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I rarely learn anything new from a social media event anymore. Usually I attend for the opportunity to network, to help connect like-minded friends, or even to speak. But I have to say I really enjoyed the Social Media Masters: Atlanta event yesterday and I left with a list of ideas!
What is Social Media Masters, anyway?
For those of you that haven’t heard about Social Media Masters, you are missing out. This event was produced by Social Media Club and Sensei Marketing and included brilliant speakers like Sam Fiorella from Sensei Marketing, Jonathan Copulsky the author of Brand Resilience and Matt Hicks from Facebook.
I give kudos to Kristie Wells! Kristie puts on a professional, organized event; and all the while shows no obvious signs of the stress she must be feeling. When things didn’t work out as planned she brushed it off with ease stating “We’ll just push through that!”
Anyway, let me share with you a few of my favorite lessons of the day, if you have a few more minutes to spare. If I learned something, hopefully you will too!
7 Take-aways from Social Media Masters:
1. Only 22% of people are passionate about their job – so roughly 80% of people are not. Who is representing your community online? Let us hope it is one of the 22%!
Note from me: If the person isn’t passionate, consider using a different person or inspiring passion in the one you’ve assigned to your social media. BTW: when you outsource your social media, try to find someone who is as passionate about your company/product/brand as possible.
2. Corporate blogs are a MARKETING function… not Public Relations. The goals of PR and Marketing departments for social media use are very different. The Marketing team focuses on leads while the PR team focuses on reputation management. Marketing teams focus on metrics like followers, fans, and the number of comments while PR teams measure by % of positive vs. negative comments and trends in tone concerning brand mentions.
Another note from me: PR departments are great at distributing a properly written branded message across multiple channels. Personality and conversation appear to be discouraged unless “pre-approved.” After what I learned today at Social Media Masters, I can see that others share my opinion that PR has very little place in the social media arena other than observation and measurement. Give your social media over to the marketing team.
3. The main purpose of most blogs is to sell more. “More stuff to more people more often for more money.” This indicates to me that sales should be somewhat involved in the social media process.
4. The top ways you can build success with your corporate blog are to:
- Write compelling headlines. Don’t use “I” or “my” to prevent confusion on Twitter and keep them short for re-tweetability.
- Bring an original viewpoint to the table. Regurgitating other people’s work is boring.
- Have the courage to be imperfect. (Perfect example of why PR shouldn’t be writing your content.)
- Place your name, picture and your own opinions on the blog so people can get to know you as an individual. Businesses don’t blog, people do.
5. Believe it or not, only about 2% of your blog readers will comment. This is why you need to have a large network of readers if you want to inspire conversation. Encourage employees to contribute to your blog via comments and guest posting.
6. People who use Facebook spend 27% of their time on their own news feed. 4% of all time spent online is on the Facebook News Feed. Be creative with your content to attract the attention of your fans by writing compelling updates, putting people FIRST, telling stories, and speaking like a person (ahem, not a press release).
7. The more “likes” a brand has on their page means the more eligible the brand is to appear in news feeds. So get busy creating content worth liking!
Looking back, I cannot remember when I left an event with so many take-aways! I even had to leave early and missed the last 3 sessions! Imagine how much longer this post would’ve been. *wink, wink* However, I am keeping a few lessons and thoughts to myself for the exclusive benefit of my clients. I need to keep them ahead of the curve!
Let me know what you think in the comments below and please share this post with anyone managing a social marketing strategy. I welcome differing views and opinions as long as they are respectful of others. 
