In Practice: Rachel Karten and the Case for Consistency

On writing as a professional reset, the myth of going viral, and building smarter social from the inside out.

I first started reading Rachel Karten’s newsletter Link in Bio when I was still deep in social strategy for startups. Her ability to see how tactics scale up and down was a lifeline, and I often bookmarked her social ideas. These days, I’m not glued to my FYP, but I still keep up on what’s going on in social, and I still open every issue of her newsletter. Her writing makes sense of an ever-changing, chaotic industry: sharp, curious, and rooted in experience. It’s one of the few industry newsletters that actually explains why things matter, rather than merely reporting on them.

Rachel’s been working in and around the social industry for over a decade—leading the team at Bon Appétit, consulting for brands like CAVA and west elm, and growing Link in Bio into one of the top business newsletters on Substack. Rachel’s generosity, coupled with her experience, sets her apart.

In this conversation, Rachel reflects on the early internet as a creative training ground, the shift from chasing virality to building real strategy, and what she hopes the next era of brand social might look like.

1. What’s the real story of how you got here? (Read: not the LinkedIn version)

When I was 15, I got grounded because I was posting photos on my LiveJournal. At 17, I wrote a college application essay about how my friends would let me log into their Facebook accounts because I wrote the best photo album captions. When I turned 20, I started a Tumblr account reviewing food and fashion. I’m an introvert who found her voice on the internet. There was no other choice but to make a career out of it.

2. What’s something that quietly rewired how you work?

Writing about social media has made me a better social media marketer in ways I couldn’t have imagined. The practice of researching advertising history, interviewing social media leaders, and defending my opinions have all impacted my work with clients. Curiosity is one of the most important skills when working in social. I think writing inherently makes you more curious.

3. What’s a piece of media you’ve rewatched or reread an embarrassing number of times?

The Creative Companion by David Fowler, an advertising and copywriting legend who spent twenty years at Ogilvy. I was introduced to it through Grace Clarke and refer to it often. Here’s one of my favorite excerpts:

“A brand is the way a person feels about a product or service. It’s created not by advertising, but by a set of experiences. Think of a brand like an art museum. How you feel about the pictures is what makes them matter. Otherwise, it’s just a room of sailcloth stretched on frames.”

Still trying to get my hands on a hard copy.

4. What’s an opinion or trend in the industry that makes you roll your eyes?

I have trouble with blanket marketing opinions that lack any sort of nuance. “Memes don’t work”, “Trends are bad”, “Chaotic social is over”. Algorithms love hot takes but this sort of thinking doesn’t move our industry forward. There are so many ways a brand can approach social and I think showing (and respecting!) that breadth is important.

5. What’s a moment in your career that you felt totally in control? What about the opposite?

I feel most in control when I am working on the creative for a post or campaign. I feel most out of control when that post or campaign goes live. I think that’s the thrill of working in social media, though.

6. What’s in your media diet right now that’s actually influencing your work?

I was talking to someone the other day and they said “How do you decide once you read something that you want to write about it”. The truth is, most of my newsletter ideas come from scrolling platforms, talking to creatives, and texting social marketers about what they are working on. Aside from that, my media diet consists of publications that are more industry-specific than social-specific. I read about the entertainment and fashion industries in Puck. I like learning about wellness in HEAVIES. Jessica DeFino is my beauty resource with The Review of Beauty. Industry newsletters expose me to brands and news that I might not otherwise have heard about. As an example, I learned Tesla was being sued for using an AI image that looked too similar to Blade Runner in Matt Belloni’s newsletter. I related that back to my work by breaking down the legal tie-in to brands hopping on the Studio Ghibli trend.

7. What’s a shift in tone, taste, or language that you think is coming—but hasn’t hit yet?

As brands put more resources towards social media, I hope that means we’ll see more original programming. I understand why accounts lean on trends—they are great for awareness! But I think if I were to build the internet I’d like to scroll on then it’d be a lot more out-of-the-box and algorithm-defying videos. It feels safe to post what you know will “work” but without the risk of going against that we wouldn’t have accounts like Alexis Bittar, Planet Money, or Craighill.

8. What’s something you wanted early in your career that doesn’t matter to you anymore?

To go viral. Now I’d rather have a consistently great strategy, like a MERIT or Figma, than a one-off hit.

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I hope you enjoyed meeting Rachel Karten. Catch up with her on Link in Bio!