She has over 13 years of experience in brand, social, and communications planning, leading comms for YouTube and Google, running brand social planning for Microsoft, and crafting go-to market strategies for Estée Lauder & Beats By Dre.
I think AI unlocks the ability for marketing & comms teams (and humans in general) to be more strategic and thoughtful. Sure, as a strategist (and self-admitted perfectionist) who has spent over a decade doing my own research, there’s an aspect to AI that feels a bit like a shortcut, but that’s a narrow view when considering every team that can benefit from using it to strengthen their work or process. Oftentimes research is overlooked, rushed, or considered a luxury within smaller organizations, and decision making can feel more based on a hunch or rushing to a conclusion. There’s a compromise that happens where the actual time it takes to be thoughtful and what your team/client might need are at conflict. AI alleviates that tension. The mere existence of AI gives people the opportunity to have a treasure trove of data & insights at their fingertips in seconds and forces people to think about the questions they actually should be asking before they even put pen to paper.
I hesitate to call this the next big thing because it’s been in front of us for a while, but if you aren’t planning how your brand should show up on Reddit, you’re late to the party. I am obsessed with Reddit, and what I find most interesting about it, is it’s one of the only platforms I spend more time on intentionally scrolling vs. passively scrolling. I am on Reddit as a consumer to find answers and gather differing opinions. I’m on Reddit as a marketer for the same reason. Where I find myself passively scrolling on TikTok or Reels for entertainment and to fill time, I am often in a specific mindset when I’m on Reddit that’s harder to tap into. Maybe I’m biased, because one of my favorite parts about TikTok has always been the comments section, but I love the passion the Reddit community has when talking about a product or brand or experience. Brands pay a lot of money to reach those audiences on other platforms (or to pay for those kind of insights via market research), but it’s right in front of you on Reddit. Reddit has been making it increasingly easier for brands to find ways to organically interact with communities on the platform, so I think the sooner brands can start testing and experimenting on the platform,
Trust is key. Trust the people running your social channels. Trust the process even if it’s testing your patience. No one is scaling on social media without taking risks and being agile. If you can’t let go of the reins and trust your social team & partners, you’re going to wind up with the same safe content on your social channels you ignore as a consumer doomscrolling at night. If you can’t trust your team to act fast, you’re going to miss that trend or community moment that could have won the algorithm. It’s true, no one knows your brand better than you do, but scaling on social is as much about knowing how your audiences behave on those platforms as it is knowing your key messages to share. When you have trust in your partners and team, especially those that reflect the communities you are looking to reach, the sky’s the limit for how you can scale.
I think LinkedIn short-form video & creators will continue to take off and the algorithm and engagement will only continue getting stronger because of it. We’re already seeing TikTok-style videos gaining traction when cross-posted to LinkedIn, and I think we’re in an era (for better or for worse) where more users are thinking of LinkedIn as a social network as they are a career networking platform. I think its search function will get more intuitive, new features will make it more appealing for creators to monetize on the platform, and the use cases for visiting LinkedIn will continue to expand beyond job seeking and corporate networking.
I honestly think I’ve stayed open-minded enough that no job has really felt too small or too big, which has really allowed me to learn so much throughout the past 15 years and bring that perspective to the people I coach and clients I work with. There were seasons of my career where at one point I’m running brand strategy for a major brand at an ad agency, the next I’m freelancing as a social media manager for a small startup. Regardless of the size of the project, the client, the task at hand, I challenged myself to always be inquisitive and give it my all. This doesn’t mean I think someone needs to be fantastic at everything (that’s impossible), but I do think that being open-minded enough to even say yes to those experiences will help you be a more well-rounded marketer, strategist, teammate, and coach. To be completely honest, when I first got into advertising, it was a means to an end: I wanted to be a professional musician and needed to make money so I could afford living in NY. At that time in my life, I could never imagine I’d be here talking about my marketing career… it all felt so complicated, but yet so simple: there was no other option than to be a successful musician. Once I was able to break that line of thinking, that there was one thing I’m meant to do, one thing I’m truly good at, it invited so much opportunity for growth into my life, professionally and personally. I think the same thing applies to the trajectory of my marketing career. If I narrowed my focus and had rigid expectations, I might be a full on expert at one thing, but I also might feel limited by that. For me, staying open has felt like the right path.
Rachel Karten (author of Link in Bio Newsletter) is a woman who immediately comes to mind. I reference her newsletter on a weekly basis in my work and with my team, and I think she’s absolutely crushing building her personal brand. The thought leadership space, especially for marketing & advertising, is very male dominated and can often feel like there’s a lot of gatekeeping of information. I love that Rachel democratizes this information, but brings a really fresh take to trends & platform updates we’re already considering.
I call it my “safe space” which is my extra comfy couch, with my husband next to me, our cat Bowzer on his lap, our dog Tofu on mine. 9/10 times I will choose my safe space as my activity of choice, because it’s just that good. Truly don’t know what I’d do without it. But if I can cheat, and say a second, I’d say live music. I don’t see nearly as much live music as I used to, but there is something so magical about watching a band you love perform, and getting to share that space and moment with them. Even during the pandemic, Brandi Carlile (my favorite artist) hosted a few virtual acoustic performances right from her backyard. My husband and I set our own backyard up with a projector and a bonfire to watch as if we were a part of that moment with them.
Can we bring back skinny jeans, please? Asking on behalf of all millennials. Just kidding. As weird as this is to say, as a marketer who spends a lot of her job on TikTok, I’m excited (and a little scared) to see how social media evolves in the next year. I think brands and creators have gotten really comfortable going all in on one platform, but we’re going to see more experimentation and diversification, and I’m excited to not only see how it impacts consumer behavior, but also how it impacts product development. Every app has been so focused on becoming a clone of its competitor, I’m hoping that this next evolution will give opportunity to platforms that prioritize a unique user experience, like Reddit, Discord, and even Pinterest.
