How to make content that keeps up with culture – not just trends

If you’re reading this right now, I’m gonna assume you like our newsletter and get a fat dopamine hit when we hit your inbox each morning. We love y’all and take in all the feedback you give us – so it’s not lost on us how many of you click with our writer extraordinaire Sophie Randell.

So this week, I sat down with her and picked her brain on how to find confidence in your own voice and create content rooted in culture and longevity – not just fleeting viral moments.

Sup Soph! What’s your MO when writing for YAP?

My main goal when I'm writing is to click with all kinds of marketers, not just the marketing girlies. I want to make their lives easier by bringing trends, insights and information about our industry to them, instead of them having to go and look for it, and helping break down those things. There’s so much jargon in our industry, so I really try to unpack those messy concepts and make them digestible for the average marketer, even someone who just graduated and has no f**king idea what a “funnel” is.

Where do you find inspiration for your articles?

My job is to really scour the internet every morning, looking for industry news. And while reading I’ll notice words and trends popping up, or common insights in discussions. If I'm seeing something pop up all the time, but I don't really understand what it's about, I go and do my research, do my due diligence. Then I break it down for our readers, who are probably wondering about the same thing.

What value is there in being on top of marketing and social media trends?

Trends are so fleeting, especially on social media. They're a good way to quickly go viral and show you’re “with it.” But chasing trends all the time is exhausting and by the time you do one, the next two or three things come in. It’s something you can play around with, but trends aren’t a good enough strategy.

When writing, I try to keep up with culture, not trends. That’s why I hang around weird corners of the internet and pick up what I can from sources I trust, and then spot what fits our values, messaging and audience. It’s important to keep your audience in mind. I'm always thinking about what they’re struggling with, what they don’t understand and what their priorities are.

I guess it’s about finding balance, right? Because you should align yourself with a culture, but you shouldn’t just let yourself blend into the crowd. You gotta be yourself and stand out.

Exactly. It's so important that my readers connect with me, because my trope is being the sassy, bitchy media girly. I love that because it’s who I am, and I get so many messages from people saying they love my hot takes, personality and tone of voice. But I have to be careful, because it's such an explosive, fiery, feisty personality. As long as you're showing up as your true self, though, I feel like the right people will find you and appreciate that.

How do you go about bouncing back if you make a mistake, or write something people take issue with?

I try my best to be as impartial as possible, but sometimes my opinions bite me in the butt. Honestly I just try to be my authentic self in everything that I do and write. What I say is true to how I feel and the things I see and like, but it's all a learning experience.

I always take it on the chin, and you know, nothing’s completely solidified in the worlds of marketing, culture and social media. It’s all so fluid and there's so many opinions. So you just have to take everything with a grain of salt, because there's a lot of people out there, they all think different things.

Your stories get sent to thousands of inboxes every day. Do you think much about how many people see your writing, especially when taking risks?

It's become so natural to me, having this parasocial, one-way conversation with people. I don't really think about the sheer volume of readers. I just think of them as my friends that I'm having conversations with. And that applies to all content. I try to remember that no one actually gives as much of a sh*t about your content as you do.

If you post and it flops, then no one even saw it anyway, so it doesn't matter! But if you post it, it's true to your authentic self, you know you spent time on it, it feels good posting it, and it performs well, then that's amazing. You can't really lose, so just f**king do it. Everyone and their grandma and their grandma's dog is making content. It's not that deep, just post it.

-Devin Pike, Copywriter