4 #SSU2019 Speakers Share Social Tips & Trends to Last You Through the Summer
By: The Social Shake-Up Editorial Team
June 5, 2019
Depending on your industry, the summer season can be a great time to sit back, reflect and meditate on your current social media strategy. Now is the time to think about what worked for your team the first half of 2019, and how you plan to maintain a creative and competitive edge going into the fall.
With The Social Shake-Up 2019 barely in the rearview mirror, some of the show’s top insights are still fresh in our minds. While in Atlanta, we caught up with a few of our star speakers and asked what they were most excited about to learn at the event.
On top of offering up their planned agendas with Social Shake-Up editor Seth Arenstein, speakers from Ben & Jerry’s, Kent State University, Cinnabon and MarketingProfs also shared some tips and trends to help get your gears turning for the second half of 2019. Below, four mini-interviews for you to review with your (envious) colleagues, along with some takeaways from each. (Full list of videos and BTS footage here, with more coming soon!).
Ann Handley, Keynote Speaker and Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs
- Do less, but obsess over the content you are putting out, rather than crafting an endless stream of content to an overly broad audience.
- Tell quality stories by slowly teasing out a narrative, rather than separate, one-and-done content efforts.
- Social media professionals have an important role to play in email newsletters, which are stronger paired with social efforts than without.
Lindsay Bumps, PR Media Maven, Ben & Jerry’s
- Endeavor to love your influencers as much as they love you: Give them a behind-the-scenes tour, introduce them to top executives and offer up freebies to strengthen your relationship. (Make a media day out of it!)
- Stay on the lookout for a way to “hack into” Instagram Story metrics, despite the API challenges currently hampering third-party developers.
- To keep spirits and creativity high, consider crafting playful business titles for your colleagues on marketing and in PR—for instance, Ben & Jerry’s has a “Grand Poobah” of PR and a public “elations” manager (not to mention Bumps’ designation as PR “media maven”).
Nicole Losi, Director of Social Media, Kent State University
- Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat Stories are continuing to grow in strategic importance.
- Kent State uses Instagram and Snapchat Stories on a daily basis, storyboarding out each day.
- Social marketers must experiment with new features as they roll out in order to stay on top of constantly evolving platforms.
Marissa Sharpless, Sr. Manager, PR and Social Media, Cinnabon
- Never stop questioning how your social media efforts benefit the business, or deepen the connection between brand and audience.
- There’s a big runway for the social media industry, especially if social media professionals continue making the most of emerging technology and monitoring tools.
- Continue to regularly interact with all of your fans and followers on social to ensure you’re hitting the community engagement “sweet spot.”
