 This is Social Confidential, where ad with social media editors take a look behind the logo to find out who's tweeting and sharing for major brands. I'm Jolene Gamboa, and I'm here with the director of communications, Ariel Rubin, who has amassed an incredible organic following on social media with just two words, come and go. The convenience store has quite a unique name. Why did you think incorporating it into most of your tweets was the move? When you take a job at a company called Come and Go, you have two choices, right? And they're very simple. Your choices are either to ignore it and really just go straight through or to acknowledge it and to figure out a fun way to send it up. And in the world of the internet, ignoring it is not really a notch. Make the meme or make the joke or you can be the meme or be the joke. How do we embrace this name, move along with this name, and also do it in the 21st century in a way that shows that we're not unaware of the innuendo, but we're also not going to play in the mud. We're going to have fun with it in a fun and clever way. Let's talk about your strategy, Ariel. What's our job as social media manager? We're trying to build a community, right? That's it. At the end of the day, we want to build and grow a community of honest and engaged followers and authentic followers. And so when I found a way to sort of somehow actually build that literal community with a K, we started seeing people really respond the way that wasn't just like, haha, like your name sounds like this. It was more like, we want to part of the community. In fact, we want to wear a clear hat. It's super rewarding because at the end of the day, we had 60,000 really faithful community members who are really fun and who really engage in our work. You also have some merch. Like this Come and Go writes t-shirt that I have right here. Tell us more about how your partnership with video game streamer Justin Moore came to me. He's a gay gamer in Twitch and that's the sort of beach. And he did this thing where he was like, I want a jockstrap from come and go. And he sent a letter to our customer service person. Might I also suggest a Come and Go jockstrap eventually becoming part of your merchandise collection? We ended up making a Come and Gay writes shirt. We give all the proceeds to the Trevor Project. And so it's like win on social, win with a great partner like Justin, win with like a great organization like the Trevor Project and get to show the kind of brand that we are, right? Yes, we're funny. Yes, we're clever. Yes, we make great merch too. And also when we talk about inclusivity, we don't just show up at Pride Month. We also show up whenever a great opportunity shows up and when we work with this member from the queer community at gaming, like what a brilliant opportunity. So it's a really fun way to show up for the community. And speaking of, every time you have a banger of a tweet, you link to a SoundCloud, but it's actually something very important. Do you want to share what it is and where people can learn more? Twitter is always about like the trope and then making fun of the trope and then making fun of the making fun, right? It's like that thing, right? When you engage, if you have the opportunity to get a lot of eyes on you with a viral tweet and you have this incredible moment where all of a sudden 100,000 people, a million people are looking at you, what a cool way to take it and reframe it. I mean, that's what using privilege is, using your privilege to reframe it onto another issue entirely. It's not about talking more about myself. We've had opportunities to highlight the NAACP on the F, the Transgender Law Center and locally the Iowa State Schools, which is an organization that does LGBTQ sets of variations in high schools and middle school. Again, it shows what kind of organization you are, but it also shows that you know how to really use the platform in a really clever way. Lastly, Ariel, what's a piece of advice you have for social media managers? Twitter, to me, is like the Truman Show in the sense that you are kind of always wanna find out where that wall is, you know, where the ocean is in the sky and you're always trying to figure out and you'll hit these bombs and you're like, am I at the wall? No, keep going. And then you'll know when you hit the wall. We have some bangers, but we have some really, we have some ducks. So I think it's about finding out where that space is and I would also say really working internally with your leadership to make sure you have the trust to be able to do the work you want. I cannot overstate how important that is. When you get a leadership that stands behind you and says, I don't always get what they're tweeting, but I support all of it. And that really to me is like, that's what you want from a CEO, that's what you want from a CMO in a way, like you wanna lead this because you go and I trust you. And yes, we're gonna screw up because that's gonna tell us when we screw up, but ultimately we're going on the path because you can't find your voice unless you put yourself out there. Ariel, thank you so much for joining us. Julian, thank you for having me. I'm such a fan, as you know. So it is a pleasure to talk to you because you are a true legend of Twitter. So it is a, it's an honor. No, thank you. And thank you for watching. I'm Julian Gamboa. See you next time on Adam's Social Confidential.