This document provides tips for building a social media strategy beyond just Facebook for 2018. It summarizes various platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, podcasting and email and how to create effective content and campaigns on each. Specific tips covered include using Instagram stories and hashtags, creating native content for different platforms, using influencer marketing, building a LinkedIn presence, optimizing videos for YouTube, planning a podcast, developing skills for voice assistants, and writing effective emails. The document aims to help diversify strategies beyond overreliance on Facebook alone.

1. BEYOND FACEBOOK:
Building a social media
strategy for 2018
Chris Snider • Drake University • May 30, 2018

2. HELLo. I’m Chris snider.
• Assistant professor in Drake University’s School
of Journalism and Mass Communication
• Teach classes on multimedia, social media, digital media,
visual communication, storytelling and web design
• Also teach a variety of classes on those topics in our new
Online Master of Arts in Communication program
• Formerly of the Des Moines Register and Juice magazine

3. • I’m passionate about how businesses can use social
media
• Formerly in charge of social media accounts for Juice
Magazine and the Des Moines Register
• Continue to run social media accounts for freelance clients
and several related to Drake University
• Survey students each semester on social media habits

4. WHO Are you?
• Name
• Where you work / what you do
• A social media tip / tool / timesaver
• An ask - what can we do for you?

5. What I will cover today
• How to create great content for any social network
• How to create content that is native to Instagram
• How to use Stories on Instagram, Snapchat, Messenger and/or
Facebook
• How to plan and build a Messenger bot
• Alternatives to Facebook for reaching your customers
• How to extend your reach and get more interactions on Facebook
• What my students are doing on social media - VSCO and
Finstagram accounts

6. But first…
Let’s understand your audience
• Who are you trying to reach?
• What do you want them to do?
• What problems do they have you can solve?

7. Social media marketing
hasn’t changed much
for several years
2004 2006 2010 2011

8. Facebook is 98 in dog years
How long until they tell marketers, “Get off my lawn?”

9. Zuck admits Facebook is broken

11. Let’s be honest.
Our social media strategies
rely way too heavily on

12. And FB can turn it off at any time

13. alternatives to
FACEBOOK for your 2018
social media strategy

14. warning: the days of just
COPY/PASTING a link INTO
social media are over

15. Instagram stories
Instagram Stories went from
ZERO to eating Snapchat’s
lunch in less than one year.
(Now 191M)

16. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
says stories will overtake
News Feed on all apps
Instagram is the most popular place for Stories now,
but plan to use them on Facebook, Messenger, Snapchat and more.

17. About Instagram stories
• 300 million daily active users as of
Nov. 2017
• It’s much easier to build a following
on Instagram than Snapchat (and
likely you already have one)
• Adding hashtags and location
tags get you into bigger stories
and extend your reach

18. In the Drake SJMC, we’re seeing double the views on Insta Stories as on Snapchat.

19. Use location tags Create templates for your followers

20. Use built-in tools - slider, polls, GIFs, stickers, boomerangs

21. Show off your
best Stories
on your
profile page!
Stories can live
longer than 24 hours!

22. You can customize your Story highlights covers

23. Adobe Spark Post
Add animated effects
to your photos
Hype Type
Add text overlays to your
photos and videos
InShot
Convert horizontal videos
to vertical videos.
Tools for creating Stories

24. What to share in stories
• Behind-the-scenes content
• How-to tutorials
• Promotions of your blog posts
• Lists and countdowns. ——>
• Quotes and inspirations
• Stories takeovers

25. Worksheet on Instagram Stories:
Answer questions
Find a post and turn into a story

26. Instagram
• If your biz/organization is not yet using Instagram, sign up now
• If you have an Instagram and aren’t using it effectively, get going

27. Instagram
• Used by 35 percent of U.S. online adults
• Used by 71 percent of online U.S. 18- to 24-year-olds
• 800 million users / 25 million active business profiles
• Users younger than 25 spend 32 minutes a day on Instagram
• Users 25 and older spend 24 minutes a day
Sources: Pew Research/Instagram

28. Best
place to
reach
30-49s
Great
place to
reach
18-29

29. Exercise: Native content
• Content that looks and feels like any other content
that appears on a platform for which it was created.
• It is not cheesy, and it’s not obvious.
• It has “cool” factor.
• It hits your emotional center so hard you want to share it
with someone else.

30. When you’re scrolling through your feed,
you don’t think to yourself, “That’s an ad.”

32. What are examples of
native content on…
STEP ONE: DEFINE NATIVE CONTENT on platform
Use the worksheet

33. WHICH OF THE ITEMS ON YOUR
LIST FIT WITH YOUR BRAND?
STEP TWO: NARROW IT DOWN

34. WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES
OF THINGS YOU CAN POST?
STEP THREE: IDEAS

35. Instagram is where you show the best you

36. Two main categories:
Recreation and inspiration

37. Instagram best practices
• Instagram’s young audience likes current, creative, and useful
content
• Posting frequency is not as important as posting consistency
• There isn’t a universal best time to post on Instagram
• Using both hashtags and location tag drives the most
engagement
Source: Buffer

38. Instagram best practices
• Videos might overtake images as the most engaging type of
content
• User-generated content drives growth and conversions
• Caption length doesn’t affect engagement
Source: Buffer

39. Ways to use instagram - choose 2
• Showcase your products or services
• Build your community
• Increase awareness of your brand
• Showcase your company culture and values
• Advertise to potential customers
• Increase brand loyalty
• Share company news and updates

40. banned Insta hashtags
#adultlife
#beautyblogger
#beyonce
#dating
#dogsofinstagram
#fitnessgirls
#happythanksgiving
#ig
#iphonegraphy
#singlelife
#snowstorm
#valentinesday

41. Gary Vaynerchuk on Instagram Direct Message marketing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEuTM6dmL_E - Jan 2017

42. Worksheet: Instagram

44. Linkedin
• Stop. Underestimating. LinkedIn.
• 50 percent of Americans with a college degree use LinkedIn
• Popular among high-income households
• 546 million professionals on LinkedIn
• 4 of 5 members drive business decision
• No. 1 platform for lead generation

45. What to post to LinkedIn
• Company news, culture, industry trends, blog posts
• Anything you would post to FB page could go on LinkedIn
• Give your employees content to post

46. Linkedin best practices
• Use a logo and cover image. Companies with logo images
get six times more traffic to their pages.
• Be sure that your description leads with powerful, keyword-
rich copy for SEO results.
• Share engaging content at least once per day. “Share
company news, industry articles, or thought leadership pieces
—or ask followers to weigh in on hot topics”
• Be helpful and friendly, not salesy
Source: LinkedIn

47. Linkedin best practices
• Updates posted in the morning usually earn the highest
engagement, with a slight bump occurring again after
business hours.
• Think like a journalist: Don't bury the lede. Concise intros and
snappy headlines are more likely to result in higher
engagement. Ask thoughtful questions to involve your
audience. Always include a clear call to action, like a link.
• Images generally result in a 98% higher comment rate. Links to
YouTube videos play directly in the LinkedIn feed and usually
result in a 75% higher share rate.

48. Create Showcase Pages

49. Worksheet: LinkedIn

51. Influencer marketing
• We live in a world where one post by Rihana or Kylie Jenner can send
Snapchat stock tumbling
• Instagram influencer marketing is a $1 billion business
• “The best (value), beside Facebook ads, in the world are influencers on
Instagram.” - Gary Vaynerchuk
• Influencers are people first and content marketers second. This means the
algorithm doesn’t hurt them.

52. Influencer marketing
• Pay them money to be on your account
• Pay them money to borrow their reach and post on their own
accounts
• Better yet, build sincere personal relationships with influencers
and share useful, unique, exclusive or early information

53. Gary Vaynerchuk on how to use Instagram influencers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peC9z0tTRkM - April 2017

54. Influencer marketing
• Send them your product or offer them free opportunities
• Have them post sponsored posts
• Pay them (in money or products) for product reviews
• Send them products for a giveaway
• Create affiliate marketing programs

55. There are many tools to connect people with influencers

56. Top male influencers - via GroupHigh

57. Worksheet: Influencer Marketing

59. Facebook messenger
• 1.3 billion monthly users
• Customers prefer this to phone calls and text messaging
• Live chat has the highest satisfaction level of all customer
service channels
• You already have an account
• More people use messaging apps than social networks

60. Facebook messenger
Facebook IQ conducted a study on the use of mobile messaging with 12,500
people across the world and found several promising trends among the people
surveyed:
• Sixty-three percent said that their messaging with businesses has increased
over the past two years
• Fifty-six percent would rather message than call a business for customer
service
• Sixty-one percent likes personalized messages from businesses
• More than 50 percent are more likely to shop with a business they can
message

61. • Add a “Message Us” button on your website.
• Respond quickly to get a window to pop-up when
someone visits your page

62. Create posts with a
“Send Message” button
as the call to action.

63. How to use Messenger
• Deliver content: Hubspot got a 242
percent higher open rate and a 619
percent higher click rate in Messenger
than email
• Engage participants during events
• Let customers pull content by putting
in keywords and getting options or
information
• Provide speedy customer service

64. Worksheet: Facebook Messenger

65. Messenger bots

66. Messenger bots
• Services such as Manychat and Chatfuel simplify the process
of creating Messenger bots (even offering free options)
• Why use a chat bot: available 24/7, can handle thousands
of customers at once, saves money, automates repetitive work
• Once people subscribe, you can broadcast messages to
them via Messenger
• You get their full name, profile photo, time zone and gender
from Facebook

70. Get social media news via Messenger at my bot:
m.me/chrissniderdesign

71. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkHdMnD2518

72. Worksheet: Messenger Bots
Demo: Manychat

74. What if I told you there was a social network
that’s more popular than Facebook?
And you were ignoring it.

75. Youtube
• YouTube is used by more
Americans than any social
network
• 70 percent of teenage
YouTube subscribers trust
influencer opinions over
traditional celebrities
• YouTube is consistently at
the top of my survey of
incoming college students

76. YouTube is the second most popular website online.

77. Types of content native to Youtube
• Unboxing videos
• Timelapse videos
• Video game walkthroughs
• How to
• Tutorials
• Product reviews

78. Building a youtube
strategy…

79. No matter what content you’re
creating, there’s an audience
out there on Youtube
Here’s how to reach them…

80. Do your Keyword research
• Create a list of seed keywords
• For example, if you were a fitness site, you might use:
• Fat Loss
• Kettlebell Workout
• Paleo Diet
• Cardio Workout

81. Put those keywords into YouTube Suggest
Use TubeBuddy to research further

82. Post long … but make first
15 seconds count
• Optimize for watch
time - YouTube
makes money by
keeping people on
the site, so post
long videos
• Focus on your first
15 seconds

85. Use Pattern interrupts
Pattern Interrupts are elements in your video that are different than the rest
of your video (they literally "interrupt" the “pattern"). Pattern Interrupts can be:
• On-screen graphics
• Animations
• New background or setting
• B roll shots
• Different camera angles
• Sound effects

86. More tips
• Follow a script to create better content
• Use power words to increase clicks - Awesome, Wow,
Insane, Hack, Effective, Guide, Technique
• Write longer descriptions - YouTube recommends then, and
they help for SEO
• Use tags with videos - including the tags your competitors use
will help you show up next to their videos

87. Use thumbnails that stand out

88. https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/
Get more YouTube advice at:

90. Podcasting
• 44% of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast
• 80% of listeners listen to all or most of each podcast episode
• Three ways to approach podcasting…
• Create a podcast
• Be a guest on a podcast
• Advertise on a podcast

91. SXSW 2018 blog post by Mark Schaefer…

92. Anchor makes it easy to get started podcasting

93. Podcasting tips
• Ideal length: 22 minutes
• Ideal day to post: Tuesday
• Best frequency: Weekly

94. Planning and publishing
your podcast
Let’s plan your podcast (or your pretend podcast)

95. Format
• What’s your podcast going to look like?
• Podcasts can take many forms: one-man shows,
cohosts, guests, call-in, etc. Metafilter founder Matt
Haughey, who has put in hundreds of hours on
podcasting, recommends that your show involve
two or three hosts.

96. Content
• What’s your podcast going to say?

97. Where to host your podcast
• Libsyn - starts at $5/month
• Soundcloud - starts at Free
• Podbean - starts at $3/month
• Buzzsprout - starts at free

98. My fav podcasts
• Reply All
• The Science of Social Media
• The Digiday Podcast
• Planet Money
• Startup Podcast

100. Voice-FIRST
• 1 in 6 Americans own a smart speaker.
• There are skills to check your bank
balance, ask about wine pairings, get
drink recipes, guide you through a
workout, play Jeopardy and more.
• If you haven’t yet asked yourself, “What
is your company’s Alexa skill going to
be?” now is the time.

101. According to Google,one in five queries made by
search are through voice
Before AR and VR and AI, audio is going to be the
next major platform shift for consumer attention.

102. Skills Blueprint lets you create skills for your personal account

103. Storyline lets you build skills without any coding

104. https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-set-up-an-alexa-flash-briefing-a-guide-for-marketers/

106. EMAIL
• You are 6x more likely to get a click-through from an email
campaign than you are from a Tweet
• You own this list, so no need to worry about Facebook
algorithm changes
• Use this list to target people with Facebook Ads
• If you already have a list, try to bring more value to people

107. Tips for mailchimp
• Treat your subscribers like VIPs: People who subscribe to your list
are so interested in what you have to say that they’re willing to invite you
into their inbox. Honor it by letting them be the first to know about new
products and sales.
• Keep it useful: Think about which emails in your inbox you open and
which ones you delete immediately. What makes you want to open an
email? Our guess is a piece of information you don’t already have. Make
sure you’re sending subscribers new information that’s useful to them.
• Show some personality: No one wants to read an email that drones
on and on. So, inject some personality! Try to write the way you would
speak to your customers, and keep in mind the personality of the
people you’re talking to.

108. Tips for mailchimp
• Keep it short: Most people are bombarded with emails every day, so keep
yours to the point to make it easy for your subscribers to scan them quickly if
they need to
• Get inspired: Apps like Pocket, Evernote, and Pinterest are great for saving
and organizing content you’d like to use in your campaigns. Check out Really
Good Emails, too. They feature the best emails companies like you are
sending.
• Make a schedule: Not everyone has a regular schedule for sending
campaigns, but it can be helpful, especially if you need to collaborate with a
team or wear a lot of hats as a small business owner.
• Send test emails to friends and coworkers: It sometimes helps to get a
second pair of eyes on a campaign before you send it.

110. UMMM… What about
Twitter and Snapchat?
• 45 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds use Twitter
(overall 24 percent of U.S. adults use)
• 78 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds use Snapchat
(overall 27 percent of U.S. adults use)
• Use Twitter if you’re funny or political
• Use Snapchat to reach young people

111. ?What about Facebook and
it’s 2 billion users?
Are we giving up on them?

112. WHAT WE KNOW…
• Fewer posts and videos from publishers and businesses will
be shown.
• Reach, video watch time and referral traffic will go down.
• Priority will be given to posts that spark conversations and
meaningful interactions.
• Viral videos are pretty much dead already.

113. What to do on FB in 2018
• Fewer, better posts
• Focus on getting meaningful comments and interactions
• Use live video - gets 6x more interaction than other videos
• Groups - start them, join them, participate in them
• Stories - Zuck says they will overtake News Feed on all apps
• Have individuals from your company post on their profiles
• Master Facebook ads

114. Fewer, better posts
• It’s helpful or useful to the audience
• It’s rooted in specific, real customer problems
• It looks like what real people post to Facebook
• You would be proud to share it with your friends

115. How to increase engagement
• Share quality content
• Learn from your successes and failures
• Use compelling visuals
• Ask your audience questions
• Have a call to action

116. Facebook groups

118. Let’s prioritize
Top three priorities you leave here with today.

120. Creating great content…

121. ANN HANDLEY
• Utility x Inspiration x Empathy =
Great Content
• Utility - It’s useful, beneficial. A reader can take
action based on that content.
• Inspiration - It inspires us to do or feel something.
• Empathy - It shows that the company understands
the reader.
• The reward - people love, trust and believe in you.

122. Utility?
Inspiration?
Empathy?
Who is the
audience?

123. Utility?
Inspiration?
Empathy?
Who is the
audience?

124. Utility?
Inspiration?
Empathy?
Who is the
audience?

125. Gary Vaynerchuk
• Document, don’t create - show your
journey and bring people along for
the ride
• Passion + Experience creates great
content
• If you had to go live to the world
right now and bring passion and
experience, what would you do?

126. –Gary Vaynerchuk
“There’s no way around it.
Your content must be amazing.”

128. WRITING BETTER SOCIAL
MEDIA CONTENT
Lessons from people who create viral content

129. • You are a salesperson for that click or follow
or like or comment.
• Advice on how to sell that click, from editors at
Mashable, Quartz and Upworthy…

130. • Wave of sentiment - ride that wave to feeling town ...
you have to appeal to people's emotion.

131. • Reference pop culture and nostalgia - We’re all in
this internet game together. Show that you know what
is popular right now.

132. • Have great content - Do people really NEED to see
your content? Will it make their lives better?
Upworthy: If a million people saw this, would it make the world a better place?

133. • Inject some curiosity - “This Guy’s Wife Got Cancer,
So He Did Something Unforgettable. The Last 3
Photos Destroyed Me.”

134. • Make bold claims -
“I just ate the best burger EVER, for REALZ”

135. • Right story + right audience = social
• Right story + right audience + universal resonance = viral

136. QUESTIONS?
Follow Chris:
@chrissnider
chrissniderdesign.com