Social Lama — our 2021 in review
January is the season for wrap-ups, reckonings and sharpening next year's goals. Only once all that is done can you sit down in front of a screen with a clear conscience and present the llama year 2021 to a wider audience. Which is how March caught up with us — but better late than never, so come on in! And what the wrap-up tells us is that February formally opened the Chinese Year of the Tiger, and yet 2022 is shaping up to be the Year of the Llama.
In this post
And what the wrap-up tells us is that February formally opened the Chinese Year of the Tiger, and yet 2022 is shaping up to be the Year of the Llama. The first sign of it is the fact that January 2022 against January 2021 is essentially a doubling of the number of clients who trusted us and put their fate in the hands of the team in Warsaw's Żoliborz district. Several dozen social media profiles, some of them foreign, call for the team to be scaled to match, so that we keep the standard of service up and the fresh ideas coming. That's why several new people joined Social Lama last year, in various capacities, and some were promoted within Social Lama's structure, which we're delighted about — because it means our people keep getting better at what they do, stay motivated and grow personally.
Some of the hiring was for on-site roles in the office, some — a sign of the times — for remote work. We work successfully with people we haven't yet had the chance to meet “in person”; these days it's no trouble at all to keep a team tight-knit with the help of technology. Hiring is still open, by the way — maybe you're exactly who we're waiting for? 🙂
2021 passed to the tick-tock of TikTok
Was 2021 the “year of mobile”? Of course, like several years before it 😉 Over the past 12 months, though, the smartphone played a very important role in our work, thanks to an active and thorough exploration of TikTok. The medium's potential is enormous — by now that may be something of a cliché, but it's true all the same. So much so that one of our hiring processes at Social Lama was run through TikTok, and what's more, it ended with Natalia joining us.
That was only one of our successes on the platform. In the spring we entered the Make TikToks Contest, run by TikTok itself, and picked up a distinction there for a clip made for a client. We made it to the final shortlist in the category we entered 🙂
Entering is one thing; organizing is another. We managed to run our own contest on the platform, and its winners got to attend a training session of ours for free. And that's a subject we'd like to draw some extra attention to.
Training
In 2021 we started running training, to pass some of our know-how on and spread good social media practice through the land. The modules cover different areas: working with TikTok, with Instagram, and starting and optimizing Facebook Ads. The offer is broad, and we tailor it individually to each participant's needs and level of experience. A fun aside: in January we put one of the sessions up for auction at WOŚP, Poland's biggest annual charity fundraiser, and in March or April we hope to pass a little knowledge on to the woman who won the bidding.
If you're interested in broadening your knowledge — on your own or for a team — do get in touch. We'll talk, work out what we need to know, and put together an offer that fits.
External training is certainly an area we'll be growing in 2022. We haven't forgotten that we need to stay “up to date” ourselves, which is why we keep soaking up knowledge from other specialists.
Special events
We also had the chance to host the actress Weronika Rosati — while organizing an event for the brand Lajuu. Our colleagues at Good One PR played a huge part in that, and we'd like to congratulate them here on another success at the Złote Spinacze, Poland's main PR industry awards. They took two more in 2021, including one in the most precious metal. They also trained us internally on the finer points of PR, so that collaboration between departments runs even more smoothly.
We held similar sessions with another agency in our group, SEOFly, where we also told them a thing or two about social media — a tight-knit collective is the basis of a holistic approach to serving brands.
On top of that we worked on all sorts of productions for our clients — photo and film alike — supplying content, setting the direction, or… appearing on the more visible side of the lens ourselves. Those experiences inspired us enough that we opened 2022 with a professional photo shoot for our own team, because as everyone knows, the cobbler's children go barefoot. We've put those shoes on, and over the coming weeks you'll certainly see the results on our blog and in our social media.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding established itself over the past year as one of the main branches of what we do. Hitting the targets we and our clients set is inspiring, and it delivers an enormous amount of motivation and satisfaction. As it happened, in 2021 we contributed mainly to cosmetics raises — true men skin care and Lajuu raised their funds through crowdfunding with us. Between them, the two campaigns brought the brands more than PLN 2 million and nearly 500 investors! Our portfolio also includes successful crowdfunding campaigns for the alcohol and technology sectors. This way of raising money is clear, engaging, and a demonstration of trust running both ways between a brand and its investors. We hope there's more than one such raise ahead of us!
Outside publications
In writing, you can find us on the blog but also in the trade press. Our team writes regularly for various portals, services and press titles. Below you'll find one example, where a llama text landed in OOH Magazine. Having our writing show up as a guest like this is a mark of recognition for us, and of faith in skills we can back up with solid material.
Social Lama didn't sit idle in 2021, and 2022 has already started at full tilt! If you want your social media run in a varied, engaging way, with activity tuned to current trends and events, let us know so we can talk about what we can do for you.
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