What Makes a Good Social Media Management Tool? with Lauren Freund

‍(00:02) Hello everyone, welcome to the Syncast. I'm Madeleine, I'm the host and I'm Synup’s Content and Community Manager. Today I'm talking with Lauren freund who is a social media manager over at canva one of my personal favorite tools um we're gonna cover all things social media from tools to creative strategy and research and planning basically anything you could ever want so Lauren why don't you kick us off by telling everyone a little bit about yourself and how do you got into the social media

‍

(00:37) space thanks so much I'm so excited to be here and be chatting with you all things social media my favorite conversation topic um all right how did I get into the social media World um well I think I would have to start off by saying my generation grew up with social media so I feel like I've always kind of been in it um and I feel like it's kind of been a natural thing for me um especially I was I graduated college in 2018 which I feel like was towards the end of everything really coming to, you know, TikTok, Instagram

‍

(01:15) everything like that being monetized more and like Brands getting on it more I remember when I was younger it was kind of just like this fun little personal thing you would you know you would post Instagram photos with the sepia filter and like just Snapchat your friends and really casual social media so I feel like timing wise I was really lucky in the sense that once it became really like social media became more commercial and professional like Brands used it that was kind of when I was entering the workforce so

‍

(01:44) um I majored in public relations and advertising in college and obviously social media is a type of marketing falls under that umbrella I tried out a few things you know like advertising PR everything like that but you know call it my generation or just to your passion but I always gravitate more towards social media um I just thought it was so fun it's ever changing as you know there's always a new platform a new algorithm a new feature and I think when I was exploring my options in the marketing world I

‍

(02:17) think one of my concerns was oh gosh I hope I don't get bored and I feel like you can never get bored with social media um so that was just kind of like a natural flow for me to go into that um and when I graduated you know I had a few internships under my belt um on ad agencies with PR agencies and in-house work um but you know a lot of digital media social media experience so my first role was at Taco Bell corporate um I was on their social media team there which was probably like the best job I could have

‍

(02:51) had coming straight out of college I learned so much there and I got to touch so many different things like I said before one of my biggest concerns in marketing was oh I don't know if I'll get bored and I remember thinking oh gosh am I going to get bored just marketing tacos and burritos all day and I couldn't have been more wrong um Taco Bell's one of those amazing brands that you know reaches outside of its industry and really connects with what the fans love outside of just the food so um that's why I say it was one of the

‍

(03:21) best experiences to be able to touch so many different things while I was there I got to you know not only do the marketing for our core food products but also Partnerships and exploring all different things like that I really got into social and social media analytics while I was there I loved measuring what was doing well what was it where we could improve which is so Niche to every brand because you know every brand has a different audience so what works for some Brands may not work for others just because you

‍

(03:51) have different people following you um I really and so I really enjoyed that um from there I moved on to Shutterfly where I worked on growth marketing there which was really exciting because I got to Branch out a bit from social media into you know paid and some other areas to again do the measuring and seeing what we could improve I love testing and learning I think that's one of my biggest pieces of advice for people in social media is just like see what sticks just try different things you know there is there is no failures you

‍

(04:24) know I think the Flop era is really popular saying right now they're talking about it a lot but I think there's always something to learn so I don't really consider anything like a flop or rather when it is a flop I just I still think of it as a really big big learning um so that was really fun there to just learn and test and then I came over to canva and got back to my roots of social media and I do strategy there right now creating some really awesome content I've been a huge fan of canva kind of

‍

(04:54) like you since College I used it to make all of my presentations for my classes it was a total Lifesaver and it really empowered me because I think of myself as a creative person but sometimes when you have to physically get it out there whether it's on paper or on a screen sometimes it doesn't translate as well because I don't know what buttons to press or whatnot so when I found canva it was just a really empowering tool for me to uh to kind of remind myself I am creative and I can do all this awesome stuff because camera

‍

(05:27) makes it easy too so to be able to work with a brand or work for a brand that you have been a fan of for a while and that you really believe in the product is super exciting so I think I've talked enough about myself for a while so stop there but that was that's my journey through social media to where I am now yeah yeah I and I really like what you say about like social media is just kind of this huge test um like I love I love your story of when you were at Shutterfly like just running all these tests just kind of seeing what

‍

(05:57) sticks like there are no flaps I totally agree with that like it is it could be very unpredictable I think that's what makes it so exciting it what makes it kind of stay in the Forefront of what people talk about when they talk about marketing and when they talk about branding is that it's always so Dynamic and it's so exciting and there's no really set formula of how to win every time there are of course like foundational things that you can do to kind of make sure you're on the right track you're getting good engagement

‍

(06:27) you're getting views but like at the end of the day it can sometimes seem almost kind of random if you're not like in the inner workings of it um yeah and I so I I know like I feel like the past few years even like some of my older relatives have become more interested in social media they're just like so curious about it it's this crazy thing and yeah like like working in the industry it's so it's so crazy to get to like work with this exciting thing that like keeps you engaged and keeps people

‍

(06:59) engaged like over and over and over again um it's just such such an interesting topic um yeah it really is it really is never ending could talk about it all day yeah I'd love to hear about like your your kind of like personal philosophy when it comes to managing social media um kind of your approach tools you use um like the way you approach your creative strategy and how you work with your team at canva yeah totally um where to start I feel like I've learned a lot over over the years of working on social media like I mentioned

‍

(07:37) before I think every brand and every channel is different right so I think the first part is really learning what your brand is what you stand for as a brand what your morals are uh what and then kind of once you have that Foundation of making sure you know who you are especially because I feel like in social media it's so easy to just go with the trends or see another brand doing this so I think first and foremost it's really important to set that Foundation of like what you want to stand for as a brand and the kind of

‍

(08:05) content you want to surround yourself with and put out there from there once you have that Foundation I would say the next most important thing is to like learn what your audience likes so once you've attracted that people from your foundation just learning like what are they gravitating towards not just like views but you know what are they saying in the comments like how is their engagement or what other things are they engaging with um I've worked with companies before that have been able to dive into kind of

‍

(08:33) like subcategories that our fans have liked so um you know they like our brand but they also like this other brand and so then trying to find that common thread of like okay why is that to learn more about them um and I think especially because social media is so creative it's easy to get caught up in um a trend or some cool idea but if you're not feeding what your audience wants then you're not going to see those numbers um so I think that's really important and then after that I would just say

(09:01) test test like I mentioned before I think everything is changing so much like the social media platforms and the algorithm and the different features that are available that you might as well just keep testing and as as long as it's done in a structured way you know whether it's a b testing or something else and you're really making note of all those learnings along the way and constantly trying to improve then I feel like you can't really lose that way so I would say those are like my top three

‍

(09:30) strategies that I take with me when I'm working on brands or anything like that right right and when you're in a team how do you go about testing things like what's that process like of deciding this is what we're gonna do for our brand totally um I think organic and paid are a little different so like paid is super easy to do a b tests on you know Facebook or Instagram or whatever you want to do it on when it comes to organic it's I feel like it's a little more it's a little bit more tricky and you have to do it in

‍

(10:01) a more creative way um but you know on my team we definitely talk about all the things that we could just put out there and test and see like I wonder if people like it if we use a popular sound or if we tap into this Insight that's like their favorite feature or things like that and just test out these different brainstorm ways and making sure that we're identifying every kpi so maybe if we talk about you know X we get more views but the engagements aren't really there or if we talk about why okay it didn't really

‍

(10:31) Reach Out many people but the people it did reach were super excited and they left a lot of comments so um it's it gets a little complicated sometimes but I think you really do need to treat each thing as an individual each platform each post and each kpi um and kind of like mix and match and decide what works for what depending on what your objective is with whether it be a product or a campaign or what have you right right and with a tool like canva which as we said before like has a such a broad variety of uses such a

‍

(11:03) broad audience because like you could be a high schooler using it to make your first big presentation or you could be in a company like using it to make like I use it all the time to make like new email signatures and stuff so it obviously has this broad variety of uses and these people are different audiences so I guess how do you how do you approach that like having a voice on social will still kind of marketing and Catering to all of these different different audiences totally I mean it's it's a blessing and

‍

(11:35) then kind of like a challenge right to have so many features and things on our platform that we can talk about that help so many different kinds of people like you said whether it be high schoolers or professionals later on in their career um but then also knowing okay what topics and subjects and features do we talk to about what and that's something that I think we're still learning because everything's still changing right like you said before there are some older people who are now just starting off with it so sometimes

‍

(12:04) there's that overlap of like high schoolers are using something but also like the older generation is also using the same thing the high schoolers are because they're just learning and getting used to it so I think because there are so many features on canva that is so applicable to so many different things um we're definitely keeping no along the way but we don't want to single out anyone or decide like this feature is just gonna be for this demographic I I love that it's definitely fun and like

‍

(12:32) social media is such a creative thing at its core and I think that yeah that's like part of the reason why it's so fun and it's so engaging um yeah so like when I love watching people use it for different reasons it's like oh I never even thought of that or whether it be just like a regular person I'll happen to see on my feed or like an influencer that we come across I'm like oh my gosh I didn't even think of using it that way but I'm glad somebody else did and it's just nice to know how many

‍

(13:00) different ways you can use something and how it works for different people I'd love to hear about um if you touch on this at all in your own personal role like how you approach engagement because obviously it's great if you post something and it gets a ton of views a ton of comments like how do you how do you go about like especially when you're working on a team kind of keeping the brand voice consistent when it comes to replying to people engaging with people's posts that might mention canva um like how do you approach that

‍

(13:30) yeah we have a lot of amazing people on our team that um manage that type of stuff so we've had something in place even before I got there of how we engage with people and how we respond and the type of language and conversation that we like to promote um within our channels and within the comments section um which you know canva is such a helpful platform and a tool and we're really lucky in that you know this only happens with a few Brands when you have like super fans and we really do at canva have a lot of super fans and

‍

(14:03) people who are so excited because at the core of it canva is so it's such a learning platform because there's so many tools to create and learn and so people are so excited to engage with us because either they have questions on how to use something in a very specific way which gets us really excited because we're like wow we didn't think of that um or people who want to help others of like look what I did with this tool and that's just something that is so so unique and we're really grateful that we

‍

(14:33) have that so um we definitely prioritize our engagement um when it comes to just the conversation when it comes to kpi wise yeah we love engagements as our kpi because I mean obviously it depends on what the campaign is and what channel we're talking about but personally in my career I always like to look at engagements um specifically engagement rate per impression I really like I want to make sure that the eyes we are getting are really excited about it they're engaging with it in some form um because I think that's what really

‍

(15:04) builds a strong community and we really prioritize our community at canva and I think a lot of really successful brands also prioritize Community right I definitely agree with that I feel like like prioritizing Community kind of prioritizing those super fans like always works out for the better like if you're just like a kind of like the more vague you get the less people will actually be interested in what you're saying because because it doesn't really apply to them but if they're a Super Fan

‍

(15:34) they're going to love anything you say because they're like we love canva we love this tool um we just want to totally yeah I think that's something that's interesting you talked about like the vagueness of it that we're seeing in social media like specifically TikTok right I feel like the the things that are performing really well on TikTok are very Niche and they're not really broad you know how you get on a certain side of TikTok whether it be like book talk or travel talk or Swift talk I'm a big

‍

(16:00) Taylor Swift fan of and um I feel like it's kind of foreshadowing what social media is kind of turning into of those communities because communities are like very niche in a specific area and you're finding people who like the same things you do and like to talk about those things and I think you know when I even talk to my friends everyone's really curating their feed to be things that they actually care about nowadays um and so I think I think that's something interesting that you mentioned of just like the vagueness of it and

‍

(16:33) communities kind of get rid of that vagueness and provide an opportunity and a space for people to get really excited about what they like and talk about it with others who feel the same way right right I definitely agree with that like I like what you say about kind of like the niches popping up on TikTok like it's kind of um very illustrative of the way that things are going like there are so many Brands and I feel like for the average person for any person it's very overwhelming to navigate it like you

‍

(17:03) have a few that you might really like that you've used for years but then the all the other ones it's just kind of like you might follow them they might just be posting this vague stuff you don't feel any connection to them but um I feel like definitely with the younger generation as well like it's kind of a thing that you prefer to interact with brands that you have this personal connection to um yeah so I I think that's it's really great where it's headed where it's more Centric on communities like Brands as

‍

(17:36) more thinking of Brands almost as like franchises I'll say where they have all these different components where you can engage with them and engage with the community um I've seen some Brands who have like chat boards that are specific for their brand or like people even with clothing brands they engage with each other in the reviews even um yeah like I I just think that's always the best way to kind of build that loyalty and like build more engagement and just kind of like keep it snowballing and create this really great

‍

(18:06) community totally I think that's something that brands struggle with just naturally is on social media they are not people right everyone knows it's a brand from your handle right and I think it's so much easier to connect with people and that's why influencers are so successful because you're like oh he or she like looks like me or they like the same things as me or like I trust them on their advice of like what to buy or whatever and so I think naturally no matter like what a brand does starting

(18:36) off you have that hurdle to overcome of like we are a brand we are not a person and I know a lot of Brands like to be people and like they like to come off as people online and that really helps a lot of different brands um but there's still always that initial hump you have to get over so I think communities is a really nice way to help that challenge of like creating that space because they're not a person and of themselves but they can create a space of people that are similar and like to learn the same things and chat

‍

(19:08) about the same things right I feel like now where we have these like brand based communities it's kind of what mascots used to give to Brands which is to give them kind of like a more distinctive feel like oh you would know like the Duolingo owl is like a good more recent example of oh this isn't just a language learning app like it has a voice and it has this distinct personality um yeah so I think that's great when Brands brands are able to do that um and try to overcome that hurdle as you said

‍

(19:40) of not being a person obviously um yeah how do you think Brands can kind of overcome that hurdle and remain authentic like as a brand what do you think it means to be authentic and post authentic content yeah um that is such an interesting question because I've seen a lot of Brands try to take things from others and it doesn't work the second time around um you know I think everyone knows like what Wendy's personality is on Twitter and I've seen other brands try to emulate that and it doesn't work because

‍

(20:15) you know Wendy's did that people know Wendy's for that and so I think when you try to take something from a brand like verbatim like try to do exactly their strategy without looking at your own Brand's morals or looking at what your fans actually like and gravitate towards then that's when it doesn't really do well because people can sense that in that you know it's not authentic um but to answer your question I think to be authentic it's really like goes back to the strategy of making sure you

‍

(20:44) know what your foundation is and then making sure you know what your audience senses and creating a strong brand that way and of course you can like test out with different things but I really think sticking in that Venn diagram of like your audience and then like your company's morals you will naturally create your own authenticity that way I also think you know when it comes to the influencer side of it obviously that's a whole other conversation of being authentic um influencers getting paid to speak

‍

(21:12) about certain things and you know the requirement to have hashtag ad or partnership and things like that um so I think it's just making sure that yeah you're always sticking with the foundation of who you are as a brand you're always listening to your audience and you're partnering or working with people that are genuinely excited about your brand or service or you know it kind of fits within that overlap of what you guys both want to put out there into the world or your audiences are the same

‍

(21:37) things like that so um I guess you know in conclusion just like not trying to be someone you're not or not trying to be a brand that you're not just taking exactly what some other brand does and like copy pasting it into your social strategy exactly yeah I I definitely agree with that while we're on this topic of kind of authenticity and voice I'd love to hear what's your take on um AI generated content um what do you think about brands that use it have you tried it at all yeah yeah so um I think it's really

‍

(22:10) exciting I I love where AI is heading I know there's a lot of people who are concerned about it but I think that you just need to embrace it for what it is and see where it's growing and I think that's really really amazing and focused on the positives of what it brings um you know like uh we have a few AI tools within canva that we've used of you know magic right and also text to image which is really exciting and really cool um it kind of you know it reminds me when I first started using canva of

‍

(22:43) having all that creativity in my head but not knowing how to kind of get it out and to me AI is kind of the same thing if you're using text to image or magic right where you can type something in and then it creates like more um more a more detailed version of it um it's kind of like taking someone's idea and taking your creativity and just kind of like helping you express it and I think that's a really positive way that so or not social media sorry that's a really positive way that Ai and AI

‍

(23:14) technology is helping people and Brands individuals what not and so I'm really excited about it I love what canvas doing with it I whenever whenever there's down time like if I'm waiting for people to join a meeting or something I will play around with all the AI tools just because I think they're so fun um and I think they really help you as a brand and as an individual to keep that those creative juices flowing and um so I love where AI is heading I'm kind of gushing about it now because I

‍

(23:45) think it's really cool and really interesting and I love how it's becoming more commercial because ai's been around for a while right but I don't think in the in the past or recent past there have been platforms that kind of give it to you know the average Joe to play around with and to use and so I think this next this next era that we're joining of like everyday people can now use AI for whatever purposes they want is really exciting right I agree with you I'm super into it it's so great that

‍

(24:19) it's become so much more accessible not just yeah for like an average person but also for businesses I think it was definitely around before but it was either cost prohibitive or just like not that great I remember in college I used to um like transcribe interviews and one time I tried to use like an AI service to like help with that and it really sucked so like but yeah and I I feel like using AI I know that there's been a lot of kind of talk about oh it's not gonna be good it's not going to be

‍

(24:53) authentic but I really like what you said about it kind of just opens the door for more creativity it kind of gets you over that that writer's block that graphic designers block like whatever what have you whatever it might be um and it makes it a lot more accessible to create like assets for your brand as well like I just saw um one I think it's called flare AI that um you upload one product shot of your product I think it's it's targeted towards like Beauty and wellness products and then you can create kind of

‍

(25:27) like these stylized photo shoots where oh you can have your um I saw one of like a green juice and it was just a picture of a green juice but then suddenly it was in a tropical Lush rainforest or how cool like like it was it was really great and it's it's like it I feel like it's gonna open the door to a lot more creativity not only with Brands creating like stuff and creatives creating things but also just allowing Brands to enter this space without having to Shell out so much money to get a great photo shoot or like write a

‍

(26:01) bunch of copy um for instance so I I think that's that's really great I think we'll see some some great brands that emerge kind of using this strategy so I mean yeah and I I love what you said about accessibility too because that's really it's promoting that creativity it's allowing people to have accessibility I understand when something new comes out people I mean it's just human nature to be a little scared of something when it's new which is totally understandable um but you know AI it's not going to

‍

(26:31) replace graphic designers it's not going to replace copywriters like it's not going to do any of that but it is going to you know ha like allow accessibility to people who maybe can't afford those things or don't have the resources or the skills to be able to do that or you know it can also be used by Professionals for a brainstorming tool or just like a Creative Juice flowing tool I love it and I I think you know the biggest part of AI and just technology in general is making sure you're looking

‍

(27:04) at it from a positive lens and how it can be used as a tool and not a replacement um because you know it is an AI tool it's not an AI replacement or robot or person that's going to you know do better than what we already have it's just going to be that added tool to help our content do even better with the people that are already having those jobs if you were starting from scratch like what are the most important things in a tool to you besides like the user interface and then also um you said like kind of staying up to

‍

(27:38) the date on Trends and like being cognizant about features that they don't have yeah um so yeah user interface is super important and staying up to date is really important um I think people who work there like really make the biggest difference and in the past you know they're in the past companies I've worked with if if certain tools are very similar then you know the people who are going to help you along the way are really kind of like the make or break and so I love engagement or engagement rate per

‍

(28:09) impression to be specific I love knowing that you know whoever is coming to our a page or a post or anything like that they're there because they want to be and they're engaging and they're excited about it whether it be a like a comment Ascend whatever it is um that is my favorite one to look at I love using the metaphor of you know you can invite 10 people to your party but if only one person is speaking it's kind of a boring party but if you invite five people to your party and all five people

(28:39) are talking and having a good time that's kind of a better party right so that's why that's why I Look to like to look at engagement rate per impression because your impressions could be really high but if you're not getting that engagement that doesn't really matter but I would definitely have you know a slightly lower impression rate and more engagement out of those impressions than the latter so what's your kind of like Secret Sauce to creating an engaging post 

I don't know if there's a secret I

‍

(29:07) feel like the secret sauce changes every week with the algorithm um I I don't really have 

a secret sauce because like I mentioned before I think every brand is so different and also the platforms are so different but if I could if I could put one maybe special ingredient in there I would definitely say just like monitoring the audience and what they're saying because it makes such a difference um you know if someone's like oh I would be curious to see like this supplied to this and then you make a video about it

‍

(29:40) and it does really well because you listen to that one person who was curious about a certain application of something so I you know you're you're focused on the kpis and the numbers that are based upon the people seeing it and interacting with it so it makes sense that you follow what they say again keeping that Foundation of who you are as a brand not getting lost in the sauce but i'm making sure that that that second layer is really heavy on listening to what people want and what people are gravitating towards and what they need I

‍

(30:14) I really like um you know Pinterest has this as well but like TikTok is obviously the most recent platform is the saves I feel like saves are super underrated because there's a lot of people who just like don't comment like they never comment on any platform on any post they're just not commenters um and me personally as a user I'm not a big commenter but I love using TikTok a lot of people are doing this now I love using TikTok as like a Google or like five things to do in like Los Angeles like I just want to visually see

‍

(30:45) it in less than 30 seconds and I'll always save all those types of videos or like skincare routine or like all of these things I don't feel the need to comment but I do feel the need to save it so I can use it later on so I feel like that's a really underrated kpi because a lot of people the archive are shy even on social media they don't want to come but if they're saving it or sending it you're like oh they found this valuable so I think every kpi is really important and remembering like if

‍

(31:16) I put out a video that said like five tips on like making the best presentation or whatever yeah there could be people commenting great tips or like nice but most of those people might just save it or send it to their friends so they can use it later on they don't feel the need to comment so making sure that like whatever content you're putting out there you're thinking like as a user what's the best kpi for this like what would I actually do if I really like this as a user what would be my next

‍

(31:43) step so right right um yeah how how do you kind of a pivot but like how do you as a social media manager kind of stay on top of social media trends like obviously it's so Dynamic it's always changing the algorithm is always being annoying um but how did like how what resource use any resources or just like personal exploration my resource is that I'm addicted to TikTok that is my resource um no but I think it's really important to be on the platform and just see things for yourself there's a lot of really great

‍

(32:21) newsletters out there of um creators who will round up like the top trends of the week and I think those are super helpful and I do use those a lot TikTok itself has like trending sounds or trending Trends um and you know same with other platforms as well obviously you can go on Twitter and just see what's trending so um there's lots of use cases like that but as a user I think that is my biggest resource because not only am I working for a brand that's trying to put out engaging content but I'm also a user who

‍

(32:55) would be consuming that engaging content so I feel like you yourself is your biggest resource um sometimes it is a bit difficult because like we mentioned before you will curate your feed whatever social media platform is you'll curate your feed a certain way for you and you have to make sure to kind of get out of that because you're getting ideas or you're seeing what's trending out in the larger sphere versus like your tiny curated uh side of TikTok or Instagram or Twitter or whatnot um but yeah I I always stand by the fact

‍

(33:27) that I think the best way to learn what's doing well out there is to just get on it and do it and specifically with TikTok I've noticed just because I think their algorithm is so different than everyone else's um if I if I like just like three videos about the same thing my entire feed will be that or if I like click not interested again on like three things I'll never see it again so it is quite easy like when I'm when I'm going on TikTok for like work purposes or just to like learn

‍

(33:57) what's going on in the world outside of my curated space it is quite easy to get back out there like out of my little bubble if you will right right I think um TikTok is almost like this perfect example of how you said like oh I saw someone comment that they would love to see this and then yeah and it performed well like TikTok kind of embodies that as a platform of like curating your feed of oh this person said they wanted to see this I'll show it to them like they'll only see this totally I see that all the time like the

‍

(34:31) amount of videos you know they make it so easy like you can reply to a comment with a video like that's just something that they've had forever that's exactly like an example of what you said and so many of the videos that come up on my feed are like responses to questions and those are like that video most of the time does better than the original video like if someone's like talking about their favorite places in Europe and then someone's like but what about Switzerland like what's there to do

‍

(34:56) there like they make a reply video that video does better than like the Europe video and then make coming full circle back that goes back to like the vagueness versus the niche and how like Niche is performing really really well because people curate their feeds so much they join specific communities to make sure that like they're curating their feed is there exactly that they want and getting the info that they want so it's just kind of like a never-ending cycle but it's really interesting and I'm sure there'll be another thing that

‍

(35:26) gets thrown in there as we learn more and more about what the album algorithm is doing and what people are gravitating towards and the trends so yeah love it can't talk enough about it yeah yeah it's crazy how TikTok is kind of just this like it it embodies like all of the best practices for social media and it like makes it so easy to do them like it just wants you to engage with everything and like want you to see everything and like really prioritizes like if you aren't engaging with people like it'll

‍

(35:57) shoot your content to the bottom like you won't see any engagement at all like it's it's really it's it's a crazy platform it is and it's such like you said it's such an engagement first platform and I think of all the little features that are making people engage more like you know all the Duets and everything like that but also this is kind of one of the more recent ones but you'll go to the comment section at the top it'll be like a search thing so if the person's talking about like travel

‍

(36:27) to Europe it'll be like Europe foundation so you can click on it and it'll take you to all the videos where people also mention that just to get you to stay on the platform more and become more addicted and also engage with all of those things that it knows you like and it is really interesting and I love how they haven't unlike some platforms they haven't stolen things too much yeah not to name names but I feel like there's some platforms that that steal a lot of things and I they they have they

‍

(37:01) have taken maybe one or two things from other platforms but for the most part it's it's definitely unique and people gravitate more towards that because um there's a lot of I for lack of a better term there's a lot of realness on the app and like rawness and you know nothing has to be highly produced and people just like say whatever they want and it makes engagement really easy um okay one one final question is just like what's your favorite um like campaign or your favorite project that you've worked on

‍

(37:37) um at canva oh gosh what is my favorite one I've I feel like I've worked on quite a few now I would say that um I would say that definitely my favorite one that I've worked on so far um was we had an event called canva create which was um a physical event but obviously as social media we wanted it to be digitally accessible for everyone um and it's when we unveiled a lot of different new products um and it was a really really exciting time the way we announced it as well on all different platforms we had live

‍

(38:15) streams we also had a lot of social content promoting the new products and my favorite thing to work on is new products and new features just because inherently that's what our audience loves and that's what I love as a consumer of canva even before I started working there and it's so exciting to see whether people have been asking for something for a while or if someone uses it and they're like look what I used it for and that's not exactly maybe what we like put in our post but we were like oh

(38:41) that's so cool that they're using it for that instead so I would definitely say our canva create was my favorite campaign that I got to be a part of of it was an all hands on deck situation so it was also really cool to work with so many different teams which is one of my favorite parts of working in social media is that oftentimes as a social team you'll work with so many other teams um just to make sure that everyone is on board and the messaging is all aligned and correct and so uh yeah that was that

‍

(39:10) was one of my favorites and if you scroll back to our post you'll find some really interesting stuff and I'm sure you can find the whole presentation on YouTube or something but um yeah yeah I'll check it out that's yeah I feel like these like almost like these these events always do so much for like creating that kind of like Community we were talking about they're always exactly fun so engaging yeah that's awesome exactly yes so yeah amazing okay yeah thank you so much for coming on the Syncast this has been so

‍

(39:39) much so much fun to talk to you about um social media so yes thank you so much for having me I love as you heard I love blabbing on about social media and I love hearing what other people think about it as well in different perspectives because I feel like there are so many perspectives because it's changing all the time and there's so many aspects to it so thank you so much for having me and for chatting more about it yes of course yeah this has been Lauren Freund, and we'll see you guys next time on the Syncast!

‍