Are you getting ready to sew some content with Threads?

Posted on July 9, 2023 by Pam Sahota

Threads, a new instagram – mobile only – platform, has got everyone in a tizzy since late last week. It’s not just a new social media platform, it brought back the thrill and excitement of the days when Twitter first began. When people conversed freely, without judgment, and with more freedom to be themselves.

Here’s a roundup for what you marketers may want to know more about:

According to Meta, Threads will allow you to share text updates and join public conversations. It’s as simple as logging in through your Instagram profile. But note, you can’t deactivate the account unless you also do so for your Instagram account. Meant for short content, posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length. Upcoming features may include being “compatible with the open, interoperable social networks…”

How do you use the app? According to business insider:

The house icon brings you to your feed.
The magnifying glass icon takes you to a search page where you can type in the user names of people you wish to follow.
The pen-and-paper icon lets you create a new thread.
The heart icon shows your account activity. It displays who followed you, who replied to your thread, who mentioned you in their posts, and which users are verified.
The human figure icon takes you to your Threads profile where you can see your activity.

According to Tom’s Guide here are some KEY differences to be aware of when it comes to content you can share:

“You can post website links, videos and images on both. You can do post GIFs on both services as well, but you have to save the GIF to your camera roll first on Threads. That said, you can post more images and videos at once on Threads.
Twitter has a limit of four items per tweet, while Threads lets you share 10 items in a single post, which is the same limit for carousel posts in the Instagram apps.
Speaking of carousels, Threads publishes groups of photos and videos in a way that lets you swipe side to side to view the collection. This feature is highly intuitive, and something we didn’t realize was missing from the Twitter experience until now.”

Quick note to us hashtag happy folks – Threads doesn’t use them! Instead, there is more of a focus on sharing posts, posting images, videos, etc.

It’s a place for dialogue being a cross between Twitter and Instagram. Are you ready to jump in and sew with some threads of your own?

You know I’m there…

Invest in Great Content

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Pam Sahota

Content takes many shapes and forms these days. It can exist in as small as a tweet, to a Snapchat video, to website copy, to a whitepaper. Every brand has different formats and types that work best for them and their audiences in order to reach their marketing and business objectives. However, does a brand always have to invest in creating content themselves? Not necessarily.

Content sourcing for supplemental content is smart and it’s to a brand’s advantage when done well. But what type of supplemental content is right for your brand? That’s the answer you need to determine based on the following criteria:

Gain new audiences

Rather than using paid social or paid media to target new audiences, it helps to find different ways to reach those audiences. For example, partner with other brands/publishers or influencers in the categorical space to create content.

Partner with a Brand/Publisher – These days there are so many content houses ruling the content space. They are creating content every minute of every hour in every category – from NY Times to Mashable to Techcrunch to Refinery29 to Vogue. And they have the eyeballs already. These publishing houses are partnering with brands to create content in order to allow access to their audiences – for a cost of course. The difference is, it’s more natural to read an article in Refinery29 that was done through a partnership than check out a banner ad. People are more willing to share this article with their friends and family, too.

Partner with Influencers – From the bloggers like Cupcakes and Cashmere to the YouTube stars like Jacklyn Hill to many more…influencers are all around us. They can be bloggers, video stars, journalists, food Instagrammers, or a reputable advocate who has a large voice on Twitter. They aren’t one size fits all, and it takes time to find the right one for your brand (or the right ones). The key is to work with the influencer from discovery through execution. You want to ensure they understand your brand, your product/service, and what your objective is. But be sure that you don’t keep the reigns too tight. Let the influencer keep their voice and allow them to create the content in a way that is going to resonate with their audiences.

Create different content formats

Sometimes your brand doesn’t have the resources or talent to create a type of content – such as Vine videos. Why waste the effort when you can outsource to an expert who can do it much faster…and better. There are three ways to go about this.

1) Have the expert use their name as the creator and let it be in their voice/tone/way. That way you can also gain new audiences and a new format for your brand.

2) Let them ghost-create the content for your brand in your brand’s voice/tone so you have more content in your arsenal.

3) Co-create it so you have it in your tone/voice but also in a way that allows the creator’s name/voice to be shown. And in this case you both can distribute/promote it.

Content…is costly. But it shouldn’t always have to be done by your brand in-house. The best part is when you do co-create and/or create supplemental content through third party resources you create an advantage for your brand. An advantage of being cutting edge and innovative.

This post was originally written for Socialnomics.

Do Cats Really Rule the Interwebs?

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Pam Sahota

If you haven’t seen the collab between Friskies and Buzzfeed, you must be hiding under a rock (or actually doing your work).

But, just in case you did miss it – watch right now!

The first two videos in the playlist are the two in the series (so far). I have a soft heart for the sequel about the Dog. Especially the line about dogs being excellent marketers – “man’s best friend.” So true.

So as I was saying…Cats.

They have been kind of kicking marketing butt lately – from Grumpy Cat to other cute felines that have been making regular appearances in movies (Jinxie in Meet the Parents) to Taylor Swift carrying around her white furball on the street of NYC. And if you see a youtube clip of a kitten chasing that damn red dot, can you really not help but laugh? Or say aww? (Or perhaps you’re just not human).

The collab was a pivotal step.

Buzzfeed has been in the collaboration business for a while now and this branded content series with Friskies is a great testament to that. They made an advertisement, that is something people actually want to watch (over and over), and share out with others to do the same. I just played it at the dinner table with my family. When would you have done that about an advertisement in the past?

Visible Measures did a great job of capturing why these video content series are a success and how Buzzfeed is on top of its game when it comes to producing such shareable content. It’s not about the cat food or even the fact that the cats do eat Friskies in the commercial. It’s about the heartfelt emotion and connection that people can feel while watching the video content. Aka it’s content. I give credit to both Friskies for taking that leap and for Buzzfeed who has taken brands from thinking past the 30 second ad to creating content that is social gold.

Can you say that?

I can honestly say, I cannot wait for the next installment (please say there is another?) … and when did you say that about an advertisement? I repeat. Social Gold.

This post was originally written for Marketing on the Rocks.

How to: Use Hashtags Across Social Media Channels

Posted on October 12, 2013 by Pam Sahota

Hashtags, which began on our phones, ok but really on Twitter for aggregating conversations in one stream related to topics, events, brands, and more. They’ve since become utilized across other channels like Instagram, tumblr, Facebook and more.

Of course they aren’t used the same across all channel and there are distinct differences for each channel and best practices for each. Below is a quick hit list on how to approach hashtags on some of the most popular social channels:

Twitter:

Try not to use more than 2 to 3 hashtags (preferably 1 or 2) in a tweet
Keep characters to less than 120 when placing a hashtag at the end of a tweet so when someone ReTweets, it’s not cut off
Listen to the conversation on a hashtag before jumping in to ensure it’s appropriate for the brand and the tweet
Monitor your branded hashtag conversations daily
Having too many brand hashtags can cause confusion on when to use which – keep it simple

Instagram:

Listen to see which hashtags are being used for your topics so you can hop into relevant conversations with your photos
Try not to have a billion hashtags on each photo – people get lost in the clutter
Do use some of the same hashtags often to create consistent viewership and loyal followers on certain categories

Tumblr:

Hashtags are like metatags on tumblr so you can use more than you would on other channels to hop into more search streams – allowing more people to discover your content
Monitor to see which tags are searched for on tumblr and tag your content appropriately
Don’t mis-tag your content

Facebook:

Less hashtags do better
Try cultural terms rather than branded terms to reach audiences
Monitor and have fun with it

Questions? Comments?

Note: this post was originally written for Social Media Club and my post can be found here.

Image by Maria Elena.