Stop thinking in formats. I’m guilty of it.

There’s that moment where you sit down to plan content and you jump straight to I want to create a video or I need to do a carousel without really thinking about what you actually want to say. The format ends up driving the thinking and the concept gets shaped around it, when it needs to work the complete other way around.

The content that comes out of that kind of thinking is always meh.

So I flipped it. Concept first.

Always, always, always.

Before you go anywhere near a format, you need to spend real time on the actual idea. The questions I always come back to are simple but they’re worth sitting with:

1. What’s the story you want to tell?

2. What do you want people to take away from this piece of content?

3. Does this ladder back to what you’re actually trying to accomplish?

Once you’ve worked through these questions and the concept is clear, purposeful, and connected back to what you’re actually trying to say, then you can ask yourself which format serves it best.

Not before.

It’s also worth saying that not every concept needs to be a video or even needs an asset at all. One of my best-performing pieces all time was a text post.

It worked because it captured a feeling every social pro has experienced. No asset, no production, just a concept that hit hard because if you work in social you know the pain.

Other ideas come alive on camera. Sometimes a carousel works because the concept has a natural sequence to it. Sometimes a concept is strong enough to become a full series where you can test different formats across multiple pieces and let the data tell you what resonates most.

Remember, the format exists to make the concept shine.

The checks I use to help me decide

Once I have a concept I think is worth making, I run it through six checks before committing to a format. This has become my process and it’s saved me from a lot of wasted time and energy.

Does this concept tie back to my content statements?

This is the first and most important check. If it doesn’t ladder back to what I’m trying to say and be known for, it probably shouldn’t exist. Every piece of content I create needs to connect back to one of my content statements, whether that’s the craft of social, how I build social programs, my perspective on the industry, or what I’m building at Attio. If it doesn’t fit, I don’t make it.

What’s the value to the person reading or watching?

Be specific here. What does someone walk away with? A new perspective, a framework, clarity, a laugh? If you can’t answer that clearly the concept isn’t ready yet and you need to sit with it a little longer.

What is the concept trying to do?

Is it educating, inspiring, or entertaining? The job of the content should inform the format before anything else does.

How many formats could serve this concept?

If there’s one obvious format the decision is easy. If there are multiple options that could work, that’s when you move to the next question.

What resources do I have to execute this well?

This is where I get honest with myself. Which format can I produce at the highest standard given my budget, time, and headcount? A great concept in a poorly executed format will always underperform a well matched one.

Is this a one off or a series?

If the concept is strong enough to live across multiple pieces I now have the opportunity to test different formats and let performance guide future decisions.

Six questions in that order. The first two are the gatekeepers. If a concept can’t get past them it’s not worth the resource investment regardless of what format I had in mind.

The social pros producing the most consistent and high quality content aren’t the ones who’ve figured out the best formats. They’re the ones who’ve figured out how to develop strong concepts and then match the right format to bring each one to life.

Are you thinking in concepts or formats right now?

Organic Social Club drops every week with breakdowns like this one. The good, the messy, and the stuff social pros actually care about. If you are not subscribed yet, now is a good time.

Subscribe now

You need to diversify your social bets people.

Don't bet it all on one account. You want to spread your bets across surfaces that can help you grow. The more surfaces you activate, the more opportunity you create to reach the right people in the right places with the right kind of content.

Here’s how I think about building it out.

First, an honest conversation about resources

Before we get into the surfaces and how to think about them, we need to talk about something my LinkedIn post did not have room for.

You can only spread your bets if you have the resources to do it properly. Resources in this context means three things: budget, time, and headcount. All three matter and the honest truth is that not every team is in a position to activate every surface at once.

A team of one with a tight budget is going to build a very different ecosystem than a team of five with a meaningful creator budget. Neither of those is wrong. They are just different starting points.

Every bet needs a plan

Diversifying your social bets is not about randomly showing up on new surfaces and hoping something lands. Every surface you activate needs a plan behind it, and that plan needs to answer a few specific questions before you commit.

Who does this surface speak to? Every surface has a natural audience and a natural content style. Before you activate anything, you need to know exactly who you are trying to reach through it and whether that audience is one you actually need to be in front of.

What gap does it cover? The best ecosystems are not just more of the same content on more surfaces. Each surface should be covering a different part of your story, reaching a different community, or building a different kind of trust. If two surfaces are doing the same job, one of them is probably not worth the investment.

Does this push us forward? The question we ask at Attio when we look at a new surface is whether it genuinely adds something to what we are already doing. Not just more reach, but a different kind of reach. A different story or a different relationship with a different audience.

What resources does this surface need? You need to ask yourself what investment this surface actually requires and how you can get the most out of it given what you have available.

If a surface cannot answer all four of those questions clearly, it is not ready to be activated yet.

The surfaces and what they actually require

Creator Partners: This is the surface with the highest ceiling and the most cost attached to it. Creator partnerships require budget. There is no way around that. What that budget looks like depends entirely on your brand, your industry, and the creators you want to work with. If you have more to spend you can explore more partnerships and test more approaches. If you have less you have to be genuinely selective about who you partner with and make sure every partnership is mapped to a specific goal before you commit.

What creator partners give you that nothing else does is access to communities that already have trust built in. You are not asking people to trust your brand. You are showing up through a voice they already trust, with content that feels native to their world. That is a fundamentally different kind of reach than anything your brand account can produce.

Creator Program: An open creator program gives you a community of people who already believe in what you are building and want to be part of telling that story. The investment here is less about budget and more about time and relationship building. You are supporting real power users, helping them create content, giving them the tools and context they need to show up consistently.

The return is content that is genuinely authentic because it is coming from people who have a real relationship with your product. That authenticity is something you can’t beat.

Organic Social: This is the anchor and the one surface every brand has regardless of resources. Your brand account, product moments, company stories, the broader narrative you are building. The organic social program is where your brand voice lives and where everything else in the ecosystem connects back to.

The trap with organic social is treating it as the whole program rather than the foundation of one. It is the most important surface and also the one with the most natural ceiling in terms of reach and trust.

Internal Voices: Employee advocacy and executive leadership is one of the highest leverage surfaces available to any social team and also one of the most underinvested. The reason is because it requires buy-in from people who have their own priorities and their own relationship with social.

What you can do is find the people inside your organization who already have a POV and an appetite to share it. Give them topics, frameworks, and support. Let them use their own voice. The moment it feels like a corporate mandate it stops working.

The time investment here is real but the budget requirement is low, which makes it one of the most accessible surfaces for teams working with limited resources.

Founder: The founder voice is really powerful but the hardest to nail down. This surface gives you something the others can’t. People follow founders because they want the unfiltered version of the story, the vision, the conviction, the behind the scenes reality of building something from the ground up.

The investment here is primarily time. Getting a founder to show up consistently on social requires a system that makes it as easy as possible for them to publish without it feeling like another thing on an already full plate. That means having topics ready, helping shape their POV into content, and making the process light enough that it actually happens.

How it all connects

The ecosystem approach is more than just a content strategy. Every single one of these surfaces feeds back into the brand account.

Creator Partners bring new audiences into your world.

The Creator Program builds a community of advocates who amplify your story. Internal voices humanize your brand and reach networks you would never access otherwise.

The Founder voice adds the conviction and authenticity that makes everything else more believable.

All of it compounds over time and all of it contributes to the awareness and demand that your organic social program is trying to build.

When a bet starts working you double down on it. When something is not landing you dial it back without the whole program taking a hit. That flexibility is only possible when you are not putting everything into one place.

Where to start

If you are reading this as a team of one trying to figure out where to begin, start with the two surfaces that require the least budget and give you the most signal quickly. I’d go with Internal Voices and Organic Social. Get those working properly, learn what resonates, and use that learning to inform how you approach the surfaces that require more investment.

Map every surface to a clear purpose before you activate it. Be honest about what you can sustain, because a focused ecosystem that runs well is always going to outperform a scattered one that does not.

What does your ecosystem look like right now? Drop it in the comments, I would love to hear what surfaces you are activating and where you are seeing traction.

Organic Social Club drops every week with breakdowns like this one. The good, the messy, and the stuff social pros actually care about. If you are not subscribed yet, now is a good time.

Subscribe now

Last week I shared how we launched Ask Attio with 60+ pieces of content.

56% of that content came from employee advocates. They gave us more coverage than our brand account, founder posts, and creators combined.

That scale only happens when you enable people to participate, not just ask them to. Asking means sending a Slack message saying “hey, can you share this?” and hoping people figure it out. Enabling means removing every barrier so participation feels easy, not like extra work on top of their day job.

This is what made the difference between getting 5 posts and getting 60+ posts from employee advocates on launch day.

Why Enablement Matters

Employee advocates aren’t professional creators. They have day jobs. If you want them to publish, you have to make it easy.

The biggest barrier is blank page syndrome. People don’t know what to say, how to say it, or if what they’re thinking of posting is appropriate. So they end up doing nothing.

The second barrier is friction. If they have to hunt for assets, write copy from scratch, or guess whether something’s approved, they won’t post. They’ll open the doc, feel overwhelmed, and close it.

Enablement removes both barriers. It gives people a starting point and makes participation feel effortless.

When I built the EA guide for the Ask Attio launch, I designed it to answer every question someone might have before they even asked it. What should I post? When should I post it? Where do I find the assets? How do I engage with the brand post?

That’s what enabled 40+ people to publish.

My EA Guide

Here’s how I structure enablement for big launches:

1. Give Context

Start by explaining why this launch matters and how employee advocates can support it.

Don’t assume people understand the bigger picture. Most employees are heads-down in their work. They don’t have the same visibility into strategy, positioning, or launch goals that you do.

Give them the story. Explain what you’re launching, why it matters to the company, and why their participation matters for the launch. Help them understand that their voice carries weight.

For the Ask Attio launch, we explained what the product does, why it’s a big deal for our customers, and how employee voices would help us reach more people than our brand account alone could.

Context creates buy-in. When people understand why something matters, they’re more likely to show up.

2. Provide Copy Options

This is the most important part of the guide.

Give employee advocates multiple copy options they can customize and make their own. Don’t make them start from scratch. They’re not professional creators. They need a starting point.

I usually provide 3-5 different angles so people can pick what feels authentic to their voice. Some people are comfortable being enthusiastic. Others prefer a more measured tone. Some want to focus on the product. Others want to talk about the team effort.

The key is to give them options, not a script. If the copy feels robotic or overly corporate, people won’t post it. They need to be able to tweak it so it sounds like them.

For each option, I write 2-3 sentences they can use as-is or adapt. Then I remind them that these are starting points and not to copy and paste.

This removes blank page syndrome completely. People can read the options, pick one that resonates, adjust it slightly, and hit publish.

3. Include Assets

Provide final approved assets they can download and share immediately.

Don’t make people hunt for files. Don’t make them wonder if something’s approved yet. Put everything they need in one place with clear instructions on how to download and use the assets.

For video, include a link to the file and instructions on how to upload it. For images, include download links. The goal is zero friction. If someone has to ask a question, send a Slack message, or dig through folders, you’ve lost them.

4. Highlight Standouts

After content starts coming in, call out people who published great content.

Share examples internally. Thank people publicly. Make sure the team sees that participation is noticed and valued.

This does two things. First, it motivates the people who posted. Recognition matters. Second, it creates momentum for future launches. When people see their teammates getting called out for great work, they want to participate next time.

We did this throughout the Ask Attio launch. Every time someone published a strong post, we shared it in our internal channel and thanked them. It kept energy high and reminded people that their participation mattered.

The EA Guide Template

I put together a quick template you can use to build your own EA guide. Feel free to copy and paste this!

WHY THIS LAUNCH MATTERS: [Add context here. Explain why this launch matters and how employee advocates can support it. Include what you’re launching, why it matters to the company, and why their participation matters.]

COPY OPTIONS:

Option 1: [Add first angle here. Give them 2-3 sentences they can customize.]

Option 2: [Add second angle here. Offer a different tone or focus.]

Option 3: [Add third angle here. Provide another perspective.]

Option 4: [Add fourth angle here. Give them variety.]

Option 5: [Add fifth angle here. Make sure there is something for everyone.]

ASSETS: [Link to approved assets here. Include download instructions and how to publish.]

HOW TO ENGAGE: [Add instructions on how to support the brand post. Include timing, what kind of engagement matters, and when to engage.]

The difference between 5 posts and 40+ posts isn’t enthusiasm or creativity. It’s enablement.

If you make it easy for your team to participate, they’ll show up. If you make them figure it out on their own, they won’t. Simple as that!

If you’re building organic social and want more breakdowns like this, subscribe to Organic Social Club. Every week I’m breaking down what I’ve learned (and what I’m still figuring out) about building strong social programs. The good, the messy, and the stuff social pros actually care about.

Subscribe now

We launched Ask Attio last week 🚀

It was our biggest product update ever, supported by 50+ pieces of content across brand, founder, executive leadership, partners, creators, and our creator program.

The goal from my side was to take over the LinkedIn feed. We wanted Ask Attio to dominate the conversation for a few hours. We used every surface in our social ecosystem to cover different parts of LinkedIn and get as many eyeballs on the launch as possible.

It worked. For a solid two hours, LinkedIn was wall-to-wall Ask Attio.

50+ pieces of organic content in one launch window doesn’t happen by accident. It happened because we invested in employee enablement. I built a social guide that gave people everything they needed to publish. Copy options, assets, context, and clear instructions on when and how to participate.

Watching that play out in real time was one of the most satisfying moments I’ve had as a social lead. Not because of the numbers, but because the system we built actually enabled people to show up and contribute.

In the rest of this article I’ll break down how to launch a tier-1 product on social. What you need to prepare before launch day, how to execute when it matters.

Let’s dive in.

The Setup

Great launches start with crystal clear clarity about what you’re launching and who it’s for. This is where product marketing comes in. The messaging needs to be locked. The positioning needs to be sharp. If PMM hasn’t done their job, your launch will struggle no matter how good your social execution is.

Use your surfaces

Once messaging is locked, map out every single profile that will publish content for the launch:

• Founder

• Brand

• Creator partners

• Paid creators

• Employee advocates

If you don’t know which profiles are posting, you can’t plan enablement, coordinate timing, or measure impact. You need a complete view of your launch footprint before launch day arrives.

For each profile, document what they’ll post and what assets they’ll use. This creates a clear picture for the team of how the launch will unfold across your entire social ecosystem.

With that foundation in place, focus on three critical decisions.

Social-first assets

You need strong social assets. Formats built for the channels they’re on, asset options to add variety to the feed, and beautiful work that shows the product in motion.

(The team knocked it out of the park with a motion asset built specifically for social feeds. Check it out below).

Publishing

Launch when your primary audience is online, not when it’s convenient for you. The general rule here is publish when your audience is most likely to see, engage, and share.

We launched when our primary audience was online. Simple as that.

Enablement is the difference between 5 posts and 50 posts

Employee advocates will drive the majority of your launch content. They work at your company, not as professional creators, so you need to make it as easy as possible for them to publish great content.

The social guide needs to give them everything and remove the friction of publishing. No blank page syndrome. No nervousness about what to say. Just clear options, assets, and instructions that make participation easy.

Include copy options they can customize, links to download assets, a brief explaining what you’re launching and why it matters, and clear instructions on how to engage with the brand post.

If your team has to hunt for information, write their own copy from scratch, or guess what to say, they won’t post. Enablement removes that friction and gives you the best possible chance of your team publishing.

The Execution: How to Turn Preparation into Execution

Preparation gets you to the starting line and makes sure you have everything you need for a successful launch.

Now it’s time to launch the damn thing.

Turn your largest internal channel into Launch HQ. This gives everyone visibility into what’s happening in real time. Share early wins to show momentum and keep spirits high throughout the launch.

It’s all about creating energy and alignment. You want everyone internally to know exactly what’s going out and how they can participate.

Engage early and highlight wins as they come in

Encourage the team to engage authentically. Get them involved early. Share wins internally as they happen. Drop messages in Launch HQ like:

• “Founder post getting strong engagement.”

• “Creator video picking up shares.”

• “Jack’s post getting great comments, go support.”

This keeps energy high and reminds people that their participation matters.

Say hi on LinkedIn 👋

The Takeaways: How to Run Your Own Tier-1 Launch

If you want to run a launch like this, here’s what you need to prepare.

Before launch day

• Map every profile in your social ecosystem that will publish.

• Document what they’ll post, when, and what they need.

• Create social-first assets designed for feeds, not repurposed marketing materials.

• Time your launch to match your audience’s on-screen hours, not your internal schedule.

• Build an enablement package with copy options, asset links, product briefs, and engagement instructions.

On launch day

• Use your largest internal channel as Launch HQ so everyone has visibility.

• Communicate the publishing schedule clearly so your team knows when to engage.

• Engage early on every piece of content and highlight wins as they happen.

After launch day

Track what worked. Which content formats drove the most engagement? Which channels delivered the most reach? Which copy angles resonated? What profiles hit the biggest numbers? Use that data to double down next time.

Your Social Team Can’t Do This Alone

Launching a tier-1 product is a company-wide effort. You need founders who are willing to show up, employees who are excited to share what they built, and creators who see the value in what you’re launching.

If you treat launch day as a social team responsibility, you’ll miss out on a ton. The difference between a good launch and a great launch isn’t just great creative.

It’s preparation, enablement, and coordination.

We prepared, enabled our team to participate and coordinated in real time on launch day.

That’s how you generate 50+ pieces of content and create a launch moment.

If you’re building organic social and want more breakdowns like this, subscribe to Organic Social Club. Every week I’m breaking down what I’ve learned (and what I’m still figuring out) about building strong social programs. The good, the messy, and the stuff social pros actually care about.

Subscribe now

We’re so back ppl! Good to be back in your inbox. This week, I'm talking about ownable sets and why I think they're going to define the next wave of social content. Let's get into it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about ownable sets lately, and I’m convinced they’re going to define the next wave of social-first content.

Not just recording in random spaces. I’m talking about intentional, recognizable sets designed for specific pieces of content. Spaces that people recognize before they even process what they are watching.

The set is not just about looks. A distinctive space helps stop the scroll, plays a role in retention, and once you have your set, it can be reused for the entire life of a series. That means you ship content faster, build visual consistency, and create an environment that becomes part of your content’s identity.

Why Sets Matter

They help stop the scroll. People are scrolling fast. A distinctive, well-designed set grabs attention visually before your hook even lands. It signals production value and intentionality. It makes people pause long enough to hear what you have to say.

They help with retention. Once people recognize your set, they know what to expect. The environment becomes a cue. When they see that space, they know they’re about to get a specific type of content. That familiarity builds trust and keeps people coming back.

They speed up production. Once your set is established, you’re not starting from scratch every time you create content. You’re not hunting for locations, negotiating permits, or stressing about lighting in a new space. You show up, you record, and you ship.

They build brand identity. Over time, your set becomes part of your visual identity.

Sets I Love ❤️

Ourselves Podcast

The first set that made me stop and say wow, this is different was the Ourselves Podcast. The space is striking. Bold colors, thoughtful lighting, a distinct spatial design that feels intentional. It immediately elevates what is ultimately just two people having a conversation.

The first time I saw a clip from them pop up on social, I didn’t even listen to the conversation at first. I was just thinking, this is epic. The environment earned my attention before a single word was said. That’s the power of a strong set.

Colors

Colors has built one of the most recognizable set designs in music content. The minimalist color cube setup is iconic. You see it and you know exactly what you’re watching.

What makes it work is the consistency and the intentionality. Every performance happens in the same space, under the same lighting, with the same visual language. The only thing that changes is the color of the set.

Subway Takes

Here’s where it gets interesting. Not every ownable set needs to be something you build from scratch. Subway Takes is shot on a moving New York City subway train, and that environment has become the show’s identity.

They didn’t construct a set. They found a space that works and made it repeatable. The subway car is instantly recognizable, visually interesting, and perfectly aligned with the show’s concept. It’s proof that an ownable set doesn’t have to mean building a studio. It can mean choosing a consistent, distinctive location and owning it.

What Makes a Good Set

Not every set needs to be crazy or expensive, and not every set needs to be something you physically own or build. The best sets share the following:

Intentionality. Good sets are designed with purpose, or chosen with purpose. They’re not just “nice backgrounds.” They’re selected or built to support the type of content being created.

Recognizability. A good set is distinct enough that people recognize it when they see it. Color, lighting, spatial design, these things add up to create a recognizable environment. Even a public space (like Subway Takes) can become recognizable when used consistently.

Reusability. The set should be something you can return to again and again. It should work across multiple episodes, pieces of content, and formats. That’s what makes it ownable.

On brand. The set should feel like an extension of your brand. If your brand is playful and colorful, your set should reflect that. If your brand is minimal and refined, your set should match that energy. The space should feel coherent with everything else you’re putting out.

That’s it from me this week. Don’t sleep on your content sets and have fun with it!

If you’re building organic social and want more breakdowns like this, subscribe to Organic Social Club. Every week I’m breaking down what I’ve learned (and what I’m still figuring out) about building strong social programs. The good, the messy, and the stuff social pros actually care about.

Subscribe now

Say hi 👋 on LinkedIn

Last piece of 2025! Enjoy everyone.

Conversations about social often focus on strategy, process, and metrics. All important things. We love all of those things, but today we’re talking about something else. We’re talking about what I think separates good social from great social.

This is harder to define, but it’s taste.

What is taste? Taste is the ability to discern quality and make creative judgments. It’s about knowing what’s good, what fits, and what works. Taste is subjective and personal. It’s your filter, your aesthetic sense, your point of view.

It’s that feeling in your gut when you look at a piece of content and something doesn’t sit right. You can’t always say why, but you know it shouldn’t go out. Or the opposite, when something feels so right that you push for it even when others don’t get it yet.

What taste looks like in practice

It’s deciding what gets reposted. Not everything deserves to be amplified. Sometimes you see something cross your feed and you just know it should be a repost. Other times, you look at something that seems like an obvious share and your gut tells you it’s off-brand or the timing’s wrong. That instinct is taste.

It’s deciding how content gets made. Do you lead with a visual or a caption? Do you use a carousel or a single image? Do you go polished or raw? These aren't just formatting decisions. They're creative choices that shape how people perceive your content. Taste is knowing which approach fits the idea.

It’s having a POV on design. Good taste means you can look at a design and know if it works. You understand hierarchy, balance, and visual flow. You know when something feels cluttered or when it feels too minimal. You don’t need to be a designer to have taste in design. You just need to care about how things look and be willing to push for better.

It’s being able to push creative boundaries. Taste gives you the confidence to try something different. It’s knowing when to break the rules and when to follow them. It’s understanding the difference between taking a creative risk and being reckless. It’s having the judgment to say “this feels right” even if it doesn’t fit the playbook.

If you’re building organic social and want more breakdowns like this, subscribe to Organic Social Club. Every week I’m breaking down what I’ve learned (and what I’m still figuring out) about building strong social programs. The good, the messy, and the stuff social pros actually care about.

Subscribe now

How to build taste

Taste isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you develop over time. It’s something I think anyone can build by doing the following:

Consume wide. You can’t have taste if you’re only looking at content in your industry. Study what works across platforms, categories, and formats. Notice what grabs your attention and why, what feels fresh and what feels stale. The more you consume, the better your filter gets.

Trust your instincts. If something feels off, it probably is, and if something feels right, it probably is. Taste is pattern recognition. The more content you make, the better your instincts get, so don’t second-guess yourself.

Obsess over the craft. Taste develops when you care deeply about the details. It comes from being plugged into the work, noticing what makes something feel right or wrong, and refusing to settle for “good enough.” If you’re constantly analyzing why one thing works better than another, why one caption lands harder, or why certain content feels more authentic, your taste sharpens. The people who build great taste are the ones who can’t help but pay attention to the small things.

My parting note

Everyone has different tastes, and every brand, person, and social team will have different bars for what good looks like. What matters is that you keep pushing the standard, because taste is the filter that separates good social from great social.

Thanks for being here. I’ve really enjoyed writing for you all over the last couple of months and building my writing muscle. I used to hate writing, and look at me now writing a weekly Substack!

Have a great holiday, and I’ll see you in the new year. Organic Social Club will be back in biz the first week of January.

Say 👋 on LinkedIn

Fast social is exhausting.

Posting every day, sometimes multiple times a day, reacting to news cycles, and filling content calendars because the calendar says something has to go out. It feels like running on a treadmill that never stops (can you imagine 🤣).

Fast social operates on a few assumptions:

• The algorithm rewards consistency so you have to post

• If you’re not showing up daily people will forget you exist

• More content equals more opportunities to get noticed

These assumptions aren’t completely wrong. Consistency does matter. Showing up regularly does help. More content can lead to more reach.

The problem is the trade-off. When you prioritize frequency, you sacrifice quality. When you’re racing to hit a posting schedule, you don’t have time to think deeply about what you’re saying or whether it’s worth saying at all.

Fast social chases attention, and attention is fleeting. There’s another way, and it’s called slow social.

What is slow social?

Slow social prioritizes impact per post instead of posting as much as possible. The goal is to publish fewer, stronger pieces of content that move people, build trust, and create long-term value rather than feeding the algorithm.

Slow social doesn’t mean posting once a month and hoping for the best. It means being really intentional about what you create, when you publish it, and why it matters. Here are five ways to think about it 👇

1. Be Intentional

Every post has a purpose, a point of view, and a clear takeaway. You’re not posting because the calendar says so. You’re posting because you have something worth sharing.

Before you create anything, ask yourself what the point of this is, what you want people to think or feel or do after they see it, and whether this adds value or is just noise. If you can’t answer those questions clearly, you don’t post. This is where my content statement system comes in as a check and balance.

2. Quality > Frequency

You post when you have something worth saying, not because it’s Tuesday. This doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. It means raising the bar for what you publish and saying no to mediocre ideas so you have time and energy for great ones.

Quality isn’t about polish, it’s about substance. A post can be simple and still be high-quality if it’s clear, honest, and useful. The question isn’t How often should we post? The question is How good does our content need to be to actually matter?

3. Give Your Ideas Time to Breathe

Fast social forces you to work in sprints where you come up with an idea on Monday and it needs to go live by Wednesday, leaving no time to sit with it, refine it, or make it better.

Slow social gives you space to think. You let ideas marinate, come back to them a few days later to see if they still hold up, test different angles, and make sure what you publish is actually worth publishing.

4. Distribution

Fast social is disposable. You post something today and it’s forgotten tomorrow, with the pressure always on to create something new.

Slow social means reusing and building on what works. You publish it once and then find ways to extend its life by turning a LinkedIn post into a Substack article, transforming a carousel into a thread, referencing it in future posts, or sharing it again six months later because it’s still relevant. A great post can live across your entire social ecosystem. Your best work shouldn’t disappear after 24 hours. It should compound over time.

5. Sustainable Workflow

No burnout, no “just push something,” no content treadmill. Fast social is exhausting because the pace is unsustainable, teams burn out, quality declines, and people start to resent the work.

Slow social is designed to last. This means setting realistic expectations with leadership, saying no to posting for the sake of posting, and protecting time for deep work instead of constant execution. Sustainable workflows produce better content and keep your team healthy.

Fast Social vs. Slow Social: The Difference in Practice

Here’s what the two approaches look like side by side.

Fast social posts daily or multiple times a day, lets the content calendar dictate what you create, chases trends and reacts to news cycles, optimizes for reach and impressions, judges success by volume of output, keeps the team always on, and treats content as disposable.

Slow social posts when there’s something worth saying, lets strategy dictate what you create, sets trends and contributes to conversations that matter, optimizes for impact and trust, judges success by quality of engagement, gives the team space to think and refine, and treats content as reusable and evergreen.

The Objections: What Leadership Will Say

If you propose slow social to your team or your stakeholders, here’s the pushback you’ll likely hear and how to address it.

Won’t we lose relevance if we’re not posting every day?

No. Relevance isn’t about frequency. It’s about resonance. One post that deeply connects with your audience is more valuable than seven posts they scroll past without thinking twice.

Don’t we need to stay top of mind?

Yes, and staying top of mind doesn’t require daily posting. It requires memorable content. People remember the posts that made them think, laugh, or feel something.

Doesn’t the algorithm reward consistency?

Yes, social platforms do favor accounts that post regularly, and the question becomes what’s the trade-off. If posting daily means sacrificing quality, you’re not winning. Slow social doesn’t mean ignoring the algorithm. It means understanding that quality engagement signals matter more than volume, and a post with 100 meaningful comments beats a post with 10,000 passive impressions.

How do we fill the content calendar if we’re posting less?

You don’t fill it. You rethink it. Your calendar should reflect your strategy, not dictate it.

How to Transition: From Fast to Slow

If you’re currently running a fast social strategy and want to shift to slow social, here’s how to start.

Build your content system. Slow social works when you deeply understand your audience. Build a content system that puts your ICP front and center. This system becomes the foundation for everything you create and acts as a filter for every idea, every post, every piece of content you consider.

Audit your content. Look at your last 30 posts and ask how many of them were actually worth publishing and how many were filler. Run each post through your content statement. Does it align? Does it serve your audience? This will show you how much of your effort is going toward content that doesn’t matter.

Identify your best work. Look at what posts performed well, what posts you’re proud of, and what posts still feel relevant months later. These are the benchmarks and the quality bar you’re aiming for. Look for patterns in what worked and why.

Set a new standard. Decide what qualifies as worth publishing, write it down, share it with your team, and ask before anything goes live whether it meets the standard.

Repurpose your best content. Take your top-performing posts and find ways to extend their life. Turn them into different formats, get other people in your social ecosystem to publish about it, and repost them again.

Communicate the shift. Connect with stakeholders by framing it as a strategic decision rather than a reduction in effort. Explain that you’re prioritizing impact over volume and that this approach will drive better results over time.

Track the right metrics. Track high-intent engagement metrics like comments, saves, and shares + long-term audience growth. Show leadership that fewer, stronger posts drive better results than high-volume, low-impact content.

You have my permission to slow down 🤝

You don’t have to post every day. You don’t have to chase every trend or fill every gap in the content calendar.

See you next week!

If you’re building organic social and want more breakdowns like this, subscribe to Organic Social Club. Every week I’m breaking down what I’ve learned (and what I’m still figuring out) about building strong social programs. The good, the messy, and the stuff social pros actually care about.

Subscribe now

Say hi 👋 on LinkedIn

I’ve worked in social for almost a decade now. INSANE lol. The longer I work in social, the more I realize the job is nothing like what most people think it is. It’s not just posting content, managing a calendar, or making things look good online.

The real work happens in the middle of the business. Social pros spend most of their time connecting teams, shaping narratives, and turning half formed ideas into something clear, cohesive, and worth sharing.

I think about the role in three parts: connector, consultant, and producer. Let’s dive into each one 👇

Social pros are connectors

Social pros sit at the center of everything. We’re the people who move between product, design, leadership, recruiting, and engineering. We collect context from across the business and translate it into something the outside world can actually understand.

Most teams only see their slice of the company. Social pros see the whole pie. We’re constantly stitching together ideas, making intros, pulling information from places nobody else thinks to look, and finding the threads that tie it all together. When we do this well, social stops being a silo and becomes connected to the entire business.

Social pros are consultants

Once we connect the right people and gather the right context, we become the people everyone looks to for direction. Social pros consult across the business more than people realize. We help teams sharpen narratives, push back on ideas that will not land, guide decisions so the company does not drift into noise online, and make sure the founder uses the right asset 😉

We shape how the business shows up online. We translate leadership goals into content that feels human. We help product teams tell better stories. We help teammates who are not social native understand what will resonate and what will not. We’re the guardrail that keeps the company from posting every idea that crosses Slack. You would not believe some of the ideas I have had to gently say no to over the years…

The consulting side of the job is quiet and unglamorous, but it is also where most of the real impact happens.

Social pros are producers

At the end of the day, social pros ship. We take everything we have connected and everything we have consulted on and turn it into content that represents the company with clarity and consistency. We write, edit, storyboard, film, design, repurpose, polish, optimize, and publish.

We’re the ones who make sure the company’s voice stays unified, that the messaging stays aligned, and that the audience sees a brand that knows what it is doing. We build processes, templates, workflows, briefs, and systems so the work can scale without losing quality.

Social pros do not just create content. We create momentum, and we do it while moving faster than almost any other team in the business.

Sorry, I know I’m biased, but we rock.

At the end of the day…

This is what makes social pros special. We connect the business, shape the story, and ship the work. There is a level of intuition, speed, and range in this job that most people will never understand, but it is what makes social pros so damn valuable.

If you’re building organic social and want more breakdowns like this, subscribe to Organic Social Club. Every week I’m breaking down what I’ve learned (and what I’m still figuring out) about building strong social programs. The good, the messy, and the stuff social pros actually care about.

Subscribe now

Say hi 👋 on LinkedIn!

Helloooo everyone! I ran my first ever marathon last weekend and it kicked my ass. My pacing was off, I hit the wall much earlier than I expected, and it took everything to get to the finish line. But I finished and that’s the most important thing.

After the race I kept thinking about the next piece I wanted to write, which was about building creative stamina, and it hit me how similar it is to marathon training. The more I thought about it, the more the connection made sense, so here we are.

Repetition builds the muscle. Runners get stronger by showing up often, and creative stamina works the same way. You build your chops through steady reps, and those reps build the creative muscle.

Pacing keeps you in the game. Marathon training teaches you to manage your effort so you can keep going. Creative work needs that same discipline. You can’t sprint every project and expect to stay fresh. Knowing when to push and when to pull back is what keeps your work sustainable.

Recovery makes ideas sharper. Runners rest because their bodies need it. Creatives need that rest too. Your mind needs time away so it can make connections you can’t see when you’re moving. Space is part of the process. Some of your best ideas show up on a walk, not at your desk staring at a blank screen.

Systems remove friction. Training plans make running easier because there’s no guesswork, and creative work benefits from that same structure. When you know how an idea moves from draft to final, when you have templates for recurring content types, and when your approval process is clear, you save your energy for the thinking that matters instead of wasting time.

Consistency creates momentum. This is where most people mess up. Stamina doesn’t come from one intense burst of effort. It comes from small, steady work that adds up over time. Creativity compounds when you show up regularly, even if the output is simple.

Focus protects your energy. Runners train toward a clear goal, and creative work improves when you know who you’re speaking to and what you’re trying to achieve. Clarity reduces noise and gives your work direction, and direction means you stop second guessing every choice you make.

Remember, creative stamina isn’t about feeling strong every day. It’s about showing up with whatever you have and trusting that the work will compound. Build habits that keep you steady, make choices that protect your energy, and give yourself enough room to think. The creative flow always shows up eventually.

Alright, enough from me. I’m going back to resting my legs.

If you’re building organic social and want more breakdowns like this, subscribe to Organic Social Club. Every week I’m breaking down what I’ve learned (and what I’m still figuring out) about building strong social programs. The good, the messy, and the stuff social pros actually care about.

Subscribe now

Say hi 👋 on LinkedIn

The biggest shift I’ve made in social is thinking of brand social as an ecosystem, not a single handle. This shift completely changed how I run social. I used to focus only on the brand account because that was the job, to build brand social. The problem is the brand account alone can’t deliver the reach, trust, or depth needed to grow on social today. You need more surfaces, more touch points. That’s where the social ecosystem comes in.

The social ecosystem looks something like this

Why the ecosystem matters more than ever

Organic reach is tight, and social feeds are crowded. Your brand account is competing with everyone on social. This is where the ecosystem becomes your advantage.

Here’s what it unlocks:

1. More reach: Every profile in your ecosystem reaches a different audience and shows up on different surfaces. Founders, employees, creators, leadership, each one expands where your brand shows up.

2. More credibility: People trust people. When real voices reinforce your message, it becomes more believable, more human, and more impactful.

3. More formats and angles: The larger your ecosystem, the more stories you can tell.

• The brand account tells the polished story

• Creators tell the relatable story

• Employees tell the insider story

• Leaders share the vision

4. More mileage: A single brand post is one moment. An activated ecosystem turns that moment into weeks of content. One strong idea can become six, seven, eight, nine+ pieces of content across those different profiles.

Small teams need this the most

If you’re a team of one or two, you can’t out-produce bigger brands, but you can out-ecosystem them. I’ve personally worked on social teams of 1-2 people, and the ecosystem approach has saved me!

Pro Tip: Measure the ecosystem, not just the brand account.

Another important shift is how you measure and report your work. Most social teams only report on the brand handle. I used to do that too. The problem is you end up underreporting your actual impact.

If you’re supporting founders, senior leaders, employees, and creators, their content is part of your program. You’re helping shape it, coordinate it, and get it out on social. It all contributes to the narrative you’re pushing forward.

This is why you need to change how you think about output. Instead of saying you published X pieces from the brand side that drove X, start saying you published X pieces across the ecosystem that drove X.

Once you start reporting this way, two things happen. Leadership sees the scale of the program, and you get credit for the actual volume of work being done, not just what appears on one channel.

How to build the ecosystem (super simple version):

1. Identify your surfaces: Who naturally has a voice already? Who could? Who wants to? Start with the profiles in marketing or product.

2. Think past the brand account: The brand account doesn’t need to publish everything. Some stories are better coming from a person. Think about who you can activate once you’ve identified your surfaces.

3. Enable people to publish: Give templates, scripts, topics, examples, but let people use their own voice. Being authentic is the whole point. Don’t force it!

4. Repurpose content across profiles: One strong idea can be repurposed across different profiles. Try to repurpose as much as possible.

One last thing before you go 👋

Brand social cannot carry the entire company. Your ecosystem is your advantage. Start building it now!

If you’re building organic social and want more breakdowns like this, subscribe to Organic Social Club. Every week I’m breaking down what I’ve learned (and what I’m still figuring out) about building strong social programs. The good, the messy, and the stuff social pros actually care about.

Subscribe now

Say hi 👋 on LinkedIn

A newsletter about all things social. I’ve worked in social for nearly a decade and started Organic Social Club as a place for social pros to learn, grow, and connect.

I’ve worked in social for 9 years across big tech, sports, and now startups (which I love). All completely different worlds with different products, audiences, and expectations. But the way you build strong organic social never really changes.

The programs that grow, drive impact, and feel connected to the brand all follow what I think are the five core principles of strong social. When you get these right, you can build an organic program anywhere, for anyone.

Here is what it comes down to:

1. Get leadership to buy in

This is where everything starts. If leadership does not understand what organic social can and cannot do, you end up stuck in reactive mode. You spend more time defending the work than doing it.

A great program needs the space, buy-in, and trust to operate. When leaders understand the role social plays, what it is responsible for, and what success actually looks like, everything becomes easier.

Alignment on goals and strategy is not optional. It’s the foundation of a social program.

2. Deeply understand your audience

There is no workaround for this. Take your time!

You need to know who you’re speaking to, what they care about, what they don’t, and how they behave on each platform. Without deep audience understanding, nothing else in your program will land.

Your ICP shapes your voice, your content choices, your positioning, your pacing, your formats, and your priorities. When you understand your audience at a deep level, everything else becomes clearer.

Most organic social problems are actually audience problems. Be super critical with what you publish.

3. There is no substitute for great content

You need content that is hyper relevant to your ICP and stays true to what they care about. Great content is not about being trendy. It’s about being useful, entertaining, relevant, and aligned with your audience’s needs.

But you also need a system. You need a content system (I use a content statement system). A content system helps you:

• Generate ideas

• Review content

• Publish and iterate

Structure and consistency stop you from creating just to create. They help you avoid being reactive and keep your program moving forward in a way that compounds.

The best social programs make great content repeatable.

4. Relationships matter

This one is underrated.

Strong internal relationships matter more than people realize. Social has to be collaborative and plugged in. You cannot operate in a silo and expect great results. This is how you ship things, move fast, and create work that feels connected to the rest of the business.

Pro tip: Become best friends with product, CS, and design. These teams will make your life easier.

5. Build a social ecosystem

Brand social cannot carry the entire company. It’s impossible and it’s not how modern social works. A strong organic program spreads across the entire ecosystem.

• Founders

• Senior leaders

• Employees

• Creator partners

The more voices you have supporting the narrative, the stronger the brand becomes. A social ecosystem builds trust faster than any single brand account ever could. It creates relevance, reach, credibility, and momentum. When you build an ecosystem, everything scales.

The best part about an ecosystem is it can be as big or as small as you need it to be. This small shift in thinking about brand social as an ecosystem rather as brand account has changed everything for me.

Get these right and you can build a strong organic social program anywhere, in any industry, for any brand because the principles of great organic social don’t change.

If you’re building organic social and want more breakdowns like this, subscribe to Organic Social Club. I’ll be sharing practical insights, lessons, and ideas to help you run a stronger social program.

Subscribe now

Say hi 👋 on LinkedIn