1. Don’t panic!

This is a dynamic job. Every week is special and whether it’s a sudden coverage of an event, pitch, online crisis or something else, there’ll always be a part you cannot foresee. Just don’t panic! Gather as much information as possible, make a draft strategy/scenario and start working with no fear. There’s a risk of making a mistake, but you should know this is a job that makes you step out of your comfort zone every day. It just gets easier next time and you can only be better.
Bonus: if you’re part of a team, ask other members for help. If you’re working solo, you can find additional tips and tricks on your local marketing Facebook groups or international blogs.

2. Community +

Community is not a 7-in-1 role, but at the same time, it’s not so narrowly defined either. As a community manager, you have the basic tasks (managing Facebook page, Instagram account or creating a monthly plan), but you deal with other departments and clients in your projects and tasks. You are not a designer, but you should understand the design basics (additional plus is knowing how to use Photoshop). You are not an account either, but you should know how to communicate with the client because you’ll often attend meetings with them. You are not a media manager, but you have to understand media plans, reports and how posts are boosted.

3. Find Your Voice

Avoid generic responses and find or follow communication tone of the brand you manage. Brand community is built over time – it’s not something that happens overnight. That’s why replying to each message and each comment is important. Time is the enemy of every community manager, especially if you manage multiple clients. But if you love this job, you’ll see the power and coolness that fans bring, so the extra hour you invest in them will not be hard for you.

4. Be Cool with Clients

No brand is ideal, but there should be love for the brand you’re in charge of. If the client sees you’re really into it, they’re more open for suggestions and ideas. Be open with the client. Use the meetings to communicate the insights from social media channels and suggest ways of improving brand communication. If they don’t accept your suggestions, don’t take it personally. Educating the client is really important, so be sure to make them as familiar with the digital marketing as possible.

5. Follow #allthatdigital World

When you finish work, start working again, but this time on yourself. Stay up to date with current campaigns, trends and changes on digital networks. Quick response and implementation of a current meme can help your brand post go viral.
In addition to the official Instagram and Facebook blogs, you can also follow The Drum, Later, Buffer and Adweek, of course.

And your brand has a Twich account, and of course, Snapchat. Also, you’re considering Giphy, maybe even Viber chat. But you don’t have enough resources for replying to all your Facebook fans, or maintaining quality content on Instagram.

The answer is simple – limit your brand presence to the three “I” segments – Instagram, Influencers and Interaction with fans.

01 Why INSTAGRAM?

With such growth and popularity in the past period, brands cannot afford the lack of presence there. With almost 60% of online population in Serbia, Instagram is the platform where any business can find its target group.

But creating “hot” content for this network is not that simple, especially when it comes to the relatively new story format, where even major brands are still failing. This network is made for user engagement, so you should use the possibility, along with the current expansion.

Instagram is a science unto itself, but it can be broken down into several parts you should pay attention to: regular feed posts (like engaging photos or videos), more frequent stories (which are a must, plus you have to make sure you optimize your visuals to 16:9 format), and the necessary inbox (where you’ll have conversations with your followers). And don’t forget the whole set of new engagement tools in stories – from questions to polls.

02 Why INFLUENCERS?

In 2018, influencers became mainstream in marketing and brands don’t oppose investing in this kind of promotion. Currently, some brands do it more meaningfully, others are taking beginners steps, but influencers are everywhere.

When hiring them, pay attention to a really important thing – if the influencer matches your brand personality, i.e. “brand match”. Because not every influencer may be good for a brand.

They may be the mainstream communication channel, but don’t “buy” influencers like Facebook clicks. Invest in your relationship with them, come up with a good strategy and cooperation plan, and finally, don’t forget to measure and evaluate the results.

03 How important is INTERACTION?

Half social media work is good content, and the other half is active interaction with the audience. OK, there’s also the media part, that is impossible to neglect and represents a sort of an upgrade – advertising.

But good community management, i.e. the relationships you build with your potential or current customers, is worth every penny. It generates engagement, increases conversion and significantly contributes to building your online brand image

Don’t miss the opportunity to help your fans by providing information, reply to most comments or get feedback about your product. Because according to Ted Rubin, Social Media Theorist, ROI or return on investment in social networks equals the relationships you build with your customers there.

So, if you have a feeling your brand’s online communication lacks focus, “The 3i Strategy” may be the solution. It means – Influencers, good fan Interaction and a strong Instagram account.

Although first mentioned back in 2016, the Regulation came into effect in the European Union countries in 2018. In addition to GDPR privacy updates, email marketing implements each change. If you thought it through and made the decision to comply with GDPR, you’ve done the right thing.

And How Did the Companies Prepare?

Until recently, there were different ways of building newsletter databases. From gathering emails by offering a free download to users, building a database of customers who’ve visited online shops, to adding contacts from participant lists of conferences, training courses or seminars, plus there have been cases of illegal practices, i.e., selling and buying contacts.

In the last month, we’ve received various emails from companies asking for permission to keep sending us their newsletters in the future. If the databases were collected legally, in compliance with the new GDPR regulation (users provided their email addresses or gave consent to receive updates about products or services that may interest them; there’s a legitimate interest in contacting them), it’s not necessary to ask for user permission to keep them in the mailing list. It is recommended to send users a “reminder” about what data we have about them, how and why we use and store them, and it’s always good to provide the possibility of opting out from the list.

Depending on the email collection method, some companies only sent a notification, others asked for new user consent to keep them on the list, and there were companies that segmented their recipients from scratch. There were some that deleted their mailing databases out of fear, being aware they’re not GDPR compliant. Here are a few examples of good and bad practises.

Samsung – Stay in the Loop

Even though the company doesn’t usually send many newsletters, they sent mobile users an email highlighting the updated privacy rules (http://www.samsung.com/hr/info/privacy/). But they forgot to include the opt-out option, so users cannot unsubscribe from the list by themselves, plus the message was sent from “no-reply@m4.email.samsung.com” address that doesn’t accept replies. So users were left with no options or insights about which data the company stores about them…

My job

Newsletter example where company sends a notification saying that handling personal data has always been compliant with GDPR, offering the link to Terms of Use, including the option to edit your profile and choose what info you want to receive and how often. But there is no „Sign out“ link, so deactivating the newsletter requires visiting the web page.

Hubspot

Newsletter example that includes all required info and options. This company has gathered personal data from its users in the correct and legitimate way from the start, so there was no need for asking permissions.

Ikea

We believe that IKEA has been taking care about correct data gathering, processing and storing, so their newsletter doesn’t ask for permission. Instead, users were provided with the link to the updated Privacy Policy, as well as their user profile in case they wanted to edit it. Unsubscribing via newsletter is not possible – you have to do it on your profile.

Sirup

The newsletter is humorous in tone, but is it legitimate? It invites the users not to do anything if they want to stay on the mailing list. The other option is to unsubscribe using the button in the bottom. If the email addresses have been collected in compliance with GDPR so far, this could do. If not, the practice is not GDPR-compliant because users cannot passively give the permission for data usage.

Culture trip’s

Another company that only sent the updated Privacy Policy to its users. If the email database was previously built in compliance with GDPR, this notification is enough for users.

Wizz

Wizz provided users with a newsletter asking for permission to keep them on the list, but the content doesn’t specify if the company only asks for consent or user segmentation, which doesn’t comply with GDPR request for clear communication with users. In addition to a clumsy “subscribe” option, users are provided with the link to the updated Privacy Policy.

Booksa.hr

Unfortunately, another bad example of user notification. Instead of asking for user permission to keep them on the list, there was an “unsubscribe” option in case users didn’t want to receive the newsletter anymore. Newsletter ends with a really weird “we apologize for GDPR spam”.

Kiwi.com

A clear newsletter with info about what the users receive and how they can change it. There is a link to data update and Privacy Policy, and newsletter provides the email address the users can use for potential questions. The company was clearly taking care about properly handling personal user data and their usage.

Just a Little More Time

As far as Serbia is concerned, we still have to wait for harmonization of laws with EU regulations and GDPR, when we’ll see how it will be applied in practice.

By: Lidija Mirić, Account Manager, Pioniri Zagreb

Social Bakers

Socialbakers hosts are celebrating the 10th anniversary. Here are some of the hot topics I came across in the first contact with the “Engage baker”.

Every few months, one of the social networks bakes a format that should be eaten. It may seem fast, but it’s not fattening…

The speed at which people feed off social media formats is amazing.

VR is something new/old, has an audience, but not everyone can dine in expensive restaurants. It’s just a question of time when visually appealing food will become a part of the buffet.

Here’s the recipe in a few words: Facebook means reach, Twitter is activity, and Instagram is all about user engagement.

Can your brand make an authentic dish and avoid having people poisoned with your food, while having them trust you? If you serve what’s currently going on, then there must be a really nice smell around your bakery.

The Science of Influence

Ben Donkor from “We Are Social” persuaded me that everyone needs a data analyst.

HIRE DATA ANALYSTS
HIRE DATA ANALYSTS
HIRE DATA ANALYSTS
HIRE DATA ANALYSTS
HIRE DATA ANALYSTS
HIRE DATA ANALYSTS
HIRE DATA ANALYSTS
HIRE DATA ANALYSTS
HIRE DATA ANALYSTS
HIRE DATA ANALYSTS #EngagePrague https://t.co/ub7wci4KcN

— Ben Donkor (@FR314) May 18, 2018

And he’s not an ordinary analyst, but someone who actually said something important from the clutter of words and numbers on his slides. When there’s a map of places like passive fans, active fans, advocates, evangelists, brand ambassadors in your head. On the other side there’s low impact, micro-influencers, influencers, thought leaders, talents. That’s something to start with. Finally, there’s relevance and matching certain topics and audience, as well as matching the influencer with brand image and values. I know it sounds complicated when you read it like this, but that’s the point and the equation of the science of influence that’s actually working. This map can help you classify influencers and recognize their influence in relation to your brand.

I thought I would lose my mind if I heard the term ‘influencer’ again at #EngagePrague but turns out I just needed a self proclaimed ‘nerd’ to break it down again for me. @FR314 pic.twitter.com/6TT472MxJP

— Marie Claire (@missmariesaid) May 18, 2018

But that’s not all. The future of influence science is not just about the influential people. There are influential fictional characters too. Follow @shudu.gram. Influencers are OIL used to grease your digital strategy, as said by Marcus John Henry Brown.

Random Thoughts on Engage

• Social networks are not channels anymore, they are behaviour. After social internet, internet has been reduced to such a small area called social networks.
• Content is digital currency between a brand and the audience.
• Each social network has its strength. It’s important to know if you need activity, reach or engagement.
• Every 3 to 6 months, a new format emerges on social networks and we start to use it.
• Almost 20 years ago, Bill Gates said content is king.
• Figuring out what’s working is equally important as figuring out what’s not working.
• What’s the difference between Facebook and YouTube? A huge SHARE button.
• Growth comes from persistence, not virality.
• Take portrait videos for mobile.
• You don’t need millions to cooperate with famous people. Everything can be done organically through conversion.
• The future of influence is in the influence that can be trusted, because influence can be a monster.

And What do Participants Have to Say about the Conference?

To avoid extensive writing about who said what, I want to briefly write down the names of people you should see in your news feed at least once a day.

1. Ben Donkor, We Are Social
2. Dan Markham, What’s Inside
3. Jan Rezab, Socialbakers
4. Marcus Brown calls himself a visionary and he had a presentation from future
5. Sarah Boyd, Simply/Nylon

Don’t be hollow, remember and follow.

Living my best life in Prague pic.twitter.com/QPkLNLdINh

— Ben Donkor (@FR314) May 19, 2018

As I look up at this stage I think, “woah… how did I get here?” How do I get the honor to speak on some of the worlds largest stages to the best and brightest minds in marketing?

The answer, passionately, deliberately, & fearlessly following my dream.

Humbled! #engageprague pic.twitter.com/lJx1VA5fJq

— Rebekah Radice (@RebekahRadice) May 18, 2018

Here we go again with the best social media conference in the world: @socialbakers #EngagePrague 2018 pic.twitter.com/U0vTgogFDq

— Boris MERCIER (@borismercier) May 18, 2018

Back in my studio after a week in Prague. #EngagePrague was an incredible experience. I have a bunch of new friends. Many thanks to all involved. pic.twitter.com/MwwhhPfsLg

— Marcus John Henry Brown (@MarcusJHBrown) May 22, 2018

The last impression. I met a girl from Socialbakers, the event organizer. She says she’s in charge of the Balkans. She’s wondering why people in the Balkans are not using “Socialbakers” more? I didn’t have an answer. Of course, I asked if she knew how many people from Serbia registered for the conference. One, she says. OK.

We’ve prepared 8 tips for beating the new Facebook News Feed for all brands.

1 Social Strategy

When was the last time you created your brand strategy? If you can’t remember, now is the perfect time to do it. What’s your target group, what do they like and what was your content’s engagement like in the past year? Keep in mind that page posts will still appear in the News Feed, but the visibility will depend on whether your fans interact with the content your post.

2 Content Fan Will Love

When you make an analysis of your brand and get data about your target group and what posts “clicked” best with the fans, make a plan and content topics you’ll be posting. Facebook wants to increase user satisfaction and provide better experience with less non-relevant or clickbait content.

Also, you should leave room for testing new content. The engagement may have not been good because the video was not optimized; it was blurry or dark, or too long.

3 Consider Other Networks

Has your brand outgrown your current target group on Facebook? Is the target group still there? If you decide to give other networks a chance and lower the impact of the new Feed to your business, keep in mind that content should be customized and optimized for each social network. Photos designed for Facebook may not do so well on Instagram.

4 Invest in Facebook Ads

No matter how hard we try to forget, Facebook is not free. Invest moderately and invest constantly.

5 Target Your Messages

Audience targeting based on location, interests, behaviour and demographics is not limited to paid ads; you can also target your audience using standard posts. For example, your event or activation is limited to only one city, so not all fans should see the post.

6 More Quality Content

To make sure your rating is good based on Facebook algorithm, focus on quality, not quantity.

7 Follow Your Insights Kit

Paying attention to your insights kit or Facebook Insights is important to see posts with the highest or lowest engagement. Based on the results, you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

8 Seen&Reply

Keep track of comments and messages you receive. One of the ways to get Facebook algorithm to notice you and provide better positioning in the News Feed is regularly replying to messages and comments.

The battle has long started, and now it’s even harder with new rules and ideas. Keep trying, experiment and be persistent. Hard work always pays off.

Not to mention the amazing performances between each block and the original live host who was responsible for making sure guests had all conference-related info they need – food, drinks, coffee, even a free massage. But it’s the subject of another blog post.

Chief conference organizer Jan Rezab and his team are dedicated to having people from the advertising industry return home after the conference with a smile on their faces. It is evident by the fact I met a colleague from the USA who hasn’t missed a single Engage Conference from the very first one held in New York a couple of years ago.

To avoid losing your attention, let’s start with what you probably want to read the most about – the sessions.

Social is Huge Today

Jan Rezab from Socialbakers, who delivered the conference keynote, started his session with predictions about the growth of digital marketing and social media communications as its big and important part. This year, digital media investment will surpass TV investment for the very first time, and Social investment is bigger than newspaper, magazine and outdoor budgets.

Jan Rezab, Socialbakers, opend #EngagePrague #engageprague2017 pic.twitter.com/I3WCcDoXJu

— PioniriCom (@pioniri) May 19, 2017

While Jan claims that Facebook has become News platform with the biggest number of interactions on media pages, he says that in terms of relevance, Instagram is becoming bigger and more important than Facebook for brands. Brands have 3 times more interactions on Instagram than on Facebook.

He also talked about the relatively new social format – stories. According to him, stories are here to stay with constant growth.

Leaders Are Raising the Bar Today

Pete Blackshaw, Vice president of Nestle Digital and Social Media, has an interesting point: leaders and company CEOs are those who should be active on social networks, starting topics and setting examples with their presence. He mainly talked about digital transformation of Nestle and important elements of changes inside – internal, external and open innovation.

And something we’ve already heard hundreds of times from major companies – transforming the internal culture of an organization to think and work like a start-up.

Pete Blackshawa: Nestle se sa digitalnom transformacijom suočava misleći i radeći kao start-up #EngagePrague pic.twitter.com/H8HkPnfzUx

— PioniriCom (@pioniri) May 19, 2017

Social media star

Previous speakers were then outshined by Steven Bartlett, a 24-year old CEO of Social Chain, social media agency. In a very charismatic session, as a digital native he ruled both the content and the scene. What he and his colleagues of the same age did in social media communication shows major agencies how social media communication will develop in the future – specifically targeted content, influencers vs. micro-influencers, webpage vs. social feed, viral content.

Comfortable Walk on Social Networks

Thomas Bata, CMO of Bata Group, one of the biggest shoe manufacturers in this part of Europe, revealed why his brand’s strategy is Social first marketing and why it’s worth focusing on social. With specific examples, Thomas presented how social media communication of his brand Bata evolved in the last three years by following frequent changes in this marketing branch.

Do You Have a Social Video Strategy?

Yes, Beverly Jackson from the MGM Resorts got many participants thinking while she presented the video strategy of this hotel group of 27 brands. She also drew attention with her thoughts on disrupt approach to traditional hotel business: We are not into hotel business, we are into holy s*it business of entertainment.

Marketing Cartoons – Treat for the End

Although there were plenty more sessions, plus treats from the buffet, the famous Tom Fishburne spiced up the event with his funny and well-thought-out Marketoonist cartoons that often criticise the advertising industry.

Čuveni Tom Fishburne, Marketoonist, objasnio kako agencije danas kreiraju kreativnu strategiju kampanje #EngagePrague pic.twitter.com/Wnbr19SoBt

— PioniriCom (@pioniri) May 19, 2017

His session can be summed up in two myths he tried to bust – Don Draper is no longer in charge and technology can’t save boring marketing.

After the whole text, there is no need to note that the Engage Conference with Socialbakers team behind it is the one I’d love to return to, unlike some others.

So, let’s try to break down the differences and similarities in the process of creative work required for creating a Facebook post and a billboard. You’ll see that working on two completely different formats has many similarities. You’ll also see the differences supporting the notion that digital formats require additional steps that don’t exist in traditional media.

While this analysis reveals the process of creating both formats and required elements, it also refutes a great myth – that a quality Facebook post can be created in no time and that, consequently, it shouldn’t cost too much. Probably because it’s a small format.

But the key is that time spent, team and tools used for creating a single Facebook post and its completion are almost identical like in the case of billboard and require almost the same creative process of reaching the solution, plus billboard often costs even 10 times more.

If your client can’t understand this, then how can you explain why they can’t have a billboard solution for the cost of a single post? Because they paid it 10 times less compared to the effort it takes to make a billboard format.

The idea of this text is not to underestimate traditional advertising formats like billboard that still is an important part of the marketing mix. We also don’t want to underestimate the honest intention of most clients to see the agency as their true partner with an appropriate fee based on the invested time, effort and commitment, and according to the knowledge, relevance and, finally, the results. The idea is to talk about it. To give digital agencies the freedom as important bearers of digital marketing today and enable them to have the well-deserved financial share based on distribution, efficiency and importance in each communication strategy. To bring the quality of digital marketing communication to a higher level by better understanding the digital creative process.

What do you think?