When you think of Saweetie, one of the things you likely ruminate on is her bomb-ass social media presence. Her post coordination and roll outs are thanks to the hands, or shall we say, thumbs, of one girl in particular. Sabrina Brazil is a brand and content curator, and the social media manager behind the Pretty Bitch Summer rapper.
Though she manages Saweetie’s social media accounts, Brazil, who also earned her B.S. Business and M.S. Finance, knows her stuff when it comes to creating your best content—even if that means falling down the rabbit hole of the comment section in order to conduct the necessary research. “I am a number one comment reader. I read so many comments because I want to know consumer feedback,” she explained to Girls United. “I know sometimes people say, ‘Don’t ever read the comments. It’s not good for you,’ but, if you’re actually trying to build a brand, you need to read the comments to understand how this content affects that person. Take it as constructive criticism, throw out the bad stuff that doesn’t mean anything, and go from there.”
Ahead, Brazil speaks with Girls United about defining your brand, how to balance your personal social platforms while managing someone else’s and her tips and tricks for creating meaningful content.
When were you first interested in making social media a career?
Brazil: Probably within the last year career-wise, but that question is like a double whammy because if you want to do anything entrepreneurial, you need to have expertise or understanding of social media. I’ve been using social media to my advantage since college to start my first company, Third Eye Productions. Even back then, we’d utilize social media to promote ourselves. It’s always been in my tool bag but didn’t think to use it for a career until last year when I started moving content with Saweetie. It’s always been in my arsenal since the beginning of social media because I’ve always been super entrepreneurial and needed it to make stuff pop.
What’s the overall difference between managing your personal platform versus managing the platform of a company or another individual like Saweetie?
Brazil: It’s crazy because once I really started honing in on Saweetie’s, I posted less on my personal platform. When you’re fully focused on making something work for someone, then all your focus goes into that. Prior to working with Saweetie, I had a little merchandising brand I was building and I was super school oriented, so I needed to brand myself heavily for that.
Once I start working with Saweetie, my mind and thought process went straight to her and how to better advance her. I remember I used to always look at Drake’s team, and I noticed no one on his team ever posts. They post like once a year. I always thought that was peculiar until I was working with Saweetie, and then I’m like, “Oh, it makes sense why you guys never post.” When you’re working for a larger idea or entity, you kind of put your stuff on the back burner to make sure the larger picture can grow.
What’re the challenges of balancing your own social media presence while managing someone else’s?
BRAZIL: When you’re managing someone else’s platform, all your efforts kind of go towards that because that’s like your number one goal – at least for me. Everyone’s different. Some people still super-duper promote their own brand. But I think sometimes when you’re so locked down in a goal as a team, especially Saweetie’s team, we’re all super locked down on a vision, and when you’re locked down in that you eat, sleep, breathe that. You want to make that come to fruition. Now that we’re seeing progress, I’m slowly funneling back into my own platform. It requires you to really buckle in on that vision that you’re trying to achieve because our vision as a whole is to make sure Saweetie continues to grow. My ultimate focus is there.
Read our interview with Saweetie.
Now I can almost see my flowers. It’s about going hard. The challenges are having to put your stuff on the back burner for a while, but then eventually you will see those flowers. I’m sure anybody working for anybody on any team, whether it be Beyonce’s team or anybody else, if you go hard for that person, and then eventually people are like, ‘Oh, you do so-and-so’s thing?’ You get your flowers after the hard work, and then can start funneling out into your own stuff, which I’m doing now. Do your best like you work in any other job. Work your hardest, do your best, and eventually you’ll get those moments where you can start rebuilding or rebranding yourself in a way that supports you and that person.
What’s the distinction between curating content and just posting?
BRAZIL: When I use the word content, it should be super intentional. If you are someone who has a brand or a product, your content should be very intentional on brands. You could post all day, every day, but if it’s not in a way to promote your brand, then it’s pointless. I see people who post a lot of memes and get a lot of interaction, but the actual thing they’re selling does not get any love because they’re not funneling those content pieces that they’re posting towards what they actually want to highlight.
I say it every time I talk to anybody but have a brand mission, a goal, a mission statement about what you’re trying to achieve, and all content should reflect that. If your content doesn’t reflect that, then it’s just content just to be posted. Is it worth it? It’s not. It’s a waste of your time if your goal is to big up a brand. If it’s socially, then you can post whatever you want to post, but if your goal is to enhance your brand, everything you post that’s labeled content should be enhancing your brand. It should be a reflection of your mission statement of what your brand represents.
What advice do you have for anyone who is looking to pursue a career in social media management or content creation?
BRAZIL: I would start with something that they’re personally passionate about. Before I started working with Saweetie, I had so many other things I was doing, and I was able to apply my skill set to the things I was passionate about. I was able to learn a lot of tools. Before that person wants to work with someone or become a part of a larger team, they should start making content by themselves. If they love to cook, they should start making cooking content for themselves, and make it super dope and start learning how to brand themselves.
Once you learn all those hoops and jump all those hurdles for yourself, you can start applying those to other people. It’s better to make mistakes with your own brand. If your objective is to work with somebody else, make those mistakes, learn from those mistakes, understand the internet more and understand consumers. Go through all of that so when someone has reached out to you, you can show them, ‘Hey, I’ve done this before. I’ve made this work. I produced this type of content for myself. It generated this much things for myself, and this is why I’m an important person to your team because I’ve already shown via my own platform that I’m capable.’
Throughout this conversation, we’ve said the word brand a lot, but how would you define a brand? How can someone who doesn’t exactly know what their brand is identify it?
BRAZIL: Identifying your brand sometimes is so hard because it depends on what you’re trying to do. When you have a product, it’s super easy to identify a brand because it’s like, ‘This is my product, so my brand is a product.” When your brand is yourself, then you start having to ask yourself, “What do I want to put out into the world? What about myself am I trying to highlight?” Someone can be a plethora of things, right? A college grad, they can cook well, or they can be a mom.
It’s asking yourself, “Which one of these things do I want to highlight and expand on and that be my image?” Identifying your own brand can be hard for people who have multiple talents. You can always do a couple, but you don’t want to oversaturate to where you don’t know what this brand entails, if it’s a brand, or if it’s a personal page. Ask yourself what do you want the world to know you as and see you as.
Photo Credit: Instagram: @SabrinaBrazil