8 Things I Learned at Adweek's Social Media Week

Top of the mornin’, friends! Happy Friday! Writing to you from the couch this morning since I got hit with a sinus infection and i also woke up attacked my a mosquito…rude.

Also, for all my Knicks fans, I still cannot believe what happened the other night. I don’t think i’ve ever screamed so much in my life.

Anywho, as mentioned, last week I went to Adweek’s Social Media Week and finally worked through my notes and learnings. After it being one of my most read newsletters last year, it only felt right to bring you the latest and greatest again of what’s poppin’ within social media.

From how to attempt new platforms like substack or how the best brands are handling social media, we’ll touch on it all.

Before We Get Into It…

Coming out of last week, everyone says they want community, but very few brands are actually set up to build one or want to put in the work. They’ll say they want to “do gifting” or “scale with influencers,” but then they’re buried in spreadsheets, chasing down addresses, and manually following up on posts. It’s exhausting and eventually the towel gets thrown in. 

Trust me, I get it. Seeding product to influencers at scale can easily become a nightmare. Add trying to get those hundreds into a program and all set-up with affiliate codes, links, restock on product, paying them commission, handling communications and you might explode. 

Luckily, it doesn’t need to be a headache–unless you want it to be. If you’re wanting to take a step in the right direction this year of how you can turn your followers and the influencers you may send product to into your best ambassadors online and offline, it’s time for you to meet the team at Superfiliate. A huge thank you to the team for supportin’ and bringin’ you this week’s edition.

If you have read the newsletter for the last year, you know that Superfiliate is a tool that’s usually in my tech stack for many years and used to manage Graza’s influencer and affiliate program that allowed me to scale it to a multi-six figure revenue driver. I am super thankful for their support and excited to say that if you’re looking for a fully automated influencer gifting solution, it now exists.

Besides handling end to end influencer workflows within your brand, this new automation allows you to take creators through the full gifting funnel while orders are automatically placed on Shopify… and give you hours of your time back.

Here’s what’s new (and why it matters):

• You can now have creator communication at any stage of the gifting funnel

• You can now automatically add creators to ongoing gifting campaigns

• You can automatically send creators a magic link to claim any product(s) they want

And there’s a ton more.

Either way, if you’re looking for:
A) ways to discover new creators who can join your ambassador program or creator program over time and who will be engaged
B) easy ways to recruit said creators without having to send hundreds of DMs manually and spend time you don’t have
C) have an easy hub to manage all communications with your influencers and creators via e-mail and direct message
D) Have custom landing pages made for your creators featuring their favorite products so you can increase conversion
E) Track and report on your top creators, data, revenue driven, traffic, etc.
F) Pay out your creators for their hard work or commission they earned easily
G) All of the above

Superfiliate is everything you need and nothing you don’t. To see it in action (and get a free month on me), you can click the link right here and tell them I sent ya.

8 Things I Learned At Social Media Week

For those of you that don’t know, Social Media Week is three days of just learning from some of the best minds within the marketing industry across social media and influencer marketing. It’s a good reminder of the basic knowledge around social, but also how those basics evolve consistently.

Here are 8 things I walked away with or was reminded about:

1. Every channel has its own vibe and you have to respect it. As we know, content is not a one-size-fits-all. Ex-Real Housewife of New York and recent TikTok star, Bethenny Frankel, reminded everyone of this.

   
   Instagram is similar to a hotel lobby. It’s stylish, curated, and a place to make a first impression.
   
   TikTok is similar to a dance floor. Anything can happen. Everyone is doing their own things to their own rhythm in real-time.
   
   LinkedIn is a co-working space. There’s human interaction, but it’s thought out and intentional.
   
   You have to adapt your content based on the “room” you’re in.
   

2. Build assets you control. Don’t rely solely on platforms you rent. Owning your own IP was a huge part of many of the talks, especially hearing Adam Faze from Gymnasium, one of my favorite production studios that owns many of your favorite short-form social shows.
   
   Social platforms are volatile. Algorithms change, accounts get banned, reach drops overnight and you never know when things will return back to your “normal”.
   

3. The comments are one of the most slept on places for brands. I’ve been screaming this from the rooftops for years, but as we know, especially with the rise of Tiktok, the comments are where everyone runs. It’s where new trends, memes, or phrases are born, but hat’s where you find product feedback, organic language customers use, recurring questions, and real fans. It’s also a place to entertain, clarify, and win people over. When brands ignore comments, they miss the conversation.
   
   Like Steven from Olipop said, they knew to bring back one of their most popular limited time flavors just simply paying attention the amount of comments, dm’s and posts requesting it to come back.
   
   At the end of the day, the whole sentiment out of the three days is that connecting with your audience whether as a brand or an influencer is cooler than how many followers you have.
   

4. Leverage what you can and stop making excuses. You’re getting in your own way. You don’t need the perfect camera set-up and there is no perfect time to create something. The longer you wait, someone will do it.
   
   The same goes for brands. Brands often complain about needing more content or creators, when they haven’t even repurposed or maximized what they already have. There’s no excuse in 2025. If you have tagged content, past campaigns, reviews, team members with phones then you have content potential.
   
   If you’re feeling stuck, audit what you already have. Post smarter. Don’t overthink it.
   

5. You do not need to respond to every single cultural moment that happens online. Like I said last week, trends and leaning into cultural moments aren’t a strategy. It’s just a tactic. Trend-chasing can dilute your brand, especially if it’s forced. Audiences can tell when you’re stretching to stay timely versus when something genuinely fits your voice or product. Not every trend is for every brand and that’s okay.
   
   Just like the team at McDonalds mentioned at AdWeek, you should have an internal framework for how you assess trends.
   
   You can read more about that here.
   

6. Never stop learning.
   
   As we know, whether you work in social media or just own a brand, this space moves fast. Stay curious or get left behind. Whether it’s following newsletters from those in the industry you’re in (two of my favorites are from Rachel Karten and Lia Haberman) or attending these types of conferences, you have to stay in-the-know, even if it’s information you already are familiar with.
   

7. Creators are expected to continuously do too much.
   
   After listening once again to Adam from Gynasium, the demands on creators are unrealistic, and brands need to check themselves. In the words of Adam, “let the talent be talent.”
   
   Creators are expected to be strategists, producers, actors, editors, community managers, analysts, and negotiators all while maintaining their personal brand. It’s unsustainable. And when brands pile on with unclear briefs, scope creep, and last-minute asks, it can burn bridges.
   
   What to do (as a brand), especially if you’re looking to them to own a channel for you.

   • Be clear and upfront with expectations.

   • Pay fairly for all deliverables (including whitelisting, usage rights, etc.).

   • Respect their creative process.

   • Build long-term partnerships that prioritize mutual respect over one-off asks.
     

8. You don’t need to join a platform just because it exists. Similar to trend jumping, just because a platform exists doesn’t mean you have to find a way to put all the energy there for something that might be even be a good fit for you. In this case, Substack and Discord were a huge part of the conversation at SMW. If you have been thinking about going onto the platform, here are a few takeaways:

   1. Founder-led substacks can be good if your founder likes doing it or has a following of their own, but leverage the community of creators on the platform where you can to help bring your channel to life. For example, American Eagle just tapped Casey Lewis to help them launch their substack, Off The Cuff. Hinge also just recently launched on the platform with the help of their own users and writers who are familiar to many on the app.

   2. There’s a huge space on the platform for video. Substack’s team really mentioned the importance of trying to leverage everrything that you can on the app. They have yet to see a brand do a thought-out live show on the platform sooooo use that info however you wish.
      

It was hard to keep this under ten, but if anyone wants more, just let me know and i’m happy to share.

Ahead of The Trend

A quick, snappy ode to the fun things I’m seeing online across creators, social, and brands. Sometimes, it’s a trend. Sometimes, it’s just a tip I want to share about marketing. Sometimes, it’s about snacks. TL;DR: just cool things I’m loving right now or things you should know.

Things of the Week That I Can’t Stop Using, Eating, Reading, Seeing…You Get The Point:

• Eating: If you’re someone who works from home, you know that sometimes you might have literally .2 seconds to enjoy your lunch. Lately, I have really been enjoying these Kevin’s Natural Foods entrees. You literally just toss it in a pan and call it a day. I got them at Whole Foods. I personally really liked the Thai-Style Coconut Chicken and Korean BBQ Style Beef.

• Account of the Week: If you want to see how a local brick and mortar diner crushes it at all, you must follow Judy. She is hilarious, they know how to lean into trends especially with stitching videos like this to grab your attention. I want to hop on a flight and visit her now.

• Brand of the Week: A fun fact about me is that sunglasses are literally my favorite accessory. It’s been really fun to see a Moscot come back to life with just fun modern twists like with this unhinged OOH campaign.

• News You Should Know:

  • For my music lovers, Soundcloud and Tiktok now are integrated within one another, according to Social Media Today.

  • Instagram is adding new DM Options such as voice transcription (shoutout to my voice note people!)

• Trend Alert! Here are a couple trends or formats you can try out:

  • The 6 Syllable Trend (unfortunate that it’s a chris brown song), but you want to come up with a sentence that goes along with the beat.

  • Propaganda I’m Not Falling For/Falling For. If you’re wanting to share some commentary on certain subjects now is your time. Example HERE from Culture Pop.

THAT’S A WRAP

As always, thanks for spending some time with me this morning. If you made it this far, it would mean the world, if you have a friend or coworker who you think would love to join the party of 3,000+ really cool folks.

https://kendalldickieson.beehiiv.com/subscribe

I’ll see you next week. Go Knicks.

-KD

This edition is brought to you by Superfiliate