WHAT MAKES A GREAT STORY?
A great marketing story is one that sells stuff. It creates an emotion that makes consumers want to do what you ask them to do. If you’re a mobile company, you want to motivate people to sign up for a subscription to your service; if you’re Disney, you want to impel people to book flights and hotels and come spend money at your park; if you’re a nonprofit, you want to move people to make a donation. Your story isn’t powerful enough if all it does is lead the horse to water; it has to inspire the horse to drink, too. On social media, the only story that can achieve that goal is one told with native content.
Native content amps up your story’s power. It is crafted to mimic everything that makes a platform attractive and valuable to a consumer—the aesthetics, the design, and the tone. It also offers the same value as the other content that people come to the platform to consume. Email marketing was a form of native content. It worked well during the 1990s because people were already on email; if you told your story natively and provided consumers with something they valued on that platform, you got their attention. And if you jabbed enough to put them in a purchasing mind-set, you converted. The rules are the same now that people spend their time on social media.
It can’t tell you what story to tell, but it can inform you how your consumer wants to hear it, when he wants to hear it, and what will most make him want to buy from you. For example, supermarkets or fast-casual restaurants know from radio data that one of the ideal times to run an ad on the radio is around 5:00 P.M., when moms are picking up the kids and deciding what to make for dinner, and even whether they have the energy to cook. Social gives you the same kind of insight. Maybe the data tells you that you should post on Facebook early in the morning before people settle into the workplace, and then again at noon when they’re taking a lunch break. The better you learn the psychology and habits of your social media consumers, the better you can tell the right story at the right time. A story is at its best when it’s not intrusive, when it brings value to a platform’s consumers, and when it fits in as a natural step along the customer’s path to making a purchase.
Only you know what your story should actually say. At one point it might be “Our barbecue sauce will win you first prize at the chili cook-off,” but later you might decide it’s more important to tell the story that “our barbecue sauce has all-natural, locally sourced ingredients.” How did MasterCard know the time was right for the “Priceless” campaign? Nike had tried a number of stories before it hit on “Just Do It.” There are a number of tropes that often work, but ultimately the story that you decide needs telling can change from day to day, even from hour to hour. The perfect story is spun from your intimate knowledge of your history, your competition’s history, and increasingly, what you see going on in the world and what you discover your consumers want to talk about.
Whatever story you tell, you must remain true to your brand. Native storytelling doesn’t require you to alter your identity to suit a given platform; your identity remains the same no matter what. I’ll behave one way when I’m giving a presentation to a client in Washington, D.C., another way while I’m standing on the train platform waiting to head home, and yet another way when I’m watching football with my friends that night. But I’m always the same guy. Different platforms allow you to highlight different aspects of your brand identity, and each jab you make can tell a different part of your story. Have fun with that. One of the biggest mistakes big brands make is to insist that their tone remain exactly the same no matter what platform they’re using. In clinging to this outdated model, they’re missing out on one of the greatest benefits of social media—always having more than one option.
Entrepreneurs will have an easier time taking advantage of these options because they aren’t bogged down by the same red tape as Fortune 500 companies. While entrepreneurs and start-ups can respond with ease to real-time consumer feedback, corporate companies usually take a long time to steer their big old ships around. Because of their smaller size, entrepreneurs can make decisions quickly. Because they don’t have a herd of lawyers analyzing their every word, they can keep their sense of humor. They are able to retain their personality and humanity no matter what platform they’re on. Once start-ups grow enough to join the ranks of Corporate America, they often become overly cautious and start sticking to the safest, narrowest lane they can find.
THE SWEET SCIENCE
Marketers are constantly asking me for a fixed storytelling blueprint, something that delineates the optimal number of jabs before it’s appropriate to throw a right hook. That blueprint doesn’t exist. Social media storytelling is as sweet a science as boxing, requiring constant experimentation and hours of observation. Successful online content marketers pay especially close attention to variables such as environmental fluctuations and demographic shifts. At what times do we see the highest level of response? What happens when we use slang? How does the same image work with different taglines? Did it make a difference to add a hashtag? Is there an increase in engagement when we put out animated GIFs? The answers are out there if you learn how to test properly and correctly interpret the data. You can see right away how many people heart on Instagram; how many fans share and comment on Facebook; who repins on Pinterest and how often; how many people reblog and write notes on Tumblr.
Allocating the time and budget for these analyses can be tough for both small and large businesses, but it is imperative. It’s not enough to experiment—you have to respond to what the results tell you. This is how you devise a formula to guide your future storytelling on the platform. But that formula should be treated only as an overarching framework, because like any boxer, you can’t use the same move over and over again. A fighter will concentrate on trying to hit his opponent’s body if he learns that the competitor is reluctant to get hit there. But the next guy he fights might not be afraid to get hit in the body, so he’ll have to change his approach.
Similarly, each platform is unique, and requires a unique formula. What works on Facebook won’t necessarily work on Twitter. Stories told through pictures on Instagram don’t resonate the same way when told in an identical manner on Pinterest. Posting the same content on Tumblr as on Google+ is the equivalent of the tourist deciding that since he can’t speak Norwegian he’ll just speak Icelandic and it will do. That’s stupid. Both languages share similar roots and are spoken by tall, gorgeous blondes, but aside from that, they’re totally different.* Today, getting people to hear your story on social media, and then act on it, requires using a platform’s native language, paying attention to context, understanding the nuances and subtle differences that make each platform unique, and adapting your content to match. There is a science to creating memorable, effective social media content for mobile that converts fans into customers. Now is the time to learn it.
Today’s perfect right hooks always include three characteristics:
They make the call to action simple and easy to understand.
They are perfectly crafted for mobile, as well as all digital devices.
They respect the nuances of the social network for which you are making the content.
I’ll share more information that can help you improve your jabs, but I would like to try to get you to start throwing them in different places than you’re accustomed. I used to talk about going where the eyeballs go, but consumers would need sixteen eyeballs apiece to keep up with the multitude of devices and media that compete for their attention now. Every marketer’s goal is to reach consumers at the moment when they’re most influenced to buy. To do that, you need to be where they are. That’s a tough proposition when where they are is changing all the time, but it can be done. No matter where you go to meet your customer, however, you had better show up with a knockout story, and some killer content with which to tell it.
ROUND 2:
The CHARACTERISTICS of GREAT CONTENT and COMPELLING STORIES
The social media revolution wrenched the keys to the cultural k
ingdom away from pundits and gatekeepers, giving ordinary people a voice. But the sound of so many people talking at the same time—not to mention opining, debating, entertaining, instructing, and doing all the other things people do to make their views known online—is overwhelming. In order to increase their odds of being seen and heard, many marketers respond by posting a constant, steady stream of fresh content to their social networks. But the social media equation requires quantity and quality. Far too much of the content businesses and celebrities put out is no more innovative or interesting than a Yellow Pages ad. You can find truckloads of garbage on these platforms, especially when they are young and people are compulsively tossing content around like Mardi Gras beads, or when they are old and act their age. Brands and small businesses want to look relevant, engaged, and authentic, but when their content is banal and unimaginative, it only makes them look lame. Content for the sake of content is pointless. Tone-deaf posts, especially in the form of come-ons and promos, just take up space, and are justifiably ignored by most of the public. Only outstanding content can cut through the noise. Outstanding content can generally be identified because it adheres to the following six rules:
1. IT’S NATIVE
Though the functions of every platform may sometimes overlap, each one cultivates a unique language, culture, sensibility, and style. Some support text-heavy content; others are better suited for richly designed visuals. Some allow hyperlinks; others don’t. These differences are not minor—putting the wrong kind of content on a platform will doom your marketing efforts. This should be self-evident, but as you’ll see from the examples in this book, many companies just don’t take the time to learn the platform’s native ways before throwing content on it. Those who do, however, see results. And the ones who really dig deep to understand the subtleties and nuances of the platform that aren’t obvious to the more casual user? They truly shine. It’s like the difference between someone who learns a new language well enough to order meals in restaurants and talk about their day, and someone who is so fluent he dreams, curses, and makes love in that language. Marketers who understand platforms at that fluent level are the ones whose businesses will be most noticed and appreciated. This has always been the case. People forget that it took a long time for television ads to become as persuasive, and as pervasive, as they are now. Originally, only select families had access to television, and when they did, it was a guy in a suit sitting at a desk heralding the commercials, or a disembodied voice announcing, “This program brought to you by . . .” Not too compelling. Television ads only started to drive sales once TV units made it into more homes and became a popular source of family entertainment. In particular, ads started to work when a few smart marketers figured out how to talk to their consumers in ways that were native to the platform—through short, scene-driven stories populated with evocative characters. The ads became an intrinsic part of the television-watching experience. People hummed the jingles on their way to work or while vacuuming the house. The brands became cultural touchstones, and their products—the Cream of Wheat, the floor wax, and the frozen dinner—flew off the shelves. All because marketers figured out how to create content that was visually compelling, story-driven, and entertaining—ads that mirrored the content already airing on the platform and that the television audience was coming to see.
Content is king, but context is God. You can put out good content, but if it ignores the context of the platform on which it appears, it can still fall flat. Most marketers are oblivious to context because marketers are on social media to sell stuff. Consumers, however, are not. They are there for value. That value can take many forms. Sometimes it’s in a few minutes’ respite from the stress of a busy day. Sometimes it’s in the form of entertainment, information, news, celebrity gossip, friendship, a sense of connection, a chance to feel popular, or an opportunity to brag. Social networking sites light up people’s dopamine pathways and the pleasure centers of their brain. Your content must do the same, and it will if it looks the same, sounds the same, and provides the same value and emotional benefits people are seeking when they come to the platform in the first place. In other words, it will if it is native.
What is native to a platform? Depends on the platform. Tumblr attracts the artsy crowd and supports animated GIFs (short, rolling loops of video). A text post from a design firm reading “Visit our Web page to see our award-winning office furniture designs,” would be wasted there (actually, that would be a lousy post on any platform). So would a low-quality photograph on glossy, picture-perfect Pinterest. Twitter speaks to an ironic, urban audience that loves hashtags. An earnest post like “We love our customers!” would probably be soundly ignored. It sounds funny here, and yet posts like these are everywhere, proving that most brands are ignorant about what is native to a platform.
You already know that successful social media marketing requires throwing many jabs before converting the sale with a right hook. Counterintuitively, the most effective jabs are actually the gentlest. They are thrown with “native” content, which seamlessly blends in with the platform’s offerings and tells stories that engage the consumer at an emotional level. From the outside, jabbing with this kind of content won’t look or feel like the setup for that selling right hook, but it is, because the long-term financial worth of a person’s smile, giggle, snort, and even her tears is invaluable.
Native content has been compared to a modern-day version of advertorials, or infomercials. Just like the talk show that isn’t really a talk show, but a venue for selling slow-cookers, or the headlined article that isn’t really an article, but an introduction to a new joint-pain medication, native content looks and sounds exactly like any other content that appears on the platform for which it was created. The similarities, however, stop there.
Infomercials and advertorials are usually ridiculed because of their poor production value. There’s something cheesy about them. Sometimes that cheese is part of what makes the piece work—it’s hard to take your eyes off Ron Popeil puttering around his staged kitchen gabbing with his cohost and pulling chickens out of the Showtime Rotisserie. But classic advertorials and infomercials are hardly subtle—they are loaded with right hooks. They’re informative and entertaining, like a jab, but they’re there to sell. Whether the brand places its ad on a TV screen or in a magazine, it makes sure to plaster a huge phone number and URL across the bottom. And even if those obvious signs weren’t there, the whole tone of the piece is that of a sales pitch. Consumers couldn’t avoid the sell if they tried.
Native content, however, is not cheesy when it’s done right, nor is it obvious. What it is, really, is cool. Now, what is the formula for cool? Beats me. You know it when you see it. It’s whatever hits your emotional center so hard you have to share it with someone else. It can be a quote, a picture, an idea, an article, a comic strip, a song, a spoof, but whatever it is, it says as much about you, the person sharing it, as it does about the brand or business that originated it. There is no formula for cool content, other than that you can’t make it if you don’t have a deep understanding of what makes your audience tick and what they’re seeking when they use social media.
Creating skillful native content has little to do with selling and a lot to do with skillful storytelling. In the right social-media-savvy hands, a brand that masters native content becomes human. Though of course the topics of Campbell Soup Company’s posts on Facebook will probably be vastly different from your mother’s, they should still look and feel like something a real person, whether a friend, acquaintance, or expert, would write. When native content is skillfully delivered, a person will consume it with the same interest as he would anyone else’s. That’s because unlike most of the marketing tactics forced down consumers’ throats in the past, smart, native social media tries to enhance the consumer’s interaction with a platform, not distract him from it.
You see the difference? For more examples, check out the color commentary at the end of chapters 3 through 7.
2. IT DOESN’T INTERRUPT
The Keebler Elves, the Trix bunny, the Yoplait ladies one-upping each other with ecstatic proclamations of how good the yogurt is—they were all created to entertain, so that the next time you were in the mood for cereal or a snack, you’d remember the funny ad and be compelled to try the product. The Marlboro Man’s steely jaw and far-off stare were designed to convince you that if you smoked his cigarette, you too might exude an ounce of his masculine, independent essence. Ads and marketing are supposed to make consumers feel something and then act on that feeling. In that regard, the content marketers create today is similar to what it would have been fifty years ago. Where it should differ, however, is in the way it affects, or rather, doesn’t affect, your consumer’s media experience. Despite being the strong, silent type, the Marlboro Man was still an intruder. People would be watching Bonanza and then there he’d be, interrupting their program to sell them cigarettes. Then ads for Pine-Sol, Bengay, or Jif would follow. No matter how good the ads were, there was a distinct break between the show people were watching and the ad. But today marketers don’t have to intrude on the consumer’s entertainment. In fact, it’s imperative that we don’t. People have no patience for it anymore, as evidenced by the speed with which they jumped on the chance to bypass advertising altogether with the advent of DVRs in the late 1990s, and other commercial-skipping devices. If we want to talk to people while they consume their entertainment, we have to actually be their entertainment, melding seamlessly into the entertainment experience. Or the news experience. Or the friends-and-family experience. Or the design experience. Or the networking experience. Whatever experience people are seeking on their preferred platforms, that’s what marketers should attempt to replicate. They may not be in a buying frame of mind today, but you never know about tomorrow, and they will be far more likely to make a purchase from a brand they believe understands them and represents what they value than one to which they have no emotional connection.
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook Page 3
