think of this as your culture shift, a weekly opportunity to sink into whatever’s alive on the internet and consider how you can contribute to the conversation with your content.
hello hello helllooooo. comin’ in hot with this week’s culture shift and WHAT A WEEK IT HAS BEEN!!!! this email is packed to the fucking BRIM with convos you can contribute to, trends you can try, and a content crush list that will inspire you along the way.
before we get alllll the way into it though, I am beside-myself-stoked to share that the next live sesh of life of the party is almost half full, and it’s only been live to the waitlist for less than 24h. eeeee!! there are only 12 spots left, plus a really dope bonus that’s expiring tomorrow (saturday!) at 2PM EST.
if you’ve been eyeing the program and want to take advantage of the full waitlist discount AND the extras, hop onto the list here and you’ll get all the deets (and the checkout link!) in your inbox right away. if you have any Qs for me about the party, slide into the DMs!!
[ let’s fucking go, shall we? ]↓
AKA, eavesdropping online this week
I. the online room is abuzz with disappointment over butter saying bye bitches! and there’s a lot of dialogue around how much we value PERSONALITY when it comes to the digital rooms our businesses show up in. this is interesting on MANY LEVELS, whether you’re a community creator (does the space you’re creating align with the vibes folks want to experience in side? how is their brand represented within your own) or whether you support folks who are impacted by the butter shift, specifically. I see a huge opportunity for folks to create more content around how to personalize and cute-ify your tech (even when it’s just boring ass Zoom) and perhaps this is a good time to call back to this article I wrote on all my digital cute-ification practices if you’re looking for some inspo! you can also join the personality convo with ellie here and kalyl here, or comiserate with sara here.
II. if the beckham family drama hasn’t made it’s way to your feed yet, you’re welcome! it’s wild to be at the age where our childhood icons’ children are now old enough to GET MARRIED let alone bitch about their parents on the internet, but alas. the core conversation I’ve been seeing about this is the dynamic of the mother-in-law, and the relationship dynamics between mothers, sons, and their spouses. maybe that conversation has absolutely nothing to do with your work — but what about the tension between private truths and public perceptions? or the parasocial expectations we place on celebrities? or the way social media can be manipulated to tell so many different versions of the same story? or perhaps you just want to take one of my fave creators’ approaches and do a slutty little dance about it.
III. the “social media as television” evidence just keeps piling up, with this great breakdown talking through Kim K’s Kimsmas strategy, this discussion around Alix Earle’s new Netflix show, this Graza campaign, and the substack TV app announcement (why the actual fuck can’t these platforms just pick a lane?!). what I find super interesting about this is that we think people’s attention spans are broken, but the data suggests that depth + continuity is is actually the next frontier. i.e. content universe building, not just quicky viral hits.
AKA, OBJECTS OF ONLINE AFFECTION
001 / hilary duff healing millennials around the world with her london performance and her press tour, capitalizing on nostalgia to the level we all demand
002 / booktok going big league with this absolutely iconicccccc dior campaign (shout out to my friend amelia for sharing this to her stories, where I first found it!)
003 / the way chelsea fagan articulates the role of privileged-person-with-an-internet-presence within the current global + political climate into stark perspective in this carousel (slide four, especially)
004 / the fact that creator who turned her desktop into a farm bc honestly why the fuck not at this point
005 / per last week’s album announcement, harry’s first single is live and I REALLY LIKE IT. in case you were curious. his tour dates have also been announced and there’s lots of speculation as to why he’s playing where. personally, all I can hear is “with robyn in amsterdam.”
AKA, A TREND TO TRY ON
there’s a new re-intro template making it’s rounds and this is the perfect time of year to play with it! the best “about me” posts, IMHO, aren’t about you at all — but about how your journey appeals to the desires + feelings + experiences of the people you’re looking to attract and connect with on your platform. JUST A REMINDER! niki does a great job here on the personal brand front, and this is a great one from alyssa with more context in the caption, if you’re looking for a more biz-specific example.
just say so core!!! this isn’t a true “trend” but I’ve seen a couple business pals taking it for a spin and it’s very effective. basically, when you don’t know what to post, that’s the post. kelsey does this here when she shares about being in a comparison trap and kaitlyn approaches it by experimenting here.
analog everything is huge in content right now. the more we share about life lived offline the more people seem to want to hang with us online. there’s some weird tension here (like, are we really offline if we’re posting about it?) but I don’t think it hurts to inspire folks to do shit with their hands, either way. the key here isn’t just to harp on about why it matters, but actually think about ways to integrate this discussion into your existing themes. for example, I loved this tutorial showing how to bring analog elements into your videos, this list of analog ideas for folks with adhd, and this photodump that has some truly unique suggestions.
