It was really great to be a part of the inaugural UK social media conference earlier this month, where we at Shake were privy to the wisdom of some of the biggest names in social media marketing– among them the ever-brilliant Mari Smith and fantastic Lilach Bullock.

I managed to grab a photo with the excellent Mari Smith (despite the terrible lighting)

We heard a huge variety of speakers throughout the conference, with as many different approaches and viewpoints. Over the course of the presentations, however, a few key themes emerged.

These are the three takeaways that will benefit you when marketing your business on social media:

Know your audience.

More and more social networks are embracing advertising options for brands, and as competition between platforms increases, targeting options are becoming more and more sophisticated. It’s absolutely crucial to identify your ideal customers, so that you can make the most of powerful targeting and ensure that your message (and your marketing budget) are having the greatest impact.

Facebook is set to become a paid-only platform for brands.

Organic reach is down, and everybody knows it. Organic reach on business pages can be as low as 2%, and the number is only declining. Add to that the struggle to encourage engagement and you’ll see that many brands are turning to Facebook’s extensive advertising options to make sure the right people are seeing their content. Facebook’s ad options are extensive and affordable, so I wouldn’t call it disastrous news– but it will mean getting to grips with boosting and advertising, for those who haven’t already.

Video is happening now.

Video in the Facebook news feed has surpassed YouTube for desktop views. Though that’s not the whole story– autoplay in the news feed skews the number somewhat– it’s certainly true that of all content types on the network it’s video that consistently has the best engagement. Add to that Facebook’s plans to introduce video ads to the network, and you’ll see that video is going from strength to strength on social. It’s not ‘the future’ any more– video has already taken over our social media feeds, and if you’re not creating video content in some form, you’re falling way behind.

Social media is a brilliant thing, in part because it can be approached in so many ways– which makes it all the more interesting when speakers who each have a wildly different focus can come to a consensus.

Many thanks to the Big Social Media Conference team for an informative two days. Hope to see you again next year for more expert insights!

– Moya