Carmen Varner Hernández

To all of my publicist friends, please don't take it personal if I don't respond to your PR pitch. I sometimes get hundreds per day and I frankly don't have the time to respond to most of them. Relevant pitches are noted and saved whether I respond or not, especially if it's about something that I might want to write about down the line.

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Doomscrolling on TikTok is NOT content research. I know because every content person I talk to does the same thing. They open the For You page "for research," and 45 minutes later they have a camera roll full of screenshots and zero briefs. The worst part isn't the lost time. It's that the feed never tells you what matters: did this video actually overperform, or did it just come from a big account? A 4M view video from a creator with 4M followers is expected. 4M views from a creator with 4K followers is a signal. Facebook has an ad library. Organic TikTok didn't. So we built one. Here's how BrandBeacon works: 1️⃣ Search one brand, product, or keyword 2️⃣ Keep or drop the TikTok search terms it suggests 3️⃣ Get Viral Breakouts ranked by Breakout Score, meaning how far each video beat that creator's usual views 4️⃣ Click into any video to see why it worked, what to do next, the transcript, the hook, and 3 suggested hooks you can steal 5️⃣ Track every TikTok that mentions a brand, from organic posts to affiliate content to Spark Ads This week I searched "coffee." A creator with 1.4K followers hit 6.3M views, a 6.9k× Breakout Score. You'd almost never find that by scrolling. Brands use it to study competitors. Creators use it to find formats before they shoot. Marketers use it to walk into client calls with receipts. If you run brand, growth, or social at a DTC brand, what's the first brand or keyword you'd search?

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I often get asked how I got started as a freelance writer — and especially how I pitch to editors. When I’m not working on commissioned stories, I help other writers land paid assignments and share the stories that matter to them. If you can’t make it to my upcoming writing workshop but still want to learn my process, I’ve created something for you: The Pitch Template + Checklist for Writers. It’s a practical, step-by-step guide to help you craft strong, editor-ready pitches that get noticed. Download it today and start pitching with confidence: https://shorturl.at/EcDqp #FreelanceWriting #PitchingTips #WritingCommunity #FreelanceJournalist #Storytelling #ProfessionalGrowth #CreativeEntrepreneur #WritingResources

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PSA for anyone hiring social media managers: Stop asking “What’s your Instagram follower count?” Wrong question. Wrong metric. Wrong role. I’m not an influencer. I’m a social media manager. My job isn’t to grow my audience; it’s to grow yours. Hire based on strategy, execution, and results - not vanity numbers on a personal profile. Influencers build themselves. Social media managers build brands. #smm #marketing

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Yes, most of us know the Haunted Mansion stretching room has no windows and no doors. And yes, it’s tempting to say the next line out loud! But for the family standing beside you, this might be their first time hearing it. That’s one of the small courtesies I wrote about in my latest Travel + Leisure story on unspoken theme park etiquette. I chatted with theme park experts and frequent visitors about which habits can make or break the experience for the people around us, from reciting popular pre-show spiels to line behavior. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/e-RzMNMy

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Social media folks, this one is for you. Last week, I was approached for a Social Media Manager role at a design agency. They sent over a "social media test" covering 6 different clients. Content calendars. Caption writing. Platform strategy. Hashtag research. And a full audit of their existing handles. I did it on a Sunday. My only day off that week. Submitted on time, after they followed up twice. After submission they asked how soon I could join. Even floated a start date. Then came the line. "The test is good. But that doesn't mean the job is confirmed. I'll decide in the new financial year." Calls stopped getting answered after that. Here's what I want to say clearly. That wasn't a test. That was a free social media audit across 5 live brands. Delivered by someone who didn't know they were working for free. A real hiring test is focused. Two brands, maybe three. One platform. A couple of captions and a brief strategy note. Enough to understand how someone thinks. It does not need a full Sunday. It does not need 5 brands. It does not need platform audits on top of content and strategy. This survives because we keep saying yes without asking the right questions upfront. What's the exact scope. What's the timeline for a decision. Who is evaluating this and when. If the answers are hazy, the test probably isn't a test. Social media managers already do the work of three people inside most companies. We don't need to prove that by working for free before we even get hired. If you've been through something similar, how did you handle it?

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Late-night thoughts while reading: People love to read about beings in your writing. Humans are fascinated by other people and living things. Even if it's not alive or a being, readers still want to be as close to a moment you (or someone else) experienced as they can. Make it vivid. Also, as a features writer, I will never tire of a visual or emotional lede that makes me feel emotionally invested in the story. Paint me a picture, and pull at my heartstrings, please. I love to challenge myself and see whether I can incorporate all of my senses. If it doesn't grab me at the beginning, I have to force myself to keep reading. I never want to feel forced. I want to *want to* continue.

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I spent last weekend analyzing growth-stage beauty brands’ content... And one pattern kept showing up. Beautiful products. Polished feeds. But conversions? Low. Here's what I found when I audited this beauty brand's Instagram (and what 90% of beauty founders are getting wrong): It’s rarely a quality problem. Usually, it’s a positioning problem. ➡️ Leading with products instead of people.  ➡️ Selling features instead of solving problems.  ➡️ Asking for the sale before building trust. The result? Attention without conversion — weak buying signals. I redesigned their entire content strategy using 4 pillars that actually convert: ✦ Education — Answer real customer questions. Build authority. ✦ Transformation — Show results, not just packaging. ✦ Community — Create belonging, not just buyers. ✦ Product — Showcase intentionally, in context, not constantly. Because people don’t buy from brands they just see. They buy from brands they trust. Swipe through to see: → The content gaps quietly hurting conversions (you're probably doing this too) → The 4 pillars I introduced (and why each one matters)  → Why this approach works (and the psychology behind it) → What this reveals about YOUR content If your beauty brand is getting engagement but low sales, your content probably doesn't have a quality problem, it has a positioning problem. You’re trying to close the sale before opening the relationship. And that gap between attention and trust? That's exactly what's costing you potential revenue. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Want me to audit your beauty brand’s content? I’m offering free personalized content audits to 5 beauty brands this week. No cookie-cutter advice, just real analysis of YOUR content. DM or comment "AUDIT" to get started.

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For anyone who wants to start a career in freelance writing. I didn’t go to journalism school. I didn’t have newsroom experience or a network of editors. My first travel stories paid $5 each. Over time, I learned how to find assignments, pitch editors, build relationships and move from smaller publications to dream bylines in TIME, National Geographic, CNN, Travel + Leisure and Food & Wine. I also spent years figuring out lessons that someone could have explained to me over coffee. I’m now sharing those practical strategies with freelance writers who want to build sustainable careers and land bigger bylines. Read and save the post: https://lnkd.in/dfH6kfuD What do you wish someone had told you when you started freelancing? #FreelanceWriting #TravelWriting #Journalism

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