What is social media?

Why does it matter?

How can I or my organization use it to grow and engage an audience?

Last week in Austin, Texas, our Director of Social Media and Emerging Technologies, Matt Cooney, spoke at Citrix’s ServTech conference about these very topics.

Nickerson Director of Social Media and Emerging Technologies Matt Cooney addresses the crowd at Citrix’s ServTech conference, held last week in Austin, Texas.

“From my perspective, there can be a lingering confusion about social media,” he said. “People know they need to participate, but sometimes don’t know why or how and simply need direction. It’s clear to me emerging technologies will change the way we create and engage with content and congregate and interact online, and until that happens social media will provide the primary vehicle for content and community and a unique and dynamic environment in which to build and engage your audience.”

So how can a person, team, or organization effectively engage in social media? Several key takeaways from Cooney’s talk were:

Participate. You NEED to be on social. Why? Because it’s where your audience is and where they spend time. The combined followings of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube are almost double the populations of India and China combined. If you’re not there, the people you want to reach are, and they’re shaping the conversation you want to have without you.

And the usage statistics are impressive: the average U.S. adult spends 35 minutes a day on Facebook and 2 hours, overall, in social networks. This translates to 1 year and 7 months, and 5 years and 4 months of the average lifetime, respectively.

Publish. You must share on a regular basis to begin a dialogue with your audience. Always be mindful of authenticity, quality, and consistency, make posts visual, and analyze traffic and engagement patterns to effectively adjust your editorial calendar. This is one of the – if not THE – best ways to effectively grow your audience over time.

Listen. Always remember it is a dialogue, a discussion and to do that well, you need to listen to your audience. They will tell you what’s important to them, and why. Monitor conversation as it happens and when your audience talks, respond!

Promote. It’s a fact: boosted posts reach larger audiences. Facebook­—and other networks—deliberately throttle organic reach as a means of revenue generation. It’s “pay to play” and targeting ads at the right audience can yield big returns on relatively low investment.

The bottom line? Ignoring social media can negatively impact yours.

“You need to be in social, your presence managed in real-time, your audience engaged, and your performance measured,” Cooney concluded. “There’s terrific potential to generate meaningful engagement in every post and I loved sharing best practices at ServTech 2017, and love overseeing this function on behalf of Nickerson and our clients. Few channels offer the opportunity to have such meaningful dialogue with your community, as it’s happening.”

If you want to learn more about how Nickerson create and engage audiences on your behalf, give Matt a call at 617-906-8832 and begin your dialogue today.