) Eric to share some anecdotes from his time with the league. Take it away Eric! Wow, thanks Carmen for the warm welcome. Some back story about me is that I’ve worked in social for the 49ers, the Chiefs, and the league itself. Now, through Slate, we work with most NFL teams. Football social content has been a constant in my career for the past 14 years. And with Super Bowl week here, I figured I’d dust off the notebook and peel back the curtain on what it’s actually like to do social media in sports. From the outside, NFL social looks like the dream job: massive audiences, strong cultural relevance, content that people actually care about. And sometimes, it really is that great. But it’s also a job that quietly reshapes your life, your schedule, and how you experience fandom, often in ways you don’t fully understand until you’re deep in it. I started working for the 49ers in July of 2013 as a social media manager. Shortly after I joined, one of my colleagues hosted a barbecue. It was casual. Beers, hot dogs, a backyard hang. That afternoon turned out to be my first real lesson in what it’s like to run social for a team: there is no offseason. The prevailing theme of the hang wasn’t excitement for the upcoming season. It was a half-joking, half-serious realization that our social lives were basically over for the rest of the calendar year. Possibly longer, if the team made a playoff run, which everyone expected. I laughed nervously and looked around. The season doesn’t even start until September, I thought. Training camp couldn’t be that bad. I’d been an NFL fan my whole life, and training camp always felt like a blip. Something you paid a little attention to before getting back to summer. Two weeks later, it was over for me. Weekends were a thing of the past. In NFL social, you can expect six-day weeks and ten-to-twelve-hour days starting in late July. The “offseason” is shorter than people think and packed with tentpole moments that function like mini Super Bowls: the Combine in March, the Draft in April, OTAs in May, minicamp in June, training camp in July, preseason in August, then kickoff in September. Once you’re in it, there’s no time to look back. At the time, I honestly enjoyed it but the burnout came later. Early on, what struck me most was the sheer volume of content. The problem wasn’t finding things to post, it was figuring out what to do with the endless flood of moments. The demand from fans is relentless, and even teams that are relatively well staffed (there are very few of these) end up working late nights just to keep up with a single practice. Another lesson came quickly: winning and losing changes everything. We started the season with a win, then followed it with two tough, unexpected losses. I felt the shift immediately. Winning unlocks creativity. Approvals loosen. The job feels lighter in ways that are hard to quantify, but losing does the opposite. You become the comment section’s punching bag and the internal mood tightens. Risk tolerance disappears. Ideas that felt fun a week earlier suddenly feel unsafe. That year, the 49ers made it one game short of the Super Bowl, and I saw the other side of it. When a team goes on a run, everything opens up. Ideas get greenlit. Audiences devour content. Momentum feeds itself. It’s a content creator’s heaven (long hours aside). The next season flipped that on its head. Operating as a social team in a losing environment is much harder than people realize. The work doesn’t slow down but it gets heavier. Something else becomes clear pretty quickly: football always comes first. Social and marketing are downstream of the football side of the organization. Anything involving players, messaging, or risk flows through a very old-school, conservative PR function and football operations. Approvals can be slow. Ideas that feel obvious from a content perspective can take days of back-and-forth. You can also get texts late at night demanding content be taken down for reasons that feel… questionable. I distinctly remember long internal discussions around posting a “love wins [ https://substack.com/redirect/228f14b2-a5f6-445b-afe2-4579a67f995b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]” message after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. From the outside, it felt like a no-brainer, especially given our identity as San Francisco’s team. Inside the building, it required trust, alignment, and very careful navigation. I learned that building relationships with PR takes time, effort, and more ego-swallowing than you expect. Player access is also far scarcer than people assume. Most of the time, you’re creating without players. When access does open up, it’s brief and unpredictable. That pressure teaches you to be decisive. You don’t get many chances, so you learn how to recognize what actually matters and act quickly when the window opens. The job is also much more than “posting for fans.” NFL social teams support ticket sales, sponsorships, community initiatives, league priorities, and internal stakeholders — often all at once. On its own, that wouldn’t be unique. Every social team deals with supporting the business, not just being creative. What makes sports different is the volume and intensity. You’re already sprinting just to keep up with the content demands and trying to stay creative under pressure. Layering everyone else’s priorities on top of that is where it gets really hard. Game days are controlled chaos. You prepare obsessively for different scenarios, then throw the plan away when the unexpected happens. Posts get rewritten on the fly. Decisions are made in real time with incomplete information, and they play out publicly (so don’t fuck it up or millions will see). It’s stressful, chaotic, and oddly addictive. You get very comfortable operating under pressure. Somewhere along the way, you graduate from fan to superfan because your life is genuinely better when the team wins. The work is more fun. The mood is lighter. Losses hurt more than you expect. The job is more than just a job. There’s also a quieter truth that doesn’t get talked about enough: sports is one of the lowest-paid industries for social media managers, despite driving enormous output and engagement. A big reason is due to the bleak reality that if you won’t do the job at this pay, they can line up 10,000 people that will, happily. That belief shapes compensation more than anyone admits. All of these themes apply across the sports world, not just the NFL. Running social for an NFL team is a dream job. It’s also exhausting, consuming, and underpaid. And yet I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. It shaped how I work, collaborate, and think under pressure. Those lessons helped me start Slate, and I still carry them with me every day. Ultimately, you shape the narrative for a team through social, and in time it shapes you. The Social Social Club Hotline Each week we’re answering questions from folks in the social media community. (Submit yours here [ https://substack.com/redirect/6ee1ca9c-9026-4ba0-92ed-5d3a1e72d87b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] for future newsletters). Today Carmen is tackling the following: Genuine question: I’m stuck in approval hell at a B2B manufacturer and want to find a place that actually lets marketers try things and learn from failures. When you’re evaluating new roles or companies, what signals tell you someone/somewhere is actually built for creative work vs just performing innovation theatre? I got this question in my DMs yesterday, after I published a LinkedIn post [ https://substack.com/redirect/89eb6a85-4cfd-4e5f-9521-f8f9d1fc0957?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] about risk tolerance being baked into our social media strategy at Slate, and I was like, “Wait, can I use this in our advice column??”. So thank you to the generous person who shall remain anonymous but poses a great question. I’m going to start off by saying that I can very much empathize with where you’re at, and how difficult if feels to see social teams [on LinkedIn] highlight all the incredible, creative projects they’re working on while you’re spinning your wheels at a company that doesn’t value any of this. I also want to be mindful of the fact that you’re not asking “How do I get a better job?”, but rather, “How will I know it when I find it?” — and I love that. There is already so much info out there about how to land your dream role, but far fewer resources about sussing out the genuinely fulfilling roles from the buzzy JD’s. My first thought, is that it requires multiple interviews, or better yet, casual conversations that precede formal interviews. Because the initial one, with the recruiter or hiring manager might not be enough to determine the bounds of the social team’s creativity. This is why coffee chats (with no clear agenda) are an excellent, non-transactional way to network, and help to sow seeds that sprout much further down the road. Also, when you’re asked in an interview if you have any questions, use that time strategically! Second order of business would be to research whether you’re replacing someone (definitely talk to them!) or joining a team as additional headcount. This isn’t a rule, but generally speaking teams have more creative freedom and risk tolerance because they’re established and growing, whereas “rockstar” solo SMMs will encounter more red tape. (One of my non-negotiables going into my current role was that I only wanted to join a team. No more solo social!). Lastly, I do genuinely believe we’re headed in the direction of more leadership teams that get social media (and more seats for social within leadership). A ton of my peers who work in social (specifically in B2B) quit their jobs in the past few months, but made successful leaps into new companies that can’t wait to bolster their content in new, creative ways. I find this trend really encouraging. At the end of the day, I’m also a huge advocate for a “heylet’s speak transparently about something that’s hugely important to me” kind of chat, and I think you could make creative autonomy THE deal breaker going into your next role. Ask prospective teams point blank what their ethos is on experimentation and failure, and let their answers (and body language, and social cues) make or break your decision. I’m rooting for you. PS - Any JD that expects you to be chronically online is a no from me 🤷‍♀️👇 Unsubscribe https://substack.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.uTXtwN746s-FLBFOaR1v3I5x81tw7JtltupRRSvj6T4?

View this post on the web at https://socialsocialclub.substack.com/p/managing-social-when-crisis-becomes Yesterday we decided to scrap the topic we had originally been working on for this week’s newsletter. Alex Pretti’s death at the hands of ICE agents ripped across every major social media platform on the weekend, and by the time we met for our Monday morning Marketing stand up, we were all in agreement that talking about anything else felt disingenuous. If your algorithm is anything like mine, in the past 24 hours you will have experienced the bizarre and discordant rhythm of content that only an unthinking and unfeeling formula, completely incapable of reading the online room, will produce. Fatal shooting of Alex Pretti while bystanders scream, swipe. Beckham family drama, swipe. Alex Honnold in a press conference about his Taipei free solo expedition, swipe. GRWM to go to pilates in Soho, swipe. Fatal shooting of Alex Pretti from a different angle, swipe. Thought piece about a cultural recession, swipe. Power outages across the US as storms continue, swipe. Golden Retriever hopping through a snowy sidewalk, swipe. By the time Sunday evening rolled around I had to put down my phone or risk losing my humanity, because it felt disorienting to watch someone die and then move to the next video, as though each of those things required equal attention. I’m not enlightening anyone here, but social media has an unfortunate, minimizing effect on our capacity for empathy, and I did not want to become desensitized. I also know that I (and any of us who work with algorithms) don’t navigate social media like the average user. I’m constantly studying, bracing myself for the chaos of comment threads, logging patterns, and reverse engineering the tactics that made a specific video perform or flop. I spend a lot of time “inside the machine” so to speak, and it bends my brain to think that the stark reality in Minnesota is now available for audiences to consume alongside sponsored posts about meal delivery kits. Or as Charlie Warzel noted last week, “ICE is turning real conflict into viral content [because] when officials record themselves, they become content creators, too. [ https://substack.com/redirect/27abfe39-fde8-4ee3-8a08-8e39bb62ce33?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]” Today, what I want to explore more deeply is the [public-facing] role that social media practitioners play in times of crises, and the systems your social team should absolutely have in place before you need them. The obvious irony for most SMMs is that they often lack the departmental autonomy or status to make company-wide decisions, and yet when the shit hits the fan re: catastrophic breaking news, they’re the ones tasked with publishing swift, pitch-perfect responses. Let’s break our counsel into two sections: What To Do For The Brand I’m going to say the bleak thing here and remind us that terrible atrocities are taking place everywhere, all the time. So there should be consensus among your broader Marketing teams about what constitutes a level 11 adverse event for your brand specifically. Proximity, recency, and magnitude are terms that should be defined internally, and agreed upon at the leadership level. Maybe events that check two of those boxes (i.e. local and talked about at an international level, or within the past 24 hours and on national news broadcasts) get escalated. Come up with a brand-specific Richter scale and decide which earthquakes constitute pauses on social. That brings me to my next point, which is that pausing content is an appropriate response, especially anything comedic in nature, in scenarios or companies where legal clearance would be required to publish written narratives. And appoint a specific person who signs off on the pause. Depending on the magnitude and a wide range of other factors, there’s a good chance some content will still need to go out the door. I don’t need to be the one who gives you permission, but please don’t beat yourself up if this is the reality you’re in. A mantra I’ve repeated personally and publicly is that “social teams don’t make decisions in a vacuum”, and they shouldn’t take the heat for being the messenger. It’s okay to speak up if you feel uncomfortable. Raise concerns to your manager, let your unease be known. I did this yesterday and was met with compassion, and as a result we shifted our strategy for this week. Remember that you are likely the most online person at your company and it’s worth communicating your early knowledge to the team. What To Do For Yourself It’s not normal to absorb the volume and violence of content that we do as Social teams, and in periods of crises we have to exercise sanity-preserving boundaries. I recommend setting some firm screen-time limits on your devices, ditching leisure scrolling altogether, and bricking [ https://substack.com/redirect/be339895-cb2d-4450-85b0-4493637e5370?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] your phone after work. Assume that the digital slot machines will be working as intended and don’t rely on your will-power. Get outside, breathe fresh air, take tech-free walks. Make this a daily non-negotiable and consider it an investment in your mental and emotional well-being. Movement + oxygen are one hell of an antidote. Lean into community. Talk to other folks who work in social or just your regular degular friends IRL. I’m in several private communities and group chats for SMMs (Slate has one too [ https://substack.com/redirect/87da0ff9-55fd-49d5-bd5e-0494e94a06a4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]!) and these are immensely helpful in navigating dark times, getting advice, and feeling much less alone. People are meant to grieve and cope in the company of others. Don’t skimp on this one. Get a little extra sleep. Almost all of us veer too lean on the zzz’s and a well-rested mind is much more stable on an emotional level, but also a I-can-function-at-work level. Put your phone in another room, read a good book, listen to a smutty meditation [ https://substack.com/redirect/9383000f-6945-402f-86f2-32ca30be3665?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] from the Heated Rivalry guys. Whatever floats your boat. The lesson that I constantly relearn in this line in work is that social media is a tool, and tools don’t care who or what uses them for leverage. On weeks like this one, it can be a tough pill to swallow. Unsubscribe https://substack.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.CD96sQFTvAwMMmLst5juCiOetWkvg4Jepy54jk6DIHg?

View this post on the web at https://socialsocialclub.substack.com/p/2016-was-cute-but-dont-make-me-go Yesterday I was in the car with my daughter, driving home from her rock climbing practice, when she piped up randomly from the back seat. “Somebody at school said 2016 is a trend.” I perked up a little, ready to dive in and talk shop, but also curious to hear her take. I tried to play it cool, hide my eagerness a little. On the content front, I had been debating whether I wanted to cover the 2016-as-trend phenomenon, in part because it can be exhausting to witness a trending trend psychoanalyzed everywhere, but also because I wasn’t sure it was meaty enough. The past might appear quaint, and it can be nice to romanticize it in hindsight, but why now? And why the tumultuous 2016 of all years? The more I considered it from the perspective of someone who works in social, rather than someone who simply consumes social, the more relevant it became. And who better to digest that with, than this discerning audience? “Oh interesting,” I answered neutrally, “How would you even define a trend?” I’m never surprised when arbitrary trends surface because algorithms are very good at exposing you to real smorgasbord of the human condition (and I am the valedictorian of screen time), but this one felt sticky for some reason. And if I’m being totally honest, watching it unfold across multiple platforms made me hyper aware of both my age and how long I’ve worked in social, because the gist of almost every video was that 2016 was so long ago, a simpler time when the internet was more fun, and less calculated. “A trend is something that everyone has to do or else they’ll get made fun of,” she replied. Interesting to hear her frame it in the negative. TikTok reported that in the first week of the year, searches for “2016” skyrocketed by 452% on the platform [ https://substack.com/redirect/2b93769d-f579-443b-a3a7-b0e098d2e705?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], which works out to roughly 56 million videos on the topic. Many of them focused on the fashion, music, and aesthetics of the time, yet glossed over what I consider to be THE cataclysmic social media event that defined the year — i.e. Instagram’s decision to shift from a chronological feed, to an algorithmic one. Back then it was just a product update from a thriving tech company, and although it was met with significant user outrage [ https://substack.com/redirect/c5040909-72a4-4d22-85f5-86392430f637?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], none of us could have predicted just how much it would alter the future fabric of our lives (and careers, for those reading this newsletter). For my part, I was working in the beer industry at this time, regularly putting Earlybird or Valencia filters on pics and calling it a day, and I remember how the shift to a black box algorithm felt particularly consequential for small businesses who had unknowingly built entire marketing strategies on the platform. 2016 was a line in the sand, at which point Instagram began to decide which formats, creators, and themes rose to the top of our feeds, effectively saying to us “we think we can build you a feed that you’re going to like more, and you’re going to spend more time on, than if you chose,” to quote Patreon’s founder, Jack Conte [ https://substack.com/redirect/dd1d7b34-85a6-4964-b4d8-2358d0e12121?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]. (And they were right). 2016 was also the year that Instagram: gave their logo a silicon valley glow up, doing away with the antique-leaning brown and beige camera and adopting the orange/pink/purple gradient we’re familiar with today. introduced stories [ https://substack.com/redirect/8241b88a-627b-429e-9f4f-8f98f7c27870?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] (crazy to think of a time that predates these!) launched live videos late in the year and extended video lengths to 60 seconds I’ve previously talked about (in a viral TikTok post [ https://substack.com/redirect/f48684be-1911-4b68-8b9c-221a315c8cb4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] that became my most plagiarized piece of content ever) the two eras that have defined social media thus far — pre and post algorithm — and regularly speculate about what might come next. But I have to remind myself, especially as the 2016 trend swirls with increasing velocity around me, that I experienced the pre-covid, friend-focused, side bang-fuelled online world before, while many of the people posting those 56 million videos have only lived in the after. If anything, this trend illustrates our desire to, as I mentioned last week [ https://substack.com/redirect/9360fe00-024d-439b-9343-6cb7fdc3eb6b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], escape the uncertain, uncomfortable present, but also reinforces the intoxicating effects of nostalgia that we need not be overly critical about (yes, I’m speaking to myself here). Truthfully, when I stopped worrying about feeling old and gaslit, I realized that revisiting the memories of working in social a decade ago only intensified my gratitude for the work I do today (and sent shivers down my spine, don’t make me go back!). I get to analyze cultural trends (see: this entire Substack), write scripts and shoot videos on compelling topics, and contribute to a broader org-wide strategy. Ten years ago I couldn’t even get a seat at the marketing table. It’s relevant to mention that my daughter was born in 2016, so for her this trend is quite literally a lifetime(!!) ago. For me, it’s a reminder that culture, and by default social media, is comically cyclical, and when 2026 starts to trend in 2036, I’ll be even more grey and ready to bask in that imperfect nostalgia too. Here are a few pieces of 2016 related content that made me smile, nod in agreement, or outright lol. Starting off with the lol [ https://substack.com/redirect/b7c3ef99-25b7-4112-9eb1-2ceabb7906a9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]: The inimitable Casey Lewis [ https://substack.com/redirect/c0e6f6f0-c54f-4468-acb2-ced0be0f6cd9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ]always has astute insights: This one comment nailed my cynical take: The Social Social Club Hotline Each week we’re answering (anonymous!) questions from folks in the social media community. (Submit yours here [ https://substack.com/redirect/648613e0-5750-46e9-bcda-9db366e860b3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] for future newsletters). Today our Head of Marketing, Christina Le [ https://substack.com/redirect/f946178c-9807-4e6d-ad1c-628df998945a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], is tackling the following: My approach to writing good social copy starts with knowing the brand’s personality. I know that can sound like a throwaway line, but writing is subjective whether we care to admit that or not. The way a brand sounds is the way it thinks. It’s how it reacts under pressure, how it explains itself when something goes wrong, how it decides what’s worth saying and what isn’t. If you don’t understand that, every caption becomes a woo woo guessing game. I’ve made the mistake of trying to sound like big brands I admired like Duolingo (in it’s prime) and Wendys (because of their disruptive tweeting). It’s easy to fall for TikTok-style writing and mistake cultural fluency for good social. For me, it was uncomfortable as a millennial, but more importantly, it wasn’t true to the brand. It sounded forced. Borrowed tone always sounds forced. You can feel when a brand is performing instead of speaking. Where teams get tripped up is assuming that “writing for social” automatically means internet-speak. Think slang, irony, trend participation. That only works if the rest of your brand talks that way too. When social sounds like one person and your website, product, and customer communications sound like another, the disconnect eventually catches up to you. People aren’t stupid, they can sense it. I’ve met with people who said it doesn’t matter to them, but not every brand as the luck of having a multi personality disorder. If I had to explain my framework for writing social copy in 2026, it would look like this: First, do a real brand exercise. Who are we, actually? If you ask five people in the company and get five different answers, that means there’s work to be done. You’re trying to narrow down the adjectives that describe how the brand behaves, not how it wishes to be perceived. Second, clarify the purpose of social. Yes, the business goal is usually revenue, but that’s not a strategy. Is social here to build trust? To show up for a community? To educate? To make people feel less alone in their work? If the answer is trust, define what that looks like in practice. Do we explain our thinking? Do we avoid hype? Do we say “we don’t know yet” when that’s the truth? Purpose shapes tone more than any witty copy ever will. Third, set guardrails. What are the non-negotiables? What are the hard no’s? How far can we push before it no longer feels like us? A lot of resistance to social copy doesn’t come from bad writing—it comes from a lack of confidence. Will leadership approve this? Will legal get nervous? Trying to crowdsource taste or seek validation from everyone leads to watered-down decisions. Alignment matters. Consensus doesn’t. Someone has to own the voice. Only after all of that do I bring in AI. I don’t think good social is what AI generates for you. Good social comes from knowing what the heck you’re even talking about. AI can help pressure-test ideas, rewrite for clarity, or explore options but it can’t replace good judgment, or context. If you don’t ask the right questions at the right moment, you’ll end up with content that’s hollow. Social turns into a distribution megaphone instead of a strategic function. All of this is iterative. You don’t do it once and move on. Brands evolve, teams and culture change. The work is revisiting and refining without chasing every trend that passes by. At Slate, this philosophy comes from lived experience. We’re a group of people who’ve sat in social roles that were undervalued, under-resourced, and expected to perform in a big way. That history shows up in how we write. We aim to be relatable, non-pretentious, and not salesy for the sake of it. Helpful > clever. Clear > loud. And if something doesn’t serve the people doing the work, we don’t force it. Good social copy isn’t about sounding online. It’s about sounding like the brand you’ve built. Thanks for reading The Social Social Club! Subscribe for free to receive new posts weekly. 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View this post on the web at https://socialsocialclub.substack.com/p/lets-escape-the-present The unspoken rule about social media in late December and early January, is that we do not live in the present time. We reflect backwards on the year that was (i.e. ”my empties for the year”, “my favorite romantasy books of 2025”, “my dating wrapped”) with rose-colored glasses and the cozy vantage point of nostalgia, and predict forwards into the year that will be (i.e. trend reports, 2026 predictions, glow ups, resolutions) with child-like idealism, and as a result our feeds become overrun with aspirational content that doesn’t always feel tethered to reality. It’s not that we turn to social media to immerse ourselves in “the real world”, but to me this style of content has always had a trailers-before-the-main-feature kind of feel, which is to say, entertaining on some level but impeding me from consuming the thing I actually want. Thanks for reading The Social Social Club! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. And yet, in the same breath, I get it. I understand why we bask in this honeymoon period (maybe December 15th-ish to January 15th-ish?) of cherry-picked highlights and would-be oracles predicting future trends because it lets us escape the discomfort and uncertainty of our current condition gestures broadly at everything. The interesting thing about this year’s honeymoon season specifically, is that the 2026 trend predictions seemed to hit a saturation point early. In the first week of January I noticed a growing number of posts about people being sick of the analog movement already. I offered my own criticisms about the vast majority of trend predictions, over on LinkedIn [ https://substack.com/redirect/a86f2581-ff2f-4742-b211-174805c9de5e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] (the TL;DR is that most predictions lack methodology and/or data), and in the comment thread Dalilah Arja raised the astute question on everyone’s minds: Namely, do trend predictions forecast the future? Or do they plant a seed of interest that steers the future in that direction? There’s no real way of knowing. I’m not going to tell you to get on with the show or demand that you resume your roles as memelords just yet. Nostalgia serves a purpose, escaping reality is a coping mechanism, and it’s nice to take a beat before we officially headbutt 2026. So let’s take a look at a few examples of reflective or predictive posts that hit the mark for me… Diet Coke Wrapped [ https://substack.com/redirect/6c403fd0-11fe-4fdb-aa58-bfb6e3c88a94?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] The backdrop? Bland. The lighting? Terrible. The hook? Got me good. This creator’s slide deck isn’t even fully in frame and yet the premise works for obvious reasons. He subverts the “wrapped” theme and uses it to highlight a crutch that so many of us can relate to. Also humor! Boy can humor perform miracles, but especially on social media. Unrealistic new years resolutions [ https://substack.com/redirect/6c403fd0-11fe-4fdb-aa58-bfb6e3c88a94?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] There is a certain kind of poetry in a barely there, non-video TikTok post that really sticks its landing. The bit here is, again, obvious — while everyone else zigs and posts their insufferable, aspirational resolutions, she zags — but it’s a reminder that we don’t need to over-engineer the joke. A few lines of text, a caption that says the quiet part out loud, and great timing can really take you places. (My personal fav here is “solve world peace” 😅) Los Angeles Chargers achievement cake [ http://It’s not fair, but it’s true — pro sports players can often co-opt waning TikTok trends with stupendous success. What’s great about this particular video is not the achievements themselves (though making your bed every day for a year is a feat) but the tiny slivers of vulnerability. The (enormous, six-packed) players seem so childlike, and genuinely proud of their wins off the field. I smiled the whole way through. ] It’s not fair, but it’s true — pro sports players can often co-opt waning TikTok trends with stupendous success. What’s great about this particular video is not the achievements themselves (though making your bed every day for a year is a feat) but the tiny slivers of vulnerability. The (enormous, six-packed) players seem so childlike, and genuinely proud of their wins off the field. I smiled the whole way through. Matthew Prebeg’s Work Wrapped [ https://substack.com/redirect/bfd1ba3e-eb3e-4776-9280-a1f03182a60f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] Matthew is a designer and researcher, which will be evident once you click on this link, and I loved the playful receipt format he used to encapsulate his year — like the check that comes at the end of a meal! I could also see this premise being used in brand social with a lot of success. 2025 flops with Sarah [ https://substack.com/redirect/a203ac03-48e0-43fa-a8c4-b2fd06a0b287?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] This one is a total gem. Sarah is me. I am her. Missing life deadlines (never work!) and facing her most embarrassing moments with an American-sized soda and a smile lays the ground work perfectly. And for the record, self-depreciation mixed with humor is the sharpest sword you can wield on social — you can fight me on this one. The Social Social Club Hotline Each week we’re answering (anonymous!) questions from folks in the social media community. (Submit yours here [ https://substack.com/redirect/f47d1f49-66f4-4dc9-9594-4811ed9cb100?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] for future newsletters). First of all, thanks for submitting your questions to our hotline/advice column for SMMs. I’m really looking forward to digging into these! Second, I’m going to assume you’re asking this Q from the perspective of SMMs who work for a brand, rather themselves (as content creators). I picked this question because it gets at something I think about a lot — the notion of ratios in social media roles. There is a certain level of work-sanctioned scrolling we have to entertain to be good at the job, and of course we have to create content (or delegate to a team that does), but there are also tertiary categories we need to balance, like analysis and touching grass. My feeling, and Jason Keath [ https://substack.com/redirect/3b93a7aa-6897-44db-909c-499535674fb7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ] talked about this in yesterday’s SSC event [ https://substack.com/redirect/7cb5097d-4ed4-4e6e-9d3f-6d92b2e3c4c4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzRiZXZxIn0.26TDO4Ygo5l69NnkPzr2Ax0IIjv-K5IWcmNJKcK8PLY ], is that you have to create systems or intervals to regularly review your saved content. I am not a type A kind of woman, and yet, I maintain a pretty rigorous weekly schedule to look back on and consider everything I’ve saved on TikTok, IG, LinkedIn, Substack, my Notion “idea castle”, and my notes app. Does that sound organized? It’s not 🙃, but I do stay consistent in the practice of reviewing them. There was an ethos that gained popularity last year along the lines of “create more than you consume” but personally, I think that’s nuts 🤷‍♀️. If you made that your mission, you’d be hustling to create content everyday, which in my humblest of opinions sounds terrible. To summarize, my general counsel here is: treat scrolling like research rather than inspo, which means do it actively and save content into specific folders, and then return (and ideally discuss with at least one other person) the things that you’ve saved in a weekly content meeting. Also, my golden rule for creating content is time block it or it won’t happen (ask me how I know). None of this is groundbreaking advice, but I think it protects some of your peace, requires you to pre-empt some level of analysis, and gives you structure. Let me know if you found this helpful, and we’ll see you in your inboxes next week! Thanks for reading The Social Social Club! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Unsubscribe https://substack.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.qQjElc7WM3h7WE41QINgeJMA2ESmHEStqh19lUxD5tg?

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