Behind the SMT: Letters from Social Media Today's Community Manager

Hello SMT community, this is your community manager speaking :)
I'm here to share the inside scoop on whats happening behind the scenes and keep you updated on what the future holds for Social Media Today. To receive notifications of my posts, subscribe to our daily SMT newsletter and keep an eye out for notes from me!

Post - Oct 6, 2017

And we're live! Hope you're loving the new Social Media Today layout and experiece.

Check out my full article explaining all that's new on Social Media Today.

Post - Oct 4, 2017

Only a couple more days until we launch! Yes, we're almost to the finish line.

It's been a long process, but we are so excited to finally launch the new site at the end of this week.

Once we go live, there will be a few key improvements you will notice such as more relevant topics on our navigation bar to help you find the content most relevant to you. You will also experience faster loading time for all pages, and all content will now be optimized for viewing on all devices. One major improvement to note is our new search bar tool, which will be available on the site so you can search keywords to find the articles and pages you know and love.

This is the first of many improvements to come. We are aware that this change will take some getting used to; we expect many will have questions as you explore the new site and we look forward to hearing from you. Email us ([email protected]) or tweet at us (@socialmedia2day) with your feedback! 

Contributors may continue to stay in contact with me - feel free to reach out with any questions. All SMT contributing blogger applications were put on hold during this transition; we will begin reviewing and accepting new contributors on Monday, Oct. 9th. Thanks for your patience. 

P.S. For all our #SMTLive Twitter chat people, we will be pushing back our chat's this month one week to give us time to manage this transition. We're looking forward to seeing you all back on Twitter on Oct 17th and 31st!

Post - Sep 13, 2017

We're making moves! The excitement for the new site is contagious. SMT developer, Josh Brown, was spotted running a victory lap around the office after his latest successful data import -- nothing has crashed yet so things are going well. 

So what other updates should you be looking forward to?

Our fresh new site design will be clean with easily-searchable topics. The best way to get an idea of what the site will look like is to check out our sister publications, Marketing Dive and Mobile Marketer. 

Another feature to get excited for is our new resources library which will offer much more than just webinars. We will give contributors the opportunity to share templates, ebooks, videos, classes, etc. This page will be designed as a space for marketers to discover tools and resources created by expert marketers to help you work more efficiently and effectively. 

Now for contributors, we are adding a page for VIP content! Readers, this means you will be able to see all content from our top SMT contributors (aka: SMT Influencers). This is especially exciting for our top contributors who have worked hard to be named an SMT influencer.
In case you aren't aware, SMT influencers are hand-selected each year as our highest-performing contributors. We created this program to recognize and highlight our best and most dedicated contributors. This group is offered extra benefits such as guaranteed publication of content, featured positioning on site, increased content promotion, collaboration opportunities, monthly reports on content performance, and much more. Every contributor on Social Media Today has an opportunity to become an influencer if you contribute awesome and unique content regularly.

I'll be back with more updates soon. I know, I know... you can't even contain your excitement. Not too much longer until the new site goes live!

Post - Aug 24, 2017

The Social Media Today team is gearing up for the new website launch!

"What do we want? NO MORE DOWNTIME. When do we want it? SOON-ISH" - Josh Brown, overheard in a project meeting.

If you've been keeping up with the daily SMT news, you've already read about our plans to give the website a bit of a facelift.

Since Industry Dive acquired Social Media Today in early 2016, we've been on a mission to provide the best reader and contributor experience. And through a new streamlined and mobile-friendly design, we hope to deliver on that promise.

With that, I am excited to share some of the biggest updates coming your way soon.

When will the new site launch?

Version 1 of the new Social Media Today website will roll out at the end of September. Expect a sleeker, fresher face to SMT. All of your favorite content will still be available on the site, but displayed more clearly and more accessible no matter what device your'e on. Our goal for this first update will be to improve our reader experience.

Version 2 will come soon after and will focus more heavily on improving our contributor experience.

What should contributors expect?

Look out for an email from me (your community manager) explaining the new process for contributing. Not much will change immediately for contributors except that we will require everyone to create a new password in order to activate their new account. Of course, I will be available by email if you have any account issues or trouble uploading articles.

What else is new?

As our community conversations have migrated to our various social accounts (our LinkedIn Group and #SMTLive Twitter chats in particular) we've eliminated the comments infrastructure from our articles. If you are interested in sharing your thoughts on an article, we encourage you to participate in the social community dialogue. This also means one less username/password to remember as you'll be free to enjoy using the website without any sort of login!

During our transition, if you have any questions, concerns or comments, please email me at [email protected].

P.S. Sorting through and organizing all of the articles on Social Media Today has been an eye-opening experience. Our team is incredibly proud of and grateful for the collection of insightful and inspiring voices that make up the Social Media Today community and we are excited to continue growing and innovating with you!