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- Inside Beehiiv’s $50M social content playbook
Inside Beehiiv’s $50M social content playbook
3 pillars this $50M SaaS startup used to take over the social timeline

Hey!
Welcome to Social Files—your no-BS guide to generating demand for your B2B product using social & content.
Hope you had a great weekend. I spent my Sunday glued to my couch either sleeping or reading book 4 of the Red Rising series. But you're not here for book reviews. You’re here for B2B social strategy.
And I’ve got a heater of an edition for you today. I spent the past week studying one of my favorite companies on social right now, Beehiiv.
Their brand account is dialed.
Their founder account is dialed.
Their employee advocacy is dialed.
Today I’m sharing everything I learned, so you can apply their winning strategies to your own social playbook. This is the example to study if you want social to be a meaningful part of your GTM motion.
Now, shall we?
🔎 DEEP DIVE
Dissecting how this $50M SaaS startup has taken over the social timeline

I can’t open Twitter without seeing a piece of content from Beehiiv. Whether from their CEO, Tyler, their brand account, or one of their 50+ employees.
They’re everywhere.
I spent the past week diving deep into their social playbook (I even got to sit down with their social media manager) to piece together their formula. Today, I’ll walk you through how they’ve taken over their corner of the internet.
By the end of this essay, you’ll understand how:
Beehiiv’s CEO structures his approach to founder-led social content to grow an audience and get more customers
Beehiiv’s brand account uses specific content types to get strong engagement and build hype around the product
How to get your team members to be active on social and create a feeling of ‘being everywhere’
Plus, a few specific strategies like ‘owning an emoji,’ dogfooding your product for social content, and more.
Shall we?
First, some quick context.
If you're not familiar with Beehiiv, its an ESP (email service provider). They compete with companies like ConvertKit, Substack, Mailchimp, Sailthru (gross), and more.
As of right now, they have ~50-100 employees and raised a $12.5M Series A at this point. Well-funded, but still early-stage.
I use Beehiiv to write & send every edition of Social Files. Attribute that sign-up to the organic social team.
Building a Content Ecosystem.
B2B startups tend to have a misguided view of how social media works. They just post blog links from their company account, shill webinars, and then complain that organic social is a ‘low ROI’ channel.
Beehiiv bucks the trend.
They’ve built what I refer to as a Content Ecosystem. There are 3 parts to it:
(1) Founder-led content
(2) Company-led content
(3) Employee-led content

Like I said, most startups just post from the company page (though I like to think the tide is turning). Instead, you should be trying to create an echo chamber in your corner of the internet using the 3 levers I just mentioned. Beehiiv nails this:
(1) Founder-led content → Tyler, their CEO is insanely active
(2) Company-led content → their brand account is dialed
(3) Employee-led content → their team is hyper-active
We ran a similar motion when I was at Triple Whale. I was manning the company account ripping Hasbulla memes. Our founders were active (we used their accounts for feature launches & updates). The rest of our team (specifically our CMO and Head of Brand) where faces for the company on social. You couldn’t open Twitter without seeing the damn whale emoji.
In the rest of this piece, I’ll show you in more depth how Beehiiv executes each component of their Content Ecosystem. By the end of this, you should feel confident enough to reverse engineer this approach in your own startup.
I. Founder-led content.
I’m not gonna say it…
I’m not gonna say it…
Ok. Fine. I’ll say it.
People want to buy from people.
It’s a cliche at this point, but it’s true. Company accounts alone fall flat for early-stage companies. It’s easier to build affinity for a company when people can put a face to it.
Tyler Denk is that face for Beehiiv. He’s their CEO, and he’s got an absolutely dialed personal content motion.
He posts daily on Twitter, and also writes a weekly newsletter called Big Desk Energy where he shares more of what it’s like to be a high-growth startup founder (I don’t miss an edition).
The content he posts can be sorted into two buckets.
Bucket 1: Beehiiv product updates & ‘building in public.’
Bucket 2: Startup insights, stories, and vibes (per the Big Desk Energy signup page).
Here are a few strategies I’ve spotted that are worth noting down.
Tyler’s Content Funnel is dialed.
Founders should have a Content Funnel. Top-of-funnel content to get visibility. Middle-of-funnel content to establish authority. Bottom-of-funnel content to convert customers.

Tyler’s is set up well.
The startup insights, stories, and vibes from Big Desk Energy fit neatly into the top and middle portions of the funnel. These topics aren’t product plugs, and they’re relevant for a large portion of Beehiiv’s ideal customer profile (founders & creators).
The product updates fit into the bottom of the funnel. Tyler also reposts a lot of the love that users show Beehiiv on his profile, reinforcing social proof (more on that in a second).

‘Building in public’ isn’t for everyone. But when done well, it is one of the few styles of content that is both top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel. Here’s what Tyler had to say about the building in public approach in an edition of Big Desk Energy:
“I’m not going to make the argument that building in public is for everyone, it’s not. But I would argue that if done well, it can be a force multiplier for a startup.
We raised our $12.5M Series A in just 6 days
Our team has deep personal relationships with hundreds of our users online
We receive tons of qualified candidates for each new role we promote
I receive a dozen emails every day from funds who want to invest in beehiiv
I can seamlessly broadcast updates to thousands of current and potential users for free
Our team routinely receives and addresses invaluable real-time feedback
None of those things would be possible if I chose to build Beehiiv in stealth.”
Deal flow. Funding. Recruiting.
Sharing his own content also allows him to own the company’s comms during major updates, like their new pricing roll-out. Having a strong founder brand gets you grace from your customers when you have to make hard decisions.
[Read more on how to set up your own Content Funnel in this essay]
Tyler’s content is algorithm-proof.

Social media algorithms are fickle. One day you're blowing up, the next your impressions get wrecked. This is especially true of Twitter in 2024. I get whiplash from the algorithm changes.
One way to algorithm-proof your content marketing is to give your audience an owned destination to go-to. An email list.
Tyler funnels his social audience from Twitter & Linkedin to his newsletter, Big Desk Energy. He also writes a public ‘investor update’ and emails it to subscribers.
He’s built his email list from 0 → X subscribers in X months, and it continues to grow at a rapid clip.
On top of the security from distribution changes, long-form content like a newsletter builds more affinity with prospects, faster. Readers get to know (and trust) Tyler more from an edition of BDE than they do from a one-off tweet.
Tyler dog-foods his product.
Big Desk Energy runs on Beehiiv. This is what SaaS people call ‘dog-fooding’ your product. Term’s a little weird—but it stuck, so we’re running with it.
So, not only is Tyler driving social traffic to an owned audience. Every time he does this, he’s showcasing the product in action.
Every time he publishes to his social accounts or to the BDE email list, he’s:
Building affinity with potential customers
Reinforcing social proof by being his product’s own success story
See how this works? Now, let’s get into the second piece of the puzzle.
II. Company-led content.
Company accounts aren’t dead. Most founders just approach them in the wrong order.
Founder-led content is the logical starting point. You’ll get the most reach. You’ll get more leads from your founder’s content early on.
But once you have momentum—both on social and financially as a company—it makes sense to layer in a brand account.
From what I see, company accounts are more of a ‘brand marketing’ play. Founder-led content can be more ‘direct response.’
Beehiiv has an A+ brand account, ran by their Social Media Manager, Bella Rose Mortel.
What does she do so well?
Tasteful, relevant humor.
Despite our track record as an industry, SaaS content can involve humor. It should at least have a personality beyond ‘authoritative, yet casual.’
Beehiiv nails this on social. They lean into memes and trends, while tying them back to topics their customers care about.
A recent example that did well was this tweet, a text-based meme referring to the new Taylor Swift album, The Tortured Poets Department.

Timely pop-culture reference, tied back to the newsletter industry.
Humor and memes work for Beehiiv because they align with the personality & energy of the team. Salesforce doesn’t need to post memes—it’d be kind of odd if they pivoted in that direction. But for an early-stage startup, they can work well.
Rule of thumb: use memes & humor when it aligns with the energy of the company as a whole. They work, but no need to force them.
Whenever I talk about how SaaS social should have personality, people just assume I mean they should shitpost all day.
While I would love nothing more than that, memes alone don’t make sales. And Beehiiv does executes educational, product-based content well.
They don’t just plaster the timeline with blog links (breaking news: nobody wants to disrupt their scrolling to click off-site).
They post social-native, educational content like this video.

The tone in the copy is still casual. The post isn’t littered with links. The production value of the video is strong.
The knee-jerk response from B2B SaaS execs whenever this type of content is pitched is:
But how is this leading to sales??
Let me tell you a couple of secrets:
Not every piece of content is meant to ‘drive leads.’
The social-to-customer pipeline is almost never ‘see post → click link → buy”
The function of social content is to take up so much mindshare in your target customer that your product is the first to come to mind when a customer needs something in your category.
For example, the goal for Beehiiv is to be the default answer for their ICP when they’re deciding on a newsletter platform.
They do this by entertaining and educating, not by hard pitching.
The injection of educational content around newsletters and their product moves the audience they attract using humor closer to the sign-up page.
Oh, and also… some percentage of their social audience is made up of current customers. So educating current customers on how to grow their newsletter (with Beehiiv) will improve retention.
Shipping velocity as a growth lever.
There are a few types of social content that always over-perform for B2B SaaS companies.
One of them? Funding announcements. Problem is, you aren’t raising funding every week. So that’s not a great foundation to build your entire social strategy off of.
The other? Product launches. And unlike funding, you're always shipping products and features. There’s no upper constraint on shipping velocity.
Beehiiv makes an event out of every feature, product, or general update. Whether it’s their new website builder, their pricing roll-out, or something else.
Here’s what their flow looks like (bookmark this):
(1) Teaser post. They use this gif every time something new is launching. Simple, repeatable, and builds hype for the launch the next day.

(2) Launch post from Tyler’s account. The main launch post is usually a Twitter thread that comes from the CEO’s account. This is to maximize distribution and engagement on the launch—smart.

(3) Launch post from the company account. They’ll also post a launch asset, like this video, to the company account. While Tyler’s post usually hits. better, there is value in having a company launch asset—it contributes to the feeling that Beehiiv is everywhere on launch day.

They repeat this flow week after week. Month after month. Some launches are bigger than others. That’s fine. All together, the launch velocity reinforces the perception that they’re always shipping.
Some companies will try to adopt a seasonal drop model like Shopify or Airbnb. For startups that are too early, this is a mistake. Use the shipping velocity to increase the momentum around your company and build an audience.
Savvy startups reward positive behavior from their customers on social. They create a culture where sharing wins and success stories is encouraged.
One, dead-simple way to do that?
Repost content from happy customers.
Beehiiv is always reposting content from users sharing subscriber milestones, ad revenue generated, newsletters redesigns, etc.

Tyler does the same from his account.

Reposting and replying to happy users rewards his behavior. So they’ll continue to share in the future. And you’ll continue to flood the timeline with social proof.
Ignoring these vocal, positive customers does the opposite. Why share love when it’s not acknowledged?
It blows my mind how many companies on social ignore happy customers. They’re marketing you for you. Take the help, and incentivize users to share more.
Curation as a content strategy.
When customers are making SaaS buying decisions, they care about 2 criteria.
What’s the ROI—in time or money?
Who else that I trust uses this product?
Beehiiv is one of the best startups I’ve seen at answer question number 2 with their social content.
They have thousands of newsletters on the platform. Many of these newsletters are written by celebrities, notable startup founders, etc.
One play I’ve seen them run is curating newsletters into social campaigns, by industry.
For example, Beehiiv recently ran a ‘Health & Fitness Week’ social campaign where they highlighted the top fitness newsletters using the platform. Headlining the lineup was Arnold's Pump Club, written by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

They also dropped this thread curating the top 10 finance newsletters on the platform. Notice how they lean into social proof using stats like “Beehiiv is home to ~1,000 finance publications” and noting that these publications “reach over 30M people.”
Beehiiv also produces a newsletter called Creator Spotlight, written by Francis Zierer. In each edition. Francis highlights a creator who uses Beehiiv as their ESP and goes in depth on their story & their newsletter growth strategy. Honestly, this deserves an article of its own. The publication is so well done.
Now, lets move on to pillar 3 of Beehiiv’s content playbook.
III. Employee-led content
Employee-led content is the hidden gem in the best startup social strategies.
And Beehiiv nails this. According to their Social Media Manager, Bella Rose Mortel, “Employee advocacy is the one that really sets us apart.”
She continues, “After all, a potential customer can only connect so much with a faceless brand account (funny as it may be). So, we leverage as many personal brands as we can at beehiiv because #PeopleFollowPeople.”
Not only do they have Tyler active on social and a dialed in brand account—their team is also all over the place on the timeline.
Think I’m joking? Post a tweet asking whether use should use Beehiiv or ConvertKit to send your newsletter. Wait 30 seconds. Then see all the replies from Beehiiv team members start to roll in.
Now, how do they get their team to want to be active on social? And how to they maximize the eyeballs they get from chronically online employees?
Look. You can’t force employees to build ‘personal brands’ or go to bat for your startup on social. That’d be weird. And not effective.
What you can do is help new hires understand how social fits into the company’s strategy and why it matters.
Every time Beehiiv onboards a new team member, Bella Rose runs them through a social media strategy onboarding.
She says, “It’s where I give them a fun presentation on our social media strategy, why organic social is important, and how beehiiv (as a brand) shows up online.”
Reward the behavior you want to see.
Remember how we talked about rewarding behavior from happy customers?
You can use the same strategy to get you teammates active on the timeline.
According the Bella Rose, “Every Friday in our company-wide All Hands, I crown one of our team members “Social Media Girlie of the Week.””

Reward and reinforce active employees, and you’ll see more team members want to get in on the fun.
Own an emoji. 🐝
‘Owning an emoji’ is a strategy I first saw used by Morning Brew, when they added the ☕️ emoji to all of their social profiles.
I used it at Triple Whale, with the 🐳 emoji. And Beehiiv is running the same play with the 🐝 emoji.
The thought here is simple. If you add the emoji to your name on social platforms, every time someone in your company ecosystem makes a posts, replies to comments, or sends a DM…
Your startup gets resurfaced at the top of the customer’s mind. The more you can stay top of mind, the better chance you give yourself when that customer decides it’s time to buy a product in your category.
If you're on Twitter/X, you can also sign up for a company account (the one with the square profile and gold checkmark). You can then have the company icon appear next to employees on your team.
This costs $1000 per month base plus $50 per month for any additional account you associate. So, it’s not cheap. You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons here. If Twitter is your main platform, I’d consider it if you have the budget.
Beehiiv uses both the company account setup via Twitter and the ‘owning and emoji’ strategy to constantly appear on their customers’ timelines. I can’t open Twitter without seeing something from Beehiiv—whether it’s the brand account, Tyler, or an other employee.
Done right, something as simple as owning an emoji contributes to the appearance of omnipresence.
Your Cheat Sheet
Ok. So you want to run a social content motion like Beehiiv’s. Where do you start?
Think of your social strategy like an ecosystem. It’s made up of your founder-led content, company-led content, and employee-led content.
Founder-led content is your foundation. Tailor your personal Content Funnel to both build an audience on social, build trust with that audience, and convert them into customers (more on how to do that here).
Founder-led content doesn’t just mean social. If you're already writing content for LinkedIn & Twitter, funnel that audience to a newsletter. Builds more affinity and makes your content algorithm-proof.
Yes. You can use humor and memes as a tech startup. Not every company needs to, but Beehiiv is an example of how to do it right.
Make your content social-native. No link spamming. Your audience should be able to consume and get value from our content without leaving the timeline.
Shipping velocity is a social growth lever. Every time you launch a feature or a new product, make a launch out of it on social. They perform well, and they create the perception of momentum.
Make it easy and ‘cool’ for your employees to post on social. Reward those who do.
Try ‘owning and emoji.’ It’s one of the easiest ways to trigger an association with your brand on social. Watch what happens every time you see the 🐝 on the timeline now.
For some future study on Beehiiv’s content strategy, I’d recommend checking out both of these pieces:
a peek into Beehiiv’s social media strategy by Bella Rose Mortel
building in public by Tyler Denk
Also, for more from Social Files (by your truly), check out this piece on how to launch your own founder-led content motion in 2024.
One last thing. Was this deep dive mildly helpful?
If it was, share it with your favorite B2B founder or marketer. I want this piece to end up in as many #marketing Slack channels as possible.
🗃 FILE CABINET
Here’s my favorite marketing and business content I bookmarked this week.
How I gained 7.8 million followers in 40 months by Alex Hormozi 🎥
7 social content strategies to grow your B2B SaaS startup (with examples) by Tommy Clark 🎥
Check these out.
BEFORE YOU GO…
As always, appreciate you allowing me into your inbox every week.
If you read all the way to the end (or skimmed…not judging) reply back with a 🐝 emoji.
I’ll be waiting…
Talk soon,
Tommy Clark
PS: If you want Compound to run a founder-led content motion for you… save a spot on our waitlist here. We’re at capacity right now, but looking to partner with some SaaS startups in May or June.
Social-native, educational content.