In just a couple of weeks, the Marketing Land editorial staff will head to Las Vegas for our annual SMX Social Media Marketing conference. For this year’s lineup, in addition to strategic sessions and big picture panels, we have several spotlight sessions that will deliver highly tactical and practical tips for marketing on specific social platforms.
From dealing with the ever-changing Facebook newsfeed to creating visual and interactive content for Pinterest, Instagram or Vine, these sessions feature in-the-trenches tactics, best practices and step-by-step instructions to improve engagement on socially shared content.
Here’s an overview of what to expect if you’re attending SMX Social Media, November 19-20th at the ARIA Las Vegas. Still need a ticket? Register today to secure your spot!
1. Winning Strategies With Facebook Ads
Paid social advertising has been one of the fastest growing areas of digital marketing, and like all other areas of digital, changes at a rapid pace. Just recently, Facebook Ads unveiled major upgrades for campaign structures, allowing advertisers to better manage their social targeting and bidding strategies.
With other new features, such as the Facebook/Atlas ad-serving platform rising up to challenge Google DoubleClick, the opportunity for advertisers to tap into the power of audience based targeting and interest segments is massive.
In this session led by our own paid media reporter Ginny Marvin, attendees will hear more about the features available to advertisers from Beth Horn, Retail Business Lead at Facebook, as well as campaign management strategies from experienced agency marketers Ian Mackie of Point It and Paul Steketee of Addressomo.
Need to learn more about the opportunity with Facebook Ads? Review Marketing Land’s most recent articles about Facebook Advertising ahead of this session to learn more about Facebook’s evolving capabilities, and how advertisers are using first-party data, testing ad formats and messaging to meet engagement and revenue goals.
2. Up Close With Twitter Cards
Like Facebook’s Open Graph meta data, Twitter Cards have unlocked a world of possibilities for marketers to get more attention in the social stream, using everything from attached media, to app download calls to action, as well as e-commerce and lead gen cards.
Sharpen your #social media marketing chops – sign up for our weekly newsletter & let the learning begin: https://t.co/eZVmSkwlfG — Marketing Land (@Marketingland) October 27, 2014
3. Leveraging LinkedIn For A Wider Network
LinkedIn is the B2B Marketer’s BFF. It’s also not just for job seekers anymore, it’s become a popular publishing platform for professionally focused content and is a natural place to share news about your company. What’s more, LinkedIn’s various paid options can boost brand awareness and help attract fresh new audiences based on interests.
With over 300 million users, it’s also social network you can’t afford to ignore. Marketers are exploring new ways to use the LinkedIn platform to build influence and following, and this session with Lisa Buyer will introduce you to a number of fresh new ideas and features from LinkedIn.
4. The New News Feed: How To Break Into Facebook’s Exclusive Neighborhood
With significant changes to the Facebook News Feed algorithm in recent months, many marketers are extremely concerned about declining impression levels and engagement rates for organic content. Analytics provider Simply Measured even found that consumer engagement is off by an average of more than 40% since last year.
While content publishing powerhouses like Buzzfeed aren’t that concerned about the fluctuations in the feed algorithm, more and more content creators are left scrambling to better understand how to adjust their strategy to 100,000+ variables that determine what users see when they log into Facebook.
In this session, our social media reporter Martin Beck explores the latest data and discuss how marketers can take back control with panelists Nate Elliot of Forrester Research, Chad Wittman of EdgeRank Checker (acquired by Socialbakers) and Alison Zarella, co-author of The Facebook Marketing Book from O’Reilly.
5. How To Dominate Pinterest
With the holiday season just about to kick into high gear, this social network is the gift that keeps on giving for retail focused marketers.
Pinterest pro Matt Siltala will share his top tactics for creating visually engaging content that inspires more than just DIY projects and holiday recipes, and transforms into real-world revenue for B2C and B2B brands alike.
In addition to checking out the most recent news about Pinterest advertising, prep for this session with a primer on rich pins and best Pinterest practices for brands from SMX East 2014:
6. How To Market On Reddit, Even Though Reddit Hates Marketing
Few social sites have more passionate users than Reddit. “Redditors” vote for or against user shared content, and popular content can go viral in minutes. But redditors are known to have an intense dislike of marketing or promotion and has even burned brands in the past.
This social platform has a loyal following of tech-savvy celebrities and its popular AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions can also draw a lot of attention for brands when influencers are involved.
The tide may be shifting as well, as Reddit Ads have started to take off, most notably with Newcastle Ale’s unofficial Super Bowl ad. Learn everything you need to know to get started reaching out to a new audience on Reddit in this session.
7. Tuning In To Tumblr
If you’re still trying to figure out Tumblr’s place in your social strategy, this is the session for you. Did you know that Tumblr is more popular than Facebook in the 13- to 25-year-old demographic? Or that Tumblr is now testing video ads?
It would be a mistake to think that Tumblr is simply a playground for adolescents, however — according to 2013 demographic data from Quantcast, 88% of Tumblr users are over 18, and 57% have at least a college degree.
Get your creative juices rolling by catching up with our most recent articles about Tumblr and then roll into this session for more demographic insights and smart strategies to tap into Tumblr audience with Kevin Shively from Simply Measured.
8. Why Google+ Still Matters
Think Google+ is a ghost town? It all depends on who you ask, according to Marketing Land’s most recent articles about Google Plus.
Undeniably, many digital marketers are still paying attention to this social network’s overall impact on search results while Google keeps tweaking features and account requirements in an attempt to draw more users to the social network.
Google Hangouts are just one way marketers are making good use of the platform, but in this session with Marketing Land contributor Mark Traphagen, we’ll also examine new ways to connect with followers and explore features unique to Google+ that marketers should know about.
9. Open Graph: Your Key To Making Content Look Great On Facebook & Beyond
It’s all about that first impression, even in social sharing. The Open Graph tags on Facebook code snippets control how your content looks in social feeds when users like or share your content.
Often an overlooked technical aspect of social media sharing, optimizing these tags can mean the difference between ten and tens of thousands of shares.
The opportunity to attract user attention based on targeting audience interests with offers and other features is one tactic smart social marketers need to know more about. This session’s pair of expert speakers will share their top tips for optimizing social markup.
10. The Secrets Of Making Fine Vines
We’ve covered a number of major brands and smaller companies creatively using Vine videos for marketing, and it’s no surprise why short-form video has taken off, with no barriers to entry and its ability to appeal to short attention spans in social media. Every second, nine Tweets that include a Vine video are sent.
Speaker Adam Gausepohl, CEO of PopShorts, will share tips help you craft your brand’s “Voice” on Vine, just like they did for NBCUniversal with the #VoiceTailgate campaign:
11. Marketing Mastery On YouTube
Short-form videos haven’t killed the YouTube star just yet, even though 50% of all YouTube traffic is now coming from smartphones and tablets. While other platforms may be starting to cut away at YouTube’s share of eyeballs, there’s still a lot of potential for viral video marketing on YouTube.
Creating compelling video content (not necessarily revolving around cats, or puppies) that matches up with your authentic brand voice is the first step. Leveraging best practices for social promotion using both organic and paid social tactics you’ll learn in this session is a surefire formula for success.
12. Instagram Insta-Success
This social network is not just for #selfies anymore. While the Gen X and Millennials hanging out here may still be obsessed with posting snapshots of themselves, they’re also very likely to engage with posts from others and brands on this platform. In fact, Forrester Research found that engagement on Instagram is roughly 60 times higher than Facebook.
What’s more, it’s a core audience for marketers: the two-thirds of Instagram’s users, who are between the ages of 18 and 44, and most are women.
With new features like Video Ads on Instagram and brands like Nordstrom deriving direct revenue, marketers are figuring out how to get business done on the social platform in a number of creative ways.
So before you kick off your work shoes at the ARIA pool, make sure you catch this session with Danielle Wiley, CEO of Sway Group to get some fresh new ideas for converting <3’s to customers.
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