Brighton Summit: Being Smart about Social Media

James Dempster, co-founder of Cobb Digital kicked off the first workshop of the Brighton Summit. 

The audience voiced some of the areas that they are keen to learn about in the session this morning, the amount of issues people are currently struggling with could take us into a 2 day workshop!!

Should we bother with social media?

43% of consumers use social media to research products before making a purchase - people want to feel connected to a brand.

71% of consumers who have had a good social media experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others.

Social ads generate a 55% lift in recall compared to non-social ones.

42% of consumers expect a response within an hour - social media users expect quick responses from brands - as an SME this is an important fact to consider.

Let's get social - a quick game of heads and tails really displayed the powerful impact social media has on website traffic and brand awareness!

People connect with brands via all social media platforms - but you need to understand your audience.

James then went on to discuss the key areas to think about when preparing your social media objectives and strategy;

• Drive brand awareness
• Build distinctive brand identity
• Communicate USPs
• Market research
• Create advocates 

James asked the audience the following question;

If your business was a person, what would they be like? What do they stand for? What do they care about?

Some more smart questions from James that every SME should think about;

• Who are your audience?
• What are the challenges facing your business?
• What does your customer journey look like?
• What are the challenges in the sector as a whole?
• What are the opportunities?
• What is your budget? You need to really look at this when thinking about your social media advertising, especially with Facebook.
• Where do your competitors focus their activity?
• What channels do your audience spend their time in?
• What times of year are important for your business and audience?
• How are you going to measure success?
• How will you deal with a crisis?
• How will you join up your activity across channels?

Top Tip - if you are using LinkedIn make sure you are blogging via LinkedIn Pulse!

Top Tip - the best metric beyond sales is engagement (a bit vain but it is important to monitor!)

Choosing the right platform for your business is the first step to running a successful digital campaign.

James shouted out 'Smart Insights' as a great resource for social media tips - free and great for all SMEs!

Exercise Time!! 

Groups of 3 had to work out how to launch a new Nike vegan trainer!

Some really interesting campaigns were discussed - and I really think Nike should now launch a new vegan trainer because they have a ready-made marketing team here at the Brighton Summit!

'We don't use meat to cover your feet!'

Top Tips for Twitter

• The immediacy of the channel allows users to engage with a brand identity
• Best time to post on Twitter is Monday - Thursday between 1 and 3pm
• Tweets with images receive an 89% increase in engagement 
• The majority of users who follow a brand do so to take advantage of offers and exclusive discounts.
• 58 million tweets a day means there's always someone ready to talk!
• Emojis and hashtags are important to consider.

More top tips available for the other platforms - make sure you get in touch with James for his slides!

The audience was really keen to ask questions and James was inundated - social media is now a major part of every business and it is so important to know what works for you and your audience.

Live blogging by Vicky King, Marketing Manager, Plus Accounting

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk