Social Media
Conference

With your social media strategy in a constant state of evolution, designing and refining your own image and video assets is a constant strain. In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore the tools, strategies and software for social design that can help every marketer and communicator — even those without large teams – improve their visual and video storytelling appeal and impact so it rivals those of big brands. You'll learn:

• Which images, photos and videos perform best across multiple social channels.
• How color theory, fonts and other design considerations can give images and videos the right context and impact.
• A step-by-step guide for creating infographics and other social-ready designs.
• What you must know about low-cost design tools like Canva
• Video toolkit: Quick tech recs and shooting tips for getting the most out of your equipment.
• On-camera design and branding considerations to make yourself or your spokespeople stand out.
• The TikTok effect: Adding fun, filters and flair to your videos—no matter what channel.

The podcasting boom is still on—with 504 million podcast listeners projected globally by 2024. So how can you compete for attention in today’s busy market? The answer is to ideate, script, record and produce your own niche-specific podcast as a critical asset to your larger social strategy—not as a standalone. In this workshop, you’ll partner with peers to:

• Ideate and refine a podcast idea that fits your brand voice and social strategy. 
• Learn how to start scripting and structuring your podcast based on your goals. 
• Select the best platforms, mics and audio software for your team. 
• Try your hand at recording and sourcing audio using tools like Squadcast. 
• Tap into the latest podcasting trends—like integrating podcasts with Twitch/YouTube to capture Gen Z and younger livestreaming audiences 
• Discover how podcasting can help drive DEI, employer branding and retention. 
• Discuss podcast publishing and promotion, including using RSS feeds and repurposing clips across social channels for maximum exposure.

There’s no need to stress the resources needed to pull-off an effective TikTok strategy. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to easily create a TikTok presence that drives awareness and generates ROI. Our trainers will guide you through a step-by-step process for adding a TikTok presence to your social media program — or improving the one you already have.

We’ll cover:

• Templates to borrow: Anatomy of a successful TikTok strategy and how to tailor it to your brand and audiences.
• How to set up and optimize your TikTok profile — and why this is so critical.
• How to identify the best formats, features, elements and trends on the platform that make sense for your brand.
• How to master TikTok ads.
• What’s next: What’s already outdated on TikTok — and how to stay relevant in 2023 (examples and approaches to emulate).
• Ways to make your first (or third) TikTok video a success. (We’ll workshop one together!)

Effective storytelling is algorithm agnostic. It creates builds on human connection and is the key to moving hearts and minds — no matter what channels you post to. Join to discover your best brand story — powered by the latest artificial intelligence technology to bring to life stories that conjure emotion, drive inclusion and lead with empathy. This is the Rosetta stone you’ve been looking for if you want to galvanize your social media audiences while building trust, social equity and even corporate innovation through storytelling. You’ll learn:

• New research: How to achieve brand love with the ❤️and 🧠 of storytelling.
• How to activate OpenAI in each phase of the story arc.
• Live ChatGPT Demo: Crafting a social media ready brand story in minutes.

Did you know that videos have 135% more audience reach than other static formats? Whether you’re trying to increase customer or employee brand engagement — videos offer you the ability to share your message in a way that truly resonates with your audience. But with the increase in video use by most brands, how can you make sure your videos stand out, engage, and convert?

Join PlayPlay’s video expert, Kina de Cordoba in this strategic session to discover:

• The strategic value of video-first communications for marketing, communication experts, and corporate brand departments.
• Our 8 simple video-creation steps and hacks to help you leverage the power of video to meet your communication goals.
• How to use tools like PlayPlay in-house to create professional videos in minutes with your team."

A crisis can strike at any moment, as we saw these past few years. The good news is you now likely play a more critical role than ever in keeping your public and employees informed, engaged — and safe. Here’s how to live up to those expectations with a monitoring plan that starts with listening and moves responses up the org chart. Together, we’ll hear some case studies on how brands deployed keen social strategies to manage and mitigate a crisis. You’ll learn:

• Lessons from the front lines: How others engaged and inspired friends, fans, followers and staff during the last few years of cascading crises.
• How to craft messages that convey confidence and eliminate uncertainty.
• Scenario training tips for using social media dashboards to identify emerging issues.
• How to design and deploy a social listening strategy on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and beyond.
• The best monitoring tools to track your reputation and adjust after the crisis.

Live and short-form video continues to dominate as attention spans dwindle — and 82% of consumers prefer live video from a brand to social posts, according to Business Insider. But that doesn't mean your team is comfortable livestreaming, both from a tools and confidence perspective. Join for an interactive experience that will help you shoot or stream with the best of them — while determining whether TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or another platform is best for your brand.  You'll learn:

• How to instantly overcome on-camera or streaming worries — and add more flair to your videos.
• Easy tips for creating quick intros that capture attention.
• Get ready to get uncomfortable — but bring a smile! We’ll shoot and share live together.
• Bonus: How to know which channel is right for your brand.

When the world changed in 2021, most companies had to revamp social strategies overnight and figure out fresh ways to engage audiences with snackable content, educational information and other resources to build trust. This case study will share how one company revamped its visual storytelling approach and embraced video to deepen relationships, dispel information and put culture front and center.

Empowered by recent advances in artificial intelligence, the DIY-mindset is taking over social media content creation. As marketing professionals soar to new heights of productivity on the backs of platforms such as GhatGPT and Artssy, will your company's resident graphic designer, copywriter, or even photographer become obsolete? You might be surprised how you've already been using Ai for years — and why social media marketers aren't going anywhere. Discover how to leverage Ai content creation tools the RIGHT WAY in this interactive session. Learn what the buzz is about, including:

• How to balance the “authenticity” mandated by the rise of TikTok and platforms like BeReal with the “automation” of AI image generators
• Top AI imaging tools: DALL-E2, Midjourney, Artssy, Stable Diffusion and more. 
• Using AI image generators to hone brand voice and aesthetics. (FYI: Creating mood boards and brand guidelines is a snap!). 
• Producing visual content at scale: Examples of social media posts, social ads, infographics, website banners, and even 3D videos created with AI imaging.
• Let’s co-create: We’ll create a social post together with your live prompts! 

• Updating your toolkit: Essential social media measurement tools. 
• How to set more meaningful social media measurement objectives in a downturn. 
• How to audit and adjust your social media in real-time so you can optimize results (i.e., reallocate precious dollars from what’s fizzling to what’s sizzling).
• How to create an integrated, wholistic strategy that impacts brand voice, storytelling and trust.
• The trust factor: How one nonprofit organization is building trust via more authentic social media — and harnessing data to show progress. 
• The trust factor meets Tumblrs: How being hyper-local on social media helps build trust — examples and measurement lessons learned from a fun, local campaign.
• Speaking the boss’s language: How to tie social media to ROI (yes, they’ll ask). 
  

Newsjacking, the traditional practice of piggybacking on timely news stories by infusing your brand into the larger narrative, has transformed. It’s no longer a media relations play. It’s now a multichannel strategy involving paid and editorial to social media and more. See how it’s done when Ernst & Young shares how it developed and refined a segment with CNBC that features brand leaders and experts. You’ll learn:

• How to select the topical issues that best fit your brand (social listening helps!).
• How to groom your SMEs for media interviews and going live on social.
• Examples and new ideas to create and amplify a content library articulating your newsworthy perspective — from online videos and executive Q&As to white papers and more.
• Smart ways to share and seed these assets across digital mediums.
• How to parlay press coverage into a longtail play to drive engagement.

You can’t buy trust — you must build it, as the World Health Organization (WHO) successfully set out to do these past few years during the pandemic. At this session you'll hear how WHO is creating deeper social media connections grounded in a more authentic, transparent people-first strategy.

You’ll learn:

• Trust factors today — and how they can boost your social media engagement.
• People-first strategies for personalizing the brand: How to prepare leadership and experts to become trusted voices — not just “talking heads.”
  
• Transparency tools and channels: Integrating live video and audio to build trust.
  
• How to leverage measurement tools to to reframe your messaging to build trust. 

When the world changed in 2020, we were forced to change with it and pivot our approach from always needing to have an answer to learning how to ask the right questions and, most importantly, listen to our people. In this session, we’ll look at the strategies for surveys, active listening and other tried and true ways to collect employee feedback with a focus on what to do when engagement falls flat.

You’ll learn:

• Strategies for launching pulse surveys with the optimal cadence and length to keep engagement high.
• Tips for preparing people managers to hear individual employee concerns and escalate feedback when appropriate.
• Strategies for moderating difficult conversations around interpersonal conflicts, personal struggles and more that build trust and create a sense of belonging.
• Considerations for employee resource groups that give participants a voice and communication channel with executive support.

As the hybrid workplace shows no signs of fading, the software and tools you use to communicate with employees should constantly be reassessed, refined and ready to change when business operations evolve and employee engagement fluctuates. In this session, we’ll examine the most common issues with intranets and internal social networks that impact employee engagement with a focus on how to reach all equally – from remote employees to deskless workers and everyone in between.

You’ll learn:

• Fixes to the design/structure of your intranet and internal social networks that positively impact user experience.
• Best practices for crafting pulse surveys and collecting feedback on your internal social networks.
• Strategies for crowdsourcing content on internal channels with the right hashtags and CTAs.

With every instance of employee turnover, merger and acquisition, brand crisis, and more, your organization faces pressure to manage the change proactively, communicating its impact on business and the stakeholders most closely affected. In this session, we’ll look at what it takes to communicate changes on social media and other 24/7 channels.

You’ll learn:

• How to determine when to deploy a social strategy to communicate change and when to hold back.
• Tips for using empathetic language that puts people at the front and center of your message.
• Strategies for partnering with legal counsel to craft language that feels human but protects your org from blowback.
• Social listening and response tactics for mitigating misinformation, disinformation and bad actors who post about your news.

In today’s landscape of reputational minefields and looming crises, employees and external audiences alike look at the words and behaviors of leaders as models for what an organization believes and practices. When the messages your executives share internally can become external news in an instant, it’s crucial that your executive messaging strategy includes comms, marketing and social media pros alike.

We’ll explore:

• What research says about the most effective platforms and mediums for executive comms, from LinkedIn posts and podcasts to blogs and micro-sites.
• Tips for coaching your leaders and executives to speak with intention for maximum social impact and stay on message in town halls, social media posts and more.
• Strategies for crafting ‘mixternal’ executive comms that can are safe to share internally and externally.
• Tactics for mitigating reputational damage when an exec goes off message on social media.

When several studies show that current and prospective employees are happiest at organizations with a strong, identifiable sense of purpose, it’s crucial that your employer brand reflects it. In this session, we’ll share strategies for infusing purpose into your recruitment content, employee storytelling and executive communications with inclusivity and authenticity at the center of it all.

We’ll explore:

• How to partner with HR, marketing and other departments to infuse benefits, upskilling opportunities and other culture perks into your employer brand.
• Tips for respectfully sourcing, sharing and celebrating inclusive employee stories from internal channels.
• Strategies for walking the line between sharing aspirational corporate commitments and tangible, measurable successes.
• New and innovative trends in employer branding including Alumni Networks and more.