The best of Future Social, 2022 edition

I’m feeling nostalgic with this last 2022 issue of Future Social. It’s been a heckuva year in the social world: major TikTok growth, the continuing rise of the creator economy, and that one guy who bought Twitter. As I looked back at my pieces this year, I realized a few work as a thematic series to help you learn different elements of our industry.

Scroll down for guides on social media 101, how to handle Twitter in 2023, examples of best-in-class influencer marketing, and that one piece that people…um…didn’t love.

Social media 101

I’m a big fundamentals guy. I read instruction manuals, ask a billion questions, and wanna learn all the nitty-gritty. We had to make it up for ourselves when I started working in social back in 2011—I want to pass it on and get you simple, easy to understand guides so we’ve all got those brilliant basics down pat. Some light reading for ya:

• A full social strategy in 4 easy steps
• How to define your social brand voice
• The easiest, most positive way to build a personal brand
• How to build trust as a social media manager

The Twitter trilogy

I felt like I had to write about Elon constantly the last few months. So many changes on Twitter that have had so many effects on “brand social media.” The platform is in an ever-changing state, with new rules getting introduced and retracted within 24-hour periods. I wrote a few guides for the basic questions of Twitter 2.0 to help you navigate this new era of the bird app.

• Should your brand stay on Twitter?
• Should your brand pay for Twitter Blue?
• Why new networks like Mastodon or Hive can’t replace Twitter (yet)

Creators

We’re going to see “brand social” + “creator social” get closer next year. I’m expecting more UGC and more social media managers expected to understand the influencer world. Here are three of my favorite examples of effective influencer marketing:

• How MrBeast builds amazing social hooks
• Why GoPro doesn’t require creators to post X number of times
• Insta360 + Casey Neistat’s truly authentic influencer marketing
• How Hugo Boss made a perfect TikTok starring Khaby Lame

That one piece that made everyone rage…

I enjoy writing the how-tos, the case studies, and tactical pieces, but I really love theorizing about social strategies we haven’t seen yet. So many social media “best practices” aren’t really best practices—just institutional approaches that haven’t been challenged. That’s why I opined that pro sports teams shouldn’t post losing scores on social media, a strategy I still believe is totally viable!

Believe it or not, that wasn’t a hot take. I’m not really a hot-take guy—I find the devil’s advocate approach pretty annoying. I do think we all learn best by constantly asking ourselves why and openly considering new ways to approach social media. But wooooooof. Sports folks did not love it. I got called every name under the sun by actual pro sports social professionals, enough so that I took a half day at work to shake it off.

That said? I’m glad I wrote it! I want us all to critically examine social media. I’m planning to hit more experimental social approaches in 2023 (maybe with a liiiiittle bit of a disclaimer up front about the value of thought exercises next time).