SocialMinds - A Social Media Marketing Podcast

Real people. Real stories. Real moments. Locally created social content can connect with your customers more than generic brand content ever could.    At least, that's the thinking behind Greene King's social strategy. Leveraging its local teams was a mammoth task for the pub chain, which owns over 2,000 pubs and multiple sub-brands across the country. But with over five million fans across its so...

Social is no longer just about being social. It's a place where people buy, are entertained, become influenced or even find their dream job. And it's even poised to be a powerful search and discovery channel – look at Search Ads Campaign on TikTok.  With so much change on the horizon, how can marketers make sense of social's evolving role in their broader marketing mix? There's no one better place...

Video editing, images and even podcasts. With generative AI tools cropping up for almost every creative skill, there's no doubt AI enables us to work faster.  But that could come at a cost. AI is already making it quick and easy for marketers to get answers, but is it also making us get complacent?   At SocialMinds LIVE, SocialChain strategist Chelsea Noronha and group strategy director Ric Hayes...

Only a decade ago, brands existed on the fringes of social. Now, entire businesses are built and marketed around it. Impressive, right? Even more so when you remember that two decades ago, most social apps we use today hadn't even been invented.   Twenty years on, how are Monzo, Surreal and Lick – three brands who owe a lot of their success to their thriving social channels – integrating this into...

This time on Social in Six, Kieran and Mil cover two updates from TikTok, including a keyword search ad update and a new partnership that'll help you get more people shopping in store. They also cover Facebook's facelift to get Gen Z usership on the rise, two new updates from Snapchat, and a surprising update from Instagram. Finally, Pinterest's Halloween report is here to give you inspo for your...

As a global platform used by businesses, creatives, and entrepreneurs (and everybody in-between), Canva must create content that not only showcases its capabilities but also connects with diverse international markets, each using the platform for different reasons. Joining us today to discuss Canva's 'Truly Local' strategy is Lachlan Stewart, Social Lead at Canva. He shares insights into the chall...

Join us at Ducie Street Warehouse in Manchester on Wednesday 16 th October for a day filled to the brim with expert brand speakers, platform workshops, and live podcasts with some of social media's brightest minds. Register for free at socialchain.com/event.

This time on Social in Six, we're back with a very familiar update for YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn's push for more vertical video content, and TikTok's decision to let you edit videos after posting. Plus there are a few key updates to Ads on Facebook and Instagram including better API access for Reminder Ads, and Instagram changes the rules of play for its increasingly popular Broadcast Channels. We'...

Liquid Death only launched in 2019 and has already cemented its place in consumer's hearts and creatives' bucket lists. It's taken the simplest commodity - water - and built a rich universe of personality, creativity and credibility around it, that's turned a product into an entertainment property. In this episode we're joined by Liquid Death's VP of creative, Andy Pearson, who shares with us the...

On today's episode of Social in Six, our associate creator director Emma Lyskava joins our content marketer Mil to break down X's lawsuit against ad safety nonprofit Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and discuss Instagram's analytics changes that put views front and centre. We also cover YouTube's new ad type for livestreams, LinkedIn giving newsletters a boost with paid, a small but ha...

"Authentic". It's one of marketing's biggest buzzwords. Authenticity has become brands' North Star on social, but what does that word actually mean? Our content marketer Melissa Harvey wants to find out. In this episode, Melissa's diving into SocialChain's brand-new white paper Forget Real: Why Brands Should Aim Higher Than Authentic on Social. Together with its contributors, senior creator Eve Yo...

On this week's Social in Six, we're sharing the latest on TikTok's answer to virtual influencers: Digital Avatars, and an expansion of its Out of Phone ad placement. We discuss Instagram's exciting addition to Reels regarding audio and an update to its Collab Posts, plus X's decision to introduce downvotes and Pinterest's new AI image editing tool. Got a question or suggestion for the Social Minds...

If you saw Jeremy Allen White's Calvin Klein ad, count yourself lucky. It was shared without ALT text, so blind and partially sighted people couldn't join the fun. That was until RNIB schooled us all. Behind every sassy, creative, and inventive post from the Royal National Institute of Blind People is an important message: People with sight loss exist. Social media content manager and previous cop...

This week on Social in Six, we're joined by SocialChain senior strategist Gareth to break down the top stories circulating in social right now. On the agenda are two updates from Instagram – the first being a test for text overlays and different image ratios in Carousels, and the second being unskippable in-feed video ads. We also discuss TikTok replacing its Creator Centre with new TikTok Studio,...

Oatly's punk reputation needs no introduction, but its new media plan does. The brand is scaling up and growing up. So how can Oatly's provocative ads and content stay that way, while it steps into this next, more mature, phase? In this episode we're joined by its Global Media Director, Sarah Sutton, to reveal when brands are over-strategising, why Oatly still won't write TOV guidelines (I know, I...

A good social strategy should be a lot of things. But the best ones are built around, and for, the fans. Go behind the curtain of a campaign that dominated the FYP page in 2023: SharkNinja's fan-first approach promoting the Ninja Creami on TikTok. And discover how you too can build campaigns that outlast you. Hear from SharkNinja director of social media & influencers, and SocialChain's head of in...

Measuring social's effectiveness can be a minefield. We all want to create more effective outcomes for our brands through social, but social media's KPIs often seem disconnected to marketing effectiveness principles. That's what we aim to clarify through this panel discussion – with Ric Hayes, SocialChain group strategy director; Hannah Kimuyu, Brave Bison MD of performance; and Angie French, foun...

In this instalment of Social in Six, we're joined by SocialChain strategist Kieran Hughes to break down the latest social updates. This time that includes collaboration posts from TikTok, an algorithm change from Instagram, and several new premium ad types from TikTok. We also talk about Meta and TikTok's new crackdown on AI generated content, Instagram's plan to grow Threads' userbase further, an...

What should we, as brands, be doing to make our campaigns more engaging and, ultimately, more effective? There's no one better to ask than those who write the rules of engagement – the platforms themselves. At SocialMinds LIVE 2024 we put three of the major social players around the same table to find out – algorithm be damned - what formats, campaigns and ad solutions really drive engagement on t...

Our first panel at SocialMinds LIVE in London asked one simple question: how can brands bin the buzzword and build a genuine community? Answering our question was Leah Silverlock, global director of social media at American Express GBT; Jake Gauntlett, head of content at MOB; and Tom Bellamy, SocialChain's executive creator director. But here's the catch: how we define community and how the wider...

Join us from the SocialMinds stage in London, as we go behind the scenes of the ODMC (the Oatly Department of Mind Control) to find out what makes a distinctive brand on social. Hear from Sarah Sutton, global media director for the illustrious Oatly, as we learn how vowing to be consistently inconsistent has enabled everyone's favourite oat drink to build reams of brand equity. Plus, listen as you...

This week on Social in Six, we're talking about Instagram's latest move into collaborative social, with Blend, TikTok's push into shopping ads and search, and YouTube's focus on creator-led shopping. Elsewhere, Facebook's rules for video uploads have changed, while Reddit and LinkedIn both have exciting updates to their ads offering, branching into generative AI, live events, and Connected TV or C...

This episode is proudly sponsored by Riverside.fm.   Click here   to try it for yourself, and use the code socialminds to get 15% off any available plan. What we learned this episode: saying people don't care about product-focused posts isn't true. What today's guest says, is they don't care by default. Doesn't mean you can't make them. That guest is John Thornton, senior creative at Surreal and e...

SocialMinds Live is back, and we're heading to London! Listen to this quick update to get the lowdown, and be among the first to register your interest to hear Oatly, SharkNinja, American Express and more, in the flesh. To find out more, visit https://www.socialchain.com/event/

This episode is proudly sponsored by Riverside.fm. Click here to try it for yourself, and use the code socialminds to get 15% off any available plan. Today's Social in Six covers several strategy-changing updates – including a new LinkedIn algorithm that doesn't care when you published your post, only what you're talking about; a direct Instagram competitor app from TikTok called TikTok Photos (👀...