Some big news for this newsletter—we’re going twice a week! That’s right, friends. Future Social will be in your inbox Tuesdays and Thursdays now! That means more case studies, and more industry predictions, and more big strategic thinking.

Thinking about expanding my coverage, too. Maybe interviews with industry pros? Maybe increasing how many content examples I add to each issue? What do you wanna read? Shoot me a note—you can reply right to this issue.

But for now, let’s talk about

• A brand social media mistake that made me wither

• The right way for managers to handle their employee’s mistakes

• Why every down moment is actually an opportunity.

—Jack Appleby

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Two newsletters a week, AND daily marketing content on Instagram? Can you tell I’m locked in (or hyperfixating, who can say).

I’d absolutely love if you followed me on Instagram. Really trying to scale this thing into a full-fledged media business + connect with more of you on social. Have a few videos up now on personal brand thinking, social best practices, and making content you’re confident in.

How Sweet Loren's turned a huge social media mistake into a viral win

Anyone who’s worked in social media knows the sheer terror upon realizing you made a mistake on the brand’s channel. Even the smallest of typos can be nightmare-inducing, especially for junior employees who have to cop to bosses that may or may not be forgiving.

But Sweet Loren’s cookie dough just made one of the biggest mistakes you can possibly make in Brand Social. And it went viral. And almost a million people have now seen the mistake.

And it’s by far the brand’s more successful TikTok campaign of 2025.

Let’s break down the boo-boo, how to turn a mistake into social gold, and why no one needs to get fired.

What happened? What’s the big deal?

When you’re inside of TikTok’s settings, it’s pretty easy to change your name—the only caveat is you can only change your name every 7 days.

But uh… Sweet Loren’s Content Creator Ryan Weitz accidentally changed the brand’s name… to her own name. The account is now quite literally named Ryan.

I cannot stress to you how much I would panic if this happened to me. Because my social experience was on the ad agency side, I’d be terrified that my agency lead would rip me, and our agency might get fired, and me + everyone else would be laid off (agency PTSD is real, friends).

But Ryan (the person, not the newly renamed brand) immediately texted Sweet Loren’s Marketing Manager Enara Roy about the mistake, resulting in one of the cutest employee-to-manager conversations you’ve ever seen.

(I didn’t hack Enara’s phone, she shared the texts as content on her personal LinkedIn because she’s one of the sharpest personal brand builders I’ve seen in the marketing space.)

So yeah. For the next 7 days, Sweet Loren’s is now… Ryan. A pretty big deal, since it honestly makes the official account not look very official.

But I loveee both Enara’s reaction + how the mistake was turned into an opportunity.

Turning a mistake into content

Not addressing the name change wasn’t an option—the account literally says Ryan. So if you can’t change the name back, what’s the next best move?

Making a TikTok that owns the mistake!

@sweetlorens

new followers have the chance to get our new flavor for free before it’s on shelf ✨🍪 #socialmediamanager #smm #helpme #jobstruggles #conte... See more

Ryan explains exactly what went down and begs the viewers for views and likes to keep her out of trouble, which clearly worked—this first TikTok has 40,000 views and counting.

Then came another TikTok highlighting the mistake… and another 40,000 views.

Then a third, which went viral. 379,000 views in the last 48 hours as Ryan baked herself Sweet Loren’s cookies to make herself feel better.

@sweetlorens

help a girlie out and follow me so my manager forgives me 🥹🙈 #socialmediamanager #socialmediastruggles #sweetlorens #brandhumor #brandtok ... See more

A quick scroll through Sweet Loren’s TikTok shows the overwhelming majority of their content earns between 2,000 to 7,000 views, making their accidental viral moment pretty easily their biggest of 2025. And if it worked thrice, why not make it an entire campaign?

We’re now 15 TikToks into Ryan’s Reign (and that’s just in a 3 day period), and those videos will reach well over 1 million total views by the time you read this newsletter.

What’s more? Apparently the brand has a new cookie dough flavor they’re supposed to be launching soon, so they actually started incorporating that into the Ryan content, likely earning more views than your typical product teaser campaign.

Why did this work? Why is it earning views?

I’m gonna have to say the a-word, aren’t I.

Authenticity.

We’ve all done something dumb at work, and we as viewers love relating to Ryan’s moment. It’s real! It happens! It’s human! And we naturally wanna support a human in need. Because of the up front honesty, we’re all now investing in this journey and will keep watching the content to see how it all plays out.

Okay, but are we sure this isn’t staged?

UPDATE: I chatted with the Sweet Loren’s team who said this was a 100% honest mistake, that there’s no grandmaster scheme here, and they’re literally making it up as they go with

If it’s all a hoax, they certainly fooled me. Because of Enara’s LinkedIn post sharing the texts, I honestly believe this actually happened.

While we’re on the subject, pleasepleaseplease do not fabricate a campaign like this. If you intentionally tried to stage a moment like this and lied to your audience about it? Your brand would be torched forever in the comment section. The backlash would be IMMENSE. So no, don’t cry over spilled milk, but also don’t spill milk on purpose.

What’s the big lesson here?

We work in social media. We’re not curing cancer.

Mistakes happen, and they’re not the end of the world, and we can almost always make the best of them. No one needs to get fired. Yeah, we don’t wanna get sloppy, but one-off errors are learning opportunities.

I love how Ryan immediately flagged the mistake.

I love how Enara immediately comforted her employee.

I love how the brand let the social team run with a crazy idea.

This is how we should manage people and mistakes—with grace and a good laugh.