The first ever Cambridge Social Media Day (#CSMDay2018) was held on Thursday 8th November. It was a huge success (judging by all the fantastic feedback we’ve received) and next year’s event is already in the works.

But what did we learn from the event? If you were there, you’ll already know and will have your own key takeaways. For those of you who weren’t (why weren’t you?), we’ve compiled this lowdown of key learnings.

We asked all of our speakers to share their top 3-5 tips from their #CSMDay2018 talk with us. Hopefully, you can apply a lot of the learnings to your social media right away.

Here’s what they said:

Andrew and Pete

Something is NOT better than nothing | The 90/10 rule

Spend 90% of your marketing efforts doing one thing. Do that one thing really well and do it consistently. Your remaining 10% is for experimenting with other stuff.

1. Spend 90% of your marketing time doing one thing remarkably well (focus on one platform, one type of media, one approach).
2. Measure and analyse people’s reactions to understand what is working and stop doing everything else.
3. Find the FUN so that you enjoy doing it consistently.

Create your own content marketing strategy that gets results fast with this FREE online workshops from Andrew and Pete

Nicole Osborne

Creating an Irresistible Brand on Social

Know who you are not! Focus on how you are different and own that difference.

1. Make yourself irresistible. Develop a personal brand to give your audience every reason to start liking and trusting YOU. No one buys from a logo! Nail your personal brand in 3 easy steps, check out these blogs to help you with this ‘branding homework.
2. Don’t focus on how you are similar to others. Instead, focus on how you are different. Then, own your difference. It’s okay to lean into your flaws. At the end of the day, people buy from REAL people.
3. Get to know your audience. What are their questions, challenges and dreams? Where do they hang out on social? Be present on the best 1-2 channels for your audience.
4. Make your audience dance like a DJ: be social. Create memorable content for them, ask questions, listen. And engage, engage, engage.
5. For your content to be hitting the sweet spot, make sure it’s not vanilla. Share behind the scenes content, people want to get to know your WHY.
6. Be more irresistible with on brand images and tone of voice (TOV). Your TOV is your personality on paper/on the screen. Don’t be too formal, use gifs, emojis and video to let your personality shine through on social. Check out these blogs to overcome your video fears.

Pippa Akram

The Art of Engagement

You need tinder, kindling and fuel wood to make a campfire that will keep burning for a long time.

1. Put the social in your social media; engagement is everything.
2. No one logs into their social media to be sold to. We log in to be entertained, distracted, to connect with others, to discover useful information and learn new things, so give your audience what they expect/want.
3. Change your mindset: stop selling and start connecting. Treat your social media accounts like a person trying to make friends, as opposed to a business trying to make money.
4. Embrace the algorithms. Despite popular opinion, they are NOT actually put in place to penalise businesses. BUT, it is essential as a business to understand how you can make them work in your favour.
5. You need to be proactive; you cannot expect masses of engagement if you’re not prepared to engage yourself. It’s a two way thing.

Rachel Extance

How Storytelling Inspires Customers to Take Action

We all tell stories and these stories are powerful.

Think about the last thing you bought. Why did you buy it? It might only have been a cup of tea or coffee, but your reason for buying it will have a story behind it. Our tastes, preferences, where we go and what we do all have stories. They shape our identity and our understanding of the world. Here’s how to start using stories in your business:

1. Our stories are shared but also different. You need to look at the points where your stories and your customers’ stories connect. If you and a friend were looking at a Ferrari, you would both see a car. But you might see speed and adventure while your friend might see something which could cost a lot to insure and wouldn’t have enough luggage space. What stories are your customers telling and where do you fit in?
2. Look at your customers’ worldview. What are they thinking or feeling? What do they see? What do they hear and what do they do? For example, if I walked into a networking event, I might think everyone knows each other. Why do I think that? Because the room is noisy, it’s full of chatter and I can see people talking. What do I do? Think about backing out of the room again and then go and find the kitchen.
3. Your stories need characters, drama and a conclusion, but even more importantly they need to create an emotional connection and be relevant.
4. Stories reveal truths. They don’t need to be true, but they do reveal truths. How could you tell a story which shows how you add value?
5. Understanding your customers’ stories can help you innovate by spotting problems or seeing things they need that aren’t in the marketplace.

If you want to learn more about how storytelling inspired customers to take action, check out this guest blog post from Rachel,

Rebecca Fordham

Maximising Spend on Social

In order to succeed with paid social, you need to approach it with the right mindset, ensuring you…

1. …plan ahead. Before you even think about which platforms to utilise, or what your ads might look like, make sure you have a clear strategy in mind. What are you trying to achieve? Who are you trying to reach? What does success look like for you?
2. …do your research. The difference between a successful campaign and an expensive waste of time is all in the targeting. Be sure to know exactly who your audience are, what are their online behaviours and identify their current needs/problems.
3. …know your tools. Once you’ve identified the best social platform to host your ads, familiarise yourself with it so you can build your campaign confidently, and make use of all available functionality.
4. …have patience. Give yourself enough lead time so that you can test different audiences, messages, creatives etc. You won’t create a high performing ad straight away, so it’s important to factor in time for testing and learning. And remember with A/B testing, only test one variable at a time.
5. …measure, measure, measure! Review your campaign regularly (at least every 3 days) and check performance against your original targets. If you aren’t on track, or the ads aren’t performing well, change something. Optimisation is key. Never set a campaign live and leave it. Its success is dependent on your ability to nurture it…and analyse the data 🙂

Want to know more about mastering Facebook Ads? Check out this blog post from Rebecca!

Simon Hall

Image, Inspiration, and Income

The importance of the image you present online, how it can make for inspirational public-relations, and the income you can generate from that.

1. Get your bio right. Decide on your online identity, featuring the words you use to describe yourself, which should include your business, but also a sense of your character.
2. Don’t forget about photographs. Your profile photo should be yourself, or your logo, but your header picture can be you in action at work, or some plug for your business.
3. Get visual. Take photos of everywhere you go, everything you do, and all your work, and use them on your website, social media, and any marketing materials.
4. Don’t forget to proofread everything. Always check anything you put out online before you publish it. You don’t want to become the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons.

Simon regularly shares some amazing tips on his blog. Check it out!

Natalie Hailey

Impactful Social Media Content

Work smarter not harder. Be creative in what you are already doing, dig deeper and repurpose quality content.

1. Create a content audit (just a simple spreadsheet) so you can easily see at a glance what content you have already created over the weeks/months and where the opportunities are for repurposing.
2. Start joining in on some Twitter chats to get a feel for potentially running one yourself based around a particular theme/topic or piece of content.
3. Have a go at creating social media posts that give value within the post itself. Post bullet points and the juiciest tips from your latest bits of content on social.
4. Revisit old content and update it. Add case studies and bring them up to date, adding more value to the process.
5. Aim to repurpose just one piece of your content in one way this week! If you have a blog, hop on a live video and give someone a summary of what the blog’s about.

If you want to learn more about getting the most out of your content, check out Natalie’s podcast Hot Content.

May King Tsang

Getting Known on Twitter

Want to know how to become a leading authoriTEA? Check out these 5 practical ways to get known on Twitter:

1. 1. It starts with Branding. You have 7 seconds to impress somebody on your desktop and 4 seconds to impress a potential customer on your smartphone, so make those seconds count! Make sure your Twitter profile is complete, with a good up to date photograph; a good Cover Page, a detailed bio (160 characters), and a link to your website or social media platform (if you don’t currently have a website). Use Canva to create a good Cover Page if you don’t have a budget to get a branding agency to do it for you.
   2. Become an AuthoriTEA on Twitter. You are a leader in your field and you can prove it to others on Twitter by:
      1. Writing great blog posts and sharing them on Twitter.
      2. Sharing great blog posts from others within your industry.
      3. Consider ghost blogging for others in your industry.
      4. Write within Twitter. Twitter now has 280 characters for you to play with, and you can add a Tweet below an existing tweet to carry on what you want to say.
   3. Ask to be inTEAviewed. Interviews on blog posts, podcasts, Facebook Lives, Periscope (Twitter Live) or IGTV (Instagram) are a great way for people to get to know who you are. You can showcase your knowledge from within your industry by being interviewed. These are pieces of content that you can share, share and share again on Twitter in order to establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
   4. Listen for OpportuniTEAs. Social Listening on Twitter is a great way to build relationships and, again, showcase you know what you are talking about. You can get known on Twitter by partaking in Twitter Chats. When you are more confident, you can ask to host a Twitter Chat. You also create your own if you want to. When you have built your brand and establish your authoriTEA, you can start to listen out for PR opportuniTEAs by following hashtags such as #journorequest or #PRrequest. When you have built great relationships with people on Twitter, you will find that people may start to recommend you and your services when journalists put a call out on Twitter.
   5. Get Savvy with Video. Video isn’t going to go anywhere. Get good at video now and you’ll be ahead of your competition. Start small and do quick 1-minute videos from your smartphone and uploading them. When you feel confident, consider doing Video Live using the Periscope App. Not sure what content to put out there on Video

Top tips: wish somebody Happy Birthday. If someone has followed you, do a quick video and say thanks for following. Not only will the person you recorded the video for, see your video; other people will start to see your video too. When you do Twitter Live, the video is automatically uploaded onto Periscope. 1 video: 2 audiences. How cool izzat?!!?! ?

Nicky Pasquier

Leveraging Visual Content on Instagram

Always create content with your target audience in mind.

1. Human brains are visual processors. We learn much more quickly from images than words. Start creating free graphics to use on Instagram by embracing tools like Canva.
2. Build a visual style and experiment with combining words and images. It helps increase understanding further.
3. Research your audience – what ‘pinch points’ do they have in business.
4. Create content to address those issues in a format they enjoy consuming e.g. quick video for millennials.
5. Start engaging with your audience – conversations lead to relationships which lead to an increase in brand trust.
6. Analyse your efforts – create more of what works and ditch the rest. Work smart!

For more practical tips, check out Nicky’s blog post on this topic.

Ann Hawkins

LinkedIn for Growth and Better Business Relationships

LinkedIn is the best platform for B2B, 92% of users are seeking lead generation. Your LI profile can rank higher in search engines than your website, so make sure you have an All-Star profile.

1. Before you start posting and connecting with people, make sure you understand your goals. Always start with the end (your goals) in mind.
2. Show, don’t tell. Successful businesses know it’s not about them and they know how to tell captivating stories.
3. Benefits over features! Aim your content at your ideal client – show how you solve a problem.

On a related note, Ann wrote a great blog post about choosing the right social media platform for your audience. You can check it out HERE.

Kim Verbrugge

LinkedIn for Growth and Better Business Relationships

1. 1. Optimise your LinkedIn profile. This is such an important marketing tool for brand YOU! Be ready when your network looks you up by:
      1. Upload a professional headshot.
      2. Write a stand-out headline on what you do and the value you offer to clients/organisations.
      3. Use the summary field to demonstrate your specialisms and achievements and make sure you use SEO keywords so potential clients can find you.
   2. Make good connections. Always drop a personalised message when requesting a new connection. It gives you a chance to introduce yourself and build a relationship, plus it’s a nice touch.
   3. Use Hashtags. Your Network is not always your Audience. Have you changed careers or are selling to a different industry? When you post content, it might not be reaching the right audience. Find your ideal audience by using hashtags such as #socialmedia – this will push your posts beyond your network to anyone following this hashtag.

Tim Lewis

Organic Facebook: Broadcast is Dead, Long Live Social

Do you think that Facebook is a pay to play platform only? Think again! Look at Facebook from a different perspective.

Instead of just posting and expecting engagement, use the platform to get in front of the right people. Become an authority in other groups, answer questions, build a reputation, ask for feedback and do your market research.

1. Don’t give up on Facebook because your Facebook Page posts don’t have much reach.
2. Find relevant Facebook Groups to your industry to find out what your customers actually want.
3. Use Facebook Groups to build authority in your industry by answering questions and interacting with people in the group.
4. Find industry influencer Facebook Live video shows and watch and comment on them to build a relationship with the influencer.
5. Build a referral network of competent people on Facebook who you can refer business to and who can then refer business to you.

You can also read Tim’s LinkedIn post on this topic for more insights.

P.S. Tim is also the author of this fab Social Media Networking book. We highly recommend giving it a read!

Phew! Hopefully, you made it through all those amazing insights and learnings (there was a lot).

Which parts really resonated with you? We’d love to hear your comments, tweet us at @CamSocialMedia.

Found this post useful? Imagine how much you could glean from attending the actual event!

Tickets for next year’s #CSMDay2019 will go on sale at the beginning of 2019. If you want to be the first one to know when they go on sale and about our amazing speakers, sign up to our newsletter ?.