[020] Monday Scroll starter PLUS: everything is a "content series" now
Plus: who TF is playing Sudoku on LinkedIn??
Greetings Victims!
I only sent one newsletter last week - tbh, I was feeling burnt out AF, which I fear is a common conundrum for the chronically online social media manager.
But I do hold myself to a standard of “one post per week, minimum” here on SS - and so after a weekend of knitting, touching grass and reminding myself that there’s a world outside of my phone…here we go again!
Inside today’s newsletter:
Observations on the serialised content trend
The best brand content from last week (a short but juicy list)
I want to know who TF is playing Sudoku on LinkedIn
Social media news (including the brand apology post you may have missed)
What I’ve been watching (and loving)
Let’s get into it.
Everything is a content series now
(I’m bringing back the long-ish form content…LMK what you think!)
Kurt Vonnegut (author of Slaughterhouse-Five and not so great dude) once proposed there are only five narrative arcs a story can follow. Decades of research since has tended to land the number anywhere between 6 and 36, but the sentiment is the same: there are limited paths, but infinite retellings.
In May 2025, more Americans watched streaming platforms than cable or free-to-air TV. But even though we’ve moved from “big screen” to “little screen”, we still crave entertaining stories.
For decades, TV was the only medium that reliably delivered this. Social, by contrast, has mostly been a stream of ads disguised as content.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about narrative arcs in the context of social media, because increasingly, it feels like we’re entering a new era:
Social Media as Television.
Examples include:
Somehow, the brands have got it right - the series’ are working.
What all of these series have in common is that the brand is not the focal point, the story is. The brand often isn’t mentioned until many episodes into the series, if at all.
The content hits familiar pain points/trauma (finding roommates in NYC for Bilt, landing a job after graduation for Stan Store) and hooks us using the narrative arcs we already know by heart.
Prediction: consumers are so marketing savvy that a content series is a welcome break from the usual brand slop.
Today’s consumer is hyper-aware of marketing. In fact, the highest praise you can get in a comment section is: “This is great marketing.”
The downside of this awareness is that it’s no longer good enough to throw up a few pretty pics in order to be considered a standout brand on social media.
Brands need to set themselves apart with scroll-stopping content that doesn’t have entirely transparent intentions - and a content series is a smart way to do this, because it signals confidence: we’re so good at what we do that we don’t even need to talk about ourselves.
Final thought:
If every brand starts making “shows,” and social feels more like TV every day… where will we go to see real life again?
My bet is community driven platforms like Substack, which so far doesn’t feel like an echo chamber of brands shoving their message down our throats (but it’s early days).
Another short-ish list this week! Maybe I’m not the only one who is burnt out…or perhaps my standards are just higher than ever, and everything is boring me lately.
WINNER OF THE WEEK: Stan Store with their first episode of “Company Values”, which coincidentally inspired my above musings. Anyone who has ever looked for a job after graduating (especially those such as myself with Arts degrees) will relate to this video. Stan Store is a platform that allows creators to sell digital assets and monetise their personal brand. Given that two thirds of Gen Z now consider themselves content creators, and many young people face an increasingly uncertain job market, I think we’re only going to continue to see the rise of content creation as a legitimate side hustle.
Minute Maid and Denny’s switching accounts to promote the Freaky Friday sequel: Freakier Friday. I like this for the simple reason that it’s different - a rare feat in our over saturated world.
BK Coffee Shop - this beautifully made, serialised content is gaining attention around the world for good reason: it’s entertaining and original! I said a few weeks ago that social media is TV now , and we can expect to see more content like this from brands who know we’re all yearning for something deeper than a DITL video.
InStyle’s “The Intern” series returned. Reread my note above about social media being TV now.
Away setting luggage on fire to test its durability. I purchased my first decent suitcase EVER this year at the ripe old age of 33 (after a broken suitcase in Europe finally sent me over the edge) from the Aussie version of Away, because they created a very similar video to this. This content works because the message is clear: put this suitcase through hell and it still won’t fail you.
Xbox doing whatever this is - as a closeted gamer girl, I felt like this really “got” the essence of gaming. It was fun, it was creative…it was different. The 39k likes tell me I’m not the only one who felt this way.
Move over Moo Deng, we love Mars now - thank you, Tanganyika Wildlife Park, for giving the people what they need during these trying times.
Figma with a GREAT take on the Hamilton Trend. I wrote a piece about why brands shouldn’t jump on every trend, and I stand by it - unless you have an original take or a unique way in, simply repeating the trend isn’t enough to create impact.
The best (unbranded) content I saw over the past week.
This made me cackle. The top comment being “be early at work tomorrow chief” sent me over the edge.
At this point, I’m the only person not paying an Etsy witch??
No notes, just giggles :)
The social media (and adjacent) news you need to know this week.
The NY Times is trying to discern what “chopped” means.
As described by one of the interviewees, it has passed over from the “chronically” online to Gen Alpha…I fear “chopped” may be the new “cheugy”.
E.l.f. posted an apology after featuring comedian Matt Rife in a campaign, but has not taken the campaign posts down (as of time of writing)
There was a lot of backlash against this campaign in E.l.f.’s comments due to the fact that Rife went viral in 2023 for a joke about DV. The apology appears to have fallen on deaf ears, with users citing the brand’s choice to keep up the posts with Rife as a contradiction of their apology.
Views of Non-tox (alternatives to Botox) videos are up 225% on TikTok
The story here (for me) is how we’re commonly seeing TikTok search volume cited instead of google search volume - nowadays, a topic trending on TikTok is seen as the stronger indication of consumer sentiment.
Social media platforms are going to hire influencers to lobby against Social Media bans in Australia
I will be fascinated to see whether this tactic is actually effective at swaying Australia’s new legislation banning under-16’s from social media (I doubt it).
Instagram rolls out new feature allowing users to highlight ‘interests’
I can’t think of why I would be bothered to use this, but perhaps I’m just a sceptic. This reads like a strategy from Instagram in response to their Gen Z panic - the Zillennials aren’t using IG for posting content so much as for DM’s, which has the platform scrambling to build a meaningful way for people to connect and build community.
Millennial culture is no longer cringe????
I’m thinking of writing a longer newsletter on this because I fear it is a canon event! And also tied to our overall nostalgia for Y2K and the 2010’s - which is fuelled by economic and political uncertainty, as well as a longing for a simpler, less chronically online time.
WHO TF is playing Sudoku on LinkedIn?
I’m not mad, I just have questions.
Pinterest has double digit user growth YoY
This is directly off the back of the platform announcing that one third of users are now men. Pinterest continues to prove that they’re the Platform that manages to innovate and remain relevant despite all of the changes happening around them.