Socially Savvy and Contented: Five Elements to Love About Social Media

My career path has taken many different directions over the years, but I’ve finally settled into a role that combines all my interests and passions.

I began quite career-confused (as most people do!), having a variety of interests across multiple areas. I did a bit of PR work, where I was lucky enough to be launched straight into the more glamorous side of things, organising the Louis Vuitton Island Maison launch. From this I developed an interest for writing, and moved towards journalism.

These roles were great opportunities with promising pathways, but beneath, I have always had a huge interest for the marketing world. Branding was one of the subjects that clicked for me at Uni and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. After coming to this realisation, I joined the Bellman team, hoping to get into branding strategy. Eventually (and thankfully) this decision led to a social media management role. And here is why that is the perfect fit for me.

One: Branding Element
Before launching a social media account for a business, there is a developmental phase where you develop a full social media strategy, like any other business or marketing strategy. Unfortunately, more often than not, this isn’t prioritised, resulting in the lack of flow between the brand and its social accounts.

Nailing the strategy that you and the client agree on will help create a cohesive social media page with standardised messages. There needs to be synergy in voice, colours, types of images and messages across all business platforms (e.g. websites, advertising messages and social media). In many, I found this was a lot like creating a branding strategy.

Two: Creative Element
In social media, content is key. Although this has changed now, companies have upped the ante and are nailing content (resulting in an increasing push to find other ways to stand out), content still has to be amazing. Images have to be of the highest quality to engage with consumers. Not wanting to rely on stock images, I introduced styling and photography to the social offering, and in an effort to take on many different ‘ voices’ for a wide array of clients, I did huge amounts of industry research.

Three: Copywriting element
With every beautiful image, there’s copy that goes along with it. Sometimes that might be a one-word caption and other times, it’s a few sentences to educate the customer, without forgetting crucial hashtags.

Four: PR Element
Then there is that little extra you add to enhance the account and promote engagement: campaigns and giveaways. Influencers and brand collaboration is another great way to foster word-of-mouth. And most of the time, it becomes another source of content for the company. (How many times do we see #regram #repost?)

Most importantly, social media is like a two-way television set where you actually get to talk to your everyday customer and they get the opportunity to respond. That interaction is invaluable to brands – you get the opportunity to interact with consumers, find out who they are, what their interests are, and what they want from your brand. That two-way interaction is what sets social media apart from traditional media, making the community management/customer service aspect the glue that holds everything together.

And remember – while your personal social media account is a fun way to keep up with friends and trends, from a business perspective, it’s a lot more than what it seems – it’s advertising, it’s PR, it’s market research, and it’s marketing all in one.

For me, it’s the creativity and constant change in behaviour and pattern, the opportunity to think outside the box to be heard/seen that keeps me on my feet and challenges me everyday. It’s the collision of everything I enjoy doing that’s got me completely addicted. And there, I’ve admitted it.