This loyalty, unlike traditional awareness marketing campaigns, can take time and effort to develop and it has its roots in the trust, familiarity and respect that stems from frequent conversations/interactions. Think story telling down the pub. Punters will always return if they like your tales.
Essentially we're talking about editorial rather than straight advertorial/marketing. The buzz word used by marketing professionals is "content marketing". But in reality that still involves straight marketing/sales techniques and people in networks are very wary about being sold to. Just ask any Facebook user about the latest moves by Facebook to dump random ads into their timelines. Not good. I bet you're one of them.
So, whatever business, organisation, government dept etc you work in, create a dialogue and make it interesting. ‘Content is king’ is a vile cliché (it turns my stomach just keying in the foul term!), but it’s also the cornerstone of your social communications programme.
Simply put, you need to create intelligent, shareable content and lots of it in many different ways – that’s written text, visual, audio and video. Google any stats about this and you'll find a plethora of infographics about how inventive content pushed through social media platforms will drive traffic to your website.
Virgin's blog and the world according to Sir Richard Branson
Bewhiskered, aeronaticalpreneur Sir Richard Branson has this content plan nailed.
He writes umpteen blogs a month - many about Virgin, many about a mishmash of topics - and sends them forth through social media channels. It's clever and it's won him a big following across the digital landscape. But make no mistake - it's his regular blog that has won him that following, not simply because he knows how to use Twitter. Content is king - there, I said it again!
So it's worth having a brief look at how he's done it.
Screen shot 1 - Richard Branson’s blog on the
Virgin website. He updates this as often as twice a day. Generally the blogs
are short, commenting on issues in the media, lifestyle, business etc and are
often self referential, ie they refer back to Virgin but in an engaging way,
provoking comment from readers. Much of it is essentially subliminal marketing
and PR. But note it’s more about engagement than forcing through messaging.
Screen shot 2 - Nevertheless, some of his blogs
Screen shot 3 – This is Richard Branson’s LinkedIn page. On this
page he posts mainly to business professionals about entrepreneurial issues. He
was recently the first CEO to reach 1 million followers.
Screen shot 4 – Richard Branson has thousands of
Youtube followers who watch his video blog updates on business, media, lifestyle etc.
Bewhiskered, aeronaticalpreneur Sir Richard Branson has this content plan nailed.
He writes umpteen blogs a month - many about Virgin, many about a mishmash of topics - and sends them forth through social media channels. It's clever and it's won him a big following across the digital landscape. But make no mistake - it's his regular blog that has won him that following, not simply because he knows how to use Twitter. Content is king - there, I said it again!
So it's worth having a brief look at how he's done it.
Screen shot 1 - Richard Branson’s blog on the
Virgin website. He updates this as often as twice a day. Generally the blogs
are short, commenting on issues in the media, lifestyle, business etc and are
often self referential, ie they refer back to Virgin but in an engaging way,
provoking comment from readers. Much of it is essentially subliminal marketing
and PR. But note it’s more about engagement than forcing through messaging.
Screen shot 2 - Nevertheless, some of his blogs
are much longer and more thought provoking and even
combative. This is a blog he wrote (picked up by the London
Evening Standard newspaper) regarding the failure of the British government to
award Virgin a transport contract last year, instead awarding it to First
Group. Branson initially used his blog to highlight what he saw as the
inaccuracies of the tendering process; this was taken up by the media, then
talked about within government circles. Eventually the award was overturned and
Virgin now has an extension on the current transport licence and the tendering
process is to resume. So through his blog, Richard Branson managed to
change government policy and save his company millions in the process.
Screen shot 3 – This is Richard Branson’s LinkedIn page. On this
page he posts mainly to business professionals about entrepreneurial issues. He
was recently the first CEO to reach 1 million followers. 
Screen shot 4 – Richard Branson has thousands of
Youtube followers who watch his video blog updates on business, media, lifestyle etc.
So when you have time it's worth looking out for all the Richard Bransons out there who use blogging and social media tools to create a space for themselves in an information-saturated universe.
Next time - when I have time - I'll write about blogging platforms (a hint, I'm not particuarly keen on wordpress), mobile blogging, the best social media tools to use and how to use them properly. I'll also focus on another successful blogger and their writing and engagement techniques. None of it will necessarily be in that order. Of course.
Toodlepip
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