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<\/p>\n#ICYMI #smms14 was a trending topic yesterday on Twitter. Not surprising when 150 social media masters conglomerate in one room, but it certainly speaks to the power of sharing engaging content.<\/p>\n
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I was able to attend the 6th<\/sup> Annual Social Media Masters Summit hosted by Digital Megaphone in Chicago on May 15. The event hosted some of the best and brightest talent in the social world, with CMOs and social directors from brands like @Clorox, @BuzzFeed, @Threadless, @United, @ConAgraFoods, @Arbys, and @VanityFair, to name a few.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you want a marketing career that keeps you on your toes, social media is the route to go. The always-changing, never-static socialsphere is ripe with learning opportunities and challenges. It can be hard to keep up at times, but nothing beats the feeling that comes from seeing your social media campaign take flight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Speaking of learning opportunities, here are my key takeaways from the summit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1. \u201cContent might be king but distribution is queen and she wears the pants.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Dana Shank, associate director at Kraft Foods Group, delivered this line to the group and the #smms14 feed exploded. \u00a0Well said, Dana. Well said. To her point, you can have the best content in the world, but if you aren\u2019t pushing it out on the right channels, to the right audience, it\u2019s all a wash. Ain\u2019t nobody got time for that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2. Know your story.<\/b><\/p>\n Brands need to have a good (ok, really strong) grasp on where they\u2019ve been, where they are, and where they\u2019re headed in order to share their story with fans in an engaging way. Try telling a story that you don\u2019t know. It\u2019s pretty difficult, right? Knowing the brand inside and out is what helped Shanna Quinn (@Shanna) from United build the company\u2019s Instagram channel from scratch.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3. OGSM = Objectives, Goals, Strategies, and Measures<\/b><\/p>\n Threadless\u2019 Jess Hanebury (@JessHanebury) let us in on the power of OGSM (Objectives, Goals, Strategies, and Measures). This framework is nothing new for marketers but just reinforces the fact you need to build a strategic plan if you\u2019re expecting a successful campaign.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4. People want an emotional hug.<\/b><\/p>\n According to BuzzFeed\u2019s Colleen Callinan (@CeCall), \u201cHard news will never be as shareable as a cat video. Sad but it\u2019s true!\u201d The supremacy of the cat video exists for a reason: it makes people happy. Nobody watches \u201cSurprise Kitty\u201d then walks away to have a good cry. Tugging on heartstrings is a common marketing ploy because it works. Just ask P&G. Lesson learned: put out feel-good content and your fans will come back for more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5. Planned spontaneity.<\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s amazing the impact one viral tweet can have, not only on a brand, but also the social media team behind it. Josh Martin (@JMart730), Arby\u2019s social media manager, experienced this first-hand after his tweet to Pharrell went viral during the Grammys. If you don\u2019t know what I\u2019m referring to, you must be new. Welcome. With over 85,000 RTs, that one tweet landed Arby\u2019s and Josh in the social media Hall of Fame. Josh\u2019s advice: you need to plan for spontaneity. You also need to trust and empower your social media team to make quick calls and split decisions. His famous tweet would never have happened or been as successful if he had to get approval first.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 6. Learn how to disconnect.<\/b><\/p>\n I know I\u2019m not the only social media manager who\u2019s woken up at 2:30 a.m. because push notifications are blowing up her phone. Although most of us have come to accept the 24\/7 attention that social media channels require, it doesn’t mean we have to lose our beauty sleep over it. So, how do you balance the \u201calways on\u201d factor with having a life? It\u2019s one of life\u2019s greatest questions. For Arby\u2019s\u2019 Josh Martin, it means knowing when to take a break, and having a reliable team that will help you take that deserved time away. I\u2019m lucky to have awesome coworkers who all work as a team to meet the demands of the 50+ channels Tell Your Story manages for its clients.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 7. Don\u2019t chase a number.<\/b><\/p>\n Every social media team has benchmarks they want and need to hit but these numbers alone shouldn\u2019t be the driving force behind content creation and distribution. We all have to answer to someone at the end of the metric reporting period but keep in mind it\u2019s the activity behind the numbers that counts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 8. LISTEN UP.<\/b><\/p>\n In a nutshell, listening is the number one most powerful tool you have at your disposal. Hours and days are spent creating engaging outbound content but it\u2019s not about how many pieces of content you can whip up around Cinco de Mayo or Memorial Day Weekend. True success on any social platform is the amount of dialogue taking place. Drop the mic and take the time to comb through the endless data at your fingertips to see what your audience is talking about and adjust your content strategy accordingly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The list goes on and on but, alas, the social channels are calling!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" #ICYMI #smms14 was a trending topic yesterday on Twitter. Not surprising when 150 social media masters conglomerate in one room, but it certainly speaks to the power of sharing engaging content. I was able to attend the 6th Annual Social Media Masters…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,149,150,142,141,122],"tags":[335,336,337,338,324,334,126,130],"class_list":["post-1880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-marketing-news","category-social-pr-news","category-interesting-things","category-events","category-tell-your-story-news","tag-digital-megaphone","tag-marketing-best-practices","tag-social-media-strategy","tag-social-media-summit","tag-integrated-marketing","tag-brand-communication","tag-content-marketing","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5445,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions\/5445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"B2B](\"http:\/\/tellyourstoryinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/b2b-marketing-awards.png\")
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