How to Build Your Brand with Content and Social Media

Susan Gunelius

President & CEO

Winter Quarterly Meeting

January 16, 2013

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What is a brand?

What a brand is NOT.

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A brand is not a logo.

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A brand is not a product.

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A brand is not a slogan.

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A brand is not an ad.

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A brand is not a company.

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A brand is a promise.

• A brand promises something to consumers.

• A brand sets consumer expectations.

• A brand meets those expectations in every consumer interaction and experience.

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Brands that don’t keep their promises fail.

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What is a brand?

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The Elements of Branding

TangibleLogo

Color palette

Typeface

IntangibleImage

Messages

Promise

Brand Perception

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Consumers build brands,NOT companies.

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3 Steps to Brand Building

1. Consistency

2. Persistence

3. Restraint

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Strong brands develop over time.

• The strongest brands own a word or phrase in consumers’ minds.

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What word does your brand own?

Inexpensive

Reliability

Luxury

Performance

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Know Your Competition

• It’s not enough to know what you’re doing.

• Research your competitors and know them as well as you know yourself.

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If brands were people, who would you rather hang out with?

There is a reason the Mac Guy vs. PC Guy commercials were so successful.

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Take the Brand Perception Snap Shot

• What 5 words do you use to describe your brand today?

• What 5 words do your customers use to describe your brand today?

• What 5 words do you want consumers to use to describe your brand in the future (i.e., your ultimate brand goal)?

Find the gaps and fill them!

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Building Brands Externally

Remember,

consumers build brands,

NOT companies.

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Building Brand Loyalty

1. Develop consumer perceptions

2. Meet consumer expectations

3. Build consumer confidence and trust

Confusion is the #1 brand killer.

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Brand loyalty can evolve into a cult brand.

Cult brands are loved by specific groups of die-hard brand loyalists creating a sub-culture of society.

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Cult brands can grow into relationship brands.

• Built on experiences.

• Fill a void.

• Consumers self-select how they want to interact with the brand by choosing from brand experiences.

• Often experiences are shared among groups.

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Relationship brands are powerful.

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People look for new ways to experience and share relationship brands.

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People talk about the brands they love.

• Emotional connections with the brand and each other

• Word-of-mouth marketing is powerful

• Social media and content give every brand access to consumer conversations

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Positioning Pyramid

Target Audience

Rational Needs

Emotional Needs

Points of Differentiation

Reason to Believe

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Social Media and Content Marketing

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ALL Businesses and Organizations Can Benefit from Social Media

1. Get entry points!

2. Get found!

3. Get traffic!

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What Social Media and Content Marketing Can Do for You

• Audience engagement• Media coverage• Relationships• Brand loyalty• Long-term, sustainable,

organic growth

• Awareness

• Recognition

• Website traffic

• Sales

• Word-of-mouth marketing

INCREASE

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What Social Media and Content Marketing Can Do for You

• Rumors

• Inaccuracies

• Distrust and uncertainty

• Brand confusion

• Misaligned brand perceptions

DECREASE

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Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary.tv

New Jersey Wine Store

Social Media

$70 million in sales per yearand

50% of sales from the Web.

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Shift from Marketer to Publisher

• Media and publishers provide content readers want and need.

• Marketers provide sales copy.

• It’s not about you!

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Traditional vs. New Media Marketing

• One-to-many

• Interrupt

• Repeat

• Push

• One-to-one

• Enhance

• Engage

• Pull

TraditionalTraditional New MediaNew Mediavs.vs.

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The 80-20 Rule

For every 20% of self-promotional content you produce,

create 80% that is not self-promotional.

Engage 80%

Me, Me, Me!20%

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Avoid Excessive Selling

Ski.com

Image via: Facebook.com/skivacations

1 Facebook Page Photo Upload with Comments

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Step 1: Set Your Goals

• If you just want to sell more stuff, you’ll fail.• Why are you on the social web?• What do you want to get from it?

GoalsGoals• Raise awareness• Customer service• Feedback• Publicity • Marketing• Reach younger demographic

Social MediaSocial Media• Blog• Facebook• Foursquare• Twitter• Flickr• YouTube• Livestream events• E-newsletter

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Step 2: Research and Benchmarking

• Customers and competitors

• Look outside your industry

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Step 3: Brand Yourself

• Promise: unique value proposition• Position: differentiators• Message: customer perceptions and

expectations

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Brand Consistency

• Logo, color, name, etc.• Increase awareness, recognition, and recall• Build brand perceptions and reputation• Examples:

– Blog design– Avatar (gravatar.com)– Facebook Page design– Twitter cover image and background– YouTube channel– Forum signatures

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Step 4: Find Your Best Audience

• Listen• Join• Engage• Share

• Stalk competitors• Hashtags.org• WeFollow.com• Topsy.com

How to Do It

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Example: Cakes for Occasions

• Pictures• Real-time promotions • Picked up by Boston Media• Testimonials• Business grew 25% and

saved $10,000 in marketing expenses in 1 year thanks to social media.

“We learned our audience was on Facebook, so

that’s where we went.”- Kelly Delaney, Owner Cakes for Occasions

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Step 5: Find the Influencers

• Find the people online who already have the eyes and ears of your target audience.

• They’re trusted and shared.• They’re powerful sources of word-of-

mouth.

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Example: Roger Smith Hotel

• Connected and engaged with influencers• Special Twitter discounts• Twitter kiosk in hotel• Special hotel welcome to guests who

come from social web

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Step 6: Establish Your Core Branded Online Destination

BlogFacebook LinkedIn

YouTube

TwitterPinterest

SlideShare

Lists

Page

GroupsAds

Instagram

Groups

Page

Answers

Twellow

Profile

Sample Business Social Media Presence

Ads

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Step 7: Content is Key

• What you say:– Useful and meaningful

– Avoid excessive self-promotion

• How you say it:– Human, honest, and transparent

– Tell stories

– Give something extra or exclusive

– Leave jargon and rhetoric out

• Quality trumps quantity

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Example: NakedPizza

• Twitter discounts lead to direct sales.

• 68% of single-day sales have come from Twitter.

• Twitter integrated into point-of-sale system.

• Twitter kiosks set up in stores.

• No more direct mail – all Twitter.

“Direct mail is sent to a single address but there are multiple

people in those houses. We want to maximize and extend our marketing reach, and Twitter helps us do this

in leaps and bounds.”

-- Jeff Roach, NakedPizza co-founder

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Types of Content

• News• Interviews• Research• Promotions• Warnings• Images and photos

• Videos• Tips• How To• Lists• Commentary and opinion• Step-by-step instruction

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Popular Content

1. “Wow” factor visuals: positive or negative

2. Controversies: elicit opinions

3. Buzz topics: everyone’s talking about

4. Feel-good stories: Cute, funny, and touching, moments

5. Quirky and intriguing stories: Impossible not to read

6. Celebratory stories: Things to cheer about

7. News stories: Affect the local area

8. Breaking news: Big impact to the audience

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Writing Headlines that Get Noticed

• Promise something

• Be plausible

• Answer “what’s in it for me?”

• Be intriguing

• Be relevant

• Be useful

• Be specific

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Headline Samples

• 10 Mistakes to Avoid …

• The Secrets of …

• 5 Ways to …

• Tips for _____ the Pros Don’t Want You to Know

• Why I Never …

• 10 Lessons from …

• What You Need to Know About …

• Top 10 Best/Funniest/Weirdest/Worst …

• 5 Reasons …

• 20 Things You Might Be Missing …

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How to Write Content People Want to Read

• Start strong

• Benefits

• Emotional triggers

• You not me

• How and why

• Promise reward and deliver on it

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Writing for a Digital Audience

Conclusion (most important point)

Most important supporting info

Less important supporting info

Background info

Inverted Pyramid

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Starting Strong Tips

• Share a personal story• Ask a question• Offer immediately actionable help• Cite a relevant piece of research data• Evoke emotions• Tap into nostalgia

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• AmEx OPEN Forum• Huffington Post

• Crowdspring.com• 99Designs.com• SloganSlingers.com

• Elance.com• oDesk.com• Guru.com

Beyond In-house Free and PaidBudget Friendly

Get Content Creation Help

CROWDSOURCING

FREELANCERS

EXERTS & CONSULTANTS

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Step 8: Integrate, Cross-Promote, and Automate

SAVE TIME & MONEYEXTEND CONTENT REACH

• Publishing• Promotion• Monitoring• Analysis

Streamline

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Blog Post

• Hootsuite• Monitter• Google Alerts• Twitterfeed • TweetDeck• SocialMention

• Curalate• Storify• Paper.li• Scoop.it• CurationSoft• Intigi• XYDO• Curata

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel Don’t Waste TimeDon’t Start from Scratch

Get Help and Tools

• Twitter• Facebook• LinkedIn• Google+• Pinterest• YouTube• Infographic• SlideShare

AUTOMATE

CURATE

REPURPOSE

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Step 9: Analysis

• Quality not quantity• Focus on trends• Soft metrics vital• Engagement, sentiment, and

conversions

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Tracking Performance

Examples of What to Track:• Unique site visitors• Page views• Referrers• Incoming links• How visitors travel through site• Returning visitors• Comments• Followers and connections• Retweets and @mentions• Social shares and likes

Measure Against:• Sales• Click-throughs• Online mentions• Online sentiment

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Analytics Tools• One tool isn’t enough• Human analysis is essential

Fee-based Tools• Radian6• Sysomos• HubSpot• KissMetrics• Brandwatch• SocialReport• InboundWriter• Trackur• Alterian SM2• AwarenessNetworks• Unilyzer• Lithium

Free Tools• Google Analytics• Google Webmaster Tools• Hootsuite.com (also a paid version)• Tweetdeck.com• Bitly• Facebook Insights• LinkedIn company page statistics• Klout• PeerIndex• Twitalyzer (also a paid version)• SocialMention.com• Viralheat (also a paid version)

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Step 10: Let the Conversation Flow

3 Cs of Social Media Marketing Wrong (Failure) Right (Success)

Conversation Stop it. Let it flow.

ContentCopyright protect

it or put up a barrier.

Share it.

Control Hold it tightly. Give it up.

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But What if They Say Something BAD?

You have three choices:Use the 3 Fs of Social Media Reputation Management

FLIGHT

Ignore it. FIGHT

Join it.

FLOOD

Bury it.

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