Introduce Yourself: Robert Carnes, marketing manager for GreenMellen in Atlanta, GA.

 Favorite Platform: It’s been LinkedIn, but I’m most excited about BlueSky.

 Campaign Highlight: We recently helped a nonprofit client raise $84,000 on Giving Tuesday using social & email.

 Expert Advice: Use humor when possible. Too many brands play it safe with their voice. Funny stands out.

 Future Trends: More fragmented social platforms. The rise of the Fediverse means less data-collecting walled gardens and more open-source and user-friendly accounts.

🧠 Learning Objectives: I’d love to learn what’s working for others and what data to track to be successful.

Welcome everyone! I’m not a new member but I do love using the Arb and connecting with other social media pros!

Feel free to shoot me a message and connect, otherwise I’ll see you at a Coffee Talk sometime 

 Introduce Yourself: Ruth, Social Media Manager – My journey into social media began with MySpace, sparking a passion that shaped my career. Since 2008, I’ve been specializing in Marketing with a strong focus on social media.

 Favorite Platform: I find TikTok most captivating bc I can find news, entertainment, and comedy all together depending on my mood.

 Campaign Highlight: I like my compnaies Daily December campaing bc it highlights our employees. It is UGC from employees and it helps me get to know them. You can see it here: https://www.instagram.com/trelleborglife/. Another one is “Meet Us” which highlights our employees and focuses on employer branding: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trelleborggroup

💡 Expert Advice: Having spent my career in the B2B space, I’ve focused on developing integrated campaigns that seamlessly connect production, sales, communications, and social media. By leveraging assets to create engaging, bite-sized content, these campaigns can be strategically deployed over time to drive measurable results.

🧠 Learning Objectives: I want to leverage the platform to drive more targeted traffic to our website. Additionally, I aim to train my social media managers to work more efficiently and effectively in achieving their social goals.

 Introduce Yourself: Selena, Marketing Manager at Poquet Auto Sales - my journey into social media began in my last year of college when I took a course in Social Media Analytics where I “ran” an online clothing business!

 Favorite Platform: TikTok is my favorite (I consume HOURS of it on a daily basis) - I feel like the algorithm shifts quickly. Maybe it’s because I’m always on TikTok, but I have started to get more videos that I wouldn’t have searched for myself yet actually ended up finding entertaining!

 Campaign Highlight: I worked on social media branding for a new apartment community from ground zero and gained 50 followers organically (across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok) in just two days - no bots either!

 Expert Advice: Take a look into what your industry competitors aren’t doing on social media and do it + you don’t need to go viral! Not every company needs to/should participate in a trend!

 Future Trends: Everyone talks about AI, but I’d like to see how it continues to shift the social media landscape - how much will it continue to affect creativity?

🧠 Learning Objectives: I’d love to connect with like-minded individuals who are also passionate about social media (on a smaller scale for small businesses) and what social media tips work for them!

 Introduce Yourself: Corrin Leverton, Communications Specialist at U-M! Social Media is just one of many parts of my job, but I enjoy the creativity and fun that can be captured in joining in on social media trends.

 Favorite Platform: Definitely a fan of instagram - I use the messaging feature a lot personally to create very well-curated content feeds for my friends and family

 Campaign Highlight: What’s most fresh in my mind is our version of Spotify Wrapped - lots of engagement and fun to be had with data!

 Expert Advice: Far from an expert - but I often think it’s good to be transparent and authentic with your audience

 Future Trends: There’s always going to be better ways to transfer content into clicks - whether it’s link in bio, message for the link, or more! I don’t have a solution, but I’m looking forward to new things to try!
For something more spicy: I also think/hope that cheap-looking design (such as obvious Canva templates poorly executed) will lose appeal value - it will become the next clipart/wordart/comic sans of design, and we’ll move back to artistic graphics

🧠 Learning Objectives: I look forward to finding new ways to grow engagement - my posts get plenty of likes, but I would like to see more clicks and more comments!

 Introduce Yourself: Hi, I’m Lia Haberman. I’ve worked in social and influencer marketing for years and now consult for brands and write a newsletter about social called ICYMI

 Favorite Platform: This year it’s def been LinkedIn but I also love IG Stories

 Campaign Highlight: I’m a big fan of how Instagram has used musical artists and creators as part of their product marketing strategy this year. Instead of announcing stuff themselves, they’re passing the mic and letting creators make the announcement and show the new features in action.

 Expert Advice: In this day and age, always make it shareable. And a big part of that is making your audience look good to their friends and followers. Help people entertain, amuse or inform the people in their social circles. 

 Future Trends: Chaotic abundance or #cluttercore in real life and digital content

🧠 Learning Objectives: I’ve seen so many people I follow and admire talking about the Arboretum so I wanted to check it out