Nathan Jun Poekert’s Post

#Hiring foodies who are #SocialMedia and #ContentCreator pros! Well technically, I am helping two of my clients, El Pollo Loco, Inc. and FreshDirect who are hiring! ------ Links to apply to both are in the comment section! ------ 🐔 🐔 🐔 🐔 🐔 🐔 🐔 🐔 🐔 🐔 El Pollo Loco, Inc. is hiring a Social Media & Content Strategy Manager. They are truly looking for someone who has a pulse on culture and knows what creating social-first content means. The marketing leadership team there is ready for a jolt into their social and aren't looking for "traditional food social" and are open to professionals from any industry who understands what it means to make "oh no they didn't" content in feeds and understands how to engage audiences in comment sections. Note: Although the JD says 3+ years experience, they are now opening this up to be a senior social role as well for applicants with 7+ years experience. This is a hybrid role as you will need to be available for on-set work in Costa Mesa, CA. ------ 🥕 🥕 🥕 🥕 🥕 🥕 🥕 🥕 🥕 🥕 FreshDirect is hiring a Contract Social Media Content Creator to work on-site in their insanely awesome warehouse, test kitchen and photo studio in the Bronx, NY. I have been there and my mind was blown 🤯 . It is a willy wonka playground of content creation opportunities. This role has the opportunity to grow into full time and is ideal for someone who sits around all day thinking about engaging content or says "if I worked at a brand, I would do this...." They are truly a brand who is ready to try anything. Note: You are NOT expected to graphic design OR to be an experienced photo retoucher / editor. They are looking for someone who can mock up memes in a deck and can edit photos in VSCO. If you don't meet some of the other technical needs don't let this hold you back either! The biggest need here is "I can come up with great ideas and I can capture and edit them on my phone!" If we're already connected and you're interested, feel free to DM me with any questions!

I am surprised that a news outlet hasn’t reported on this but Roc Nation did something really forward thinking on TikTok, recently, for the launch of their artist Tinashe’s new single “Nasty” (2.8M posts on TikTok to date). They licensed it for commercial usage. Now if you don’t know Tinashe, shame on you. But she has been around for more than a decade in the industry. She is not a newcomer. To date I have only mainly seen emerging artists at smaller labels doing this like Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” (5.7M posts on TikTok) but I think it’s something that every label should consider simply for the power that brands on TikTok can have to help to amplify a song that is just being released or to drive continued plays of the song to users on other platforms. For example, a post by Duo recently on TikTok that has given “Million Dollar Baby” 1.2M additional plays of the song. One could argue that the licensing of both songs for general public and commercial usage has resulted in BOTH songs being currently present on Spotify’s “Today’s Top Hits” playlist which opens up REAL opportunities for artists. I just don’t think the music industry can ignore the power of TikTok and the influence that brands who are searching for commercial songs to use in content can have in propelling a song to the charts. And this isn’t a new concept. Consider in 1998 when Gap used an old version of “Jump Jive an Wail” by Louis Prima in a wildly popular commercial and it kicked off the emergence of swing music in the US. One year later Brian Setzer Orchestra re-recorded the song that topped the pop charts and went on to win a GRAMMY award for it. Is this the beginning of more recognized and established artists showing up in commercial usage libraries? I sincerely hope so. And it benefits everyone in my opinion.

Gonna vent for a sec about the bias in marketing towards industry-specific experience. Maybe I'm in a meh mood because of whatever travesty I endured from 9pm to 10:15pm last night (I turned it off because I couldn't take it anymore). I got approached directly over DM by the President of a brand earlier this year for an executive level role to oversee organic, paid social, influencer and partnerships that their company was about to post. It was phenomenal -- from the culture of the company, to the compensation, the equity, everything... and it was one that would make me consider leaving consulting for. The thing about this role was that it was SaaS / B2B and I didn't have experience in this area. I even called it out over DM with the President. They told me that it didn't matter and that they wanted to "shake things up" and not be traditional in their thinking and even said they believed hiring someone from tech / SaaS / B2B would be a mistake because they needed someone who could come from the outside to bring fresh ideas. I got one single 20 minute interview with an executive recruiter who grilled me on my lack of B2B / SaaS experience. It was all they could dwell on. I didn't get moved to the next round even with a referral from the President. The individual they hired came from tech and B2B background. Their organic social reach & engagement has dropped significantly. Their voice has become even more corporate comms. Their LinkedIn presence may as well be B2G. Hire people from different backgrounds. Hire based on creativity and innovation and their ability to think strategically. When I worked on HBO I couldn't afford HBO. When I worked on Amex I didn't have a good enough credit score for an Amex card. When I started at BMW I had never bought a car, myself, before. When I started at American Eagle I had never used TikTok before. This "X years experience in __________ preferred" is often a one-way ticket to boring marketing. Have a great weekend! 🖖

↳ How much should you budget for Influencer Marketing? ↳ Should you hire an agency or a full time influencer manager? Last week I spoke at the Sprout Social, Inc. Roadshow in NYC about a number of topics related to the Creator Economy but these two resonated the most with the audience. ↳ Bonus: I was asked about B2B influencer marketing and how to execute an influencer strategy if you don't have a budget. My answer? "If you don't have a budget you shouldn't do B2B influencer marketing." The Sprout Social Roadshow has another stop in a few months + may add more stops in the future so tap the 🔗 in bio to RSVP to their Toronto event in September! #SproutSocialPartner

Are PR launch events an outdated practice? Maybe? But maybe not if you ensure the vibes ✨ are strong. Last night I got to attend a launch event for Away’s new line of Soft Luggage launching on 7/9. What I MOST appreciated was how diverse the room was; easily one of the most inclusive PR events I’ve ever attended before. The backgrounds of the attendees also extended beyond just fashion and lifestyle influencers and writers. From AR designers to astrologists, there were so many interesting people who were beyond engagement focused occupations in the room and I found myself enjoying conversations rather than reaching for them. Outside of that I loved the small details like Japanese inspired bites (the Tokyo 7-11 Katsu and Egg Sandwiches were Chef’s Kiss) and I thought how they created a shop-in-shop pop-up with other small retailers focused in travel / vacation goods was so smart! •••••••••• Thanks Alice Chen for inviting me and the hubs for a rare night out on a school night 🖤

I am #hiring / recruiting for two exciting roles to join the team at Bogg Bag! → Role 1: Manager, Social Media & Content Strategy → Role 2: Manager, Influencer & Creator Marketing I have been working with this incredible brand since the start of the year in a Fractional role and have had truly loved working with the incredible founder Kim Vaccarella to explode the brand on social media and we want to keep that momentum going! The brand has recently been featured as a must-have bag for moms on New York Magazine, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Tamron Hall Show IN THE PAST MONTH. It is such an exciting time to join this rapidly-growing brand. ❤️ Please note: → Please do not DM or email me as I won't be able to respond to them :-) → This is a Hybrid role. Applicants must be able to commute to the office in Secaucus, NJ a few times per month (about 45 minutes from NYC). I am a BIG fan of remote work but we will need on-site availability. Most importantly, I can assure you (from experience) that the work and environment is FUN and POSITIVE.

This morning I saw a sponsored reel on IG from a creator I follow that was posted three days ago. It was in partnership with a resort / hotel chain. The hotel he was at was in London. He has 90,000 followers. The reel has 7,000 plays and 420 engagements. This got me thinking about the fact that my organic content on LinkedIn averages more reach than I have followers (not a flex just a fact) and it sparked a realization that LinkedIn represents a massive untapped opportunity for B2C and D2C companies in specific industries. For example... 👉 ALOGIC partners with LinkedIn creators to promote their line of 4K monitors. What better way to show the product in usage than on the platform where we're most likely to use the product and with the people who would MOST use it? 👉 The Walt Disney Company partners with LinkedIn creators with trips to their parks and cruise lines or Hilton Hotels & Resorts does the same with their hotels and resorts. I'd make a strong argument that the audience on LinkedIn has a much more quality audience than an Instagram influencer to influence a purchase decision on a vacation. 👉 DJI identifies creators like Christina Le and Robyn Nissim who are producing frequent video content and partners with them to use their latest video hardware. 👉 Away partners with professionals who frequently travel for work and conferences like Lola Bakare and enters into a long-term partnership for her to post 6 posts a year featuring their luggage in her photos at her conferences etc. 👉 Factor_ partners with health and fitness-conscious creators like Sam Wells to show how their pre-made meals are the perfect way for new parents to get nutritional and healthy meals in between meetings. I feel like the opportunities are endless here and as LinkedIn quickly becomes more "human" -- it's impossible to stop it at this point. We could soon start seeing more B2C sponsored content on here. TBH we SHOULD start seeing this since LinkedIn still has the highest reach and engagement per follower of any other social media platform. And don't forget micro influencers on LinkedIn. If we're willing to partner with creators who have 5,000 followers on IG, why not the same on LinkedIn? P.S. you're welcome to every brand I tagged for this free promo.

Your resident geriatric millennial was on the Creator Economy Live podcast with legends Keith Bendes and Brendan Gahan talking about the importance of being uncomfortable when your social team present ideas that you may not understand. TL;DR: You are not the audience. And nobody knows your audience better than your social teams. Let them try things out. Let them be weird. Gabby Frost had a great post a few days ago about asking for approvals on weird posts being like asking parents if the kids can go outside and play. Empower your social teams to play. If your social teams are not making you uncomfortable, they're more focused on meeting marketing demands vs. thriving on social media.

"Don't be on TikTok until you are ready to be on TikTok" - the advice I recently gave to a client who had a solid base of followers but was failing to have any of their content hit impactful reach and engagement. So many brands are failing at TikTok right now. Why? I've summed it up into four core points: ➡ Unwillingness to be ugly. Too many marketing leaders are too hesitant to have their brand presence be "misaligned" on social which leads to boring content that nobody wants to engage in. Unless you are a luxury brand that has an audience that loves everything you put out, you have to use capcut filters, meme style content, put real life moments front and center, and deviate from your brand presentation. Otherwise you're never going to have success on the platform that rewards ugly. ➡ Not tricking your audience. For brands to be successful on TikTok, you have to "trick" your audience into realizing they're watching branded content. You need a "hook" at the beginning that grabs their attention. You need to use in-app fonts. It needs to be captured on an iPhone. The audience needs to watch at least 15% of the content for it to be given any algorithm love in the FYP and the only way to do that, often, is to trick them into realizing they're looking at content from a brand. Even better, you want them to say: "I can't believe a brand posted this." ➡ Planning TikTok like a social calendar. Too many brands just schedule content for the sheer sake of scheduling content on TikTok. There's no logic in this and, in fact, I have studied and worked with enough brands now that I am convinced that TikTok will penalize brands for repeatedly shoving bad content in front of their audience. It doesn't matter if you have 1,000 or 100K followers. TikTok will effectively push ~500 guaranteed FYP views and then based on the total watch time and engagement, decide whether or not to continue giving you FYP love. Only post when you have something worth posting. On that note... ➡ Not emphasizing shares enough. If you are about to post something on TikTok and the answer to the question, "will someone want to share this with their bestie?" is "no probably not" then it's not worth posting. TikTok is rewarding shares more than any other engagement metric so prioritize that when you are content planning. Did I miss anything?