United States Air Force Reserve

During my time as a Social Media Manager at GSD&M, an Austin-based advertising agency, I supported one of the agency’s largest and most complex clients: the United States Air Force Reserve. In this role, I helped manage and evolve the brand’s social presence by focusing on human-centered storytelling and performance-driven insights.

    • Social Media Management

    • Organic Social Media Copywriting

    • Content Calendar Development

    • Social Strategy Support

    • Asset Selection

    • Vertical Video Editing

    • Trend and News Monitoring

    • Facebook

    • Instagram

    • LinkedIn

    • Snapchat

    • Threads

    • YouTube

    • X (Twitter)

The Impact

+ 60K

Follower Growth

+31% Increase

+ 3.4M

Engagements

+455% Increase

+ 79M

Impressions

+352% Increase

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Where We Started

The core challenge for our client was to increase reach and relevance while further establishing the Air Force Reserve’s presence as a legitimate and compelling path, especially for individuals transitioning out of active duty. The Reserve needed to be understood not just as a military option, but as a lifestyle choice that offers more family time, meaningful service, and transferable civilian skills.

Additionally, TikTok, which often serves as a primary search engine and reach tool in modern social strategies, was unavailable due to client restrictions. As a result, we had to reimagine how to create that same reach, relevance, and discoverability across the broader social ecosystem.

- Translating complex Air Force Reserve concepts into clear, digestible content

- Highlighting career paths, transferable skills, and lifestyle benefits through human-first, real-world examples

- Using quippy, social-first copy to communicate efficiently and resonate quickly

- Leaning into aircraft-focused content, recognizing it as a high-interest area for our audience and a natural entry point for entertainment, engagement, and sustained attention

- Optimizing content for saves and shares, knowing that conversations wouldn’t always surface in comments, but instead in people’s DMs

Each platform was treated intentionally. Content was tailored to why users were on each platform, our average audience base on each channel, and what they were actively seeking.

Our Strategy Prioritized

The Thinking

We shifted the brand from purely informational content to human-centered, real-time storytelling. Instead of telling audiences about benefits, we focused on showing them in action. We highlighted real experiences, broke down complex concepts into accessible language, and made the Air Force Reserve feel relevant to everyday life.

We also stayed ahead of the moment. We actively monitored cultural moments, platform-specific trends, and relevant news to understand what our current and potential audience was seeing, searching for, and talking about in real time.