7 mins

Social media

From Social Day UK to Social Days UK

Date 08.06.2018

We enjoyed Social Day UK down in London so much last year that we decided to attend again. But don’t let the name fool you… Social Day is now bigger and better with three days packed full of social insights for marketers like us to enjoy (plus free sandwiches and a few beers – bonus!). There were almost too many insights for us to possibly condense into one blog, but we’ve given it our best shot… Grab a drink and get ready to read.

Day 1

Dean Johnson gave an opening keynote focused on the future: disruptive technology and social media, including fireballs and a full body haptic VR suit. Our main insight? He knows how to make an entry.

As technology continues to progress and possibilities continue to expand we must adapt our marketing techniques to suit (excuse the pun). How will users adapt to new technologies? How will users search for products and browse the web when voice search becomes mainstream? The ever-growing issue marketers will face is interrupting the conversation.

Lloyd Knowlton hosted a Q&A panel on marketing to generation Z with Molly Wright, Ben Jefferies and Timothy Armoo. How do you market to a generation that are constantly advertised to? Well, the younger generation may be baffling in some ways, but ultimately, they are still human and still want your marketing to be authentic, relatable and engaging. If you understand your audience and their needs and refine your marketing strategy to suit, then age is just a number.

Having said that, finding a cultural hook that is authentic will have a big impact on how your brand appeals to generation Z.

A surprise entry from Snapchat delving into why Snapchat is the tool to bring your story to life. The reasons? It’s not a social platform, it’s a camera communications platform with 12 million users in the UK alone. It’s a no-pressure platform where users let their guard down, allows expression, isn’t yet an over-saturated marketing channel, and has brought AR to the masses.

Think Snapchat is just for the kids? Think again… 1 in 3 adult Snapchatters are parents, 80% of users are over 18, and the largest user group are aged 20-25.

Katie King gave a closing keynote on how we should be getting to grips with Artificial Intelligence or face becoming obsolete. AI may feel like it could be a long way off, but it’s likely to prove productive in just 2 years with 85% of job titles that will be available in 2030 not even being created yet.

But what are the potential uses of AI in digital marketing? Well, we could have websites that create themselves and chatbots, which we’ve written about before, will be integral to customer service with 85% of customer services queries to be managed by chatbots by 2020.

Day 2

Ian Edwards unleased the power of Instagram, but why is it so powerful? Well, it has 800 million monthly active users (23 million within the UK), 80 million photos are shared daily, 300 million users are watching Instagram stories, and 75% of users engage with posts. So, how do you utilise its power?

According to Ian, through ‘disruption of the mundane powered by the smart phone’. Meaning? Instagram is about inspiration and discovery so consider passion points and consumer behaviour when planning your campaigns – in short, create content that people want to see.

Harry Hugo helped everyone to understand influencer marketing and the benefits that can come with it. Influencer marketing generates 11x the ROI of traditional digital marketing and the average person follows 11.5 accounts within each community, e.g. lifestyle, travel, sports, etc.

The impact and value of a campaign can be made greater through the ‘Multiplier Effect’, meaning that you work with multiple influencers over a short period of time to generate a buzz.

The equation for success is:

Good content + right community + relevant influencer + right CTA = Authentic conversions

Teresa Heath-Wareing gave us her top Instagram Stories tips. Engagement in the feed is reducing, with more and more users viewing their content through Instagram stories. So, it’s important to have a strong story strategy to drive website traffic and keep you visible.

Daniel Knowlton delved into video marketing and asked us ‘why do we create video content that we wouldn’t even stop scrolling for?’.

And one of our very own consultants, Kirstie Smith, taught us how to use SOSTAC to create a social media campaign, complete with take-away work sheets! Not that we ever expected anything less.

Day 3

Jana Damanhouri told us how Jungle Creations generate 5.5 billion video views a month. The company behind some of the biggest channels on social media, e.g. VT and Twisted, must know what they’re talking about right? Absolutely.

Our main takeaway being… create meaningful interactions by being the connection between users and people in their lives – people share relevant content with their friends and families and the more specific your content is the more it will increase their connection to your content and brand.

Bruce Daisley talked Twitter business and gave us an exclusive: “the edit button is not coming to Twitter this year.” He stated that the number one reason people come to Twitter is to discover something new, interesting, and to be entertained. This means that Twitter users are more attentive, responsive and trusting.

Chris Kubby Kubbernus gave us the low down on social media video marketing and how not to suck at it. Users want ‘quick and dirty’, so get to the point and give them the key information and consider the four ‘ables’

  • Searchable
  • Clickable
  • Enjoyable
  • Shareable

Authentic Alex gave us insight into building an authentic personal brand on LinkedIn. You are your business so ensure you’re real, relatable, relevant and recognisable.

Lee Wilcox told us about the incredible story behind On The Tools and how they began, developed, and grew into a community of 1.7 million, while William Bonaddio told us about McDonald’s integrated social strategy and showed us a snippet of their visual playbook, which is 30 pages long!

Without forgetting Andrew and Pete, the events closing headlines who took us into THE DANGER ZONE, a place where content has peaked and consumption is none, where no marketer wants to be. How do they suggest we get out of the zone? By being relevant, consistent and remarkable all at the same time to hit the sweet spot.

We have two options: be the best or be different. And it wouldn’t be an Andrew and Pete talk without a little fun, which is why there was a mad dash to find a person with a name beginning with M, a shoe, and 10 business cards to win a boat… a miniature toy boat, obviously.

Aren’t you glad you stuck with us for all three days? Now you have all you need to know about #SocialDay18. It’s almost like you were there. To wrap up three days into one key insight:

Use social media the way it was intended to be used. Understand your audience. In a world where we are constantly sold to, it’s about breaking the mould and changing our mindset from ‘sell’ to ‘engage’, ensuring our strategies contain content that is authentic.

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