Rivka Kawano: A Social Media Superhero

By Alex Knaisel

If you’re a college student reading this, then you’ve probably heard your professors call your generation the tech savvy, technologically literate, or social media trendsetters. Before you get too cocky, we’ve met someone who knows a thing or two about making that same social media work for businesses and the real world (and maybe even your future job.)

Rivka Kawano is what I call a social media superhero: a Wonder Woman of the Internet. If you’re looking for her everyday titles, she’s a social media marketer, content strategist, and Twitter guru, (not to mention an author!). Lucky for us, she stopped by before our Thanksgiving break to drop some handy tips and tricks for navigating the social media minefield that many brands struggle with daily.

Now, where a lot of brand’s go wrong is the type of content they publish. Rivka broke down all social media content into 8 types, listed below. Although a business should utilize each type, the way the content will layout depends on the brand and what they do.

1. Inspire

Think quotes, success stories, causes, and song lyrics. It’s important to tap into the emotional core of your audience. Success story content should always have a call to action.

2. Engage

Use fill in the blank questions, yes or no questions, and this or that, controversy, and talk about what’s trending (but make sure it really is trending, Google.com/trends is helpful for this.)

3. Rewards

Coupons, offers, secret information, thank yous and shout outs.

4. Entertain

Memes, jokes, games, visuals, facts, scavenger hunts, captured hilarity, and music all work well (again, make sure you’re up to date!)

5. Understand

Questions, live chats, “on a scale of 1 to 10…”, and any sort of feedback oriented content, like “should we…” and “what’s your favorite…” This is the type of content most likely to be left out.

6. Connect

Think confessions, facts, backstory, and small talk. Connect whatever you’re saying to your audience and who you are.

7. Educate

Any tips, products, news, marketing recipes, how-to, and even case studies. “Because” is a trigger word- people will pay attention simply because you’re giving a reason.

8. Promote

Sell your product! People will not be mad at you. In fact, doing the above 7 types of content also works as a promotion.

Rivka also reminded us of the importance of the 10/90 approach or publishing 10% promotions and 90% everything else. Not sure if the content is worth posting? Rivka says that if it won’t work face-to-face, it won’t work on social media.  

You may be great at SnapChatting your cat or posting weekly filtered latte art on Instagram, but because it changes so quickly, it can be difficult for even students to keep up social media. To stay sharp and ahead of the game (plus add some cool professional blogs to your resource arsenal), Rivka suggested checking out these sites:

• http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/
• https://www.agorapulse.com/
• https://blog.bufferapp.com/
• https://www.canva.com/ (for photoshop-free social media image design)

Finally, there’s no need to over commit- a lot of brands try to jump from new thing to new thing, but Rivka reminds us that it’s not about using the platform with the most users on it, rather using the platforms that have your users.