Finding Your Social Brand

San Francisco ● Washington, DC ● Seattlewww.arlingtonmillgroup.com

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• Customers form enduring associations with a company or product

• Those associations guide consumer purchase decisions

• Brand value is built through consistent repetition of brand messages

1955Burleigh Gardner and Sidney Levy:“The Product and the Brand”

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The customer has stopped

listening

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Traditional Brand Content

Social + Data Feeds are over 500x larger

Brand-generated content is dwarfed by

Source: http://oedb.org/library/college-basics/invisible-web; Jon Samsel, “Mastering Your Online Marketing Strategy”

conversationsand

data feedsabout your

brand

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Social media is a cocktail party.“

David Meerman ScottAuthor, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”

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So how would your brand do here?

Is it:

a)Accessible?b)Interesting?c) Useful?

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Thesedo notmake your

brand

logos trademarkstaglines PR Q&Abrand guidelinesmission statementcompany boilerplatemessaging frameworknaming conventionsusage restrictionsvisual brand elementscorporate websitemarketing templatesexecutive talking pointsproduct positioningcorporate statements

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Thesedo

make your

brand

peoplecultureideascontributionsproductsserviceinnovationsmotivationscauses

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Get in the conversation

1

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Get In the Conversation

• Start with audiences that already care – then build outward

• Target the social tools and spaces that fit your audience and your brand

Target wisely

• Product-focused conversations are ok… if that’s what your customers want

• Listen more than you talk

Enter core-brand conversations

• Move into conversations related to your brand – only if you have something to add

• Maintain brand relevance

Enter brand-adjacent conversations

1

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Get In the Conversation1

…

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Show Your Personality

2

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• One that works for your customers and brand

• Boring is not a “style”

Set your tone

• Recruit compelling voices from across your company

• Let them contribute in their own voice

Find your stars

• Eliminate canned communication and messages

• Don’t be afraid to apologize

Be human

2Show Your Personality

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2Show Your Personality

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Build Trust

3

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• Don’t try to control your users – link freely

• Share and attribute the good ideas of others

Share

• Offer information and insight• Focus on substance, not polish

Contribute

• Be transparent • Honor your commitments

Be Honest

3Build Trust

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3Build Trust

“3M Carjacks the Post-It Note Jaguar”“3M’s Post It Note

Car: How Not to

Do Viral

Marketing”“ Learning from the 3M Post-It Note Debacle: Social Media Ethics Defined”

Some not-so-great responses from the online blog community:

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Thanks!

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Krim Stephenson

kstephenson@arlingtonmillgroup.com

www.blindedbymarketing.comblogwww.arlingtonmillgroup.comwebsite

@arlingtonmilltwitter