If you were to compare your marketing strategy to man’s best friend, what age would you be? Are you an eager, enthusiastic puppy, ready to get your hands into everything and maybe making a few messes along the way? Or you a senior pup, content to lay on the couch and stick to your old ways?
In content marketing, you can be an old dog, just with mindset of a young one – especially when social media is involved.
“You know the saying, ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks?’ Yeah, that’s not the case for social.”
So says Brafton Social Media Strategist (nay, Starlet) Rachel Moskowitz. If there’s anyone who knows the amazing power of social (and the positive effect a great social strategy has on our clients), it’s her.
From Avril Lavigne to Red Sox team
Although Rachel became a Brafton employee in July 2017, her experience with the company extends to 12 months prior. Rachel was one of our social media interns, and she spent the summer before her senior year of college in our Boston office. Lucky for us, the experience convinced her that Brafton was where she was destined to work.
“I knew I needed to be in Boston,” she said. “I went to school in Delaware, and I’d go to Boston on every break. When I graduated, applying to Brafton was a no-brainer.”
It might have been a given at the time, but growing up, Rachel was attracted to a world far removed from social marketing.
“I wanted to be a singer,” she said of her childhood dream. “My cousins and I would always re-enact musicals and movie soundtracks, and I would always be the lead singer. I thought I was going to be the next Avril Lavigne.”
(As a former teenage fan of the Canadian pop-punk princess with a surprisingly huge Japanese following, I can only empathize.)
Lucky for Brafton, Rachel chose media communications with a minor in journalism over angsty vocals in college. She attended the University of Delaware, interned with us in Boston, finished her senior year and came right back.
A social media seer
Though Rachel’s tenure as an official social media strategist has been short, she’s not lacking for any industry knowledge or insights. In fact, she’s the first to admit that a person in her role has to be completely aligned with the industry in order to thrive.
“The industry is wild in how it changes every day,” she noted. “New platforms are always appearing, and old ones are fizzling out.”
She pointed to Snapchat and Facebook to emphasize her point, noting that the former’s updates excel at annoying its user base and the latter’s response to privacy concerns inhibits its full potential as a marketing platform.
“It’s important that every day we find the right solution [for our clients],” Rachel explained. “That represents a challenge but also an opportunity to go elsewhere [and explore new platforms].”
Currently, elsewhere often means LinkedIn and Instagram.
“We use LinkedIn every day across all industries,” Rachel said. “In the B2B world, it’s where all the professionals are.”
It’s important that every day we find the right solution [for our clients].
As for Instagram?
“People are visual,” she continued. “They also want to see authenticity with a brand and are driven to genuine culture.”
Of course, given that social media is one of the fastest-changing elements of content marketing, Rachel needs to be prepared for all the trends that are coming next. Her prediction is that video, which we’ve already identified as a must for 2018, will catch the eye of more and more businesses.
“We’re incorporating that into strategies now, and people are incredibly excited about it,” she said. “There are fun platforms and tools to work with to create these videos.”
Given that LinkedIn finally added video ads to its repertoire, it’s safe to say that Rachel knows what she’s talking about.
Getting on board with social
The way Rachel tells it, social media is a must for any business hoping to generate leads online – regardless of the industry.
“One of my favorite parts of the job is when I get to work with older companies,” she said. “They may even have a digital marketing strategy already, but they still don’t understand the need for social. Then, they start seeing the results we can produce. They become interested and see it’s a new trick they can use to grow their businesses. It’s fun to help them from the very start and see how far [social media] can take them.”
In fact, when asked what she wished everyone knew about social media marketing, Rachel immediately pointed to its value.
“There are some stubborn people who don’t understand the value of social media,” she explained. “It may be top of funnel, but if you see an ad enough times, you’re gonna click on it. Our clients have seen so many conversions and results from their social strategies.”
The way Rachel tells it, teaching old dogs new tricks is all about showing them great results.
