Content, Insights & Measurement: Takeaways from the Social Shake-Up Show

Recently, The Motherhood attended PR News’ Social Shake-Up Show in Atlanta. One of the top social media conferences for digital marketers, it brought together brilliant minds from Google, Adobe, PwC and many more companies. Take a look at some of our top takeaways from the event!

Content, Content Everywhere

Did you know that every two days, humankind creates as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization until 2003 (Eric Schmidt, Chairman & former CEO of Google)? That’s the equivalent of five exabytes of data!

What comprises that information, exactly? According to Jessica Fish of Leader Networks, every 60 seconds:

• Email users send more than 2 million messages.
• Google gets more than 4 million search queries.
• Facebook users share nearly 2.5 million pieces of content.
• Twitter users tweet nearly 300,000 times.
• Instagram users post nearly 220,000 new photos.
• YouTube users upload 72 hours of new video content.
• Apple users download nearly 50,000 apps.
• Tindr users swipe more than 400,000 times.

How can you ensure that your content is relevant and strategic, rather than simply churning out content for the sake of it? During the Social Shake-Up Show, Chad Warren, who manages content for Adobe, shared some tips for planning, creating and sharing three categories of content relevant to your audience:

• Evergreen Content: Defined as content that pulls people in consistently by providing solutions to what they’re searching for within your industry.
• Campaign Content: Warren defined this as content brands and agencies push out during key moments.
• Real-Time Content: As the name implies, this is opportunistic content that responds to timely information.

Have more questions about this? The Motherhood provides insights-driven counsel on how to create and promote strategic content in each of these categories.

Data-Driven Insights

Social listening and keeping tabs on what’s being said about your brand and industry continues to be a huge opportunity for brands to be part of the conversation, respond to customers’ feedback and show you’re paying attention to the wants and needs of your constituents.

Rob Bernstein with IPG Mediabrands offered insights on the multi-layered process of social listening:

• Historical/Automated Listening: This includes going back in the archives and conducting historical research, benchmarking and identifying consumer insights.
• Emotional Listening: This layer involves keying into sentiment, insights from social media content, and the results/insights from paid social initiatives.
• Real-Person, Real-Time Listening: Tracking tools like HootSuite and Sprinklr help streamline social listening, but it’s that human touch that helps take turn those insights into opportunities to make brands shine.

Measurement & Metrics

Presenters at the Social Shake-Up Show emphasized that social media continues to be one of the best avenues for word of mouth, and as such, marketers are constantly trying to determine how to effectively measure success on this relatively new – and ever changing – medium.

Allen Plummer with Vanguard underscores focusing on the right metrics. C-suite executives are looking for bottom-line-driving metrics such as ROI, conversion rates and determining how social media fits in with the overall customer journey.

Plummer also advised that, in order to be successful, social media needs to fit within the broader marketing picture. We couldn’t agree more!

Did you attend the Social Shake-Up Show? What were some insights you took away from the event? Share with us in the comments.