Latest / The Starfish Storytellers / Season 2, Episode 2: Engagement, Impressions, and Making the Connections - Social Media Storytelling with Delaney Gembis

Transcript

Season 2, Episode 2: Engagement, Impressions, and Making the Connections - Social Media Storytelling with Delaney Gembis · The Starfish Storytellers

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Starfish Storytellers, the podcast that makes a difference one story
• 0:04
  at a time by bringing storytelling to life.
• 0:09
  All right, this is a story about memes, which I think many social media professionals can
• 0:22
  relate to and, you know, may even know where this is going.
• 0:27
  This took place pretty early in my career, so my first social media role.
• 0:34
  Still very new, first couple months I was there learning the team and the organization
• 0:38
  and all the things that come with being a good social media manager.
• 0:43
  And it was a Friday night and I got one of those emails that you never want to get, especially
• 0:48
  on a Friday night.
• 0:50
  And it was from an executive at our company, a very high up executive, someone I had never
• 0:56
  had interaction with before.
• 0:58
  So you know, big, big things.
• 1:02
  And they were passing along a message that they had received from someone else about
• 1:08
  a post that we had done.
• 1:10
  So this post was a meme.
• 1:12
  So this meme they found distasteful in their words, which is definitely not feedback you
• 1:18
  want to be getting from anyone higher up.
• 1:22
  So my manager and I are scrambling to answer this.
• 1:27
  And for background, the meme was a very popular meme.
• 1:30
  You probably know what it was.
• 1:33
  In fact, it has a name.
• 1:34
  It's called Disaster Girl, I'm pretty sure.
• 1:36
  And it is a little girl who is in front of a house fire, flaming house fire, and she
• 1:44
  is looking into the camera and just grinning and a little mischievous.
• 1:49
  So definitely can be taken out of context.
• 1:52
  And so this person found this meme distasteful because they did not understand the context
• 1:59
  behind it and didn't even really realize what memes were.
• 2:03
  So now it's a Friday night.
• 2:05
  We're scrambling to sort this out because we want to defend ourselves in a way that
• 2:13
  this was part of our strategy and this wasn't something random we were doing.
• 2:17
  We have a purpose for this.
• 2:19
  And at this point now we need to educate you about what this is and why we're doing it.
• 2:25
  And you know, I think looking back on it, the biggest lesson from this was that as a
• 2:31
  social media professional, but also as someone who's creating content that is supposed to
• 2:36
  tell a story and convey these things, you have to consider that your audience may not
• 2:42
  have all the context they need to appreciate that story and to understand it.
• 2:47
  So in this situation, it was they didn't know what the meme, what a meme was.
• 2:51
  They didn't know what that meme in particular, the background of that and what we were trying
• 2:57
  to convey there.
• 2:58
  They saw it as, you know, we were making fun of someone's house burning down.
• 3:02
  Like how is that story conductive to our mission?
• 3:07
  And it ended with the post was taken down and we kind of just had to go back and adjust
• 3:14
  our strategy moving forward because you do have to think about those things, that context
• 3:19
  and how can I as a storyteller give the audience enough context to make it relatable, make
• 3:26
  it understandable?
• 3:28
  Even if you don't actually know the full context, how can they still get value from it?
• 3:33
  And how can you achieve what you want to achieve?
• 3:35
  So definitely a learning moment for us and I think something that a lot of social media
• 3:40
  managers deal with in certain ways, even if it's not just a meme.
• 3:58
  Hello, my name is Liana Henry and welcome to the Starfish Storytellers.
• 4:09
  I'm the CEO of the Black Dog Group, a MarCom and project management firm headquartered
• 4:14
  on the East Coast of the US in Clint Colonial, Bedford, Massachusetts.
• 4:18
  I'm your host and passionate about storytelling.
• 4:21
  I'm actually on a mission to raise up the next generation of storytellers.
• 4:25
  We've named ourselves the Starfish Storytellers after the Starfish Story.
• 4:29
  The moral of the Starfish Story is based on the power of one.
• 4:33
  No matter how big the challenge, each action we take makes a difference and has an impact.
• 4:38
  One step, one starfish or one story at a time.
• 4:41
  Every episode we welcome a new storyteller who will share their story meant to inspire
• 4:46
  and connect with you.
• 4:47
  Then we'll break it down and offer tips for any listeners who are ready to tell their
• 4:51
  own stories.
• 4:52
  So thanks for tuning in.
• 4:53
  Now let's get started.
• 4:55
  Joining me today is Delaney Gembiss, social media manager at a local biometrics company
• 5:00
  and a volunteer social media manager for an animal rescue.
• 5:04
  Delaney develops organic social media content that presents a trustworthy brand image for
• 5:08
  her company.
• 5:09
  And in her free time, she develops animal rescue connections, social media content,
• 5:15
  which creates engagement for their social media community.
• 5:18
  So we're really happy to have you here Delaney.
• 5:20
  Thanks for coming on the show.
• 5:21
  Yeah, happy to be here.
• 5:23
  Thank you for having me.
• 5:25
  So we always like to get started by having sort of a more formal introduction.
• 5:28
  Maybe you could tell our listeners a little bit more about you.
• 5:31
  Sure.
• 5:32
  Hello listeners.
• 5:33
  My name is Delaney.
• 5:34
  I am a Massachusetts local.
• 5:38
  So grew up in Massachusetts, went to school out in Western Mass and studied communication
• 5:43
  and business.
• 5:45
  And after school, I landed in social media.
• 5:48
  I have worked for a cybersecurity company for four and a half years doing their social
• 5:53
  media management.
• 5:55
  And currently I am at a biometric authentication technology company doing their social media
• 6:01
  management.
• 6:02
  And in my free time, I have also picked up the volunteer role for an animal rescue.
• 6:10
  We call ourselves Animal Rescue Connection with a K. And we specialize in hard to place
• 6:15
  dogs who need a little something special.
• 6:19
  So maybe it's behavioral or maybe it's a home with no children or no other pets.
• 6:26
  So I do a lot of social media.
• 6:28
  I'm excited to chat with you today about it.
• 6:31
  And definitely there's a huge storytelling element to everything, everything that we
• 6:35
  do there.
• 6:36
  Absolutely.
• 6:37
  I mean, you know, the social media is completely storytelling.
• 6:44
  So to get started, maybe you could share with us, what is it like a day in the life of a
• 6:54
  corporate social media manager?
• 6:56
  And also when you're talking about it, can you talk a little bit about what is organic
• 7:02
  social media for people who maybe don't know?
• 7:05
  Yes.
• 7:06
  So I'll start with organic social media.
• 7:08
  Organic social media is what you might consider earned social media.
• 7:12
  So it's not paid.
• 7:13
  There's no sponsoring or boosting of content.
• 7:16
  It is channels you own, you're putting out the content, and there's no extra money behind
• 7:22
  it.
• 7:23
  So, you know, a lot of companies may have a whole team who are dedicated just to sponsored
• 7:28
  or paid social media.
• 7:30
  And then sometimes there are teams just for organic social.
• 7:34
  Organic social is generally my bread and butter, but I'm dipping more into doing paid opportunities
• 7:40
  and also some kind of ghost writing, ghost management for people.
• 7:44
  So specifically for executives.
• 7:47
  So definitely a couple different areas of social, but organic is kind of my, my, where
• 7:52
  my experience lies.
• 7:55
  So you said that you are doing some ghost writing.
• 7:59
  So you are, you are doing, you are the voice for the executive on their social media channels,
• 8:05
  right?
• 8:06
  So, and I'll tell you why I'm asking this question, how, how are you finding that?
• 8:12
  Because I, one of my last roles, I was a comms manager and it was, sometimes it was challenging
• 8:20
  to capture and elevate the executive voice.
• 8:24
  You know, sometimes I find that with some of the bigger companies that I worked with,
• 8:30
  you know, sort of the, the social media team basically kind of sort of took over the, the,
• 8:36
  the accounts and basically would just be posting in the, in the person's name.
• 8:40
  But I've worked with some executives that were very specific about how they wanted to
• 8:46
  sound and, and sometimes, you know, as a social media manager, you know, wanting to encourage
• 8:55
  them to consider the brand.
• 8:57
  You know, this is your brand.
• 8:58
  This is how you sound and you know, how do you want to present?
• 9:01
  And you know, I mean, how are you, how are you finding it?
• 9:04
  Yes, no, definitely a very similar experience.
• 9:07
  It varies on who you're working with, what their goals are.
• 9:11
  And really, I think a huge factor is the time that they have to contribute to helping you
• 9:18
  because at the end of the day, you know, they bring someone like me on to take things off
• 9:24
  of their plate and to represent them, but I need, I need authenticity and solid insights
• 9:33
  and value.
• 9:35
  And I really have to be able to connect with them in order to do that and convey their
• 9:40
  personal brand and tell their stories.
• 9:43
  And it's, it's tough.
• 9:44
  So it takes, first, I would say it just takes getting to know your, the person you're representing
• 9:51
  a little bit, know that their expectations and goals are, be, be familiar with what they're
• 9:57
  going to be able to provide you consistently.
• 10:01
  And then change your strategy around that.
• 10:03
  So for example, I have an executive that I work with who is very technical.
• 10:08
  He's so knowledgeable.
• 10:10
  And you know, I will give him a prompt and he'll just spew like very insightful, great
• 10:17
  content and then I pick and choose and I optimize it and that's how I'm creating his social
• 10:22
  content.
• 10:23
  And, you know, on the other hand, I may work with someone who isn't, that's not how their
• 10:28
  brain works and that's not how they communicate.
• 10:31
  So you know, I may be picking up more slack in certain ways for that person and it's just
• 10:37
  kind of creating your strategy around that and around, you know, how they're going to
• 10:42
  work and then also their goals, right?
• 10:44
  Because you know, one person may be in a more technical role.
• 10:48
  So I want to talk about certain technical topics or technical stories or being, you
• 10:53
  know, providing certain value in that way.
• 10:55
  And then my other executive, you know, may have a little bit of a different audience
• 10:59
  and different goals and different sway and a reputation essentially online.
• 11:06
  So it definitely depends.
• 11:09
  But I feel the struggle of it's challenging.
• 11:11
  It's a challenging responsibility to be in charge of someone else's personal brand.
• 11:17
  But it's fun.
• 11:18
  I'm really enjoying getting to do it and diving in and I'm certainly really just diving in.
• 11:23
  So we're learning as we go.
• 11:26
  Yeah, nice, nice.
• 11:30
  So you know, I really appreciated you telling the memes story.
• 11:36
  You know, memes are sort of in a class all their own and they can be really well used.
• 11:45
  But they really do.
• 11:46
  You know, you spoke about the need for context and you know, I tend to not use them personally
• 11:56
  on certain channels, right?
• 11:59
  Like certain channels, it seems like it might be okay.
• 12:02
  Other channels, no.
• 12:04
  You know, different channels require different types of storytelling.
• 12:10
  And you know, in when the opportunities that I've had as a social media manager, you know,
• 12:16
  we might post to LinkedIn to reach our colleagues, you know, Facebook, we might be doing a little
• 12:20
  bit of business, but culture, Instagram, we're going to focus on culture.
• 12:26
  X which is formerly Twitter might be like rapid fire, like quick updates, you know,
• 12:32
  on the trade show floor.
• 12:35
  And you know, YouTube would be our video channel.
• 12:38
  Do you have like a preference in the channels that you use?
• 12:43
  I don't even know if you even have a choice or you know, like in your strategies that
• 12:48
  you work out, you know, are you thinking, okay, this is, I'm sure you have a, like a
• 12:54
  very full like content calendar planner always going, but you know, are you looking at, okay,
• 13:00
  we want to get this message out this week or this month.
• 13:04
  And so we're going to put it here, here and here.
• 13:05
  I mean, how do you, how do you kind of come up with your strategies?
• 13:08
  Yes, I've learned to juggle is what the strategy is.
• 13:13
  No, the first and foremost, the strategy always depends on who I'm serving.
• 13:19
  So the channels that we choose cater to the audiences that, you know, we want to be reaching
• 13:26
  to.
• 13:27
  So if I'm a more technical audience, you know, I'm definitely going to be considering something
• 13:31
  like Twitter or X.
• 13:33
  I definitely want to consider LinkedIn as a more professional, very much B2B type space.
• 13:41
  I may be avoiding something like Instagram because it's very visual and I, depending
• 13:47
  on, you know, the product service solution that you're selling, it may not be a very
• 13:52
  visual, you know, may not have very many visual opportunities.
• 13:57
  So it definitely depends who your audience is first and foremost and where they are.
• 14:03
  And that's where I want to be.
• 14:05
  Second, it's evaluating if that channel is appropriate for your organization, your mission
• 14:11
  and your goals.
• 14:13
  I come from a very B2B background.
• 14:16
  So I am, I do think it's a little bit different than consumer audiences and what their goals
• 14:24
  are.
• 14:25
  Right.
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  So I'm definitely more on that, that B2B side of social media.
• 14:32
  That being said, social media is a great place to experiment a little too.
• 14:36
  And you know, you may try a platform like Facebook, for example, that is very traditionally,
• 14:42
  you know, you connect with your friends and your family and you follow pages and people
• 14:46
  that you enjoy or find entertaining and you're not following a brand or, you know, a company
• 14:52
  or something.
• 14:54
  But maybe there are opportunities within Facebook groups, like to create communities and things
• 14:58
  like that.
• 14:59
  So it's just taking all of that into account as well as your bandwidth.
• 15:03
  Right.
• 15:04
  Like it's so much work to manage even one social account.
• 15:06
  So kind of prioritizing where your people are, what your mission is and what you have
• 15:12
  to give.
• 15:13
  And I really always try to focus on quality over quantity.
• 15:17
  So if I'm just throwing something out to throw something out, I don't want to be doing that
• 15:21
  as a long term strategy.
• 15:24
  So yeah, definitely depends on the channels that you, you know, you want to be on and
• 15:31
  that makes sense for you to be on.
• 15:34
  Have you found that your the companies that you represent, have they been pretty specific
• 15:41
  in their guidance towards you to you around, we really don't want to use this channel or
• 15:46
  we really don't, you know, we really prefer this channel or we want to put, you know,
• 15:51
  have they have they pretty much directed you or do you sort of have the, the ability to
• 15:57
  say, okay, based on the tell me what this tell me what we're going to be talking about.
• 16:02
  Tell me what the strategy is.
• 16:03
  Okay, I think we need to go here, here and here.
• 16:06
  Right.
• 16:07
  Yeah, in my experience, they very much have been you have experience with this, what do
• 16:11
  you think?
• 16:12
  And then let's align with those things.
• 16:16
  Generally in a lot of situations, you come in as a social media manager and you inherit
• 16:20
  whatever they already have.
• 16:22
  So in that respect, you know, that's not always up to me.
• 16:26
  But for example, we are, you know, something we're evaluating is Twitter right now is X.
• 16:31
  Is this a place we should be on?
• 16:33
  We have been in the past, but it's changed.
• 16:36
  Like it's not the same platform anymore.
• 16:38
  So doing things like evaluating, even as the platforms are changing, you know, is this
• 16:44
  worth our time and our money because especially now X is becoming more pay to play specifically
• 16:52
  for brand accounts and you know, anyone who wants to participate in advertising and the
• 16:57
  paid that whole paid program, that's a lot of money.
• 17:00
  It's pretty expensive.
• 17:01
  So you know, that's something that I'm going to be looking into and that I'm going to be
• 17:06
  making recommendations for.
• 17:08
  And you know, at the end of the day, it's definitely up to, you know, someone a little
• 17:12
  bit higher up than me in marketing, but it's definitely they take my insights and my experience
• 17:19
  and recommendations and then we kind of make that decision together, I think.
• 17:23
  Good.
• 17:24
  Well, that's good.
• 17:25
  And that was one of my questions was, you know, what was as a social media manager,
• 17:30
  what were your thoughts on the move to change Twitter to X and has it impacted your use
• 17:35
  of the channel?
• 17:36
  You know, I in my last role, you know, we we were debating whether we even wanted to
• 17:45
  associate our brand with sort of because it was a bit tumultuous what was going on over
• 17:50
  there.
• 17:51
  And you know, so we kind of had pulled back for a while and we weren't using the platform
• 17:57
  because we really wanted to kind of step in and step back and just watch what was happening.
• 18:04
  What has been your experience?
• 18:05
  Yeah, very similar experience, kind of evaluating what's going on in in the past several months.
• 18:13
  So I had previously worked for another company and then the company I'm at now.
• 18:18
  So I've had kind of two different experiences with this whole transition.
• 18:22
  And in both our strategy thus far has been continue doing what we're doing in terms of
• 18:29
  organic social right, because like I mentioned, the whole paid thing is way different now.
• 18:35
  Keep doing what we're doing organically.
• 18:38
  At my current role, we definitely have a much less engaged audience there.
• 18:44
  So it was a platform that I came in and wanted to build up anyways.
• 18:49
  But now with the situation, it's kind of a do we do we put more into it?
• 18:55
  Do we continue putting in the same amount of effort that we're doing now just to kind
• 18:59
  of keep it alive?
• 19:02
  Or do we get rid of it and put our time and efforts into something else?
• 19:07
  And you know, at this time, especially as a brand as a company, we're deciding if we
• 19:13
  want to participate in X, we probably do need to also subscribe to their paid.
• 19:21
  I don't think it's Twitter blue anymore.
• 19:24
  I forget what they're calling it.
• 19:25
  But do we want to subscribe to that and participate in it?
• 19:28
  Because if we don't, our content is not being shown to as many people.
• 19:33
  It's not being prioritized by the algorithms.
• 19:35
  So I'm putting out this organic content and like a handful of people are seeing it.
• 19:41
  That's really tough.
• 19:44
  And if we do invest in it, it's so many dollars a month.
• 19:49
  But then you've got to put more time and effort into putting that content out there and keeping
• 19:54
  it alive.
• 19:55
  And there's also time and money on my side.
• 19:59
  And at the end of the day, are the results worth it?
• 20:02
  So I think just considering all those factors and your goals and what you have to give,
• 20:11
  it's kind of a tough what's going on.
• 20:14
  And it's been kind of like the I've been calling it the Wild West for the past so many months
• 20:18
  because it's crazy.
• 20:19
  It really has been.
• 20:21
  I feel like you know, as you're so often, it's just there's going to be some new news report
• 20:26
  about this platform.
• 20:29
  Most days and changes.
• 20:31
  It just is a lot of changes happening.
• 20:33
  Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 20:37
  So you talk about experimenting on on different platforms.
• 20:43
  So I want to pick your brain about asset types.
• 20:46
  And what are you finding performs the best?
• 20:50
  I'm seeing just such a wide sweep of video.
• 20:55
  It's got to be it's got to be motion.
• 20:57
  People want motion.
• 20:58
  And you know, as a you know, I am a social media manager now for one of my clients.
• 21:04
  And that's a lot of production time, you know, and I can speak for my podcast manager that's
• 21:10
  sitting in the room with us right now about all of the time that goes into producing that
• 21:16
  he spends.
• 21:18
  So maybe you can talk a little bit about what do you how do you handle sort of all of that
• 21:24
  content creation and what are you seeing performing best?
• 21:27
  And then maybe after that, we can talk a little bit too about what's up and coming.
• 21:33
  Like you know, what do you what are you seeing out there?
• 21:36
  Yeah.
• 21:37
  First, my disclaimer is my insights and advice are always with a grain of salt because I
• 21:42
  think it absolutely depends on what you're doing on social media, who you're representing,
• 21:48
  what type of audience and an industry you're in.
• 21:53
  So you know, something that performs well in my sphere, which I consider tech as a broad
• 21:59
  industry, something that performs well in my sphere may not be the same as what's performing
• 22:04
  in entertainment or food and drink or, you know, that's very different.
• 22:09
  So my perspective is in my experience of tech and my clients right now are tech.
• 22:14
  Yeah, great.
• 22:15
  So video, I love to talk about video because like you, I feel like the past couple years
• 22:21
  you've seen video, video, video, you've got to be doing video, video gets the most engagement,
• 22:28
  video is the viral content, blah, blah, blah.
• 22:31
  Like it's all about video.
• 22:33
  In my previous role, we tried video, we found very similarly, it's so time consuming.
• 22:42
  Production quality is going to be something that you pay for.
• 22:47
  So it's very costly.
• 22:50
  But at the end of the day, you still want it to look good.
• 22:52
  So you've got to find that happy medium.
• 22:54
  And we were finding that all this time, effort and money was not worth the engagement we
• 23:00
  were seeing for video because they just were not performing.
• 23:04
  And you know, I was posting at the time on LinkedIn, Facebook, not so much Instagram
• 23:10
  because we definitely had not at this.
• 23:13
  And you know, this was a couple years ago at this point because it's changed a lot in
• 23:16
  the past few years with Reels.
• 23:19
  And we were finding video there was not a performer at all compared to static images.
• 23:25
  So you know, we kind of just scaled back our video strategy and didn't put as much time
• 23:29
  and effort into creating videos.
• 23:32
  And in the role I'm in now at this company, I'm still in that phase of doing some experimenting
• 23:40
  to see what content really works with our audience and for what we have.
• 23:45
  And I'm finding that I'm creating these videos that are seemingly, you know, I've just started
• 23:53
  this process, but they are seemingly worth the time and effort of making them.
• 23:58
  But again, I have to give the disclaimer that it really depends on the content you're talking
• 24:03
  about too.
• 24:04
  I'm really focusing on highlighting our real people, our real experts and sharing their
• 24:10
  insights and advice or whatever valuable content that they have to give.
• 24:16
  That's what I'm highlighting in the videos.
• 24:18
  And you know, something like that is much more effective in video than some something
• 24:24
  that's just full of stock videos and images or graphics, something like that.
• 24:30
  So it definitely depends on the content.
• 24:33
  So right now I would say videos can be hit or miss.
• 24:36
  I wouldn't say I wouldn't guarantee they're the best performer, but I have absolutely
• 24:42
  seen quality videos just tank in terms of earning engagement and impressions and all
• 24:47
  that good stuff.
• 24:48
  So why do you think that is?
• 24:51
  I think especially nowadays, I think our audience wants short form.
• 24:58
  And I think too often videos are what I would consider long form.
• 25:03
  And I would for social media, long form, I would consider over a minute.
• 25:08
  Like we don't have people's attention spans.
• 25:11
  I think their attention spans are getting shorter.
• 25:13
  Yes.
• 25:14
  Yes, I agree.
• 25:15
  Especially with like TikTok and Reels.
• 25:16
  Like, oh man, I'm addicted to that scroll.
• 25:18
  I'll anyways, we won't talk about TikTok too much.
• 25:22
  But yeah, I think videos have been hit or miss for me.
• 25:27
  And I also think it really depends on the platform.
• 25:30
  Again, like I do a lot on LinkedIn and on LinkedIn, I've seen really great success with
• 25:36
  carousels, although they've just changed.
• 25:39
  Aren't they kind of newer?
• 25:41
  Yes.
• 25:42
  So they're kind of weird because they had a carousel feature that was only available
• 25:49
  to certain people.
• 25:51
  So it was not a fully rolled out feature.
• 25:54
  And a couple months ago, they actually got rid of that feature, but the workaround is
• 25:59
  posting PDF documents.
• 26:03
  So that publishes as that carousel format, right?
• 26:06
  So I can still post that.
• 26:08
  I've always been able to post those, but I didn't have access to the other feature.
• 26:12
  So that was kind of an interesting update that I saw there because so many people used
• 26:18
  that feature and it generally I see a ton of engagement with carousels, even if it's
• 26:25
  not a ton of likes or comments, the engagement rate and the click through rate of those is
• 26:31
  insane compared to videos or just posting a bunch of images, like a series of images
• 26:37
  or one image.
• 26:39
  So I think a hugely great piece of content or format of content specifically for LinkedIn
• 26:45
  is carousels.
• 26:48
  For other platforms, like going back to the video thing, everyone says Facebook video
• 26:54
  is it video is it my previous role that was not the case.
• 26:57
  So we kind of avoided it.
• 26:59
  I found success with posts that had like a multi series image post.
• 27:05
  That's what I would call them.
• 27:07
  So it was just it was essentially the same content that is in a carousel, but it's just
• 27:12
  images.
• 27:13
  So you just scroll through as if you're looking through photos.
• 27:17
  I found that kind of content did really well on Facebook and specifically including a post
• 27:22
  that had multiple images versus just one.
• 27:25
  You benefit from those clicks and getting that engagement there.
• 27:30
  Instagram, definitely visual, like the static visuals, obviously the higher quality, that's
• 27:36
  always better.
• 27:38
  But nowadays the reels, they are they are pushing.
• 27:42
  Yes.
• 27:43
  And it's definitely.
• 27:44
  And anybody can do them and get a ridiculous amount of followers.
• 27:48
  Yes.
• 27:49
  Like engagement.
• 27:50
  It's crazy.
• 27:51
  Right.
• 27:52
  And that kind of leads me to a tip I would give to is that take advantage of the formats
• 27:58
  that the platforms themselves are pushing you to use.
• 28:02
  So reels are being pushed by the Instagram because they want you to use them.
• 28:06
  So capitalize on that.
• 28:09
  Months ago, LinkedIn was pushing carousels.
• 28:11
  Capitalize on that.
• 28:12
  A couple of years ago, LinkedIn introduced polls.
• 28:15
  I'll post a poll that gets not many votes at all, but it gets a ton of impressions because
• 28:22
  LinkedIn pushes that content.
• 28:24
  So whatever they are, they want you to be using, use that to your advantage of, yeah,
• 28:29
  I'll use that format because it's going to get me some extra engagement and just optimize
• 28:34
  your content to work well for that.
• 28:37
  Right.
• 28:38
  Right.
• 28:39
  Yeah.
• 28:40
  And I think some of the different types, it just is amazing to me how and how quickly
• 28:46
  they take off.
• 28:48
  So yeah.
• 28:49
  And I love the carousels on LinkedIn.
• 28:51
  Me too.
• 28:52
  They're so educational and informative.
• 28:55
  I follow so many other social media professionals and that's kind of my main way that I keep
• 29:02
  my finger on the pulse of what's going on in social media.
• 29:04
  And I just flick through a couple of those and it's great.
• 29:07
  It's very convenient.
• 29:08
  Very valuable.
• 29:09
  Do you find that, you know, one of the things that I love on LinkedIn is things like Ted
• 29:16
  Talks or the excerpts from some of the influencers I follow when they're doing their podcasts
• 29:22
  or their presentations.
• 29:25
  Like the captions are big, I think.
• 29:29
  Are you finding, you know, what are, you know, what are, are you finding that those kinds
• 29:34
  of things are getting a lot of engagement as well?
• 29:37
  Yeah.
• 29:38
  I would say especially for LinkedIn, anything educational informative, they've even said,
• 29:45
  you know, in the last couple of weeks, they are pushing first and foremost educational
• 29:48
  content.
• 29:49
  So something like a Ted Talk or anything that really provides you that value is perfect
• 29:54
  for especially something like LinkedIn.
• 29:58
  And I do think, you know, that's content that a lot of people want on social media and are
• 30:03
  willing to follow pages and brands and companies if they're going to get that content in return.
• 30:10
  So yes, I think it's definitely effective for reaching people, building relationships,
• 30:17
  you know, proving your trustworthy or your expertise.
• 30:23
  All of those things, I think, are connected to that type of content.
• 30:27
  Yeah, no, I find it really, really useful.
• 30:32
  Let's see, oh, you know what I want to talk about that we haven't talked about yet today,
• 30:35
  and I really think we should talk about it, is your work with the nonprofit, with your
• 30:39
  volunteer work.
• 30:41
  So when I looked at your posts that you made that for your company versus the posts that
• 30:48
  you were doing for the nonprofit, the tone obviously is very different, right?
• 30:54
  And I noticed for the nonprofit, you know, there was, it was a little longer form, you
• 30:58
  know, some of the, some of the posts for the company were just, you know, two lines with
• 31:01
  a link and a quick, you know, you know, one minute video or something, and that was it.
• 31:08
  Is it that you're, that you really need to make sure you get as much information into
• 31:12
  that blurb for the rescue as quickly as possible?
• 31:17
  And what are you finding is getting more attention from visitors?
• 31:21
  So I love that you asked that question because this is actually something we're experimenting
• 31:25
  with on the ARC front animal rescue connection ARC.
• 31:29
  And yes, we do try to pack a lot of information into those posts.
• 31:37
  One of the reasons for that, I think, is very related to that storytelling aspect.
• 31:43
  Each post usually is highlighting one dog that we want to get rescued.
• 31:48
  So in that way, each post kind of acts as its own story.
• 31:53
  And I have found as a social media user that I want all the information I can get in a
• 32:02
  post.
• 32:03
  I don't want to have to click away to get more information necessarily.
• 32:07
  You know, people use that as like the call to action, right?
• 32:09
  Like get more insights and click this or sign up for our webinar.
• 32:13
  That makes sense.
• 32:14
  But if, for example, I'm looking to adopt a dog, I think it's very convenient to have
• 32:20
  all of that information right there in that post.
• 32:22
  I have the dog's story.
• 32:24
  I have the type of home that they're looking for it.
• 32:27
  I don't have to click away because I'm less likely to do that.
• 32:31
  That's kind of the method to the madness of doing that.
• 32:36
  We want to experiment with doing shorter posts or post captions for almost the same reason
• 32:43
  but the opposite way that people have such short attention spans.
• 32:47
  They're not going to read through that whole thing.
• 32:49
  So is it more effective to just include some of the basics and keep it short and sweet
• 32:55
  and then they click away to get all that extra information?
• 33:00
  In my experience also, sometimes it's beneficial to include more content in the caption because
• 33:08
  now the user is spending more time on your post and that counts towards engagement.
• 33:14
  That's something that algorithms are looking for and measuring how long is this person
• 33:19
  spending on your post.
• 33:20
  So if I have a longer post, I'm going to get a little bit extra engagement but then on
• 33:26
  the flip side, how do I know people are actually sitting there and reading the whole thing?
• 33:31
  So that's definitely something that is kind of a, we've got to experiment a little bit
• 33:36
  more to have a definitive answer.
• 33:41
  On the professional, my professional work side, they are definitely very different tones,
• 33:48
  different formats but I would say on the work side in terms of storytelling, I'm putting
• 33:55
  out all of these posts to tell a broader brand story or product solution story or customer
• 34:03
  journey story.
• 34:05
  So everything I'm putting out is kind of telling that story whereas I feel like the content
• 34:12
  on the rescue page is a little bit more individualized and it's telling that dog story and not necessarily
• 34:22
  connecting to a lot of our other content.
• 34:25
  So I want that same feel and that arc brand feel but it seems more individualized per
• 34:33
  post in that way to me and that just kind of makes sense to format things that way.
• 34:41
  But yeah, I think it's always worth experimenting with to see if your audience responds to something
• 34:48
  or another and it also always depends on the content that you're putting out and what you
• 34:53
  want to actually convey.
• 34:55
  So lots of variables but yeah, interesting to experiment those lengths of posts.
• 35:02
  I have found that a lot of nonprofits rely heavily, I mean a lot of companies rely heavily
• 35:07
  on their social media but a lot of nonprofits rely heavily on social media as they're advertising.
• 35:15
  So I think when you're thinking about the feel of the story that you're trying to tell
• 35:21
  especially for the nonprofit for this animal rescue, you're trying to have that person
• 35:25
  that's looking at that dog make that connection.
• 35:28
  It's just a different connection from the tech side of the house and the corporate side
• 35:34
  of the house but it's really about making the connection through storytelling.
• 35:40
  Well that's all the time we have for today.
• 35:44
  Thank you so much Delaney for being our guest.
• 35:46
  I really I love talking about the memes, I love talking shop about the channels and just
• 35:53
  even hearing about the volunteering and telling those social media stories to get the dogs
• 35:59
  adopted.
• 36:00
  Yes, thank you for having me.
• 36:01
  I'm happy to chat.
• 36:03
  I always make the joke I could talk about social media for days.
• 36:06
  So love to talk to anyone about it and get your perspectives as well.
• 36:11
  That was really great to hear you.
• 36:14
  And to our listeners, whether you hear us locally from the BTV studios in Bedford, Massachusetts
• 36:19
  or across the globe on such podcast channels as Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Amazon Prime,
• 36:25
  thanks for listening.
• 36:26
  We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time.
• 36:30
  Happy storytelling.
• 36:31
  Goodbye.