What the social media pros had to say at the SCBWN Social Media Cocktail Evening.

Bronte Cresswell, Brooke Styles, Liv Blondeau and Dr Karen Sutherland graced us with their wisdom last week at the SCBWN Social Media Cocktail Evening. Here’s a snapshot of what they had to say and the wisdom we took away.

Where and How to start

Content creator Liv Blondeau laid the social media foundations and told us where to start when it comes to social media.

“Start back to basics, really knowing and understanding your business and knowing who your audience is,” says Liv.

Bronte Cresswell, the director of Dash of Milk, delved deeper and highlighted the importance of knowing the audience’s wants, where they’re headed and what their struggles are.

The importance of the audience was highlighted throughout the night and at all stages of the social media process, from choosing the platform, what to post and when to post it.

Which Social Media platform

According to the 2018 Yellow Social Media Report 88% of online consumers are on social media. The importance of social media is clear, but what social media platform should your business be on?

“Wherever your audience is,” says social media educator, researcher and consultant, Dr Karen Sutherland.

According to last year’s Yellow Social Media Report, Facebook is used by 91% of social media users, followed by YouTube at 53%, Instagram at 39%, Snapchat with 23%, and LinkedIn and Pinterest at 22%.

The report goes on to list more social media platforms and goes into further detail of the age, gender and even geographic location of who’s using what platform says Dr Sutherland.

There’s a multitude of social media platforms out there and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and pressured to tackle them all but Dr Sutherland advises people to stick to just a few.

“It’s best to pick maybe one or two platforms and do those really well than trying to spread yourself across too many and not being able to function,” says Dr Sutherland.

The panel touched on a few social media platforms throughout the night, Instagram influencer, Brook Styles highlighted the power of Instagram and social media influencers like herself. With over 119K in followers, and a portfolio with brands like City Beach, Colette and Big W, the reach Instagram influencers provide is clear.

Dr Sutherland talked about the power of LinkedIn, a platform where you can build proper connections, network and more.

“They’ve changed the algorithm, they’ve added video, now they’re actually trialling live video and so there’s so much more you can do on it,” she says.

What to post and when

Once you know what social media platform you should use, you can begin to create an objective “from that objective you should film, capture or write your content,” says Liv.

The content creating machine is a keen planner and urges people to plan their content two weeks or even a month in advance, but when and how often should you plan to post?

“Three posts a week, at your prime times, and keep it consistent,” She says.

Liv stresses the importance of objectives but also notes the importance of content that means more than reaching your business goals.

“Make content that’s meaningful … content that people can actually use,” says Liv.

Bronte confirmed this to be a quality of effective social media use, a process of not only posting specials and key messages but also listening to the audience.

It’s not only important to listen to your audience but you need to engage them.

Engaging with the audience

The content you post also needs to be content people want to engage with “content that actually solves people’s problems, you’re there to actually help them,” says Dr Sutherland.

Reply to comments, answer messages and remember Dr Sutherland’s wise words “if you want engagement you have to engage”.

We enjoyed taking with these amazing women about all things social media and we’re looking forward to incorporating social media into our upcoming events.

By Tia Somerville.