On Social Media, Everything Old is New Again

Plus why I love Seed's social, a mini interview with DEUX, and more.

Hi everyone! How are we doing? Hope you are all hanging in there. I’m going to try something new today. One of my favorite newsletters Garbage Day sends emails that are a bunch of short essays/thoughts/blurbs about what’s happening online. I like the format a lot and am going to try it for today’s newsletter! If you are a fan, glad to hear it! If you aren’t a fan, we’ll be back to some really great longform interviews soon!

Everything Old is New Again

I am not going to rehash the whole vibe shift discourse, but this concept of a vibe shift in general sparked something for me. What’s happening on TikTok lately feels like a vibe shift. Well, more like a vibe regression. All of the content strategies and themes that were popular when I was first starting in social in 2013, 2014, and 2015 are all of a sudden back. News organizations are once again pivoting to video in an aggressive-sometimes-spammy way and being rewarded, dated hacks like cutting tomatoes between two plastic lids are seen as revolutionary (did you know Tasty has 2M TikTok followers?), and viral challenges which once had their heyday on Facebook and YouTube are back in full force. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised—for TikTok’s younger audience many of these strategies are actually new and fresh. But I wonder if all the mistakes made in those earlier years will replicate themselves once again in this TikTok vibe regression. I feel like nothing good came from social media platforms prioritizing cheap, built-to-go-viral content and given TikTok’s current misinformation problem, I am not feeling hopeful. Until then I’ll be listening to this band Gen Z just discovered called Steely Dan.

280 Characters

The following section is a paid ad. It features an interview with Sabeena Ladha of DEUX. I tried DEUX’s raw cookie dough (it’s vegan, don’t worry!) before this interview and LOVED it. Big fan of the Chocolate Chip flavor. If you’d like to try DEUX, use this link for 20% off.

Describe DEUX’s social strategy in 5 words.

Witty, trending, chaotic, authentic, risky.

The key to a successful influencer strategy is _____.

Creating authentic friendships and relationships with influencers (and their management teams). It is NOT transactional!!!! 

What's the post you're most proud of?

Our “This is too high calorie” post. It went pretty viral (for Instagram), addressed a hot topic that came up on Shark Tank, and drove home the message that we as a company DO NOT support this f*cked narrative. 

The future of social is ______.

Everyone. Is. A. Creator. From the Founder to the manufacturing plant, people want to see it all. Almost like a reality show for your company. 

What are three tips for other entrepreneurs who want to grow their business on social?

Do not outsource to an agency immediately. Get on TikTok ASAP. Don’t be afraid to reach out to larger creators—especially if you have a fun product they would like. 

Finally, when it comes to cookie dough—raw or baked? 

WE LIKE IT RAW, BABY…

Check out DEUX’s IG and TikTok. Again, if you’d like to try DEUX, use this link for 20% off!

A Good Tweet

Bailey Cargill @BaileyCargill

They want a social media manager, guru, wizard, magician, and boss. That's like 5 different jobs. 😅

Pause Your Content, Please

Sheeta Verma 👩🏽‍💻 @sheetaverma

Pause your brand tweets if you have the authority. Now’s not the time. People may not remember the brands that kept quiet but they will remember the ones that talked during this stressful time.

Just a reminder that no one wants to hear from brands during traumatic world events. There is oftentimes no “right way” to respond or post. Just don’t do it! In these situations, trust your gut. Is your personal feed feeling heavy and somber? Does the world really need to hear about a new lipstick launch right now? The answer is almost always that it’s better to not post at all. If management insists on moving ahead with posting, despite a recommendation not to, it helps to find tweets (like the one above) to send along with a list of any brands that have paused their content.

The Brand That Doesn’t Give a Shit About Best Practices

I have always admired Seed on social media. They look at Instagram not as a platform with best practices that must be safely played within, but as a space to experiment and test their wacky ideas. Almost everything they do is the opposite of “optimized”: The captions are essays, their graphics are highly stylized, and there are no faces or personality. But there is originality, a quality many brands unfortunately lack due to the crushing pressure to create posts that fit within the platforms’ recommendations for success. I wish brand’s were rewarded more for originality. For example, Seed has an Instagram account that’s solely dedicated to educating their partners on their product—all courses are smartly saved as Instagram Highlights. They also gamify education in their posts, giving products away for free in exchange for people completing tests and commenting answers.

There are times where, especially scrolling TikTok, I worry that originality and risk is lost on social. When the algorithm favors everyone mimicking Julia Fox saying Uncut Gems over creating something new—where’s the incentive? Accounts like Seed keep me hopeful.

seed

A post shared by Seed (@seed)

Finally

Adam Mosseri @mosseri

It’s a long time coming, but we’re excited to share a new tool that empowers those in the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. Videos on Instagram will now have auto-generated captions, where you have the option to turn them off or on.

The TikTok-Famous Bodega

I loved this video from Priya Krishna at NYT Cooking on Rahim Mohamed’s TikTok-famous bodega in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The account has 2.8M followers (!) and shows off the wild sandwiches they make (bacon, sausage, egg, cheese, marshmallow, + pop tart, for example). I’ve been noticing more and more restaurants with large followings on TikTok, and just how transformative that platform can be for business. 

A Fun Announcement!

*drum roll* INTRODUCING THE LINK IN BIO JOB BOARD! It has all the best jobs in social media, in one handy place. Every week I will update it with new social media job listings from companies that I would be excited to work at. It’s a resource I definitely would have wanted when I was looking for jobs. You can subscribe to it here and stay tuned for more job postings 👀. 

Also, if your company is currently hiring someone for a social media role, you can list that job here! There are two tiers: one gets you on the job board and the other gets you on the job board + dedicated shout out in the newsletter.

I am very excited about it and hope you find it useful!