We have much more to learn about social media and the role it plays in our culture and communications.
In 2015,I started the year by learning more deeply how these social channels that dominate the media (not just social) landscape.
First, I downloaded to my Kindle, The Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick. I suggest you add it to your 2016 reading list and check out their Power Tips for Power Users.
The book reads like a user’s manual for various social sites and outlines the best ways to use them. Even though I’ve used many of these sites for some years, I still picked up a lot of good ideas about using them for better engagement.
Media creators like photographers, writers, and motion picture artists are in a unique position to use these channels to promote their work and then capitalize on that experience when crafting new work for their clients.
This past year I had some high potential targets who entered my marketing funnel via social channels. I used to think of SEO pointing to my website as the point of entry, and now I see that social channels are the new gateway. The challenge is, of course, still lies in creating content that engages those buyers.
I expect to see some interesting innovations in this arena in 2016. One area I hope gets worked out is an attribution element that connects content to its creator, I had high hopes from some early tech innovators in this sector, but in 2015 they either dropped out or pivoted away from this useful linkage.
As we start off the new year, here are three social channels you should be thinking of using in 2016: