Marketing Happy Hour - Top Social Media Tips by Platform | Bri Reynolds of Lyft

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

This week, Erica and Cassie chat with Bri Reynolds, Social Media Manager at rideshare app Lyft, to discuss updated tips for each social media platform, how to join in on trends in an appropriate manner and maximize your brand's results, and predictions for the future of social media. Here's a peek at what we cover in this episode: [00:03:49] - Bri shares her career journey as a post-grad, tips for landing a job with an aspirational brand like Lyft, insight for anyone hiring an intern to ensure a meaningful experience, and a peek into her day to day as Social Media Manager at Lyft. [00:13:25] - Bri shares her experience launching Adobe's TikTok during her first year on their team and working with creators to craft the voice of the platform, and shares her best TikTok tips for brands today. [00:22:01] - Bri offers advice around how to appropriately join in on trending conversation as a brand and how to maximize your brand's results on each platform while engaging in trends. [00:31:34] - Bri fires off her top tip for each platform: Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, BeReal + Lemon8 [00:36:14] - Hear why Bri says 2023 is the year of partnering with niche, unique creators. Bri also runs through her list of predictions for the future of social, including her thoughts on Facebook Marketplace, hashtags, Instagram stories, creators on Twitter, TikTok lives, and the role of community management in a successful social strategy. Grab a drink and listen in to this week's Marketing Happy Hour conversation! ----- Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Bri's episode: Social Strategy 101: What You Need to Succeed | Lauren Freund of Shutterfly TikTok 101: How to Build an Engaged Audience | Zaria Parvez of Duolingo Audience Insights 101: Sliding in the DMs | Sara Arbelaez of Heelys ____ Say hi! DM us on Instagram and share your favorite moments from this episode - we can't wait to hear from you! ⁠NEW: Download the Dream Career Game Plan!⁠ ⁠NEW: Check out our website!⁠ ⁠NEW: Join our email list!⁠ Connect with Bri on Linkedin Follow MHH on Social: ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠LinkedIn⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter, Marketing Happy Hour Weekly: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/marketing-happy-hour-weekly-6950530577867427840/

you're listening to the marketing happy hour podcast where we discuss career and industry insights with our peers in marketing we're here to talk about it all like the ups and downs of working in social media how to build authentic relationships in the influencer and pr space managing a nine-to-five and a side hustle at the same time, how to be productive in your life and career without losing your sanity, and more. Ultimately, we're here to build a community with you because we're all trying to navigate the world of marketing together. Are you ready? Grab your favorite drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode. Okay. Marketing happy hour listeners

buckle up for this incredible episode with Brie Reynolds, social media manager at ride share app lift. Brie shares with us her top tip for each social media platform, how to join in on trends that make sense for your brand, her list of predictions for the future of social, and more. Grab your favorite drink, a pen and paper, or open your notes app, and let's listen in together. Hey Brie, how are you doing? Hi, good. How are you guys?

Good. I'm so excited to speak with you today. But before we get started, I have an important question for you that we ask all of our guests, and that is what is in your glass this afternoon? It is happy hour after all. I have my Stanley in proper basic white girl fashion. I've been influenced by water talk are you guys on water talk I have heard of water talk but I have not seen anything about water talk there's a couple like influencers who talk about how they like judge their water in the morning like maybe it's lime or like flavor packets so um I bought like a crap ton of those flavor packets and right now I'm drinking a sonic ocean water water and it's amazing it's amazing that sounds so good and that's like a really good way to get like extra water we love hydration over here I was a doubter

I was a doubter but I've been converted oh awesome. Cassie, what are you sipping on? I have a water. And then I also for once I'm drinking something fun. So I have a, it's called a lambic beer and I am not a beer person. Do you know what it is? Yes. It's like a fruit based beer, right? Yes. Oh my gosh. I love that. You know what this is. So I don't know a ton. I'm not super educated on it, but I know it's from Belgium or regions around Belgium. And it does kind of taste like a fruitier version of beer. I'm not a big beer person, so this is great. But my husband and I love this, but yeah, a little fun. Is it still like sparkling kind of like a cider? Yeah. It's like, I don't know if you guys can see but it's kind of this one's strawberry or raspberry so very fruitful I love it yeah what about you

Erica I actually have like a makeshift Aperol spritz um it's Aperol and United Soda's lemon verbena flavor and it's good it works it's not technically an Aperol spritz, but it's Aperol and something spritzy. So that's fine with me. That's awesome. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Well, Brie, we are so excited to learn from you, hear about all the things that you have been working on recently, but first, can you just walk us through your career journey so far? Tell us a little bit about how you landed your role at Lyft. Yeah. My career journey isn't super long. I'm actually only a couple of years post-grad. So I graduated in 2020 during the pandemic. I didn't have actually a graduation ceremony, still bitter about that, but it's fine. I was fortunate enough

to be able to land a lot of internships in college though. So by the time I graduated, I had about six marketing internships under my belt in a bunch of different things, which I feel like puts me a little bit ahead of where I am technically in my experience post-grad. So I'm super grateful for that. The summer going into my senior year, I interned for Adobe and was able to like network my ass onto the social media team. And they offered me a position post-grad. I was there for two years and then just about a year ago, joined Lyft. That's awesome. Do you have any tips? You kind of already mentioned a few of them, I feel like, but networking and then just getting a ton of experience while you're in college

internships. But I know looking at your resume, someone would be like, how in the world did she land a job at Lyft, like kind of fresh-ish out of college. Any tips on getting jobs with an aspirational brand kind of newly into your experience outside of maybe some of the things you already mentioned? Yeah. Well, I think a way to network that people don't talk about enough, obviously we hear a lot about being on LinkedIn and getting in the right people's DMS, but a huge reason why I was able to kind of get my foot in the door at Lyft and, and what made them notice me is that I had a relationship with my current manager, Bryna Corcoran, through LinkedIn already. So I've been pretty active posting on the platform since I was in college.

And we're always kind of commenting back and forth through her stuff. And so we kind of had that built-in rapport, regardless of at the time, whether I was looking for something or not, she kind of already was aware of me, aware of my name, aware of my experience. And that made it 20 times easier when it came to that process, when I heard that there was an opening. So we kind of already had that established relationship. I know a lot of people talk about being present in people's DMs or reaching out. Sometimes that can

come across the wrong way if you don't know how to word something. And I would say a lot more approachable way to navigating LinkedIn is really just being proactive and commenting on the right people's content, because it's likely that that aspirational brand, at least some members of the team you want to be on are active on the platform. And I think that's sometimes a much easier and less intimidating way for people to use LinkedIn. Yeah, totally. And I think that's sometimes a much easier and less intimidating way for people to use LinkedIn. Yeah, totally. And I think LinkedIn too, just having that presence on the platform, like you said, everybody can see that everyone that you're connected with, and they'll see your brilliant ideas and be like, Oh, wow, she has something to say about this topic.

And we're really struggling in this area. And maybe she can bring something to our team that our team doesn't already have. So I totally love that. I do have another follow-up. We, at the time of this recording, are about a month out of hiring our own first intern. Oh, yay! Do you have, yeah. Do you have any tips for us and anyone out there

who is hiring an intern of how to make it the best experience for that intern and things that they can do like managerial wise to like make that easier and better of an experience for an intern? Oh my gosh, I'm so happy you asked. I have a lot of ideas, but I can just give you my like top two. My most impactful internship was probably the summer I spent at Chegg, which is like an education learning platform, textbook rental. I don't know if that rings any sort of bells, but, um, when I interned there, my manager and the entire like marketing org did a really good job at making sure interns can just sit in on meetings, even if it's not meetings affiliated

with the work they're doing or work they would do over the summer, just inviting them to be a fly on the wall and ask questions if they're comfortable. Just coming from college where college arguably really doesn't teach you a lot about the tangible organizational skills that you need in a corporate job. It was so interesting for me at that time as a sophomore, I didn't even understand how agencies worked with brands or that brands had such deep relationships with agencies, or I didn't understand how brand partnerships worked in sponsorships. And although I didn't necessarily have a project that touched those things, my

manager let me sit in on those teams to really just soak in information, get the lingo, understand how the various relationships worked. So number one tip is definitely allow your interns to sit in on any meetings, even if they're not really relevant to the work they're doing. And secondly, I would say, I think like, I think the most default response when an intern joins your team is to be like, what do you want to work on this summer? Which I think is great and obviously shouldn't be ignored. But I know for me as a college student who barely knew like anything about marketing, I wouldn't have had the verbiage or the knowledge at that time to be like, I really

want to learn about influencer brand relationships. I really want to learn about influencer brand relationships I really want to learn about how paid social integrates with uh down the funnel pipeline as an intern I'm just like I just want to do cool shit and learn from you yeah I think um with all of that said I think it's important to not only ask your intern what they want to work on at the start but also kind of do a midway check-in and be like, Hey, now that you know a little bit more about how we do XX, is there something you wanted to dive deeper in there? So just kind of constantly checking in with them. Cause again, they might not even know what they want to work on because they don't know how to describe it in the right way. They don't have the right experience to know. That's awesome. Such good advice. I know thinking about some of my most

enriching internships, it's exactly what you said, wearing a lot of hats, being involved in a number of different things, even if it's just sitting on and that allows the intern to really understand what their passions are and where they want to kind of focus on in the future. Cause I know the world of marketing can get kind of crazy. There's a lot of different directions to go in. So that is fantastic advice. But speaking of that, I do want to hear about your role and what that looks like day to day. What do you typically work on? Does it kind of depend on the day or how is your day structured right now? Yeah, I think my role is kind of structured in three different buckets.

So I'm very fortunate that at Lyft, we're able to get our hands dirty a lot. We have great partnerships with amazing agencies. But I think what's been challenging and rewarding about my role at Lyft is like we're able to do a lot of the work ourselves and get stuff done that way. So that's been really fun. I own all of our content calendaring at Lyft right now. So whatever is live on our channels, that was me hitting post. So that does take up a lot of my day, whether that's making sure stuff that's scheduled is aligned correctly in the tools that

we use or projecting the next month's calendar, next week's calendar, what have you, moving stuff around as needed, informing the right people, what have you, moving stuff around as needed, informing the right people, which is a skill I don't think is talked about enough, but occasionally you need to learn how to inform execs appropriately of the content that's going out. And it's a very fine dance of informing and not opening the door for that last minute feedback, making sure that they feel comfortable while still like keeping your team safe from that, from those like last minute pushes. So there's a lot of that. And then also handling content approvals with the various channels of creating content that we have. We have an amazing internal team. We have agency teams we work with. Occasionally a strategist will come up

with ideas last minute based off trends or stuff that's going on so it's a part of my role to kind of manage where everything is at in the the different um pipes of pipelines of content so that takes up a lot of my time um recently have had the opportunity to do a lot more influencer stuff, which has been fun. So whatever projects cooking up, prioritizing, working on getting influencers approved content made, working with our different agencies and getting that stuff done. And then I think what's the one of the most fun roles for me is I show up as Lyft in the comments of everything. So Twitter, bantering with people that are mentioning Lyft explicitly, showing up on the For You page comments,

trying to extend to LinkedIn. That's like the current phase of our community management strategy. So we're getting there on LinkedIn. That's such a fun part of my day. And it's always so fun when you find those nuggets of like really great stories and can pass them along to the product teams and who don't have the time to be on social and get them excited about how people are receiving their new updates or projects.

So those are kind of the main things I do. So cool. And I love how you say like the community management piece, especially just like outreach and trying to figure out where your brand can join different conversations that are happening already. I think we're going to talk about that a little bit later, but I'm very curious about on our intake form, you noticed that, or you noted that you launched Adobe's TikTok channels while you were on their team. What was that like? Yeah, that was crazy. And I'm so grateful for the leadership on my team at that time to give me that opportunity because not only was I fairly new on the team, I had been there just under a year, but I was

a more junior member. So I definitely had a lot of trust from my leadership at that time. I'm really grateful. It was kind of one of those things. Like, I don't know if you guys remember Tik TOK in like early 2021, where it kind of started showing up as a significant platform until 2021, like in 2019 and 2020, it was kind of like the dance charlie d'amelio thing and every brand was like didn't want to touch that with a nine-foot pole and then all of a sudden in 2021 there was this shift of like okay people are making quality content other brands are advertising here their viewership skyrocketed the more users than youtube and instagram combined. And I think every brand at that time was like, oh, fuck. What is that? And how do we do that? And it was interesting because the platform is

so new that there wasn't even a lot of external agency support that really knew. We were all kind of like, okay, let's figure this out and let's do it. It like vine with a twist I think that um so yeah it was really crazy uh we kind of threw together a scrappy strategy we knew we wanted to talk to young people we ended up down the line kind of refining that scope what does young people look like for Adobe what types of valuable users are on TikTok in that age range but we just started posting and trying to see what worked we at Adobe and for those not familiar Adobe is the software company that owns like Photoshop Lightroom it's the creativity platform we were fortunate that there's so many creators at our disposal because it's like the creativity tool. So we

really leaned into creators to kind of craft the voice of that platform. A lot of brands were kind of having one either internal person or one influencer kind of act as their voice. And at Adobe, because of how broad our tools were, we decided to kind of speak through individual creators instead. We thought that'd be more fun um and so we started with that strategy there was so many conversations with legal we we all didn't know what we were doing there's trending sounds and uh people referencing the kardashians and spongebob and like all of these legal like minefields that we had to try to which eventually I think we did but it was amazing and I'm really grateful that my team trusted me

and it I think it's a testament to that if you're more junior in your career fight for those opportunities fight for those new platform launches we have so much value to bring as young people in marketing because of the years of experience we have being on the user end of these platforms that I think if you sell it in the right way, your leadership will recognize

and reward you for that. Oh, yeah, that's excellent. I love that piece of advice. Yeah. Bri, I'm curious to hear your best TikTok strategies for brands I know you in the conversations that are already happening on like the TikTok platform what would you say are maybe your top two or three best tips around TikTok oh my gosh and

you guys can edit this out but on Lyft we are we are flailing right now so So don't dig, don't dig too deep. We're working on resetting stuff. But anyway, I don't want people to go look at our TikTok and be like, what the fuck are you talking about? It's okay. The best strategies for brands on TikTok. I think what every brand is struggling with right now is how fast the platform's evolving. Like at first, it seemed like there was a clear distinction between users and brands on TikTok and people followed brands

for one reason and followed influencers and individual creators for another. And I think that line is blending a lot more. And I think brands are starting to talk like people across all platforms, but especially on TikTok. And I think, whereas I know with my experience at Adobe, we kind of leaned into the platform being like, okay, they're asking us to show them how to do X. We're going to show up and how and tell them how to do that. I think the strategy has now evolved to, we're going to create stuff with them. We're going to be in the conversation with them. We're going to ask the the questions alongside them it's not so much as like I'm the expert you're the student it's like we're all figuring this thing out together so I think that's how brands can relate best to people on TikTok right

now is stop trying to be like a brand authority in something and show up and like I know at Lyft we're talking about how can we be alongside our customers and talk about the annoying parts of our app that we know exists. Like let's not shy away from that. And let's instead like relate to our consumer and talk about those like kind of gritty things that we normally would skirt around on other platforms on TikTok. Let's show that we're like on their side and, and we know the struggles that they, that they deal with. So I think like all of that in a nutshell is if brands can figure out the way that they can show up as human, whatever that means to them and their niche, then I think that will serve them well. That's awesome. Um, question for you, if someone's starting on Tik TOK, what do you think

the objective should be? Is it more awareness focused? Is it more relating to the community focused? Is it just kind of to drive conversation or is there a piece that's linked to like conversion? Yeah, I think that 100% depends on your niche. So like, for example, if we're leaning into TikTok from a small boutique, conversion with a pinch of awareness would probably be the mix there for strategy. But for large brands in tech, which I have experienced both in tech from Adobe and Lyft, it's so much harder to track that conversion all the way from TikTok video to adamant Lyft rider, right? So you have to lean into awareness because that's the only thing you can measure by. You can't, I hope one day there's an easier way

to track that journey all the way down. That's better than like a fucking discount code or something. But so it really depends on your brand. But I think that even you asking that question is really important. And it's a question that every brand should be asking before they join the platform. Because if you don't answer that question before you join, you don't really know what

success means to you because you could have a video pop off with 13 million views, but if it doesn't hit your goal of driving people to your boutiques website, or if it doesn't hit your goal of driving people to a landing page, or it doesn't hit your goal of followership, whatever that goal is, then you're never going to really be able to define success for yourself. And you're never going to know when you did a good job and you're just going to have to rely on that virality, which I think a hard lesson that I've know I've had to teach my leadership at both Lyft and Adobe, that like virality doesn't mean success always. it's warm and fuzzy and it's a great like serotonin feeling but going viral on these platforms isn't actually what drives like

meaningful interactions with your audience those things show up in smaller scale it's showing up on a video of someone talking about a bad experience they had with a lift and being able to respond with a stitched video from your CEO telling telling them they're going to fix it. It's about, and maybe that gets like 800 views, but it's that important like brand connection moment. That's what I think is more valuable than the huge followers, huge views, although that might feel warm and fuzzy. I think that was a little rambly answer to your question, but maybe there was some good nuggets in there. That was great. No.

Well, and part of that virality is a lot, a lot of times leadership will put this pressure on us to hop on trends and to do something that went viral for someone else. Cause I think it'll also help us go viral. How do you and your role discern if a trend is worth hopping on or not? How do you kind of go through that decision-making process to decide what content specifically you're posting, especially going back to what you mentioned about those goals and setting objectives for your presence on the platform, but yeah, just overall for trends, how would you approach that? Yeah, I think it's a good question because I think I've, I don't, I'm curious if you guys have noticed, but I think brands are kind of approaching trends in different ways. You have

super mega unhinged brand. Who's just like, I just want to fuck around and like act like a 21 year old and be sexy and horny and do that. That's kind of one way to approach trends. And I think there is an argument for that that's not necessarily my style but I can see how there's like a strong argument for that and then there's kind of the style of sure be fun and sexy and cute and these things that kind of pop up in these trends but always like point back to brand relevance because that's in my experience the language that leadership speaks that's the language your boss speaks and your manager's manager speaks. They're going to have a hard time selling these kind of more spicy opportunities and

advocating for you and advocating for your career down the line. And it's going to be easier for them to advocate for you and sell it in when you're talking about trends and things that are at least somewhat relevant to the brand. And I think it also helps social media managers, us not want to jump on everything and pick stuff that's really relevant. I know at Lyft, we're kind of, we're always trying to find like, what's the car way in? Where's the car spin? What, um, one of our favorite opportunities that we did internally was like the Spotify wrapped thing right like you saw a bunch of brands do that and our spin on it was like you're in the top two percent of Lyft riders that

took a Lyft to their ex's house that's kind of like our little spin on a trend that could have gone really broad and unhinged but we always like to bring it back to the brand. So then it's like, why is Lyft posting about this? We try to make that connection really clear. So that would be my advice to people. I know not everyone's kind of in that same vein, but I'm curious what you guys think. Do you guys like, not, you don't have to pick a camp either, but do you guys like that super unhinge type social or, or what do you think? I think it depends. I, the biggest thing for me is kind of what you were alluding to is if it doesn't tie into the brand and how I see and know the brand and it confuses me as a consumer, that's where it loses me. I think if they're

unhinged and it, it makes sense and it's hilarious. Like I'm a big fan of humor. Like for me, it works, but I don't know. Erica, what do you think? No, I like it. And I like hopping in on conversations that are happening with other brands and kind of like getting, you know, like an inside joke going with some other brands.

I love that aspect, but I do think there is like a weird, I don't know, you can't really define it of like, for example, if we didn't all know Wendy's as like the crazy Twitter people, and we saw a tweet from them, and we had never known that they were like that, we would be very confused about Wendy's we would be like, are they hacked? What's going's going on yeah I think it's it's a longer brand story you kind of have to bring life through whatever it is like your mascot or whatever you're doing throughout your marketing strategy and throughout your social strategy

and make sure that that actually fits into it really well but I think it's definitely possible and I always like seeing creativity like that yeah you have to like train your audience if you're gonna go that go that route and I agree it's always super fun to see those kind of like shit posty yeah brands um there's a balance and for some brands it really makes sense and for others it it doesn't I know at Lyft we kind of have a harder time and this is where I think people have to evaluate the brand that they're speaking through. But like at Lyft, we deal with a lot more sensitive issues as well. We are like in the business of transporting people.

And that's a very like intimate, vulnerable experience of being in the backseat of someone else's car. So at the end of the day, you know, we can't, we can't go as far as other brands who maybe have like lighter services or products that they can kind of play around with. And so that's something I've had to learn for sure at my time here of like always reminding myself that we are in that business and being a little bit more sensitive with that context. So I think it's important to just evaluate and remind yourself the brand you're speaking through and act accordingly. Yeah, absolutely. No, completely agree. And I have a feeling, I know what your answer to this

question is going to be, but how do you feel just overall brands can maximize their results on each social media platform? Is it by tapping into that virality and the trends? Is it through growing community and really establishing relationships with your people? Is it a mix of both? What do you think overall is really that secret sauce for results? I think really recently my answer has changed. I think before, let's say two months ago, I was all into trend jacking, trend jacking, and I still think it's a really important part of strategy, but I don't know if you guys have noticed this. Tell me if this is

just my for you page, but I know we've noticed it on my team at Lyft, but my for you page is way less trend heavy than it used to be. It surprises that way too. Like audio, like there's less of the audio remixing, maybe CapCut templates are having a moment, but in general, I'm seeing more like valuable content tailored to me or, you know, funny content tailored to me, not necessarily attached to trends. Do you guys notice that? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Especially as you were just speaking a minute ago, I was like, you know what? I don't feel like TikTok has been that crazy. You know, everyone's doing the same exact thing over and over again, which I appreciate because it gives you a unique experience on each video you're, you're watching versus

the same thing over and over again. Totally. And I personally am excited for this renaissance because it makes our relationship with legal a lot easier if we're not always like bugging them about wanting to do a drake sound or like a template with jim from the office then it kind of like opens us up to do more creative things but all that is to say to answer your question directly i think my answer now would be really finding your niche find a way to answer the problems and answer the curiosities of your audience in a way that's engaging and exciting. And I think that's a

secret sauce. I see that a lot with especially brands on Instagram, but there's a brand on Instagram. I don't know if you guys follow them. We're not really strangers. It's a card game, which initially you're like, how is a card game going to show up on social without feeling super redundant? But their niche is really just these like inspiring, like thought provoking snippets translated like visually on different things. So maybe they'll have like a poster hanging from a building or something tattooed on someone's body. That's kind of just like provocative and interesting. And that's the niche that they go in. That's how they provide curiosity and engagement and excitement to their audience. And then my other like favorite brand on Instagram brand on Instagram right now is the TSA. I just like made a post with them on LinkedIn, but like the TSA is great on Instagram and they answer those questions and curiosities from their audience in their own way. They don't try to be like, I feel like a couple of years ago, if I was

tasked with running TSA's Instagram, it would look a lot more like a travel influencer's feed, but whoever is the genius strategist, like on that team has decided to take it in a really niche direction that answers these questions and curiosities in a really like just real raw, punny, cheesy way that just works so well for them. So I think in short, it's just about, I know I've said this like five times, answering the questions and curiosities of your audience in a way that makes sense for you. And I think that's the best blanket response for each platform right now. So good.

Didn't TSA just post like kind of a parody type post about drug trafficking or something? Wasn't that? Okay. It was so funny like someone like someone put a bag of drugs into a jar of peanut butter to try to get it through the extra and they posted a picture of it with just like 12 peanut butter puns oh my gosh I posted about this on LinkedIn but I'm like if the TSA can joke about meth, your brand can joke about pretty much anything. Yeah.

It really is like, just meet the meat, like curb that craving that your audience has for the type of content they want to see you do. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. Brilliant. So funny. Yeah.

One of my favorite TV shows is, is it how to catch a smuggler or something? And it's just all of like TSA catching like all these people in their nefarious acts. Oh my God. So that's so funny to me, but okay. We've never done this before and I'm excited to do this with you. We're going to do some rapid fire. I'm going to list a few social platforms and ask your top tip for each, and then ask you to name at least one brand that you think is killing it on the platform. Let's start with Instagram. Since you just said TSA is killing it. What's your top tip? What's another brand that's doing a really good job on there? Instagram top tip would be partner with insane creators, partner with the creators that your core audience is super excited about and have them make dope shit for your feed.

I think that's like my favorite thing that I see brands doing right now. And a brand that's doing an amazing job outside of TSA and we're not really strangers is Duncan I love everything that Duncan does on Instagram they're amazing love that shout out to Duncan what about TikTok TikTok top tip is uh find your niche find that unanswerable question that your audience has and answer it in a million different ways and a million different styles and tones, whatever that means for you and brand that's doing an amazing job of that. And more is Chipotle on Tik TOK. Chipotle is amazing there. Excellent. How about LinkedIn?

LinkedIn? I think we have to learn to find unique ways to show up on that platform because it's already inherently really corporatey. And I think the best way to do that is through community management, which we're trying to do more from Lyft. And I think a brand that's doing that amazing right now is Slack. Slack's community management game on LinkedIn is amazing. Awesome. What about Facebook? Oh, Facebook, fuck Facebook. I haven't been, I know I almost didn't even include it. And I was like, I have to include it. We have to learn. No, that's okay. I, I'm really thankful that at Lyft, we've actually just formally deprioritized Facebook. We're like, we're not seeing ROI there organically. I think that whatever brand ends up mastering groups will be amazing. Cause I don't know about you guys,

but groups and marketplace are like the only reason I'm on Facebook. I feel like if there's a brand that can just do something really cool with groups, that's what that platform needs. So whoever that is, they'll be, they'll be my fave I love that okay lastly how about Twitter Twitter I feel like is uh the wild west right now with all the leadership changes that are happening and how the it seems like success means different things every day on that platform but I think the the top tip for Twitter is just to sound as human as you can um that's kind of an overarching thing for all platforms but especially on Twitter when you're competing for spots in people's um feed on Twitter you want to sound as much like the people they're seeing

already on their feed right um so I think brands that do amazing at that are Duncan again, Duncan just has such a solidified voice. McDonald's is really great on Twitter. I think that's what I have right now. I'm not as much as a Twitter gal as the other platforms, honestly, if I'm truly honest. Same. Okay. Question though.

How do you feel about brands on emerging platforms, like less popular, like be real lemon? I guess I don't know if every brand can do great on those platforms, but I was, I was thinking immediately once I was familiar with Lemonade brands like American Eagle, Cotton On, those like inherently female, young female oriented brands, Aerie, Victoria's Secret Pink, like it's primed for that sort of space. So I think any sort of retail brand that has a really strong, like visual product to show off would be great. Us in tech on Lemonade, I'd be like posting screenshots of my app, of the app. I'd be like talking, maybe talking about travel guides or something, but that connection would be like a little weaker. And so I think like visual products do really well on those platforms, like uh, be real and lemonade where they can

turn out content super fast. Yeah. So good. I, I completely agree. It's, it's tough and it's tough to be the people that have to do it all and try it all and do all the things, but, um, have patience with yourself and grace and, you know, just give it a go. And if it's not for you, don't do it. So, um, I do want to know too do you have any predictions for the future of social what do you anticipate is coming on any of the platforms or just in general what are your thoughts there i hinted to this a little bit but i think 2023 is really the year of creator partnerships uh partnering with really cool niche creators creators that are undiscovered I see that a lot from Duncan in particular like I loved this recent post from Duncan where they

partnered with like a fine artist like a super like baroque style painting to do like a very majestic painting of like a donut and a coffee. Everyone seemed to love that. There was also a partnership with Cheez-Its recently where they partnered with like a sneaker designer to make like a see-through sneaker that had Cheez-Its like in the see-through pockets of the sneaker. So making really engaging content through creators. And I think budget wise, it's pretty lucrative as well to do that. I actually have in my notes app on my phone, I have a list of like social media predictions that I'm like trying to check off as they go through, but I can just run through these. Oh, I would love to hear that one note before you, while you're looking that up.

I think something that we're seeing a lot more too is brands creating actual products alongside creators so like I mentioned this I think on another podcast we were on recently um Alex Earl she's the sensation right now right on TikTok she just came out with that energy drink and apparently it's sold out everywhere and it's a brand I had never heard of before but they really tapped into her and her audience and it is flying off the shelves so cool yeah I love that I think we're gonna see a lot more of that I think that was happening already but we're kind of seeing brands lean more into that right now too right like the Charlie Duncan coffee. Right. I follow like a mic or like a mid tier influencer who partners with this like hoodie brand and they do like drops through in collaboration with her. Yeah. Oh, another really cool thing. There's a new coffee shop that just opened in our town

and it's also got some locations out in California. But their whole thing is you can customize on their app, like your own cool drink with all of these different flavors and all these different like toppings and things. And then you can name that drink and have it in the app. So all of their customers are posting on social media saying, Hey, go get my drink that I made. And then whenever somebody buys your drink, I think you get like a few points in order to like, yeah, boost your board system or something. But like, that's a really cool strategy where you're tapping into like your existing customer already and not even necessarily creators. So I thought that was brilliant. And also if you're out there and you're in Lakeland

or wherever, and you want to order the city brews, banana bread, iced oatmeal, oat milk latte, go on there and do it. It's called happy, fast, delicious. I think I love that. That is so cool. It's like a spin on the, like when you go to a coffee shop and they're like the, their monthly little flavor is inspired by one of their baristas, but yes, fired by their customers. That's's yeah and it's all like on an app that's so cool isn't that a good idea I love that okay let's hear your prediction your list of predictions yes I literally have it like on my phone that's such a good idea I love that okay so my predictions are Facebook marketplace turns into a separate app I'm hoping for that

I think hashtags, if they're not already fully dead, they completely die on Instagram. It's just with TikTok being Google and being able to search a phrase, it really doesn't make sense for people to search using a hashtag or to like follow hashtags. I think Instagram already came out with like guidelines, new guidelines on how to use the platform or whatever. And I think yeah Instagram already came out with like guidelines new guidelines on how to use the platform or whatever and I think they reduced it or it like says three or five exactly three yeah no I feel like it's even that I think they're just gonna fully yeah yeah I know see that brands oh I think brands are gonna lean more into Instagram stories this year but

kind of talking to camera I know I struggle a lot with how do we even fuck with Instagram stories but I think the the solve is going to be put a recognizable face on Instagram stories that can provide updates and that because when you're kind of scrolling along Instagram stories and you you can so clearly tell between a brand and a person. And I think that line needs to be a little bit blurrier to really get people to watch. Yeah. Olive and June is doing a great job at that. They have one face that's kind of all throughout their, their social content. So yeah, I agree. I'm going to check that then. I'm going to check them out. Oh oh I didn't know they were big on Instagram that's awesome yes um I also had a theory that brands are gonna start similar to like how we

can partner with creators for Instagram or TikTok really lean into partnering with creators for Twitter um I know some brands hire like Twitter comedians to like moonlight on their Twitter accounts. And I think brands are going to do that more. I also think, unfortunately, brands are going to do more TikTok lives, even though I think those are like so messy. And I think community management is going to start to become even more important than influencers for reaching new audiences and gaining new followers. Yeah. Isn't it wild too, that community management used to be like the entry level position. It was like the lowest sought after position. And now it's like so important and almost, I don't know, it's, it's very integral for any brand, but we get more likes on like on average,

if you like put our videos against our comments on other, on other people's videos, not ours, we get more likes per comment on community management responses than videos because it's easier to kind of like ride the wave of an already viral video on TikTok rather than try to like make one yourself. It's just naturally easier to comment. So yeah, definitely recommend prioritizing that this year for sure. Totally. Those are really great tips. And also I had seen recently a few titles of like director of community management that companies are looking for. So apparently that is becoming really big and a big priority for a lot of brands.

So yeah. Yeah. Okay. We'd love to ask this question on the show. What do you know now that you wish you knew early on in your career? I know you mentioned you kind of still are early on in your career,

but if there's one piece of advice that you could give yourself back when you were just joining Adobe or Lyft, what would you say? Mine would be to not expect people to bring your name up in rooms that you aren't in. I think as an intern or as an entry-level person, you're like, oh, I'm sure so-and-so is noticing all this work and is talking about how I killed it on this, this, this. And I think an important thing to remember is everyone's thinking that even your managers

thinking that like your managers thinking about how they can show up in the right places in the right rooms and their managers thinking about that in the same way. So you have to not rely on other people to show off what you're doing and show your work and make sure that you fight for that visibility whether it's even being a like a lower level person on a big project and just being able to get that face time with the right people or fighting for being the person to send the recap notes being the person to send the recap deck or have hands in, in these types of communications that go out to higher level execs. Cause sometimes it's the only time they're going to see your name and you can't expect people to bring up your name for you. Although you can, you can try to have

them do that. It should be your responsibility and it's how your career is going to grow a lot faster. Oh, such good advice. I love that. I would also love to know before we close out about just facing burnout as a social media manager. I know social media can be sometimes overwhelming and it almost overtakes your life at times. So how do you kind of approach that and create that balance between being present on the platforms for the brand, but also for yourself and just life in general? Like how do you kind of approach all of that? Oh my gosh. I wish I I'm figuring that out, girl. I'm like, I'm also struggling with that. There's sometimes where I truly want to delete

TikTok from my phone for a week, but I feel like so much of what we do relies on not only being knowledgeable of what's trending today, but what has changed on the platform. And so I'm trying to realize that within ourself, within myself, within my role. And I think it's a really big downside that not enough people talk about. You have to be on all the time and it can get really draining. I think having open conversations with your manager is great. My manager and I have a really good relationship and I'm able to tell her when I'm going through it and need some time off platform. And, you know, maybe we can get adept to trends in other ways. Maybe we can stay on like publications like Buzzfeed or make sure we're subscribing to the right newsletters to help us when, when our team needs focused on other things, both for like mental health things and bandwidth

reasons. So having an open conversation with your manager is great, but all in all, I'm still trying to figure that out too. And I think that will be the challenge for social media managers in the next couple of years to figure out how we do that. Yeah. But I think the biggest thing, what you were pointing to is just, we're all in this together. We're all facing that. And so have open dialogue with your managers, but also share that with other people in the space and just ask them how they're navigating that. And I think we can learn a lot from that. And also just knowing someone else's facing the same thing is very encouraging, but I totally agree. We're all still trying to figure it out. I'm trying to figure it out. Erica is, I'm sure too.

It's, it's a journey, but it's good. But Brie, this has been so awesome. I learned so much from you and loved hearing you share everything that you're working on and just some of the insights that you've learned along the way. But we'd love to continue to stay in touch with you. So can you share with us where we can follow along with you online? Yeah, really simple. I'm really just only on LinkedIn right now. I'm trying to dabble in Twitter, but like I said, I'm frightened. I'm frightened of Twitter. I'm scared. But definitely follow me on LinkedIn. I post a

lot of unhidden shit on LinkedIn. That's I think kind of refreshing for how stuffy that platform can be. So I'm Brie Reynolds on LinkedIn. Would love to connect with other social media managers and hear from you guys and answer any questions. But I post a lot of the daily struggle on there. And I think that's how you guys found me, you know? Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much again for joining us. This has been so great. Thank you so much again for joining us. This has been so great. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Thank you. That's it for this week's episode. Thanks so much as always for tuning in.

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