A social lead's strategy break down: LinkedIn, Instagram, X and Threads
Insights from Chi Thukral, Beehiiv's new Global Social Lead
[Olympic TikTok: Natalie Spooner, Team USA, Jonas Hasler]
Monday will be the last installment of the platform-led 2026 Social Strategy series and I’m wrapping up with LinkedIn. Let me know if there are any other platforms you’d like me to dig into (eg. Threads, Reddit, Substack)?
Fun fact: InStyle is back with another social mockumentary series: The Boss, starring Julia Fox as the office’s “temporary permanent ambassador of slayage.” I don’t know how the staff actually gets any work done but honestly their time is probably best served making these short-form shows. They’re so good.
And the audacity: 35% of Gen Z adults confess they’ve texted or scrolled social media during sex, according to a pre-Valentine Day survey from Yik Yak and Sidechat.
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
Threads is beta testing Dear Algo in the U.S. that lets you shape what you want to see in your feed
Instagram is reportedly working on an app to share disappearing photos with friends called Instants
TikTok announced a new Local feed in the U.S.
YouTube is expanding the creator-brand matching capabilities supported within its Creator Partnerships Hub
Interview: Chi Thukral, new Global Social Lead at Beehiiv, shares the 4-platform strategy she actually uses, plus social tips for newsletter writers and operators
Report: Employee-generated content is the next big thing for brands
💻 ROADMAP
📲 Meta Updates
Threads is starting a beta rollout of Dear Algo in the U.S. (It was previously tested in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the UK.) It’s an AI-powered feature that lets you shape your feed by simply telling Threads what you want to see more and less of. Eg. Dear Algo, show me more food reviews from the Olympic Village. Show me less boy kibble. I spoke briefly with Threads head of product Emily Dalton Smith who said she’s on a mission to get rid of settings — you would just ask for any modifications you want — and in that context, it’s kind of brilliant.
Facebook announced AI animated profile photos. Available to select users in the US, the feature lets you choose from preset animations to turn your existing profile photo into an animated version, powered by Meta AI.
Spotted: Instagram is reportedly working on an app to share disappearing photos with friends called Instants.
Spotted: Instagram is working on a feature to support Short Dramas where creators would be able to lock episodes behind a subscription wall.
More Meta News:
📲 TikTok Updates
It’s a fact, Olympic TikTok is the best TikTok (minus that Norwegian guy). The platform shared the amount of posts around popular hashtags at the Olympics:
#olympics 1.8M posts
#winterolympics 54.8K posts
#olympicvillage 6.4K posts
And according to the platform, athletes have discovered this year’s version of the “Olympic chocolate muffin“, and it’s the Olympic Village’s chocolate lava cake. I’d argue the tiramisu also deserves an honorable mention. And everyone’s obsessed with topping their food using a giant Nutella dispenser — nicknamed the ‘Nutella Keg.’
TikTok announced a new Local feed in the U.S. to help connect you to content, businesses, and services in your area. TikTok seems to serve up content based on your physical location either way but if you don’t want the app to access your precise location, you can adjust that in your device’s Location Services settings (under Privacy and Security on an iOS device).
ByteDance launched a new AI video generation tool called Seedance 2.0. It’s still in beta and only available to a small group of users at this point.
📲 YouTube Updates
YouTube is expanding the matching capabilities supported within the Creator Partnerships Hub. The hub already uses AI to find and surface videos from creators that mention a brand, so advertisers can connect with the creator to promote the video as an ad. Access is also rolling out to more influencer marketing agencies
YouTube announced new TV Plans launching this week with a heavy emphasis on Sports and Entertainment.
📲 LinkedIn Updates
LinkedIn published a 17-page guide titled How to Optimize your Owned Content for AI Search.
📲 Twitch Updates
Twitch is testing pause ads that appear when you pause a stream, they’re also running a testing for skippable ads.
📲 Discord Updates
Discord announced new teen safety features that make teen settings the default for all new and existing users. Users 18+ may be required to submit a video selfie or ID to be able to adjust their settings.
📲 Snapchat Updates
Snapchat expanded its Home Safe feature to offer new ways for Snapchatters to use location sharing on Snap Map. Snapchatters can set one-time or recurring alerts for places beyond their home
🔑 ONE BIG THING
A SaaS Social Playbook + Tips for Newsletter Writers
You might remember Chi Thukral from OG Marketing Twitter; as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree; or from her time at HubSpot, where she was one of the first to bring memes to LinkedIn. Her latest role — drumroll, please — is as Global Social Lead at Beehiiv.
I caught up with Chi during her first 30 days on the job to get her tips for newsletter writers and operators: how to use social to grow subscriptions, what most people get wrong, and who’s doing it right.
We also talked about what she’s building at Beehiiv, how she’s thinking about SaaS social, and whether memes and unhinged content still have a place in brand strategy.
ICYMI: Congratulations! What’s the new role going to encompass?
Chi Thukral: I have only been here for three weeks. So far, the role encompasses thinking about memes. No, I’m just kidding…
ICYMI: Oh, I was going to ask about memes, perfect.
CT: It actually includes building out a strategy for them that differentiates them from competitors and really highlights why Beehiiv should be your number one option and then also gives them a fun personality and tone of voice on social. I don’t want them to be a brand that’s just jumping on trends and memes for the heck of it. I really want them to be relatable and a lot of that comes from lived experiences and first person language.
ICYMI: We both think newsletters are having a moment and that’s not slowing down anytime soon. Why should newsletter writers not delete their social channels?
CT: That is such a good question. Because I do feel like social is window shopping, and the newsletter is when you walk into the store. They go hand in hand. Some people might discover your newsletter through your social and some people might discover your social through your newsletters. Why would you not have both doors open?
Social is where you can dive into conversations. With the Super Bowl, or with the Grammys, I would be using social to dive into things you like to talk about, immerse yourself through that lens, and showcase your personality. You can share so much more on social about your day-to-day life and be a little bit more unfiltered.
ICYMI: That’s personality and brand building. What do you think about using social to drive newsletter subscriptions or remind people to open your newsletter?
CT: One thing I’ve seen people do is use little excerpts from their newsletter, kind of like diary entries. Just show a portion of it on social and have people subscribe to see everything else.
Then, of course, I’m sure people have seen, “Comment XYZ, and I’ll send you a link to a seven-day trial,” or “Comment on this particular post and I’ll send you a link to this newsletter.”
A rule of thumb is make sure the link in your bio is updated. People forget to do that. They sometimes don’t even work.
Instagram, specifically, allows you to have up to four links at a time. So, put your most recent four editions over there. Let people pick what they want to read. Really experiment with that opportunity.
And then same for Twitter, and the same for Threads, make sure you are maximizing your channel reach over there. This is woo-woo logic but you have got to increase your surface area for luck. What that really means is you have to show up in more places for people to find you. People aren’t magically going to find you.
ICYMI: Is there anybody that you see doing it well?
CT: Yes, I love Nikita Walia’s newsletter. She is a strategist for Unnamed, an agency in New York, and I love it because she does these little things where she’ll just put a quote or a little paragraph from her newsletter and it’s always so well written. I need to read the rest of it immediately.
And then Dakota Rae used to be head of social at Edelman. She just went to Nordstrom. She does a really great job, too. It’s a very Notes app-esque thing like, “This is what I’m writing about.” And then a link to a newsletter. It really makes you want to read more, especially when you know the persona behind it, and you relate to them in so many ways. I think those two people do it super, super well.
ICYMI: Those are such good tips, and I subscribe to both of them. Now, what is the mistake that you see people making?
CT: The biggest one is when they say, “Subscribe to my newsletter,” and there’s no context. They don’t give people an incentive, or they don’t give people enough information. I’m not saying, “Oh my god, write a big caption, here’s what I’m writing about.” You have got to find the sweet spot between how much information you’re giving to get the user interested versus giving them everything in the caption.
And when there’s not enough personality. If all I see is you promoting your newsletter without sharing anything else or any other opinions or participating in conversations outside of your newsletter… That, to me, would be a red flag.
ICYMI: I’m guilty of the first one. I send my newsletter out at 7am on Fridays, and I’m so tired. I slap the title and the link in a social post. And I know I should not be doing that…
CT: When I used to ghost write as a freelancer, I started adding a sentence at the beginning of their newsletter to build personality and connect with the community. It was about their day or their personality or what they were watching. Instead of using, “Happy National Hot Chocolate Day,” I would write, “OK, it’s National Breakfast Day. I’m gluten-free. These are the options I have. Do you know any snacks?”
I was trying to build a relationship with the readers of our newsletter. There was a big uptick in the open rate for us, where people would respond with recommendations or recipes. We also made sure to always respond to every answer that came in. It was a fun AB test, and it really worked out.
You’re already established so you don’t really have to worry about people not seeing your stuff. But for a new creator or a new writer, I do think they have to spend a little bit more time building that personal connection and that personality so that people are more receptive when they do post that link.
ICYMI: I want to pivot to your role as Global Social Lead at Beehiiv. How is it doing social for an individual newsletter versus thinking about social for Beehiiv the brand?
CT: I’m really grateful that I had used the product before. I know how it works. I know the pain points. It’s very easy for me to make jokes around it. One of the first things I posted on Beehiiv’s socials was, “When you schedule a newsletter but instead of a.m., it’s p.m.” That has absolutely happened to me, and having been a user makes a big difference when you’re creating strategy but are doing it from the brand’s point of view.
I’m also doing a lot of social listening so I’m very much in the weeds. I respond to all of our Twitter comments, all of our Threads comments, all of our LinkedIn comments, to learn about the user experience beyond my own user experience. That’s one thing I’m trying to be cognizant of is that I might have a user bias because I have used the product, but that might not be everyone’s experience. So my current thing is learning as much as I can about different types of users and features that I haven’t used.
ICYMI: What are the challenges of B2B, or service-based social, that other categories wouldn’t understand?
CT: I’ve only been here three weeks but I met with one of our sales team members and I asked him, “How can social better support your sales team?” And he replied, “You know what? I love the vibes. I love the vibe marketing that we do.” And everyone loves our little memes on LinkedIn.
But there are times where they want to expand to enterprise level software, or they want to work with bigger news houses and brands, and those people take things very seriously. They might not want to see a Sabrina Carpenter meme.
So a challenge would be, how do we make sure we are balancing our pillars in a way where we’re being creative and have that friend personality, while at the same time if a [news organization] looks at us and wants to partner with us, they know that we know our stuff, we take it seriously, and we are good at what we do.
ICYMI: You’ve mentioned LinkedIn, Threads and X. Is there a difference to how you show up on each of those platforms?
CT: X is a lot more founder focused. We try to lean into Tyler’s (Tyler Denk) personality a lot more. So we’ll use his account to blend in with the Beehiiv account, because that’s where we’ve seen the most success so far.
LinkedIn is a great one, because it can go either way. We have Tyler’s personality and then we also use our brand account as a place for those memes and insider moments.
Instagram is where we do a lot of our UGC content. We love collaborating with our users. I call it our testimonial shop. That’s where everyone’s talking about what the Beehiiv experience is like.
We don’t really do TikTok as much. It is something that I want to test and learn and that will probably be a space for culture.
With Threads, it’s our sandbox. I’m trying to use that as a testing ground to see what people are responding to and how we can join in the conversation. My ultimate goal is to make Threads a personality profile.
I’ve seen Beyond Meat do a really good job at that. It is one of my favorite Threads accounts, and that’s my goal for Beehiiv, to have a space where I can just have fun with writing captions.
ICYMI: I told you I wanted to ask about memes. How are you feeling about memes on social in 2026?
CT: Memes are here to stay. Memes on social are the most shareable, relatable format. My goal is to create content and memes for Beehiiv that you would want to share in your group chat.
It is an interesting time because everybody in social is scared of IP and being sued. Now, some celebrities are more chill than the others, and some organizations are more chill than others. For the Super Bowl, I just used the grass person as a meme. It was recognizable. So you’re trying to find moments like that where you can still join in the conversation, but you don’t have to always stress out your legal team. That’s a mark of someone using their good judgment and figuring out what meme is worth talking about.
ICYMI: I’m still seeing a lot of Gen Alpha and young Gen Z engagement around unhinged accounts. I thought we had moved on. Does unhinged represent a divide between original social and new social?
CT: It’s so interesting to me, because everybody will say, “I’m scared to do that.” And they’ll follow up with, “Why can’t we be like Duolingo?” Because you have to have the audacity to be unhinged. My advice to any brand that wants to test it is try it in the comments section. You don’t have to start immediately by posting a crazy video. You can start with an unhinged comment or response. There are so many ways you can test the waters.
But you have to be very aware of who is consuming your content before you become unhinged. Because if your audience is 50-year-olds, they might not be very receptive to that. It’s not about whether you should be unhinged. Is your audience really receptive towards unhinged behavior on social? If they are, you can start small, start in the comments section and see how it goes.
5 Social Tips for Newsletter Writers
Show up in more places. People aren’t magically going to discover you
Don’t just post a link on social. Share juicy excerpts from your newsletter that make people think “I need to read the rest of this”
Make sure your bio link isn’t broken. And use all the link slots Instagram gives you to hype up your latest editions
Be a person, not a promo bot If all you do is say “Subscribe to my newsletter!” with zero context or personality, it’s a red flag
Add a personal opening to your newsletter — what you're watching, eating, experiencing — to build a relationship with your audience
👀 ICYMI: JUST THE HEADLINES
We’re entering the era of the “niche creator,” where it’s getting harder for social media creators to become global superstars - Business Insider
How the women of Utah blogged and posted their way into American hearts and wallets - The Cut
Companies including Microsoft and Google have paid creators between $400,000 and $600,000 for long-term partnerships to promote AI - CNBC
Employee-generated content is the next big thing for brands - Sprout Social
How Gen Z are turning debt into profit on TikTok - The Times
TikTok’s best shoppers are millennials, not Gen Z - EMarketer
Living offline has become Gen Z’s quiet luxury - Thred
How Esports Became a Mainstream Career Path for Gen Z & Millennials - Blunt Mag
On Instagram, State Farm’s Super Bowl ad with Katseye was one of the top performers that generated a 153.69% engagement rate, according to Metricool. Whereas Budweiser’s Super Bowl spot scored first place in USA TODAY’s Ad Meter contest rated by consumers during a live poll.
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great
as always love it <3