Sir Richard Branson, blogs and government u-turns

For your social media content strategy, remember that in the age of viral communications you need to earn influence and trust. You can't buy it - well not all of it.

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.

Content is king is a vile cliché
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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

What to write about - telling tales

Once you know the community you want to connect with, you'll need to start writing interesting, relevant stories. And make no mistake - blogging is all about story telling.

So why tell tales?

Blogging is a craft you need to understand and use if you're going to build a rapport with your community. This applies to sole-traders, owner-managers of small firms, corporate giants, charities, community action groups, local govt services etc. The list goes on, but the principle is the same. You build the community around you. That community then follows you.  

What you offer your community

Contrary to what most people - particularly marketing professionals - think, blogs and social networks are about dialogue with your community, not simply sales tools. Or to think of it another way, they're sales tools only if used in a subliminal sense. For example, financial journalists talking in the pub after work about an inside scoop on the imminent collapse of a multinational are selling themselves, their newspapers/websites and their work as writers. But they're clearly not selling advertising space for the newspaper.
 
For a blog to work, you need people to follow your blogs, talk about them, bookmark them and share them. That won't happen if you're constantly trying to hard sell or simply using Twitter, Facebook etc as response mechanisms to answer complaints or for general chitchat. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ etc are only as good as the info surging through them. The rest, as Henry Ford would say, is bunk.

So without wanting to labour the point (which, of course, I have) blogs are about stories, about connecting, about conversations. A story has to be interesting. Has to be written well. Has to be succinct, short(ish) and has to mean something to  the reader. Try to be anecdotal. Use real lives. Make it funny. Sad. Informative.

I'll go into more detail on all this later, but for the time being here are a few tips on what to write about and what content could interest your audience.

§  Tips

§  Case studies

§  Your history

§  Your company’s history

§  Debates

§  Reviews of products

§  Review a book

§  Build lists

§  Interview experts

§  Write an A-Z guide

§  Comment on a survey

§  Write about your own survey

§  Use a quotation

§  Make a video