Case study · Social · Growth · 2026
Organic Social
Finding the format that actually travels
- Year
- 2026
- Discipline
- Social strategy & content
- Role
- Channel strategy, content pillars, creative direction
Social for a staffing brand usually defaults to job posts and culture content, both of which the feed ignores. The job was to find out what people actually wanted from us and then make a great deal more of it.
Across the first half of 2026 we published consistently in the US and UK and measured by theme rather than by post. One pillar separated from the rest by an order of magnitude: practical, teachable skills content — how to carry three plates, what to wear on an industrial shift, what not to do during a shift.
Skills and Tips averaged 2,165 views per video against 296 for the next best theme, and accounted for 83% of total video views on a fraction of the posts. That finding reset the content calendar.
What the data said
Teach them something useful. They will stay for the brand later.
Results
- UK TikTok reach growth
- +228%93K reach, followers up 55%
- Skills content vs next best theme
- 7.3×2,165 avg views vs 296
- Of engagement came from video
- 96.2%
- Organic halo from paid support
- +258%
Measured
Instagram and TikTok, US and UK · 1 Jan – 25 Jun 2026
- Share of video views from Skills & Tips
- 83%17,318 of 20,813 views · 75% of total reach
- Views from three entertainment posts
- >60K
- Views from three dress-code posts
- >40KWaiter, industrial and chef dress code
- US Instagram reach growth
- +55.7%20.8K views, up 26.7%
- Views driven by paid support
- +1,400%21,447 of 24.3K total views
- Posts published across IG and TikTok
- 63
How it was built
Measure themes, not posts
Individual post performance is noise. Tagging every piece to a content pillar and reading the averages is what surfaced the 7× gap between Skills & Tips and everything else — a gap no amount of looking at individual posts would have revealed.
Usefulness is the format
The winning content was not about Indeed Flex at all. It taught someone how to do the job better. That earns the right to talk about the platform later, and it is infinitely more shareable than a shift listing.
Paid and organic are one system
Paid support lifted total views by 1,400% and dragged organic reach up 258% alongside it. Treating the two as separate budgets understates what paid actually buys on social.