Why Netflix created a finsta
I talked to Hannah Gullixson, Head of Social Marketing at Netflix, about overseeing 550+ handles, "superserving" fandoms, and more.
It’s been a busy few months for Netflix. They just had their largest pre-launch social campaign ever with Wednesday. It was just announced that KPop Demon Hunters is the most popular Netflix film of all time. Between all of that, they got pulled into some Love Island drama—and promptly responded.
For today’s newsletter, I am chatting with Hannah Gullixson, Head of Social & Creator Marketing for US & Canada at Netflix, about how—with so much going on—they keep their social accounts focused and fan-first. As I found out in our interview, Netflix has over 550+ handles across 17 platforms. Oh, and they just launched a new one. A finsta aptly named @Netflix2.
I talk to Hannah about her social media philosophy (“Be where our fans are, and always bring them more of what they love”), tips to increase the shareability of a post, and how they operationalize such a giant social presence. I hope you enjoy!
Disclosure: My husband is a contractor at Netflix but does not work in the social media department.
Rachel Karten: First, can you tell me about your role at Netflix and some of the previous social (or not!) roles you've had?
Hannah Gullixson: I lead our Social and Creator Marketing efforts, overseeing how we show up on social as a global brand for our series, films, and newer initiatives like Netflix House, games, and live events. Prior I led marketing for our Kids and Family, Animation, and ex-US efforts, launching our first local language originals throughout Europe and Latin America including Club de Cuervos, Cable Girls, and Marseille.
Before Netflix, I was at FX Networks, and before that I started my career in Production Design for music videos and commercials. And yes, I’ve been lucky enough to work with Rihanna.
RK: If you had to sum up your social media philosophy, what would it be?
HG: My social media philosophy is simple: Be where our fans are, and always bring them more of what they love—whether that’s a clip that makes them laugh, the moment everyone’s buzzing about, or the next show they’ll binge.
Social is culture in motion, and I’m here for all of it. One scroll through my FYP and you’ll find everything from Loewe’s latest runway to dancing fruit, cleantok hacks to Roblox reenactments. The best content can come from anywhere, and I’m always on the lookout for what’s new, weird, or wonderful.
Before I got into the corporate side, I actually studied sociological theory and trend analysis—which, honestly, is still what I do every day. I’m fascinated by how people react, what grabs their attention, and how our digital habits evolve as platforms change. Especially in entertainment, social media is where you see culture shift in real time—from fancams and off-the-cuff interviews to live red carpet moments. It’s all about meeting fans where they are and staying tapped into what’s next.
RK: Are you able to talk a little bit about how Netflix structures the social media team? There are so many accounts and titles and even a finsta…
HG: Our social presence is massive—over 1.3 billion followers across 17 platforms in 78 countries. To put it in perspective, our channels generate 175 billion organic impressions every year. On TikTok, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn, we’re the number one entertainment brand, hands down.
Because different audiences like different things, we manage 550+ handles across those 17 apps. That covers everything from Strong Black Lead on Instagram, Netflix K Content on TikTok, Netflix Games on Discord and Netflix Brasil on Pinterest, to name just a few.
What sets Netflix Social apart from most other brands is that we aren’t just made up of a team posting to channels—we’re an integral part of the broader marketing org. We manage everything from the creation and execution, to identifying and working with content creators who will speak to our brand, to establishing broader digital and platform partnerships.
Our content strategy is “local for local”—meaning we create shows and films that really connect with audiences in their home countries. To make that happen, we have creative teams worldwide, collaborating with local talent to tell stories that reflect their cultures and interests. We’ve structured our social team the same way. No one can speak to fans in Mexico better than our team in Mexico for example. So while we approach each title from a global perspective, each country has the freedom to decide what’s best for their channels. That’s how we’ve been able to scale up while keeping it authentic for a global audience.
RK: Can we talk about the finsta for a second. What role does an account like that play in the broader strategy?
HG: I’m so excited about our finsta. For me it embodies the ethos and energy of what Netflix social is all about—finding creative and fun new ways to connect to our fans and empowering the team to take risks.
We launched our finsta, @Netflix2, a few months ago as a way to engage with younger audiences on Instagram. We’ve had success reaching these fans through our Whatsapp channel, but noticed that many were DMing us across TikTok and Instagram wanting to connect more with our admin. So we came up with @Netflix2 as a way to create a two way communication channel with these fans while also expanding our brand voice. This is how we started on TikTok nearly five years ago, and it’s helped us become the largest entertainment brand on that platform. At the end of the day, it’s all about staying authentic as a brand, but reaching the audiences where they’re at and delivering what they expect from each platform.
RK: As for the main @Netflix account, there are so many titles that fit under the Netflix umbrella that I can imagine it could be overwhelming to know what to post and when. (A good problem to have!) Do you use viewer data or trends at all to know what might be popping to then inform posting?
HG: Like all of our channels, we see it as a two-way conversation—we listen to what our audiences are saying, and we use our channels to share what’s coming from Netflix.
We are able to move extremely fast in our reactive content—a matter of hours to minutes—and that’s helped us stay in the moment of the cultural conversation.
I’ll also add that we’re not just trying to jump on trends, the key is discerning the right moments for our brand to weigh in. Just last week for example, Love Island’s Huda Mustafa mentioned during the reunion show that she couldn’t spill details because of an NDA she signed with Netflix. We saw the conversation picking up on social that night and quickly leaned in, and followed that up with an official response. The post got a ton of traction, with even Pop Crave and Cosmopolitan taking note.
On a more macro-level, we’re always using audience data and social performance to understand more fundamentally what our fans care about, and this of course informs our overall content strategy.
RK: We know how important shareability is for the health of a post. Any tips to increase that metric? I feel like I always see these split screen text posts shared on friends' IG Stories.
HG: It’s all about dissecting the DNA of your brand or title—what makes this post special? What’s the moment that is going to entertain our audiences and get them talking?
The team at Netflix is so great at anticipating what they think will take off with fans. We want them to see our posts and immediately think, “Yes this is totally me” or DM it to their friends. And part of that is playing with different social formats—like split screen text posts or roundup carousels.
What’s working today will change tomorrow, and ensuring the team is always looking for new ways to tell stories across platforms is how we make sure our content is something people always want to share.
RK: Can you talk a bit about how you decide when to break out a show into its own accounts? What types of questions do you ask when deciding?
HG: There was a moment many years back where everything got their own page. It felt a bit like the Oprah meme—you get a title page! And you get a title page! The internet has evolved. We’ve shifted from a follower graph model to a content graph model. We’ve been building healthy global brand accounts around the world for years, making us the largest streaming brand on social. This really benefits a new show or film we’re looking to promote because it means every title launches with the full force of Netflix social and doesn’t require the lift of building an audience from scratch.
RK: Kind of a tangent but a lot of brands I speak with are thinking about launching their own "shows" on new accounts. In my own research, I've found there can be some algorithmic benefits to more focused accounts that maybe tell one story or feature one series or create a cohesive world. Have you noticed different behaviors or types of engagement on the show accounts vs the Netflix account?
HG: I think that’s one way to win, and definitely one I personally like to discover on my own feed. When you superserve a fandom or particular interest group, you’re going to see consistent engagement and two-way conversation with that group, while as a brand you’re ebbing and flowing between fandoms and leaning into your tone of voice and curation.
At Netflix we complement our brand and title pages with a genre and audience-first approach—from Netflix is a Joke and Netflix Family to Netflix Sports and Netflix Golden. These accounts do exactly that, serve content to focused audiences.
RK: The pre-release campaign for season two (part one) of Wednesday generated 3B owned social impressions. I hear that broke the record for Netflix’s largest pre-launch social campaign ever. I remember seeing a really clever post where it was the trend where it looks like the car is going to hit the person talking but it never does—but it was Wednesday and a hearse. Clever twist. What are some of the most successful social-first posts from that pre-release campaign? Why did they work so well?
HG: Ahh I loved this one too! I can safely say our social team is made up of the biggest Netflix fans I’ve met. They come in each and everyday dreaming up and making what we’d want to see as fans online. Wednesday is a particularly exciting one for us. You’ll probably remember during Season 1, Wednesday’s now-iconic dance moves inspired millions of TikTok recreations, including a rendition from the queen herself. So for Season 2 we knew we had to keep our fans just as excited for Wednesday’s return.
To build anticipation, the team came up with a great idea for ThingTok where we followed Thing as he navigated production giving us a behind the scenes look at production and the cast, while experimenting with the latest internet trends. Overall it’s been a great success. As you called out, it was our biggest pre-launch campaign to date with 3 billion owned impressions, and our top performing post—“Will You Watch My Bestie” at over 250 million views across platforms. And with part two out this week, we’re excited to see what fans will pick up and talk about on social.
RK: Can you bring me into the brainstorming process for that pre-release campaign? How do you balance the right mix of scene clips, social-first videos, and BTS?
HG: Every title and campaign is different, so what may work for Wednesday isn’t going to work for KPop Demon Hunters or something like our upcoming Canelo vs. Crawford live event. But for every campaign our team tackles, it’s a mix of pre-planning and really taking the time to understand what our fans for each title will care about.
And while our pre-release strategy is all about building up excitement among fans for a show, post launch it’s all about giving them the tools and information to make the show their own. Something I’m particularly excited about is our Moments feature, which gives fans the ability to clip and share scenes from their favorite shows. Since launching the feature on our product last year (with new updates to it this week), people have saved Moments from thousands of titles, with the most saved moment so far being the Saja Boys Soda Pop scene from Kpop Demon Hunters.
RK: You've worked at Netflix for 10 years. What are some of the biggest changes you've seen with social in that time, specifically within the world of entertainment? Anything that worked five years ago that doesn't work now?
HG: I think the change for the better has been talent understanding the power of social and their willingness to play in new ways. Fan interest in authentic content isn’t going away, so the more we can share candid and unique talent moments, the better. This is paired with the increasing power of creators to bridge into new pockets of the internet.
The internet is more fragmented and that’s a good thing, but it comes with different challenges and there’s no single social strategy to magically create conversation. It’s about constant experimentation, trusting your team to take risks, and finding new ways to stand out in the ever-changing algorithms. Sometimes the most unexpected ideas are the ones that break through, just look at Cardi B & YOU.
RK: What do you love about working in social media?
HG: The fact that by the time this article is published, something new will have popped up for us to try and ideate around. I’m constantly looking around the corner for what's the next new thing, and how we can find ways to more deeply connect with our audiences.
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Would love to understand the structure of their team and how it all ladders up to her - I imagine with that much creativity going on they must have to have a sort of 'right-brain' 'left-brain' balance of roles - so some people are the ideators and reactors, whilst others are ensuring that all the back end of the accounts are healthy and playing into the appropriate algorithms and updates across platforms.
Fantastic interview! Gosh they publish SO. MUCH. CONTENT. incredible