If you haven’t already, make sure to register below to ensure you get your personalized event link:

https://sproutsocial.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6PJzSZAQSzqRqNRTn0H-GA#/registration 

• Goal for 2024: The hope is to start to prove meaningful ROI to ‘squishy’ goals. 
  • ie: squishy or soft content usually isn’t well engaged, but could be meaningful to the first circle. 

Our goal for 2024: to increase following and engagement with our social posts. 

Be sure to post your answer here for a chance to win the giveaway! 

Be sure to post your answer here for a chance to win the giveaway: 

Hi All!  New here. Is there a replay link? Thanks!

Yes! Coming shortly, @smith43.  

Thank you everyone who join us yesterday and a big thank-you to @Jenny Fowler! You can catch the recording above in the original post. 

I know some folks have outstanding questions from the event, so I’ve added them below:

• @CLOPEZ9: is linkedin the best platform for brands to “show don’t tell”?
• @sakeena.dole: I work for a Geotechnical Software Developer, my audience is super niche. The people we speak to usually are older folks and engagement can really vary. Any ideas how to be more consistent? Content like videos may work generally but for these more mature audience they do not like it.
• @DigitalComms: If making the world a better place - isn't a nicely engaged metric - how do you prove that it's meaningful ROI?
• @ben.marcus: I have a strong photo video background. Our photo team and videography are historically from the catalog and Website style. I am asked to stay in my lane, but the team is so slow to turn out new content that is engaging that I wind up making work on my own. It cuts into my time, but it will avg 5-8x the performance. How can I get the two to meet in the middle?
• @julia.roberts: How can you A/B test? How do you report on it? Do you do a post about the same topic one monthh and then test it out again in a different another month?
• @rachael.hofmann: Any advice for helping to ensure you're getting *real* engagement with your actual target audience? I've had a ton of bots and spammers recently, as well as real people entirely unrelated to us seeing our posts. (They engage positively--which is nice--but it means our messaging isn't always reaching the people we want it to reach).
• @alexia.paglia: What is the best way to organically increase social media engagement with the constant algorithm changes?
• @shelby.brown: For a channel that is trying to diversify their posts and brand identity do you recommend a slow adoption of the new kinds of posts or fully commit? Soft or hard launch?
• @zahria.hart: what do you do if you believe that sometimes you should try something. See what happens. Am I right? Because I get a lot of push back. Despite me being the only one in social media. 
• @stevie.ra: Love the SM reports idea - I frequently do this at my company, but I find that leadership does not understand the value of social media--they see it as a machine that, if no sales are generating from it, is broken. Do you have any advice on how I can share common language with leadership that influences them to see SM success as something other than conversions?
• @keesa.mckoy: How do you think about cadence in this climate. How much content are you making? Are you feeling like you can keep up?
• @hunzah.hayat: As avid online enthusiasts, along with your book, could you suggest other valuable resources or recommend noteworthy content creators in the realm of organic marketing that we should follow
• @keesa.mckoy: How do you think about how often you post on them, and how might you approach that beyond your goal of the type of content based on your goals.       
• @brandon.starkovich: Can you expand upon the idea of social media strategy being like a tree instead of linear? I am having difficulty with creating strategy that accomplishes the goals of the organization.
• @esilkowski: what are your ideas and thoughts for best practices across social platforms? what would you recommend for growth?
• @addisoncausley: Hi Jenny! I work for a non profit and we are striving to get our members involved for our 150th anniversary. What social media strategies would you recommend to increase our following and keep members captivated? Sometimes it is hard to stay professional on social media, but keep every one of ALL age groups involved!
• @Claudia Utley: Any suggestions for getting out of a rut? My organic posts did well for a long time, but now I am observing less engagement and less reach. I do focus on authenticity and originality of my posts, so it's not as if I am using evergreen stuff. Is the "algorithm" to blame or do you have some advice? Thanks.
• @sky.ely: What do you recommend for best practices for professional development and building new skills. I am the only marketer in my department and there are a lot of skills that would benefit me for my career, but I'm having  a hard time making the time. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
• @allie.chilcoat: When it comes to measuring success for Reels, do you primarily look like video view rate or engagement rate?

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Incase you wanted to also watch the last event, check out the recording here: 

@CLOPEZ9: is linkedin the best platform for brands to “show don’t tell”?

I think this practice is actually good for all the platforms, but you do get more characters to work with in LinkedIn.

@sakeena.dole: I work for a Geotechnical Software Developer, my audience is super niche. The people we speak to usually are older folks and engagement can really vary. Any ideas how to be more consistent? Content like videos may work generally but for these more mature audience they do not like it.

I think for your audience it would be helpful to learn their habits, when are they checking social media? Senior folks tend to have pretty repetitive daily regimens and my instinct is to think they probably check their social channels the same time everyday. Experiment posting at different times and see what works best.

• @DigitalComms: If making the world a better place - isn't a nicely engaged metric - how do you prove that it's meaningful ROI?

I think I’m understanding your question, remember messaging always takes repetition and you can keep track of the total number of pieces of content you published on social media in support of that goal and you can add the metrics to those posts. For instance, we posted 25 pieces of content in support of the “Making a world a better place” messaging last month and those posts received a total of xx likes, xx shares, and xx link clicks to our website.

• @ben.marcus: I have a strong photo video background. Our photo team and videography are historically from the catalog and Website style. I am asked to stay in my lane, but the team is so slow to turn out new content that is engaging that I wind up making work on my own. It cuts into my time, but it will avg 5-8x the performance. How can I get the two to meet in the middle?

I would suggest giving them photo credit in the social posts like this if they make deadline and you use their work. People tend to get motivated when they can see their name posted.

• @julia.roberts: How can you A/B test? How do you report on it? Do you do a post about the same topic one monthh and then test it out again in a different another month?

Exactly! But with different text or image or whatever you’re A/B testing. I don’t report on it but I use what I learn to inform future content.

• @rachael.hofmann: Any advice for helping to ensure you're getting *real* engagement with your actual target audience? I've had a ton of bots and spammers recently, as well as real people entirely unrelated to us seeing our posts. (They engage positively--which is nice--but it means our messaging isn't always reaching the people we want it to reach).

This takes time, but when I’m curious about this I actually look at the likes and click to the profiles to see who’s liking our content.

• @alexia.paglia: What is the best way to organically increase social media engagement with the constant algorithm changes?

For organic, don’t be reactive to the algorithm! Stay the course and let the algorithm do what it’s supposed to do, get to know you and your preferences. When an algorithm changes I keep doing the same thing and 9 times out of ten my numbers will bounce back to where they were if not close to where they were. I’ll only make adjustments if things have not returned in like a year.