It's my first love, and it's what got me into social media. I've worked with Jason quite extensively across the past year, and we worked on several different music campaigns including tinies campaign. So, yeah, that's me.
Cool. Cohen justice I know you're not officially part speakpipe but you want to just give everyone an intro as to who you are. Yeah. Thanks, Jason I
literally thought I'm gonna come in and support as one of the co founders of the creative entrepreneur UK and I know that Jason you are one of our guest
resident experts,
and so yeah I just want to say hi is actually just an image of eat my dinner and she was like, God, we've got to go and support Jason so Hi guys.
And this should be an amazing session,
and he seems like you've got an amazing panel lined
up, and we just need to show support so I'll be here in the background helping moderate if you need any support around that bringing up people from the audience but
yeah I support female entrepreneurs and start building a business and personal brand, and how to monetize it so
I'm just here in a kind of support enrol today.
Call and I don't want to put you on the spot but to give a quick intro just so people know who you are,
you know, Jason I was just planning on just chilling in the background. So once I've dragged me tonight Just chilling in the background. But my name is Tim power, I'm one of the cofounders of creative entrepreneur club, and my thing is all about supporting creative entrepreneur. I've got three different businesses primarily in the events and entertainment sector, as well as, award winning kids brand cantidad and throughout my years I've learned how to, I guess, get in front of the press, and now I'm using all that knowledge of how to cultivate entrepreneurs, personal brands and get them in front of the press,
and that's me. So, thank you. So guys, today we're gonna be talking about how to slash on social media like some of the biggest brands and these guys have been building pretty huge communities over the years. So what I'll do is I'll throw it to the panel right right away. What would you guys say are some of the fundamentals are beginning to call a community online, because obviously we have a lot of creative entrepreneurs in the audience, all at different stages of building their communities. From the inception right through to the most established so we'll kick off with you on site if you don't mind, can we ask, what would you say sort of the fundamentals and beginnings of a growing community.
Yep, so. Social media is all about firstly two way communication, and suddenly what value you can bring to a communication so I feel like if you.
So I think we've lost you there.
I just hold on I've got my mom calling me and I need to hold on live on. I'm so sorry.
Sure runs you want to take this
as fun. So I think from my point of view, again obviously this is quite it's quite subjective because you know there's there's different tactics out there in terms of how to approach this. So, I think, from you know my previous experience I think it's all about listening in, in terms of you know what you've won. What can you actually provide people in terms of sort of value as well so i think you know it's pretty wild that you know you can be selling a product or service but, you know, people talk about products and services so the more you're able to kind of listen and then adapt in terms of you know what people are giving back you know they'll feel like more of a part of something bigger because you know they're, they feel like they're being heard and when you can bring those changes together, also kind of filling up you know they they owe something to it but in the field. Part of like a bigger family so I feel that listening in, from an audience point of view is really important and really keen to see for that community but because you know, I think there's a lot of brands that do stop and feel like they can, they can clone, you know, another brands or products etc thinking they can clone, as well, but you can never do that. So one example I'd use those people that have a brand that really didn't while in terms of community point of views, because they listed in on their audience, they know what their audience want and they bring that to them so I think it's really key to kind of just listening, again, obviously from a listening game point of view, there's different ways of listening so you've got your social media monitoring tools to kind of, you know, see what people are saying across social whether it be Twitter, or Reddit across all these different forums I think for me, that's kind of like the, the main sort of, sort of thing that is obviously from a community point of view.
So are you back.
Yes, I'm back yes I'm back. Sorry about that. Yeah. So just as long as one side is absolutely in my hosting a social media is all about communication I think a lot of the time when people have a new brand, they kind of want to be a bit more standoffish and expect people to follow them. But unless you're giving that to people and you're creating that conversation, and you're kind of humanising your brand are going to grow so it's all about growing your network within the nation for your target demographic so I'll just give an example. The other day I was speaking to someone said a new luxury brand and they said, well, we're a bit more of an aspirational brands, didn't want to go out there and we don't want to follow loads of people and we don't want to make it look like we're part of the community because we want to be a leader, and they will compare them to the likes of your Valencia Yaga as you leave a trance etc. And my husband look well, he got you're comparing yourself to brands who had a massive presence in real life. In these brands on the runway. They've got massive buyers they've got massive houses they've got celebrities they've got literally royalty, who are loving their brands and real life precedence. If you want to grow on social media and your brand is born on social media, which subtle most people I'm sure who are listening in on the room today. You need to really work on building up to a communicating communication and really building a valuable point of view, from your content.
New Have you got anything to add to that,
hey, yeah.
And it's a really great points from both insert and run, I would just say a few key things as well is to is to remember that a brand's social media business social media is very different to a personal, social media, but I think there's very like key lessons. People can take from like influencers and people who have personal brands and touchstones Of course, making it personable, but I would say as well like a key thing is making sure that you cater to everyone's always thinking about the next follow over the next milestone but you've got to ensure that you're catering to the current audience. Because, still with social media, even though it's a new form of marketing, very similar to traditional marketing word of mouth is always key you want those people to be sharing it with their friends you want them to be tagging their friends in the comments, and I will say also having like a robust strategy. So what I mean by having a robust strategy and making sure that your, your content is that your content is a reflection of the products that you sell but also the people that came during to. So just going back to that kind of old school, saying or having like the 8020 rule that yes you want to promote what you're doing but you also want to tap into the different mindsets lifestyles and things that your customers care about as well. So that's when you start really creating a community.
And just following on from that I think one of the next questions that I want to throw out to you guys is, you know, we've seen a shift towards brands taking more personified tones of voices in recent years so you know like we've seen a sauce we've seen gymshark and even tvk really, you know, taking on a quite a bold personality and quite unique one. Some have done it better than others, how important Would you say that is special because at first.
I mean it's extremely important and what I actually think marketing has always been about being personal, and it's always been about human element to your brand and to really humanise everything you're doing. If you go back to the marketing, and let's take a massive brand everyone knows like Coca Cola, one of the first brand ambassadors per se, was the Santa Claus because it bought that in model and human elements who their brands they weren't just a fizzy drink they had a huge kind of warming and family feeling to them. You look at how cigarettes used to be marketed by countries. It was this thing you did to be cool and be social with your group of friends marketing has always been about being personal. I think what's happened visual media in the past couple of years is that we've really gone the opposite that not looking at vanity metrics, but how many people are following you. When they can have all these success stories of timing, making X amount of money, X amount of time. So I want to know when you see these great brands doing it like YuGiOh sharks, is we're taking it back I mean going back to what marketing has always been about in that marketing, like, marketing, you know marketing should feel like it's your real life. when you look at these friends you feel like you're best friends with them so being human kind of personifying your brand has always been a massive aspect, and it's just nice looking take a step back from the noise of social media. And just doing the right way you know it's not groundbreaking news, everyone's been saying it looking at top marketers and the top MCs for hundreds of years. They've all been saying the exact same thing so it's nice to see people are, I wouldn't say some new thing but it's nice to see people are realising that or branding within the stories how and how human, you can make what you're doing.
She's on site for the gyms there any more new more run Pilates you have anything to add to that.
Definitely I think you know some really valid points from answer there. I think especially from my person, providing, you know, the brand but i think you know it's always going to be hard, depending on kind of you know who you are as a brand, obviously you can't say the site totally patois. I think you also got to be just kind of wary about you know reading. Also I think you know one of the things like as I used example is you know an ethos we started kind of different. So tone of voice, kind of speaking more kind of like instinct in an ad like China because I'm a Zimbabwean so I decided to kind of add in a bit of China there. So while there was a lot of criticism, both bad and good, the bad was, you know, people will naturally drag you down and drag you through the time and about, you know, why is a soft spoken English language because naturally they were used to a specific tone of voice to specific they basically look at a source as a specific person, which you know they might consider to be on its feet 500 Twitter. So why are they speaking this way so again I think you know it's really hard to kind of shift over because people have already got this kind of persona of you. So again, I think, you know, you got to tread carefully you got to kind of read the room you got to know your audience but it's always really hard because you can't know every single following you can't appease a single follower so I think from my, my sort of experience I've kind of realised, you know, there's always a time and a place to kind of do it, not always so. So again, just about reading room and just kind of make sure that it hits the mark rather than kind of mission in because if you do miss it, then you're going to get dragged on timeline. So, I think, when we've obviously tried out a sauce and you know it's been picked up by some of the big blogs and the kind of like the big sort of outlet so I think I feel like you know stuff we did against it really hit the mark because you know he wasn't trying to do things a bit burnt trying to hide it was a case of just adding a little bit of razzle dazzle in there somewhere about but then also just kind of making sure that it was, you know, coming from the right person. Understood, the context, the language and how to basically nail it the sense of. Yeah, that's just my two cents on that I guess.
Yes,
I was just gonna echo what Ron said and that is so important. Like in working with, especially the bigger brands because you've got to remember that a social media role is a faceless role, so it doesn't necessarily matter, it's about what runs out so I remember when the showrunner tweets. I love this on the tweets on.
Me too.
I can understand why it can be it can be met with criticism because I had to, I had to and also my teams in the past like team part of impasse have had to learn some harsh lessons about social media faceless role. So for example, when I was in the team's ITV. It took a while before on the ITV to feed like, we started talking young, and that was actually almost by accident because our boss was off, and then we just kind of went wild for a week, but she came back. She was like, I didn't know what you're doing. She wasn't she was very much like a to the streets anyways like she could understand what's going on social but she was like, whatever this is you're doing continue and that's why that year, we ended up winning. It was an award winning year for in terms of content, we got promax we're, however, any other time, ITV tube, as a profile tried to speak young, especially with the mobos. There was a situation I wasn't personally involved in, but they were literally dragging them for racism, Japan and they were like, but it was, it was just a quote of a lady Leisha lyric. So you do have to really tread carefully. When, when, adopting a voice so it's very important that when you're adopting a voice, it must be a must be people must feel like it's authentic to who you are, and also for people that are kind of just starting out a brand, I would say it's important to kind of really consider tone of voice at the start of it because when you try to introduce it later and if you've got eyes on you. That's that thing, what one mentioned is that not everyone is going to be agreeable to it, because it is really wild when it's a brand because you might you might be, you know, call or understand language the internet or before the culture or whatever but you've got to separate yourself from the brand. And that's something to think of especially if you're not the face of your brand.
Yeah 100% agree i think is so hard, because people have as Ron said like this preconceived idea of what the person looks like so, you know, they're probably talking with someone or a pillar behind the account they think it's, you know, someone from fear 500 twits, and I think, as you say, it doesn't need to feel really authentic when you're choosing that but again I think the liberty of social media as being able to, you know, have the opportunity to to change and pivot all the time, but I think as you said, just want to make sure it's authentic and you've got that really true tone of voice and pill a really good point about making sure that you have that up front. I think a lot of people sort of decide that they want to have a tone of voice, you know, midway through their first or second year or when things aren't working but it's really important to actually start thinking about that before you actually start, you know, even putting out your post.
But, Jason sorry I just wanted to touch on some, one of the points pilet mentioned about seeing the approvals how you know, we've got their management there, they kind of just went rogue and it paid off. So I think one of the things you know for the people out there, obviously do tend to kind of have issues with approvals which you know I've kind of had in previous roles where people that are having to approve these things aren't the ones that are directly out on the field that constantly in the channels know what works and what doesn't. So I think that it's a case of sometimes you know just go with your gut instincts because I feel like with social you can plan for a two month long campaign but it's always the reactive the timely content that outperforms anything else so I feel like you know when those moments do hit again just go by instinct because sometimes it will pay off and again it's just a case of building that case studies say we did this, and what the numbers are there Topsy back that up so I've always got like you know the process I feel for a lot of social media people tends to be a bit of a sort of a harder sort of water here I guess so I actually went to the basement.
Yeah, if I could just as well put it, you know what I'm saying. I mean, almost work there's been such a harsh approval process and I feel like, you know, when editing social news yard to the outside person, it looks like it's the most easiest thing to do. But the bigger the brand, there are so many stakeholders involved when the online kind of productions, as we call it like a legal team. You know when I was working for another UK dating show. Not long ago dating you know you've got your internal talent, you've got your external talent, you've got the legal team you've got everyone's managers, you've got the videos because there are so many people involved in that. And a lot of it is about being reactive so they're just like one said that people think that you know being social media you know you just got to send a tweet, you just have to be. It's actually not that easy to be funny. Being findings on the hardest thing and that's when things do go wrong in the kind of grand scheme of things so yeah just wants to add on to that point.
Yeah, it's always hard to be funny to a million people as well because you are going to get drugged, and I think it's all hard. We'll probably touch on that a bit later. But what I was going to say next was obviously we've seen some really great brand voices and we also see some not so great one three talks about what would you say are the things to avoid as a brand who is trying to be more personable online on social we start with you.
Yeah, I definitely kind of touched upon that point earlier and just read the room you have to actually know who your audience is. And I do think the policies, is twice so great to have a diverse social media agency know what to say and what not
to say.
So you need to, like, understand your tone of voice from the beginning and kind of set a tone for the gap. And where people get it wrong, it's normally from a group of people in walk from the same community, not to make this about race but they don't understand them to a great extent so it's actually up to the kind of set up President and I think it only goes wrong when you're when it looks like you're trying too hard, because that means you're trying too hard people know, it's very easy to work out on social media, and you're on the job a bit too long, it also starts looking a bit cringy. So, if we take the example for how we use the bits and baked beans thing which are really kind of brands jumped onto it was grey, it went well and went viral for anyone who joined in constant life remember which promise was that they jumped in. I think around the date. And then people started commenting how it just didn't feel the need to feel right so read the room, no audience you don't know your audience, it's just about how you kind of tell your brand voice you should know your audience for what you're doing, whether you're selling a product, whether you're developing your own brand, whatever it might be, and understand that the way you speak like you said you can't be funny to a million people so you need to attract the biggest group of your demographic and go for that.
And I'm just gonna reset the room. So we are sorted about how to slash it on social media like a sauce and love Island. I'm sure in Portland saw one and pillar and combined people, we've overseen accounts which have reached over 100 million users. So we will be asking a few questions to the panel and then we'll throw it open to you guys in the audience. Ron Do you want to take.
Yeah, sure. So, don't just come and answer the question right, I am. Yes. So I think, just to kind of echo what Ansel said that it's all about read the room, but I think the main kind of point for me is also kind of just being led by inserting data, obviously insights and data and pick up on those trends they, you know, that tells you a story of what's working and what's not so if you're doing tweets, which are more kind of cultural, and by hitting the mark that just already shows that you shouldn't be able to talk in within that sort of space of, I feel like insights and data play a massive part. But, again, I always try and strip myself away from looking at too much of the data because data wild data picks up the trends. It doesn't pick up on the cultural trends so I feel like it again just kind of trying to, you know, the art and the science together, to kind of try and try and find that sweet spot. But again, it's always about just making sure you read the root, but also making sure like whoever you've got in your team, whether it be social media execs coordinators, everyone is got their ear to the ground in terms of what's happening out there making sure that you know if someone's about to talk about a certain topic, that might be something that's you know someone's picked up on that's happened and you know it might be a bit too controversial to talk about so I feel like it's all good to kind of have sure that, you know, scrolling through Twitter what's happening on Twitter scrolling through Instagram you know just making sure you, you've got on some grand as normal social media people will do it anyway. But yeah but that's just my addition to that
pillow.
I'll wait for the next question.
I think they've covered everything.
Okay, cool. So this one is more specific to you and because we are in the creative entrepreneurs club tonight. You use social in a really unique way to generate some really incredible sales of your best selling book slashed it. Can you talk through your decision to go solely with social how building a personal brand actually really helps with your sales funnel.
So like I said at the beginning, I've been watching social in house for around 10 years. I've worked my way around publishers broadcasters brand side and marketing side, I felt like I had touched everything from with real 360 view, and also some really big brands that has some big wins for them as well so I got a lot of questions around your nine or 10 I've met a lot of people by this point, especially a lot of influences won't brands. And I kept being awesome questions like how do I actually grow does this does that matter is this alive is true, x y Zed about algorithm, etc. Though I posted at the time on my personal account on just a simple post on 10 ways engagement, super basic, I just wanted people stop entering my DMS on account, and I just didn't have the time to answer every single person that post viral and when I say viral he went viral for me my personal account at the time had like 600 followers, and that had like that post had something like 5000, likes and I felt like, well, this shows that there's a demand for someone who's been behind the scenes, you know, not necessarily once they're not someone who's just grown one business over at least everyone else, just been working in the office for a few breaths and to give valuable information. So then I made a separate Instagram account that hopefully at the time it was called slash date which is the name of my ebook, but I put my names right now about it. And I just shared, whatever I knew I just kept because all the questions we've got in return from that post went viral, just kind of set the tone for what needs to be telling people, and I just kept providing that value. I did that for around a year I would say also weaponized five. I had no intentions of charging people I mean I could have a smaller book and make you make people pay 20 pounds here and there. I think I consulted people I think I could have asked me six figures in the one year I was giving out so much patient for free, but it wants you I just wanted to come across as someone who was a bit more direct and authentic in her approach. Eventually, that just kept growing organically people were sharing my content through word of mouth, and as it was great and I didn't expect it from people. I also was very big in how much value I was giving to people. That was my experience was my added value which is why my personal brand grew from that as well. But then wonder.
So when, when was that you decided that you know this was going to be more than you just giving advice or posting on Instagram when do you think this could be really viable but I'm going to make some money off this.
Yep. So one day I woke up and I was like, I'm back any book. I don't know what I dreamt off that day but I just woke up and it was the first thought iPad, and anyone who's worked with me knows that when I work I work very fast I think it's just a neat bargain in journalism, from the very beginning work on breaking news and also work in social media so it was something I wanted done yesterday. So I put up an Instagram post and I, I'm writing a new book, I'd written like 200 words and no idea what the context of the book was going to be what the even what the chapters were going to look like, but I just told people, and I told myself if I have 50 people who say they're interested in this ebook, then that's not me to know because social media, everything snowballs you've got 50 people interested. That will do 100 200 or 500, etc. So that was just me telling people I'm writing an E book right the ebook continued sharing values to people. Then I wrote a free ebook, and the only reason I wrote that ebook in the first place was mostly an article is going to be too long I knew people would even ask the average attention span for people reading more than 500 words is like 0.2% now. People love the ebook and then I just continued to give them value while writing that ebook so by the time I was ready to launch the big thing. It had such a massive crowds of people from LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, who were interested in this massive ebook I was showing because people fall if I'm giving him something as much information for free what's going to be in her ebook. And thankfully, people that ebook, and it's just doing super well and has done ever since.
Can I just say as well like insight is such a unicorn in the social media world because what you find when you work in social media is that a majority people working behind the scenes. Like, do not even really use it, and on like zero followers across the board, like hardly anyone I've met personally who works in certain media has a big following personally themselves.
Thanks.
Thank you. I guess that actually answered the second part of your question, Jason. Jason his entire personal brand part so because I've been behind the scenes for so long, I wasn't one who's dying for that personal brand, attention, but then I realised I kind of had to put two and two together people not only want to use the ebook people wanted to know a bit more about the person behind the ebook and, you know, she's written something great, but where has she worked with her parents etc so in May, one of the things in public you know I'm very transparent well for that people just for them. I've worked here. These are my achievements work or work out for yourself. We've been called qualified enough and if you can take my ebook and if you think it's going to be worthy. I just started sharing career advice and I guess people felt like they could resonate with me. I say I'm a very normal person. I mean, people count me as like a thought leader, whatever it might be. And just as much as a normal person's no one else so just share people. I think a lot of times, a lot of people resonated because I'm sharing my journey as I go along. I'm not some just passive you know I've made a million pounds in two months, by the way, but as an example. And I haven't just shown and I've shown people. I got tired you know I've worked hard for 10 years. I started interning when I was 1617 and they knew I wanted to work in journalism at the time and I did it through every single summer in a levels. I did literally every single single summer holiday University at once I was working a retail job. I'm doing uni and interning at the same time so I'm not telling people to burn themselves out, but I've worked hard for a long time so this is just the results, all those 10 you got the result. And so writing an E book. And in a year's time is how well she's done.
Wow, that's amazing so just reset the room for anyone who's just joined the talking about how to slash it on social media like based, and love Ireland. So running pillar I'm gonna throw the next question that to you before the to the group. So you've both been able to give really unique cultural insights to the massive mainstream plants, a sauce love Island, and many others. How did the chose you punish benefit from lending cultural voices to the audience's, because I know you touched on it earlier but we get to see if there was any positive effects from that.
Yeah. So, from, from my side I can definitely kind of see you know it's had a massive kind of shift internally in terms of how we look at subcultures, especially not just on Twitter, but also from a tick tock point of view because, you know, historically, it's been kind of like you know we speak like this we talk like this but there's never kind of consideration about subcultures, so I'm not just talking about, you know, 500 Twitter there's also like black Twitter Niger Twitter's in Twitter, like there's so many different subcultures on Twitter itself that you know it's been a bigger conversation now in terms of right we need to kind of do a bigger brand research piece in terms of who are actually our customers and how do they sit in these subcultures to the point where we're trying to kind of make more sort of personalised campaigns activity around kind of the difference okay so from my, from my point of views on some kind of put together was that you know we need to speak more to the nyjah Twitter, not only because you know, they give us really good engagement and we get good numbers on the back of it but also it's a community that were alienating because you know we never speak in their language we don't kind of resume in any way other than the only few instances where we try and speak in their DNA. So for me, I guess it's been a very positive experience because kind of start to get people thinking internally a bit different in terms of how we approach subcultures across, you know, different mediums so even from the website all the way down to the app to social channels, how we speak in our CRM comms etc. So, this is definitely had a sort of positive effect and I guess it just, it just shows you know that one tweet or few tweets, the conversation that's been kind of snowballed into a biggest or brand research piece that's going to impact, many different sort of touch points across businesses,
how do you want to go.
Yeah, sure.
Oh, so I think, I mean, I touched on it earlier but I definitely think that the year that we got to the kind of the voice of the audience was essentially like not even that we could feel it but even in terms of the numbers. That was the year that was the best year was the first year, it was the first time kit like a million views on Instagram, for example, so it resonated so well. But again, just to circle back can be registered This
is just one of those things that was below.
But, yeah, essentially, you know, it showed in the numbers. So it definitely impacted, that campaign in a positive in a positive way we were the voice of the people we would do the means whereas the other account do straight lips. And that, that worked for us because you can tell, like, it's almost. It's almost event someone else mentioned earlier, when you missed the boat. So it's just like, even when you're live tweeting, because you had insight that the means were doing while this was doing well when you will, when we're left tweeting, you could tell within a minute. Like, if this tweet is is gonna fly or not, if that makes sense. And you could also tell in terms of the content if this is gonna fly or not so it had a huge positive impact for the brand, it was in that year, it won an award, and also for us like, personally, it means that we gained trust within the team. So, it means like our boss would trust us more like we would say to her, or let's say like this like it just really opened up the game to be honest. And so they had a positive effect on the team and also had a positive effect on me as a freelancer. And because essentially then I could go on to do other things where they would trust that I understand what you thought audiences like on social media. And so all three of you Did you see any backlash at all.
From lending cultural voice to a mainstream audience. And, yeah,
definitely say there was definitely a lot of backlash from my side, to the point where sometimes they're just like guys like you know it's not that serious Let's calm down. But you know, I kind of took myself away and realise, right, a sauce is seen in a certain light, I guess, like you know, you know, if you obviously research he or she will see that you know the C suite purely obviously the white males. So, coming from an account that's been shown to be like, which kind of intern is doing this or which white person is doing this so people would automatically start saying, Can you stop brand silence, does that mean that brand silence one kind of get going around. So, again, it's a case of, it's always tied as the person that's actually tweeting because you kind of want to be like, No, I'll actually take a picture in books and be like, no I'm actually in black. So I feel like, you know, again it's all about kind of important things right from, you know, from a brand point of view, something that is something that you probably need to work on kind of educating your followers that you know you are kind of diverse in different spaces, it's not just the people you can speak, you can tweet you can kind of do posts in different languages because you have the people back in and obviously, if you haven't got people that are diverse but then also speak and then that's a problem because you know you shouldn't really do that appropriation etc So, yeah, that's kind of just my experience at the back of.
I feel like Jason is trolling me because he absolutely blows. Absolutely. But I work in Scituate, I've worked through situations where it hasn't worked. So Jason is telling me, but ya know and it's one thing, it's that if people assume that your team is not diverse when they tried to do something else, then you'll get accusations of. You get all kinds of accusations and is like, even I wanted to do, do that before like okay I'll tweet today and I realised you know what yeah this is a, this isn't my battle to take piracy almost all so I'm not going to do. But however. Yeah, it's about people know that the teams. And also, it's about being aware, with what kind of work would trigger different people. So I've gone into other situations since then and they might want it like the term sassy, and I can't really use that word and they'll be like why why why, and for some, you know, black women might see that as a microaggression, so you can't use terms like that. So I think it's really key to educate yourself on what are the trigger words for certain communities. When referring to set people. So that's what I would say is also key just being aware of what trigger words are like sassy aggressive, it's important to have very, like, cultural context with certain words, especially when you're tweeting about Elon, or even doing any captions around talent. Just be aware of your triggers as much as possible. And of course that comes with having a diverse team, but if not, if you aren't like a one man band. You know just all you're following the right kind of people on Twitter, and the grant to stay educated on what those are and to not trigger people if you can't yet afford to hire but when you can afford. That is the importance of having diverse teams.
Also, so just to reset the room before we go to audience questions. We also talk about how to slasher on social media like a sauce and love Island. We've got a really esteemed panel, who have managed a community of over, 100 million people, and three are going to open up the floor so if you have a question, please raise your hand and we'll get you on the stage, and please direct to the queue you'd like to ask it to answer that unless you want all of us to answer it. So if anyone has a question, please raise your hand. Hi Victoria Hey Anthony How are you, we started using Toria, for question.
I'm sorry.
I mean washing the plates.
One second. Sorry.
And then we'll come back to you. Yes.
Hi guys. Hello.
Hey, we can hear you.
Yes Oh hi, the question is really useful panel, and someone to ask a question about rate. And the best way to report on them and how brands to have them reported because I'm seeing a lot of information about how application which can be measured from your very first post to your very last post in terms of how many followers you have BIOS thinking whether it'd be useful to actually report month or month, sort of growth of engagements I wonder what the panel about how you should communicate, an engagement rate to brands that you want to collaborate with. Yeah,
I can answer that. So it really depends on your relationship with our brands and what they're expecting on you. I would suggest the invoice to do right from the beginning but also show is that engagement rate to me engagement like I know everyone talks about it but there is only the party you're reporting on social media. What's the brand looking forward to more sales do they want a bigger brand awareness, do they want more people follow them through a lot more people on their stories or when they convert from stories onto the website for Sony, different parts in that so I think it's more about understanding exactly what the brand wants and then just throwing them as much status as possible to impress them. That makes sense.
Cool anything else.
Yeah, hi.
I would say yeah, the thing of metrics, is they can really be, you know, in the same way like accountants can really measure with fingers Yeah, middle finger is that is the same way. Social media people can especially, the big, the bigger the brand is, they will have separate teams that just focus on reporting and metrics and all of that analytics and all of that. So I would say I would echo what you said is that you've got to be so clear on what their objective is. So once you once you've because and then you've also got a big customer on what they're after. Is it vanity metrics because even though like I'm not in agreement with vanity metrics, but for some brands, they're specifically paying you for two vanity metrics, if that makes sense. So you've just got understand what their, their metrics are so many formulas that people use, and those are formulas. And that's what I say about people can just give you a report, and then you might be like, Oh, this is great because you don't know what 40 of it using just one Google will tell you like so many different formulas out there to use but I would say, if it's if it's vanity metrics then of course you're reporting on views, you're reporting on likes you're reporting on reach, do they mean that much. If someone's objective is is Fatty, then yes they do. If somebody wants deeper metrics like comments to likes, for example, like comments to likes, and other people are really considering like I'm doing a bit of consulting at the moment. And something that's quite important to them is, is shares and states, which is not something that is on Instagram specifically which is not something that would traditionally be on a, on a report for example but if someone's looking for deeper metrics or like a fashion brand, if they want to know that, especially post they put out specifically for inspiration, or if they're trying to figure out, Okay, how come this post got this amount of clicks, then actually saved helps you will help inform you. Okay, people are liking aspiration posts, we didn't have that many click throughs on this particular item, however we got several saves so these people might be coming through later and then of course there's so much data that can back that up is why you'll see when they click on it later. So I hope they just have the. And I would also say like agree on your formula from the first report and carry that through every single one. Because if you change the formula you're using for engagement. And towards the end, when it doesn't do anything. You've got a benchmark against your original reporting that makes sense.
That makes perfect sense thank you cards bounce your question on today.
Yeah Did Frank's
just wants to add a tiny point, just for Anthony, as the person who's speaking to the brands just take total control of it from the beginning. So just to Apple appeal I had said, you go to them and you tell them what you think is best and what the best reporting is. And then they're more likely to lead into that so don't open the question to them all the expert to take control of that from the beginning, and it will be a lot more easier to kind of set that tone from the beginning and continue your metrics in the same way
that I love that. Thank you
very much.
Thanks a lot guys. No worries. Also,
Can I just say as well, because sometimes especially if you're working with small businesses and small brands. Yeah, you will see that you've taken on an account but they've bought followers. And you always.
Never
worst kind of people, or those are the West kind of accounts to work for because you're going to get you're going to go in to a losing battle, because those followers will be dropping like no man's business, which is why it's important that when you, when you, you're taking on a brand like that level very clear of them like, ask them whether these followers come from because some of this data, making sense. So yeah, I would just say that's why it's important to just look at other forms of because some if you've gone in, or even if they've done things such as like run competitions and stuff. If some brands have run competitions, they're gonna gonna get a huge like loss of followers over time because people only came in for that specific competition. So those are all things that just to consider when you're doing your reporting and something to to mention from the get go, of taking on any form of a company.
Awesome. Anthony I think that is a really really comprehensive answer that from pillar forward from it goes to you, and if you have a question or was it just something you wanted to share with the panel. Yeah.
It was actually Anthony's question but it's fine but I've got no. How do you deal with getting pushback, and.
It's hard being a social person because everybody in the company feels that they know your job better than you they think is easy.
How do you do push back like I once had a manager who, by the CEO he literally every single thing I did, I was like no no no no no like really like basically like micromanage It was really hard and then when things didn't perform well, he would be like, we will have a whiskey barrel and I'm like, it doesn't work that way. And something that kind of annoys me is when shows like love Island comes on, I love watching that show and I literally watch it as if I'm an account manager for the TV show. I'll watch it with my laptop, which means. So then he will use me as a reference and he'll be like, why is it not going viral like your account. I'm a personal account. We are a FinTech company this is when he's working FinTech. How do you do those kind of things because I you know you love working in social but it's just those kind of things that just put me off because I feel like
people don't realise that it is brand awareness as well it's not just always retweets and likes and comments, you can't be, not to know what you think.
I think for me, I always say like your numbers don't lie. So what I'll do is do is I would pull up like the munchable, like figures and, and show them but you've got all of the paper data, you're the person in control of it and you've seen the accounts performance over, you know, however long you've been managing it and you can say like, this is a result of the strategy that I put in place, I always say like your numbers definitely as your backup, and they'll always have your back. Literally, that is the one that was referred to someone said questions or strategy or an idea that I've had. If I can base it on something I've done before. That's really worked, and that is always what's helped me in the past and I think, you know, once people see that and they can see that you can justify your decision. I think justification outside of social just in any situation really really ought to aid you I think if you say, you know, I just think this will work or I think this is a good idea, I think, you know, one of the things that we should eradicate is saying, I think, I think, you know, if not present it three times what we should be doing is saying, These are the facts, this is what works and this is what the data says and position yourself as the expert as I said from the beginning, you're the person who's reading one of the trade and social price to you know what the trends are you know what the markets doing, and you also know what your data suggests so I think that's always the way that I push back on things is by having real backup and real demonstrable evidence of it working.
Yeah, I agree with Jason and I'll actually give you an example of almost every role I've worked in, I've been I fight with people on a weekly but this team is the art team. It's not the art team isn't advertised on the outside it's a PDR but it's just it has always been an ongoing battle. And when I was at a massive publisher so we were at a point where Facebook's algorithm was changing Facebook's algorithm for news publishers at the time was huge. It was, I mean it was invested because you get more traffic from Facebook they need to get from Google, which is a position, no one would ever want to be. And we had a week of algorithm was just completely messed up nothing was working my numbers my targets for the week. And I told myself you know what I just need to convince from government above me. Let me just make a few memes I feel that means we're going to save this right now and it means a fairly new, and a new thing back then. And one person agreed with it and most a compromise I said look, let's try this, and in two weeks time just like Jason said he takes time to come up with numbers, and if it completely flopped, and fine we'll go back we'll go through what he said. And I posted it, and within 48 hours we had 50 million in profits. And that was it I hit my KPIs for the next for the whole year basically so it's given them the numbers but also I think part of it is learning to choose your battles, during lunch with one CEO, and she was just so hell bent on looking like a luxury brand, even though no one knew who the brand was what they did, that it affected that social key to such a huge extent, and in the weeks which I kind of didn't listen to him just kind of went into my own thing we made good money, and that we converted followers into nodes and these people were buying like 6080 or 100 pound products. We might work out the strategy and we didn't make any money. But because she gave me such a hard time I was like, you know, this isn't the battle I want to take on this if you really feel this is the best way and keep questioning my expertise when you're the one who's paying me right to come here and do this, if you really want me to just post the pictures that you like I can do that, if that's what you want. It's not my area, but to just do that but, you know, pick your pick your battles and if it gets to a point where you feel like you're being pushed back too much, just ask yourself if it's rubbish, you're not going to be able to do as trashy, get your own wins out of it, and then move on to the client and said I'll do X, Y Zed. There's just no point, you know, I left that job because there's no way I'm staying here for another whole year being interviewed by the next company, and asked me what I've done for a whole year. And then me say, I had to do X, Y Zed because of the see. So, show the numbers like Jason said but then also just just knowing when to pick apart, everything in life, especially social because to his degree you always got yours and be facing people openly boardroom heated debates I've had so many teams. You'll understand them. Time is up and to just let it go.
So, big once you picked paddles, but say with your chest I think that is my like hashtag motto in life, as it is this your voice should not prey on that little bit of weakness, I think, anything that I say, I have to bucket let wholeheartedly Pillai if you see me in action when it comes to like difficult clients or difficult campaigns like you really really have to say it with conviction, and even if your voice is shaking a little bit, say, and say with your whole chest, because I find that as, what happens is there's often so much intimidation, especially with people who are more senior or believe they're more senior than you, when actually the expert You're the one who's getting paid to do what you do as a specialist so I always back what I'm saying. And I will bet my colleagues as well so if someone disagrees with saying, I believe in what you're saying and we work on the same to. I'm going to back myself up about pillar two and see with our chests
facts. And also, like, Vic. Yeah, as someone who's actually worked on love violin, I can say her tweets, go off every single night, excellent tweets and, and I would say that actually use that to your advantage lead into it, because it's a shame that because personal accounts and brand accounts are two separate things so it's a shame that they are pulling up your account, your tweets like that, but also that really gives you that really gives you a great position of expertise, if that makes sense. So almost lean in to lean into that a bit. And I would say is that can I just ask, is there a difference between what is scheduled content. And do you have any freedom for reactive content, cuz I would say one thing to also potentially do is give them what they want, but then where you have like freedom to do your reactive stuff do that, and then give them what the others have said is in in your weekly report be like, Okay, this did terribly. This is some reactive stuff that I did, and did the best. This did great. But obviously say it in a, in a nice way but that's what sometimes you just got to do it because I hear you when you say that everyone literally thinks this job is easy, and everyone literally thinks they can they can, which is just is just not the case people need to start putting some respect on social media big names if I'm being honest because it's not just a job that anyone could do there's so many, that,
that, that
go into that. And I would also say another thing is that sometimes when you go into a new thing is really nice to ask about like how their performance was before you got there, because otherwise people are just comparing you to what they want to compare you to, but if you have the facts and figures, you can actually benchmark it against what was happening from board. So if they're like oh no we haven't gone viral blah blah blah blah blah. You can go. Well actually, since that month, you've seen this amount of growth with this amount of growth week on week, month on month, etc. So it's almost that you're only benchmarking yourself against what the what the chap was doing before you got there, and not against what their opinion is, if that makes any sense, because people will have wild opinions and I think actually what brands. Brands spend a ridiculous amount of money trying to achieve what individuals do go viral. And it's just something that you just can't buy. And, look, people just don't seem to get that yet, unfortunately.
Thank you guys so much.
No worries, just to set the room for anyone who's just trained to be talking about how to slash you on social like social media like a source under violence. We do have the floor open for questions if anyone has any expertise, I'd like to share so if you've got anything you'd like to say, please do raise your hand and bring it up to the stage.
I think we've got one person who's about to come up. Claim so how are you. Hello. Do you have a question for the panel,
I do.
First, I want to apologise for being American and I don't want to mess up the IRS thetic of your beautiful accent. I understand, providing value, showing meaning, and I'm here as a follower of unsought I hope I pronounced that right. But my issue is, I have a low follower count, maybe less than 2000. And I find that, even though I'm providing value. People look at the numbers, more than the information. And, but my resume is long, you know, master's degree training for Nike 15 years of experience, but that doesn't seem to matter on Instagram. And that, so I don't know what to do.
Hi Angel.
Firstly, thank you, you just put my name like can I just double check. Are you an influencer or in house or what chain from your social channels.
I'm in fitness, and I want to motivate inspire people to lose their bodies. I'm not really into the aesthetic, the body stuff but just moving for mental and physical health. Right.
Okay, there's there's two parts of the so one part is that people do cut follower numbers and it's an annoying thing and anyone who's worked, who works in social will tell you but it doesn't matter to a great extent. It's a vanity metric and it means very little and the social following number itself will tell you very little about how other brands is doing. On the other side of that when people do say to me Nobody got X amount of followers. No one's kind of seeing the value in me. I think just just keep it. Just keep seeing it. And you don't need to worry so much. The followers you don't have. It's giving as much as you can't always you do have when I had only 500 followers in my account. I was given the exact same attention to 25,000 followers right now it is no difference in my strategy. In other words, so you need to focus your attention people that are following you. And when they do see, they're going to start engaging with your content, a lot more. And then, you know, your content. People start showing it through word of mouth, and that's how you'll eventually, follow us. I know it's annoying because so many brands do the cut that following number, but it if you keep at it, and you shift your attention and energy towards the people that are following you, you will eventually grow.
Yeah. One thing I've been to what Ansel said there is like, I think the whole need to ask. It's really important like for me. Even when kind of looking at you know who's the next creator, he worked with, I think I've stopped looking at more sore follower numbers just because like their engagement from a comments point of view that's more powerful because if people are taking their time actually comment and you know have that two way conversation that's more valuable because if we're like you know that person is actually giving value to their followers to the point where they'll be able to come back to our blog so I feel like he had that whole communication that two way, you know, making sure that you know no one goes against him in the comments by you having conversations where other people if they come on your page, they're seeing that conversation happen and he kind of gets them to know a little bit more about you and kind of warm up into you and kind of want to join the community as well so from a from a community point of view that's kind of just watched when sad times, obviously just giving back and making sure there's that two way conversation.
And just to add to that plants really valid point run. I've when I've worked with, looking for influences, I always see a massive kind of deep dive into what people think. in response to their content. So, for example, if someone if they've ever worked for beauty brands and they've got 300,000 followers and but all of their likes good engagement and all their comments are coming underneath their selfies. I don't want to work with that person because I want a video tutorial a beauty video tutorial. And when I go into that tutorial account they only have five minutes and people aren't really interested in anything else and rubbing it's wrong for them too hard an account just sort of selfies, that's just mean, it just means that's what people follow them for. So, you know, build that community work on instal building a community and trust me there is so much value in creating ghost accomplished people to respond to because eventually it will get to that point. I've worked with influence followers, and they've made me more Seldon influences with too many unfollow not they name any names but I've had so many instances like that So, do not worry about the falling number that's the last thing to ever pay no attention onto.
Yeah, and I think you know really cultivating the people that are you know you have as valuable folio followers, followers at the moment are the people that will help to grow your brands, I think, what you'll find is the numbers will eventually come if you can just keep putting out valuable content that people find useful or really like, and also you'll find is your current advocates are your biggest fans. So, you know, similar to any business where they say like your retained customer is your is your sort of like most valuable I'd say that is definitely the case with most communities. And as I say, like the whole free that should grow if you keep putting out valuable content so keep doing what you're doing, and don't focus too much on the followers. Was that useful Angel, to answer your question.
Yes, that was very helpful, especially Ron's comment about people looking at how I'm interacting with the people who I do comment to, because you can tell it's a real conversation. And, and so I will be buying your ebook and Jason. Yes, I'm not focusing on the following content, it just seems like that's what potential followers See, but I understand that I seem to keep providing content, and I will so thank you so much.
Yeah, I was gonna say that lights are so flippin light people look at lots all the time but I think the most valuable thing that you can get as a, as a human is is a safe. Obviously, those are super likes, which is what people say, because they are just seen as a lot more of a valuable currency, in terms of people's, you know stuff and how they interact with it so you know if you've got 2000 people who are saving all of your concept sometimes it's actually a lot more valuable than someone who has a lot of people who just see a post and flippantly like and then scroll past. Cool. So again, we've got Danielle on stage now Daniel Do you have a question for the panel or particular person.
Hi. I actually have two questions. But to say that I have been over the last few months. And I also used to work with runners. So, money has been my manager, up until last year so. Hi guys. Yeah, I was so
valuable information that I felt like a lot. And so far on this. So, first question would be, to everyone merely so what has been your proudest moment of working in, slash,
I guess your biggest achievement.
I say when people ask me this question I always say, different parts of my career have given me just an achievement so whenever I look back, I'm happy at every single achievement. So, I mean I was not about anything, but when I was 23. I was made the Social Media Manager of the world's biggest fashion magazine. So, for me, that's the biggest reason my ebook came out and they asserted themselves and like the first five hours of that for me that's a big achievement and a matter of brands make smashed targets and made 40 K, in one weekend for the brand, and that was a massive achievement so I can't I generally can't think of one achievement because I can look back at my life and I just look at the milestones and I'm just grateful and happy for every single one of those nice milestones I mean I sound like rainbows and unicorns right now, but generally how i feel i guess is the price of loving your job.
So for me, I used to look after a social media account for one direct was the social media accounts for one direction and, you know, obviously, people thought it was a really easy job to look after this community of, I think it was like 25, million people when I joined. I worked on the accounts for about a year. And I think you know they'd been going for four years or so to me taking over and then, you know, in that year I managed to grow all of the accounts by fifth, but so taking their accounts to 40 million people. So 50 million new funds in in 12 months, and obviously they weren't at the peak of their career at that point. And we actually managed to get them a Webby Award, which in social media and digital is, it's almost like winning a Grammy for for social media and it was the first time Sony, the whole label had ever won that award in the whole of, like, every entire being sold. The first time they ever won a Webby across any of the territory of the world. And you know I can say I was personally responsible for that strategy so I think that was my proudest moment in social but I've had so many instances.
And I'll go next. I'm gonna I'm gonna flip it a little bit I'm going to talk about my most so proud but then also my soul. The soul, our guess so. Oh, have you okay so okay cool he's gonna think I'm gonna speed things up. So I think my sort of most proudest achievement was launching a once the deck in a second, tic toc campaign, which we did across blackfriday obvious Everyone knows that everyone that works in social no one speaks during Black Friday because there's so many expectations in terms of, you know, cutting through the noise etc so for me it was kind of Tick Tock Pampa which was a hashtag challenge that now sits are at 3.6 billion views on the top so for me, I think that's probably going to be at the top of that list of five most proudest achievements.
Hello.
I think we've lost her mind probably be I've never actually thought about this question twofold. It's probably. Obviously, working on love Island, I would say, and I would say, the next one is probably being at a place where I can, I can, like, sustain work as a freelance company. That's, that's what I would say like being able to, to manoeuvre without fear
most about dance your question
then is just really good terrible and scars and. Thanks guys.
We're gonna have one more question I'm just gonna reset the room and then we're gonna throw back to the panel and then maybe in the next 10 minutes so just to reset the room this is how to slash it on social media like a source and load balance. When we turn on some Malik one from a source and pillar. We're just talking about how to basically build the biggest brands you can online and obviously have a really cool community. We've got an that's on the stage and the people are question for the panel, either.
I'm sorry. Um yes I'm here. So, I just want to just quick introduce myself my name is Annette, I'm a food and lifestyle content
creator.
And the question that I had was the one actually but I just want to know how does one
get to go and explore page like what's the way to create content that will raise higher into the Explore page.
Explore pages commonly just curated content from accounts that you don't follow so people who don't follow you. For example, if you've got high engagement or a high amount of likes on your post. And you're, you're quite high up in the sort of Instagram algorithm, quote unquote, people who don't follow you will actually see your posts, and that that's really the only way to do that, guess what we've touched on earlier was just creating really valuable content that enable people to want to keep engaging, or come back to your content more than once. So I think so many people are just focused on likes and likes alone where, you know, if you pump social media you'll see there's so many different things. There are saves which you want to try and get which as I said earlier, like a super local most. Then there's commenting there's also, you know, people sharing your posts, and also like so I guess it's just make sure that your content is rich enough to stand out amongst the noise because you could imagine. You know how many active users are on Instagram I think it's like isn't that 700 million or something like that at the moment. So you can imagine amongst all of that concept What is it about yours. That's gonna, you know appeal to you know like a really, really cost of users, and really want them to engage with your posts and what obviously is just find your niche as well I'm not sure about what you do, but you know that's always a good way to ensure that you know the people that you want to see your content are going to see it because, as this, as I said earlier, if you're an lifestyle brand, and all of your positive selfies then you know you're probably not best serving your community, but, you know, if you're posting stuff that's relevant to the honours community or, you know, wherever fields are in the past the best way to ensure that your content will stick out there's no magic formula. It's just about consistency and making sure that it's valuable.
Okay, thank you. I'm just going to add a point to what Jason had said though because I know a lot about algorithm about the Explore page, etc. The algorithm which includes the blog page is intellectually like. It's like a machine it's like a robot that it feeds so many different factors and I know you see all these posts on Instagram, like, if the Save of the post and you share it, then you're more likely to be on the Explore page or even be higher up on the algorithm. Yes, those things count into where, but it's such an intelligent algorithm including enhancing the Explore page that it's never worth thinking about algorithm and explore page first like Jason said it's honestly just about your content. And then if you end up on the Explore page, you do and if you don't it's not a great deal because you're contacted by your audience only if he wants to know a bit more about the fight for the algorithm just because it's a bit boring, I have written a post on it on my medium blog and if anyone wants to read it, they can read it. Just search my name and medium and its history the science behind it I just opened their own website just to explain, but it's more than just the available means that you see flying around here.
Hey there,
I follow and I know that your content is great, and she actually just recently influenced me to buy a waffle makeup, but put that in the basement because obviously. Now we're going to be out in June and I can't be gaining the pounds but um yeah and at Alterna I think your content is great already. And I would say that you've just got such an amazing opportunity to really expand on the foundation that you've created. You do great recipes, I would love to see more recipes from you, like, really building it. I want to see your Instagram Live series, like, I want to see more reels, like I think whenever you pose. I love your posts. And I would just love to see more of it and I think like, the more you build on those things is the more you're going to build your following build your community because, in terms of creating like the recipes and stuff they do, They're great. In terms of the quality of content. It's great. I just think you've just got to continue giving people more of, of what they want more regularly. That's my own personal feedback to you.
And that was that helpful.
I'm sorry yes, and that was helpful. Thank you everyone.
Really, okay we're gonna take one more question and then we're gonna just wrap with one question to the panel and then we'll wrap up. But just to reset the room for anyone who's just joined we talked about how to slash it on social media as a source and love islands. If you are liking what you're hearing tonight, be sure to keep on for moderators or follow. You know, as you'll be able to then see rooms that they're hosting and subtopics, and obviously you'll be able to ask them questions and see what they're up to. But before we head back to the panel hello
everybody question for the panel. Hi guys. Hi,
and I worked in the social media industry for about five years time, and it's been quite in house and agency, and one of the biggest struggles I've come across is content like iba The moment I am working as a social media manager for a sports nutrition brand there are massive bands, and it's always content that's a struggle and I think a lot of people just don't understand when it comes to social media management that content is key, you know, making great content is key. And how do you get over basically the struggle of brands that might have smaller budgets, even big budgets like hitting that brick wall with getting content from brands.
Sorry, can you rephrase that slightly Hello. I think I misunderstood.
Yeah so so I I work for a sports nutrition brand and I do social media for them and I've worked for an agency, and in house of brands, but I find that a lot of the time that the issue is content might come for if I'm working at an agency, they'll basically give me like is like 30 images here's 30 videos like go, and that's kind of it for like two months, kind of like work with that how do you get around. If there's like not enough budget for content, or they're not kind of making that a priority like how do you kind of get around basically telling them that you need more content or there needs to be a bigger budget for it.
I think I've had this a lot because obviously when I've worked in music marketing and stuff, you know, particularly on some of the bigger artists, you might just get six press shots, and the music video. And I think what I often do is I just look around. I look around at other channels and see what they're doing and see how I can get really creative with like a limited amount of assets. It's tough. But they're always, I think just thinking about like, What can I say like thinking about really really great ways to use one bit of content so that when I used to work on. One Direction, for example, I had, I think, in one campaign like we had like half an hour with the full boys. And I used to have to just dig into our archives like really really get creative like create some infographics and a lot of things that were just, you know like, what just seemed like the most rudimentary things like the most basic ideas but worked really well for the, for the audience and I think obviously what often what you'll find is you've got like an archive of concern that your company might have and then he continues to throw bucks and as I said infographics and also find him stuff like. Do you know like like industry, sort of news and things which are relevant to your to your company's followers, I think that's the way I've always been around it because sometimes you just work with too much content and you don't actually once it and then sometimes what you find is, you do have to just get very creative by use other channels as a, as a sort of inspiration I mean you never want to copy competitors I think that's just the way I look at competitors generally is, I'll look at the competitors pages and I'll find identify what they're not already doing. And then I'll apply that to mine so I don't want to follow the formula or I'll actually take the, you know, do a bit of analytics around their channel and and say, I would do this better and I'd apply that to my own page and try and get as creative as you can with content I think the thing is we're in such an information age now where, you know, you've got people who are sitting in their bedroom made for content and life and future themselves they're just using, you know, images of the Internet, and getting creative on camera and other things. Sorry if I rambled on there's anyone else have anything to add to that.
I definitely say, I think, you know, I'm not sure what you know the brand guidelines guys are like but i think you know, use that community to be able to kind of you know curate that content for you because I feel like you know UGC is a big part of like how you bring a community together because if you look at some brands some brands have kind of built challenges on the back of wanting to get content from creators, so it might be a case of you know you put a challenge out there, whatever you're trying to kind of get everyone to you know curate some content around the products or whatever that might be, potentially, and again, always think like depending on what channel you're wanting to kind of push this content on. It's always great to make sure that it's one native for the channel so you know from a tick tock, it's not always about the highly produced pieces of content, it's always about you know just kind of utilising those in apps or features, whether it be the green screen, whether it be like the text options or functions so again I think definitely kind of utilise the community to be able to kind of curate that content for you. Back in, awarding them as well. Are we incentivizing them in some way. At the back of that as well.
To answer your question. Yeah, that
was good yeah
I think sometimes it's quite difficult because,
like, for the company I work for them I
do suggest to them you know let's use that we've got ambassadors I think that things like that let's use them, but as Ron mentioned like a lot of times if you want to be like incentivize more as well as I guess it's just kind of thinking like how to get around that but yeah it's helpful. Thanks guys.
Thank you and I think we've got one more question. Hi Kristin, how are you.
Hello, I'm good, thank you thank you for putting me up because I'm gonna close out this room, and I appreciate the last minute jump up. I just want to say hello because I, guys. I know insert incredibly well we build each other in the human world not just in the digital world and. And so, it's for me, one of the best social media personalities I've ever come across in my entire life. So, for those of you who don't know, insert she was a social media editor at a magazine called L, which you may have heard of. I had the real pleasure of working with her, and I I very aware, I think it was last year or the year before that she published this book called smashing it I'm going to my. I'm going to say the book wrong, but if anybody's in this room, and is thinking I need to read a book about how to really really think about social media, and my personal brand for 2021, I couldn't recommend the book,
more.
And I wanted to just jump up and personally endorse and so because of that reason that she hasn't paid me or anything like we just have to work together.
And she's,
she's great and I believe, and I think it's super interesting. And that side of things. What What advice would you give me as a media veteran who doesn't who always treated social media, a little bit more like a friends and family space. So, you know, posting pictures of my kids, and the you know the boring dull stuff I get up to in the suburbs, as opposed to really thinking about it as a media brand, how would I answer how would I take these into a personal brand
out Well, firstly, so much for singing my praises. But Sina, if you think I'm great. Have you looked at yourself so Christina has worked in the industry for a long time and she also did completely amazing things as well so Christina, just do what I've done. Share your word of advice go and clubhouse share everything you share your kind of nuggets of magical information on your account, you know I know you put your personal life and keep that personal, you can make another one with all your ambition and give people that value because you do have that value, but you don't, so much for that. It almost feels like 18 to pay you, but.
So what do you reckon Should I ditch my current account, and basically start again, like basically go, you know what I did to you know ditch all my pictures of my kids making sandcastles on the beach, and I need to really like start a brand new account, and then link everything and get all the relevant business contacts to kind of come across is that the best thing to do.
So good question actually so a lot of people wonder if they should separate their personal accounts or business account. I mean it's entirely up to you. I feel like that's really how you got there, I mean I follow it you've got your both pictures of your kids and your home life, and keep that there and make a separate account and just let people know in your personal account because so many people, you know, in real life. Let them know you have another account and then you can kind of grow more professionally from that professional account.
Thank you so much and so I really appreciate and it's lovely to hear your voice.
Thanks Christina. Oh my gosh,
I just like exchange that's so cute guys.
Honestly I'm waiting for the microphones to jump up on stage. Christina, was that helpful.
It's very, very helpful. There. This has been a really great room it's really lovely to listen to you all,
actually.
You've got some really great practical advice and I think that's important. So yeah, thank you so much for putting this room together.
I think that's one last question from the audience. I've got one more question for the panel. This one's a bit provocative so think about your answers pliers, but what would you say has people biggest now, or loss, while managing a large community. And what did you learn.
Can Ron go for us because I'm still thinking of.
So I think the biggest style for me, you know, which is something I always kind of really think about when I kind of approaching you campaign your activity or even just posting. So, when I back in 2016 was 2017. So I used to work for a football club I won't mention exactly what football club but you probably will find me on my LinkedIn. So it was during the January transfer window. So during the transfer window seeing the signings coming you get the media days, etc. So, this one particular player hadn't signed his contract. And obviously he was getting just obviously doing the press kits, like the photo shoots etc and stuff like that so at this point. I was being kind of behind the scenes on us, and the club. Snapchat and Instagram stories, and just kind of like the normal how India at the training ground etc So at this point, rather than saving a paycheck in the drafts and as a kind of like post later, I basically posted it live, and have it went live so as a, you know, with the football community for the football community. As for people about what's within football. Do you understand that that community is relentless and they will listen not give you so this photo got screenshot probably a few 1000 times, and it was across the CRN has crossed the Daily Mail, saying that you know basically if this kid announced the signing before he even kind of signed his contract so which kind of caused issues with the respective Columbia who's coming from his fans weren't happy so that came for us on our kind of shows, and then that was kind of a legal battle, which, again, I have PTSD till this day so I always make sure that whenever posting to this day I trip which content, whether it's been scheduled whether it's like automatically going out or whether it's like posting natively from from our phone so yeah i think that's definitely kind of one of my biggest hours so for anyone out there social media was always make sure you check the content from captions or the to what appears in the post, whether it be something in the background or whatever.
That's classic that was, you know, I can tell you my biggest. I've had a lot. But what I would say the biggest one. So, I used to manage boy panda will mentioning names not like I've mentioned them five times during this chat. But when I joined the day, the day after I joined, one of the members left the band. And so we had no concept because we couldn't use a lot of concept which featured the old band member. And so one day I was doing a guest which video this is from social media post, and I decided to crop the band member who had left out the photo and use it on that Twitter and Instagram and stuff like that, as a campaign asset and then literally didn't realise that I had sort of like a global news story, saying that the battle was basically shades in the member who had left. So it was covered by a Hollywood Word Online, like the news bbc news and all these news outlets and obviously being someone who had just joined. That was a massive massive. I mean I did learn from that like just don't crop people out. Just try and find the football but there's not anyone in it, but I think I also learned from that that you really have to own your out because I think because I was so upfront and honest with, you know, at the time, we kind of were able to laugh it off I think if I tried to hide it and then the new story came out, it might have been a bigger thing so I think I just like you know what you walk up sometimes, and it's okay. And, yeah, that was my biggest sell, and that was my big lesson as well.
Jason that made me laugh so much because, guess who used to work in publishing or not wrote the story about your cropping out that by member. And I got numbers for it as well. Because you're those fans, let's go friends, so it was, it was good news for me.
40,000 likes.
Yeah. Okay, but yeah I mentioned yesterday I was like oh my god house I don't remember this moment for my social media L. And it's just actually it's just about triple checking everything as well so I had, I had just hired two new assistants on my team when I was working at a brand, and one of them was like completely fresh and green so I would also kind of triple check over everything she scheduled for me. Another one had been working for a couple of years, and I let her kind of be in charge of team manager, just for one day when I was up in Manchester for work with the assistant who came along with me, and she scheduled a post to go out. Next thing in the morning like 730 in the morning, and it was a meeting, but it was a me made from someone who was currently in the news, because they will come make sexual allegations against him for what he had done, and she hasn't read the news that day or I guess the week or that month, or the posts about me and maybe she didn't tell me about that was going into the schedule so I assumed that nothing was scheduled for seven in the morning, and I woke up when I came out the shower to dry my hair open my phone and my phone was being ping ping ping the director, telling me about it you need to understand the main adjustment outbreak. Now, obviously, I completely I mean I thought, Ah, okay. She's, she's on my team she's my responsibility I've even not completely my fault because I have no idea she didn't tell me to triple check and even let people in when they're in charge of things and I hate micromanaging I'll never micromodal, learn a lot from great and bad managers in my life. But when someone is new on the team you do have to double check things my guess I didn't double check the schedule up that night or anything. I first woke up and I mean, it wasn't nice for her and went off things that I had to deal with a problem face on. I didn't deal with it for like the first one, two hours because I was like, like my my language I was like fuck What do I do this is a massive thing. And he went to Hey char and I had to have same kind of serious words so always always double triple check what you're doing on social media, because I that moment is just stuck in my head like at UCSD.
Thanks for sharing that. But like I'm sorry happened to you but Pillai Do you have an hour. I know you've got one.
I've had several, several out. And you know what actually one of these, I was actually the managing apart from the socials. I was managing a blog as well. And it's been I was working for a tech company. And, you know, especially when it's a new platform, they're always updating features, so you know like when Instagram updates a feature for example, and the community were fuming that they've updated the feature but I had when I logged on to update the logged on to update the blog post. So normally, we'll just say something like admin but I logged on through my personal one. So it said pillar, like that she said my name. So, these are so mad, they went from a name, they went and found me on LinkedIn, and they were tweeting the account, like with my actual personal name like full even my first name, with the first name is actually quite like it's not uncommon that is easy to spot who is but they had my surname as well. Dr.
Pillai now wimba you prick
this that that also. All of this one up. That that was one, l guy, and then everybody in the social game would see that I was just getting dragged in these comments. So, yeah, that was
one of my ELLs as happens was all about. I've got a whole Tumblr like community dedicated to hating the people found Burlington yeah there happens here, we have to we have to take that out on the chin. But God, thank you for an incredible room today we're going to wrap up here. I'm just going to close up please. So, guys, if you enjoyed what you heard today. Just be sure to follow all of the moderators on stage, and please follow the club to creative entrepreneurs UK they've lost hosting today, which is just a club which is all about supporting creative entrepreneurs to start grow and scale their businesses through building business structures around their creativity. We host rooms like this all the time as well as regular rooms on a Tuesday, as well as a Friday. So please do give the type of follow and follow up to all of the moderators probably going to end. I'm going to leave the room open just for a few minutes, a few seconds before I close out, and you can follow everyone on stage. Thanks,
