Editor’s observe: We sat down with Rodolphe Ködderitzsch, Normal Supervisor of Social and Creators at Squarespace, to faucet into his professional insights on social media for model progress. This dialog is a part of an thrilling new sequence on our weblog, so keep tuned for extra thought management from prime executives… 👀
Tendencies in social media for enterprise progress come and go, so what’s the true basis of social media success? What’s on the horizon, and how are you going to beat your opponents to the punch?
For professional recommendation, we turned to Rodolphe Ködderitzsch, Normal Supervisor of Social and Creators at Squarespace. With over 20 years of expertise scaling progress at digital media organizations, together with YouTube and Google, and startups — and typically founding them — Ködderitzsch is aware of that genuine neighborhood is what actually drives model progress on social media.
“There’s a vital distinction between an viewers and a neighborhood: an viewers is one-to-many, whereas a neighborhood is many-to-many,” he shares.
“When manufacturers make that shift — from broadcasting at folks to constructing with folks — they unlock one thing a lot greater than engagement metrics. They create belonging. And belonging is what sustains communities lengthy after algorithms change or campaigns finish.”
Learn on for the particular methods Ködderitzsch and his group use — each for their very own enterprise progress on social media, and to assist their neighborhood of creators, entrepreneurs, and companies obtain success on-line.
Whereas every model’s recipe for social media success will contain a barely totally different mixture of elements, you possibly can implement the methods Ködderitzsch shares beneath irrespective of your business, funds, viewers dimension, or social media targets.
Are you able to inform us a bit about your position at Squarespace and the way you assist form the model’s advertising and marketing technique to help creators?
Ködderitzsch: As Normal Supervisor of the Social group at Squarespace, I lead our Bio Websites and Unfold merchandise — two entry factors that assist creators get began on the Squarespace platform.
Unfold equips creators with design-forward instruments to craft elevated tales and Reels for social, whereas Bio Websites reimagines the link-in-bio as a light-weight however highly effective storefront for promoting merchandise, reserving providers, and constructing direct buyer relationships. Collectively, these merchandise function the quickest on-ramp for creators into the broader Squarespace ecosystem.
My position spans product, engineering, design, advertising and marketing, and buyer operations. The best way my group is structured permits us to maneuver with startup-like agility whereas nonetheless being aligned with Squarespace’s broader imaginative and prescient: making a future the place everybody could be an entrepreneur.
The place the core Squarespace platform has traditionally centered on small companies, our Social group is laser-focused on the creator financial system: people constructing manufacturers on social platforms who now want instruments to professionalize, monetize, and scale.
The best way I give it some thought is that this: creators right now are on the intersection of tradition and commerce. Our job is to take away friction to allow them to remodel social engagement into sustainable companies.
By investing in instruments that not solely assist them stand out but additionally drive measurable outcomes — gross sales, bookings, e mail seize — we’re not simply supporting creators, we’re serving to redefine what entrepreneurship appears like within the social period.
Visible id is clearly a giant focus at Squarespace. How do you employ design to construct model belief and credibility with social media content material?
Ködderitzsch: At Squarespace, we take into consideration visible id not simply as aesthetics, however as a belief sign.
In a world the place anybody can publish something in seconds, consistency of design is what tells your viewers: this model is credible, intentional, and price participating with. Each colour, font, and format alternative contributes to that sign.
On social media, the stakes are even larger — feeds are noisy and a focus spans are quick. Design turns into the quickest strategy to talk values earlier than a single phrase is learn. Clear, coherent, and immediately recognizable visuals act as a shorthand for reliability and professionalism, which in flip builds belief.
An incredible instance is Wage Clear Road, who joined us at one in every of our creator occasions. Their complete platform is constructed on radical openness — actually asking strangers on the road to share their salaries.
The content material itself is uncooked and unscripted, however their use of design provides it construction and credibility. The signature inexperienced that anchors their model seems throughout their posts, from the on-street microphone to the decrease thirds in video clips.
Their typography, framing fashion, and constant colour palette create prompt recognition in a crowded feed. That visible self-discipline indicators to audiences and types alike that this isn’t only a viral stunt, however a mission-driven platform. And that’s the candy spot: when design takes authenticity and amplifies it into long-term belief and loyalty.
How ought to one steadiness sustaining that signature look whereas creating content material that works with every channel’s distinctive setting?
Ködderitzsch: Balancing a signature look with channel-specific content material is among the most necessary model challenges right now on social. The error many manufacturers make is treating consistency and adaptation as opposites. In actuality, the strongest manufacturers do each: they lead with a core visible and tonal id that’s immediately recognizable, after which flex it to really feel native to every platform.
Consider your model id because the backbone — it holds the whole lot collectively. Your colours, typography, and visible tone ought to be recognizable irrespective of the place you present up. That’s what builds belief and makes your model straightforward to recall in a loud feed.
However the way in which you categorical these components must respect the setting of every channel. A LinkedIn viewers will interact with long-form storytelling or thought management, whereas TikTok rewards immediacy, movement, and cultural relevance.
Each can nonetheless carry your DNA — you simply want to alter the lens, not the core.
Creators are masters of this steadiness. They keep a constant fashion, voice, or aesthetic that makes them recognizable, but they adapt fluidly to every platform’s tradition and format.
Manufacturers ought to research that playbook: consistency earns recognition, adaptation earns relevance. Collectively, they compound into credibility.
How can manufacturers leverage influencers or UGC content material successfully for their very own progress, and to foster community-building inside their viewers?
Ködderitzsch: Consumer-generated content material has turn out to be one of the highly effective levers for model progress as a result of it bridges the hole between advertising and marketing and neighborhood.
When a buyer or a creator chooses to make content material about your model, they’re not simply amplifying your message, they’re authenticating it. That authenticity is the forex of the social period.
The manufacturers that succeed with UGC don’t deal with it as a one-off marketing campaign tactic; they construct techniques round it. Which means actively designing alternatives for participation, together with:
- easy prompts
- inventive challenges
- unique drops that invite folks to place their very own stamp on the model
It additionally means placing UGC on equal footing with owned content material: that includes it in social channels, weaving it into e mail campaigns, even integrating it into product pages.
Accomplished proper, it turns into a loop — neighborhood fuels content material, content material fuels belief, and belief fuels progress.
We’ve seen this firsthand within the creator financial system. Probably the most magnetic creators aren’t simply broadcasting; they’re creating house for his or her viewers to contribute, remix, and be seen.
Manufacturers can study from that playbook. The objective isn’t simply to get folks speaking about you — it’s to make them really feel like they’re a part of your story. When UGC is harnessed in that approach, it stops being a advertising and marketing asset and turns into a community-building engine.
What’s one widespread mistake you suppose manufacturers make when making an attempt to construct neighborhood on social media — and what ought to they do as a substitute?
Ködderitzsch: The commonest mistake manufacturers make is mistaking viewers dimension for neighborhood depth.
They deal with accumulating followers and chasing attain, however they don’t spend money on constructing the significant interactions that flip an viewers into an precise neighborhood.
One million passive followers isn’t as invaluable as ten thousand individuals who really feel actually linked to your model and to 1 one other.
There’s a vital distinction between an viewers and a neighborhood: an viewers is one-to-many, whereas a neighborhood is many-to-many.
Most manufacturers keep caught in broadcast mode, talking at folks. However actual communities emerge when manufacturers channel and allow connections between members — when folks aren’t simply participating with you, however with one another. That’s when the dynamic shifts from consumption to co-creation.
One other approach to consider that is to acknowledge that you just’re constructing with your neighborhood, not for them. That’s a important distinction I discovered from my buddy Bailey Richardson, who led neighborhood within the early days of Instagram, at Substack, and now at OpenAI.
Her level has at all times caught with me: the healthiest communities are co-authored. When members really feel possession, they don’t simply eat — they contribute, defend, and develop the neighborhood alongside you.
Manufacturers must design for participation, not simply consumption. Which means asking questions, spotlighting voices from the neighborhood, and creating rituals or moments the place folks see themselves mirrored within the model story.
The very best communities on-line aren’t constructed round a product — they’re constructed round a shared id, a set of values, or a cultural second that individuals wish to be a part of. The model is the catalyst, not the middle of gravity.
When manufacturers make that shift — from broadcasting at folks to constructing with folks — they unlock one thing a lot greater than engagement metrics. They create belonging. And belonging is what sustains communities lengthy after algorithms change or campaigns finish.
When you may go away manufacturers with key classes for constructing a social media advertising and marketing technique that drives progress, what would these be?
Ködderitzsch: First, construct for outcomes, not self-importance.
It’s straightforward to get caught up in follower counts, likes, and views, however these are surface-level metrics. The actual query is: does your social technique drive significant enterprise outcomes—gross sales, sign-ups, bookings, or deeper buyer relationships?
Development comes from aligning your social exercise to measurable aims, not chasing metrics that look good in a dashboard. Creators have already internalized this: the neatest ones don’t simply measure views, they measure conversions and recurring income. Manufacturers ought to do the identical.
Second, design for participation, not simply consumption.
Social media is now not a broadcast channel; it’s a participatory medium. The strongest manufacturers create methods for his or her viewers to have interaction, co-create, and even join with each other. That’s the way you remodel an viewers right into a neighborhood, and a neighborhood right into a progress engine.
Creators are years forward right here — they construct remark sections, Discord servers, and subscriber perks that make folks really feel a part of one thing. Manufacturers must undertake that very same mindset.
And lastly, lead with consistency and authenticity.
Consistency builds belief, and authenticity builds affinity. Manufacturers that present up with a transparent visible id, a recognizable voice, and a real standpoint stand out within the feed. Plus, they construct the sort of loyalty that lasts past anyone platform or development.
Take a look at creators who break via: they’re constant of their tone, design, and values, and that’s what permits them to develop into new codecs and platforms with out dropping their viewers.
Put collectively, these rules make sure that your social technique isn’t nearly visibility, however about constructing one thing that compounds over time: belief, belonging, and progress. And in order for you inspiration on learn how to do it, look carefully at creators—they’re already modeling the playbook.
1. Know precisely who you’re talking to (and converse with them)
As Ködderitzsch says, “When manufacturers make that shift — from broadcasting at folks to constructing with folks — they unlock one thing a lot greater than engagement metrics. They create belonging.”
Squarespace is laser-focused on their mission of serving to folks begin and develop their companies on-line. This focus turns into even sharper on social media the place creators are their principal neighborhood.
As a substitute of solely enthusiastic about what content material you possibly can create to your viewers, take into consideration what you possibly can co-create alongside them.
Squarespace’s Renewwwal sequence highlights their clients’ companies whereas constructing a brand new web site alongside them, and naturally exhibiting how straightforward it’s for non-techy folks to construct a web site with Squarespace. It’s a win-win.
2. Encourage your viewers, however make it actionable
Squarespace matches motivational tales with sensible recommendation exceptionally nicely. Inspiration with out recommendation wouldn’t be as efficient by itself.
An incredible instance of that is Squarespace’s collaboration with artist Jeff Koons. The marketing campaign featured a touchdown web page together with video and graphics for social media, plus the web site Squarespace constructed with Jeff to showcase his work.
The actionable half? Squarespace customers can use the identical new template for his or her web sites too.
3. Put money into design
Good design isn’t an afterthought, neither is it the one factor that issues on social media.
“Clear, coherent, and immediately recognizable visuals act as a shorthand for reliability and professionalism, which in flip builds belief,” Ködderitzsch says.
As a snapshot of Squarespace’s publish feed, you possibly can really feel the inventive vibes alongside the recognizable, but minimal, branding.
Supply: @Squarespace on Instagram
4. Consistency + humanity = max model progress
“At present’s strongest manufacturers mix consistency with a way of humanity,” Ködderitzsch says.
“We encourage creators and companies alike to make use of design techniques as a basis, whereas leaving room for storytelling, character, and cultural relevance. When design is each disciplined and alive, it creates not simply belief, however affinity.”
We couldn’t agree extra.
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