Social Media Roundup: Presenters, Be Ready for Anything

Event planners prepare for so many scenarios, generally: rain, power outages, no-shows, backup venues, the whole bit.

Why shouldn’t presenters plan the same way? Thoughts on that in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Many Sizes Fit All

Love this blog post about creating several versions of your presentations. Great learning from @jcufaude  (opens in a new tab)! #assnchat  (opens in a new tab) http://t.co/Y5KAdBu84b  (opens in a new tab)

— kikilitalien (@kikilitalien) August 12, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

If you have a short session lined up, it may be good to plan for a long one anyway, and vice versa, according to Idea Architects’ Jeffrey Cufaude. The reason?

“Because things happen: Lunches run late, the speaker before you eats into your time, participants get really engaged in a discussion and use more time than you had planned, you move through a content segment faster than you had anticipated, etc.,” he writes.

This happened to Cufaude himself recently, when he was given extra time to speak at an American College Personnel Association session because another presenter was running late.

Granted, creating presentations of different lengths is easier said than done, but Cufaude has several suggestions  (opens in a new tab) for doing so—and for preparing for scenarios where the presentation you were supposed to give ends up much different from the one you actually do. (ht @kikilitalien  (opens in a new tab))

Perfect Timing

The people @TrackMaven analyzed 1.5 million Facebook posts. Here’s the perfect one http://t.co/bbb883tiwZ  (opens in a new tab) via @socialmouths  (opens in a new tab) #sm4np  (opens in a new tab) #assnchat  (opens in a new tab)

— Incline Marketing (@InclineMktg) August 13, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

Want people to read your Facebook post? Timing matters. So do the visuals and the length.

If you want to have a bit of extra ammo when you’re posting content to Facebook, consider some strategic advice from SocialMouths‘ Francisco Rosales, based on a TrackMaven analysis  (opens in a new tab) of 1.5 million posts on 6,000 Facebook pages. Now, don’t go into this thinking it’ll automatically work for you, since these are just general ideas about what makes a successful Facebook post.

That said, here are the things you should keep in mind: Slightly longer posts (between 80 and 89 words) tend to do better than shorter ones (between 70 and 79 words); visual content is king; posting later in the day is better; you’ll get more likes on a Sunday than you will on a Wednesday. Oh, and don’t be afraid to ask a question!

Any advice you’d offer from your own Facebook strategy? (ht @InclineMktg  (opens in a new tab))

(iStock/Thinkstock)