Best of SXSW for Entrepreneurs
SXSW is back bringing the best of the best to Austin and foundingAUSTIN is bringing you tips and takeaways from our favorite sessions.
The Session
Quick Thinking: Leveraging Real-Time Social Trends
The Panelists
Varoon Bose of Bleacher Report
Megan Julian of the LA Chargers
Shahbaz Khan of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx
The Essence
When I heard that Bleacher Report reached more than 200 million monthly users across its website, social media and app, and last year the publisher generated 26 billion total video views with a very engaged and active audience, I was hooked. The Chargers have the most innovative social media in the NFL, boasting more than 1.47 million fan followers on Facebook alone. The Timberwolves Facebook fans number 1.8 million. Clearly, we entrepreneurs struggling to build our numbers have a lot to learn from this conglomerate of professionals.
What was obvious from the beginning was that these people LOVE their work. And they didn’t all start out as influencers, computer geeks, or social media aficionados. Bose’s profession prior to Bleacher Report was as a math teacher. The important quality they all shared was hard work.
They began by discussing the importance of building a solid foundation for social media by developing a consistent voice and brand identity that defines and instructs each post. The importance of gaining the full support of the C-suite was built on trust that the social media teams would produce if they were empowered to think creatively as an extension of the brand. Collaboration was also considered paramount to success – collaboration with not only the C-suite but the marketing, public relations and communications teams as well.
The main focus of the discussion was on social strategy for each of the brands, leveraging key moments in internet culture, and the line between knowing when to interact with a trend and when to avoid it.
Tips and Takeaways
Goals
- Develop content that followers can’t help but share with friends and in their group chats.
- Posts should always stay on brand. No matter how popular a meme or trending hashtag may be, if it doesn’t fit your brand, just say no.
- Develop trust with your audience by listening to them and learning what will engage them.
- Bottom line is that the job of social media is to increase revenue for your brand.
How-tos
- Know your audience and talk to them like you would talk to a friend.
- Have FUN, and your audience will have fun.
- Check yourself before you post with “see it and share it.” If you wouldn’t share your post, photo or image why would anyone else want to?
- Make good content by brainstorming with your entire team and allowing any and all ideas. Hire the “weird people” — the enthusiastic, out-of-the-box thinkers that are also team players. Hire people from the demographic you are trying to reach, regardless of age or experience.
- Mind legal guidelines and get legal advice if permission to use an image or content is in doubt.
- You can share content across platforms if you differentiate the message by customizing tone and voice to fit the platform and individual audiences.
- Understand and identify your reason for each post. Stay aligned with your brand through tone and voice.
- As for trends, capitalize on the moments that matter to your brand. Identify with a recognizable person, brand or theme only if it partners well with your brand.
- Do NOT overpost, force a post or feel that you have to post every day. Even though the algorithms reward consistent postings they also reward numbers when it comes to engagement. Better to have an engaged and active following than to lose followers due to overposting.
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