Social media can be a confusing and frustrating medium – it’s hard to know what will resound with audiences, how to strike the right tone, and how to balance the commercial and community aspects when managing social channels for a business.
It was with this in mind almost a year ago that we started The Rules of Engagement – a free monthly lunchtime meet-up for professionals working in social media and community management in and around Bristol, or those just wanting to know more about it!
“It’s interesting to see what is working for other people, tips and tricks that you may never have uncovered otherwise”
We’ve got a good mix of regular attendees, including marketing managers, journalists, students, and founders of local startups who want tips on how to grow their brand effectively.
Being social with the socials
The feedback from our events has been great so far; with people really enjoying the chance to share info with people in similar job roles in a relaxed environment.
As one regular puts it: “It’s interesting to see what is working for other people, tips and tricks that you may never have uncovered otherwise”, while another told me: “It’s a really useful group for meeting people doing similar things in content and social, realising that social media is a constantly evolving art, and for sharing successes and frustrations!”
Our discussions have covered a broad scope of topics including dealing with customer feedback on social media, brand identity, blogger outreach, and recommendations for social measuring tools and image-editing websites – we’re regularly sharing useful links and ideas on our Facebook group too. Here are just a few of the super handy resources and websites we’ve shared with each other:
- Image editing: Pablo by Buffer, Canva, Pixlr
- Free stock photos: Unsplash, Picjumbo, Pexels, Albumarium
- Infographics, reports & presentations: Piktochart, Slideshare
- Free reporting tools: Buffer, SharedCount, Buzzsumo, Twitter Analytics
- Useful blogs: Hootsuite, ShortStack, Buffer, Hubspot, Sprout Social, Moz (especially their Whiteboard Friday series)
Get involved
We’ve now decided to also do occasional evening meet-ups to give us a chance to showcase some projects we’re individually working on and focus in on one particular challenge.
The first of these will be on Wednesday 24th February at the Sift Media office on Baldwin St – join us to see what fun experiments Sift have been doing with their online communities, hear what experiences another local business has had with podcasts, and we’ll also be discussing how and why to implement more video and podcasts in your organisation. With pizza!
Join our Facebook group to find out about our next events and see which articles and resources we’re finding handy at the moment.
