10 August 2023 |

The case for creative freedom (to make better content)

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Today I want to break down a sponsored LinkedIn shitpost that was selling creatine gummies.

Yes, you read that correctly. Stay with me here.

Jack Raines is a finance writer, and seasoned shitposter—and just a homie—who consistently goes viral on LinkedIn for his satire. This post from Jack about his favorite personal finance hack (stealing hotel breakfasts) is all-time material.

Earlier this week, he dropped another banger — this time, in partnership with a DTC brand called Create Wellness. Create sells a version of creatine that comes in gummy form. Their founder, Dan McCormick is taking a cool approach to building the brand, doing it all in public on Twitter.

This sponsored LinkedIn post is one of the outcomes of this public experimentation. Take a look:

“These aren’t normal gummies… Is this ecstasy?” 😂

God, I love the internet.

Now, I want to walk you through a handful of social media marketing principles we can learn from Jack and Dan here.

TAKEAWAY #1) ‘On-brand’ is overrated.

So many companies are obsessed with protecting this brand image that the founder — or more often, some middle manager — has in their head.

Yes. Having guardrails around what you will and will not accept from your brand are important. As a founder, or leader in your company, you need to set standards. I have much more empathy for this POV as I’ve been building my own company.

The problem is when your ‘standards’ turn into micromanagement. Instead, set the standard around the quality of your team — and the output will take care of itself.

On social, you need to take some risk. You need to lean into platform culture.

The highest-performing social content is usually stuff that’s raw, authentic — oh, and also entertaining.

When company execs hear the word ‘raw,’ they assume low-effort and sloppy. So they get scared. But this couldn’t be any further from the truth.

Creating compelling, scrappy social content that leans into platform culture on a deep level takes just as much intention as it does to create some overly-produced corporate pile of crap. Only difference is one is optimized for social and one should have been left on the slide deck in the HR meeting.

You need the humility to allow your product to be marketed in a way that performs best on-platform. Dan, the founder of Create, gave Jack the reigns to this project and let him run with it.

TAKEAWAY #2) Brands should treat their social teams like they treat their influencer roster.

Here’s what I mean. It’s well accepted at this point that to get the most out of influencer marketing:

  • You give them your product.
  • You give them an objective.
  • You let them cook.

The days of rigid scripts and overly strict brand guidelines are gone — and it’s easy to tell when brands miss the mark here.

In-house social teams and freelancers should be approached the same way.

  • You give them your product.
  • You give them an objective.
  • You let them cook.

TAKEAWAY #3) Organic social does drive sales.

Source, you ask?

Here:

Crazy what happens when you leave room for creative freedom, right?

For these 3 reasons, this post is going in my Swipe File. I use these types of prompts all the time with my clients (personal and brand accounts).

By the way, if you want to grab my exact Swipe File template I use to keep track of inspiration and never run out of content ideas, check it out here.