5 mins

DigitalSocial media

My favourite things about Social Circle

Date 19.10.2018

What is Social Circle?

It’s a great question, and I’m going to let the women of the circle tell you all about it, because who better?

Social Circle was born from monthly get-togethers between friends, where we’d gather round with a few drinks and gossip about the latest advancements in social media and discuss our favourite campaigns. We wanted to be better for ourselves, for our clients, and because we just really love social. So, we decided to open the circle to others with the goal to take social to the next level and share inspirational, instant, and actionable insights.

See why I let them do the talking? And it’s exactly what it says on the socially-innovative tin, too.

When I joined the latest event on Tuesday at 1000 Trades – one of my favourite local bars in the Jewellery Quarter – it felt like a casual meeting of friends with digital in common. There were beers, crisps, friendly chatter, and some really interesting new innovations in social, all brought together by some of my favourite women in the industry. And yes, I am biased.

What were my favourite parts?

1. Social innovations

For starters, the entire point of the event is to learn about and share innovations in social media and digital marketing. This is what all of us in the business want to be doing every day, but some days you just can’t get away from doing the do long enough to learn something new.

As a result, Social Circle blew my mind with new innovations, features, and products that I hadn’t even known about. Did you know that Facebook are releasing a physical product called Facebook Portal that combines Alexa with video calling for your home? I sure didn’t.

Or did you know that Instagram are trying out a new hidden hashtag feature, allowing you to use four hidden hashtags rather than adding a separate comment with all of the hashtags you want to reach? Me neither. Talk about #Blessed.

There were around 12 different innovations covered during the 2-hour event so I won’t tell you about them all (that’s what the event is for), but there was something for everyone, from Twitter content algorithm updates and Facebook’s awesome 3D photos to the new partnership between Amazon and Snapchat to offer easy social-to-shop purchases.

2. Perfect combination of speaking and spoken to

Social Circle really did feel like an inclusive event where anyone could interject with a comment, question, or real-world experience of the innovation being discussed. Even so, this open forum would not have been quite so engaged or conversational if the ladies of Social Circle themselves hadn’t put such a great structure in place.

From beginning to end it felt like they could keep the conversation going with innovation after innovation, but that there was always room to slow down and discuss what the implications of a certain update or product might be.

With some events, it can feel like there’s too much listening, or too much speaking (without the structure for it to be constructive), but this was the perfect mix of both.

As a bonus, we were also spoken to by Abhi, founder of social media agency, 3Twenty, knows all too well how hard it can to juggle life, work, and social media. She shared her top 10 tips on how to balance it all, which I live-tweeted.

3. The only time I feel I’ve truly networked

It may have been the beer that pushed me out of my comfort zone, but I found myself mixing (happily) with the different groups who had come along to the event. Everyone was friendly, interesting, came along for different reasons, and I ended up being one of the last people to leave the event.

Maybe it was partly because someone got me onto the topic of my recent travels to Japan, but I feel like I’ll be happy to catch up with these people (and more!) next month. For a secret introvert like myself, that’s pretty good.

When is the next Social Circle?

This is what really matters. You can join the circle next month, when Social Circle will be at 1,000 Trades again on Thursday, 15 November from 5:30pm-8pm. The event is completely free and you can register your interest on their EventBrite page.

In the meantime, keep up with the Social Circle on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Or you can chat to me about the event on Twitter, too. I’ll see you there next time.

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