content strategy - navigating the business of social media

NAVIGATING THE BIZ OF SOCIAL MEDIA

#SAGESOCIAL !

MIKE DUNCAN CEO / CREATIVE DIRECTOR

MDUNCAN@SAGEISLAND.COM !

DEVELOPING YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY

CONTENT ISN’T KING. YOUR CONTENT PLAN IS. !

SO, WHAT EXACTLY IS CONTENT MARKETING?!

Our definition:

Content marketing is the creating and sharing of published content with the intent of

acquiring customers—not through selling or promotions, but by delivering consistent, relevant,

valuable, informative, inspirational, or entertaining content for the purposes of building trust,

awareness, understanding, and positive sentiment.

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

DEEP CONTENT

WEBISODES !

LONG-FORM VIDEO !

SOCIAL VIDEO !

APPS !

BLOGS !

MAGAZINES !

E-ZINES !

THEY’RE MAKING CONNECTIONS. NOT TRYING TO MAKE A SALE.

10 STEPS TO CREATING AN EFFECTIVE CONTENT STRATEGY

STEP 1: DETERMINE YOUR OBJECTIVES. !

» Understand your organizational priorities

» Set S.M.A.R.T. marketing objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound)

» Start thinking about measuring success

» Consumption metrics — views, downloads, time on page

» Share metrics — tweets, likes, shares, Diggs, etc.

» Lead generation metrics — click-throughs to your site, newsletter sign ups, catalog requests, etc.

» Sales metrics — e-com funnel, brick & mortal sales

STEP 2: IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE PERSONAS.!

» Go deeper than your traditional target audiences

» Look at buying behavior, social and technological tendencies, leisure habits, needs and desires

» Focus on their content “watering holes”

» Use customer surveys or other basic demographic and psychographic research

» Use your search data from site analytics tools to identify themes

» Use your social media monitoring metrics!

WHO’S YOUR CUSTOMER?

WAREHOUSE SKATEBOARDS.COM

Joe Customer

CUSTOMER PERSONA:!

STEP 3: CONSIDER YOUR AUDIENCES AND THEIR STAGE IN THE BUYING CYCLE. !

» Develop key messages based on audience at the different stages of the “consumer decision journey” (sales funnel)!

CUSTOMER DECISION JOURNEY

STEP 4: DEVELOP THE STORIES. !

» Goal: create content that will be shared

» Gather a team with different perspectives on the consumer and product (athletes, product, brand, sales)

» Include your storytellers (agency, writer, videographer)

» Brainstorm the resonant stories

» Develop the storylines!

STEP 5: NAIL DOWN YOUR CHANNELS.!

Cross-reference story ideas against these channels:

» Owned: collateral, websites, social channels, etc.

» Earned: Brand-related conversations & user generated content

» Shared: Open platforms or communities where customers co-create and collaborate with brands

» Promoted: In-stream or social paid promotions

» Paid: advertising channels both off and online - PPC, social ads but also content distribution networks such as Outbrain !

» Set performance objectives/metrics for every channel

» Consumption metrics — views, downloads, time on page

» Share metrics — tweets, likes, shares, Diggs, etc.

» Lead generation metrics — click-throughs to your site, newsletter sign ups, catalog requests, etc.

» Sales metrics — e-com funnel or brick & mortar sales!

STEP 6: CONFIRM YOUR RESOURCES AND WORKFLOW.

» Don’t rush to start developing content yet

» The best laid plans are derailed by not having the people or systems in place!

» Edit and direct all content production

» Ensure brand adherence and creative integrity

» Optimize for search

» Manage the distribution

» Measure its success and trigger necessary changes!

Identifying who will be creating your content is a good start, but you should also think about who will: !

ARE WE EVER GOING TO CREATE ANYTHING?!

STEP 7: CREATE.!

» This is the part you’ve been waiting for, so knock yourself out! !

STEP 8: OPTIMIZE FOR SEARCH ENGINES.!

» Do your keyword research and use the relevant search terms your business dominates

» Don’t forget keywords that are relevant to your brand

» Include those keywords in your content’s title tags and meta descriptions

» Seriously consider engaging an SEO professional!

Optimizing content means giving search engines required, essential data to determine what your content and brand is all about: !

STEP 9: DISTRIBUTE YOUR CONTENT. !

» Create a distribution chart by channel, week, etc.

» Detail your owned, earned, paid, and partnered channels and the appropriate timing for each

» Work your industry contacts for channel opportunities and interesting partnerships that will let your content shine!

SOCIAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE !

STEP 10: LISTEN, RESPOND, MONITOR, MEASURE, REACT. !

» Be ready to engage immediately

» Amp up and loop in your customer service, quality assurance, and social media people

» Monitor channels and performance against benchmarks

» Make small changes to content as necessary

» Be ready if big changes are needed!

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

10.!

Determine objectives Identify personas Develop key messages Develop stories Nail down channels Confirm resources and workflows Create content Optimize for search engines Distribute content Listen, respond, monitor, measure, react !

MIKE DUNCAN CEO / CREATIVE DIRECTOR

MDUNCAN@SAGEISLAND.COM !