Today I interview Bella Rose Mortel, a social media strategist and creative copywriter known for building authentic, high-impact digital brands. Currently at beehiiv, she leads content + strategy across LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram and other platforms, blending strategy with storytelling to drive growth and engagement. With a background at Workweek and Morning Brew, plus her own Gen Z–focused newsletter The Personality Hire, she’s passionate about making B2B content feel human, relevant, and genuinely fun.

In this interview, we discuss the critical importance for creators to "own their audience" through an email newsletter, as social media platforms can be unreliable due to algorithm changes or potential bans. Bella Rose highlights beehive's key differentiators from competitors like Substack, including its 0% cut on paid subscription revenue (only Stripe fees apply), a built-in ad network that offers sponsorship opportunities with no minimum subscriber count (even for those with as few as 100 subscribers), and a new fully integrated website builder. The discussion also covers beehiiv's tools designed to make content creation easier, such as AI writing assistance and various newsletter and website templates, emphasizing its role as an all-in-one platform to simplify growing and monetizing a content business. Bella Rose also shares insights from her dual perspective as a newsletter creator and social media strategist, explaining how newsletters foster a deeper connection with an intentional audience compared to the passive scrolling on social media, and offering practical advice on managing multiple social platforms.

Find Bella Rose:

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/bellarosemortel/⁠

Newsletter: The Personality Hire - ⁠https://bella-roses-newsletter.beehiiv.com/t/lifestyle⁠

Find beehiiv:

Web: ⁠https://www.beehiiv.com/⁠

Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/beehiiv/⁠

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Meta launches the ability to automatically have your Instagram and Facebook Reels translated and dubbed from English to Spanish (and vice versa!) but the AI will ensure your mouth matches the words. Also the Head of Instagram answers a question about how long Reels should be, the Buffer team shares some strategy and a new feature, the YouTube team is working on Effects for Shorts, and I do Wednesday Waffle.

Links:

Instagram: Reels from English to Spanish and Spanish to English using AI (Instagram)

Instagram: How Long Should a Reel Be? Adam Mosseri Explains (Instagram)

Buffer: How Often Should You Post on Instagram? (Instagram)

Buffer: New Feature - Bulk Upload from CSV (Instagram)

YouTube: Effect Maker, Improved Comment Moderation in Studio, and More (YouTube)

Wednesday Waffle:

Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir (Book) (Audiobook)

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Today we review the Head of Instagram's answers to questions like "Will bonuses for Reels be back?" and "Does putting no caption In a Reel affect it's reach?" and "If I quickly skip someone's Story, can they still see I saw it?", plus some Instagram feature suggestions.

Links:

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How often should you post on Instagram? I pit the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, against the actual data. The Buffer team has done a masterful job of pulling all the data together into one place. There are also Edits app updates to talk about, plus AI news - turns out Meta's AI is doing some really bad things, and Chat-GPT has been updated but the old model is still available.

Links:

Instagram: How Often To Post (Instagram)

Buffer: How Often to Post on Instagram (Buffer)

Edits: Updates to the app include safe zones to help guide you with adding text to your reels (Threads)

AI News:

Podcast: AI News You Should Know About (Listen)

Meta’s flirty AI chatbot invited a retiree to New York - He Never Made It Home (Reuters)

ChatGPT Model Switching - (TechCrunch)

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The Head of Instagram gives the latest on the reposts feature - how it works and where reposts appear. Additionally he explains how location sharing on Instagram works, and gives some updates on the Edits app. After the break we talk about how Instagram removes bots and fake followers, plus a feature suggestion for carousels.

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Today's weekend edition focused on the Instagram Map feature - what it is, the backlash it's received and why. Lia Haberman of the In Case You Missed It newsletter stops by to explain what all the fuss is about and why it matters. Also Adam Mosseri busts an Instagram myth, and Ashley Coffey and I dive into AI news around Perplexity, Cloudflare, and Google's new AI model.

Links:

Lia Haberman and ICYMI

ICYMI:: Repost, Maps... Which Instagram updates do you really need?! (Substack)

Lia's Threads Post about Instagram Maps (Threads)

Instagram: Myth-Busting about who you interact with (Instagram)

AI News:

Perplexity is using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives (Cloudflare)

Some people are defending Perplexity after Cloudflare ‘named and shamed’ it (TechCrunch)

Google’s DeepMind thinks its new Genie 3 world model presents a stepping stone toward AGI (TechCrunch)

AI News You Should Know About - Entire Episode: (Audio) (Video)

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Meta made $46 billion dollars in Q2 alone. That's the important thing to know. It's 21% growth over Q2 2024.

Instagram has added reposts - the ability to share content directly to your feed so others can see it. Also, they've added a map feature to see your friends and what they're sharing.

Links:

Meta: Q2 Earnings Report Call (Social Media Today)

Instagram: New Instagram Features to Help You Connect (Blog) (Video)

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There are many ways to share content on Instagram - Reels, Carousels, Single Posts, Broadcast Channels, Stories, Going Live - when should you use each one? Today's episode explains. Also the Instagram team has been working on improving the available analytics - we'll discuss. And the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, answers questions about reach, engagement, Stories, and more.

Show Links:

Instagram: Engaging By Surface - Graphic (Instagram)

Instagram: Insight Updates (Instagram)

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