Marketing Happy Hour - Social Strategy 101: What You Need to Succeed | Lauren Freund of Shutterfly

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome, everyone, to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast, where you'll hear career-defining advice, powerful social media strategies, unique creative tips, groundbreaking influencer marketing tactics, and more from marketing experts that represent some of the world's leading brands. Go ahead, grab a drink, and join us for this week's episode. Instagram has announced that they are increasing the length limit for reels from 30 seconds to 60 seconds. According to social media today, Instagram has been experimenting with longer reels for some time, after first extending reels from 15 to 30

Starting point is 00:00:45 seconds last September. And given that TikTok now enables the upload of longer clips up to three minutes and YouTube shorts can also be up to 60 seconds in length, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Instagram followed the trend. We want to hear from you. Head to our Marketing Happy Hour DMs on Instagram and let us know what you think. Is the constant updating to keep up with emerging platforms too much? Is everything becoming too similar? And what do you prefer? We can't wait to hear your thoughts, so catch you over on Instagram. For this week's podcast, Erica talks with Lauren. She's the Senior Growth Innovation Channel Manager with Shutterfly, an image sharing company. She's previously a social media and

Starting point is 00:01:34 creative strategist with Taco Bell, a company we all know well. On this week's podcast, she talks audience acquisition as well as some components to a successful social media strategy. Listen in with us. Hey, Lauren, how are you doing? I'm doing great. How are you today? I'm pretty good. As you know, from our clubhouse session, we always ask our guests this. So what is in your glass tonight? This is marketing happy hour after all. It is. I have Moscato in my glass. I have a big sweet tooth, so it's always Moscato for me. Always love a good, refreshing Moscato.

Starting point is 00:02:15 Totally understand that. How about you? Oh, I actually have a, well, you know, I made a little concoction on my own it's a little bit of this like watermelon Mountain Dew which sounds interesting and then some Campari and like water so wow you're like a little ecologist over there I know right I made do with what I had it's not the best thing ever but you know it's what I needed tonight. I love it. Yes. It's so great to chat with you again.

Starting point is 00:02:49 We had you as a guest on a Clubhouse session when you were working as a creative strategist at Taco Bell. And now you're part of the growth hacking team at Shutterfly. Could you give us a brief insight into how you started your career and then built it to what it is today? Absolutely. So I started off, well, I majored in public relations and advertising in college at Chapman University. I really didn't know much about the advertising world. I joined that major for the PR side. And

Starting point is 00:03:19 then throughout all my classes, I really fell in love with advertising. It was so much fun. And there was just so much more creative freedom there. And I absolutely ate that up. So within my time at college, I did as many internships as they could. As you know, marketing and advertising, it's such a big space. And there's so many, it's kind of vague sometimes, you know, there's so many different things that you can specialize in within marketing and advertising. So I really wanted to take my time during my college years to understand what it is I wanted to do and explore. So I worked at a few ad agencies, and did a lot of I did a few event planning, too. So really just exploring all of it. But towards the end of my years, I just gravitated towards social media. I loved it. I don't end of my years, I just gravitated towards social

Starting point is 00:04:05 media. I loved it. I don't know, it's probably I'm probably biased because I grew up with it. But it just it comes as a second nature. And I also love it because it's ever changing. And it's one of those things that you get to, you know, make a job out of which would never be like that, like 10 years ago, no one would ever think social media would be a job, but it is now which I'm super grateful for. So I knew I wanted to specialize in that. And I saw a job at Taco Bell come along for social media coordinator. And I applied to that. And I got the job, which I was stoked about. It's always very exciting to get your first real job out of college. And I really couldn't have asked for a better first job coming out. I got to do so many different things there, working on so many projects, collaborating with different teams. And I spent three years there,

Starting point is 00:04:58 and now I am at Shutterfly on their growth hacking team. That is so awesome. Can you tell us a little bit about what that team is responsible for and what your role looks like currently? Yeah, absolutely. So like many companies, you know, Shutterfly wants to be constantly growing. And a big area for growth is within the social and digital space. Like I mentioned, it's just ever changing. And the best way to grow is to try new things, testing new ideas, ways of engaging with customers, strategies for acquiring new ones, etc. And the obstacle that a lot of companies run into within the growth space is not having time and resources for it,

Starting point is 00:05:37 because most of the employees are focused on the day to day, making sure that they're getting all the products or services, marketing about products and services out and on time. And there's not really a space for the growth, but that's where the growth hacking team comes in, which is what I do. My team is dedicated to creating, testing, and optimizing new growth initiatives. And on top of that, we're responsible for reporting and implementing those learnings for future campaigns and initiatives. So while we do some smaller A-B tests, we're really up of a few core people. So there's myself, who is the social channel manager and brings a lot of social ad expertise. We also have a member from the brand side who brings strategy. And then we have a member from the creative side with UX

Starting point is 00:06:36 experience. And then lastly, we have a member from the analytics team who obviously specializes in that. So what's really great about the growth hacking team is we you have four core people who all come together with their expertise to create this, you know, really fast and testing group that can produce all these amazing growth hacking initiatives. And so in short, our growth hacking team is just assembled to develop experimentation scenarios that could lead to new growth in the form of customer acquisition and in new lines of business. That is really cool. That's awesome that you get to act as the small but mighty team of like pioneers in the market. I love that. So like you mentioned, your position currently and in the past dealt a lot with social media strategy and building plans for those audience acquisition and conversion tactics.

Starting point is 00:07:32 So when building a strategy for social media, what does that process usually look like? And then what KPIs specifically were you targeting at Taco Bell and now at Shutterfly? Yeah, so I think the process should always start out with an objective. What are you trying to accomplish? A really good mantra that I learned at Taco Bell was why share, why care? You know, anyone and any brand can have a social media account and post whatever they want. But the question is not what's going to be successful, but rather what defines success. And you can't begin making content, let alone a fleshed out

Starting point is 00:08:10 strategy until you align on what your objective is. So I definitely think that's a really important part of building out a social strategy. From there, it's building or at least understanding the rest of the bones, like what your demographic is, what your KPI is defined as, where do your fans or, you know, customers of your product or service live or gravitate towards on social media. I'll pause on the KPI. So at Taco Bell, we really focused on engagement per impression. You know, we, for a long time, have had so many followers, but we really wanted to make sure that we were retaining the followers that we already had and that they were engaging with us. A big part of why we were on social is to be that, you know, big, big brother, big sister friend that you could go to. We really wanted to act like the younger

Starting point is 00:09:07 friend of a brand. And we really tried to put that forth in all of our social media. So that was a major KPI there because we always wanted to be connecting with our customers and with our fans and telling them what's new and why they should care. At Shutterfly, our KPI is a lot more based on conversion. So we're really focused on click-through rate and our ROAS. But, you know, I take, even though those two are very different, I've taken a lot of my learnings at Taco Bell when it comes to KPI conversion, even though I used to do engagement per impression, some of the tactics that I use now are still very similar. But after that, you know, once you understand what the KPI is, going back to the social strategy,

Starting point is 00:10:00 I would say that after that, you can start creating your creative and messaging. And I think that should really be a blend of who you are as a brand, who your demographic is, and what platform you're posting on. I think blending those things together will really create successful messaging and creative. And they should heavily just influence everything that you're putting out there. After that, learning and learning and more learning, you know, I think you should track the performance, optimize the creative and test some more, target a new audience, test on a new platform, and then test some more. I think you can never test enough because a really strong social media strategy should always include the

Starting point is 00:10:42 analyzing, the reporting, and the testing component because you need to be adaptable in the social space or else you're going to fall behind. Yes, spoken like a true social guru. That's 100% what it's about. So what would you say are a few key components in a social media strategy that every brand should consider? You touched a little bit on KPIs and understanding your audience and all of that testing. But what do you think is down to one thing because so much goes into it. I would say, you know, a really big thing is why share, why care? Like that mantra was a very important component that went into a lot of what we do at Taco Bell and even at Shutterfly that goes into it as well. Because, you know, if we're so focused on conversion, it's even more important there of why are people going to care about this? And, you know, social media is an inherently changing space.

Starting point is 00:11:51 So you need to build room for that exploration, innovation and testing, which I touched on. And then lastly, I know I've said three things here, but just it's hard to pick one thing. But I think it's making sure that you're being highly engaging, you know, not just with your followers, but also users or communities who are interested in your product or service and the social media space as a whole. I think one of the most important things of building social strategy and keeping up with everything is having that space of people or time for your team to really dig in on what's happening in social and how we can how can we be a part of it in our own branded way. Yeah, totally. And along those same lines, you know, as social as ever changing, and you need to tap into your audience in new and different ways sometimes. What are

Starting point is 00:12:46 your predictions for the future of social? Yeah. Let me think. We know that. Sorry. No, go ahead. I was just going to say, we know that Instagram just recently came out and said they're no longer a photo sharing app. And I know all of my social media strategists friends just threw up their hands and we're like, awesome. So we have to throw out the next, you know, six months of strategy and rework at all. But along those same lines, what what, what do you see? And what do you think about the future of social? Absolutely. So I totally hear you on that. It's crazy because obviously social started off in the beginning with photos. You know,

Starting point is 00:13:31 if you go all the way back to MySpace and Facebook, so much of that was posting your photos and sharing and then Instagram came out of that. But I always think it's really interesting, you know, when Vine came along, it was really popular and then it died out. But then TikTok came and really proved that it's here to stay. And not only that, but it's making such a huge impact. Like you mentioned, that video is now taking control over photo. besides that, oh, it's video and it's more engaging than photos are, I think it gives brands and people more of a chance to be authentic and connect with people. And I think that's why it's so successful and why Instagram is kind of leaving their identity of being photo sharing and

Starting point is 00:14:19 more, you know, interactive video with reels and IGTV and all of that, because it really lets creators and brands and companies to connect easier and really share who they are and what they're about. And when it comes down to it, you know, there are so many companies out there and companies that are competitors, and they really just give the same product. So where you can make a difference is in your branding and in your connection and relationship to your consumers. And so that was my long winded way of saying I think that video is definitely going to take control and specifically being more authentic and more raw and less curated and

Starting point is 00:15:00 highly produced. Yeah, thank you so much for your insight on that. At Taco Bell, you collaborated quite a bit with the creative team on building campaigns. So what did the creative brainstorm process look like there? And can you tell us a little bit about some of the most successful campaigns that you were a part of? Yeah, so the creative process there was very cross-functional, which was great, especially starting out. I got to work with so many different people in teams and really understand all the different components of expertise that had to go into a product and campaign. So how it worked when I was at Taco Bell is we would receive a brief from the brand

Starting point is 00:15:41 team that outlined the product objective and any creative and copy considerations. So we would take that and then translate it into our own social media brief. So we would blend what we know about the product and then present that to the creatives in a way that we know would work well on social. It's really, it's great that, you know, we have the teams doing the research and building the brand of the product or campaign. But it's our job as the social team to take that, be true to that, but also translate it to social terms. And in a way that's very highly digestible for our social fans. So we would do that, translate it into a more social media friendly brief and then brief our creative teams.

Starting point is 00:16:23 We would go through rounds of creative concepts, sketches, ideas, and then we would go to the actual photo shoot. From there, we would then review all the selects and finally, finally have our final product, which did take a lot longer than a lot of people would think. But, you know, we were really using all of our past learnings and leaning on our creative experts to produce the highest quality content we could. So from there, it would go out into the world. And that was our creative process. As for the most successful campaigns, I think, I mean, it depends how you define success. For example, I had the pleasure of working on the Taco Bell hotel activation was probably my Yeah, it was probably my favorite

Starting point is 00:17:11 project that I worked on there. It was definitely the most challenging because it was so new, you know, we had done food products for so long and food campaigns and we were not in the business of hospitality. So there was definitely a learning curve, but it was the most rewarding campaign that I ever worked on. And, you know, we for for people who don't know, the Bell Hotel activation was when Taco Bell took over a hotel in Palm Springs, and we made it all Taco Bell themed and a huge experience. And we had influencers there, but also just anyone who could get a ticket. We sold out our tickets in two minutes. It was pretty wild. But anyways, yeah. So that was definitely one of the most rewarding and it was successful because of all the buzz we've got. But I guess if you define

Starting point is 00:18:03 success more as conversion and thinking more towards food, I was a part of a few of our nacho fries campaigns and nacho fries never fails us. Nacho fries is our shamrock shake. It's our pumpkin spice latte. It's something that people know Taco Bell for and always wait around every year to come back. So even though those aren't much of a challenge because we know they're going to be successful, it is a creative challenge because you always have to figure out how to make it new and different. And then lastly, I would say that our freezes are always really successful too. Everyone on social media loves our freezes because we get so we would get so creative with

Starting point is 00:18:46 them. And they would always be new and different. So I was very lucky during my time at Taco Bell, I worked on a lot of really successful campaigns. And it led me to understand the components that went into that to then use those learnings in my future job. That is so cool. I love that you touched on the nacho fries and kind of confirmed that they do every year. I remember, I think it was like, I don't know if it was the first year, but it was the first year that I learned about them. And I was on like the keto diet with my dad, I was doing it with him and I couldn't have them. And then they went off the menu. And I was so upset. I was like, I wanted to try them have them. And then they went off the menu and I was so upset. I was like, I wanted to try them so bad. And then I was so excited when they came back.

Starting point is 00:19:30 And then I've seen every now and then that they'll go away and come back. So it sounds like they're on a little bit of a cycle there. Thank you for confirming that. Yes. Yes, it is. It is a cycle. We never know. Unfortunately, it's not, you know, obviously shamrock shake, you know, that comes around the same time every year, same with pumpkin spice latte. So unfortunately, it's never like an exact day in time or month. But yes, they we've brought it back quite a few times now. So don't worry. And don't go on a keto diet next time they come around. You should just break it. Yeah, exactly. I will. So leading into the last couple questions here, what is something that you wish you knew early on in your career? I think a clubhouse session, but could you share a little bit here for our

Starting point is 00:20:18 listeners? Yeah, absolutely. I would say something that I wish I had learned or, you know, kept in mind early on in my career is probably explore and test things and take more risks. I think naturally when you're first starting out in your career, you don't want to do anything wrong and you want to do things by the book and just, you know, do everything that you're supposed to do and told to do, which you should. But I think there should be encouragement for people who are entering the workforce to understand that they got the job and they're in the position that they're in for a reason. And we want to make sure that that your talent gets to be presented. And so I think something that I would tell someone starting off is definitely understand that you're going to make mistakes and some of your ideas aren't going to

Starting point is 00:21:12 be the best. But to that same token, there's a flip side that you're not going to make mistakes sometimes. And sometimes those risks you take will be successful. And those ideas that you have will be, you know, turn into a campaign maybe. And then lastly, I would also say to explore as much as you can in terms of your job early on. Internships were amazing for me because I, there were so many jobs that I did and I'm like, okay, I understand what this is now. I don't want to do this in the future. But there were also jobs that I loved. And then there were jobs in the middle where I was like, I like this part. I don't like the other part.

Starting point is 00:21:51 What can I find as a job that does the parts that I like and less of the parts I don't like? Again, no job is perfect, but the more experience and exploring you can do, the better. And I think, you know, as you move along your career, you'll identify those things. And don think, you know, as you move along your career, you'll identify those things and don't be afraid to either morph your current job into doing more what you want to do

Starting point is 00:22:11 or finding something out there that really resonates with your talents and your strengths. That is such great advice. It's definitely, it's definitely great to think about it as stepping stones on the way to where you want to be. Every experience you have leads you to where you're meant to be. So I think that's great insight. Well, thank you, Lauren, so much for joining us. How can people keep up with you? And Instagram, what's the best way to get in touch with you? Yeah, absolutely. I am on Instagram and LinkedIn, just my name, Lauren Freund. Feel free to add me on anything. Or if you have any questions, I'm happy to grab coffee, virtual coffee, whatever it is and chat. I love talking about career paths and giving advice. So please

Starting point is 00:23:08 don't hesitate to reach out. And thank you so much for having me on your podcast. The clubhouse was amazing. And this was super fun, too. So just thank you guys so much. Awesome. Thank you. thanks for tuning in this week if you love this conversation with lauren make sure to rate and subscribe the podcast if you want to keep up with us off the podcast make sure to visit us on instagram at marketing happy hr next week we're going to chat with kaylee and nicole an influencer marketing specialist who's going to teach you how to make your first $1,000 in your own business we can't wait to have you

Marketing Happy Hour - Social Strategy 101: What You Need to Succeed | Lauren Freund of Shutterfly

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