Your Brand, The Next Media Company: How a Social Business Strategy Enables Better Content, Smarter Marketing, and Deeper Customer Relationships

Description

• Copyright 2014
• Edition: 1st

• Book
• ISBN-10: 0-7897-5161-5
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-5161-4

Content is still king–and if you’re a brand marketer, you need to start thinking like a media company, too. Your Brand, The Next Media Company brings together the strategic insights, operational frameworks, and practical approaches for transforming your brand into a highly successful media company.

There is a content and media surplus in the marketplace, and there is an attention deficit in the minds of consumers today. Their lives are dynamic and completely unpredictable. They are highly influential and aid their peers down the purchase funnel using organic conversations about the products they care about and the ones they don’t. In order to reach these consumers, brands must create recent, relevant, and game changing content to break through the clutter and successfully change their behavior.

Social business pioneer Michael Brito covers every step of the process, including:

• Understanding the unpredictable nature and dynamic behaviors of the social customer
• Deploying social business strategies that will help facilitate the change from brand to media company
• Building a content organization and setting the stage for transformation
• Creating a real-time command center that will help facilitate reactive and proactive content marketing
• Creating a centralized editorial team that will drive content strategy, governance, and cross-team collaboration
• Building the content supply chain (workflows for content ideation, creation, approval, distribution, and integration)
• Enabling customers and employees (brand journalists) to feed the content engine
• Developing your content strategy that can be executed across paid, earned, and owned media content
• Transitioning from “brand messaging” to a highly relevant content narrative
• Evaluating the content marketing vendors and software platforms vying for your business

Along the way, Brito presents multiple case studies from brand leaders worldwide, including RedBull, Oreo, Tesla Motors, Burberry, Sharpie, and Pepsi—delivering specific, actionable, powerfully relevant insights you can act on to begin the transformation from brand to media company.

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Sample Content

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How Content Governance Will Facilitate Media Company Transformation

Sample Pages

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Table of Contents

Foreword     xi

Introduction:  Why This Book Matters Right Now and for the Next Several Years!     1

Why I Wrote This Book     3

How This Book Is Organized      8

   Section 1: Understanding the External and Internal Landscape     8

   Section 2: Setting the Stage for Social Business Transformation      8

SECTION 1:  UNDERSTANDING THE EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL LANDSCAPE     13

1  Understanding the Social Customer and the Chaotic World We Live In     15

We Live in a Multi-Screen Economy      16

CADD (Customer Attention Deficit Disorder) Is Among Us      19

Relevance Is the Key to Content Consumption      20

The Customer Journey Is Dynamic       23

Customers Are Influential      25

Business Objectives Stay the Same Despite the Changes Externally      27

Vendor Spotlight—Social Flow      28

2  Defining Social Business Strategy and Planning     31

The Social Media “Bright and Shiny” Object      32

Social Media Has Caused Internal Business Challenges      34

   Employees’ Inappropriate Use of Social Media      35

   Internal Confusion About Roles and Responsibilities      35

   Inconsistent Social Media Measurement Practices      36

   Outdated Crisis Communication Models      36

   Expanding Social Media Programs Globally Without Proper Planning      36

   Disjointed Content and Community Management Practices      37

   The Daunting Task of Technology Selection and Adoption      38

   Nonexistent Content Governance Models      38

The Three Pillars of Social Business: People, Process, and Platforms      39

The Social Business Value Creation Model      41

The Differences Between a Social Brand and a Social Business      44

Vendor Spotlight—Sprinklr     47

SECTION 2: SETTING THE STAGE FOR SOCIAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION     51

3  Establishing a Centralized “Editorial” Social Business Center of Excellence    55

A Lesson from Tesla Motors      57

Building Your Social Business Center of Excellence (CoE)      60

   The Responsibilities of a Center of Excellence      62

   The Organizational DNA and Team Dynamics      63

   Considerations for Building a Social Business Center of Excellence      65

   How the Center of Excellence Integrates into Your Organization      68

   Vendor Spotlight—Jive      70

4  Empowering Employees, Customers, and Partners to Feed the Content Engine      73

An Overview of Employee Advocacy      74

Advocacy, Trust, and Credibility Are Synonymous       76

   Employees as Brand Journalists      78

An Overview of Customer Advocacy      80

How to Scale and Plan an Enterprise Advocacy Program      81

   Program Infrastructure     81

   Content Strategy      83

   Measurement      84

   Technology      84

GaggleAMP Helps Scale Employee Advocacy      85

Napkin Labs Helps Scale Customer Advocacy      87

Pure Channel Apps and the Channel Partner Content Opportunity      88

Vendor Spotlight—Expion      90

5  Building Your Social Business Command Center     93

The Strategic Importance of a Social Business Command Center      94

The Social Business Command Center Framework      97

How to Build a Social Business Command Center      98

   Discovery      98

   Planning      99

   Implementation      100

   Reporting      100

   Kaizen      101

Social Business Command Centers in Action      101

   University of Oregon      101

   Cisco Systems      102

   Clemson University     102

   American Red Cross      103

   Gatorade      103

The New Form of Command Center Operations: Real-Time Marketing      103

   Not Everyone’s Onboard with Real-Time      105

   Real-Time Marketing Technology      106

Vendor Spotlight: HootSuite, MutualMind, PeopleBrowsr, Tickr, and Tracx      109

   HootSuite      109

   MutualMind      110

   PeopleBrowsr      111

   Tickr      112

   Tracx      113

6  Understanding the Challenges of Content Marketing     115

Examples of Brands Taking Content Marketing to the Next Level      117

   Virgin Mobile      117

   American Express      118

   Marriott      119

   L’Oréal      119

   Vanguard      120

Content Marketing Challenges: What the Experts Say      121

   Nestle Purina      121

   AARP (American Association of Retired Persons)      122

   Kellog      122

   Cisco      123

   Capri Sun      123

   Mindjet      124

   Sears      124

   Kinvey      124

   Ricoh      125

   ArCompany      125

Content Marketing Challenges: What Does the Data Show?      125

Moving Past the Content Marketing Buzzword      130

Vendor Spotlight—Kapost      131

SECTION 3:  DEVELOPING YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY     137

7  Defining Your Brand Story and Content Narrative     141

The Inputs Needed to Build Your Content Narrative      143

   Brand Messaging & Product Benefits      144

   The Non-Business Issues Important to Your Brand     146

   Media Perceptions of the Brand     148

   Community Perceptions of the Brand      149

   Fan Interests     150

   Historical and Current Content Performance      154

   Consumer Search Behavior      154

   Customer Service Pain Points     156

The Output Should Equal Your “Hero” Content Narrative      157

Simplifying Your Content Narrative      158

Vendor Spotlight—Compendium      159

8  Building Your Content Channel Strategy     163

Finding and Preventing Gaps with Your Social Media Channel Strategy     164

Mapping Your Content Narrative to Social Channels      167

Building Your Content Tiers by Channel      171

Laser Focused Storytelling by Channel      172

Diversifying Your Content Types per Channel      174

The Importance of Visual Storytelling      177

The Importance of Long-Form Content When Telling Stories      178

   Search Engine Visibility      178

   Thought Leadership      179

Striking a Balance Between Long-Form and Short-Form Storytelling      179

Best Practices for Writing Long-Form Content— It All Starts with the Title      180

Vendor Spotlight—Contently      183

9  The Role of Converged Media in Your Content Strategy     185

Defining Converged Media      187

Why Converged Media Is Important to Your Content Strategy     189

Converged Media Models      192

   Facebook Promoted Posts (News Feed Marketing)      192

   Content Syndication      194

   Earned Media Amplification      197

The Promise of Real-Time Marketing      198

Real-Time Marketing Is More Than Just Being in Real Time      200

The Creative Newsroom      201

   Creative Newsroom 5-Step Activation Process      203

   Creative Newsroom Models      204

   Vendor Spotlight—Newscred      205

10  How Content Governance Will Facilitate Media Company Transformation     207

Defining Content Governance      209

Building an Effective Collaboration Model      211

Proactive Content Workflows for Planned and Unplanned Content      213

Reactive Escalation Workflows and Risk Assessment      216

Governing New “Brand” Account Creation      218

Managing the Security of Social Media Passwords      220

Vendor Spotlight—Spredfast      224

11  Structuring Your Teams to Become a Content-Driven Organization     229

A Quick Lesson in Change Management      231

Tearing Down the Organizational Silos     232

Identifying Roles and Responsibilities     233

Structuring Your Content Organization by Channel      238

Structuring Your Content Organization by Brand or Product      240

Structuring Your Content Organization by Region     240

Structuring for Converged Media and Real-Time Marketing      241

Choosing the Right Technology Platforms      242

   Content Marketing Platforms      243

   Social CRM/Content Publishing Platforms      244

   Online Monitoring Vendors      244

Vendor Spotlight—Skyword      245

   Step 1—Recruit and Manage Your Writers      245

   Step 2—Plan Your Content Strategy      245

   Step 4—Create and Optimize Your Content       246

   Step 5—Edit and Review Your Content     247

   Step 6—Promote Your Content Socially      247

   Step 7—Measure and Analyze the Performance of Your Content      247

Index      249

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