Hi I'm Rayson Esquejo. I'm an active social media marketer in the entertainment industry and full-time social media everything-ist. These are my thoughts and curated pieces of Social Media Marketing. Enjoy! 😊💬
Today marks a pretty big change for Snapchat — you no longer have to press and hold the screen to view a Snap or Story — instead, simply Tap to View! This means no more tired thumbs while watching a...
Heads up: #Snapchat just released a update to their platform. You can now: add a profile gif, add nearby, tap to view and add by screenshot! If we're not nearby, screen shot this, and if you haven't already, pull down the drop down menu, select "add from screenshot" and let's be friends! 😱
Before you get all GIF-cited On Facebook, I’ve done numerous mobile / desktop tests and this is what I’ve found:
What DOES NOT work:
- CAN’T post GIFs in comments
- CAN’T Upload a GIF directly to Facebook (you have to link to something hosted somewhere else)
- NO auto play on PAGES or on PROFILES
- NO auto play on mobile profiles (NOT BRAND PAGES).. you must click to play
- On mobile BRAND PAGES, GIFs are not supported (it kicks you out to your mobile browser and desktop)
- GIPHY links and Tumblr Links
What DOES work:
- Posting your favorite GIF on your personal profile for friends to auto play enjoy on your stream (https://www.facebook.com/rayson/posts/10104538413414956?pnref=story)
- Uploading images to GOOGLE PLUS and getting the image link DOES work:
All in all, there’s still a lot more for Facebook to do with this and I haven’t been able to see if GIFs autoplay from brand pages in stream (via promoted) ... but for now, it’s a start!
With the popularity of #SNAPCHAT growing, January brought the update of “SNAPCODES” to the app. Brands were quick to create their own personalized version of the snap code to fit their branding needs. Today, SnapChat officially released a branding guide of “do’s and don’ts”as well as vector files for the friend adding technology. You can find the guide and vector files here: https://accounts.snapchat.com/accounts/snapcodes
We introduced Snapcodes in early January as an easy way to add friends on Snapchat. Simply point your Snapchat camera at a Snapcode and tap your screen to add!
The response has been incredible. Snapchatters scan millions of Snapcodes each week!
Today, we are making it easier to share and personalize your unique Snapcode by offering downloadable vector files and branding guidelines on our website.
Instagram launched a dedicated music channel, yesterday, that is aims to be the platform's first category-specific vertical that will showcase popular and emerging artists. https://instagram.com/music
Instagram Courts Musicians With Dedicated Music Channel
In a first for Instagram, the photo-sharing social network will use its considerable resources to promote a specific kind of content on the platform: music. The Facebook-owned company has launched a new, internally operated account,@Music, that it will use to showcase musicians and music lovers in the Instagram community.
Among the more than 300 million people who use Instagram, the company says more than 25% of the most popular accounts belong to musicians. Since it launched in 2010, the platform has become an integral promotions and communications tool for artists, and a go-to source of news and entertainment for fans. It’s where Taylor Swift shared a candid celebratory moment after first going No. 1, and where Beyoncé, the most-followed person on Instagram with 31 million followers, spoke out during Ferguson.
“Artists are using Instagram as a companion to the art that they’re making,” said Jonathan Hull, Instagram’s head of music partnerships, in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “Musicians lead really interesting lives, and Instagram has become a way for them to show their fans who they are and to give them a look inside of their world.”
After today, the @Music account will update once daily Tuesday through Sunday. Content will include short profiles of featured artists and a mix of editorial series, including one offering 15-second music lessons and another spotlighting independent artists in cities around the world. Beyond drawing attention to the A-listers among its ranks, representatives for Instagram said a primary goal of @Music will be spotlighting dynamic emerging talent.
“We’re looking to break artists,” said Alex Suskind, music editor at Instagram. “One of the things we’re focusing on is emerging and unsigned talent who are using the platform to share their music and their stories in a unique way.”
Two profiles will be launching on the account today that will telegraph the breadth of Instagram’s ambitions for the program. One will be of Questlove, drummer for The Roots and well-known music personality, and another will be of Tricot, a nascent math-rock band from Japan. Short blurbs will appear below photos sourced from the artists’ own accounts, with more in-depth profiles available at Instagram’s blog.
By creating exclusive editorial content, Instagram hopes to become a full-service destination for music lovers, and to enhance its position as a critical ally for artists and labels. Right now, users spend around 21 minutes per day on the app on average, a figure that it that it believes can be improved with high-quality editorial offered at dedicated channels. @Music will essentially act as a spin-off of the official @Instagram account, which boasts an enormous 65 million followers and similarly spotlights noteworthy existing content on the platform. Channels based on other topics may follow.
“If we can help more members of the Instagram community find these great accounts, that’s going to make their experience on Instagram more rich,” said Hull.
Instagram isn’t the first social network to try to harness the reliable popularity and prestige of the music industry. In 2013, Twitter launched #Music, a short-lived effort to corral music-related tweets and trending artists into a discrete destination for fans. But users never adopted the #Music app, or made much use of the #Music Twitter account, and the company backed away from the initiative just six months after launch.
Instagram says it’s taking a different approach with @Music.
“This is not a new product that we’re building,” said Hull. “We’re just extending the great work that our community has already done.”
In the coming days, other artists to be showcased on Instagram Music include British synth-pop trio Until the Ribbon Breaks and Korean punk band No Brain.
How do you or your social media manger stack up against these 14 traits of social media managers?
How do you or your social media manger stack up against these 14 traits of social media managers? Totally agree with 1,4,9, and 14! 😀
1. In-person and online social grace 😄
I feel that social media managers should be experts in what they are talking about, and have other people coming to them as experts as well. They should be actively blogging and interacting with other experts online in many networks. A social media manager should start to get their own voice known, speaking at events and truly becoming a voice in the industry. This will help them be much more influential in whatever social media situation they are involved in.
Blogging, speaking, networking and interacting with other experts will help them stand out in their industry. They will have to develop their voice a lot more to expand their personal network.
2. Editorial/journalism skills 📝
I'm not going to sugarcoat it. This is not a "should," it's a "must." Content marketing is not just a fad. It's upending the entire ad business. For most of advertising history, ads have supported outside media by paying for the privilege to interrupt it. In the past five years, brands have realized that they can circumvent this whole system by simply creating their own media and benefiting from association. This ability to create content is going to make or break brand's entire advertising departments, but social media will be ground zero. Social media is the distribution platform that makes content marketing a viable strategy. And the social media manager acts as a gatekeeper and guide for content efforts. You must understand the editorial process to do this role well. There's no getting around it.
3. Understanding of channel diversity 👱 👲 👳
A successful social media manager will understand the company's audience across various social media platforms, recognizing that content must be varied based on the channel. It's important when hiring to look for this skill set of knowing diverse channels and being flexible and fluid among those social channels. Content that performs exceptionally on Instagram may be weak on Twitter, for example. A social media manager must know what each channel can offer to the target audience, and how to translate that back into business results.
4. General pop culture awareness 😎
Every social media manager should know what's happening in the "real world" and how that potentially affects the social content that they are programming. In a world of scheduled-tweets-meets-real-time-marketing, we as digital marketers must be sensitive to what's happening outside of social and adjust our content accordingly.
5. Humor 😹
If it's the right fit for your brand, humor can increase the virality of your campaigns. Also, there is nothing like a humorous response to a customer to really make them into a loyal evangelist.
6. Empathy 😥
The fundamental role of a social media manager is to understand a brand's audience as deeply as possible with a special focus on how they communicate. Being exceptional at this requires a very high degree of empathy and the ability to understand the audience — including their tastes and habits — even if these are fundamentally different than their own. In order to be a part of the conversation and ultimately affect its direction, you have to be able to think, feel and act like a member of the organic audience. We find that the best social media manager's are those who talk to the team to feel out their audience and community, and use those learnings to drive results.
7. Authenticity 👮
Stop using slang; it doesn’t make your brand cool. In fact, it does the opposite because you don’t sound authentic. Instead, you sound like the Gen X mom who just found out what "YOLO" means. If you’re young, funky and trendy, be that. But if you’re not, be OK with it. You have an audience. Learn their voice, figure out how they want their information and align your brand’s voice in a way that makes sense. Another thing that successful social media managers have mastered — and all managers should know — is how to speak with people, not at them, on social. Sharing deals and discount promos is fine; but remember that your products or services are probably not unique. Options are endless. Customers like brands that they feel "like" them.
8. Storytelling ability 📚
A skill that every social media manager should improve in 2015 is storytelling. As humans we love to hear stories and not everyone practices that skill enough. When we tell stories we connect with people and that drives engagement.
9. An eye for fresh and relevant material 👀
With increased access to information and curated content comes a consumer's increased likelihood to ignore or unfollow content that doesn't relate to them. A social media manager must be able to reach followers with content they seek and expect from the initial contact, or you'll fall into the "unfollow" category. In the age of instantaneous information, your social sites must provide fresh and relevant material or you'll fall to the wayside.
10. Statistical prowess 📈
Success in social media is all about the numbers. How effective are your posts? How sticky? How viral? Great social media managers need to go beyond the line charts to really understand what the data is telling them. Statistical modeling offers a number of methods to learn more and respond faster.
11. Multitasking ability 👥
A social media manager needs to be a real multitasker: a digital marketer, a qualitative and quantitative analyst, a public relations pro, a writer — and not only because they'll dedicate these skills to Twitter and Facebook, but because they need to be able to go beyond social media when necessary. And it's often necessary.
12. A customer-centric focus 👍
Marketers need to focus on customer-centric strategies because consumers are becoming more selective in what they consume, and numb to ads. It is vital to know how to reach your ideal costumers in 2015.
13. Data analysis and trend monitoring skills 📊
Too many social media managers are not using the data and analytics available to them on their own social performance, let alone using news or trend monitoring tools that can inform content creation and audience engagement. Both can and should be used to determine content development and tactics to further invest in. The latter allows for the use of "news hijacking," originally popularized by publicists, that allowed them to repurpose or piggyback on trending news topics to gain exposure.
14. A sense of when to automate 👾
Social media managers should automate the sharing of content in appropriate ways to make time to focus on engagement. For instance, you should automate the sharing of blog content to sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in the right format for each site. This frees up time to listen and interact with customers. This is an art, not a science!
How do you stack up?
Original Article here: http://mashable.com/2015/04/23/14-traits-social-media-manager/
Uber, the world's largest taxi company owns no vehicles.
Facebook, the world's most popular media owner, creates no content.
Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory.
And AirBnB, the world's largest accommodation provider owns no real estate.
So, I read this story where this company’s CEO raised the MINIMUM salary of every employee in his company to 70K... following that, here’s some salary amounts from THE CREATIVE GROUP
For those who have asked me what is the average salary range for your digital/ social position, here are some #’s for you.
GlassDoor.com is also a great resource for this stuff.
Here are some great techniques for writing copy for Tweets, Posts, and Updates to get more engagement. I use a lot of these techniques and advise all my agencies to do so as well. Great list!
How can you write a social media update that wins readers over every single time? Start with these 27 copywriting formulas. Find a favorite. Repeat.
According to snap chat, they do not consider themselves a social media network as you currently think of social media networks. SnapChat is not Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram. Think of it as something that is closer to Line, Kik, Viber or FB Messenger Chat.
For marketing, I’ve used it for a live SnapChat Q&A with talent for #AHauntedHouse2, I’ve seen it used for live red carpet shenanigans with talent and Taco Bell does pretty amazing marketing campaigns with their account debut coupons and new products via their channel.
By now, you’ve probably heard about the two Twitter oriented services. If you haven’t here’s the low down. At SXSW 2015, the audience was a buzz with live streaming apps that connect to Twitter. Meerkat started this recent buzz ( but really companies like Qik happened wayyyyy before. Anyways, long story short, Twitter picked up a company called Periscope, that does the exact same thing that Meerkat gained popularity first for. Madonna debuted one of her tracks on Meerkat, but Twitter’s officially backing (and integrating it into their platform) so the question is ...what’s going to last longer and is this content format going to last long as a great piece of social content? Brands are already jumping on the new app but we’ll have to see if it’ll become a niche thing like Vine/ TwitVid or become the next SnapChat.
More on Periscope: http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/26/periscope/
Through short, looping videos the Vine community has come together to capture and share personal experiences and what’s happening in the world around us. Today’s update introduces an entirely new way to communicate with friends: through Vine messages.
