content strategy and social media
TRANSCRIPT
Content Strategy & Social Media: A Symbiotic RelationshipUW CERTIFICATE IN STORYTELLING AND CONTENT STRATEGYNOV. 23, 2015SUNA GUROL
Symbiotic relationshipWithout great content social media has no purpose
Without social media your content will be limited in its reach
What do you think about the relationship between social media and content strategy?
Social Media is #1Most popular content channel tactic for brands
#1 and rising
Social Media - in a nutshell Mouthpiece, but not a monologue
Content is valuable and valuable content is priceless. Aim is to provide value.
In the best world there is a relationship, community and dialogue
Speed! Real-time! Disappearing content!
Branding
70 / 20 / 10 rule – 70% share information, 20 collaborations, 10% you
Real measurement
Helps drive content strategy (more on this later)
FacebookFriends and family network..
Demographic: 77% of FB users are women. 82% of online adults has an account. Most popular channel with nearly 1.5 billion users.
Media: Photos, posts, links, videos. Still working on animated gifs.
Best practices: Members highly engaged on a daily basis, so daily posts are good. Consistent posting works best.
Advertising: Easy and relatively cheap, targeting, A/B testing. Yay!
How to engage as a brand: tag partners, share postslike brand pages, polls, respond to comments/commenton other pages
Facebook insights: Good information on your followers - popular posts, audience demographics, track likes
Biggest problems: FB algorithm is capricious, changes overnights. Not always clear what will get traction and visibility.
Twitter Microblogging network
Demographics: Twitter users skew younger, in addition Internet users living in urban areas are more likely than their suburban or rural counterparts to use Twitter.
Media: Text, links, photos, animated GIF’s, short video
Best practices: short URL’s, Retweet, Hashtags help expand content reach, Twitters Lists, can stand frequent posts, good for 2-way communication – TwitterChat
Advertising: Easy to advertise, native appearance.
Biggest problems: Internal turmoil at company means product and vision under adjustment, pivoting, unclear about future. Can’t schedule posts unless you have ads set up. Not a lot of info on your followers.
Pinterest Cataloguing network. Inspirational channel – believes it is a “tool for unlocking creativity”.
Demographic: 31% of online adults, 44% of onlinewomen. Male members are gaining.
Media: Pictures, short videos.
Best practices: High-value content – professional photos, infographics. Good for B-C and cataloging.
Biggest problem: Niche. Simplistic, but hard to ‘get’ for some people. Unclear on its application in B-B.
Instagram A repository of memory
Demographic: 83% under 40, 55% under 29. Very popular withyounger adults, people of color.
Best practices: Members highly engaged on a daily basis, so daily posts are good. Good for events, as-it-happens, visual only content. Great for sharing visual stories.
Media: Images & short videos only
Biggest problem: Mobile-only, limited tools. Future is bright, as it is a part of Facebook.
LinkedInBusiness networking
Demographics: Evenly distributed among the adult age groups, for working professionals. LinkedIn is the only major social media platform for which usage rates are higher among 30- to 49-year-olds than among 18- to 29-year-olds.
Media: Images, links, posts. No animated gif or video uploads.
Best Practices: Use of photos, links more effective than posts. Similar to Facebook.
Advertising: Seemingly ideal for advertising, but not having a lot of success yet. Better luck advertising on Twitter & Facebook.
Biggest problem: Simplistic tools for posting, advertising.
YouTube Videos only
Demographics: Huge audience, huge age spread.
Advertising: YouTube is expected to generate $5.6 billion in gross revenue in 2016. Currently, there are 6 billion hours of video watched on YouTube per month and 1 billion videos watched over mobile phones per day. Good place to advertise, simple interface.
Best practices:
Biggest problem: Not much. Now more competition from streaming services. Probably needs to think about getting into a original content to compete with Netflicks.
OthersSnapChat – Quickie messaging app to share videos and images and chat. Lasts 10 seconds. Young demographic directly mostly to teens, younger adults. Fun. Interface is almost too simplistic.
Tumblr – Short-form blogging. Can have great community. Owned by Yahoo.
Google+ – Used for relationship marketing. Keeps trying to die, but keeps rising from the dead. Good SEO though!
Partnering with social media strategist
What to do for successDefine GoalsIdentify AudienceEstablish BaselineContent!!!Short and Visual Micro-momentsDialogueCross-ChannelMonitor, measure, rinse and repeatPrepare for the unexpected
Goals Identify what the goals are --
◦ To get people to the website? ◦ To register? To download?◦ Capture leads? ◦ More likes/follows?• Brand awareness?• Thought leadership
Goals needs to support the business but also connect with the audience.
And make sure everyone - from C-suite to Marketing Assistant - is in agreement about the goals!
AudienceWho are you trying to reach?
Is it a new or existing audience?
If existing audience, what do you know about them?oFacebook insights, Google analytics,
Twitter analyticsoWeb searchesoAudience surveys, usability studies
Personas – Helpful in figuring out your main audience archetypes
Baseline and Tracking Baseline - Get a baseline of likes, followers, average post likes/shares/comments, and current sales/donations, clicks BEFORE you put up your content.
Track as you go along and pivot content Review after campaign to see how audience responded.
Content Authentic Personalize your company, entertain Be a resource – Thought Leadership Promotion (but must have value) – good imagery, storytelling, news-y, useful
Short and Visual Short Stories - Think how to impart your message in 70-100 characters.
Quick Visuals - What kinds of images will work with this content?
Micro-moments Mobile has forever changed what we expect of brands. ”Fractured the customer journey.” https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/collections/micromoments.html
Uncover moments that matter, take advantage and work fast.
But - have something interesting, relevant to say.
Cross-Channel Promotion Unify the message to works across all channels while tailoring the strategies used on each channel to ensure maximum success.
Identify what social media channels make the most sense to utilize for the campaign.
Typically website, blog, Facebook and Twitter, but could also use Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn depending on what your company does.
Dialogue Be prepared to have an online dialogue about your content and the story on social media.
Good to strategize ahead, however... The conversations may go in directions that you don't plan for.
Measure, rinse and repeat Feedback - likes, shares, comments, reach, RT's.
Who is responding? Examine the audience.
Opportunity - Expand on the content Keep, refine or pivot the strategy
Social Media - The Good
Social Media - The Bad
Social Media - The Unexpected
Key quotes retweeted:
“Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum.”
“Want to improve quality of life. Love and empathy trumps technology.”
Social Media – What to do?
Mutual Benefit SocietySocial Media can inform the Content Strategy on what is and is not working
Social Media works best with good Content Strategy
Remember – social media is fun!
Thank you!Suna GurolDigital Program Manager, Microsoft in [email protected]@SunaGDigital, web and social media strategistMaster in Communication in Digital Media University of Washington
ResourcesDemographics of Social Media channels: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/ Social Media Examiner: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/ - social media tips and newsSmartBrief for Social Media: http://smartblogs.com/social-media/ - latest info on social HubSpot: http://www.hubspot.com/free-marketing-resources - white papers and toolsHootsuite: http://www.hootsuite.com – tools, but also good email newsletterImpact Blog: http://www.impactbnd.com/ DigiDay: http://digiday.com/ Mashable: http://mashable.com/
CreditsReferences:
Social media image sizes for 2015: http://blogs.constantcontact.com/social-media-image-sizes/2015 Content Marketing Trends: http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2015_B2C_Research.pdfIdeal length for social media and digital communications https://blog.bufferapp.com/the-ideal-length-of-everything-online-according-to-sciencehttp://www.slideshare.net/SimoneMoriconi/context-content-social-media-strategies-2015Linkedin Ads disappointing: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/03/17/8-reasons-i-hate-linkedin-adsWhere should I adversite? http://www.impactbnd.com/blog/which-social-media-network-should-my-business-advertise-on
Photo credits:
Thinking cartoon face, Todd at Vincere Coaching. Bee pollinating flower, masaiwarrior via Flickr.“Bravo” and “Goals” and “Nuts” via ShutterstockBert & Ernie, Sesame Workshop, 2013Oreo – you can always dunk in the dark via Oreo Twitter.Social media icons collage, Inc.com.Baseline - tennis, Successfulworkplace.orgVisuals glasses – Creativecommons.orgRon Burgandy – Favorite Meme’s of 2015Dialogue – creativecommons.orgMeasuring tape – creative commons.orgHandshake, Trivia ManiaSocial media screen grabs: Project Violet Valentine’s Facebook campaign 2013, Fred Hutch Facebook posts from 2012, Neil Jordon, “Empowered Health – Thoughts from Around the Globe on What is Needed to Speed the Local Health Transformation” Improving Healthcare International Convention, Nov. 17, 2015Meme’s – Favorite memes of 2015, I Can Haz Cheezburger, and Hillary Clinton and Mark Zuckerberg meme, Texts from Hillary http://textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com/