Saturday 4 July 2015

5 Lessons in Content Strategy (From Those Who Are Nailing It)

content bridge

Social Media Strategies Summit in New York City brought together digital unicorns from around the country. While each speaker shared valuable tidbits to takeaway, below are five lessons we are eager to implement and remember.

1. “Content is the new sales call.”
– Soniya Monga, LinkedIn @soniyamonga
content cycle
Soniya reminded us of the importance of a data-driven content strategy to address the reality that the average buyer must be exposed to over five pieces of content before they purchase.

2. “Social media allows us the opportunity to create new content—and to have a sense of humor.”
– Kevin Dando, PBS @kdando (@PBS)
pbs - downton abbey
If anyone can speak to the transformation of a traditional (and stagnant) medium, it’s Kevin. After integrating a revived social media campaign, Downton Abbey has become the top PBS drama of all time and, during Season 5, generated over 24 million Twitter impressions.

3. “What stands in our hero’s path to achievement? How does that journey unfold?”

– Michael Leis, Digitas @mleis
traditional story arc
Focusing on behavioral content strategy, Michael articulated the importance of utilizing a traditional narrative structure in social media storytelling. His advice? Include an introduction, conflict (with clues) and a resolution (with climax) to map your hero’s journey. (The audience, here, is the hero.) We’ve dubbed Michael the “Don Quixote” of the summit.

4. “Progress makers have six shared DNA markers: optimistic, driven, resilient, future focused, worldly outlook, and generosity of spirit.”  

For Angela, while progress makers can excel in unique sub-segments of work and society, they all share a similar story narrative arc that begins with a hook and results in impact.

5. “The content process must involve: data insight, smarter targeting, aggressive optimization.”

– Ben Harper, Datify @benharper87
this process - datify
Timeout - Foodie
Ben, who turned things around for @TimeOutLondon in the UK, made clear that content production and smart storytelling aren’t enough. A successful content strategy has to include smarter targeting through data insight—and must be (aggro) optimized.