Golden Hour

Two weeks ago, Meta announced a sweeping new TOS (terms of service) that would basically give them blanket permission to crawl professional Instagram / Facebook accounts *and any linked websites* to train their AI. The date the new TOS was supposed to go into effect: Friday, October 30. Just four days before a major election in the United States. Not at all suspicious, right? And of course, it had the intended effect: people panicked, especially artists and small business owners. People had...

A few months ago, I wrote to all of you to tell you that I was struggling. Clients were having to tighten their budgets and pull back on social media management and marketing. To quote Carrie Bradshaw: "This is not a good economy in which to be whipped cream." But, as I said then and will re-iterate now: Optimism is a non-negotiable. I have to keep things moving forward. And so, I started looking for full-time jobs. Some of you might remember that I started Golden Poppy Digital after a YEAR...

When I was dating and married to my ex-husband, social media was still in its baby golden era. Instagram was brand new. Facebook had just let you start posting pictures outside of a designated photo album. People were still using FourSquare to document their every. fucking. move. And my ex HATED it. He was fine with me posting pictures of us on socials, with the caveat that I not tag him or the location where the picture was taken. Did I think he was being sketchy af? Yes. Did I tag him...

It occurred to me a few weeks ago that I've been in my current home for a DECADE. This is the longest I've lived ANYWHERE since my childhood home, and y'all ... the accumulation of ✨stuff✨ really proves it. Earlier this summer, I had planned to do a remodel of my primary bathroom. I was working with Dani from Inspired Interiors (who is LOVELY, HIGHLY RECOMMEND, EVERYONE GO HIRE HER) when I had a complete fucking nervous breakdown over the sheer amount of prep work that is required for a...

We lost Dolly Parton last week, which truly feels like the end of an era. The woman was an icon, and for good reason: She was a once-in-a-lifetime talent (she claims to have written Jolene and I Will Always Love You on the SAME DAY); she was a genuinely good human (she founded the Imagination Library, which has gifted over 300 million books to children across five countries over the last three decades); AND she was a ton of fun (have you seen her wigs??). When you're that kind of rare triple...

We need to have a conversation about the conversation about AI. Because where is the nuance?? If you haven't figured it out by now, I am vehemently against the tech industry's push to make AI happen. Not because I think AI is inherently bad — I'm pretty sure I've talked in a previous newsletter (or maybe on Threads? idk I yap a lot) about how AI is just a tool, like anything else, and it's up to humans to figure out how to use it responsibly. But the whole "up to humans" part is where things...

Incogni Research just published a study about social media, and the TL;DR? People are fucking tired of being on social media. Digital burnout is real, and it is VERY much here. I'm sure you're all feeling it, because I know I certainly am. Even as someone who works in social media, who loves the interactions these platforms allow, who values the communities these platforms can help build, there are days I seriously consider just throwing my phone into Puget Sound. Remember Instagram in 2011?...

I posted a series of memes last week that showcased my utter delight at the schadenfreude of Meta effectively being bullied into rolling back one of their new AI features just days after its launch. And yesterday, I had my branding photoshoot 📸 These two things seem completely unrelated, right? But I promise they're not. Let me explain: Social media that centers community can change lives. Last week, Meta (you know, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp) released a...

I'm not going to lie to y'all — I'm not really in an ✨expository✨ mood this week. I had some ideas of what to write about, but nothing really felt right. So instead, I'm going to take a moment to be vulnerable. I'm struggling right now. I know many of us are, especially those of us who are small business owners. Prices are going up. Budgets are tightening. Clients are walking away — not because they don't need our services, but because they are having to cut costs wherever they can. One of...

I took my kids to the library last week because they wanted to learn more about the prizes for summer reading, but also because my 8-year-old had a very important question about space: What's beyond black holes? Now, this is a question that I'm not even sure NASA knows the answer to, but there's no harm in asking a librarian who can then recommend books or resources that might talk about black holes. ... At least, that's what I thought was going to happen. We went to the desk. We asked a...