Reflecting on Social Media – What has changed for you?

Yesterday I attended the Digital PR & Corporate Communication Day at the Sydney Blogger Festival.

The line up had some great speakers such as Kristen Boschma from Telstra, Mathew Gain from Edelman and Scott Rhodie from Fleishman-Hillard.

What struck me about the day was how the industry is maturing rather than a focus on buzzwords it was all about good solid strategies and engaging content and it made me reflect on how things have changed.

The Four Year Journey

In  06/07 colleagues Scott Rhodie, Lesley White and I created our first social media strategy for Paramount Pictures – it was a time when the US/UK were clearly ahead of Australia but luckily we were also learning from their mistakes (Chevy Tahoe, Walmart etc…) It still felt like uncharted grounds…

Four years on and social media is clearly embedded into the marketing discipline and these are some of the noticeable changes:

 1. Bloggers understand their value

I remember in 2006 as we invited film bloggers up to Sydney to ‘blogger film review nights’ their surprise, interest and excitement (who me??!) I would be surprised these days to find bloggers as thrilled.  Bloggers have earnt their place in the media eco-system and they know it.

Lesson: Dont get them offside, build real relationships, dont spam em’,offer them something of value and relevance

2. Clutter

Getting cut-through on social media is getting harder as more and more companies join Twitter and Facebook etc…

Lesson: Killer content is key – utility and entertainment are vital. Spend time creating unique, relevant and timely content.

3.  Collaboration

Four years ago agencies were just starting to dip their toes in the water. The land-grab was on – who would own the space? 

 Today while the rivalries are not any less fierce I would argue that many of us who have been in social media for a few years understand the value of working collaboratively with other agencies to produce the best outcome. 

I had a recent experience of this working with PEDIGREE on their Adoption Drive.  I worked with five agencies from pr, digital/tech, experiential marketers – my specialist role was social media in particular Facebook content.    One of my favourite metrics for that particular client is over 4000 dogs adopted! I don’t think that would be possible without the very broad skillsets that contributed to that work.

Lesson: Collaborate and share success, be clear about what skillsets are your strongest.

4.  Education

Four years ago we spent countless hours educating clients about social media.  Today the conversation has changed from what is it? to how do we use it best? how do we get the best outcomes?

Lesson: Your clients are already reading about social media in the Harvard Business Review, SMH and they already have their own Twitter account – they need more than tactical expertise.

How have things changed for you and your clients? I would love to hear.