Social Media & SEO

Similar to one of the themes running through the recent, sold-out Social Shake-Up Show, an idea at the heart of the Conference Board’s new study is that some members of the C-Suite continue to doubt the importance of social media as a valuable business tool. The culprits most often reside in the C-Suites of B2B brands, says the report, made available early and exclusively to PR News Pro. One solution is emphasize the positive attributes of social in business terms, the study says.

If I had to pick one thought to summarize this week’s sold-out Social Shake-Up Show, it would be this: The lines between content and marketing are blurring so rapidly, the phrase “content marketing” is starting to become redundant. Words such as authenticity, experiential, immersive and storytelling were heard often during panel sessions and networking breaks to describe this zeitgeist, this evolution of messaging. But to me, it really all comes down to a single, often misunderstood word—empathy.

Want to know some of what was on the minds of attendees at the sold-out Social Shake-Up Show? Ask the attendees to discuss 10 social media-related topics toward the end of the conference. That’s just what happened on Wednesday afternoon at the show. Find out what the attendees were thinking about as well as some of their key takeaways.

The Saturday Night Live actor who plays the girl you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with at a party turned out to be quite conversant about social media during Tuesday afternoon’s session of the sold-out Social Shake-Up in Atlanta. Actor/comedian/activist Cecily Strong provided trenchant points about social media as it relates to celebrities and brands. There were plenty of laughs, too. Photo: www.Jkleinphotography.com

There were things old and new during the sold-out 2017 Social Shake-Up Show’s opening general session today (May 23) in Atlanta. The new started right away, as six members of the Alpha Rho step dancers of Morehouse College literally kicked off the show with a rousing performance. And then Shonduras took over the stage.

The early bird gets the worm. That certainly applied to the pre-Social Shake-Up workshops, which featured plenty of personalized instruction on topics ranging from customer journey mapping, SEO and building online communities. The Social Shake-Up, which begins in earnest May 23, is sold out, yet the pre-show workshops were intimate and filled with important takeaways or shakeaways, perhaps.

As PR pros working in an age when even the term ‘new media’ feels old and social apps appear and disappear like stairwells at Hogwarts, we can’t simply sit back and watch earned opportunities slip away. We must evolve and expand by mining new communications platforms for the earned potential that lies within them. Since media companies have adopted social channels as a viable distribution method for their content, shouldn’t PR pros be working harder to earn coverage for clients from media…on social media?

Twitter rolled out new tools and controls May 17 that allow users to view and modify the data that helps advertisers target them. Users are now able to turn off interest-based ads entirely (although they would still see other paid posts) or curate their interests to see ads that are more relevant to them. To see which interests Twitter thinks you have, go to Settings -> “Your Twitter data.”

It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. If this is true, then you could argue that video and other multimedia content are worth millions. This is especially the case in the very crowded brand journalism waters, where The Coca-Cola Company is using content to simultaneously build brand love and corporate trust. Coca-Cola Journey makes (and sometimes breaks) Coca-Cola news, bringing to life the stories bubbling just beneath the surface of our business. We made this big bet because we believed that authentic stories matter.

Trying to replicate what made a post get 300 likes when your account routinely sees 100 likes per post can make you want to bang your head against the wall…Or, it can ignite a new test-and-learn campaign. Your team can make educated guesses about what worked and incorporate those elements into future posts.