Yesterday I spoke at Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Summit. During my prep for the panel, I went down a deep dive of how hotels and travel companies are using social media. Many felt stuck in the old era. Posts that think they are owed attention instead of trying to earn attention. One photoshoot, rolled out over a month. Reels that are more focused on brand guidelines than entertaining. I always tell clients, what’s the point of demanding your logo be at the beginning of a video if no one sees the post in the first place?

Of course, I came across some great examples too. Like how the Ritz Paris follows the “your brand’s ordinary is your audience’s extraordinary” framework to a tee—creating short vignettes that show the care they pour into each guest experience. Then there’s the content studio helping Tulsa tell its story through serialized videos, taking the “ethos of a PBS show” and applying it to a destination. I recently received a pitch that SkyBeach Resort in St. Petersburg is working on a microdrama.

One great example I shared on the stage is the subject of today’s newsletter. In the lead up to the Norway vs England World Cup game, the Norwegian Air social team extended a bet to the British Airways social team. Publicly. The caption of the post reads, “If Norway wins, you have to switch to our logo on Instagram on Sunday (one day). And vice versa. Deal?🤝.” It racked up 324K likes. What ensued was a friendly airline rivalry that lasted a week and garnered over 25M views. One person wrote that they don’t watch soccer but they “watched this match just to see who won the bet!”

The final post from the stunt is the social team sitting down to do the Netflix documentary trend with “The social media team preparing to tell the story behind the Norwegian x British Airways bet.” Well, today they are telling that story to Link in Bio. Below I talked to Nora Berntzen, Social Media Specialist at Norwegian, about how it all came together.

Rachel Karten: First, can you tell me a little bit about your role at Norwegian?

Nora Berntzen: I’m a Social Media Specialist, which means I work across pretty much everything organic social. I create content, help shape our strategy, and have a particular responsibility for community management. A lot of my day is spent making sure we’re not just posting content, but actually having conversations with people.

Rachel: How would you describe the overall social strategy for Norwegian?

Nora: Norwegian has always been a brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that’s something we try to reflect across our social channels. Of course, there are certain boxes every airline has to tick—destination inspiration, travel tips, aviation content—but we’re also always looking for opportunities to join conversations people are already having. Newsjacking and cultural moments are a big part of how we think about social.

Rachel: Going into the World Cup, what was your plan? And how did it evolve?

Nora: Like any major event, the World Cup sparked a lot of brainstorming. Normally we’d find a fun angle around “fly with us to the cup,” but this year was trickier since we don’t fly to any of the host countries.

That said, Norway had qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 28 years, so we knew we wanted to celebrate that moment. We created a few football-related posts that performed well, but we didn’t have a grand campaign planned.

Rachel: Let’s talk about the British Airways rivalry. Take me into what the planning process looked like for that! Had you talked to their social team before making the initial bet video?

Nora: Calling it a planning process might be generous...It took about 30 minutes from the initial idea to publishing the first post, and British Airways had no idea we were doing it. That was pretty much how we worked throughout the campaign. We reacted quickly, built on whatever happened next, and didn’t overthink it.

An example is our posts with a tiny teacup. My colleague Emilie and I were filming something completely different at Oslo Airport when we realized we should probably create a follow-up to the bet. The only stereotypically British thing I could think of was tea, so we ran into an airport shop, borrowed the fanciest teacup we could find, convinced a cabin crew member to pose with it, and had the whole thing shot within half an hour.

The only content we actually planned in advance was the outcome of the bet. We created both a winning and a losing version beforehand so we could publish immediately after the final whistle.

Rachel: At what point did you get in touch and make it an actual thing?

Nora: British Airways commented on our very first post with a cheeky “Don’t make bets you can’t win 😉,” so we knew they’d seen it, but we still weren’t sure whether they’d actually accept.

We tried reaching them through comments, Instagram DMs, email, and LinkedIn, but they stayed completely silent. Looking back, I think that was a brilliant move because the anticipation just kept growing in the comments. And BA later confirmed that was their strategy.

Rachel: How did this post of the two social teams exchanging logos IRL come together?

Nora: The day before the match, my colleague Emilie flew to London to hopefully hand over our logo on a memory stick at British Airways’ headquarters, without them knowing. We posted about it on Instagram Stories, and British Airways quickly responded, and put a team together to welcome her with open arms. We shook hands with them on camera, and the bet was on!

Rachel: What did the approval process on your team’s end look like for making it happen?

Nora: We checked in with Norwegian’s Marketing Director, who has the final say on anything involving our logo. His response was: What’s the worst thing that could happen? So we went for it.

Rachel: The logo change created such good “stakes” to build audience investment. What did it feel like actually changing your logo?

Nora: Obviously, we were disappointed that Norway lost. But the reaction to the logo swap completely blew us away.

The match finished around 2 a.m. our time, and I stayed up until 4:30 a.m. replying to comments. After four hours of sleep, I woke up to more than 20,000 new comments. I genuinely couldn’t believe it. I basically spent the rest of the day in bed with my phone and laptop, trying to keep up with the conversation.

Rachel: Turning the viral moment into a promotion is really smart. Are you able to share how it performed?

Nora: I am able to say that we were very happy with the performance of the sale.

Rachel: Overall, how did content shared around the World Cup perform for the airline?

Nora: Overall, the World Cup bet became record breaking for us. Across the campaign we generated 25M views, over 1.5M reactions/likes, and 55K comments, while also seeing significant growth in both followers and brand awareness. And you could add even more to these numbers if you combine the results of our other World Cup-themed posts. But I haven’t come that far yet, haha.

Rachel: What did you learn from this stunt? Any advice you’d give brands that want to try something similar?

Nora: I think people have become incredibly good at spotting when brands are genuinely enjoying themselves versus trying too hard to “go viral.” We never set out thinking this would become a global story, we simply had a cheeky idea and committed to it.

As someone who is responsible for community management, I will never underestimate the value of it. But I think many others did before this campaign. The original post might have started it all, but the comments are where the campaign really came to life. Some of the funniest moments weren’t planned or created by us, they happened because we kept responding and building on what the audience gave us. And luckily, the audience had a good sense of humor!

What I’m scrolling

Sprout Social to cut 20% of workforce as AI-fueled tech layoffs continue. According to the Very Online Survey this year, around 30% of social marketers use the tool. Sending support to the ~260 employees who are impacted.

Everyone is talking about Hailey Bieber in this Gap ad, but I am more focused on the voiceover. It’s so good! Commenters are speculating that it’s Chad Michael Murray...

Threads, Meta’s ‘Twitter killer,’ finds its people. Great piece from The New York Times. “The percentage of users who come to Threads independently, and not through promotions on Instagram or Facebook, is increasing, Meta said, without revealing numbers.”

Kathryn Turner, Director of Product Development at M&S Food, has accumulated 7.8M views across 12 videos. I wrote about her first viral video, which now has 1.5M views, back in May. I have never seen an official M&S Food TikTok video on my FYP, meanwhile every new Kathryn video is in my feed waiting for me. It’s a good case study for the type of habitual viewing that can come from “side quest” accounts that have a throughline of familiarity.

Phoebe Bridgers performed on The Tonight Show with a band of children. Reminds me a bit of Maison Margiela’s Spring/Summer 2026 show at Paris Fashion Week where an orchestra of kids performed.

X tweaked their algorithm to show more content from mutuals. The feedback from users is overwhelmingly positive.

I loved Ali Kriegsman’s investigation into how Phia is generating roughly $1M per month on ShopMy. “Does this $1M a month in “no source” revenue on that card reflect something…else? Is it not Phia’s own affiliate activity at all, but instead, ShopMy creators’ redirected commission, recorded on a ledger? And if so, for how long?”

Meta removes controversial AI feature on Instagram after backlash. Good to know that public pressure still works!

Consumers are sick and tired of hearing about AI all the time. “78% of consumers believe AI makes ads ‘feel less authentic’; the same amount said they find brands ‘cringey’ when over-using AI.” Mood.

I am the target audience for this video of a physical therapist breaking down the posture of a Minion.

There are new roles on the Link in Bio Job Board. Check out the latest from Google, No Kid Hungry, and Dove here.

Thanks so much for reading. If you enjoy free interviews like this one, you can upgrade to a paid Link in Bio subscription. You’ll get weekly strategy newsletters and quarterly trend reports, along with access to the Discord community.

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This isn’t your usual graphs and stats trend report. Think of this like the scribbled notepad version of the trends you’ll eventually end up seeing in six months. It’s like getting early access. A little bit of science and a lot of gut.

The Brand Social Trend Report: Q2 2026 covers topics like:

• The group chat KPI

• My Meta conspiracy theory

• Social AEO confusion

• Rethinking TikTok

• “Kalshi Hell”

• Creator economy inflation

• Stunt accounts

The report features sharp insights from people like Naleen Camara at Amtrak, Sarah Whittle at Unicorn Social, Yosub Kim at Figma, Zach Schiffman at New York Magazine, Dakota Rae Lowe at Recreation, Carmen Vicente at Slate, Kelly Gordon at Night Ventures, Dejaih Smith at Jeopardy, Andrew Downing at CAVA, and Sydni Myers at National Gallery of Art.

If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your free subscription, this is a good one to do it for. You’ll also get access to the Link in Bio Discord, which has been described as “an essential place to be for anyone managing social media.”

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Today Link in Bio contributor Matthew Stasoff is taking over the newsletter. He is the Group Director, Social Strategy and Creative at Anomaly and has spent the past 10+ years shaping how global brands show up online. He also writes my favorite annual strategy deck Social Signals.

Below Matthew dives deep into the current state of community management. He wonders if brands have over-invested in their outbound commenting strategies, and proposes moving from a “banter” approach to a “hero” approach. I have a feeling many of you will be bookmarking his community management matrix. Let’s get into it.

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The comment section. A place that once felt like the cool place to hangout, now feels more like a high school party the parents keep crashing. Why? Brands, of course. With the constant tension of trying to get attention, brands have made a space for the people just another spot to sell. (I am guilty of it too.) And when you multiply that by the dozens of brands who want to jump into the same conversation you can see how the whole thing gets out of hand. It wasn’t always this way and, I’d say for brands looking to stand out, it’s time to go back to the basics.

How did we get here?

In the early days of social media management the key to success for community management was speed of service. People have problems. How quickly can you solve them? And this wasn’t just for show. There were cases to back up speed of service like this one from Twitter in 2015. People were shown to literally pay more for an airline that helped them in under six minutes.

As social media customer service rose in popularity, scale was required. This led to brands outsourcing these interactions and having them live outside of the day-to-day scope of the community manager.

The role of community management today

Today the role, and the space in general, has evolved. Community managers face new responsibilities such as “outbound commenting”—that act of a brand inserting itself into the comments of content not directly connected to the brand.

A post-AI world has also led to new techniques as brands try to up their social search optimization (SSO), like comment bounties and sponsored comments.

The reaction

It can be tough to decode whether the consumer sentiment of the above strategy is positive or negative. On the one hand, these outbound comments continue to rack up likes and engagement. On the other hand, there’s a growing skepticism bubbling up.

In this video from user @queefqueef_, they say, “Walmart isn’t commenting ‘get that bag sis’ to collaborate with you or send you free stuff. They’re commenting for free advertising, and anytime you as a creator engage with their content, you’re giving them an even bigger platform.” Videos like this and this highlight just how aware people have become of this strategy.

Why do I think this matters? Well last year Forrester’s 2025 Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) revealed that US customer experience quality dropped for the fourth consecutive year, hitting an all-time low average of 68.3 out of 100. Combine that with everything else we know about price sensitivity and the general feeling that products are getting worse, you begin to realize customer service can become the big brand advantage. And to take it a step further, I think there’s a way for brands to turn service into entertainment.

Brand banter → Brand hero

Before looking at where we should go I wanted to lay out the four main areas of modern community management, covering everything from customer service to community building. I’d love brands to look at this and ask themselves: What takes up the most of our time? What costs the most? What benefits our customers and the brand?

Table Stakes = Service with a capital S. Your customers have issues, you’re there to solve them. Everyone knows, keeping an existing customer is significantly cheaper and easier than acquiring a new one. We can’t let this style of community management fall by the wayside in pursuit of entertaining comments.

Example: United has been doing this on Twitter and in DMs for ages.

Banter = Outbound comments. Leaving your owned channels and inserting yourself into conversations that are, for the most part, completely unrelated to your brand.

Example: As mentioned, there is clearly an audience who loves banter when it’s done right (unless there’s a secret SMM group with thousands of members just keeping this comment scheme going 👀). For me doing it right means “creating discussions…and building community with [your] most dedicated fans” as Oatly previously mentioned in their interview with Link in Bio.

Good Times = Surprise and delight moments. This is less about service, and more about inserting your brand into a viral moment. It’s not an existing customer but still exemplifies your brand going above and beyond for someone.

Example: P.F. Chang’s “Cake Delivery” in 2025. 100% unrelated to the brand, but after an outbound comment blew up, the chain went the extra mile to literally deliver cakes to a couple of friends who got in over their heads. I’d argue this is more of a content strategy than a community management strategy.

Hero = Acts with an emphasis on service. These are specifically targeted at actual customers and communicate to the recipient and audiences that the brand will go above and beyond. This is your brand taking customer service from URL to IRL.

Example: The infamous North Face Jacket Delivery from 2023. When an unhappy customer posted about their jacket, the brand didn’t just promise to replace it…they had an employee fly it to her in a helicopter. Here are more hero examples from United, Sephora, and Top Golf.

It’s at this point that I want to make clear. A lot of brands are looking for opportunities to get their products into the hands of people with large followings that post about them. This is not what I’m suggesting. Looking to maximize eyes on your product is different from genuinely looking to help an existing customer, despite their following. I actually think brands will serve themselves better by trying to go above and beyond for the everyday customer than another influencer. One hero moment is worth 50 banter moments.

How to implement a brand hero process

Identifying these moments are easy, but how do you create the workflows to deliver on being the hero? For that, I like to put in place three steps:

Vision asks “What do we want to be known for?” It’s not just about excellent service, but identifying moments that connect back to how your brand shows up online. When talking about their helicopter delivery experience, The North Face said “We see our community managers as the digital version of our store guides; helping our customers have a great experience in the outdoors is always our priority.” Can you think of any past moments where your brand could have gone the extra mile to be a brand hero? What would you have done differently?

Process asks “How do we get from idea to execution?” After the famous Stanley Mug fire incident the brand’s President Terence Reilly was asked why most organizations couldn’t respond the way Stanley did within 24 hours. He noted that while it was easy for him to get around red tape as the President, it was an important lesson to all leaders. Which is to say, create a process that minimizes the space between the Community Manager and the person who can say yes.

Permission asks “How are people empowered?” For this I always go back to the Ritz-Carlton’s “Golden Rule” culture. The $2,000 rule at The Ritz-Carlton is a legendary customer service policy that authorizes every single employee, from housekeeping to the front desk, to spend up to $2,000 per guest, per incident, to resolve an issue or create a memorable experience, all without needing managerial approval. Now you may not have $2,000 at your disposal for EVERY customer, but what if you set aside a budget and put it directly into creating those hero moments?

Why it matters

Last year’s 2025 National Customer Rage Study (a real thing) shows customers are feeling an all-time high amount of rage when it comes to customer service. So when it appears a brand cares more about winning in the comments than winning their customers’ loyalty, it’s time for a change.

Brands, people see the lengths you go for influencers. They deserve that treatment too. It doesn’t hurt that in today’s algorithms a customer with 300 followers can get 1M views. So have fun, swing big, and don’t forget helicopter jacket deliveries are only as strong as the scaled customer service that exists behind it.

Thanks so much for reading. If you enjoy free essays like this one, you can upgrade to a paid Link in Bio subscription. You’ll get weekly strategy newsletters and quarterly trend reports, along with access to the Discord community.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you for making this newsletter possible!

Today’s newsletter zooms in on carousels. According to the this year’s Very Online Survey, the format is the type of post performing best for your brand right now. (Yes, even more than short-form video.) I was curious to talk to a brand that has really built their online momentum with the format. I don’t think there’s a better example than the clothing company Nude Project. In 2026 alone, their carousels have garnered over 1M likes, averaging around 25,000 likes per carousel.

I am so excited to share my conversation with the Nude Project’s co-founder and creative director Bruno Casanovas about how the brand thinks about the “rhythm” of a carousel and uses the swipe to “build a more intentional narrative.” If you liked my newsletter about creating a carousel strategy, then I think you’ll really enjoy this interview.

Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter

• How Nude Project creates engaging carousels

• Six types of carousel hooks

• The new TikTok feature I am excited about

• The Minionese singing competition and the role of spectacle in social

• Broadcast Channel takeovers

• Three post formats to try this week

• How to join the Link in Bio Discord

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By now, you’ve probably read the headlines from the annual Cannes Lions International Festival for Creativity. Creators were everywhere. AI was a popular topic. It was hot. I will not be spending much time talking about those things. Instead, I want to share some thoughts on the festival’s relation to social media and why the highlight for me wasn’t found at a fancy beach party but instead in the basement of a convention center.

In partnership with Cannes Lions International Festival for Creativity

I want to take a moment to thank the entire Cannes Lions team for selecting me as an ambassador this year! Link in Bio was born out of the idea of wanting to bring more respect and credibility to the work we do in organic social media. Getting the opportunity to also speak on the *official* programming and present work that essentially preaches that to a room full of execs is a career highlight.

To start, it’s important to make a distinction. There is the Cannes Lions International Festival for Creativity and then there is everything that happens around the Cannes Lions International Festival for Creativity.

The festival is anchored by an awards show paired with official programming of panels, presentations, live judging sessions, and more. Everything that happens around the festival is what you’ve probably seen on Instagram. Yacht parties thrown by ad tech companies called Zip Zap or something. Platforms taking over the entire beach to announce new ways for brands to spend more money with them. Drone shows that spell out “AI” in the sky.

Funny enough, the over-the-top effort from companies trying to get brands to advertise with them had somewhat of the opposite effect on me. It made me even more bullish on the creative work we do in organic social media. The algorithms essentially work like targeting right now—serving up content based on your interests. We’re in a moment where you can have 500 followers and still get 1M views. We know that momentum is built through sharing not boosting. Brave ideas break through. There has never been a better time to invest in organic social media.

I was reminded of this during my presentation at the Cannes Lions B2B Summit with Kendall from Ramp, Ari from Air, and Vin from Creatorbuzz. My favorite slide from Kendall read, “My job is to look for opportunities where creative can provide us with asymmetric upsides. The alpha in doing something weird, wild, and/or creative is that people will share it for free.” She certainly proved that with Ramp’s big stunt with Brian Baumgartner where he processed receipts for over six hours from a livestreamed glass box in the middle of NYC. She shared on the stage that it got 214M views, 4x ROAS, and ~$0 CPM. Kendall’s final point in the presentation was, “You can’t compete with a brand that’s having fun.”

I also loved getting to talk social during the in-between moments of my time in Cannes. I got coffee with Link in Bio reader Candice Beck who is the VP of Brand Engagement at Starbucks. She told me about the brand’s new employee-generated content program with TikTok. They are the first company to pilot a custom Creator Network within TikTok’s Content Suite where they can share briefs and compensate creators through ad revenue sharing. I caught up with Sarah Whittle about going independent during a Yahoo dinner hosted by Emily Sundberg. Mo Said from Mojo Supermarket told me about the agency’s docu-style work with Burger King. The prophecy was fulfilled and I finally met Gary Vaynerchuk. I even happened to fly back to LA next to Erin on Demand. It’s clear organic social teams want to be at Cannes and I hope to see even more official programming dedicated to that work next year.

For me though, the best part of the festival was in a basement. Every year, shortlisted and winning advertising work is displayed underground in the Palais convention center. I spent hours down there, specifically walking up and down the Social & Creator Lions section.

I learned that Gap’s Better in Denim campaign with KATSEYE led to not only 529K TikTok followers in a month but +22% growth in denim sales. I marveled at the Kit Kat heist results, which included that over 155 other brands joined in and created “free KitKat advertising, amplifying the story globally”. (Yes, the chocolate bars were actually stolen and they were awarded a Grand Prix in the PR category for it.) I smirked at Anthropic including a screenshot of a tweet from Sam Altman in their case study. Apple’s Neo rollout with Lil’ Finder Guy on TikTok? 100% organic, 176M views, and the most searched new Mac in history. Oh, and the creative was all done in-house. This Heineken campaign ended up winning the Grand Prix in Social & Creator.

I get asked all the time for agencies that do good social media work, so during one of my multiple laps around I also took note of the groups behind my favorite case studies. VML South Africa worked on this widely-shared Vaseline campaign. BBDO Chicago worked with M&M’s on one of my favorite social videos. CeraVe’s “The New Face of Legs” spot with Kevin Durant was done by OBB BOLDED. Burger King’s “There's A New King And It's You” campaign, which showed up on social with highly engaged videos of the CEO speaking with customers, was done by BarkleyOKRP. Mischief was behind NPR’s curiosity campaign. I made a folder with some of my favorite case studies here, in case you want to read through them.

It’s really easy to get stuck in the whirlwind happening on the ground level of Cannes. Expensive activations to woo brand leaders. The words “authenticity”, “taste”, and “human” thrown around more times than you can count. Creators buzzing about how much money they are making from AI brand deals. But down in the basement, it’s a bit more quiet. Big ideas displayed like a museum exhibition. Clever insights explained with clarity. Hushed conversations with strangers about why something resonated. It made me excited to get back to work.

Thanks so much for reading. If you enjoy free essays like this one, you can upgrade to a paid Link in Bio subscription. You’ll get weekly strategy newsletters and quarterly trend reports, along with access to the Discord community.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you for making this newsletter possible!

A quick note that I’ll be taking next week off. (I am excited to get back to work, but I need a moment to recalibrate.) I’ll be back with the usual Tuesday newsletter on July 7th.

Here’s what I’ve got today:

• Social marketers share the best piece of social media advice they’ve ever received

• Three post formats to try this week

• Why I think Instagram’s next big update is being tested on Threads right now

• Brands are using Reddit to manipulate AI search

• LinkedIn collab posts are coming

• I asked the Guggenheim about this post of them putting Jordyn Woods’ lucky bag in the museum

Read more

The survey was created, run, and analyzed with Mitch Goldstein. All graphics were designed by Bryan Fountain. Paid subscribers can join us in the Link in Bio Discord today to ask us specific questions about the data!

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Platform playbook

In this section we’ll dive into all of the insights around the platforms we post on.

59% of social marketers would choose Instagram if they could only post on one platform for the rest of the year.

Perhaps because change is scary or maybe because the biggest platforms continue to dominate so much of our attention, this is one of the data points that stayed closest to last year’s results. Instagram has the largest majority of responses, with LinkedIn coming in second at 15% and Facebook at 10%. This newsletter has covered before that Facebook continues to be a “sleeper” hit for many brands.

27% of social marketers say that TikTok is the hardest platform to crack.

While that is slightly down from last year’s survey (33%), perhaps more interesting is that a significantly higher percentage of respondents noted that they are having trouble figuring out how to break through on YouTube. Last year, 9% of respondents said that YouTube was the hardest to crack, whereas this year that metric rose to 15%. As you’ll see below, YouTube also rose YoY as a platform respondents consider a “priority”.

Reddit, YouTube Shorts, and Substack rose YoY as platforms social marketers would consider a “priority”.

Like last year, almost 92% of all respondents said that Instagram is a “priority platform” for them. More interesting were the platforms that we saw the largest increases in compared to last year: YouTube Shorts rose 11% since last year’s survey, and while only 8% of social media marketers consider Reddit a priority platform, it’s almost doubled compared to 2025. Substack also grew from 4% to 5% YoY.

We have heard from some marketers that they are being asked to focus on Reddit to try and help increase their brands presence on LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude, with the understanding that many of the "recommendations" those tools give are scraped from Reddit. The rise in YouTube Shorts further solidifies short-form video as a multi-platform format. As many brands continue investing in vertical video, YouTube Shorts is capturing more and more attention alongside standard YouTube formats, and many brands are realizing that the content they’re creating for Reels and TikTok can likely be doing additional work on Shorts as well (much like Senator Warnock’s team’s work on the platform, covered here from earlier this year!) Finally, we’ve seen brands launch on Substack in recent months, like and .

We didn’t track Threads last year so we can’t compare, but we’d venture to guess that would have also increased…

26% of social marketers have launched a new account in the last six months. Of those that launched a new account, the most popular platform was TikTok.

Many noted they were “late”. Right behind was YouTube, YouTube Shorts, and Reddit. It’s likely worth noting that it wasn’t so long ago that there seemed to be a real chance TikTok might actually get banned in the United States. Now that the company’s US arm has been split off, it is possible that more brands decided it was a safer bet to invest resources in.

56% of social marketers said they are moving away from certain platforms. Of those that responded yes, the most common answer was X/Twitter with 32%.

The migration away from the platform formally known as Twitter continues. Those who reported actively leaving the platform mentioned issues around brand safety, moderation, and their audience no longer being active on the platform.

Post performance

In this section we’ll take a look at the post formats and strategies that are driving results.

Like last year, carousels slightly edged out short-form videos as the type of post performing best for your brand right now.

When I spoke with the Instagram team last year, they shared that the two post formats that are most effective for reaching new audiences are Reels and carousels. While I think short-form video is important for growth in today’s algorithm, carousels are the post format with the most visibility opportunities. They show up in the Reels tab if they feature music and also receive multiple ranking chances—slides within your post that your followers didn’t swipe to are sometimes treated as new content and resurfaced on the feed. Another notable stat is that in 2025’s survey, 13% of you said single-image posts were performing best. That number is down to 9% this year.

When I asked “Beyond format, how would you describe the posts that are performing well right now?” there were a few themes that popped up. Behind-the-scenes content that highlights the people and process behind the work. Educational content wrapped up in entertaining ways. Content that is either overtly anti-AI or proves that AI wasn’t used. Serialized concepts and worldbuilding. Tapping into niche subcultures and fandoms. Goofy, humorous memes. One person even shared that they hired a comedy writer to do a workshop with their team which I thought was a genius idea!

Brands are leaning into a “my show is on” mentality.

When asked how the new series is performing, the reviews were mixed. We heard everything from “extremely well” to “middling with brief signs of potential” to “not well”. Many said that it started off strong but then steadily declined. They weren’t able to keep up the momentum. One person said, “First one was great, rest were meh.”

But for those who did see success, they saw a lot of success. I heard anecdotes like “40k followers in 6 months”, “one ep went viral and got us 25K+ followers”, and “90k followers in the span of 2 weeks.” Some of the accounts that have had success mentioned turning an overperforming video into a series. Basically treating a one-off viral video like a pilot and continuing to do the same thing until it’s a “series”.

These are 18 brands with “great social”.

The top mentioned brands were Fishwife, Dunkin, Ffern, Merit, Loewe, PBS, NYC Mayor, National Park Service, Slate, BEÍS, Los Angeles Public Library, Columbus Library, More Perfect Union, Chili’s, Figma, Calm, Brita, and HubSpot. You can see all 438 accounts mentioned here.

We’re starting to lose interest in chasing trends…

19% more respondents were on the “less interested” (responded with a 4 or lower) side of the chart in chasing trends YoY. Anecdotally, it does feel like there are fewer and fewer TikTok audio trends than 2-3 years ago. At the same time, we’re seeing that some of the most successful brands are creating original content that not only performs well but feels more memorable.

When I interviewed Merit’s CMO Aila Morin earlier this year, she shared, “We used to try participating in TikTok trends. My theory though is that why would you even want that to be the content that goes viral? Because it’s probably not the best representation of your brand. And is that what you want people to remember? Not only are we not fast enough for it—nor are we very good at it, to be honest—it’s never really driven anything for us that’s been of value.”

Time, resources, and budget are holding you back from making the content you know would perform.

It’s clear the biggest theme was having the time and bandwidth to make what works. Someone wrote in, “More of my job is *talking about making stuff* rather than *actually making stuff*”. Another person shared, “I just wish we could stop the treadmill for a second to focus on the ‘why’ behind our posts, not just the ‘when’.” Another theme that came up quite a bit was having people willing to be on camera. “Would LOVE to make a serialized content series but we don’t have a ‘video ready’ staff to throw on camera.” A lot of social marketers know that a human face is helpful to grab attention, but are having trouble finding people who want to be that face. Other themes include budget, approval processes, and video skillset.

19% of respondents said they primarily focus on B2B content in their work. 56% of them said they’d choose LinkedIn if they could only post on one platform for the rest of the year.

Here are a few other stats we pulled out about those who work in B2B: 20% of B2B respondents said Instagram is the hardest platform to crack. 73% reported that carousels were the best performing post format. Almost 45% of respondents working on B2B operate as social teams of one. B2B brands like Ramp, HubSpot, and Slate were called out as having “great” social media.

Vibe Check

In this section we’ll cover how social media marketers are feeling right now.

44% of social marketers feel like their boss doesn’t understand social media.

While we heard plenty of stories of supportive teams and bosses who help talent grow and mature, we unfortunately also heard a fair amount of cases where social media teams are still being treated as secondary or afterthoughts to larger marketing initiatives. From either just not “getting it” or understaffing and underresourcing, we heard things like:

• “My job would be easier if leadership had some understanding of social media.”

• “Approvals have to go through our CMO who only cares about aesthetic and not content that actually works to grow accounts.”

• “If leadership doesn’t understand social, but still insists on imprinting on it, you’re doomed.”

59% of social marketers feel like things are better than last year.

In the big picture, overall when we asked on a scale of 1 (Things are worse) to 10 (Things are better) how you feel compared to last year, more social marketers ranked things at an 8 or above. In fact, 62% more people responded with an 8 or higher compared to last year. Our jobs are wild, sometimes stressful, and often chaotic, but they can also be fun, inspiring, and creative.

We did also notice that respondents who said their boss “understands” social media also happened to skew higher on ranking that things overall felt better than last year.

We still need to touch grass.

This is technically down from last year’s average of 7.3 hours, but still. In a profession where we are constantly “professionally logged on”, something we continue to hear from our peers is a want to be able to step away, and why so many of us still swear by devices or apps to lock us out of apps that draw so much of our attention. One person wrote, “I have been so tempted to get one of those Bricks. I’m so close to doing it.”

We are exhausted, overwhelmed, and tired.

Those are the same top three most frequent words from last year. In fact, the words “overwhelmed”, “exhausted”, and “tired” made up 24% of the total answers. Even those who said things were better than last year summarized their overall moods with terms of sheer exhaustion and despair. Some other choice words included “titanic-violins”, “UGHHHHH”, and “cooked”. Not everything was negative though! We also heard “Optimistic”, “Challenged”, and “hungry”.

Final thoughts

As I read through the written answers, there were a lot of ethical concerns about working in social media. Yes, the day-to-day work is challenging but what are the long-term moral implications? One person said, “This job continues to require more and more cognitive dissonance. Not sure how long it will be worth it. But I do it for my team, whom I love.” Another said, “Does my being here, earning a paycheck from this, make me complicit in the societal ills social media contributes to?” One respondent recommended finding a therapist who is at least somewhat online because “it will save a lot of time explaining social media dynamics mid-session”.

With that, also comes questions around if people will even be on social media much longer. One person shared, “I do think that offline is coming sooner than we think. I think social is quickly sinking into ad-infested casino, and user appetites are waning!” Another person said, “I think, as social media managers, we have to recognize that our numbers aren’t going to continue growing forever. The day of social as we know it may be coming to an end. So we have to consider: how do we build community beyond the feed? What does social media look like beyond just these channels?”

I know it’s easy to read through this and feel defeated. I also try to look for the bright spots. 59% of social marketers feel like things are better than last year! As one person noted at the end of their survey responses, “Political issues behind the platforms and AI-generated content make me want to stop working in social media. But brands doubling down on brilliant, episodic content and putting out AI statements gives me hope and weirdly, when the content is good, I love my job more than ever. That tension has been draining.” I agree. It’s a hard, fun, exhausting, exhilarating, demanding, weird, silly, rewarding job. I’m grateful to get to figure it out with all of you.

This is just the first send of many using the data from this survey. More soon on the best advice you’ve ever received, how AI is impacting your role, and the tools that make you better at your job. Until then, if you have any questions about the results we’ve shared so far, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask!

The magic is in the tension of putting overwhelming amounts of effort into what are ultimately low stakes ideas. I learned that they hired NASA engineers to help make a Rube Goldberg machine and created the first video to be shot entirely in zero gravity. In an interview, the lead singer Damian Kulash said, “Really ambitious projects all boil down to the same human urge — that speculative, audacious ball of wonder and curiosity that makes us want to go find the edge of what’s possible.” In a time where we’re being sold a future where AI makes everything is possible, I think people are craving content that pushes up against that. Posts that make you comment “AI could never”.

Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter:

• I talked to RJ Bruni, the director behind some of my favorite social videos, about treating campaigns like short films

• My theory about horizontal videos on Instagram

• Four post formats to try this week

• The food brand that has garnered 100M views in the past 15 days

• What to know about New York’s new AI disclosure legislation

Read more

I called up Lucas in Paris to talk about what most luxury brands get wrong about social media, why he’s grateful for the auto-scroll feature on TikTok, and the importance of gaining internal trust. I hope you enjoy our chat.

Sponsored by Oatly

What I learned about social media at Oatly’s big beverage summit

Last week, I spoke at Aftertaste, a summit from Oatly that explored the intersection of beverage and culture. There was a matcha water fountain! Would you expect anything less from the oat milk brand that calls their internal creative team “The Department of Mind Control”? The best part was that I got to interview The Nitro Bar star (and co-founder) Audrey Finocchiaro. Here are a few of my favorite takeaways from our conversation:

• Creating recurring formats like asking their baristas “What’s the weirdest drink someone has ever ordered?” or “What was the most popular order this weekend?” has allowed the coffee shop to not only build viewership but also retain a dedicated audience. “My show is on” mentality.

• One of Audrey’s biggest social media tips? Multitask while talking to make a video more interesting. That might mean pouring ice in a shaker or walking around. Those actions hook viewers.

• Trends don’t dictate their menu. It has to taste great, first and foremost. The most popular latte they’ve ever sold (and still sell!) is their caramelized banana latte.

I loved getting to chat with Audrey and hear from other speakers about the state of beverage. Thanks to the Oatly team for having me!

Lucas Yiu on advocating for big ideas, marketing that feels real, and having a daily average screen time of 12 hours

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Rachel Karten: How did you get your start in fashion social?

Lucas Yiu: I’m from Hong Kong and moved to Paris seven years ago. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do in fashion but I knew the brands that I liked: Jean Paul Gaultier or Thierry Mugler. I went on LinkedIn and looked up every single person who worked at those places. Eventually the Communications Director at Thierry Mugler said to come to the office to chat. I was later offered a job working in social media and influencer.

Rachel: And this was right around the time that TikTok was becoming mainstream?

Lucas: Five years ago TikTok was quite new for the industry, most of the brands were not on the platform. But it was my job to get to know the different platforms and I found myself really using it. It felt super unique in terms of the style of content and sense of community. I started working on a strategy for it.

At that time, I couldn’t really benchmark other fashion brands since they weren’t on it, so I looked to Duolingo and accounts outside of fashion. I know it sounds common now, but it really was taboo for the luxury industry to be sharing iPhone videos at that time. The brand spent millions of dollars on a shoot for these polished assets, why would you post something filmed on an iPhone? When I suggested that everyone looked at me like I was crazy. But I found that audiences were just so tired and saturated with polished marketing content. That edit that I eventually got approved had something like 40M organic views. The company was like, “Maybe there’s something to this.”

Rachel: That’s always the challenge of working in social media.

Lucas: The most challenging thing about my work is never the idea or execution. It’s always the internal conversations and convincing people to approve something. Sometimes a post is just a vibe and not about a specific strategy. It’s about culture, it’s about feeling, it’s about sense.

Rachel: And after Mugler you started working at Loewe?

Lucas: Yes, I think they were wanting to invest more in their social media. A similar thing happened early on with needing to fight for the content. When we received one of the first posts that I had worked on from a creator, the feedback was essentially like “We love this, it’s funny, but it’s too much. We are not putting it on our page.” I felt so close. I knew it would go viral. I needed them to trust me. So late at night in the office, I talked to my boss and eventually convinced him. I think it got something like 30M views.

In the beginning there were a lot of sign offs and approvals, but eventually I was able to gain their trust.

Rachel: I always say that being good at social media is also learning how to explain low-stakes ideas with high intelligence. Learning to have that confidence is a skill.

Lucas: Exactly.

Rachel: I’d describe Loewe’s social media strategy as extremely online. Are you extremely online?

Lucas: My daily average screen time is around 12 hours. I am so thankful for the auto-scroll function on TikTok. My phone is just basically scrolling all the time, no matter if I’m showering or doing laundry.

Rachel: How were you deciding the creators to work with?

Lucas: It really is just a vibe. There are many creators where we’ll be like “Yeah, this is funny, but it’s not exactly the sense of humor we are targeting.” We often have a lot of discussion in the office whether certain ideas feel right. The truth is, during this process there is a lot of content being killed.

Rachel: You recently started your own consultancy. I’m curious, when brands approach you, what are they usually looking for on social media?

Lucas: Most of them are looking for social content that essentially makes the brand feel more alive. Not just traditional marketing content. They are usually familiar with my previous work and sort of understand what I bring to the table.

I would also say I have to be quite selective with my clients, because sometimes it costs you a lot more to work with a client that doesn’t get it. Most of the people who find me, they actually get it. If they didn’t get it, they probably wouldn’t notice my work in the first place.

Rachel: What do you think luxury brands get wrong about social media?

Lucas: I think a lot of brands are struggling between heritage and social. They want to preserve their image but also understand they need to be on social media, which is a bit more organic and relatable. I’m not saying that they need to do all of their campaigns on an iPhone, but I think when you’re spending that much budget and storytelling on a campaign message, you need to help the audience get there. Use social like a stepping stone.

Something I’ve noticed is that social posts from fashion press and media often perform better than the fashion brand posts. That’s because press and media understand how to capture attention online. Meanwhile the brand is putting their logo in the first three seconds of a video.

What’s the point of having a great beautiful campaign but no one is even seeing it?

Rachel: Look in your crystal ball, what do you think the future of social media looks like?

Lucas: Audiences want marketing to feel real. They don’t want it to be staged or polished. Craft is still super important, but finding ways to show it in a more organic way. More brands will include fun in their social strategies.

What I’m scrolling

GQ’s clip of A$AP Rocky saying “I ain’t no Knicks fan, I am a Knick” has 5M views. I asked Sasha Mutchnik, GQ’s Senior Director of Social Media, about the on-the-ground reporting she’s been doing. She shared, “For me, personally, the best work happens outside. When there’s something big and amorphous and chaotic, my instinct is always to just hone in on individual stories. They’ll help get to the granular details, they’ll make things personal. No one knows how to process a mob. But a mob is made up of people, and some of those people are great on camera.”

Harris Alterman and Dave Ross put up fake tech ads in the subway. 2.3M views!

Internal LinkedIn docs reveal the new features it’s cooking up. Business Insider viewed internal strategy documents and shared, “[LinkedIn] plans to roll out a dealmaking marketplace to connect creators with brands for sponsored posts. It’s also working on a new system that lets users make one-time purchases to buy ‘experiences’ from creators, like a paid advice session.”

I spoke with Ed Elson about the influencer economy. My take is that line culture has always existed. I waited an hour for Cronuts in 2013! Time is a circle!

I feel like we’re going to see brands hire sketch artists to document their events. Adam Faze shared his post here, then a NY Tech Week party did it here.

J.Crew hosting a camp-themed brand trip immediately after rolling out their camp-themed campaign is very smart. It’s a good example of Matthew Stasoff’s point about building multiple on-ramps to bring people into a campaign’s world.

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced they are bringing the Your Algorithm feature to the main feed. Users can essentially tweak the topics they want recommended. The feature is marketed as a way to bring back more “agency” to your scroll, but I’m not sure if users really appreciate a “solution” to a problem that they perceive Instagram as the creator of. He also said modifying topics is just the start and they are “actively working on supporting requests for people, different moods or vibes, content types, and more.”

Brands are participating in the viral food jutsu trend. Figma here and Costco here. Want to try it? Here’s a tutorial.

YouTube has surpassed Netflix in viewership. Lucas Shaw recently reported this in his newsletter Screentime. YouTube’s most active users are between the ages of 18 and 24.

Your brand should hire Mrs Waffle to make a jingle for you. I am partial to this “aru-gala” video.

There are new roles added every day to the Link in Bio Job Board. Check out the latest from Sephora, Google, and Air here.

Thanks so much for reading. If you enjoy free interviews like this one, you can upgrade to a paid Link in Bio subscription. You’ll get weekly strategy newsletters and quarterly trend reports, along with access to the Discord community.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you for making this newsletter possible!

This weekend I went to the Los Angeles premiere of Keep The Meter Running. and Adam Faze took the premise of their immensely popular Instagram Reels show and turned it into 20-minute YouTube episodes built to watch on a television. Or, in our case, a packed theater. The show is excellent. In a time where every media company is trying to package videos into the quick bites, Keep The Meter Running is a feast.

I asked Adam about why they are investing in long-form video. He told me, “For Keep The Meter Running, the story we wanted to tell was simply not possible as a short form show. There’s a limit to the depth of a minute and a half long video. We didn’t want to stay at the surface.” He went on to say, “I’ve never before experienced this level of pride for anything I’ve ever worked on in the short form world. And part of that is because in the short form world, your only form of validation is virality. There are videos I’ve made over the years that I loved but posted to 10K views and suddenly I felt like an immense failure. I was proud to have my name on this season of Keep The Meter Running before we ever pressed publish.”

Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter:

• Five social media professionals share the role they’d hire for first if they were building out a social team

• I talked to HubSpot about their very good campaign with Kyle Cooke

• Four post formats to try this week

• The account that gained 455K followers in four days

• Balenciaga’s burner account

• How to join the Link in Bio Discord group

Read more

In a recent essay, I wrote about how participation is the biggest sign that something is breaking through. I know there’s momentum when content is being made in comment sections and on personal accounts. Content about the content. Obsession (and the marketing behind it) understood this well. Billboards that made you want to snap a photo. Products that made you want to share a review online. A theater experience that made you want to post a “before” and “after”. And, of course, success that made people want to theorize the mechanics behind it. That’s good marketing too.

Instead of contributing to the influx of assumptions, I figured I’d go straight to the source. I reached out to Focus Features to learn more about the marketing strategy for Obsession and what the collaboration with filmmaker Curry Barker looked like.

Below Jason Cassidy, vice chairman of Focus Features, talks about the role FOMO plays in movie marketing, how to get people in theaters, and why it’s important to let fans take ownership.

Rachel Karten: First, congratulations on the success of Obsession. I am curious to hear about the first time you watched the movie. What was your reaction? What marketing opportunities did you immediately see?

Jason Cassidy: Thank you! It’s been an incredible ride, and we’re thrilled for Curry and the entire team. Like everyone around the world, the first time we saw the film, we were literally obsessed.

From a marketing perspective, the film was our greatest asset and had a great relatable hook with a fresh take on the idea of “be careful what you wish for.”

When we sat down with Curry to talk about the campaign we talked about everything from teasers to popcorn tins and, perhaps most importantly, bringing the now-infamous One Wish Willow to life as a real product that fans could actually own.

RK: You created a lot of intrigue early on by selling the One Wish Willow and putting up an interactive billboard. It was really smart. Marketing a horror movie can be difficult because you don’t want to give away too much. How did you approach building excitement leading up to the release?

JC: One of the things that made Obsession such a gift from a marketing perspective was how much in-world material with which we had to work with. From day one, the goal was to make audiences feel like they were stepping into Curry Barker’s nightmare vision before they ever bought a ticket.

That’s where ideas like the billboards, the text line, and the One Wish Willow really came alive. Nikki is such a compelling character that we knew people would want to engage with her. The text line, in particular, allowed us to extend the experience beyond the screen and create an ongoing relationship between Nikki and the audience. She could remind them to buy tickets, follow her on Letterboxd, listen to her Spotify playlists, and, of course, tell them how much she missed or loved them. It transformed marketing from a message into an experience.

RK: Curry Barker and his YouTube channel that’s a bad idea both have large, dedicated social media followings with strong instincts on how to promote their own work. How did you involve them in the marketing strategy?

JC: Curry was a true collaborator from the very beginning, and his fans were top of mind throughout the campaign, as were the Blumhouse, Focus Insiders, and That’s a Bad Idea fans.

We talked from the onset about giving out bite sized nuggets of material that didn’t give much away and made the audience lean in. At our inaugural FocusFest we hosted a midnight special screening of Obsession that Curry introduced and his fans turned out in droves for. We also quickly put a teaser trailer on Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 to tap into that existing audience.

The key was making sure every touchpoint felt authentic. Audiences are too smart and know when they are being marketed to.

RK: I loved this video in the lead up. It reminded me of the Paranormal Activity ads, which really sold the theater experience. I’ve been thinking a lot about how movie marketing might need to look different than movie theater marketing. Marketing that makes you actually want to see something on a big screen, surrounded by other people. How do you think about using marketing to actually drive theater attendance?

JC: Eventize, eventize, eventize. In today’s world, we’re competing with everyone’s phones and couches, so it’s essential to deliver a theatrical experience they feel like they absolutely can’t miss.

RK: Opening weekend was all over my feed. Videos showing someone throwing up in the theater (good marketing for a horror movie!) and amazing Twitter reviews. It’s the type of word-of-mouth marketing you can’t manufacture. Were you surprised by that momentum? How did you build on it?

JC: As blown away as we were when we first saw the film, we were thrilled to see audiences respond as passionately as we did and the amazing critical response with an outstanding 96% on Rotten Tomatoes helped propel the momentum. It has been so wild to watch the film defy the natural laws of box office week after week.

Leading up to opening, we worked to create as many shareable moments as possible because today’s audiences are incredibly savvy. They want to feel like they are in on “it,” and have a sense of ownership. From Nikki’s handwritten sticky notes placed on theater bathroom mirrors to One Wish Willow vending machines popping up in lobbies, every activation was meant to pull audiences deeper into the world of the film.

The most exciting part was watching fans take ownership of the movie and give it a life of its own outside of the theater. We started seeing “One Wish Willow Gone Wrong” TikToks, fan and nail art, memes and more explode online in a way we never imagined. The best viral moments can’t be manufactured; they happen when people genuinely connect with the material.

RK: Ticket sales increased 39% in weekend two. Everyone on social media is posting their theories about why. What do you attribute it to?

JC: It comes down to three things: Obsession is a genuinely great film, has incredible word-of-mouth, and there is a very real sense of FOMO around it. Once a movie becomes part of the cultural conversation, people want to see for themselves what everyone is talking about.

When audiences have a great experience, they don’t just tell their friends to go see it, they bring them back to the theater and watch them experience it for themselves, turning it into an unmissable event. Curry’s fans, Blumhouse’s fans, and horror fans certainly added fuel to that fire.

RK: What should marketers take away from the massive success of Obsession?

JC: The biggest takeaway is engaging fans with authentic, memorable, and sharable moments every step of the way that gives audiences something to own, helping the film cut through and become part of the culture. And lucky for us, audiences are Obsessed.

Check out the Link in Bio Job Board

The Link in Bio Job Board features all of the best social media roles in one place, updated daily. Right now there are roles from places like Stripe, Apple, Graza, and more.

If you work for a brand that’s hiring within social media, this job board is for you too. Post your job listings to get in front of talented social media marketers. You can find it here.

Thanks so much for reading. If you enjoy free interviews like this one, you can upgrade to a paid Link in Bio subscription. You’ll get weekly strategy newsletters and quarterly trend reports, along with access to the Discord community.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you for making this newsletter possible!

Speaking of, I just went through the responses to the question, “In one word, how would you describe the general sentiment among your social team right now?” The top three words were overwhelmed, tired, and exhausted—which happen to be the exact same three most-mentioned words from last year’s survey. Yikes. Full report coming soon.

Today’s newsletter features fascinating YouTube insights from Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock’s team. At the beginning of the year, the Senator’s YouTube was averaging around 7K views per month. Today it’s averaging 1M. The advice is relevant for politicians, brands, and anyone curious about how to grow on YouTube right now.

Here’s what’s inside today’s newsletter:

• Tips for growing on YouTube

• The type of creator more brands should partner with

• MERIT’s CMO on why they launched a Substack

• Four post formats to try this week

• Should your brand purchase Instagram Plus?

Read more

What’s left unsaid leaves room for people to imagine. To superimpose themselves into the story. To build layers of lore. That way, by the time Backrooms reaches me—which it only did a few months ago—I have textbooks worth of knowledge to catch up on. Now I’m in their world too. Mystery is the best marketing.

“People want to be at the start of something. That’s our urge to be a part of the meta-narrative.”

I often get asked what it means to break through in culture. We used to look to views. Now, I’d argue it’s participation. When I study the most-watched videos on TikTok every month, I’m always surprised at how few actually broke through culturally. I know something is resonating today when the more interesting content is being made in comments sections and on personal accounts. Content about the content. The “red flats queen” video from the Met Gala isn’t what made the moment break through. It was the speculation. Who is she? Where does she work? What’s going on?

In a conversation with Colin and Samir, creator Anthony Po talked about how the most crucial piece of his stunt accounts like Cheeseball Man and John Chungus is to start it from scratch on a new page. He says, “People want to be at the start of something. That’s our urge to be a part of the meta-narrative.” That urge fuels participation. Anthony knew John Chungus had momentum not when the views went up, but when fan edits rolled in.

That part about being “at the start of something” is important. There’s social currency to telling your friend about a funny video before their own algorithm does. It’s getting harder and harder to do. A few days ago I came across a brilliant Reel titled Anatomy of a Sheep. It had only 1,000 likes and the creator had less than 2,000 followers. I got the same feeling as when I was a teen and first heard a Coconut Records song or watched Blue Velvet. That euphoria of personal discovery that makes you want to fall down a wormhole into fandom. I thought I was at the start of it. The next day the video had 100K likes.

In a recent article by in Vogue Business, she writes, “As artificial intelligence accelerates replication, influencer culture reaches saturation, and global crisis seeps into the consumer consciousness, the industry’s reliance on scale as a proxy for value is losing traction.” She goes on to say, “This increasingly means brands trading spectacle for something harder to manufacture: meaning and connection, built through human relationships and stories that feel grounded in lived experience rather than engineered for scale.”

Amy talks about how luxury fashion brands are tapping into their own history as meta-narratives. Simon Porte Jacquemus naming his grandmother as the brand’s first ambassador and Jonathan Anderson inviting Paulette Boncoure, an atelier artisan who started working at Dior in 1947, to the show. The post sharing the video of Paulette arriving has over 50K likes.

Denny’s case study

13 years ago, a video of the band Live Without performing inside a Denny’s got 5.3M views on YouTube. A phrase from it—“What the fuck is up, Denny’s?!”—stuck. The conversation around it stayed active in the years since, with accounts celebrating its anniversary and multiple Reddit threads.

Last week, Denny’s finally collaborated with the the band. The video has 3M views across platforms. A wink at the existing fandom, an invitation for a new one.

I had never seen the original video. But the web of super fans who were excited about the collab reverberated across the internet and right into my feed. I went down that same deep dive I did for Backrooms. Now I’m in their world too.

Below I spoke to the Sam Ellis, Head of Social at Denny’s, about the decision to finally lean in and why he trusted the audience would get it.

Rachel Karten: Can you take me into the early stages of the idea? Why was now the right time for Denny’s to reference this viral video?

Sam Ellis: I joined Denny’s just over a year ago and my first question was: “Why haven’t we reengaged the WTF moment?”

Doing what you do, you probably remember Denny’s was one of the first brands to really embrace social media in a distinctive way (our Tumblr era, as it were) and, over the past year or so, we’ve been intentionally reconnecting with that DNA and leaning back into a more social-first approach to marketing.

That approach is spearheaded by one simple idea: people want entertainment, not ads. And what’s more entertaining than “What the F#$@ is up, Denny’s?” So, once we solidified that strategy, we picked up the phone, called the band, and the rest is history.

Rachel: Were you at all worried about people recognizing the reference? I like how the teaser served as a reminder.

Sam: I think we trusted the nature of social media on this one. Every time we’ve even nodded to this moment it’s done big numbers on social so we felt confident if we teed this up correctly, the algorithm would do its thing and make sure it was put in front of the fans with whom it would resonate most.

Still, to your point, we’re always wary of being too “inside baseball” and needed to ensure even those with a vague awareness were brought along for the ride. So the teaser, including the original clip in the first few seconds of the video, etc.—those pieces were super critical.

Rachel: I loved the announcement video. Can you share some of the creative decisions made when creating it? For example, I thought it was smart to show the original video in YouTube UI up top to really bring people in.

Sam: First, I have to give credit to our director Matt Zolly because we charged him with a tough task—revive this moment in a fun interesting way while incorporating a product without over-commercializing it. Like I said, people want entertainment, not ads, but especially given this audience and the respect they deserve, we had to be mindful to not turn it into a whole corporate branded thing. Certainly, we’re always trying to sell more burgers and pancakes but that was far from our primary goal here.

Matt absolutely nailed that balance and was also super collaborative and open to ideas. As for creative decisions, including the original clip in the first few seconds was a brand-side note but the food fight was all Zolly! The burger-to-the-face shot is currently my phone background.

Rachel: Are you able to share any numbers that point to the success?

Sam: Absolutely. Statistically, this has already been our most successful social campaign of all time, with nearly 10M social impressions, a million engagements, and an Engagement Rate of 13.16% in the first few days alone.

For comparison, on Instagram the flagship video currently sits at 547K engagements, making it our most successful Instagram post of all time (paid or organic). Second place has 216K engagements.

And my favorite part—this was entirely organic. Not a single dollar of media weight.

Rachel: Link in Bio contributor Matthew Stasoff quote tweeted the video with “explore your lore”. Do you think more brands should explore their lore?

Sam: We’re proud of this campaign. We worked hard and feel it’s a tremendous accomplishment. But at the same time, this was a gift from the zeitgeist. How many brands have a moment like this woven into their history? Something culture decided was cool and interesting about you and you didn’t even have to buy it or ask for it. When something like that gets dropped in your lap, doing something about it shouldn’t be optional. You just have to do it right. So yes, brands should absolutely explore their lore. Find what people already dig about you and find a way to amplify it in an interesting, unexpected way.

Mystery requires trust

As I was writing this, the musician Role Model created an account called Chuck Timely. A new alter ego unlocked. It is on that account, not his main one with 1.2M followers, that he teased his new single. The stunt has resulted in Reddit threads asking for “theories” on it, TikTok merch unboxings, and easter egg comment sections. What was left unsaid was immediately filled in by his audience. That’s how momentum is built on social now.

Creating mystery requires trust. Trusting that your audience will “get it”. Unfortunately, many brands optimize themselves out of that. They give away the product in the teaser. Use the ending as a hook. Over-explain the concept. It’s why we get Super Bowl commercials with press releases one month before the game.

In a recent interview, Obsession director-writer Curry Baker said, “YouTube taught me that a modern horror audience is really smart. I would do [my YouTube short films] and cross my fingers and hope people pick up on these small things, and you bet they’ll pick up on things you didn’t even intend. You learn that people are actually very smart, so let’s not treat them like they’re dumb.”

It’s good advice for horror directors. It’s good advice for brands. Approach your social media strategy with an assumption that your audience is intelligent. The rest will follow.

Thanks so much for reading. If you enjoy free essays like this one, you can upgrade to a paid Link in Bio subscription. You’ll get weekly strategy newsletters and quarterly trend reports, along with access to the Discord community.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you for making this newsletter possible!

Finally, there are new roles added every day to the Link in Bio Job Board. Check out the latest from Dôen, Sonos, and Raising Cane's here.

In today’s newsletter I am checking back in with Little Joy, a small coffee shop in Northfield, MN that has built a dedicated following through a serialized approach to social media. I first spoke to the shop’s owner Cody Larson almost a year ago, which I covered in this newsletter. I often reference this quote from it: “Social media is replacing television. And just like in television, there’s the shows you tune-in to watch and there’s the commercials you suffer through. Stop making commercials. Be the show.”

It’s a conversation that has really stuck with me, so I was delighted to see the coffee shop making headlines recently for posting a video (4M views!) giving away the recipe for their raspberry danish latte. It resulted in over 600 coffee shops around the world serving it too. I wanted to catch up with Cody to see how things were going since we last spoke. Below we talk about the raspberry danish moment, posting less but getting more reach, and turning negative comments into content.

Here’s what else is inside:

• Thoughts on a “less is more but harder” philosophy

• The legality of clipping

• Three post formats to try this week

• Why brands are using ShopMy for product development

• The creative agency making some of my favorite social videos right now

Read more

Below Matthew explores campaign on-ramps, one of my favorite frameworks from the 2025 Social Signals deck. It centers around an important tension: social media algorithms no longer show posts “in order”, so why do we still roll out campaigns as if they do? Matthew’s solution is on-ramps. Think of them like chronology-agnostic tactics that bring people into a campaign. Below Matthew shares more on how to create on-ramps and walks us through a stellar case study from the golf brand Malbon.

The chronological campaign framework

Advertising has always been defined by storytelling. Crafting a memorable campaign that doesn’t just stick with someone, but reshapes how they look at the brand and sometimes even the world.

It’s natural then that storytelling would beget a campaign framework that follows suit in the same linear way. A defined beginning (tease), a middle (announce), and end (sustain).

The truth is, with the way algorithms work now, the majority of people aren’t going to see the orchestrated content plan you put together. No matter how damn good it is. That’s because the flow of information has lost all sense of time. It’s why you’ll see a comment on a creator’s post like “anyone else come to part 1 after seeing part 12?”

Algorithms disrupted timelines

Algorithms have collapsed time, prioritizing relevance over post date. The below image, adapted from creator @Mike_Sunday, highlights how people might experience your campaign now.

It’s why putting together your brand’s rollout for the next campaign is important but also fruitless to some degree.

A fun exercise could become: Make your rollout deck and then shuffle it. What do you see first? Is it enticing? Does it make you want to see more? If it leaves you feeling nothing, perhaps it doesn’t belong.

Why your campaign needs more on-ramps

What excites me about this truth is how it forces me to dive deeper into the core idea to explore new ways of bringing a campaign to life. To effectively look past the storytelling, and consider on-ramps. Think of them like chronology-agnostic tactics that bring people in.

Below is what the traditional campaign storytelling arc might look like with more on-ramps. The goal of these tactics are to ultimately increase your campaign’s surface area online.

Stories consider a protagonist. On-ramps consider multiple characters.

Stories have an arc and an ending. On-ramps go on FOR-EV-ER.

Stories require context. On-ramps understand a piece of content 10 days into the campaign might be someone’s first exposure.

Case Study: Malbon Home

During The Masters in April, golf clothing brand Malbon created Malbon Home. A place for their community to gather, programmed with activities throughout the week. Connor Smith, brand marketer at Malbon, wrote, “We heard it over and over, people who never get a seat at the Masters found one here. For a week, they felt like they belonged.”

So how did they roll it out on social? By creating lots of on-ramps.

Malbon launched a dedicated account, @malbonhome, for the experience. It’s an on-ramp to the hero brand @malbon as well as an intriguing distinction for existing and new audiences. According to Smith, they took the Malbon Home Instagram from 0 to 15K followers in just five days. They posted around 300 pieces of content and garnered 7M organic views.

The brand worked with Creative Director Alex Garcia, a creator with 185K followers, on the campaign. Not only was he deeply involved behind the scenes, but he also provided a megaphone for all the thinking through explainer posts, BTS, and more.

The brand set up multiple “sets” throughout the home so that they could capture standalone “series”. One set allowed them to capture their Letters from Augusta series. They filmed 25 “episodes” in one day. Here’s Alex explaining how they operationalized that.

Founder Stephen Malbon (97K followers) recorded his popular Par 3 Podcast live from the home. Clips from the podcast were disseminated on Instagram.

The brand flew influencers like Mister Mort out for it. They made a video about the “making of” the experience. There were giveaways throughout. It goes on and on and on. Importantly, no matter where you might have been dropped into the campaign, you’d be intrigued to see more.

The new content ecosystem

As audiences stop consuming content in linear ways, brands will need to find ways to reach them in non-linear ways. Diverse touch points that find connection points. On-ramps bring people in—no matter where in the campaign rollout they tune in—and make them want to stay awhile.

Check out the Link in Bio Job Board

The Link in Bio Job Board features all of the best social media roles in one place, updated daily. Right now there are roles from places like The New York Times, Disney, Rivian, Tower 28, FIGS, and more. If you work for a brand that’s hiring within social media, this job board is for you too. Post your job listings to get in front of talented social media marketers. Check it out here!

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In a survey last year, I asked “What is one brand account you think exemplifies great social?”. The result was a fascinating document with over 300 accounts.

I wondered how the list might shift year-over-year, so I asked the question again in this year’s Very Online Survey. I just closed the survey on Friday, but was so curious about the changes that I spent the weekend organizing and sorting the responses.

Below you’ll find a link to the list of the 438 accounts mentioned. I also pulled out some of the most interesting data points. Like the brand that unseated Duolingo for the most mentions. The politician who made it into the top 10. The B2B brands that multiple respondents called out. The surprising role Threads played.

Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter:

• Brands with great social, according to you

• A document with all of the responses, that you can sort by industry

• Three post formats to try this week

• Plus the clothing brand helping fund a documentary, my thoughts on Instants, what it’s like doing social media for a fruit, and more

Read more

The result of that tension—a brand going against expected industry norms—leads to moments of delight. Oftentimes, it’s that feeling people are reacting to when they say they love a brand’s social media.

Loewe’s tension is a high-end luxury brand partnering with extremely online content creators. Ramp’s tension is a serious B2B fintech company consistently pulling off wacky stunts. Ben & Jerry’s tension is a playful ice cream company speaking out against injustice. The Los Angeles Public Library’s tension is a 150-year-old institution making thorough Charli XCX explainers. It’s not that these tactics are entirely new, it’s that these brands are showing up in a way that no one has seen in the context of their industries.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a video from the Milwaukee Brewers celebrating opening weekend. Instead of the hype up edit I expected, it felt closer to an old Hollywood movie. It immediately caught my attention. On Twitter, the team’s video editor pointed out that the title card of the video was inspired by the 1953 movie Roman Holiday starring Audrey Hepburn. While I have certainly noticed more brands sharing cinematic videos on social media, it’s an approach that feels novel in the world of baseball.

The opening weekend video sent me down a deep dive, which eventually led me to Ezra Siegel. He’s in charge of the social media strategy for the Milwaukee Brewers—including live coverage of up to 162 games every year. I sent him an email and next thing I knew we were talking about “arthouse baseball” and why he wants to make content sports fans have never seen before.

How the Milwaukee Brewers approach social media

To understand why a baseball team is inspired by arthouse cinema, it’s important to understand the grounding strategy. When I ask Ezra for his social media philosophy, he tells me, “When people consume our content, I want them to feel like they’re seeing something fresh, not just a take on something they’ve seen from the other accounts and teams they follow. We want to be the model that other teams look at for inspiration, rather than the other way around.”

There’s a clear competitiveness in the way Ezra talks about the team’s social media strategy. How can the team also win on the digital field? “I want people to wonder how the small-market Milwaukee Brewers put out content that nobody has seen before in a sports context. I want us to be pacing with the teams from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago etc—the teams with more resources, more star power, larger audiences—in terms of social performance. Which we can and do measure!”

For the 2025 baseball season, social measurement tool Zoomph created a report that adjusted data based on a team’s following on social media, normalizing data across audience sizes (which can be impacted by market, history, age, etc.) to evaluate and compare how effectively team content performed. The Brewers had the best social performance relative to the size of their audience. Ezra told me, “The Brewers have been very successful on the field while operating differently than the rest, and I think it’s fun to try to mirror that from a marketing point of view.”

“Arthouse baseball”

In a recent interview with Sports Business Journal, Ezra described the Brewers strategy as “arthouse baseball”. When I asked him to expand on that idea further, he said, “The way I’ve defined ‘Arthouse Baseball’ is showcasing our sport and athletes in experimental, innovative, and unconventional ways for enhanced entertainment value—particularly in our video content.” He credits Carter Green, the team’s Senior Videographer and Creative Lead, as being instrumental in pioneering this style.

Most MLB and sports teams execute content in ways that meets fan expectations, Ezra wants to upend fan expectations. He says their “arthouse” approach “tries to break the mold with unique and innovative video content that baseball fans have not seen before.” It’s clear through the editing, music, angles, and color-grading that the team is pulling references that few sports teams have before. The only other team that has tried a similar style (that comes to mind for me) is the Celtics, with videos like this.

Alongside Carter, the Brewers have a robust video production team who Ezra describes as “well-read” in terms of film knowledge and appreciation. When I ask for some references that have inspired the team, he had a long list at the ready. “Carter created a great series of atmospheric content using the classical song ‘The Blue Danube’, which was inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. We’ve also had several nods to Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, using the song ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ for competitive edits on the road. Some other notable references include Hundreds of Beavers, The Brutalist (Carter recreated the upside down Statue of Liberty shot at Dodgers Stadium), Pulp Fiction’s title cards, and A24’s trailer style.”

Importantly, taking cues from cinema in content allows more fans into the world of baseball. It opens up the game in a new way. “We are constantly looking for and thinking about ways to reach new fans and audiences, and our approach is meant to showcase baseball in a way that anyone—not just Brewers fans—can look at and say ‘damn that is cool,’” he says.

Behind the post

Below I asked Ezra to give me some insight into how some of my favorite Brewers videos came together.

---

Video: Ode to bunts
Views: 1.3M
Likes: 50K
Ezra’s POV: Baseball is such a unique sport. It has so much tradition and history. It can at times be unbelievably intense and stressful when the stakes are high. But most of the year it is often more of a social activity for the casual fan or someone looking to spend a nice summer day outside. The bunt video is a great example of how wacky games can play out and how, despite a 162-game season, you will see new things all the time on the field. I think people sometimes mislabel baseball as “boring” or “repetitive”, but I don’t think that’s the case at all if you know what to watch for.

---

Video: Grand Theft Auto riff
Views: 1.7M
Likes: 59.9K
Ezra’s POV: This was the brainchild of my peer and friend Carter Green. Our team met regularly throughout the offseason leading up to spring training to brainstorm content ideas for that time of year, which is when we get the most time with and access to our athletes. When Carter brought this idea to me, it was a no brainer to invest in it as our top priority for spring training content. As Carter says, it’s essentially a “day in the life” video, which has been done countless times by sports brands, but putting a new twist on it that people wouldn’t expect. The Grand Theft Auto/video game theme is a great example of our approach to reach fans beyond our audience. We figured it would be a fun, novel video for anyone who is a fan of baseball OR video games, and we looked at it as a perfect blend of baseball and widely accessible culture. As far as actual production, Carter followed around Sal Frelick with a 360 camera for a day of practice before spending dozens of hours editing and adding motion graphics to it. Just an example of how lucky I am to work with people like him…I love empowering their creativity and helping bring their ideas and talent to life!

The lineup

What does the team look like that brings this strategy to life? Ezra shared that their content operation consists of a three-person social team, a seven-person video production team, and a three-person graphic design team. As far as his own role, Ezra says it varies. “Many times my role is to direct or execute creative myself, other times I feel more like a studio head green-lighting different ideas or projects that people bring to me.”

Throughout our conversation I noticed how much Ezra really wants to make sure his team gets the credit they deserve. “In particular, I want to shout out the following people for being absolutely instrumental in the creative we put out: Carter Green, Cody Oasen, Caitlin Walter, Matt Gompper, Matt Small, and Jake McHugh. Some of the most talented people I’ve ever met and worked with.”

Ezra also credits his leadership team for trusting him. “My bosses—Sharon McNally (our VP of Marketing), Emily Bremer (Sr. Director of Marketing), Matt Small (Director of Digital Marketing)—have entrusted me and my team to experiment and grow like few other marketing departments would.” He went on to say, “Even our ownership has helped clear barriers and shown tremendous support of what we do.”

Sell the experience

Speaking of movies, some of the most successful ones in the past few years have marketed the theater experience in parallel with the movie itself. Sinners worked with Kodak to explain the different aspect ratios of the film and provide context for which tickets to buy. One Battle After Another created punch cards where you could “collect” every format. Project Hail Mary had viral projectionist photos and BTS imagery. Sometimes marketing the experience is just as important as marketing the product.

I think there are parallels to seeing sports in-person as well. When I asked Ezra how he thinks about using social media to get people to attend games, he shared, “One thing I think we tapped into that has since started a trend in our sport is showcasing stadium atmosphere within the context of special moments on the field. Our videographers have found tremendous success shooting baseball action from different angles, sometimes through the crowd, to highlight the feeling of being there in person.”

It’s true that these posts are the exact ones that make me want to buy a ticket to an afternoon game on a nice day. Ezra said the simple angle change can shift the tone of a video. ”I think a lot of sports photographers and videographers have traditionally stuck to shooting from the sidelines or designated camera well spots. There is so much more to offer than just the competitive, dramatic shots that are close to the action. We want to showcase the atmosphere of watching a game within that collective of the crowd, as well as all the other things that make up the in-game experience—food, beautiful sunsets, in-game entertainment, etc.”

It’s an important reminder for any brand on social media. How do you show (not tell!) how your restaurant or product or service makes people feel?

Twist your audience’s expectations

What the Brewers are doing is not necessarily original, but it’s novel in the context of baseball. Audiences are often taking only a few seconds to decide if they want to watch a piece of content as they scroll. Creating that tension early—”Woah, a baseball highlight that looks and sounds like a movie!”—helps grab attention.

For Ezra, creating cinematic content has given him a new perspective on baseball as a whole. He shared, “Now on my ninth season, I can sometimes take certain things about being in this environment for granted. But because of the different experimentation and the new opportunities that have come from our creative work, I find myself seeing the sport in a different light.”

Final exercise

Write down a list of ways your audience might expect a brand within your industry to show up on social media. What tone do they assume your brand will have? What marketing tactics are they used to seeing?

Write down a list of ways that your competitors show up on social media. What are the themes? The trends? The formats?

Write down a list of ways that would be unexpected for your brand to show up on social media. What references would you pull in? What’s working in other industries? Some of my favorite advice on this comes from Rion Harmon, the co-founder of the agency Day Job. He says, “Pitch wild ideas to shift your client’s [or boss’s] Overton window.” While the wild idea might not get selected or approved, it still helps open people up to other ideas that they never would have thought they wanted to see or hear.

Try making a pilot or post in a new style that feels unexpected for your industry or product. Don’t post it. Or do. See how it performs. Do it again. Start learning.

Thanks so much for reading! Final reminder to take this year’s Very Online Survey. The survey closes tomorrow. Please fill it out here.

Finally, if you enjoy free essays like this one, you can upgrade to a paid Link in Bio subscription. You’ll get weekly strategy newsletters and quarterly trend reports, along with access to the Discord community.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you for making this newsletter possible!

Here’s what else is in today’s newsletter:

• Is Instagram allowing more than six accounts to collab post?

• My favorite prompt for brainstorming brand partnerships

• Why the B2B company Air is hosting a Boy Throb concert

• I talked to the non-profit that just launched a social show

• Four post formats to try this week

Before we dive in, I am a few people away from hitting the respondent goal for the Very Online Survey. Think of it like a pulse check on the social media industry. The more survey responses, the more helpful the final report. Will you take 10 minutes to fill it out here?

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Lift off was just the beginning. The Artemis social media accounts introduced us to the zero gravity indicator “Rise”, showed us the emotional moment the astronauts named a moon crater Carroll to honor the late wife of mission Commander Reid Wiseman, and kept us up to date on what song the crew was waking up to every morning. They were so far away, but I felt like I was there.

What is it like orchestrating the digital strategy for such a historic and complex mission? In today’s newsletter I spoke with Thalia Patrinos, Artemis Digital Lead, to find out. Thalia has worked in space since 2018, when she started as an intern in the Safety and Technical Operations directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. That same year, she was hired as a contractor for NASA Headquarters and moved to Washington, DC to become a full-time communications strategist. Today she leads and strategizes all digital communications about NASA’s Artemis missions to and around the moon—including social media, video, audio, web presence, and digital engagements.

Below we talk spending six years on the Artemis social strategy, how that very viral Full House crew video came together (it wasn’t pre-planned!), and the “gratification you get for doing the hard thing, not the easy thing.”

Rachel Karten: To start, I have to ask how many social media posts went up during the Artemis II mission?

Thalia Patrinos: Between April 1 and April 10, NASA posted 3,270 times across all of our social media accounts. This figure doesn’t include replies, reposts, or comments.

Rachel: Wow. Those social media posts during the mission were so fun to follow. How long ago did you start working on the social media strategy for this mission?

Thalia: I started working on Artemis digital strategy around six years ago with my “ride or die” Lisa Allen—the two of us have been building the Artemis social media presence from the ground up since the very beginning. It’s always been the two of us at the helm but we’ve had and continue to have support from talented communicators from across the agency. Our digital strategy has evolved over time, similarly to how the scope of Artemis has evolved over time.

We try to strike the right balance between being formal enough to be trusted as the authoritative source of information—while also finding the appropriate moments to have fun and be creative. It’s a careful balance, especially with the spread of misinformation these days.

Rachel: Did you work at all with the astronauts to help them get comfortable being in social media videos? They were all such naturals!

Thalia: I’ve had the honor and pleasure of working with the Artemis II astronauts throughout their assignment but I want to shout out Camille Cowin, Courtney Beasley, and other members of the astronaut support staff who do the media training for our entire astronaut corps.

Our astronauts are truly the best of us. One thing to keep in mind is that people join the corps for lots of reasons: to pursue discovery, to advance humankind, to explore places never explored before…becoming an influencer is not top of mind! So we learned pretty quickly that the Artemis II crew had a natural aversion to anything that felt inauthentic. I honestly think that’s why the public resonates so deeply with them—they simply don’t have to fake it. They are just genuinely cool people who love the opportunity to nerd out and learn new things. They also feel very appreciative that people have really connected to the mission and have expressed their thanks specifically to the community on social media.

Rachel: The Full House video was a top performing post featuring the astronauts. Is that a piece of content that was pre-planned? Take me into the creation of it!

Thalia: This is a perfect example of how genuinely fun the Artemis II crew is. That was not pre-planned. At all. The astronauts were able to downlink a limited amount of videos and imagery every day during the mission using our communication networks. One of the videos in the first batch we received was the one of Reid pointing the camera at his crew, telling each of them to act like they were being introduced in a cheesy 80s sitcom theme song. One of our video editors on standby very quickly cut the version that blew up on social media.

It just goes to show: you can plan and prepare strategies for years in advance of a mission, but once that rocket launches and the astronauts are in space, nobody knows what’s going to happen next. Things happen spontaneously. The most you can do is to prepare your team to be ready for anything.

Rachel: What did launch day look like for you? How long was that day?

Thalia: That was a long day for sure. I think it was close to 24 hours.

Early that morning, members of the digital team and I squished into an office at the press site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, which is about three miles from the launchpad. We had a clear view of the rocket from outside our window. We were locked in and ready by the time tanking began—this is when the launch control teams fill the rocket with cryogenic propellant.

Tanking is a long, involved, delicate process. With Artemis I, we attempted this process three times before actually launching. So I was hoping for a launch that day, but I was also trying to not get my hopes all the way up, with the understanding that all the Swiss cheese holes need to line up just right to get that ‘go for launch’—weather, hardware, software.

But I felt a vibe shift at a certain point. I think it was when the core stage and upper stage of the rocket were in “replenish mode.” Basically, the tanks are full, but a certain percentage of the propellant is “burning off,” so the engineers switch the valves to keep the propellant slowly filling and maintain the 100% fill line. I remember Lisa and I looking at the data and exchanging a look. Like, oh wow. It might actually happen today.

Then launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson polled her teams, and we tried to contain our emotions as every team, one right after another, polled GO. And finally commander Reid Wiseman chimed in: “Full. Send.”

Everyone at the press site arranged themselves on the shore of the basin to watch those four astronauts launch into the sky on the tippy top of that rocket. We watched with tears in our eyes and feelings of disbelief that after so many years of so many people working on this mission, everything had finally culminated in this beautiful moment of blinding light and earth-shattering sound.

But even though all that work finally led up to that point, for our team, it was still just the beginning. We wiped our tears and headed back to work. Lisa and I didn’t leave the press site until after the proximity operations demonstration. It was a treat to watch pilot Victor Glover experience a “test pilot’s dream”—to manually pilot the Orion spacecraft for the first time ever—and describe the experience in real-time.

When we finally drove back to Cocoa Beach, Lisa and I got stuck behind a truck transporting a piece of a SpaceX rocket. That was kind of hilarious and awful because it was the wee hours of the morning and we were sleep-deprived and delirious. A good taste of what the next ten days would be like...

Rachel: I want to talk about Rise, the Moon Mascot and zero gravity indicator that audiences fell in love with. I believe the design came about through a contest. Can you talk to me about that? I loved when Rise took over the feed for a day.

Thalia: After the Artemis I mission, our team was trying to come up with ideas for how to involve the public in a totally unique way during the Artemis II mission. Artemis II is such a special, ground-breaking mission—we had already done things like naming contests and user-generated content campaigns. We wanted to do something that we had never done before. The credit for the original idea for the Moon Mascot contest goes to my friend and colleague Tiffany Fairley. She said, “Why don’t we hold a competition to design the zero gravity indicator?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, I was completely sold. I said, “Yes. We’re doing that.” What followed was me championing this idea and leading the effort through years of back-and-forth, research, analysis, and countless obstacles.

The contest was honestly a tough sell for some folks at NASA and our team had to do a lot of convincing. The astronauts were supportive as long as the contest was a global competition, to reflect the global nature of the mission. So we worked with NASA Tournament Lab and an outside vendor called Freelancer to ensure the contest could be as accessible to as many people as possible. The Moon Mascot contest received thousands of submissions from over 50 countries—but of course, we all know who won it in the end. (Congratulations again to Lucas Ye of California for his “Rise” design!)

Our team is so proud and happy with how the public resonated with the contest and how Rise reached an instant celebrity status—it’s hard to emphasize how much work all of it was, so it feels extremely validating. So many meetings about one little stuffie!

And I’m happy you enjoyed the Rise takeover. It was awesome to facilitate that for the little guy. He’s got a lot to say!

Rachel: Were there any posts or formats that surprised you at how well they performed? For example, everyone loved the wake up songs!

Thalia: I mean—the answer is honestly everything. Having worked on Artemis for so many years, obviously we hope that the public will react positively to our content, but we never know for certain until it happens. A spaceflight mission is already such a dynamic event with a level of unpredictability. And then you just never know how the Internet will react (or simply not react) to something. We hoped that the authenticity of our crew would speak to our audiences. We hoped that the ground-breaking nature of our mission would unite the world. We hoped that Rise would become a huge star! But I don’t think any of us anticipated the level at which those things were actually accomplished.

I think even over-achievers at NASA struggle with imposter syndrome to a certain degree. I definitely had a moment recently where I thought, oh wow, maybe I do know what I’m doing!

Rachel: Can you talk about joining Threads? The audience over there was so thrilled!

Thalia: The credit belongs to Brittany Brown, our Head of Digital, who saw the moment and jumped on it. The audience on Threads was (and continues to be) hungry for NASA and Artemis content.

I love how the community on that platform has really taken ownership of the Artemis II mission. I love that people make their own content responding to it and reacting to it from their own unique perspective. I love that people are making Artemis-inspired art, telling their own Artemis stories, sharing their own Artemis takes. It’s a reflection of why I love Artemis in the first place: it belongs to all of us. It belongs to you, too.

Rachel: It’s been amazing to see the content continue after the return to Earth. This video of Astronaut Christina Koch’s dog greeting her was particularly sweet. How are you thinking about keeping the momentum up from the mission?

Thalia: Well, the good news is that cadence of Artemis missions has increased to about once a year. Artemis III will test rendezvous and docking procedures necessary for future crewed landings on the lunar surface in 2027. And Artemis IV will land humans on the Moon in 2028. So we have our work cut out for us—that’s for sure. Although I definitely need to catch my breath a little bit!

Also: shameless plug for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is launching as early as September 2026. So if you’re in need of a space fix in the meantime, definitely follow that mission!

Rachel: What was the biggest thing you learned during the mission?

Thalia: The thing that excites me the most about Artemis is how it lays the groundwork for crewed missions to Mars. I am a Mars girlie at heart (I’m an Aries…go figure). And I have been obsessed with the Red Planet since I was a little girl reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. So I have learned a lot over the years about what future crewed Martian missions could look like—and all the challenges that must be solved before we get there. Artemis missions on the lunar surface will serve as a testbed for all the technologies we need to develop to make crewed Martian missions happen. We have a long way to go, that’s for sure. But it’s insanely exciting.

Rachel: What do you love about your job?

Thalia: I’m going to be very real for a second. This is a difficult job. It’s a lot of late nights, early mornings, weekends, holidays. NASA is a breaking news organization. And that type of work requires a lot of personal sacrifice, a lot of time spent away from friends and family. And the willingness to drop everything and jump in at a moment’s notice.

But moments like the Artemis II mission remind you why you put in the hours and why you do the hard work. The JFK “We go to the Moon” speech is over-quoted, but yeah—there is a level of gratification you get for doing the hard thing, not the easy thing. Nothing about what we do is easy. But it is worth it.

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Big thank you to everyone who has already taken this year’s Very Online Survey. Think of it like a social media pulse check. We’re already getting some great responses that will help all of us do our jobs better. I loved the advice one respondent shared to “review your drafts in a busy elevator because that's the mental state viewers are in when they encounter your post.” We’ll be collecting answers for another week or so. Please fill it out here!

Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter:

• Is Facebook back?

• What Loewe’s former TikTok lead is up to

• The shareable post format that’s all over my feed right now

• Five post ideas to try this week

• I asked LinkedIn about their PDF quality compression issues

Read more