At the WBII’s November networking event, Sarai Velez Ramirez shared some valuable tips on collaborating on social media. Her insights came not only form her business experience with Amare Digital Solutions, but also from her observations, experience with ACCESS and several other initiatives she has been involved in.
‘Why is social media not working for me?’
Many of us have probably asked ourselves this question – despite the number of posts, social media just doesn’t seem to make a difference. Sarai explained that the reason for this is rarely a problem of visibility or of too little content; it’s more likely to be caused by an absence of authentic collaboration.
She explained this by elaborating on three distinct dimensions of collaboration, each of which plays a different role in expanding reach, credibility and engagement:
• Creative & strategic collaboration
• Community collaboration
• Cross-brand collaboration
1. Creative & strategic collaboration
Sarai showcased real collaborators she has worked with (photographers, designers, creators) to highlight that professional social media is never a one-person job.
She shared one example of a graphic designer and a content creator who collaborated to produce high-quality social media posts. Each had their own specific skills and expertise which, when brought together, resulted in consistent, good quality social media presence.
2. Cross-brand collaboration
The strength of cross-brand collaboration lies in the possibilities it offers businesses to borrow from each other’s audiences through, for example, joint workshops or webinars, co-created content, guest appearance and co-branded guides or resources.
She shared an example of a collaboration between ACCESS and childbirth preparation course trainers. With ACCESS providing a large audience and brand recognition and the trainers providing expertise and content, social media visibility for the course rose from ~200 to nearly 2,000 views. A clear example of successful collaboration.
3. Community collaboration – The most important type
This was the section that resonated most with us. Sarai explained that community collaboration includes:
• Polls and questions
• Responding to reviews (positive or negative)
• Human interaction in comments
• Creating spaces for people to feel seen
Real examples included ACCESS polls, review responses and a ‘Day in the Life’ video that reached +7,000 impressions thanks to community engagement.
She emphasised however that when engaging with social media content it’s important to do so ‘as a human’, i.e. be yourself when you comment. The algorithms steering social media reward comments to posts as well as the actual posts themselves. In other words – comments = visibility.
The takeaways
Sarai concluded by pointing out that much of social media use depends on who you’re trying to reach so your message needs to be tailored to your audience.
And to conclude, she gave us a few take-aways on how to use social media successfully:
Her key takeaways were:
• Don’t try to do everything alone
• Engage authentically
• Collaboration is the fastest growth tool for you
• Community = opportunity
• Showing up together is a strategy
