I’m trying something new.
You’ve come to expect deep dive essays and frameworks from me. But today you’re getting a round-up of social media brain candy.
And unless you all throw tomatoes at me, I’ll be sending out a newsletter like this once a month.
(Let me know if you enjoy this format — there’s a one-tap poll at the end!)
One thing to boost reach on LinkedIn
I’ve been paying close attention to whatever the hell’s going on with the LinkedIn algorithm.
I’m still synthesizing my research, but one thing is clear: it’s a mess. They’ve been endlessly tinkering (RIP, 360Brew), making reach erratic and confusing a lot of people in the process.
So what can we do about it?
Well, there’s one tried and true solution that most brands aren’t doing enough of (myself included): posting zero-click content. Giving your audience all the value right there in the feed, no link required.
If we’ve slacked off on this, it’s probably because LinkedIn has long insisted it doesn’t penalize links in posts. But now it seems they might be rolling that back — at least, they just confessed to throttling “promotional” posts (whatever that means).
Thankfully, human behavior is a bit more transparent than the algorithm.
People have been trained to expect immediate answers on whatever platform they’re on. We’ve all become burned-out lurkers who only hit “like” for the truly exceptional post (guilty). And how often do you save, share, comment or “dwell” on content that exists primarily to promote other content?
Of course, your brand has to drop a link sometimes. But you need far more posts for reach and credibility than for conversion (a.k.a. upper/mid funnel vs. bottom funnel) — and those should be zero-click.
Technically, a really valuable post with a subtle link might still get distribution, but so long as there’s a risk of being “promotional,” the safe bet for anyone who’s rebuilding reach is to scale back on links altogether.
Because if you don’t train the algorithm — and your audience — to engage with you again, there won’t be anyone there to click anything at all.
(I’ll be testing this “fewer links” theory with my own content and will report back in the coming months — stay tuned.)
Marketers can’t stop arguing about: “Trend slop”
In my limited leisure-scrolling, I’ve seen maybe three brands pitch their products through the “Millennial PR Team vs. Gen Z Social Team” lens, like so:
Apparently so many brands jumped on this bandwagon it inspired the term “trend slop.” Critics say it’s just as bad as AI slop. To sum it up: Copycatting a trend is just as inauthentic and unoriginal as outsourcing your creativity to ChatGPT.
It’s true that only plugging your brand into trends isn’t an actual strategy. It might pump up vanity metrics, but it won’t earn the kind of audience that sticks around. Especially not for orgs with bigger things to talk about than their newest hybrid coffee/cola cream-top latte (not me dunking on Dunkin’).
At the same time, Rachel Karten’s clap-back is spot on.
The average person experiences any given trend the way I did — they see two or three posts. So putting 50 trend posts side-by-side to complain about all the trend posts feels, maybe… a tad… mean-spirited? (And a bit like rage bait.)
So don’t let the critics stop you.
Jumping on a trend can be a fun and easy way to boost reach — so long as it aligns with your brand, audience and goals. Chasing trends without a strategy in place can get sloppy fast, because it’s no substitute for a real point of view. Trend carefully.
A damn good post, dissected
I caught this Indeed post in the wild and it’s actually pretty smart. Let’s take a quick look at what we can all learn from it.
How it hooks you: “Wait, is this real?” It looks like every corporate “please welcome our new hire” post. Until you read what they’re actually admitting.
What makes it engaging: As a running gag, Indeed has “hired” more than four new social media managers in the past week or two. People are piling on in the comments, clearly in on the joke.
What makes it strategic: Down to the very Gen Z informal writing style, they know their audience. Culturally fluent content builds top-of-mind awareness, sure — but also affinity and loyalty: “This brand gets me.”
What you can take away: Humor is disarming. It builds community. And letting your hair down as a brand signals you’ve earned the confidence to do so. So if your brand were a person, what inside jokes would it tell? To pull this off, you have to know your audience, how your brand is perceived, and where you can safely play with assumptions.
One line for your next staff meeting
Your boss wants a big social campaign like, next week.
Their expectations are completely insane, but they insist: “Can’t you just use AI?”
Educate them. “AI works best for repurposing our best human content — not generating posts from scratch.”
Hollow, generic content does nothing for you. People sniff out inauthenticity and scroll right past it. So your team (actual humans) still needs to do the work of developing the strategy, creative briefs, and flagship content — and calibrating your messaging and brand guidelines — before you can expect Claude to pump out anything useful.
AI can scale the how. But you still have to decide the what and the why.
That deeper strategic alignment is the real work — and it isn’t done in an instant.
See you here in two weeks (or anytime on LinkedIn),
P.S. Done waiting for things to “slow down” to build a real strategy? Book a call and let’s pinpoint exactly what your team needs to finally create content that works.
