By Nikita Geldenhuys

The conference was also held in Cape Town earlier in November, with the Durban edition scheduled for Monday, 5 December. Organised by Cadek Media, the conference is aimed at helping businesses develop a social media strategy and learn tips and tools to simplify social media management.

Here’s what we learnt at the 2016 Social Media Conference:

Social media doesn’t have audiences – it has communities

Walter Pike, owner and founder of PIKE New Marketing, was the first speaker of the day. This academic and thought leader highlighted the difference between traditional media and social media – and why understanding this difference is vital.

“When we think about our traditional media, we think about target markets. We think about defining the people we are talking to as if they were people you were directing information to.”

Pike explained this happens because of the way marketers used to operate in broadcast media. “When we move all our communications to the internet, not only do we get the ability to interact … but we also get media that has moved from being a source of information to a site for coordination.”

The key to successful social media is thus to understand how to move ideas in a world where people talk to one another. Pike noted many social media campaigns still work on a ‘broadcast concept’, in which audiences are thought to simply receive information.

There is power in hyper-localised content

Matan Atias, client partner global markets at Popimedia Group, presented on the topic of “Social is Mobile First”. His presentation discussed the power of geolocation technology in mobile marketing, and how geolocation is helping marketers create hyper-localised content.

He used the example of a collaboration between the e-commerce company Zalando and Topshop. A series of videos were created, featuring the model Cara Delevingne, to announce that Zalando would be delivering Topshop products to far-flung European destinations. The videos were targeted to specific cities using social media data.

Big data helps us find micro-communities

In a light-hearted session on the topic of “Facebook & Twitter for Business”, Dylan Kohlstädt, the founder of Shift One Digital, looked at key factors to unlocking customers on social media.

“It’s all about micro-marketing. If you’re reaching tiny micro-segments of customers with specific characteristics and producing content that is compelling, that’s going to get a response.”

She also discussed the power of big data, explaining the data available through social media allows marketers to find micro-pockets of people and reach them with content that is appealing to them.

Most social networks offer data that allows marketers to target audiences. “Facebook is the toughest platform [in this regard]. If you want anything to happen on Facebook, you have to pay Mark Zuckerberg,” she jokingly noted, referring to Facebook’s CEO.

“The only way to get around paying Facebook to reach new audiences, is to use hashtags.”

It’s time you create a social business policy

“Social Business Policy:  No Substitute for Common Sense” was the topic of Ann Druce’s presentation. She is the owner of Octarine Communications and a marketing strategist.

She explained a social media policy for companies protects the business as well as its staff and customers. “Having a social media policy can also protect you when you need to take tough action.”

She noted a policy should explain to staff what content and conduct is acceptable on social media. This document should be easy to understand and allow staff to have a voice. Her recommendation? Make sure your policy doesn’t get in the way of advancing your goals.

Other speakers at the conference included Bianca Quinn-Diavastos, MD of 25AM; Crayg Hitzeroth, MD of Ad Dynamo; Bianca Joynt, director of Digistas Liquorice, and Ryan Hogarth, author and MC of the event.

For more information on the Durban edition of the Social Media Conference, see this article or visit www.socialmediaconference.co.za. Alternatively, connect with the event organisers on Facebook or Twitter using the #socialmediaza hashtag.