What’s up everyone! Welcome back to Stronger Social, the cheat code for social media professionals. I hope everyone is having a great week. We’re almost to the weekend and I’m ready for some NFL playoff football if i’m completely honest. We’re so close.

However, we have an interesting and fun topic for today’s email. If you’re looking to dominate and win social in 2026…then today’s issue is for you.

In this issue, we will go over the following:

Let’s dive in.

-Sam

As social media professionals, I think we all have the desire to turn our brand into a world-class brand on social.

To build a social presence that everyone talks about.

To create content that goes viral on accident and on purpose.

To create a brand presence and a social identity that is consistently top of mind and admired by consumers and brands.

To create a brand that truly becomes an always-on brand and community building engine.

That’s the dream right? Well, that’s a world-class brand for you. This is one of my aspirations and it’s probably one of yours as well.

But how do you create a world-class brand on social?

How do you win social?

Well…that’s what I’m diving into today.

To become a world-class brand on social media, you need a world-class social media strategy. Plain and simple. I love social media strategy development and it’s essential to sit down and craft a strategy that’s a byproduct of your brand strategy (because social is an extension of your brand) and is optimized to drive community, awareness, and the role of brand.

Your social media strategy is your foundation, your social DNA, the reason consumers come back for more content. It’s what consumers think of when they see your product in the aisle.

If you want to create a world-class brand on social, you simply need a world-class strategy, and you need to execute it.

Awesome, you now have a world class social media strategy.

So what’s next? You win social by winning with creativity.

Your social media strategy gave you your foundation, your why, your what, your social DNA.

Here’s where you then start pushing creative boundaries and strive to be remembered.

Creativity is the key in stopping the scroll and becoming memorable by consumers who essentially consume and scroll across thousands of social posts per day.

At the end of the day, your social strategy is only as effective and successful as your biggest and most creative idea. So take your social media strategy, and seek innovative and creative ways to bring it to life.

What posts are unique yet own able? What’s a content series that can be repeatable, ownable, and differentiated from others? If you need ideas on what your brand can be remembered for, then check out this issue.

The final step to winning social - risk. Yes, risk.

You established your foundation and social DNA in step 1. And you established some creative ideas and executions in step 2. Step 3 is where you start shooting your shot and swinging for the fences.

Risk is essential in social media. Yes, it’s scary. Yes, a post may flop. But we have to be eager and willing to fail. If we aren’t failing and having posts flop, we’re not pushing boundaries enough.

I’m a football nerd, so I apologize. But this is the easiest way I can put it and summarize. At the end of the day - implementing strategy, creativity and risk is just like winning a football game.

There’s 10 seconds on the clock. You’re on the 40 yard line. You need a touchdown to win.

🏈 YOUR STRATEGY: You have a world-class playbook

🏈 BEING CREATIVE: You then draw up the perfect, yet creative play that the defense does not see coming at all

🏈 BEING RISKY: Then you get the line, snap it, run the play, take that risk by throwing that Hail Mary and win the game.

Silly analogy? Yeah for sure. But you get it.

Go win it all and win social.

Before you go…here are a few quick hitters for you.

⛽️ Cadence: I joined Cadence as the Head of Social Media a few months ago and am absolutely loving it. Make sure to give us a follow and follow along for the ride.

🥴 Engagement Rates are out? I made a quick hot take on LinkedIn about engagement rates - check it out and let me know if you agree. View it here

✍️ Want to get featured? Have you scrolled across LinkedIn and really liked a a post about social media that deserves more hype and attention? You can submit it here for a chance to be featured in the next social pro shoutout.

📲 View the archive! Catch up on previous issues here and learn developing high-performing social strategies, social media lessons/insights, and social media career coaching tips.

🤔 Got a topic that you want to see addressed in a future issue?If so, respond to this email and let me know.

Thanks for reading and hope you have a great week!

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