By I used to log onto Twitter in the mornings and see people talking about a major brand’s latest ad campaign, skim through the latest viral marketing thread, and DM my friends for the tea of the main character of the day. I’d go onto LinkedIn and see some connections who have gotten new jobs, those who have just gotten laid off, and a viral marketing thread from two weeks prior. (IYKYK. And if you don’t know “IYKYK” then no, you definitely don’t know.)
But now when I log onto Twitter, I see a couple of product announcements and shitcoin ads. On LinkedIn, it’s blog post links and podcast teasers. On Threads, it’s a post that says “Ohmygod, I asked my seatmate on this flight if they wanted to switch seats and they said no and I said ok, and now I need public validation for an extremely normal interaction,” and there are 1,200 comments, one-third of which call the original poster a privileged human-sized piece of walking garbage. On Bluesky, it’s the 12th straight week of your online acquaintances saying, “Hello? Is anyone here?”
That’s probably a long-winded way of saying it feels like the marketing watercooler is gone, and I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what to react to. And I don’t… I don’t really know what to blog about next.
It used to be that marketers would pile onto a hot take and I’d figure out my own angle, offering personalized guidance on things like how to structure your organization, my updated content marketing strategy, and crafting pitches.
But now… where is everyone? Yeah, yeah, I know that we marketers are hanging out on Instagram and LinkedIn, but you’re probably looking at headline writing ideas while I’m refreshing my Explore tab to see the latest on the Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni news. You’re probably thinking about how to create high-impact campaigns and leveraging AI in your content, but I’m not sure I have anything new to add here beyond what I’ve already said. This isn’t a “Where is my audience?” problem. Rather, it’s more of the existential concern, “It feels like our community is now scattered across four different social networks while we all keep trying to find the billionaire we hate least so that we can use their social platform instead, meanwhile instead of being productive at work, we can’t stop watching in horror our friends downloading Chinese social apps on their phones simply out of spite for our own government.”
Oops… maybe I’m projecting. Wait, where was I? Oh yeah, the watercooler. The marketing monoculture and real-time discussion. I can’t find it. I look at my various social feeds and lists, but the conversation is more disjointed than ever. Some people are starting to embrace AI, others are a year ahead and over it. Some just discovered how to write a viral tweet, others see right through it. It’s hard to figure out what to comment on when it looks as though there are fewer and fewer “big” discussions, and instead, a bunch of tinier discussions about whether it’s gross or really gross to cut your nails in public.
I’m trying to figure out where I go from here. It might just be that I need to go back to basics and create the 101 marketing content that I want to see in the world. Maybe you’ll find me on Threads, rage-baiting you. Or maybe you’ll find me on a few places, trying the same thing again and again.
See you out there (I hope).
