sarah kincaid joins the LinkedIn agency leaders panel discussion
Our very own Sarah Kincaid, Manager, Social Media, spoke last week along with one other panelist at the LinkedIn Agency Champion event. The discussion started with a quick recap of 2021, and then tackled some big media trends, and must-knows for 2022 when it comes to the LinkedIn leaders network.
Take a look at the Q & A to get an Expert eye on the matter!
Do you like working from home or would you rather be in the office? How do you see remote/hybrid work changing how we work and engage with customers in 2022?
I personally look forward to the Hybrid approach! When things closed down, I had trouble imagining what life would look like working from home for more than a week, in fact I only brought home my laptop charger and one pen and notebook … which was a mistake!
What are your WFH Pros?
Flexibility which led to a better work life balance
Lack of commute, which resulted in better habits for me personally (fitness & diet)
More productive with less distractions
What are your WFH Cons?
Not knowing when to step away or unplug, which results in working longer hours than before
Miss being able to see my team and collaborate/brainstorm on things together, as there is something to be said about team synergy & feeding off others’ ideas & energy
I am an extrovert & social human being so the constant screentime and virtual chatter can get old and be a different kind of draining
How does this change in engagement with customers?
One of the biggest conversations for us has been around customer service levels and how we all adapt to working in slightly different conditions. As a digital lead, I feel lucky we were working this way and could be remote well before the pandemic hit, so for us it was literally only a physical change in terms of our location… not necessarily how we do our job. When it comes to how we are advising our clients from a brand messaging perspective… I would say authenticity has been the number one communication pillar we are building engagement strategies around. COVID has hurt many different businesses in different ways, so by encouraging brands to be transparent around their struggles, we often see that being rewarded in for form of loyalty by supporters and try & buy referrals.
We’re weeks away from closing out 2021 (and almost two years into the pandemic). What are a few of the key learnings that you’re taking away from this past year and trends to keep a pulse on in 2022?
Reaching new audiences will become the number one social media goal for businesses
Staying nimble & adapting to your circumstances (both agencies and brands)
Rising adoption of gamification & augmented reality (especially when it comes to shopping // try on), this will undoubtedly change the ecommerce space forever!
Influencer marketing will mature in 2022 – many consumers trusted influencers more so than brands during the pandemic, so definitely a strong avenue to keep our eye on
Clients will likely invest in more long-form & short-form content as well as live audio chat rooms/podcast opportunities
As marketing leaders, what keeps you up at night these days?
Future proofing our clients in regard to Attribution Modeling & Measurement, given the iOS updates and looming third party cookie deprecation (happening in 2023)
Volume (Q4) – Clients are rushing to spend their marketing budgets and ensure a successful Q4 … so keeping my team saine and managing client expectations and levels of service, all while delivering on high volume asks has for sure given me a case of the scaries!
Talent Retention, this year I feel all industries have experienced extremely high turn-over, likely a product of it being one of the only things people can actually control which has resulted in team burnout. I am extremely optimistic & hopefully this will change in 2022 however!
Social platform privacy policies, and by that, I mean how social platforms are sharing user information in an ethical way.
IDFA & Privacy – how do you see the evolution of data informed marketing moving forward? How important is 1st party data in your strategy?
I would go as far as to say, this isn’t just important its critical! We have started using high value audience (or HVAs) more, which I think will happen more regularly next year.
To end on a positive note, what do you love about working at an agency? Anything you’re particularly excited about next year?
I have been at Media Experts now going on 6 years and I equate agency years to dog years, because 1 truly does feel like 7. So, when I asked why I have stayed agency side for so long my response is easy … for me it’s my companies Culture, the people and being able to touch a wide variety of verticals in a single day! Every day is different, and I have not stopped learning and growing since I stepped foot in the door as a Coordinator. When it comes to 2022, I am most excited for the much-anticipated LinkedIn Business Manager (*cough shameless plug cough*) and Brands being more climatized to our new norm, which hopefully leads to them being more risk averse than in previous years! I continually see budgets creep back to what they used to be and feel now that we have been playing in a COVID landscape for well over a year, Brands have taken stock, have allowed data to speak for itself and will be placing bigger bets on themselves in 2022, which ideally means bigger budgets to do meaningful and innovative work!