If you aren’t already taking a sabbatical from the airline-based atrocities making their way across the internet, never fear.

#NuggsForCarter: The Art Of The Meal

If you aren’t already taking a sabbatical from the airline-based atrocities making their way across the internet, never fear. Once again, we’ve been blessed with a worthy cause: nuggets.

Condensed

Pepsi, Listen to the New Generation. Yours truly, Black Sheep.

We live in an incredibly raw time. Emotions are high, and there are a lot of social causes and movements catching people’s attention. Because of that, many brands are trying to figure out ways to participate. While some, like REI, thrive when it comes to speaking about issues like feminism, others are struggling to find that line between marketing and meaning.

Women across the world are making their mark.

International Womens Day | Ladies First

Women across the world are making their mark. Protesting in styles that fit their niche and voice, empowering themselves and their community. Some chose to protest and politely remove themselves from the workforce, allies wore red in solidarity and some (like us) decided to celebrate.

When Life Gives You Lemonade

So, Grammy Awards. While there was a long list of inspirational moments, two stuck out the most to me. For those of you who watched last night, let this serve as a chance to re-experience two big moments. And for those of you who haven’t, check it out because they gave me a new perspective on the work we do every day.

If you self-identify as a member of “Weird Twitter,” or even have a sense of what it is, you’re probably not too fond of the description—yet it’s probably the most realistic explanation of the phenomena.

An Aliebn Confuesed Abot Humamn Lamguage

This year we resolve to be feverishly focused on activating people around things that matter.

2017: Finding the internet’s backbone.

This year we resolve to be feverishly focused on activating people around things that matter. More on that later, but today we want to talk about how the internet landscape needs to be different in 2017—starting with social media and how free we let speech be.

Finally feeds are becoming less inundated with Millennial-focused strategy articles trying to pin down a generation taking up 20 percent of the population.

Gen Z: The Change You Wish to See

Finally feeds are becoming less inundated with Millennial-focused strategy articles trying to pin down a generation taking up 20 percent of the population. News flash—it can’t be done that easily—and frankly, if you’re still trying to figure out Millennials, you’ve got another thing coming: Gen Z is here, and like the younger sibling they are, they’re watching.

CareAll enabled our communities to make this season a memorable one for the kids and teens of Boys & Girls Harbor, and we’ve finally had a moment to stop and reflect on giving and our own families this holiday season.

Black Sheep Gift Guide

CareAll enabled our communities to make this season a memorable one for the kids and teens of Boys & Girls Harbor, and we’ve finally had a moment to stop and reflect on giving and our own families this holiday season.

Black Sheep Quarterly Jams List

Compressed

IS FACEBOOK TAKING OVER? THE ANSWER IS YES.

Hiya, everyone. We’re going to stay smiling and cheery and act as if Facebook isn’t slowly taking over our lives.

Hiya, everyone. We’re going to stay smiling and cheery and act as if Facebook isn’t slowly taking over our lives. From rolling out their latest Craiglist competitor, to three new features launched in the last month (see below) + a strikingly distracting CEO dressed as a VIKING—Facebook is on the up and up. But never fear, we stay updated so you don’t have to.

It seems like just yesterday the flock was wheels up and on our way to the White House.

One Year Down. #BetterMakeRoom For More.

It seems like just yesterday the flock was wheels up and on our way to the White House. We, an 11-person, Houston-based creative agency, joined Team USA to ignite change in the future of education in America, working side by side with Michelle Obama. It is just as surreal today as it was a year ago.

Creatures of HABIT: A Black Sheep Experiment (Part II)

This blog post is a part of a series—an experiment of sorts. You see, I’m reading a book about forming better habits, and I invited the entire agency to participate.

This blog post is a part of aseries—an experiment of sorts. You see, I’m reading a book about forming better habits, and I invited the entire agency to participate. I also invited YOU to play along—and it’s not too late. It’s never too late.This is the second post of the series. Read the first one here.

Y’all, Houston has placed NUMBER ONE in charity rankingsin the nation.

#52Causes: Houston’s On The Come Up

Y’all, Houston has placed NUMBER ONE incharity rankingsin the nation. With a city that’s relentless when it comes to getting shit done, Houston has firmly made a name for itself throughout the nation when it comes to charitable work.

Register to Vote Faster Than Leslie Knope

Voting is insanely important and yes—every vote definitely counts.

Voting is insanely important and yes—every vote definitely counts. But before you vote, you have to be registered. Today isNational Voter Registration Day and we are #blessed to be living in a world where we are always connected and where getting things done is easier than ever.

“WOKE UP AND FELT THE VIBE.” —Kanye West

GIF US YOUR BEST SHOT: A Challenge To Be The Next Black Sheep

So, you think you want to be a Black Sheep? Well, we can’t say that we blame you.

So, you think you want to be a Black Sheep? Well, we can’t say that we blame you. This is a pretty great place to work. We work hard, we play hard and we’ve built a culture that’s like no other you’ll find.

According to a 2016 report by Nonprofit HR, nonprofits of all sizes are expected to GROW—in people, purpose and impact this year, to help combat the rising demand in Houston for their services.

#52Causes: Thrive At Week 35

According to a 2016 report by Nonprofit HR, nonprofits of all sizes are expected to GROW—in people, purpose and impact this year, to help combat the rising demand in Houston for their services. Over half of nonprofits nationwide plan on creating new positions to help support the thousands of driven employees already working to make Houston a better place by dedicating their time and careers to the communities and people in this city.

Built on mud and created from gumption, heart and a can-do spirit, Houston was born 180 years ago TODAY.

Happy Birthday to HOU: H-Town Turns 180!

Built on mud and created from gumption, heart and a can-do spirit, Houston was born 180 years ago TODAY. (Not that it looks a day over 179…) Think about that: one hundred and eighty years. It seems like such a long, long time, but actually it’s a pretty short interval when you think about what we’ve accomplished as a city. 

Our National Park Service has a birthday today, and it’s a BIG ONE.

NPS: You Make 100 Look Good!

Our National Park Service has a birthday today, and it’s a BIG ONE. 

I’ll Snap To That: International Beer Day

Tomorrow is a day for merrymaking; a day to carouse, celebrate and conquer.

Tomorrow is a day for merrymaking; a day to carouse, celebrate and conquer. Tomorrow is International Beer Day. In honor of this crucial and clearly cherished holiday, we’re throwing a little something together for our friends.

For years, the advice to every nonprofit was some version of "be more like a brand." Post more. Sound more polished. Chase the same tricks beverage and mattress companies use to win attention. But that advice is going out of date fast. 

Here's the good news buried in the shift: being human, being rooted in a real community, telling the truth about the work you do - these used to just be things nonprofits talked about. Now they're becoming part of how the algorithm decides who gets seen.

Let’s be real, the social media feed you're posting into isn't the feed you learned on. There are three changes to pay attention to here:

You are no longer broadcasting to your followers. You're being matched to people by interest, whether they follow you or not. According to Meta, only 17% of time on Facebook and 7% on Instagram goes to content from friends and family. The rest is strangers' content, served by an algorithm reading for interest, not relationship. This means that follower count matters less than it used to; what your organization is actually about matters way more.

For a decade, the game was capturing eyeballs at any cost, but that game is almost out of runway. This new reality rewards the meaning people seek out, instead of the noise people scroll past. A nonprofit was never going to out-shout a beverage brand for attention, and it doesn't have to start now.

Bots now account for more than half of all web traffic, the first time automated activity has outpaced human activity online. Add the flood of low-effort AI content built to trigger a reaction, and feeds get louder, faker, and angrier by the month. Outrage travels, so platforms keep rewarding it, regardless of whether it's true.

Platforms are starting to notice the same AI slop we are, and they're building against it. As feeds fill with machine-made content, audiences and the platforms chasing those audiences are turning toward visible effort, texture and even imperfection. 

Authenticity is starting to get measured less as a brand value and more as "proof of process": can people actually see the work behind the thing? Instagram has begun actively suppressing reposted and aggregated content for exactly this reason. Original, human, made-for-the-platform work is now structurally advantaged, not just ethically preferable.

The appetite for this is showing up in surprising places too. Myspace's owners are reportedly plotting a relaunch, betting that algorithm fatigue is real enough that people will pay attention to a platform explicitly selling itself as an escape from optimized feeds.

Brands without a real story are feeling the squeeze from the other direction. Even insurance companies and mattress brands, categories built on being interchangeable, are now scrambling to act like media companies just to stay visible, hiring writers and building personalities where there used to be none. But your nonprofit isn't scrambling for any of that. The real stories, real people and real process you already have aren't a compliance requirement anymore. They're the raw material every faceless brand is spending real money trying to fake.

You're the expert. Make sure AI knows it.

The same shift is happening in search. More than half of Google queries now return an AI-generated answer before a person ever clicks a website. Being the credible, well-documented source those answers get built from is starting to matter as much as being the thing someone finds by scrolling. Same principle, different doorway: substance and legitimacy are becoming the input, not just the output.

No one knows your mission, your people, and your work better than you do. When someone asks an AI assistant how to get involved in your cause, that answer should be built from what you've actually published, not a stranger's guess or a five-year-old blog post. Making sure your own documentation is the source AI pulls from isn't just a search tactic. It's how you keep your story accurate and keep your work moving forward, instead of watching it get flattened into someone else's summary.

What this actually means for your nonprofit online

Here's the part that should feel like relief: none of this asks you to get louder, weirder or more "on brand." It asks you to do less pretending and more proving. Show the work. Show the people. Let the algorithm find you doing the thing you're actually good at, instead of trying to out-shout accounts that were never your competition to begin with or hoping to be stumbled upon via hashtag soup.

The real question is whether what you post could hold up to a stranger asking, "how do I know this is real?" That's a content question, a design question and a strategy question all at once, and it's the kind of work that's easy to know you need and hard to carve out time for.

That's the work we do at Black Sheep Agency. We help mission-driven organizations turn what's already true about them- the real stories, the real people, the real process- into content and strategy built for a moment when that's exactly what gets rewarded.

Why Nonprofits Might Finally Win the Algorithm

The algorithm now rewards real stories and community over polish and AI content. See why nonprofits are positioned to win the shift and what to do next.

The algorithm stopped rewarding polish and started rewarding (human) proof

The algorithm now rewards real stories and community over polish and AI content. See why nonprofits are positioned to win the shift, and what to do next.

The Black Sheep blog is turning up the volume on community engagement, social media strategy, Houston happenings and what it means to lead a purpose-driven life.

The Black Sheep Agency | Social impact and nonprofit blog

We like to type as much as we like to listen.

We're not shy.

Why Nonprofits Might Finally Win the Algorithm

#NuggsForCarter: The Art Of The Meal

Pepsi, Listen to the New Generation. Yours truly, Black Sheep.

International Womens Day | Ladies First

When Life Gives You Lemonade

An Aliebn Confuesed Abot Humamn Lamguage

2017: Finding the internet’s backbone.

Gen Z: The Change You Wish to See

Black Sheep Gift Guide

Black Sheep Quarterly Jams List

IS FACEBOOK TAKING OVER? THE ANSWER IS YES.

One Year Down. #BetterMakeRoom For More.

Creatures of HABIT: A Black Sheep Experiment (Part II)

#52Causes: Houston’s On The Come Up

Register to Vote Faster Than Leslie Knope

Black Sheep Quarterly Jams List

GIF US YOUR BEST SHOT: A Challenge To Be The Next Black Sheep

#52Causes: Thrive At Week 35

Happy Birthday to HOU: H-Town Turns 180!

NPS: You Make 100 Look Good!

I’ll Snap To That: International Beer Day