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Pinterest, Facebook, BuzzFeed, Refinery29… even The New York Times joined Social Media Week this month to discuss the latest and greatest in the industry. Lucky for you, there’s no need to sit through a week or even a session. Keep reading for a handful of overarching takeaways. Caution: you may even want to share them.
This shouldn’t surprise you. Noted by Facebook’s Michelle Klein in her session, “90% of the information processed by your brain is visual.” So next time you spend the bulk of the time on your social caption, consider spending it on your visual, video, or GIF. It matters more than ever.
By no means am I saying to abandon Snapchat. Not at all. What I’m noting is the general conversation at Social Media Week was not dominated by Snapchat and brands jumping on the platform. The bulk of the conversation around Snapchat was on how marketers were weary to invest heavy advertising spend on the platform since there’s still a ways to go in terms of quantifying results.
Raise your hand if you haven’t had some frustration around influencer marketing. It was palpable at Social Media Week, but the takeaway here is that marketers need to know what success looks like (and how it’ll be measured) before diving into this space. Yes, it can be the wild west or a hot mess, but it doesn’t have to be.
So many of the sessions talked about artificial intelligence (AI). And they were all fascinating sessions — spanning from how journalists are leveraging AI to how consumers in their daily lives are already tapping into AI, even if they don’t realize it. It’s easy to see it with voice prediction AI, like Alexa but think about your Waze app serving up the fastest route or Tinder sharing a potential match. That’s right, AI it’s not a trend. Welcome to the future today.
Social analytics have evolved over the years and they will continue to evolve. Reach used to be a solid metric, then tracking engagements came along… but now partners like BuzzFeed (Tasty) are digging further to understand more about their consumer. They don’t just want to know how many shares they garnered on their Jalapeno Burger video. They want to know why the person shared it on their friend’s wall, gaining insight around the statement made with that share, i.e. “Check this recipe out — let’s make this Father’s Day for dad” or “Look at that cheeeeeese – need to try this out with some beers.”
Now what about some cool campaigns from Social Media Week? Well there were certainly some that stood out…
- Johnnie Walker’s “Decisions” campaign – put yourself in the driver’s seat to experience first-hand the effects of drunk driving. Click here to experience this 360 video yourself.
- Campbell’s “Recipe Reality Check” campaign – born out of the insight that pinners are always making what they’re pinning, this campaign disrupts the platform leveraging the API with their clever “call-out-style” creative.
- All-American beer, Budweiser’s “Harry Caray” campaign – capturing content and pulling together a social video overnight, the brand bet on the Cubs this World Series in a video that had beloved Cub’s announcer calling the win. The lesson here is to not just take risks, but to also have a back-up plan. The marketing team wouldn’t share in their Social Media Week session, but they certainly had one just in case the tide turned for the other team.
Well that’s a wrap from this year’s Social Media Week here in New York. The good news? There’s still plenty of social media tips, news, strategy and more coming your way every Monday here on Padilla’s Buzz Bin. Comment below with any questions or thoughts!