Our Social Ads Podcast: best episodes so far

Here at Paragone, we’ve made it out mission to help social ad experts level-up! That’s why we write this blog, run a weekly Facebook LIVE social news update and why we regularly interview social media experts for our very own podcast!

Our podcast is called ‘Hello Social Ad-dicts’, and it’s everything you need to stay on top of the biggest trends in social media.

This blog post will provide you with a quick recap of the seven ‘Interview Special’ episodes we have published on the podcast to date! New interview episodes are published every fortnight, in which we speak to an expert in social to dive into a particular theme in depth. The conversations last around 20 minutes, and aim to provide you with actionable insights you can take away and use in your day-to-day job.

Episode 1: ‘Chatbots and the Future of Messaging’

with Beerud Sheth (Gupshup)

Recorded at this year’s MWC conference in Barcelona, this episode covered the rise of messaging and what it means for social media advertisers. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Gupshup is an advanced chatbot and messaging platform which enables developers to quickly build, test, deploy and manage chatbots across all messaging channels.

Our conversation with Beerud (Co-Founder and CEO of Gupshup) covered:

• The difference between simple and smart messaging.
• The use cases of chatbots today and into the future.
• A vision for the future of messaging in social media, and how chatbots will continue to change the way consumers engage with brands.
• What AI-powered chatbots still can’t do.
• Some key considerations before getting a chatbot for your business

Episode 2: ‘Emojis and the Future of Messaging’

with Nadim Shartouny (Minimoji)

In our second interview special, Nadim gave us a great overview of all things emojis – where they’ve come from, where they are headed, and how brands can get value from them.

This episode covered:

• A brief history of emojis.
• How brands can leverage them.
• How emojis can enable brands to enter into the inner sanctum of private messaging between consumers.
• Why brands need to think visually about their activities on messaging apps. The likes of Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Line, WeChat and Kakao should be approached in a visual way, rather than as simple text platforms.
• How AR and VR are adding to the way consumers use messaging apps.

Episode 3: ‘Advertising and the GDPR’

with Matthias matthiesen (Iab europe)

The Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (IAB Europe) is the leading European-level industry association for the online advertising ecosystem. In the lead up to GDPR, they released a new framework aimed at standardizing the process of gaining consent to collect and use consumer data.

Listen in to learn more about:

• The European and global context for the GDPR.
• The IAB Europe framework for GDPR Transparency & Consent.
• How the GDPR is an opportunity for marketers and advertisers to put the customer first.
• Whether targeting options in social advertising are likely to change with the GDPR.
• Other impacts the GDPR will bring on social advertising.
• GDPR compliance priorities for businesses that don’t feel ready.

Episode 4: ‘Social Video’

with Jonathan Kitchen (Brave Bison)

On social, video is essentially becoming the go-to form of communication between people. From Stories (across Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook), to live video chat, to the hugely share-able GIF format, video is the content format of choice. It’s accessible and engaging and it’s a format that is only going one way – up!

Listen to learn:

• Why video has taken off so much in the last few years, as a social content format.
• What ‘audience-first content’ is and how your brand can go about creating video that is ‘audience-first’.
• Why video is particular engaging for a Gen-Z audience.
• What is takes for a piece of video content to hit the nirvana of being exciting, engaging and effective all at once.
• How video content should be approached differently by brands on different social platforms – Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube.
• Some budding trends in social video.
• Where the rise of social video leaves TV.

Episode 5: ‘The Value of Live Video on Social Media’

with Mireille Ryan (Social Media Marketing Institute)

We all know video plays a huge role in social media these days. Live video, as part of that, has also seen a lot of growth in importance in the last few years. Online Live video goes back quite a few years now, with YouTube having launched their live service as far back as 2011.

Mireille Ryan’s passion for social media led her to establish the Social Media Marketing Institute – a membership, education and professional development organisation for the Social Media Industry.

Listen to this episode to learn:

• Why Live video on social has taken off as a content format recently.
• How Live video can help your brand build an authentic and open dialogue with your audience.
• The way to approach Live video, compared to edited video.
• Which social network to choose for Live video, and the differences between them – e.g. Facebook, Periscope, Instagram, YouTube.
• What advertising might look like with Live video in the future.
• Questions you should be asking yourself before diving in to Live video.

Episode 6: ‘Innovating within the Established’

with Jenn Edelberg (Colossal Media)

Social advertising is pretty go-forward, but social networks are crowded places these days. The likes of the Facebook platform and others are swimming in ads these days, so innovation is key. You need to know how to innovate to cut through the noise, and achieve consistently good results.

So what lessons can we learn about innovating with ad formats and platforms that are already well established, and where competition for space is fierce?

For some gems of wisdom we went to talk to a company who has made a name for themselves creating innovative ads in perhaps the most established ad medium of all: Out-of-Home.

Episode 7: ‘Latest on Instagram for Business’

with Jenn Herman (Jenn’s Trends)

Instagram’s rise has been monumental. From humble beginnings as a photo editing and sharing app in 2010, Instagram has grown to become a major social network, where people communicate and interact with each other, engage with businesses and even go on to purchase.

To help you get the most out of it, and understand the journey of Instagram so far, we sat down with Jenn Herman – social media consultant, speaker, and globally recognized Instagram expert.

Listen in to this episode of our podcast to learn about:

• The initial purpose of Instagram.
• The impact of Facebook buying Instagram.
• The value for businesses of advertising on Instagram, and how to approach it differently to your Facebook advertising.
• How the battle with Snapchat has positively impacted Instagram.
• Key considerations for businesses when it comes to Instagram Stories.
• Best practices for using hashtags on Instagram.
• Analysis on recent new features in Instagram.
• What the future could hold.