What Is Your Brand’s Sun, Moon, and Rising Sign?

Featuring an interview with Peyton Dix, freelance social + brand strategist and writer.

When I hinted that I had an interview with Peyton Dix coming out soon, this is what the Link in Bio Discord looked like:

Today is the day!

I first became familiar with Peyton’s work (and brilliant voice) when she was Head of Social at PAPER Magazine. I had never read brand captions that were so human and hilarious and smart. Captions that made you want to screenshot and send to a friend or comment your own quippy rebuttal. She then went on to a role that was created for her (literally) as Special Projects Editor at InStyle Magazine. Next? Global Director of Social at MAC Cosmetics. And today she’s a very busy freelance social + brand strategist and writer.

Our conversation is the perfect follow up to my much-loved copywriting interview with FONZIE. If my talk with FONZIE inspired you to care more about words, this chat with Peyton will show you how to put it all into practice. Let’s get into it.

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Peyton Dix on Social Voice, Hiring for Social Teams, and More

Photo by Davey Adesida

Rachel Karten: Hi! First can you tell me about your current role and any other social (or not!) roles you've had?

Peyton Dix: Currently, I am a freelance social + brand strategist and writer. I’ve worked with brands like HBO, Bumble, Dieux, Old Navy, Amazon Music, Loom, amongst others. I’ve written for publications like Elle, Bustle, W Mag, NY Mag, Teen Vogue, InStyle, Cultured, and Netflix Queue.

Previously, I was the Global Director of Social at MAC Cosmetics where I led a team of designers, creative directed social and digital first campaigns, reshaped older ways of working in social (notoriously the biggest feat in most social jobs lol!), while simultaneously working cohesively with our regional teams and growing the TikTok account by 500K followers.

peytondix

A post shared by @peytondix

Before that I was the Special Projects Editor at InStyle Magazine—a role that was created for me–where I worked across digital, print, video, and ran the social team. In one year I increased traffic from Instagram by over 600%, increased engagement by 200%, and grew the IG audience by over 500K. I also creative directed photoshoots like this very gay one and created InStyle’s video franchises Fan Mail and Let's Unpack That. For the real ones that remember, I kicked off my big girl™ career at PAPER Magazine, where I really found my footing in my work as the Head of Social. I had previously interned there so it felt like a huge step to come back and scale up the way I did. 

I do think it’s important to mention that coupled with all of the aforementioned work, I also do a lot of content creation for brands as a *deep sigh* influencer—yes I am still unlearning the shame around that word but that’s for a different newsletter! I say this because it often gives me the financial freedom to be more decisive about the work I take on and in what capacity, as well as further understand the brand's needs and ways of working. 

dreambabypress

A post shared by @dreambabypress

RK: When I think about all of the brands you've worked on (and having followed them during the time you were there) what stands out is how distinct the voice was. If you had to distill down your brand voice philosophy, what would it be?

PD: Warning: I’m answering your question in 17 different ways. Sorry! Okay but the best advice I ever received (from Khalila Douze when I worked under her at The Outline) was, “how would you share this with a friend?” In this particular instance we were referring to articles I was tweeting out and I often return to this idea when thinking about copy and digital storytelling.

What about this would make me click and even more so pass it on? How does this get someone to go further than a like? How do I create a sense of camaraderie or even intimacy in my copy that reminds the audience there are people behind these big brand handles? How can I elicit a reaction that extends further than passive engagement? (I think of active engagement now as adding to stories, sharing with a friend, and bookmarking for later). So maybe the caption reads a bit more like a text or a hot take, has a seamless (and clear!) CTA, maybe even language that gets the girls fighting in the comments (we love engagement!).

But brand voice for me is all about knowing who you are (or who you want to be), who your audience is, and who you want to invite into the conversation. What’s been super helpful in my career thus far is the type of person people tend to want to speak to is me. And the type of voice brands tend to want to emulate is mine—not me ‘peyton dix’ necessarily but the ‘very online,’ the youthful (for now…), the queer voice or the AAVE of it all (more on this later chile). 

But as I get older and as these platforms and the people on them continue to change (which will always be true!) I find it’s integral for me to keep my little ass ONLINE even in my senior roles. I know that might sound trite, but the more senior people get the less they tend to engage in the weeds of the internet. Get in the trenches when you can. You will have more fun and you’ll be more equipped to know what it is your audience wants from you.

Lastly, hire the people that really have a strong grasp on internetty colloquialisms and trends. I love hiring the people you WANT to be reaching. What better way into those audiences? Let them get you into the group chat. 

RK: What's your process for hiring social pros who "get it"?

PD: LinkedIn is for losers!!! Lemme tell you THAT. Lol jk but seriously, I hardly look for talent in the traditional application-to-candidate pool pipeline. In fact, I never have.

The TikTok host I found for MAC (Sam Yates) was through a friend. A social editor I hired at InStyle (Ana Osorno) I found in my followers after posting about the job opening on my Instagram stories rather than a recruiter. The social editor I hired at PAPER (Taylor Roberts) was a few grades below me in college, we weren’t particularly close then but I just LOVED everything she posted on social. She was (and is!) quick, cutting, clever, hyper-specific and completely unhinged. I hope she sees this.

Analytics, Dash Hudson, general best practices, blah blah you can always teach, but voice is hard to find and hard to hone. As a black queer woman and non media nepo baby (RARE!) traditional avenues of hiring never favored me. I got my first gig at The Outline because of Twitter so it feels important for me to remember that and move mindfully when looking for people to hire.

Not to sit on my soap box but truly, traditional avenues of entering the workforce—especially in media and marketing—are rooted in white supremacy and social media is a powerful tool to democratize that space and bring historically marginalized people to the forefront.

RK: How much of your own personality comes through on the accounts you run? Is it intentional? Unavoidable? Both? 

PD: Absolutely both. I try to avoid it when I can but sometimes it’s impossible. When you spend your whole life running your mouth…whew, it’s hard to pull back! I’ve luckily worked with brands that tend to align with or are aiming to align with my style of comms so it usually feels like a symbiotic relationship.

That being said, I write social copy a lot less in the work I do now (I’m mostly guiding the working teams or helping establish TOV rules, etc.)! I've intentionally made myself less visible from the brands I work with or lead in general because I do think it’s important for the majority of my voice to belong to me and the brand I am building as a freelancer. I also think it’s not always to the brand or the social editor’s benefit to be that close!

Listen, there is no greater relationship than one between a girl and the social account she runs!!!! But I’ve found it healthier to not pour your personhood too far into a brand because not only can it feel like a drastic shift when you move on—which can hurt the brand—but more importantly it becomes so much harder to remove yourself from your work. 

RK: Any brands that you love and feel like are nailing having a unique, interesting voice online?

PD: I love how SSENSE is moving on social media. Aside from their editorial posts which naturally include credits and loftier language, I love how succinct their copy is. They often don’t overcomplicate the deliverable with verbose captions because they already have such a strong visual language. 

But it’s not just the supporting copy that I applaud, it’s the on asset copy that is clean, clear, and clever. The ludicrously capacious bag TikTok will be burned in my brain forever and I didn’t even watch Succession!!! They often find really smart, timely ways to react to cultural moments or tap into a specific internet niche (the nicher the better, too broad is boring!) when it FITS their brand. They don’t just hop on any trends, they engage when there is a clear avenue into the SSENSE story/world they are building. I really think they’re doing fun, consistent, and repeatable (Templates! Franchises! Make them!) content and I really hope they give me a gift card for this plug. Jk. “Jk.”

RK: Any pet peeves you have in the world of social voice and tone?

PD: Not every brand needs to be horny on main. Not every brand needs to be using AAVE. Sometimes you’re just Walgreens, and that’s okay. 

RK: When you're working on the social strategy for a brand, what does your process look like for coming up with voice and tone? Any questions you ask or thought exercises you do?

PD: I like to get hyper specific about “who” the brand is to establish how they might show up online.

What is their sun, moon, and rising sign?

Do they read The Cut?

What does the rest of their FYP look like?

Does the Gone Girl monologue mean anything to them?

Are they in the top 1% of boygenius Spotify listeners and if so, GOD, are they okay??? 

I also think it’s important to not only establish who this person is but what their world looks like, try not to just speak to them but to their group chats. The way brands show up sets the tone. The relationship should be symbiotic though. Use your comment section for feedback on how your audience interacts with your work and how they like to communicate about it—with you and with each other.

RK: Finally, what do you love about working in social media?

PD: There’s no way to say this without sounding annoying as hell, but I fucking love building relationships, thoughtful networks, and communities with people online. It is one of my greatest joys and such a gift to be able to call connection and storytelling the ethos of what I do for a living.

This career has evolved as I have, social—in this new way—didn’t exist when I was in high school. There was nothing for me to point to in terms of what my career path would look like. But I feel proud to be a person that contributed to the shape of language and storytelling online, and maybe even be a person who’s career you can point to in order to prove to your parents you have a real job (I’m still working on convincing mine). 

Rest assured my screen time percentage is [redacted] and sometimes there’s nothing I would rather do more than Serena van der Woodsen my phone BUT! I’ve been able to foster so many meaningful relationships across the globe because of what I do.  I’ve gotten to help amplify both my own work and the work of others in a way that simply wasn’t possible before.

Thanks so much for reading! A few quick links to wrap out this newsletter:

• Come hear me, Jayde Powell, and Peyton Dix speak at Social Media Week!

• If you’re looking for (or hiring for!) a role in social media, check out the Link in Bio Job Board.

• If you want to revisit my FONZIE interview all about copy on social, check it out here. It’s one of my most-read interviews ever.

Finally, you can support free interviews like this one with a paid Link in Bio subscription! More details on that here. I should note it’s likely an educational expense at your company—here’s a template for you to use when asking your manager.

See you next week!