Wowza! In celebration of completing 6 months since the start of her apprenticeship with us here at South Coast Social, we invited our apprentice Lucy to compile 6 things she has learnt into a blog. Over to you Lucy!…

Put the Social in Social Media

When I first started at South Coast Social, I realised how easy it is to forget being social on social media. With the help of Emma and her social media training workshops, I learnt ways of creating conversation online. Instead of telling people what to do 24/7, I began starting conversations by asking questions. This, also, taught me the difference between a Call To Action (CTA) and telling people what to do. Being able to utilise social media to create conversations has definitely increased my engagement. A massive thank you to Emma and her amazing workshops, which taught me lots.

There is more than one tone of voice

One thing I found very useful was not to assume tone of voice. I have now learnt that, before writing anything, I need to establish the target audience and plan an overall goal. From there, I can create the tone of voice I need. Whether it’s professional or informal and chatty, there is a tone of voice out there for every brand. For example, for one of our hospitality clients, Estelle taught me how to write in a casual, conversational tone. We achieved this tone by using rhetorical questions, puns and informal phrases. Learning to write in different tones of voices has 100% helped me and inspired me to write more for various brands.

Trial and error

With social media, it is important to experiment – not in an extreme way but in a way of trying to achieve more engagement. Whether you want to try polls on Instagram stories or you want to write blogs, you can try multiple techniques, methods and features to increase your performance for digital marketing. It is also important to note that some of the things you try will not be as successful as you hoped – this is common, so you should never be disheartened if this happens. If something doesn’t work out, go away, review, adjust and then retry. Learning that you need to try things has definitely inspired me to discover new ways to reach goals for the clients I work with.

It’s ok to make mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes along the way in social media. Some may be bigger than others; however, it’s important to note that it is ok to make mistakes as that’s when you learn. Just try to not make the same mistakes multiple times. A mistake I made at South Coast Social was that I scheduled a post on the wrong Facebook page – oops! Thankfully, Christina helped me with the situation and was very calm and knowledgeable. That mistake definitely makes me double check all of my work before submitting it. I very quickly learnt that, in this industry, it is important to take care with your work as there is very little room for error.

Social media isn’t just Facebook and Instagram

There are many social media platforms out there – not just Facebook and Instagram. They can be easily forgotten; however, remember that there are more platforms out there and they can all be utilised in their own unique way. A list of other social media platforms include: 

• Snapchat 
• LinkedIn 
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• DeviantArt

While it is important to acknowledge that there is more than one social media channel, it is also important to understand that not all platforms are relevant for every business. For example, a company that sells dog products won’t need a social media presence on DeviantArt but will want to be on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and possibly TikTok. Establishing what each social media platform is used for is very significant, when posting content for a business.

Time management is crucial

When it comes to scheduling content, it is important to be good at managing your time. If you are like me, you learn very quickly to manage your time better. Some good ways to help with time management include: 

• using a calendar to plan meetings, big campaigns and other important dates (e.g. photoshoot day)
• use a notebook to make to-do lists, as well as prioritising/visualising jobs; use sticky notes or reminders to help you remember key things, whether that be to respond to comments or to post something at a certain time.

Summary

The past 6 months have been very fun and a great overall experience. Thanks to such an amazing team, I have already learnt so much and gained a variety of experiences, from social media content planning to blog writing. I am looking forward to the future and can’t wait to learn more with South Coast Social. Thank you to the SCS team for being so friendly and informative.