Newsweek - USA (2021-02-19)

Periscope

16 NEWSWEEK.COM

Breaking

Through the Noise

,n a Zorld constantly ʀooded Zith social media

posts on multiple platforms, these ɿve strategies Zill

help you stand out from the croZd

in the early days of covid,

racking up social media views

was easy—after all, everyone’s sched-

ule had suddenly cleared. But, as the

pandemic has worn on, social media

expert Shama Hyder notes, “People are

becoming more choosy about their

[media] consumption. The first webi-

nar’s cool, the second’s cool...the 80th

webinar better really bring it, right?”

Every Thursday at 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m.

PT, I host Better, a Newsweek video

interview program streaming on

LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and You-

Tube. Hyder—founder

and CEO of Zen Media, a

digital marketing and PR

firm, and author of The

Zen of Social Media Mar-

keting and Momentum:

How to Propel Your Mar-

keting and Transform

Your Brand in the Digital Age—was a

recent guest. During the interview, she

shared these five strategies about how

to break through the noise on social

media, when it seems noisier than ever.

Follow the Three Cs

Hyder believes the most impactful

social content these days has three

key characteristics: It’s compact, con-

sistent and creative.

“Micro is winning right now,” says

Hyder, because of short attention

spans and general media overload.

For instance, if you’re giving a vir-

tual talk, she suggests scheduling it

for 30 or 45 minutes, rather than the

traditional 60-minute presentation,

because audiences will be better able

to pay attention.

Consistency—building a relation-

ship with your audience by sharing

content at regular, predetermined

intervals—also matters. For instance,

in my book Entrepreneurial You, I pro-

file popular men’s fashion video blog-

ger Antonio Centeno, who believes

frequent, consistent posting has been

the secret to his massive

subscriber growth.

Finally, Hyder says,

we have to be creative in

order to stand out. That

means continually exper-

imenting and trying new

ways to connect with

your audience. Among the switch-

it-up tactics she suggests you might try:

talking about topics you don’t usually

cover, varying the length of your posts

or your videos or creating some con-

tent that’s more personal in nature.

Don’t Be Everywhere

“It’s very easy for me to sit here and

say, ‘Be on every [social channel],”

says Hyder. “I know a lot of gurus

do that. But it’s such terrible advice

because it all depends on your band-

width. Do you have a team of 20 you

can deploy?” Most of us don’t.

The solution, according to Hyder:

“Get on the platform where you can

be consistent.” That usually means

the intersection of the platform

where your audience congregates

and where you most enjoy posting.

For instance, Hyder and I work with

professional clients, and therefore we

both put most of our online efforts

into LinkedIn, where I also offer a

weekly e-newsletter.

Create Pillar Content

Hyder is a believer in what she calls

“pillar content”—meaning, creating

rich material on a particular topic

and then leveraging that content in

multiple ways.

An example: “When trade shows

BUSINESS

FEBRUARY 19, 2021

BY

DORIE CLARK

@dorieclark