I left my full-time gig + 7 ways the internet is changing
Hello friends! You likely signed up for this after reading one of my essays on Medium, my personal website, or seeing something on Twitter or LinkedIn. See past issues here. There are always typos. Now, to the newsletter…
I left with my stomach and spirit full.
Hi there!
I won’t bury the lede. It’s been a big few months. I’ve stepped down as VP of Content at Crossbeam (I greatly appreciate everyone who left a nice note on LinkedIn <3).
I’m going solo, incubating an “in-house” brand (subscribe to Sabbatical!) as well as advising and consulting companies on how to grow audiences and launch content departments under the sorta-silly banner Gate Check Studios.
This is all motivated by the most substantial shift in internet dynamics since …2007? What are those changing dynamics?
Glad you asked!
What happened?
The way people read, share, and find things is different now.
Mainly:
SEO and discovery via search is being replaced by AI summaries and content.
The social media platforms have killed the “social graph” and replaced it with an algorithm. They’ve also penalized linking to outside sites.
A renewed focus on profitability and sustainability has left VC-backed brands with less patience for the slow work of audience and brand building.
(This is the gist. I wrote more about this here in January)
So, what now?
Here is the exciting part. To adapt to the new landscape, I am orienting everything I do moving forward around the following principles.
1 - Human-based discovery over machine-based discovery.
Machine powered is Google/SEO. It's the TikTok algo. It’s paid ads. It's the "for you" tab. If you rely on these, you are going to get rocked by a flood of shoddy AI content.
Human powered is email. It's word of mouth. It's the old-school social graph. It's Slack communities and "dark social". It's WhatsApp groups. These are humans sending things to other humans. This is the place worth spending time in. As a result…
2 - Grow slow to grow far.
Many of the machine-based discovery tactics allowed brands to grow quickly. It’s how Vice once had a billion dollar evaluation. That gravy train is over. What’s left will take longer and require more patience. Many companies won’t be willing to do this. Those that are willing to grow more slowly will be rewarded for their patience by being the only audience left standing. Because…
3 - Your audience is your value.
When it’s harder to reach new audiences via SEO, advertising, and social and takes longer to build your own, how do brands reach new people quickly? They sponsor, support, or partner with existing audiences. Having an audience that loves your work will be like sitting on top of an oil field.
4 - When in doubt, assume something will be atomized. Individuals and small teams can now do what used to require well-funded teams. This is partly thanks to better tools. But also because the audience is used to following and financially supporting “creators” and smaller communities and brands. These smaller brands will continue to peel off audience from older, and often larger entities.
5 - Think like a reporter.
With the increased utility of small teams and individuals, the speed in which work is repackaged and aggregated has only increased (and for now is quite profitable!) This will be a commodity and the brands that survive are those that do original research, sit atop original data, and uncover new insights via old fashioned interviews, reporting, and investigation.
6 - IRL wins. Every time.
We have enough tools to connect digitally. The most engaged audiences will want to meet their peers IRL. It’s more fun and it’s fertile ground for differentiation. Experiment with new event formats that fit your particular audience early and often.
7 - Incumbents are ripe for disruption.
If you were playing an SEO game, it was better to be an incumbent. You could “attack” anyone trying to climb the rankings for any keyword. If you were playing a social media game, my follower count from years of posting made me more valuable than someone with only 100 followers. Now, none of that matters.
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These are the reasons I think it’s better to be independent. I’ll be exploring all of these themes in the months to come while I work on the Sabbatical and other things. I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of this. Jam the “reply” button. <3