Social Media Week took place last week, with Chicago being one of only 26 cities worldwide to participate. I had the privilege of facilitating a panel discussion on “Beyond the Re-tweet: Social Success Begins with Smart Content” and I wanted to share some of the key points that were made. Panelists for this insightful discussion included Steve Griffiths, VP of Marketing and Product Strategy at Ifbyphone, Melissa Harris, Business Columnist at the Chicago Tribune, Brad Spirrison, Managing Editor at Appolicious and Syndicated Columnist for The Huffington Post, and Carla Riseman, Integrated Marketing Communications Manager at Analyte Health.

1. Top 4 Tips from the Smart Content Panel at Social Media Week Chicago
Social Media Week took place last week, with Chicago being one of only 26 cities
worldwide to participate. I had the privilege of facilitating a panel discussion on
“Beyond the Re-tweet: Social Success Begins with Smart Content” and I wanted to
share some of the key points that were made.
Panelists for this insightful discussion included
Steve Griffiths, VP of Marketing and Product
Strategy at Ifbyphone, Melissa Harris, Business
Columnist at the Chicago Tribune, Brad
Spirrison, Managing Editor at Appolicious and
Syndicated Columnist for The Huffington Post,
and Carla Riseman, Integrated Marketing
Communications Manager at Analyte Health.
After quick introductions using 140 characters or less (this was a social media panel,
after all!) we jumped right into the discussion. Here are the top 4 key takeaways:
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Consumers are being deluged by marketing messages. Did you know that the
average person sees almost 3,000 marketing messages a day, pays attention to
52 and remembers only 4? Amazing! That’s why it’s so crucial to make sure you
have a content strategy and an ongoing content cadence. Steve shared that the
content cadence is important to help establish the flow and tone of your
content and to determine what content is resonating with your audience. And
from a keyword perspective when it comes to content generation, write for
humans first, then look for opportunities to optimize for SEO.
Reporters are also on information overload. Social media is a great way for
reporters to extend the reach of the stories they’ve written, but it also means
there are more channels available through which to try to reach them.
Facebook and LinkedIn are NOT platforms through which to pitch a reporter.
Melissa and Brad both agreed that nothing is more important than the subject
line when submitting an email pitch to a reporter. It cannot be vague (i.e.,
“you might be interested in this”) and absolutely has to be customized. By the
way, Melissa said that to get past the “pay wall” on the Tribune site, click on
the social media links she shares.
Twitter chats are great but keep in mind how your tweets read to someone not
involved in the Twitter chat. While Twitter users who partake in the
conversation may know exactly what you mean, a tweet can definitely be
taken out of context so keep that in mind. This is not only great advice for
Twitter chats but also applies to times when there’s a national tragedy. You
don’t want your brand to look like it’s not keeping up with current events, yet
posting “our thoughts are with you” when your brand is not personally
connected to the tragedy is just fluff. Instead, it’s better to cancel any prescheduled tweets or posts and just stay silent.
Think creatively when advertising on Facebook. Carla shared some great tips on
using self-serve ads on Facebook which includes thinking beyond the obvious
characteristics of your target audience and instead targeting the media they
consume. Plus, give them a reason to come back to your page once you’ve

2. gotten them to “like” your page. Sweepstakes and contests work great for
building your numbers short-term, but getting fans to “stick” is what ultimately
pays off in the long run. How do you do that? Give them a reason to come back
to your page after the initial offer.
There were many more tips that were shared and a ton of questions from the
audience. For more pictures and tweets from this session, see our Storify.
Many thanks to Steve, Melissa, Brad and Carla for their participation!