Social Media Strategy in the Age of AI

You post consistently. You follow the trends. You try everything the experts suggest. And still, your content barely reaches anyone beyond your existing followers. Sound familiar?

If you’re a journalist or newsroom manager struggling with social media, you’re not alone. Platforms evolve fast, and strategies that worked before often don’t work anymore. Meanwhile, younger audiences are discovering news in entirely different ways, traditional media outlets are competing with creators and influencers, and AI is reshaping everything from content creation to what people actually see in their feeds.

So where do you even start?

In this episode of AImpactful, we sit down for an honest, practical conversation about what actually works on social media today, and what newsrooms can do about it.

Our guest is Erika Marzano, an expert in audience development and social media strategy who has spent years helping newsrooms figure this out. Erika doesn’t just talk theory, she gets into the real challenges: limited teams, tight budgets, algorithm changes that seem designed to work against news content, and the constant pressure to “do more” when you’re already stretched thin.

Before you post anything:

• How to research which platforms your actual audience is using (hint: it might not be where you think)
• Why age and location matter more than you realize
• The free tools that tell you what’s working in your market

Creating content that connects:

• The three-part structure behind every successful short-form video
• What “social-first content” really means, and why you need it alongside your traffic-driving posts
• How to balance breaking news with the lifestyle content younger audiences are searching for

Building a strategy you can sustain:

• Why posting less frequently but consistently beats posting a lot and then disappearing
• How to figure out what you can actually commit to with your team
• Where AI can help, from SEO optimization to script editing, and where human judgment must stay in control

Throughout our conversation, Erika keeps coming back to a simple truth: you don’t have to do everything. You don’t have to be everywhere. You need to understand your reality, your audience, and your capacity, and then build a strategy that’s actually sustainable.

Episode Details:

• Duration: 17 minutes
• Guest: Erika Marzano, expert in audience development and social media strategy
• Host: Branislava Lovre
• Format: Video podcast with full transcript

Branislava Lovre: Welcome to AImpactful. Today we’re talking about social media, a place where AI already influences what we see, post and think about. We’ll talk about how media teams can use these platforms better, create content and keep their connection with the audience strong.

Our guest today is Erika Marzano, an expert in audience development and social media strategy. Her work is all about making journalism more engaging, accessible and creative in the digital age. With years of experience in audience growth, innovation and digital storytelling, Erika brings valuable insights into how media can stay relevant and build strong communities online.

Welcome, Erika. It’s a real pleasure to have you with us.

Erika Marzano: Thank you for inviting me.

Branislava Lovre: We’ll be sharing lots of tips about social media today. But let’s start with the basics. Everyone talks about the importance of being authentic online. But what’s one simple rule anyone can follow to see better results?

Erika Marzano: The secret to recording a short form journalistic or content video is to follow a strict structure because there isn’t much to think about when scripting and then recording a short form video. You just need to follow a little structure that each short form video has, whether the platform is TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, reels, shorts or whatever. They always follow this structure rule and the structure of a TikTok video is that you start with an immediate promise of what to expect. That doesn’t give away too much. So you leave a bit of mystery behind and the journey leading up to that. So giving you permission to solve that question, to solve the doubt, to solve that issue that you launched in the beginning is interesting, surprising, satisfying. You just need to follow the structure of the three: immediate promise, journey leading up to what you’re going to show, ending that could be surprising, interesting, special.

Branislava Lovre: Many media outlets are on social media, but what should a newsroom focus on when they want to be more strategic about it? And if they’re not getting the results they hoped for, what general advice would you give them?

Erika Marzano: So first of all, before even landing on social media, any type of social media, a newsroom or even just single journalists should do a little market research and see what is popular in their country or regions or even a local target region, etc. Sometimes one of the reasons why newsrooms are not reaching their target audience on whatever social media is because their audience is not there. Not only demographically as in location, but also age. If you say my main target are 14 to 24 year olds and you decide to open a Facebook page, no wonder why you won’t be reaching your audience or you want to reach an Indian audience and you open a TikTok account, TikTok is banned in India. Yeah, of course you won’t be reaching it. So that is really important.

Branislava Lovre: What’s a good place to start? Any tools, platforms or resources you think they should look into first?

Erika Marzano: There are some key sources available to everyone. One or the main one, the Bible of journalists, is the digital news report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, that is based in Oxford. Every year they publish the digital news report and they conduct a thorough study of countries from all over the world and where people get their news online so digitally and you get answers for your countries or regions, whether they are on social, which social or if not podcast, newsletter or website, paying, not paying, things like that. So that is a valuable source for newsrooms.

Otherwise, also insights from marketing resources are helpful because they just tell you whether each platform has an audience in each country. There are insights from a website called DataReportal, Global Digital Insights and also, they are split into countries and they analyze each platform for a country, whether they have more Facebook, more Instagram, they are more this gender or this age is more on reels, is watching more TikToks and things like that. And finally, there’s also another marketing agency worldwide called We Are Social, and they have the exact same type of report. So, by examining patterns in specific markets before starting social, you can then decide where you want to land on social.

Branislava Lovre: Once the initial analysis is done, what should be the next steps? Any other tips that could help?

Erika Marzano: Once you have the strategic decision of one platform, two platforms depending on your capacities, of course, depending on your demographics, if they are like very old and very young, maybe you would do at least two. Then you check what the competitors are doing there. So where to start is by checking who else like me is already there and what are they successful in. So, you just check pages and scroll through videos, articles, posts, and check what is successful, what is not, note it down, so that you can take inspiration, what to do, what not to do.

And if you don’t have any competitor because you are a pioneer in that market or in that field, definitely there will be creators. Right now, media competitors are no longer just other media, but also the creators, the influencers, how we want to call them. And that’s where you start. After these three steps, you can start opening really your account and start creating content. But there is no way of opening an account and creating content before going through these two, three steps.

Branislava Lovre: We often hear people say ‘We’re doing everything right, but the algorithm just doesn’t like us.’

Erika Marzano: Yes. So, in some cases, rest assured, the algorithm doesn’t like us, as news, Meta released reports that they were phasing out news on their feed, and others, where they don’t have a specific policy towards media or towards journalism still don’t particularly like media. And one of the reasons is just simple and not so much about censorship, or political reasons. But media usually don’t bring money, like businesses, like influencers to the platform. So, if they don’t dislike us, they don’t encourage us. Okay? Or they just let us be. They don’t help us.

This is something that you need to take into consideration. And if you decide, like some media, I think in, like in Australia or in Canada or in northern countries of Europe, have decided that this does not align with your vision at all. Then you take the decision not to be there at all. But if you need, or if you want to be there, then you need to play with the rules of the algorithm. There is no way that you publish your own content the way you want and think, Oh, I don’t care about the algorithm, because people, if they’re interested, they will find it, no, they won’t find that content because the algorithm prevents them from seeing content that is not compliant.

Branislava Lovre: So, what would you suggest? What can newsrooms actually do?

Erika Marzano: If you have in your newsroom someone who is an expert for each platform. They should learn how each algorithm works and then explain it to the newsrooms in general. And then you abide with some tricks. For instance, since last year, Facebook doesn’t really appreciate particularly links. Okay, so what do you do, you post more videos, picture galleries, and maybe you post the link of the article you want people to read in your story, like swipe up and go to this article or in the comment section.

Or Instagram, they would rather have a reel or a carousel. So multiple pictures rather than one, still picture you post more of them instead of one. Still TikTok people, the more they watch, the more they will be seeing your content. Then you need to have very short videos because it’s highly likely that people will watch 30 seconds, one minute rather than ten minute videos, although you can post them, but they won’t be watching until the end.

So you study the algorithm and you comply knowing that on your own platform. So if you have a website, if you have a podcast, if you have a newsletter, you are free. So if you know that certain apps don’t like certain topics, anything sexual, anything drugs related, anything crime related, you can either decide not to post those stories on those platforms, knowing that the audience can find them on your website or you use the so-called algospeak, a language that masks certain words, certain expressions, so that they are not recognized, like on TikTok it is very common to not spell out or pronounce the word dead, death, dying, kill, committing suicide. But the word unalive, because the algorithm, which is completely AI, doesn’t immediately understand that unalive means all those other things, but the audience understands. And so you try to find your way through the algorithm.

Branislava Lovre: According to research, Gen Z mostly discovers content through social media, especially TikTok. What are your tips for creating content that really connects with young audiences?

Erika Marzano: When we’re talking about younger audiences, it is no longer, is not only where to find them. And so social, yes, you need to be on social, which social and also, storytelling in a way that they would also do it. Like if you put a traditional TV presenter in front of a TikTok camera and you expect them to read the news like they would do it on radio, on TV, that doesn’t mean that you will attract younger audiences just because you are on TikTok.

So, you need someone who is younger, approachable, that directly talks to the audience. Doesn’t feel like someone preaching upon the news, but just telling you, okay, you learned this piece of information and this piece of information. And second, that is very clear. In the yearly Reuters digital news report, younger audiences, they are interested in particular topics, specific, mostly climate change, civil rights, LGBTQ issues. And they want to read about those because they feel like in traditional media coverage of these topics is not enough.

You don’t necessarily need to think that you are the only gatekeeper of topics, of themes, of news. I’m not saying that you need to censor yourself and not talk about something because you need to favor others. I’m just saying, do both. If within a week you post a hundred posts, whatever, I’m just saying, try to do a 50/50. So 50% are the things that you need to say, that there was an attack in this country, in the city, but then another 50% can be what are the new regulations for recycling in our area, or, I don’t know something entertainment and lifestyle. Okay, then let’s also do lifestyle. Why thinking that this is less of a nuisance or less important? This is what they are looking for. And, if you don’t provide that, they won’t be seeing your post. But if you give them what they are looking for, then just by checking your posts, the algorithm will send them back, also other stuff and in the end, they will see it.

Branislava Lovre: More and more newsrooms are using AI to help create content for social platforms. What are your thoughts on this, and do you have any advice?

Erika Marzano: AI is getting more and more important in newsrooms, although newsrooms, first of all, should have regulations so that everyone has strict, strict rules on what they can do and what they cannot. And everyone has the same. If you use it for content creation, important, always labeling. So, the audience knows that it was created, whether it is a picture, whether it is a summary of a text.

But definitely I would suggest using it for assisting you with tasks as full time management. SEO optimizing titles for SEO, with that you can do it or you have a script and when you are, you try to, you rehearse or you are filming, you see it’s too long, maybe that can help you, summarizing the script of the video so that it’s shorter without you going through and making the cuts, or what should I cut here, what should I delete there.

I would say that right now on the safe side, AI can help you optimize tasks that you already do, just make them faster so that you can focus on something else. You can focus on the creation itself, filming more, posting more, writing more, and on the research.

Branislava Lovre: When we talk about social media, we can’t ignore filter bubbles. What should media creators keep in mind when thinking about reach, diversity, and audience awareness?

Erika Marzano: Filter bubbles. Sometimes in order to really understand the topic, it’s good to be part of a filter bubble. So, every time you are specifically focusing on one, try to research what’s maybe the style, the language, the themes of people within the circle, because we sometimes, media have a lot of topics, a lot of themes, and then they are interesting for us, but not for those who should be reading, watching.

And then to avoid that, always try to do research on different sources so you can do the research directly on TikTok for certain words, for certain topics. But then you can do research on Google and then you can do research on tools. There are like news gathering tools that allow you to scroll through the internet and never focus on one thing only. You cannot say, oh, I’m doing a video on TikTok, so I would research this topic only on TikTok because that is already a filter bubble itself. So, try to have as many options as possible, you know, a panorama of a thing.

Branislava Lovre: And finally, when running a campaign, tracking data is key, what’s your closing advice on how to make the most of analytics?

Erika Marzano: Last thing, try to work data-based. After you have done your research, you have started posting, do a regular check every six weeks, three months, you decide your timing and see what works and what didn’t and what didn’t work, try to understand why, if you can optimize, if you can change, do it. If you see that something just doesn’t work.

Learn to kill your darlings. So, learn. Sometimes posting less is better if you post the right things rather than posting a hundred things. Okay. And remember that on your own website, newsletter, whatever your own platforms, you will always be free to post whatever you want. On social, sometimes not, and that’s fine, social is one of your many distribution ways. One of the ways people will read or watch your content.

Branislava Lovre: Thank you.

Erika Marzano: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Branislava Lovre: Thank you for watching another episode of AImpactful. We hope you’ll find it interesting and learn something useful. See you next week.