Social Storytelling: Creating and Curating Content Strategies That Work

February 17, 2012

Social Storytelling
Creating and Curating Content Strategies That Work

© 2010 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved

We are
Critical Mass.

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Toronto
Calgary
Chicago
London

Los Angeles
New York
Costa Rica
Nashville

We currently
Since 1995, we ve helped the
world s leading companies create have over 700 We are majority owned by
Omnicom Group Inc., one of the
best-in-class digital experiences
that bring together creative
employees largest marketing services holding
companies for advertising and
thinking, smart ideas, and emerging
technologies to engage customers
across " marketing agencies.
(www.omnicomgroup.com)

and drive business results.

8 ofﬁces

globally.

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© 2010 Critical Mass, Inc. Critical Mass Inc..
© 2012 All Rights Reserved
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Our clients

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In the end, it s all about the
work…

Extraordinary "
Experiences.

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Overview
#SMWcontentstrat

1.  Why Content Marketing?
2.  What Must It Do?
3.  The Process
+
4.  Tools
5.  Q&A

+

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#SMWcontentstrat

Social Media Content Strategy

WHY? BECAUSE IT WORKS

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Buzzword Alert: Content Marketing
#SMWcontentstrat

All marketing is storytelling. From the earliest days of bartering, merchants
added value to products by sharing the stories of the materials, the journey
they took to market and the work and craftsmanship that went into their
production.
+

+

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© 2012 All Rights Reserved Photo Credit: Claire Rowland via Fllickr. Used under Creative Commons License.
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Content Adds Value
#SMWcontentstrat

Forrester Research:
+
Percentage of corporate We …can drive signiﬁcant
marketing budgets currently improvements in customer experiences.
How? By putting more emphasis on
dedicated to some type of using content to help customers –
content marketing activity:
whether it is providing relevant
+ information when customers buy a

25%
product or delivering easy-to-use &
understandable content for customer
self-service Websites – rather than
simply focusing on how to create,
manage, & search for content.

Source: ContentWise, Get Content, Get Customers.
Source: Forrester Research: Use Persuasive Content To Improve The Customer
Experience.

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#SMWcontentstrat


WHAT MUST IT DO?

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1. Align to Your Business and Consumer
#SMWcontentstrat

+ Brand
Personality

+
Marketing Consumer
Objectives
Interests

Social Content Strategy

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2. Respect the Forms
#SMWcontentstrat

Tone/Voice (How)
Adapting the brand voice to a
consumer-based environment.
Tone/

Voice
Audience (Who)
Tailor content to the target audience.

+
Results
Audience
Channel (Where)
Social
Understand the channel where the
Content
content will live.

(What)
Time (When)
+
Time and day the content will be
posted.
Time
Channel

Results (Why)
Measure the effectiveness of the
content.

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3. Encompass Variety
#SMWcontentstrat

Social content is not just about messaging or Facebook posts, but
assets and applications as well.

Social Content

Content Feed Social Embedded
Messaging
Assets

Applications

Applications

Applications

Applications

Marketing/
Video

Polls

YouTube

Extensions

Widgets

Promotions

Ratings &
Lifestyle

Photo
Quizzes

Twitter

Facebook Events

Reviews

Product

Video Player

RSS
Refer

3rd Party Links

Livestream

Gifts/Badges

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© 2012 All Rights Reserved 13

4. Understand Your Business Strengths #SMWcontentstrat

Journalism
• Breaking News

CPG
• Lifestyle
• Customer Service Intake

Consumer Services
• Demystify the Buying Process
• Customer Accountability

B2B
• Expertise Exchange
• Social CRM

Foundation / Healthcare
• Viral awareness
• Increased support

Government
• Transparency
• Advocacy

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5. Tie It All Together
#SMWcontentstrat

Content Theme:
All content created in social
must ladder up to the
overarching theme created by
the brand and marketing
objective.

Content Bucket:
Buckets align to both the
consumer and brand. These
buckets establish a pillar of
content.

Topics:
A more detailed look at the
buckets.

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6. Leverage Multiple Skillsets
#SMWcontentstrat

• Research
• Planning
Strategy

• Copywriting
• Photography
Creative
• Video production
+
• Customer feedback
• Blogger outreach
PR

• Keyword selection
+
• Search engine friendly design
SEO

• Social media monitoring
• Site analytics data
Analysis

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#SMWcontentstrat


THE PROCESS

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The Six-Step Social Content Process
#SMWcontentstrat

6

1

Evolve
Research

5

Measure
Evaluate
2

Create
Align

4

3

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Social Content Process
#SMWcontentstrat

Research
Evaluate

Align

Create

Measure

Evolve

·  Understand the brand s marketing objectives
·  Identify the demographic that the brand most wishes to speak to
·  Consumer demos: Age, gender, occupation, household income, family status,
geography, etc
·  B2B demos: Industry type, job title, annual sales, number of employees
·  Psychographics: Attitude toward category, brand, and product, Desire for status,
ethical stances, risk levels, spending habits, overall attitudes

Tools:
·  Marketing and insights briefs
·  Existing customer research
·  Social media monitoring

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Example
#SMWcontentstrat

Research
Evaluate

Align

Create

Measure

Evolve

·  Client profile: A small batch producer of high-end ice cream that is
sold in most grocery stores. Research shows that people love the taste,
appreciate the quality and become advocates with regular exposure,
but a higher price point keeps a large percentage of their potential
audience from trying the product.
·  Brand objective: Use social media to activate advocates and introduce
non-buyers to the brand s benefits. Increase affinity and loyalty among
advocates and get into consideration set for non-buyers.
·  Target market: Canadian women 20-45, $50K+ income, head of
household, primary grocery shopper.

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Social Content Process #SMWcontentstrat

Research

Evaluate

Align

Create

Measure

Evolve

·  Create detailed demographic and behavioural personas of
representative community members
·  Where do they spend the most time online?
·  When are they most often online and looking for this type of information?
·  What screens do they most often use and how much time do they devote to this
subject?
·  What information do they need before making a purchase decision?
·  How do they prefer to get that information?
·  What opportunity does each proﬁle represent? How much weight should be given to
one or the other?
·  What content do they already love to read, view, interact with and share?
Tools:
·  Social media monitoring tools
·  3rd party market research providers
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Example #SMWcontentstrat

Research

Evaluate

Align

Create

Measure

Evolve

The Conscious Indulger – 80%
The Power Mom – 20%
·  Female 20-35, urban/suburban dweller, ·  Female 30-45, urban/suburban dweller,
no children in the home, HHI $50K+
children in the home, HHI $100K+
·  Loves ice cream but eats it in moderation ·  Buys ice cream regularly as part of family
out of concern for her health and ﬁgure
meals, but only serves it as a special treat
·  Wants to know that when she s indulging, ·  Wants to know that processing is kept to
she s supporting a company that uses a minimum
fresh, local ingredients whenever possible
·  Willing to pay extra for quality food
·  Willing to pay extra for quality food
·  Little time for social networks during the
·  Heavy mobile user, accesses social day, accesses from desktop in her
networks throughout the day
downtime
·  Trusts recommendations from friends, ·  Trusts recommendations from friends,
trusted food bloggers
parenting resources and magazines
·  Heavy reader of food magazines, recipe ·  Heavy reader of lifestyle and home
sites, uses Pinterest to get and share magazines, uses Facebook to connect
recipes
and catch up
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Research Evaluate Align Create Measure Evolve

·  Use personas to determine appropriate channels and content styles for
the audience(s)
·  Which media do they use and trust the most?
·  What behaviours and conversations are our targets already engaging in that the
brand can become a part of?
·  How often does the consumer want to hear from us?
·  What general area of content does the brand have to share with the social audience?
·  What kind of expertise/information can the brand offer the consumer?
·  What type of content from others can the brand leverage?

Tools:
·  Editorial calendars
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Research Evaluate Align Create Measure Evolve

The Conscious Indulger
The Power Mom
·  Uses Twitter and Pinterest to discover ·  Uses Facebook to keep up with children,
content, Google Reader to follow blogs friends and family and to get updates from
and Facebook to talk to friends
RealSimple, Martha Stewart, Smart
·  Frequently comments on blog posts and Parenting and other lifestyle/parenting
shares posts, recipes, articles to her social brands
networks
·  Brand opportunity: Catch her during
·  Brand opportunity: Surround her her downtime and drive her in-store
where she lives
·  Create a Facebook brand page to
·  Align with influential bloggers
connect with advocates first
·  Create Pinterest boards
·  Split content between lifestyle and
focusing on benefits of quality ingredients
·  Open a Twitter feed, integrate with her
network
·  Seek partnerships with current content
·  Optimize site content for mobile
providers – sponsored stories, images,
campaigns
·  Update multiple times of day
·  Time for pre-grocery shop and later in the
evening
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#SMWcontentstrat

Research

Evaluate

Align

Create

Measure

Evolve

·  Create or obtain the social content. Post the social content on
appropriate channels.
·  How can we integrate content so we can speak to multiple audiences in a way that
isn t disconnected?
·  What can the brand have fun with that isn t a disconnect?
·  What sensitive topics can the brand take advantage of to engage discussion?
·  What sensitive topics should the brand stay away from?
·  Who in brand connects with customers most naturally? How can the brand leverage
that person?
·  What is the audience s capacity to consume content?
·  How does this content impact the consumer and create value?
Tools:
·  Publishing / scheduling platform
·  Editorial calendars
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#SMWcontentstrat

Research

Evaluate

Align

Create

Measure

Evolve

The Conscious Indulger
The Power Mom
·  Creative concept: Perfect Pairings
·  Creative concept: Perfect Pairings
·  Align with her trusted food bloggers – ·  Use Facebook feed to push recipe
curate best-of dessert recipe posts, and photo content from blogger
with suggested à la mode pairings
outreach program – afternoon, pre-
·  Champion a cause outside the shopping hours
product to support and tie to the ·  Curate content about the beneﬁts of
creative concept, e.g. Free Range foods with low-processed, natural
Dairy Farming: What pairs perfectly ingredients and post to Facebook in
with dessert? Grass and sunshine.
the evening hours
·  Share images focusing on local ·  Scrape preferred content providers
farmers / small batch production
for brand mentions and repost to
·  Incorporate user response and Facebook
evolve the content accordingly
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#SMWcontentstrat

Research

Evaluate

Align

Create

Measure

Evolve

·  Record the impact of the content and optimize to strategic goals and
ensure best possible reach and engagement.
·  Are goals aligned to business objectives?
·  Are we counting the right metrics?
·  Can we connect social referrals to site metrics for a bigger picture?
·  Are we seeing sustained growth?
·  Is engagement translating into action?

Tools:
·  Social Monitoring Tools
·  Site Analytics

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Example
#SMWcontentstrat

Research

Evaluate

Align

Create

Measure

Evolve

·  Facebook insights reveal that the program is succeeding at reaching
Power Moms segment, but that a larger portion than anticipated of the
Conscious Indulger group is also tuning in through that channel
·  Site analytics reveal that majority of referrals from Facebook end up
browsing product pages and referrals from Pinterest spend most time
on About Us
·  Partner bloggers report increased comments when posts focus on
social cause content over recipe content

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#SMWcontentstrat

Research

Evaluate

Align

Create

Measure

Evolve

·  Analyze the impact of the content. Adapt and create new content that
can be more effective.
·  What works best to increase traffic, likes, comments or content engagement?
·  What days and times are we seeing the most action?
·  How does the audience react to changes and tweaks?
·  Is the audience asking for something we aren t providing?
·  Which influencers are driving visibility and how can they be supported?
·  Which influencers should be targeted and how can they be reached?

Tools:
·  Editorial calendar
·  Analysis report
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#SMWcontentstrat

Research

Evaluate

Align

Create

Measure

Evolve

·  Facebook findings:
·  Switch up the content mix on Facebook to appeal to both groups in an 80/20 split
·  Request community content intake via that channel – repurpose to Pinterest, blogger
outreach to reflect the community s interests in a holistic way
·  Use reactions from the community to determine preference
·  Site analytics findings:
·  Focus Facebook content on beauty shots of product, new flavour announcements,
favourite flavour polls, and consider offering a coupon tab to drive users in-store
·  Create a Pinterest board for our people , showing inside look at plant operations
and profiles of the people who make the product
·  Blogger findings:
·  Arrange visits to local farms and plant for key bloggers

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#SMWcontentstrat


TOOLS

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Planning
#SMWcontentstrat

Editorial calendars:

Date/Time: Date & Time post will be published.
BU/LOB Alignment: Where did the post come from?
Social Channel: Facebook? Twitter? YouTube?
Content Category: Identify the content theme of the
Post Subject: What is the post about?
post.
Link: Supporting Reserved already shortened.
link Post Copy: The post itself.
© 2010 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights
32

Research & Planning
#SMWcontentstrat

Marketing Info Providers:

Free

Paid

•  White papers
•  Original research
•  Third-party reporting
•  Full-length, detailed reports
•  Webinars
•  Analyst relationships
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Scheduling & Approval
#SMWcontentstrat

Publishing platforms:

Free

Paid

•  Multiple authors
•  Multiple authors
•  Multiple accounts
•  Approver logins
•  Twitter and Facebook
•  White label posting to multiple platforms
•  Light reporting
•  Medium to Heavy reporting
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Analysis & Optimization
#SMWcontentstrat

Social media monitoring:

Free

Paid

•  Track clickthrough on links
•  Brand, industry and platform insights
•  See follower countries
•  Identify advocates and inﬂuencers
•  Track buzz levels over time
•  Track buzz levels over time
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Analysis & Optimization
#SMWcontentstrat

Site and CRM metrics:

Free

Paid

•  Track incoming links from social
•  Track links and conversions
•  Track conversions from social
•  Custom solutions
•  Track bounce rate and time on site
•  Track inﬂuencers from social to site
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#SMWcontentstrat


Q&A

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#SMWcontentstrat

Q1: What s the hardest part of
creating or curating new content
all the time?

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#SMWcontentstrat

A1:
The hardest part is remembering to
I would say the hardest part is aligning consistently mix up sources, publications
industry trends while meeting the needs of and media types to keep things fresh and
the brand. Leveraging original content can interesting. This is where your Editorial
be difﬁcult when the content is out of date Calendar can really save the day.
and doesn t relate to changing trends in the
marketplace. I do think that a mix of both is - Alison F., Social Planner
ideal – people tend to get bored with
references to outside content and brands
should keep consumers engaged by creating
In my experience, the hardest part can be
original content to show that they are active
selling content through to the client. It can be
as well as up to date with current trends.
really disheartening to get your content

- Amy G., Community Moderator
rejected every time you try to do something
different or more interesting.

- Lauren L., Community Moderator

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#SMWcontentstrat

Q2: What are your tips or tricks
for inspiration when you re
feeling stuck?

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#SMWcontentstrat

A2:
When I feel stuck, I search out weird
Check out some of your favorite blogs calendars that list strange days like Cook
Blog Rolls and take a few minutes to ﬁnd Bold and Spicy Day . I look for something
some new authors for inspiration, and seasonal and fun to spark new ideas.
uncover new places to get fresh
perspectives.

Don t constantly link to other sources, and if
you do, add your own point of view, thoughts
and feedback to add differentiation and value
Set up Google Alerts and pull social media
to your posts.
monitoring insights at the industry, not the

- Alison F., Social Planner
brand level. Also use new channels to pull
people in rather than pushing.

- Heidi S., SVP Social Media

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#SMWcontentstrat

Q3: Who do you think is
consistently producing high-
quality social content?

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#SMWcontentstrat

A3:
The top brands that I think are creating
I m a big fan of postsecret.com, a project great content are Perrier, Audi, Old Spice,
that s gone from the streets to the web, to Levis (and most clothing retailers) Redbull,
print, to mobile and back again.
MTV and Starbucks.

A newer kid on the block that I m really liking - Leif F., Social Planner
is svpply.com, which uses your social
network to create deeper connections with
your friends by creating and sharing curated
shopping bags. It s defining and letting you
Companies that can embrace low-fi content
follow new tastemakers.
like flip cam videos of the the CEO, man on the

- Catherine C., Social Planning Director
street interviews, photos, infographics. Some
examples include Ford and Hyundai.


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#SMWcontentstrat

Q4: What are the tools and
processes you couldn t work
without?

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#SMWcontentstrat

A4:
Tools that let you post at a speciﬁc time, I couldn t do my job without Editorial
targeted at speciﬁc geographical regions are Calendars, close integrations with creative
essential for keeping a community happy with and event teams, close relations with my
posts that come when they re needed and clients, measurement tools, mobile devices
only to those that need them.
and traditional media partnerships.

- Leif F., Social Planner

I am an organizational nut case so the Ed Cal Editorial calendar content buckets! It s so
is a must as well as weekly team meetings to important to have a voice and a clear vision of
go over deliverables and talk through updates topics that are trend-worthy, sharable and
and expectations.
meet business and brand objectives.

- Amy G., Community Moderator

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#SMWcontentstrat

Q5: How do you evaluate whether
a piece of content resonated or
not?

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#SMWcontentstrat

A5:
The usual metrics like Facebook Insights,
Analytics. Make sure to always use links Engagement, Lift, Reach etc. But also, social
you can track and ﬁnd out how users are media monitoring tools to track general buzz
accessing your content. Bit.ly and free tools levels and to watch secondary networks
like Hootsuite make it so easy that there s sharing activity.
no excuse to skip it. And on every platform,
this includes Facebook.

Track how posts work by content type,
platform, etc. Who s commenting on it?
Traditional social metrics like shares, likes, re-
What s being said? The more you know, the
tweets, etc. But I also feel like the best
better decisions you can make about future
content, like a great idea or product, creates its
content.
own cultural identity.


- Catherine C., Social Planning Director

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Thank You


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