Kelly Ann Collins, CEO of Vult Lab and a former journalist, helps us make sense of the social media marketing basics.
What is social media marketing? Kelly Ann Collins, a marketing expert with a passion for social media and a former journalist, talks about the fundamentals and how to use social media channels effectively to bring your best ideas to the world.
Elyse:
Welcome to Digital What?, a podcast series where we join UNDP personnel and experts in conversation about the digital communications questions you’ve always wanted to know, but were afraid to ask.
In our last episode, we discussed the pillars of digital communications and the trends to look out for. Today we speak with social media expert, Kelly Ann Collins about social media marketing.
Kelly:
I think it's always been inside me to communicate with the world. So even when I was seven years old, I started a little mini newsletter.
Elyse:
Naturally, Kelly became a journalist. She’s considered to be a blogging pioneer, or one of the first people to put her life online in the form of blog. Today, she is the founder and CEO of Vult Lab, a company that works with innovators, social change agents, and tech companies to bring their best ideas to the world. She helps them do that, of course, through social media.
Kelly:
Social media is just online communication channels. So in these channels make it very easy for anyone, anywhere to share content, to interact and to collaborate. Really, it's technology that we're using. In the past, when I was a journalist, the only way to get information out was to publish a newspaper or, you know, put an ad on television. Now it's great because anyone can do it.
It has really evolved into something that is necessary. So for, you know, for brands and organizations. It's become the way that we do business and it's become the way that we network with each other.
Elyse:
There are various social media channels you can use to share your message, whatever form it takes.
Kelly:
So now we have blogs that would be publishing through your Website, through WordPress or using a platform like Blogger. It could also be something like a vlog, you know making videos and posting those to YouTube. Social media is also instant messaging, so that could be anything from Facebook Messenger to WhatsApp. It's also forums like Reddit and then all of the microblogging platforms which, you know, I view Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat as mini blogs. So those are the microblogging platforms.
Elyse:
Social media channels change the conversation. Instead of talking to your audience, you can have a conversation with them. Non-profits use these channels to promote their causes, keep their community abreast of their activities, to connect to donors, and cultivate fundraising relationships.
Kelly:
Well, in the past, organizations had to use mail or e-mail, television or radio to get their message out to people. And that form of communication was very one-sided. They were just putting it out there and, you know, hoping people would respond, you know, donate, join their cause. But now works can actually have one on one relationships with people. They can put information out on social media and hear back from their followers within seconds. You really do learn a lot about what people were thinking about your project. You can also, you know, just get valuable advice within minutes.
Elyse:
Social media channels can have overlapping and distinct purposes.
Kelly:
Facebook is great for storytelling, sharing images, sharing video. Twitter is really great for organizing things like Twitter chats and getting thought leaders together. It's also great for sharing news and driving people to your blog. As far as LinkedIn goes, that's a great place to create groups and to share news about the organization. Instagram is better for storytelling and, you know, showing photos from the field. YouTube is great for storytelling and putting videos out there.
Elyse:
The most relevant channels for our work at UNDP include: social networks, media sharing networks, discussion forums, and blogging and publishing networks.
Kelly:
Facebook and Twitter continue to be top platforms for organizations, also LinkedIn and Instagram. It really depends on who you are trying to target. If you are trying to target people around the world, those would be the platforms. You can create advocates for causes, build communities and groups on LinkedIn and Facebook, and they are all good for knowledge sharing and opening the doors to partnerships.
Elyse:
And when it comes to sharing your content online, consistency is key.
Kelly:
It is putting information out on a regular basis. You know, people want to hear from you. So after you start telling your story, people will be curious and they want to continue hearing your stories. Post several times a week, if not daily, you know, make sure you're sharing different types of information. You definitely just don't want to put photos out all day or videos out all day. You really want to mix up the content to keep people coming back.
Elyse:
These days pretty much everyone is on social media. So how do you make your content stand out? Kelly suggests keeping social media algorithms in mind.
Kelly:
So each platform has something called an algorithm. What you want to do is you want to make sure that you are not putting things out there the algorithm does not like, because if it likes what you're putting out, then the platform is going to give you more reach. The Facebook algorithm loves live streaming and it loves video. LinkedIn loves video. Most of them actually love video and live streaming.
Elyse:
Hmm, interesting. This algorithm is something that's really good to be aware of...the wizard behind it all.
Kelly:
Right. And every channel also, you know, you've heard of maybe maybe you've heard of search engine optimization for Google, but every platform has a search engine built in. So everything has to be optimized. So people are finding you when they're searching for different topics.
Elyse:
One way to optimize for the search engine is by using hashtags.
Kelly:
So you want to make sure you have keywords in your bio. And then when you're posting, you want to make sure you're using relevant hashtags. So the way you do it is you think, OK, who are the people I want to reach and what are those people searching for on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn? And then you come up with posts and you use hashtags that they're using and then that helps you reach them.
Elyse:
There are also some things to avoid, such as…
Kelly:
Don’t put too much text on photos or put anything out there that looks like an ad because the algorithm is going to pull back your reach.
Elyse:
At least that holds true for the current algorithm. Social media companies such as Facebook tweak their algorithms all the time. There is so much to keep up with, right? Although marketing yourself on social media can be daunting, it is worth the effort.
Kelly:
Two major advantages of using social media is building a community around your cause and creating advocates who, when you put out information, they're going to help you amplify that information. So definitely community building is a huge advantage of social media and in the knowledge sharing. And another thing is, social media gives you almost instant analytics. So you're putting information out there and you can already see, you know, are people happy with this or are they not happy with it? So, you know, you can also get great information by using social media versus a traditional route and then you have a media analytics that you can share with stakeholders.
Kelly:
I believe more information we have about what's happening in the world, the better. I think we can build groups in both communities around causes, get information out there. And we can really rally people around causes. And so I truly believe since this is the way people communicate now that, you know, digital and social media are really how we will save the world.
Elyse:
In our next episode, we will continue to focus on social media by discussing the latest social media trends and how they impact us.
This episode of Digital What!? is produced by Oscar Durand and myself. Our theme music is by Lemon Guo, and additional music is by Chris Zabriskie, and sound design by myself. Special thanks to our social media expert, Kelly Ann Collins, founder and CEO of Vult Lab, for taking the time to speak with us. To listen and subscribe go to wherever you find your podcasts or DigitalNow DOT UNDP DOT org.
I’m Elyse Blennerhassett. Stay with us.