This blog is brought to you by Lindsey Feinstein, Account Director at Girlilla Marketing.

Working in digital marketing for talent — and doing it well — requires a certain degree of anonymity. If you work in digital or, as all of our parents call it, “do social media for famous people,” chances are you’ve been caught at a family gathering, being pressed about whether so-and-so actually does their own posting. You don’t want to ruin the illusion of authenticity from their favorite person to follow and, to be honest, the answer is usually a complicated version of “sort of.” 

So why is anonymity important? Partly to avoid ruining the illusion for your aunt, but mostly for one very simple reason: it’s not about you. It’s not your story that you’re sharing.

If you’re like me… you can’t sing (some may say you’re tone-deaf), but you represent artists. You can’t write a song, but you represent songwriters. You can’t act, but you represent actors. You can’t tell a joke, but you represent comedians. And you CERTAINLY can’t model or look like Brooke Shields… but you represent her too. 

Thankfully, that doesn’t matter. It’s not about my talent. I’m not here to be known. I’m here to help them be known, loved, followed, and talked about—for the right reasons. Staying anonymous gives me range. I can switch tones between clients, channel different personalities, and disappear into a voice that isn’t mine. It lets me experiment and stay completely objective in strategy, rather than letting my own ego or opinions get in the way. When no one’s watching you, you get to focus entirely on the craft.

We always say the biggest compliment is when a person very close to one of our clients can’t tell between a post they made and one we crafted. That means we’ve nailed the assignment. When you’re great at this job, there should be no clear difference between you and the client. You’ve created an ecosystem of a healthy combination of approvals and trust that enables you to perfectly capture their voice and message. Some may say this removes authenticity, but I say authenticity is an illusion at this point. How can something as curated as social media platforms ever claim authenticity? Things that feel effortless can take hours of effort. Things that feel relatable might have taken hundreds of text messages back and forth wondering if it was too relatable.

While I usually love working in the anonymous shadows, there are days when it’s frustrating.. When you’re behind the scenes, it's very easy for people to take credit for your work. I don’t just mean the client — they have every right to take the credit, but usually won’t even when you want them to. (SIDE NOTE: please, clients, stop saying you have a social media team and you haven’t been on your accounts in months. I digress.) It’s often team members in more outward-facing roles, whose presence doesn’t threaten the “authenticity” of a client’s digital persona. Since they aren’t the ones “doing” the posting, they don’t need to remain anonymous, and, after all, you can’t raise your hand and say “no, no, no, that was me.” I’ve quite literally had someone submit my work for an award on their behalf. After I got over it, I realized it was the ultimate compliment. There’s satisfaction in knowing your idea worked. 

You see other people in this role showcasing the exact opposite of anonymity. To be honest, it’s what we cringe most about in our office. Every random behind the scenes piece of content shared on personal profiles or sign off with a pen emoji in the comments — it goes directly against the ethos of the job. Because again, it’s not about you. If it weren't for the clients’ talents that got them to a place to be able to hire you in the first place, none of your plans would be successful. 

You need to find ways to further your career and share your successes. I spent the better part of last year in CMA’s absolutely incredible Women’s Leadership Academy (WLA) talking about this exact dichotomy. How you can present yourself as a valuable member of the team while maintaining the namelessness needed to be successful at your job. That could be a whole other blog post — maybe I’ll write it if Jennie ever lets me on here again after this one. But, for the purpose of this blog… My takeaway? Embrace the anonymity. Let it give you the freedom to embrace the multiple personalities you’re given the privilege to represent online. 

To finish this blog, I asked ChatGPT its thoughts on this subject. Mostly, they were ridiculously dramatic and overwritten about something I think is pretty matter-of-fact. However, I did like this one quote and thought it would be worth sharing: “There’s something poetic about that—living behind the curtain in a business obsessed with being seen. Fame is a spotlight, and I’ve learned to work in its shadow.”

There’s nothing wrong with the shadow. It’s a pretty nice place to be. 

Thanks for letting me share a few of my ramblings!
Lindsey