PORTFOLIO
Social Media Manager · September 2025–Present
Facebook · Instagram · TikTok · YouTube · Pinterest
I run social for @paxtongate, the taxidermy and natural history shop in San Francisco: brand strategy, content, and community engagement for one of the narrowest audiences in retail, with no advertising budget at any point.
I've run the program for about a year, end to end. I write and film every video, set the strategy, manage creator partnerships, and handle analytics and reporting. All five channels existed but sat dormant when I took over: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest. I built the presence on each one.
When I started, a typical Instagram post drew about 90 likes on roughly 1,000 views, and TikTok was barely moving at a few hundred views a post. Today a typical Instagram post lands 500 to 15,000 likes on 20,000 to 140,000 views, and four reels have passed 165,000. TikTok runs differently: most posts sit around 2,000 to 14,000 views, while breakouts carry the reach.
Through last year's holiday peak, social-referred website sessions rose 131% year over year, TikTok alone up 972%, and sales doubled.
In August 2026, all platforms combined passed 1.25 million organic views.
Here's the post that did it.
PAXTON GATE Curiosities & Natural History — San Francisco
555,796 views across TikTok and Instagram
TikTok: 358,400 views · 66,000 likes · 6,124 saves · 59% watched to the end
Instagram: 200,000 views · 8,000 likes · 613 shares · 98.1% non-followers
Posted August 28, 2026 · 10 seconds
375,042 views across TikTok and Instagram
TikTok: 216,900 views · 74,000 likes · 3,616 saves · 39% watched to the end — posted August 14, 2026
Instagram: 158,142 views · 18,000 likes · 22,846 interactions · 669 saves — posted August 18, 2026
8 seconds
"Computah, give me 1000 taxidermy ducklings"
186,096 views · 17,000 likes · 3,200 shares · 604 saves · 21,967 interactions
Posted May 8, 2026 · 12 seconds · Instagram
"24 pieces of vintage taxidermy. One u-haul."
197,424 views · 14,000 likes · 1,300 shares · 15,861 interactions
Posted May 2, 2026 · 14 seconds · Instagram
What it turned into
Reach only counts if it moves something. Here's what it moved.
I negotiated a trade with filmmaker Ellingson.tv (360K followers): filming access to the shop's specimens in exchange for a credit, no fee paid either direction. He featured a human skull from our collection in a production piece. That exact piece sold in-store for $2,000 within 48 hours.
Separately, a customer bought a taxidermy mouse that I posted on Tiktok and gave it to musician deadmau5, who posted it to an audience of 2.9 million.
The New York Times found the shop through its social presence rather than a pitch.
Other Work
Social strategy, content, and design for clients across music, hospitality, and B2B. Same approach, different audiences.
Launched their social from day one, now at 4,831 followers. Designed their brand identity and produced assets for web and social.
Gather SF — teahouse, San Francisco
Cuva Bimo — punk band, Bay Area
Social strategy and content. Hand-drew posters, merchandise, and album covers.
PartnerSmarter — marketing agency, New York
Launched their Instagram and ran the press rollout announcing the founder's Forbes 30 Under 30.
