Marketing teams are spending billions on creators.

Fair ‘nuff. People trust people.

But what’s weird to us is paying strangers to build that trust…while a bunch of people who actually know your product, customers, and industry are already on your payroll. 

MJ Jaindl thinks we should pay them instead. 

(And that CMOs are sitting on a marketing channel they just haven't learned how to fund yet.)

A daily posting habit brought MJ over 75,000 followers on LinkedIn. Now, he helps companies figure out how to help their own employees build an audience. 

Because no one wants to repost the company LinkedIn post. 

Let’s get into it.

You have an entire team of micro-creators already working at your company. And they’ve got great material to work with: 

• Sales hears the same customer questions over and over.

• Product knows what the team tried before landing on the approach that worked.

• An exec can talk about the business pivots that paid off, or crashed and burned. 

And on top of that, all of those people have personal hobbies, weird trivia knowledge, and their own zones of genius they could talk about for days. 

So you’re doing yourself a real disservice when you just tell them all “please repost this company announcement.” 

MJ makes the case for putting some of your creator budget behind your own people. Pay them to talk about what they’re genuinely excited to talk about. And when something connects with the people you want to reach, put paid media dollars behind it.

(Of course, we are extremely on the record about this. We recently shared an entire playbook about employee advocacy. And we've literally paid our own employees thousands of dollars to post.) 

When you do employee advocacy right, your company gets the reach. Your employee gets to build an audience, plus some cash that encourages them to do it even more. Win-win. 

Here’s how MJ thinks about setting up your employee advocacy programs—and budgets.

Campaigns that got us talking: Our childhood dreams are finally coming true, roughly 29ish years too late.

Capri Sun made a Big Pouch. Nearly nine inches tall. Twice as wide. Three times the juice.

It’s a limited-edition drop while Capri Sun figures out whether adults with credit cards still want to drink Capri Sun. 

AI spotlight: Clicking an ad is about to get weirder. OpenAI is testing Sponsored Agents that let you click a ChatGPT ad and talk directly to the advertiser. Ask about the product, compare your options, maybe buy the thing, all without leaving ChatGPT.

RIP, “Learn More” CTA. 

Stuff that makes us scroll back up: Feet pics. Of hikers.

Columbia Sportswear Europe launched a “F££T FUND” to promote its new Peakfreak shoe and is paying hikers £135 for barefoot photos from the trail.

They’re even sliding into influencers’ DMs to ask for them.

Americans, keep your socks on. The F££T FUND is a Europe thing.

Two years ago, Alex asked Abby a very important question: “What if we create a digital content festival for storyarb that doesn’t suck ass?” 

(Founders. So eloquent.) 

Good thing he asked it though, because CommaCon: Newsletter Season was a freakin’ blast. So good, we decided to do it again… 

THAT’S RIGHT! CommaCon is finally BACK and it's coming to you LIVE NEXT WEEK!!!

Season 2 is all about Social. TL;DR: Learn exactly how to build and keep an audience on LinkedIn, without sounding like a panelist on autopilot, a motivational poster, or a ghostwriter who’s never met you. 

So we’re kicking things off with Linkedin's own Ty Heath, the queen of thought leadership herself. She’s dishing on all things social strategy... and you're not gonna want to miss it. 

Save your seat (the one you're already sitting in) while you still can → 

REGISTER NOW for more info!

One more thing before you go. Our friends at Typeform heard a rumor that nobody does continuous discovery quite the same way.

(And we do love a good rumor.)

So they’re doing what any good researcher would: going straight to the practitioners. They’re putting together a report on how continuous discovery and insight work is actually happening right now, AI and all.

If you’re somewhere in the middle of it, they want your version of the story. It takes a few minutes, it’s 100% anonymous, and if helping squash a rumor isn’t motivation enough… you could also win $100.

Truth or lie? Only one way to find out → TAKE THE SURVEY and set the record straight!

“Why go through the effort of creating expert-driven original content when I can write like 20 blogs a day with AI?”

Idk, maybe because Google’s Optimizing for AEO Guide says don’t do that:

Keyword stuffing is kinda like hosting Fyre Festival. 

It might drive a lot of traffic and chatter. 

But folks sure aren’t gonna be happy when they land and get rewarded with a bad cheese sandwich, a tropical storm, and nary a Ja Rule in sight.

AI is making more content than any of us know what to do with.

But it doesn’t have the customer conversation your salesperson had Tuesday. Or the product launch that went sideways. Or the thing your CEO believed five years ago and has completely changed their mind about.

Your employees do have that stuff.

That’s what MJ figured out somewhere in his 600-day LinkedIn posting experience. 

Perspective is worth funding. 

See y’all next time.

— the storyarb writers’ room 🫡

Oh! And another thing... 

A wild turkey can fly up to 50 mph. Happy November. Trust no bird.

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