This joke could go a thousand ways. In our case, it’s not even a joke. We’re in charge of social media for lots of clients, including the famed [ yellow tail ] wine brand.
We strategize, concept, create, write, shoot, and post all over Facebook and Instagram for this Australian behemoth. We’ve long-since abandoned the traditional approach to creating a social personality through stock photography—which is like trying convey your own personality by quoting lines from Saved By The Bell—and we do it all in house (though lots of times it’s outside the actual house, or office).
Sometimes we’re in bars, other times you’ll find us at the beach, or on the narrow patch of grass behind our office. We’re constantly scouting for shoot locations, and carting bags full of varietals on trains to the city, or on walks around the neighborhood.
The truth is that we’ve learned the organic and spontaneous nature of social media is equal parts planning and spontaneity. In our case, it gives our talented staffers the chance to be more than just project managers, developers, strategists, designers, or even chief operating officers.
We’re stylists, hand-models, actors, photographers, extras, mixologists, videographers, writers, even therapists (ah the beauty of managing a social community of over a million fans). But being a hand-model? That’s the shit. Though as the creative team is retouching your arm hair and hiding your rough-hewn cuticles, it becomes clear that maybe you were indeed better off pursuing a minor in “Imaginative Writing.”
Ironically, some of our best ideas come out of the magical confluence of in-the-moment and let’s-think-long-term. The concepts get better, more thoughtful, and more poignant for the brand when we’re really in the thick of it, instead of just trolling a stock photography site (which is sort of like the 8th circle of hell).
For now, we’ve got a handle on the formula for this social media thing, at least until it changes, which is probably later today. We’re having fun, and we hope it shows. You can see our work for [ yellow tail ] here. And if you see us setting up a shot somewhere between New Haven and NYC, jump right in. We could always use another hand model.