Cerebra

Here at Cerebra we have the pleasure of running the social platforms of some of South Africa’s most awesome brands. We also enjoy experimenting with our own social platforms, which means that we’ve learnt a lot about what content works and what doesn’t.

Whether you’re new to social media or looking to improve your brand’s content, here are a few of our top social content tips and tricks:

• Get the basics right – keep content short, simple and relevant. Good spelling and grammar are a must.

If you have ever cyber-stalked a stranger’s wedding photos, screen-grabbed a hairstyle of someone you have never met or posted a gym workout to Facebook just to prove you went – then this post is for you.

Hello. My name is Kate, and I am a social stalker.

The Internet loves us for this exact reason – everything we do online is a form of stalking: from re-pinning, re-posting and re-tweeting. I can honestly say I have learned more skills by browsing content online than I did during my twelve years of school. I know the best Facebook pages to go to for fitness advice, the best Twitter handles to follow for fashion and beauty advice and the best boards to follow on Pinterest for décor and gardening tips.

Irrespective of whether the Twitter profile you run is personal, or that of a brand, there are several key elements to an appealing bio that could mean the difference between a new follower or a passer by.

Here are a few suggestions that the Cerebra team has put together:

• Use your real name. This will add credibility to your account.

• Clearly indicate what the community will get in return for following you. Provide some insight into what your interests are and what you do for a living. This will give potential followers an understanding of the various content themes you may be covering.

It’s no surprise that your event attendees are using social media for everything from complaining about the coffee, to sharing sound bites from their favourite speakers and everything in-between. So why aren’t you?

The conversation is happening so why not participate, engage, develop relationships, build communities and not only facilitate, but drive the discussion?

Here’s an idea: “take this product and send this to some online influencers and get them to tweet about it.” Yes, that is a common brief to an agency, and no, you should not simply go ahead and get that done. Unless you’re the Reserve Bank and your product is money, simply sending stuff to an influencer is unlikely to achieve the campaign success you had hoped for.