Q&A With Beth Gladstone - Social Media State Of Play Masterclass

Q&A
Written By Danny Denhard

Beth and I have known each other for many years, we connected after I spoke at a conference in the early 2010’s, to appearing on her podcast in 2019 and it was great collaborating on a project in recent years.

Beth is one of those people who is brilliant and understands SEO strategy and social media like very few others. I wanted to have a quick-fire interview with Beth as I greatly respect her and also to shine a light on her masterclasses and how to think about the future of Social Media.

Q1/ Social media is evolving and the channels we love are changing quicker than ever, from Instagram to TikTok, what are the most important changes for in-house marketers to know and leverage? 

Absolutely, social media looks very different now to even what it was a year ago. As an in-house marketer I’d be thinking of not just a channel strategy, but also a sub-channel strategy for example how are you using reels vs explore vs stories within Instagram, or your YouTube channel videos and playlists vs Shorts. Secondly, marketers need to think about what Adam Mosseri (Head of Product at Instagram) describes as “connected vs unconnected” reach, which basically means creating content for those who already know you and buy from you vs those who are coming across your brand for the first time. Which is something we naturally do for our website or email campaigns, but that’s new for social media.

Q2/ You are running a brilliant masterclass at the end of September on the state of play, what are some of the most important reasons why social media managers and marketing leaders should take the masterclass? 

As marketers it can be really tempting to begin social media creation by asking “what do we want to share?” This often leads to brand messages the company is happy with, but that don’t inspire sharing or engagement. To be truly effective on social media today I believe we need to ask: who is my audience, what matters to them and how can I create that in a way that the channels will want to share? The masterclass is a deep-dive into how to do those two things based on where the algorithms on channels such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are today.

Q3/ User behaviour is changing on each channel, Instagram is slowly becoming more private for consumers and then shifting brands to broadcast running channels, whereas TikTok wants to own QVC-style sales and be the live streaming platform, do you have any thoughts on where these shifts in user behaviour might be taking brands and creators? 

TikTok Shop is extremely lucrative for those who are adopting it early, but like all social media strategies, the benefit of early adoption is likely to fade over time. We also have to remember that what’s best for the channels (in Instagram’s case, very short-form video under 9 seconds, shared person-to-person) usually isn’t best for brands or creators. Which is why I’d also be looking outside of short-term tactics on these channels, to longer-term strategies on more evergreen channels like YouTube, or even decentralised platforms such as Threads or Mastodon.

Q4/ You have a unique knack (many don’t) in clearly explaining big shifts on social media platforms (via your Instagram stories and main feed), what should brands do next when reacting to the recent big shifts? Can you share 3-5 recommendations for adapting their social media plans to drive success in Q4? 

For the upcoming quarters, I’d be thinking about:

  1. Experimenting with how to “package” your content on social i.e. video vs text-on-screen vs carousel statics to see what’s most effective

  2. Repurposing previous content that performed well, with something as simple as a different audio track or different type of packaging (something I see the biggest creators doing often)

  3. Using keyword research on social media channels to find what phrases and entries users are searching and then using this to create content that answers those queries - social SEO is only going to become more important as users begin their discovery with a search

Connect With Beth


If you would like to see Beth on my previous podcast on the future state of content together listen below ↓

Read the other quick-fire Q&A

  • With Paddy Moogan highlighting the issues with management roles and promotions agency side and how to improve your management skills

  • With Carl Hendy highlighting why SEO has to tie back to business goals and lead revenue conversations

Danny Denhard
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