Acting. Parenting. Tweeting.
We’re going to talk about all three today because they relate.
I was talking to my actor friend, Lindsay, who’s made an appearance in these columns before. I was telling her how excited my eight-year-old daughter was when she found a yoga blanket gathering dust in my entertainment console drawer and asked if we could spread it on the couch.
Sure, I told my daughter. Not only did she love the look of it (I could go either way), but for the next several days, she remarked to me how much more comfortable the couch is (she’s probably right).
This was a small win for her, but a meaningful one. And I remarked to Lindsay how easy it is as a parent to offer little ways for kids to take control of their surroundings.
I then corrected myself, adding that if you can help anyone take control over their surroundings, it’s so empowering, and it’s one of the most reliable ways to improve someone’s situation.
She had two related examples to share.
First, she was a teacher for several years, with much of that in a tough district. She told me how letting students choose which book they’d read from among a few options made them so much more excited about the material. A choice as simple (and yet profound) as Animal Farm vs. Lord of the Flies made students far more invested in the material.
She said there has to be structure though. You can’t just let students choose any book and take a vote. The structure is critical.
She further related that to acting, and how the best acting comes from that mix of “freedom and structure.” She said it’s true for all forms of acting — including the art of clown.
As we discussed this, there was one example that felt especially glaring given the timing: Twitter.
We were chatting Monday, hours after Elon Musk flipped the bird over to his portfolio.
Twitter was social media’s first real foray into balancing freedom and structure, initially focusing on the structure of 140-character text posts.
As the structure expanded into images, recorded videos, links with previews, live streams, threads, and double-length text posts, the constraints on freedom became even more important. It was increasingly dangerous to allow anyone the freedom to post whatever they wanted. Misinformation doesn’t just change elections or policies; it can cost people their lives.
If Russia could have flooded Twitter with misinformation in February and there were no repercussions for doing so, most of the world would have assumed that Ukraine (with its Jewish president) is really overrun by Nazis who were waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against Russians. Since truthfulness apparently has become more important on Twitter, it’s been possible to call out Russia’s lies, view all the atrocities Russia is committing against Ukrainian civilians, and hear directly from the Ukrainian people.
As outmatched as Russia has been by Ukraine’s military, a war fought by disinformation would have worked far better to Russia’s advantage and at least could have kept some of Ukraine’s allies on the fence by suppressing pro-Ukraine popular opinion. An information war, however, works entirely in Ukraine’s favor.
That brings us to Twitter today. Maybe the Ukraine of 2023 or 2030 doesn’t need to worry. Musk’s support for Ukraine may have given it some commanding advantages. Musk can take sides and save lives, and that’s true with his push for products powered by renewable energy sources.
What will be most challenging for Musk though is to balance freedom and structure with Twitter. The classic Spider-Man line comes to mind: “With great freedom comes great responsibility.”
Can Musk balance that? Can anyone? Twitter’s trajectory shows many signs of improving on that quest over the years, and even when it has failed, it seemed that its management valued the tradeoffs inherent to providing the structure for freedom. Neither structure nor freedom is an absolute, and Twitter at its worst and best has been a gift for those fascinated by that balance.
I’ll remain on Twitter to watch, learn, and participate. I don’t know where else I’d go. As I joked (on Twitter), if MacKenzie Scott (the ultra-altruistic philanthropist also known as the former Mrs. Bezos) buys or launches a social platform, I’ll spend my time there, but I don’t expect to ‘gram, ‘tok, pin, or snap any more or less with Musk owning Twitter. I expect I will have to block or mute Twitter accounts more often though. Right now, just about the only thing I block are people sharing Wordle scores (really).
Will Musk with his brand of freedom collide with Twitter’s brand of structure? Can they work together? Will Musk discover that there is no freedom without responsibility? Will Musk’s detractors be surprised by his vision for freedom and structure coexisting?
I don’t know. But I’ll be following the tweets.
David
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WHAT TO READ:
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Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:
- Check out the new offer from Saral. SURVIVAL: This 90-day transformation program takes consumer-facing brands from nobody to superstar with influencer marketing (or you don’t pay). It’s the most no-brainer way to try creator-driven growth especially if you’re bleeding money on Facebook ads. Premium members get a 10% off their 3-month done-for-you program. Speak with Yash to see if you qualify for the first cohort.
- The AdForum PHNX Awards 2022 are accepting entries. I even get to judge them this year, so let me judge you. Submit entries now.
- ‘In the room where it happened’ by Judy Shapiro, Editor-in-Chief at The Trust Web Times
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JOBS
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Keep checking out the #jobs channel in Serial Marketers for more. Better yet, subscribe to get updates from our job listing board. Here are some great opportunities shared in these places or sent to me directly.
1STDIBS
Senior Paid Manager
New York, NY
Via Eric in the community
“As the largest luxury online marketplace, we are changing the way consumers shop for luxury items online. We are looking for a Senior Manager, Paid Media to join our marketing team to help drive the evolution of our digital marketing capabilities and efficiently scale existing channel performance. This is a new position to support our growing Paid Media team and reports directly to the Head of Paid Media. In this role, you will be involved in supporting the digital strategy, campaign creation, optimization, and reporting for all digital paid marketing channels. As the Senior Manager, you will be responsible for reaching the right audience at the right time to grow sales and visibility for 1stdibs.com“
Apply
AMRESORTS
Digital Analytics Manager
Via Miguel in the community
“As a member of the Global AMR Direct & E-Commerce team, the Digital Analytics Manager has deep understanding of clickstream data, strong quantitative problem-solving skills, and is capable of synthesizing data into actionable insights and recommendations for the business. S/He can present and influence leaders clearly articulating the “What”, the “Why” and the “So What” which will result in better digital products and make shopping easier and inspiring for our guests.”
Apply
AVID DEMAND
Senior Paid Media Manager
Remote
Via Stacy in the community
“As a key member of our Client Services Department you will work on several agency teams, serving 3-5 medium- to large- sized B2B clients simultaneously. For each project, you “own” client satisfaction with respect to digital advertising. You develop each clients’ advertising strategy, create media plans, build, launch and manage advertising campaigns, allocate budgets, proactively optimize campaigns, and regularly report on program performance. You proactively provide leadership and guidance to your clients in order to continually improve their paid media programs. You are well-versed in industry best practices, have solid analysis and problem solving skills, and love to bring new, innovative ideas to the table.
Apply
VERVE GROUP
Marketing Manager
Remote
Via Corey in the community
“The Marketing Manager will work closely with U.S. sales and business development teams to spearhead initiatives and coordinate day-to-day projects. You’ll be joining a fast-growing business that is rapidly evolving. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit and are looking to execute, let’s talk. Reporting to the VP of Marketing, your primary responsibility is to create consistent awareness and develop local sales materials. Expect to learn on the job as you execute various events, develop seasonal promotions that engage prospects, contribute to email marketing, and own sales enablement materials.”
Apply
Also, check out the Serial Marketers job board.
Other job resources:
- AMA Job Board: Listings from the American Marketing Association (maybe you can also ask them anything)
- Beeler.Tech: Job listings for ad operations, programmatic account management, sales operations, and more.
- Braintrust: A freelance platform where you are the owner and where freelance talent keeps 100% of the bill rate.
- Built in NYC: Jobs at a range of levels and functions, as long as you’re okay working in this quaint, backwater hamlet.
- Content Writing Jobs: Content marketers, enjoy
- Creative Women of Color: List yourself in the database and find talent, via Women Who Create
- Demand Curve: Growth and marketing jobs
- ExecThread: Senior roles spanning a range of verticals and cities; membership is free but fully vetted (this uses my referral ID to get you in faster)
- Gently Ventures: Helps scale businesses by finding the right talent
- Growth Collective: Apply to join this network of notable freelance marketers
- Grace Blue Transitions: A portal for hirers and seekers with resources from this exec recruiting firm
- The Hired Guns: An array of jobs in marketing and related fields at brands, agencies, and media companies
- Hue: Amplifying voices of people in color working in marketing
- Lunch Club: Match 1:1 around predetermined goals with accomplished professionals (free)
- NYC Ad Jobs & Networking: A popular Facebook group
- One Club for Creativity: COVID-19 jobs Board
- #OpenToWork: There’s a channel in Serial Marketers where you can share what you’re looking for
- Pangea: Hire college freelancers (and college students can get gigs)
- Pocit: A platform connecting people of color with jobs in the tech industry
- Questions to Ask for a Marketing Role: What questions should you ask when starting a new marketing role or job?
- Serial Marketers Job Board: Post regular and featured listings and subscribe for updates.
- Startup.Jobs: There’s a section for marketing jobs
- Teal: One place to organize and manage your job search.
- TechNY Daily: While more technical, there are also some sales and marketing jobs at NY startups.
- VC Job Boards: Aleph, Eniac Ventures, Pear, Sequoia, Union Square Ventures
- VentureLoop: Free startup job listings; their paid option is $15/month and might surface more leads (but it might not).
- Venwise: Submit your job interests here and get in front of their roster of hiring leads; select “Serial Marketers” under “How did you find us”
Do you run or enjoy other job listing sites? Let me know, and I’ll share them.
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GPO: Generate at least 20% more organic traffic. Doing a strong job in SEO but wonder if more traffic can be had? GPO will custom-build an AWS instance that will become a subdomain of your site, and generate at least 20% more traffic the first year. Contact Cory Cox in the community to redeem.
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