Just Post The Fucking Thing.

Strap in... I guess.

We're in a spectacular time, one where the changes are thick, fast, and for many, unbearable. Where LinkedIn served as a job posting site, and Instagram was once just instant photo sharing, we now have AEO, GEO, AIO, SEO and whatever the fuck else we've come up with this week.

The hyper-breakneck content creation hamsterwheels are aplenty. Metrics are increasing, changing (violently). And if you don't know what I mean by any of that, this is likely not the place for you.

But for those still here, still running, still tweeting, still bleeding quietly into the comments section, this is the reckoning.

The industry isn't building for people, and it hasn't for a long time (save the stoic few who remember the fucking PEOPLE). It's building for algorithms that pretend to be people.

Content isn’t content designed for consumption; it is written to be ingested by search engines and regurgitated in AIO. Neat little fuck-your-traffic summaries at the top of Google.

We’re told to be everywhere. Be searchable. Be “personal.” Be high-converting. Be on-brand. Be engaging. Be vulnerable, but only on schedule. Be a thought leader. Be authentic. Be consistent. Be available. Be funnier. Be real, but better. GO VIRAL.

And through it all, don’t stop. Don’t question. Don’t pause. Don't look away because overnight search will change, your traffic will tank, your impressions will rise, and you, you SEOBRO, can post on LinkedIn how you knew the secret. Reply with 'GET SECRET' in the comments to retrieve the secret.

What about the fucking people?

To be clear, I am not the bastion of hope and light; I, too, delighted in the Great Uncoupling working beautifully, eating up incredible advice drip-fed through guides and webinars.

I sat and went through the smallest numbers to see where the improvements could be made. Changing seven words at midnight, just on a hunch. But as I do this, I try to remember that it is for a human. A real human. Who needs something I can deliver.

There’s a growing forgetfulness in the air, not of information, but of people. The fucking people.

We know the metrics. We watch the dashboards. We AB test every CTA down to the punctuation, and while it is a beautiful thing when you crack the code, it is dull as fuck sometimes.

But somewhere between the optimization and the upload, we forget the humans. The person who has to read the thing that you spent weeks preparing.

We're not writing for a fucking dashboard. We're writing for someone on their phone, in their bed, trying not to cry over cat memes, and someone on TikTok asking for help. For someone on their lunch break, doom-scrolling between dull this-could've-been-an-email meetings. For someone who saw your post and felt a flicker of something (anything, please), until it got buried under three ads and a trending fail.

Because here’s the thing: your deeply researched, tightly structured, beautifully written ten-tweet thread? It won’t go viral. No one gives a single fuck. Unless your audience is millions strong and hot as fuck, and/or you've got a disgustingly huge budget to force your way to the eyeballs, you're going into the abyss.

There is no fuck for you to be given in this economy.

But that one blurry, chaotic, two-second clip of someone accidentally microwaving a fork? That’ll get four million views and a licensing deal by noon.

It’s not fair. It’s not even logical. But it’s where we are.

And if you forget who you’re speaking to, really speaking to, you’ll start writing for the machine instead of the mind. You'll burn out and change careers on the double.

Authenticity used to mean something. Now it’s strategy. A checkbox. Another bullshit buzzword on a slide deck.

We're told to be transparent, but not too honest. Vulnerable, but polished enough to get the sign off. Real, but in a way that still converts (please and thank you, we have stakeholders, y'know). What used to come naturally, flawed, messy, and human, is now a content pillar with a workflow.

And the sick part? It works. Fake-real gets likes. Branded breakdowns get comments. Perform your struggles just right and you’ll “build trust.”

Meanwhile, the people who actually go viral? They’re not optimizing shit. They’re not storyboarding their trauma. They're chaotic. Unfiltered. Accidentally funny. Sometimes they're just lucky. The hit post and fucked off for the rest of the day, probably didn't check a metric once. They simply posted the thing.

You remember the tweet that made you snort at 2 am when you were most likely awake worried about the next clusterfuck of SEO changes or social algos being wild. Or the one that admitted something you didn’t know other people felt, and you felt seen. Opening the comments, it is you and a hundred thousand others feeling at home. You remember the offhand comment from a stranger that cracked your chest open a little.

That’s what real feels like.

It’s not about being seen as authentic. It's about showing up when it counts, even when no one’s watching. Even when the post tanks. Even when it doesn’t make the quarterly round-up. Even when you have to say - wow I totally fucked this one up, and just accept it.

And it fucking matters. Because the people on the other side of your content? They’re not impressions. They’re not leads. They’re not your “target demo.” (they are, but they aren't c'mon now...).

They’re just people. And they can tell the difference between some over-optimized, overly perfect ad and real shit. And in truth, they don't want it anymore.

You know that, though.

And, I'm probably preaching to the choir, you already know this isn't working, and maybe you have to have these conversations with the people who need to do the signing off.

Done can be, and should be, good enough in 90% of cases. Because by the time your highly curated, perfectly timed post goes out, so did 40 million others, and your post is not even a drop in the ocean.

As a person who adores content, this is content, I love writing, writing content, and content content content conTENT CONTENT. Even I know we don’t need more content. We need more truth. More weirdness. More honest thoughts, bad takes, raw edges. More “fuck it, I’ll post it anyway.”

The people who need you will find you through good work; most often, good work and high-viz work are one and the same. Or you can be like your local friendly SEOBRO and spaff your insight all over LinkedIn 74 times a day. Whatever you want.

One day, I'll tell you the stories I've heard from some of the biggest media groups about budget, clients, and attitudes.

Maybe.

Anyway the point is, just post the fucking thing and move on. Because if you don't, someone else will.