Marketing Lessons We Learned at the April 2024 MKE DMC Meeting

Lesson 1: 
Measuring & Building Topical Authority for SEO

Download Greg's presentation deck here.

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Greg Bernhardt, from Shopify and PhysicsForums.com, talked about building and measuring Topical Authority. We learned how businesses can measure topical authority to create a strategy to become the go-to source in their niches.

Three Pillars of Topical Authority

1. ‍Who You Say You Are—Focus on the narrative you create and the signals you send about your brand. How you define yourself through your content, your website structure, and the internal SEO practices you employ should be clear and aligned.‍
2. What Others Say About You—Reputation is not just built by what brands say about themselves, but also by what others say about them. This includes external signals like backlinks, brand mentions, reviews, and the Knowledge Graph.‍
3. Who You Really Are—Analysis through the eyes of the most critical observer: Google’s algorithms. This is measured by what/how you rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) and how users interact with your content. Is it relevant to what you actually do?

Building & Improving Topical Authority

The Basics

• Produce content that speaks directly to your expertise and the value you provide. Create content that hits the mark—clear, relevant, and detailed enough to stand out.
• Use and optimize for SEO best practices. Focus on the main content, headings, page titles, internal links, and internal link anchor text to reinforce your narrative.
• Make sure every piece of content reflects a consistent brand voice and identity that aligns with how you want to be perceived.
• Alignment. How the world sees your brand should reflect your internal identity and the results you're capturing in organic search.

Next Level

• Using machine learning and natural language processing, to measure, sift through, and refine content strategies.

Lesson 2: 
Why Social Media Managers Need A Minute

Download McDill's presentation deck here.

Daryn Peterman, Sebastian Raasch, and Alyvia Kuhl from McDill unpacked the day-to-day hustle of social media managers, with responsibilities in and beyond the board room. 

Successful social media management starts with process and planning, because… Murphy’s law.

The Many Hats of a Social Media Manager

Social management involves a mix of strategic planning, creative content generation, and analytics.

• The Thinker: Develop and refine the social media strategy.
• The Taskmaster: Implement processes and oversee the governance of various channels.
• The Creator: Create content that resonates with the target audience.
• The Number Cruncher: Analyze data, gauge the effectiveness of various social media activities, and communicate it to C-Suite.
• The Peacekeeper: Manage community interactions and maintain a positive brand image.
• The Cheerleader: Encourage brand advocacy and engage internal stakeholders in social media initiatives.

The McDill team illustrated some daily tasks that fall under each of the hats, and unexpected challenges that social media managers encounter. These included responding to a “crisis” on social media, rolling out last-minute campaigns, and generating reports for the C-Suite. 

Tools & Strategies for Effective Management

McDill highlighted essential tools and strategies that enable social media manager to plan and execute social media strategies smoothly.

• Detailed social media guidelines
• Real-time monitoring dashboards
• Flexible content calendars

Key Takeaways

1. Strategic thinking and quick responsiveness are super important skills for social media managers. It's a diverse job. One minute you’re creating, the next you’re diving into analytics or managing a crisis. 
2. Every interaction and campaign should be strategically designed to contribute to the overall business goals, enhancing brand reputation and achieving marketing success.
3. Effective social media management hinges on good preparation and having the right tools at your disposal, like response templates, workflows, and real-time analytics dashboards.

Final Thoughts

The second event is the event where you learn the most about your future as an organization, and to see MKE DMC filled with local digital marketers again is a great signal for the impact the organization can make on our community. We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to:

• Our new founding partner, McDill
• Last night’s event sponsor, Lightburn
• The incredible volunteers at MKE DMC - Jaime, Emily, Grant, Casey, Lauren, Chris, Mark and Mike. We wouldn’t be able to produce MKE DMC events without them. 
• Everyone who joined us IRL, and those that wanted to, but couldn’t 🙂

Thank you for providing us with the platform to share our experiences and for helping us create a community eager to learn and grow together.