While this may surprise people I've met this year, I have only been focused on social media and content marketing for 6 months. Last April I was in the midst of a demand generation focused role. I had never been to Sapphire. I had signed up for Twitter but hadn’t yet used it. While I was writing my first blog entry, it hadn’t posted yet. In short, I was where many of you reading this may be right now.
Sometimes we choose to pivot our career in a major way, but equally often we are thrown into a new situation by a change in circumstance not of our own making. For me it was the later. Team priorities had changed while I was away for a few weeks last summer. When I returned I was put into a new role, leading the team's social practice – a topic I knew very little about. I was given 1 month to come up with a strategy and slightly longer to allocate my budget (I had never had direct budgetary control before either).
Here is what happened next:
First – I panicked. Who wouldn’t really?
Second – I called my friend, Danny Nail. He said just what I needed to hear at that time. “Mandy, you’ve done really well in your old role so why wouldn’t you do equally well in this one. You’ll be fine. Calm down.”
Third – I began consuming everything I could on the topic. I ordered books. I went to conferences. I read blog after blog. I identified experts and discovered how to follow their advice on Twitter.
Miraculously, when your career takes an immersive pivot you can quickly go from ‘newbie’ to ‘guru’…
To celebrate 6-months actively in the role I’ve downloaded my Twitter archive. While, by design, many of my Twitter posts were transitory in nature, I’ve pulled out the posts that I think are still helpful to anyone wanting to learn more about social media or content marketing. Hopefully the information I shared, that was helpful to me along the way, will be helpful to you too.
On Listening and Engaging:
- .@marshallk: Start by listening strategically. Curate content. Work out loud. Then we can earn the most effective relationships #INBOUND14
- Social “Cocktail party rule” Don’t rant. Don’t monologue! Popularity gained with conversations & engagement #INBOUND14 pic.twitter.com/cOCKAZhTql
- RT: 10 Tools for Understanding and Dissecting an Industry buff.ly/1zZ8hm4 pic.twitter.com/DFxXJPP68x
On Creating and Curating Content:
- Each blog post you publish provides another opportunity to be found online via @ChrisLoDolce #inbound14 #ITD14
- Content isn't just a crapshoot. We do know how this works and it's always been about the story" Kevin Spacey #CMWorld pic.twitter.com/WWFJN7PU3X
- Via @sspencer Use Google Trends & Google Keyword Planner when planning content #CMWorld
- RT: “It’s not a social media strategy if it isn’t driven by SEO needs” #CMWorld
- RT: Getting visibility on Slideshare - On Homepage, a great title and front cover is more likely to get your featured. @ToddWheatland #smss14
- Focus on 1 group per blog @JoePulizzi #smss14 pic.twitter.com/1A7HwIABns
- Love idea of modularizing video shoots from @CalebWojcik #SMSS14 Script 10 min video then decompose into 1min social videos
- Visual hierarchy by @SociallySorted #SMSS14 L1: Quotes, Tips, Photos L2: How-tos, Checklists L3: Infographics, video pic.twitter.com/X8Fw60hCeG
- via @Mike_Stelzner You can embed social share buttons into PDFs – who knew slidesha.re/1saCkZ8 #SMSS14
- 36 Free Tools for Creating Unique Images bit.ly/1pt1uNu via @SproutSocial pic.twitter.com/50vpSnFELY
- Posts with #video are 28% more likely to be retweeted - @twitter stat pic.twitter.com/9BH5s6X9dg
- Scale your #contentmarketing efforts by reusing content, asking for user & agency help and curating: bit.ly/1736N3w
- Read your @feedly articles off-line by creating a temporary ebook. Here's how: newstoebook.com/feedly #Travel #contentmarketing
- Read @neilpatel 's blogging selfie: What I Learned About #ContentMarketing Analyzing 614 Posts bit.ly/1AJtemz
- How to launch a product via #socialmedia via @HarvardBiz the buff.ly/1FYvbA2
- 5 Social Media Image Size Hacks for Quick Visual Content [NEW POST] bit.ly/1ExPDsI pic.twitter.com/BYunp8OmPi
- "Checklist for Stellar Presentations" by @GuyKawasaki on @LinkedIn buff.ly/1z2G139
On Social Posting:
- RT: How #Facebook Calculates What Appears In Your News Feed + 12 Tips To Increase Reach bit.ly/1ron8HS
- Rather than tweet the exact same msg multiple times, modify the msg wording #tweetsmarter @ #INBOUND14
- RT: If someone tweets dissatisfaction at you and you respond, they are 2X more likely to return. #TweetSmarter #INBOUND14
- Using Hashtags for Business: What Hashtags Should I Use? impactiv8.com.au/using-hashtags… via @Impactiv8
- SEO for Hashtags! (use RiteTag) #SMSS14 pic.twitter.com/bOQoHPWqYy
- Twitter best practice: set up lists of 15-20 people you want to follow daily via @bryankramer #SMSS14 - reply within hour of post
- How often do you fuel your #socialmedia car? Infographic: How Often Should You Post? via @sejournal: bit.ly/1EIZNm2
- #Video subscribe tip + 16 other Quick Wins to Boost Your #SocialMedia Marketing Right Away buff.ly/1DXyqdw
- Should you ever delete a tweet? @SproutSocial 's perspective: bit.ly/18ANEr0 #socialmedia pic.twitter.com/x4vp4JmHDq
On Social Selling:
- RT: List skills on your LinkedIn profile to increase views by 13X ow.ly/D8yJy #personalbranding pic.twitter.com/jzZ1rLhVwb
- How to Use Storytelling to Sweep Prospects Off Their Feet sales.linkedin.com/blog/how-to-us… via @linkedinselling
- RT: "5 Ways My Social Selling Process Has Changed Over Time" Via @JackKosakowski1 linkd.in/1bNuNua #socialselling pic.twitter.com/yESZ7gFT1S
- RT: 4 Tools Sales Reps Should Steal from Marketing The Digital Bridge buff.ly/1FDmloI
- RT: 8 Twitter Tools to Improve Your Sales buff.ly/1GCCfDV via @SMExaminer #socialmedia pic.twitter.com/6uk2xKO23O
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