Summer, summer, summertime
Just Another Day in Social Media. 😉
Meta's Mark Zuckerberg tried to celebrate McDonald's joining Workplace with a special post on his Facebook Page, but not everyone was lovin' it. The post features Zuckerberg licking his lips and working on his laptop surrounded by chicken nuggets and milkshakes. But several media outlets, including 9 to 5 Mac, noticed that his laptop appeared to have the Apple logo airbrushed out. I guess Apple and Facebook don't like each other very much. And the picture overall just seemed to hit differently. Either way, the post kept his social media manager busy for the day.
Here are today's top stories:
How you (might) want to spend your summer
Instagram comes fashionably late to the Pin party
And yes, finally, someone says what every marketing team needs to hear 👏
Read on ⬇️
What I did this summer
Are two years of very little travel, you're probably pretty focused on putting that vacation itinerary together. So this may not rank very high this year. But if the office is quiet this summer, it can be a great time for general clean-up and to test out some of those ideas that your manager might not be totally convinced about just yet. Here are some areas to focus on (in case you haven't considered these already)...
Don't take a pass on passwords
I can't tell you the number of times that people have asked for my help in recovering accounts. The biggest issues:
Not knowing who set up which accounts
Lack of a centralized place for all passwords
Linking the logins to a personal email account (this is a major issue when people leave and access to that email address is also lost)
Do yourself a favour and organize this asap. Start by doing an audit of all social media and digital media accounts. Then, collect all the login info by contacting every person who might have access/knowledge of those accounts. Create a centralized place where that information exists, and make sure you're not the only person who knows about it!
Then, change any personal email links to a centralized email system accessed by multiple people (for example, an "info" type email account). If that type of account doesn't yet exist, create one. And finally, if it hasn't been done in a while, update all passwords on the accounts.
Host a brainstorming sesh
Why shoulder the burden of coming up with ideas for social media by yourself when you likely have a group of colleagues who would love to help! Host a brainstorming session, either as part of your weekly editorial meeting, or as a side meeting (doing this over lunch is always fun).
Ideas for structuring your brainstorming session:
Outline what you hope to achieve (do you just want video ideas? Platform-specific ideas? Or general ideas?)
Provide real-life examples of the types of content that you'd ideally love to create (don't worry about resources because the group might be able to come up with affordable/easier options)
Have everyone start to brainstorm ideas on sticky notes for a set period of time, and then post them on a wall under set categories
Come back together and discuss as a group; flesh out a few into full-fledged ideas
Remember: There are no bad ideas in brainstorming.
Dip a toe in
Already have ideas for campaigns you'd like to try? Or maybe there is a new platform you want to test out? Summer can be a great time to do it. Here are a few guides to help you get started:
Everything You Need to Know to Create Great Instagram Reels
How to Create a Successful TikTok Marketing Strategy for 2022
Making it Easier for You To Manage Your Accounts, Pages and People (*New: LinkedIn Business Manager)
SOCIAL SNACKS
Instagram: Pin It Up!
Instagram is fashionably late when it comes to offering users the ability to "Pin" posts. But here we are! The company recently announced that we can now pin up to three posts or Reels to the Grid. The pinned posts will remain at the top of the grid as if they were just posted (similar to how the feature works on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn... just about everywhere else). To pin content on Instagram, select a post or Reel and then click the three dots in the top right-hand corner. Then hit "Pin to Profile." The update was announced as part of a series of new features for Creators, and outlined by Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri in a recent tweet. The other new features include extending Reels videos to 90 second, the ability to import your own audio for a Reel, and interactive stickers for Reels (quiz, polls, etc.). Instagram is pushing Reels pretty hard, no?
Managing social media is hard enough — staying up-to-date shouldn't be. Level up your social media knowledge in minutes a week. Sign up for our newsletter today!
ICYMI
🔴 TikTok launches avatars [TikTok Blog]
🔴 Meta will stop making Portal for consumers [The Verge]
🔴 Twitter introduces Product Drops [Twitter Blog]
🔴 YouTube announces June's creators on the rise [YouTube Blog]
HOW TO...
Turn Instagram Captions On and Off: In early March, Instagram introduced auto-generated captions. This is not only a good idea from an accessibility point of view, but also for anyone watching the video who might prefer to check it out sans audio. But if you haven't already turned this feature on, you'll probably have to enable it. Here's what you need to know:
How to turn captions on and off on Instagram — The Verge
SOCIAL PROPS
Yes! Yes! Yes!
This week, I want to thank Beverly Jackson, the VP of Global Brand/Marketing at Twitter, for explaining why it's so important to have social media professionals at the table when launching a campaign. "Listen to the social media managers." 🙌 Watch the Video via @AdWeek on TikTok.
Hey, congrats — you made it to the bottom of the e-newsletter!
If you really liked it, why not forward it to a friend. 💌