Public Relations & Social Media Insight

In our social media-infused world, traditional marketing logic just doesn't work.

 

I had earmarked this article to share with you awhile ago and just found it again when cleaning up my emails. Better late than never!

 

Here's what I love about this post -- it makes no bones about the fact that marketing is changing. And if you haven't gotten with the program, get on board quick!

 

Now, I don't agree that ALL traditional marketing techniques are dead. But the author Bill Lee sure does make a great case explaining how things are changing. And his statistics are riveting.

 

And I also like that he shares with us what we need to do to stay with the curve:

Getting into community marketing Identify and promote customers that bring value (and not just based on how much they buy) Help your customers build social capital Involve your customers in creating solutions together

 

What's story got to do with it? Stories are the way the points above happen. It's all about the stories you share, listen to, promote, ask for, engage with, and retell. And hint hint -- these are your customer stories mostly!

 

Go read the article for all of Lee's insights. This will post will definitely get you thinking differently.

 

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it ;

Via Karen Dietz

I've rescooped this article from fellow curator John Kratz because I thought it was so good. It is a great example of how a company ramped up business once it started sharing stories of its customers -- with customers as the heros. Take notes folks! And thanks John for finding and sharing this article.

 

The year is 2008 and you are in the Financial Services Business.

 

"How do you turn a quiet, sales-driven organization into a B2B marketing powerhouse?"

 

"Consider the story of Lincoln Financial Group, a traditionally sales-centric organization... The 106-year-old financial services, insurance, and annuities company..."

 

"Lincoln Financial had previously conducted research showing that the more people take charge of their lives, including their finances, the better they feel about the direction of their lives."

 

"While others in the category seemed to be drawn to using fear in their advertising, we felt the time was right to try a new, more optimistic approach."

 

"...the campaign showcased a video of women of all ages showing how they take charge of their lives and provided educational content to help women do just that. The PR focused on the research results. The Chief Life Officer ads continued the "take charge, optimistic theme," which was reinforced in social media.

 

"And how has the integrated campaign done?"

 

Read the success story here:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3002425/creating-winning-b2b-integrated-marketing-campaign

 

[Excellent case study ~ Jeff]

Via Ken Jondahl, John Kratz, Karen Dietz

A study on Facebook learned that photos are the best type of content to draw the highest-level of engagement while links draw the least...

 

Here's just a very quick article for you that once again emphasizes that videos, photos and visuals are essential to effective storytelling on the web.

 

Of the 300 brand pages, 150,000 posts, and 700 million likes in the study, photos drew the highest amount of engagement. And if a company wants content shared, then videos were the vehicle to make that happen.

 

There's a nice infographic in the article that I'm going to pin to my Pinterest board to keep handy.

 

Think about how you want to add more photos and videos to your website and content for greater engagement!

 

And thank you fellow curator Debra Askanase @askdebra for sending me this article.

Via Karen Dietz