Social Media Exchange runs every year by Sound Delivery – these are notes from the 2016 event, you can also catch up on the action via #SMEX16

Brand photography (WaterAid):

  • People are more willing than you think to be in your photos, it’s okay to explain its importance and direct people where you want them
  • Think about brand tone of voice
  • Ask ‘what’s the story I want the audience to understand?’
  • Unusual composition can help your photos stand out
  • Connect people with your work through photography, use Instagram
  • Don’t underestimate the importance of quality
  • They use 700 x 700 for Facebook
  • Curation is a skill, don’t just share everything that comes in – think about the long range impact and story
  • Post daily to avoid having to repeatedly win back your audience
  • Leave time to write good captions, don’t be afraid to use templates for this – consistent format works for them
  • Themes and projects connect the audience to the daily lives of the people you exist for
  • Use what works and test new messaging around that
  • It’s a fine balance – you don’t want people to be bored of what works
  • When WaterAid started out, they commented on their own posts with a load of hashtags to draw people in
  • They’ve just started paid Instagram apps – waiting to see donation results through Facebook ads suite
  • They include Instagram links in SMS marketing
  • They change their bio link to whatever big campaign they’re working on
  • They carry informed consent forms around everywhere they go, village elders explain consent to the group
  • Get noticed by Instagram to get promoted via their blog and feed – this got WaterAid 10k followers in a day, then got them on the suggested user list and lead to another 20k
  • They never use filters because reality is so core to their brand

Vlogging (Jonny Benjamin):

  • Having a really inspiring reason to start makes a vlog more powerful
  • “I was talking to a family friend about his heart attack and couldn’t believe how open he was, I thought why am I so ashamed about my mental health when he’s not ashamed of his physical health? So I started vlogging, to tell the world about my experiences.”
  • He believes in quality over quantity – wait until you have something important to say
  • There are 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute
  • Young people now go more to YouTube than Google to find information
  • Homemade videos have more impact than well constructed ones
  • Speak from the heart
  • Scripting ruins it for him
  • People want to hear real stories
  • Keep it short, our attention spans are getting shorter
  • He pins Postits to his phone of three points he must get into each vlog
  • Serialise your content
  • Good community management, engage with the people who are there supporting you
  • Mind doubled their Twitter followers the day they announced Zoella as an ambassador
  • Do vlogs in daylight with the light towards you
  • Do a test first
  • Take clocks, laptops, phones out of microphone range
  • Royalty free music accessible from YouTube
  • Checking space and framing
  • Think about the things you do and don’t want to say, so you don’t get carried away in the moment
  • Use tags when you post
  • SEO friendly title
  • Don’t worry too much about editing, it’s all about being real
  • Jump on public events for SEO value
  • Think hard about your channel name – you can’t change it
  • Enroll in YouTube non profit programme – get access to studios
  • Get experienced vloggers to vlog for your brand
  • YouTube mods are pretty good at removing stuff if you ask them to

Widening reach using digital (Scope):

  • “Disabled people are either Olympians or scroungers, we want to change that”
  • They don’t email MP tools because they worry about ineffective saturation
  • Their biggest campaigns cost £1000 each
  • Serialisation e.g. 100 stories, 100 days
  • They then pick the best performers and boost them
  • They use custom audiences to benchmark members against engagement
  • They’ve got an interesting campaign coming up about double otherness e.g. gay and disabled
  • They’re quite reactive about advertising, tweaking or turning off anything that doesn’t work
  • Look at YouGov profiling of people who support you
  • Use humour
  • Frequency capping so we’re not saturating the same people
  • Use Google consumer surveys for crowdsourcing responses

Blogging (Seaneen Molloy-Vaughan):

  • Real stories
  • Show impact
  • People share things they identify with
  • Showing that the subject you’re talking about is relevant to everyone
  • Be human, be brave!
  • Experiences are an asset
  • Try behind the scenes glimpses
  • Use photography
  • Respect the people who’ve shared their stories, it’s a big deal, it’s not just marketing
  • Capitalise on world events for SEO value
  • Build anticipation interest – campaign starting etc
  • Don’t always rely on the same pool of people
  • Make digital badges for your bloggers
  • Don’t forget about the stories of people who aren’t digitally native
  • Don’t forget the CTAs, including them all the way through
  • Robust guidelines save a lot of time and help manage two way expectations
  • Ghost write on behalf of your senior managers so you can get things published fast and on brand