'We Are the Target Audience': How Essence, R29, and Afropunk Co-create With Their Communities

Social media executives from three publishers share how they build engaged, inclusive followings

three people on stage at Social Media Week — From left: Kory Jarvis, Cortni Spearman, and Leslie Vargas at Social Media Week.

For the social media strategists at the Sundial Media Group publishers Essence, Refinery29, and AfroPunk, audiences are just as much collaborators as consumers.

At ADWEEK’s Social Media Week in New York, Kory Jarvis of Essence, Cortni Spearman of Refinery29, and Leslie Vargas of Afropunk detailed how their companies have built editorial and community strategies based entirely around feedback loops with their audiences.

“We are the target audience,” said Jarvis, head of social for Essence, explaining how embedded the community voice is in every aspect of their output. “All I have to do is open up X, check the family group chat, or look at Slack, and I’m immediately plugged into the community.”