A few weeks ago, the Elysium team hopped a flight to Atlanta to attend the Social Media Shakeup Conference. We were excited to grow our knowledge of all things social media and learn best practices from the industry experts. Here are our six favorite takeaways that we are sharing with you!
1. Focus on building momentum rather than reaching spikes
There was a keynote presentation from Andrew Davis where he made a comment that we’re all addicted to the high of metric spikes. He’s not wrong. When managing social media, it’s easy to get caught chasing after viral moments. Going for the likes, retweets, comments, whatever it may be. When you plan for the viral spikes you often lose sight of gaining continuous positive momentum, which in the long run will be much more beneficial to your brand. Build on well-received posts to bring positive, long-standing momentum in your social media efforts.
2. Create digital empathy
Throughout the duration of the conference, we heard the word authenticity more times than we could count. Consumers are smarter and more connected than ever before and expect more honest and real content from the brands and companies they follow and trust. Every campaign, post or tweet must always either make a consumer’s life easier, provide value, information, or entertainment. How can this be achieved? Focus on leveraging every conversation with consumers because if you look and listen closely, your consumers are telling you exactly what they want.
3. Don’t push content, create conversations
It’s easy to feel the sense of pressure to “get a post out” but instead of scratching that itch, social media managers need to take a step back and thoughtfully think about what should be posted, and the next series of posts after that. One of our favorites tidbits was to treat marketing like you’re dating… you don’t propose when you’re meeting someone so you shouldn’t assume someone wants to convert on the first post they’ve seen from your company. You need to make sure you are maintaining a relationship before you ask someone to buy from you!
4. Not all brands need all channels
We’ve been playing in a world where every company thinks they to be utilizing every platform for the best results, but that it simply not the case. Focus on your brands strengths and utilize whatever that may be in your social media strategy. If video is consistently your best content – spend majority of your time on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. If your company puts out incredible blogs, work mostly on Twitter and LinkedIn! It’s better to be great on one platform than just okay on every platform. Andrew Davis explained this as “thinking like a tv executive”. By this he means that not every show is on every channel, find out what channels your audience prefers and spend your time and energy there!
5. The art of visual storytelling
Video continues to be the biggest opportunity in your social media marketing strategy. In a world of constant articles and content, consumers enjoy being able to watch and focus on one thing (even if it’s just for 30 seconds). To excel in utilizing videos in your strategy always mention the brand you are representing right from the start so consumers know immediately what they are watching! Also, include captions if applicable to your video. Yes, people walk around with headphones and AirPods all the time, but sometimes it’s still nice to be able to watch something while out in public without the noise. Finally, make sure your video is authentic. Yes, people love to see polished, professionally made beautiful videos but you can also make an impact with quick homemade iPhone videos that consumers will relate to! Work on creating the perfect balance of professional and authentic!
6. We LOVE Anne Handley & here’s why:
We’ve now seen keynote presentation by Anne Handley a few times, and each time we’ve continued to walk away more impressed than the last. This time she spoke about “slow-cial media”. By this, she means brands should tell fewer stories but be more strategic with the ones they do tell. She also gave the advice that for each marketing piece (blog, email, post, etc) find one person who you are writing the message to and always write as if you are writing solely to that person. She gave the examples that Warren Buffet always writes to his sister in his annual reports because she’s smart and reads a lot, but doesn’t know the ins and outs of his business. Awesome, right?! Basically, this means that if we write as if we’re speaking to one person each and every time we create content, the messaging and voice will be consistent and you will ensure that you are telling your consumers something that is useful to them. Think about it… who would your company write to?!
Bonus – Apps We Learned, Downloaded & are Now Obsessed With – shout out to Doug Busk and Manu Muraro for these recommendations!
· Unfold for Instagram stories
· Inshot for video editing
· Wordswag for social content
· Mojo for video design
· Planly for Instagram scheduling
