Social media platforms are not the primary avenue to narrative success. As a recovering accidental marketer who's worked intimately with social media — it's hard to feel the love for what you do when there are so many warped incentives built into it. (Don't ask me how I feel about FB ads manager.) The platforms are like a strange relationship you have with someone who concurrently attracts and repulses you. There are good humans working in tech, but they lack the vantage point of having to wrestle with the algorithm to pay rent, because they have the luxury of developing and designing it. When you're brand-side, it's easier to see how sinister social media can be, more than the majority of humanity who use it on a personal level. You're professionally trained to manipulate human behavior, designing for desire and pulling the levers of words that convert. Back to what I said up top: **At its best, narrative strategy restores the business-customer-society relationship when other functions go awry.** Done well, it redirects social behavior through thoughtful words and imagery, shared over deliberate timelines. It undos toxic feedback mechanisms pre-designed into platforms. There's no need to post 3x a week because it's 'industry standard.' That's why the industry has garbage engagement and open rates. Applied to email as well: sender reputation works best when you're not inundating people. Even if they love your shit, they're not going to consume it as often as you hope. (Leave that to the actual media! e.g. the NYT Daily) Of course, resisting our reactionary era requires taking unconventional stances. It takes a stomach for uncertainty. I like how strategy consultant [Vaughn Tan](https://vaughntan.org/) framed it in a recent conversation we had: "Uncertainty is not the same as risk." It sounds risky — to not play the game that everyone else is occupied with. But when you eschew biased rules, you enter new modes of operating. You and your organization enable redemptive strategy. And how much more fun would that be? What realms of possibility might we unlock as result? "A show has a soul, which is very much made up by the people who create the thing. That's what makes it stand the test of time." —[Quinta Bronson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg3wfdceHPk&ab_channel=Variety) on creating Abbott Elementary