I’ve been thinking a lot about confidence and energy recently because both can be a cap on creating good content (and not living a terrible life). You need the energy to keep up the relentless grind of planning, negotiating, drafting, publishing and engaging while still finding time for the fun stuff, and confidence to push through the challenges and fight for what you know is good content.

A lot of people doing social media are early- or mid-career. Confidence is built up with experience but also a gradual realisation that your opinion and professional expertise is actually as valid as other people's. Energy is likewise built up by realising your limits, understanding what a good work/life balance looks like, and accepting your own rhythms.

Unless you have a good manager (I know of plenty) then that all takes time to develop, and by the time it’s developed you've grown beyond the usually junior positions available for social media roles. What I'm already seeing and hope to see more of is those people growing into managerial and director-level roles that understand how to give their teams confidence and energy.

Also I ate three sausage rolls for lunch yesterday.

Content of this week

• Never thought I'd live to see the Japanese Ambassador eating fish and chips at the Black Country Living Museum and saying ‘bostin fittle’ to camera. A confluence of this ambassador being up for anything, and the confidence to ask him to do it.

• I don’t know how theatre people hear trending audio and know exactly how to apply it to video but they manage it again and again and again.

• We’re not all lucky enough to have a brother-in-law that works for the Detroit Opera (mine works for Marshall I guess), but it's incredible how a little musical accompaniment can elevate a video.

• I loved this unboxing from the British Museum, keeping you on tenterhooks for the reveal by blurring the object, bringing the personal perspective of the narrator and nice shoving in of ‘how museums work’ stuff.

• The National Coal Mining Museum just broke 10k followers on TikTok. Their bio is “Children yearn for the coal mines ⛏️”.

• I feel like there was a golden age of zoo/art gallery crossovers about a decade ago, so this feels almost nostalgic from the Getty (while also cashing in on the viral sealion).

• Another masterclass of content creator collaboration from the National Gallery.

The bullet point bit

• If you work for a local council then this is the reply that you’ve always wanted to post but never could.

• It’s surprisingly easy to game large language models - just pay for a press release, shove your article full of the phrases people search ChatGPT for and you’re suddenly one of the top AI-generated results. I’ve had a couple enquiries because I’ve been suggested by ChatGPT, mainly because I’m listed on the AMA website.

Personal stuff I do for me and you can just skip this if you like

🎮📖 what I’m consuming as a consumer

It's been a busy week so I haven’t consumed much of anything, but I saw the first preview of Reading Rep's Educating Rita last night for ‘work’. Apart from the great performances, I also absolutely loved the set of Frank’s university office. They had obviously done their research of sad academic offices, even having the detailing of the mildewed ceiling tiles and blinking flourescent lights.

🐕 Keith

Here he is (he just had an operation for bladder stones. TWENTY bladder stones.)