Trolls, unicorns and oysters: The daily encounters of a Digital Marketer
Our Digital Marketing Assistant, Beth Daniel, joined the Sookio team in February. What has she learned in her first three months in an award-winning digital marketing agency?
Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?!
Exiting the world of tech journalism to take on a new role in digital marketing was a somewhat big change to say the least. Despite their similarities – writing web content, updating social media pages and keeping on top of email marketing to name a few – I still thought taking the leap into a completely different industry could be a challenge. (But one I embraced, nonetheless).
But thanks to a smooth transition and a great team here at Sookio, it’s all going swimmingly, so I thought I’d share what I’ve learned so far!
Buffer saves lives
Discovering Buffer on my first day was almost as great as when I discovered Busted aged eight years old. Life changing.
For those of you who haven’t heard of Buffer, it’s a free, easy-to-use social media scheduling tool. For those of you who haven’t heard of Busted... see here. You’re welcome.
Social media scheduling wasn’t new to me, having previously used a heap of social media management tools, but I hadn’t dabbled in Buffer before starting at Sookio. After using tools including Sprout Social and Hootsuite though, Buffer is definitely my favourite. It’s simple, it looks nice and (perhaps most importantly) it’s free!
Buffer also has some really handy extra functions, like the slot creation tool. Based on which days you'd like to post and how many times during each day, Buffer tells you the best times to post on each social media channel according to when your followers are most active.
While direct social media engagement is always really effective, keeping your social media platforms topped up with content is useful for periods when you might be on holiday or just too busy to post directly from your accounts.
Scheduling social media isn’t about engaging with followers though, it’s more about creating a balance of content – so it’s important to maintain direct interaction with followers and avoid relying solely on scheduled posts.
Proof, proof and proof again...
…And then get someone else to proof it. And maybe someone else after that too. Just like in publishing, proofing any copy – whether it be for a blog post, social media update, email newsletter or even just a regular email – is fundamental.
Luckily, I haven’t had to learn this the hard way, and there are yet to be any major copy casualties. But during my time at Sookio I have learnt that you absolutely cannot check things enough. Some would say its obsessive, but I’d rather that than having to suffer the sheer embarrassment of sending out a client mailer with a typo.
Image: giphy
That being said, I have also realised that, although they might feel it, mistakes aren’t the end of the world. There’s no shame in deleting a social media update if it contains a mistake, providing that it hasn’t had responses or been up for too long.
If it is too late to delete an update, send a second update acknowledging your mistake. Make it humorous (GIFs are my go-to) and your followers should forgive you. To learn more about how to deal with mistakes on social media, take a look at our recent post on handling complaints, mistakes and trolls on Twitter.
There’s always a ‘something’ day
Are things looking a little dry on social media? For quick, easy content, a great thing to do is to respond to trending hashtags or national events going on that day.
Delving much deeper into social media at Sookio has made me realise there really is a day for everything - #NationalSiblingDay, #NationalDoughnutDay and (my personal favourite) #NationalPuppyDay to name just a few.
Although uploading a pic of your pooch may not be relevant to your brand’s personality, if you’re ever stuck for content keeping your eyes peeled for daily themes which are relevant to you and responding to them can be a nice way to keep your social media accounts active. It can also help showcase the lighter side to your business.
We have a zero tolerance cringe-inducing quote policy
‘Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.’ Yuck.
‘Stars can’t shine without darkness.’ Yuck.
‘A picture tells a thousand words.’ True, but yuck.
Or our personal favourite:
Images and videos are the way forward
Yep, although we hate ‘a picture tells a thousand words’, you can’t deny the fact that they do. Pictures and videos really are the bread and butter of digital marketing in our increasingly digital and social media savvy world.
Endless studies have revealed that images and videos are far more likely to drive engagement on social media nowadays. From personal experience, I’ve noticed that social media posts, Tweets in particular, generate more likes, Retweets and clicks when they contain some sort of engaging image or video content.
For that reason, Instagram is now huge – and, in my opinion, businesses not on the platform could risk falling behind in the progressively visual social media marketing environment we find ourselves in.
At Sookio, been having a lot of fun on Instagram lately, experimenting with the many new updates including Stories, Galleries and Boomerang.
I’ve also found Pinterest to be particularly useful when it comes to visual content. Not only have I been using the platform for inspiration in my own work, but it is also a great way to share content. We often upload pictures from our blog to the Sookio content board with a link to the original post.
Since starting at Sookio, I’ve also gone through and revamped our Pinterest account, updating and adding to boards including Copywriting inspiration, Top typography and Words on packaging.
Plan your social media content
I’ve always had a fairly ad hoc attitude when it comes to social media, but my first three months at Sookio have taught me that planning content for social really helps when it comes to generating more engagement with your posts.
We always advise our clients to plan out their content, but we need to make sure we take our own advice too! Every Monday morning, I write up a plan of what we are going to share each day to make sure our channels are looking lively - so quick and simple but it really does make a huge difference.
Reporting on your marketing efforts really, really helps
Who’d have thought? During my time at Sookio I’ve picked up some great tips from the rest of the team when it comes to reporting, recording and analysing marketing efforts.
Tracking your progress is key, as, although you may think your strategy is great now, a successful business always needs to be thinking of ways to improve its strategy in the fast-moving digital climate.
We think Dashthis is a useful platform for companies looking to run monthly reports on their marketing activity, as it usefully tracks website traffic, different social media platforms and various other plugins can also be added depending on what you wish to report on through the platform.
I also used to avoid Google Analytics like the plague, but now that I have learned exactly how to use and make the most of it, I am really starting to see the value of tracking the data behind all the marketing that we do. Even if that did mean enduring a few hours with these guys…
RIP soul.
The future is bright
All in all, my first three months at Sookio have been great, and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into more work while learning even more about the digital marketing world.
As many (but probably not anyone at Sookio) would say: ‘The world is my oyster.’
Want some Sookio expertise on your side?
To find out how Beth and the rest of the Sookio team can help with your digital marketing strategy, do get in touch.