The Role of Social in Content Marketing

2015 THE ROLE OF SOCIAL IN CONTENT MARKETING A CMA Industry Report – The Role of Social in Content Marketing

ABOUT THE CMA

CLARE HILL/THE CMA

ABOUT THE CONTENT MARKETING ASSOCIATION Content marketing is currently worth over £4bn and represents about £1 in every £4 spent on marketing. Budgets allocated to content marketing are also impressive, increasing at around 25% a year.

The role of the Content Marketing Association is clear: to promote content as an effective marketing tool to client-side marketers and showcase best practice insight, strategy and creative. We do this through proprietary research, regular events, training, awards and conferences.

For clients, we run an intermediary service that allows them to explore the market and find the right agency for their needs, while the organisation hosts an annual international summit and runs the world’s largest international awards event for content marketing.

The diversity of our membership demonstrates just how content marketing has developed.

As well as clients, it includes specialist content agencies, media agencies, media owners, companies with a background in TV and video production, as well as digital and social agencies.

2 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

Why join the CMA? As the only international organisation focused solely on promoting content as an effective marketing tool, the CMA is ideally placed to help you understand the value content marketing can bring to your organisation.

Benefits to being a member of the CMA include: • Regular research exploring attitudes to content marketing and future developments.

• Training, including monthly breakfast sessions that look at the latest digital trends and their relevance to content marketing.

• Events such as conferences and awards that showcase the latest in strategy, insight and creative from around the world.

• Regular networking sessions where the industry can exchange views and ideas.

• Promotion of content marketing throughout the media to drive awareness of the discipline.

• A confidential intermediary service that allows clients to find the best agency for their content requirements.

To find out more about the CMA, go to www.the-cma.com/services or contact Clare Hill at clare.hill@the-cma.com

CONTENT AND SOCIAL: SEAMLESSLY JOINED AT THE HIP Content and social are increasingly tightly linked, and brands and agencies are together maximising the opportunities it offers, says Clare Hill, managing director of the CMA. There’s a lot of noise surrounding social media – and rightly so. According to Ofcom’s latest report, seven in ten UK adults have a social media profile (and a higher proportion for those just approaching adulthood), while in March, the UK collectively spent 50 billion minutes on Facebook.

Hardly a week goes by without a new platform (Beme anyone?) or some new bells and whistles from the major players, such as Twitter’s addition of video or brand-oriented data packages such as that between

Facebook and Nielsen. But for content marketers (indeed, for any marketers), it’s a complex world.

Of course, we know that content and social go hand in hand together. Many brands already demonstrate this live, every day. We surveyed our members and a number of brand owners on social, and you can read the results on pages 23-27. Nearly 70% say social is important to content marketing, while 79% will spend more on it next year (of which 47% will increase their spend and will spend up to 50% more).

Thanks to our survey, we now have a better idea of why social matters, with 57% of respondents listing amplification as its main purpose, followed by use for building a fanbase, customer acquisition, and retention.

But how do content and social work best? Which platforms work best for which brand purpose? How should brands best approach social content? What are the rules to follow and the traps to avoid?

The articles you’ll read in this report, which follows on from our look at content and data earlier this year, will broaden our understanding. All written by our varied membership, they’re full of great insight and useful and timely case histories from brands such as Club 18-30, Hyundai, Evian, Vue Cinemas and ASOS.

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 3

THE INTERNATIONAL CONTENT MARKETING

CLARE HILL/THE CMA

AWARDS 2015 If anything, the coming together of social and content demonstrates, above all, the requirement for both a properly thought-through content strategy and a close relationship between brand and content specialist.

There are other clear lessons. One is that social is preeminently a content-demanding channel. As one article says, “there’s only one thing worse than not being on social media and that’s being inactive on social media.” In a nutshell, if you’re on social, you need content – and lots of it.

And if social is always-on, then your content must be too. This means running a newsroom-style operation or co-opting customers to generate ugc – or both. Either way, content in social needs to be topical and authentic, two forces that put pressure on traditional brand attitudes towards control. As one respondent to our survey put it: “That’s what makes social exciting. It isn’t dished up on a plate and it’s mostly a bottom-up phenomenon.”

One clear message is that social media is no longer a cheap or free channel. Organic reach has declined and essays from MEC and ITN focus on the use of paid social.

This is echoed by our survey: nearly 60% of the respondents currently invest in paid social media, and of those that don’t, nearly half (42%) will in the next six months.

The articles also demonstrate how the key social media platforms are tackling their Achilles heel: proof of effectiveness. Perhaps the rise of paid social and the need for platforms to show proof of effectiveness are linked.

These will help build the confidence of brands in social, but it’s clear from some of the verbatim responses to our survey that the analytics need to be improved. “We need more work on attribution to justify further investment to ROI-centric senior execs,” says one.

Here at the CMA, we note this. Part of our mantra is effectiveness and we both encourage and push for anything that helps content marketers prove that what they do works.

4 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

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The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 5

THE INTERNATIONAL CONTENT MARKETING

ANDREW HIRSCH/THE CMA

SUMMIT 2015

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The rise to dominance of content marketing over the past decade isn’t something that just happened. It came about hand in hand with the rise of social media.

Suddenly, what we always knew – that great content gets consumers involved, turns them into advocates, shapes their attitudes and behaviours – had become visible.

Social media turns consumers into content distributors, creators, bearers of the message. It means that – at its purest form and with all other things being equal – the best, most compelling stories will become the most talked-about and receive the widest distribution.

Where once brands were content to create ‘me-too’ content as a sideline for brand loyalists – focusing much more intently on above-the-line’s principle of captive audiences – they’re now finding that the key to reach, positive sentiment, referral and all those other KPIs is in creating great stories. Stories that excite people, make them laugh, feel, or want to talk about them. Stories that land the brand in a way that places it dead centre of the consumer’s areas of passion; the conversations they’re having, daily, with friends and peers. All those things content marketers have been excelling in all along.

But this realisation that a brand’s narratives – about trust, quality, price, provenance, anything – could only take hold with the permission and participation of the consumer, has not only elevated the storytelling in importance, it has also raised the bar for storytelling brands everywhere. And while ‘content’ has become a buzzword for brand managers – to the point where it can sometimes seem interchangeable with the word ‘stuff’ – the fact is that, in the social landscape, only genuinely compelling stories get traction.

Content marketers, then, have never had greater scope or greater permission to think in terms of quality. It’s not just a case of content being king any more. Social media means that great, compelling stories – no matter what the channel or brand – reign supreme.

The rise and proliferation of social media has changed the content marketing landscape beyond all recognition – and for the better. In this report you’ll find the latest perspectives on where we as content marketers take it next. It makes for a compelling mix, and these are exciting times, full of opportunity for content marketers.

What happens next is up to all of us.

Andrew Hirsch, Chairman, The CMA

summit.the-cma.com 6 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 7

MATT POTTER/JOHN BROWN MEDIA

More social, less media If a brand wants to compete, it needs to use its social media presence in ways that provide tangible business benefits far beyond CS or sales. But first it needs to broaden its thinking, says Matt Potter, Head of Content at John Brown Media Group

Matt Potter Head of Content John Brown Media Group

“What’s the point of ‘doing’ social media if we’re not selling or providing customer service?”

This is a question I get asked weekly in one form or another. It’s actually a pretty healthy one to be asked and I love answering it. If you don’t, you might not want to be in content marketing at all, because for many or most of us, depending how you slice it, ‘social media’ is increasingly ‘the media’.

There are obvious answers such as SEO, influence and audience testing, but it’s where these responses end that things get really interesting. Because social media is not just a channel; not just media: it’s social. And tapping into social dynamics can bring access to a whole new level of ROI.

Igniting interaction One way to tap into social is to create content with an open-source mindset – putting exciting material out there and letting the community sell for you.

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Underpinning our work for Vue Cinemas is a strategy of sparking passionate and fun conversations around movies, with the aim of getting more people talking on social media about films (which happen to be on at Vue) as a way to drive anticipation and make film central to their friendships.

And from hashtag games to the least likely candidates to be the next James Bond (Ian McShane? John Hamm?), it works: 18.2% of bookings are attributable to Twitter, while three in five said conversations over Twitter had affected their decision to see a film.

This is about recognising that a cinema brand’s competitors aren’t just other cinema brands, but other ways of spending leisure time – a pint, a pizza, NetFlix – and that talking about your offering with passionate others makes people more curious, more knowledgeable, more passionate and more confident about it themselves.

Selling through social This isn’t an outlier. On hearing about a car make or model, 42% of consumers considering purchase no longer go straight to the maker’s brand website, let alone ask for a brochure or visit a showroom. Instead, their first action is to check out what peers are saying on… you guessed it.

So the role of the marketer becomes less direct and more about filling the space around the brand profile with interesting stuff worth sharing and talking about – a new kind of ‘thought leadership’. This is done with the knowledge that prompting positive interactions between third parties does some of your selling for you.

This has other benefits, as research suggests that simply manifesting a social presence that people find engaging, outgoing and interesting has hard value in itself. One clue as to how comes from the study of the social behaviours we share with animals. Primates strengthen social bonds in large groups by approaching each other, smoothing fur and removing (often imaginary) fleas. This grooming often has no direct

link to hygiene; it’s simply a way of affirming a shared connection, and in doing so stimulating the production of endorphins and the hormone oxytocin responsible in humans for feelings of intimacy, compatibility and bonding.

It’s a direct ancestor to ‘Liking’ or ‘Favoriting’ a post and may explain the pleasurable feeling of being followed or retweeted by a strong or credible social media account.

Crowd dynamics So much for the warm-and-fuzzies. What about the ROI? Our parent group, the Dentsu Aegis Network, has worked with Cambridge University to research the specific value that can be attached to being a popular and active presence in social channels, independent of any specific sales funnel.

This was done by setting up three profiles for the same non-existent company, identical in all ways except for the amount of engagement – the ‘Likes’ – with that profile, and asking subjects questions about the company, its products and their relationship with them.

On a range of indices, from trust (“I would trust this brand”) to preference (“This brand would be my first choice”) to advocacy (“I would encourage friends to buy this brand”), an increase in perceived popularity had a marked, immediate and unconscious uplift. Even when there’s no interaction with the subject, the subject sees others’ interactions and likes and unconscious cues – that this is a brand others like, trust and profit by their association with, and that they can too.

This idea, that seeing our group enjoying something helps us want to enjoy it, is the basis of social proofs, the currency of TripAdvisor and the reason Apple has given every pocketable device from the iPod onwards white earphones. (You won’t see the pocketed device or know whether it’s any good, but you will see that everyone has one.)

Your brand might have great feedback, great NPS and a lovely brand logo, but unless that positivity plays out on social media, it won’t be able to influence the 42% of car buyers, the 18.5% of cinemagoers… or the rest of us.

Key metrics on loyalty, trust and tolerance rise the more consistently and visibly interesting, genuine, active and engaging your channels are.

“KEY METRICS ON LOYALTY, TRUST AND TOLERANCE RISE THE MORE CONSISTENTLY AND VISIBLY INTERESTING, GENUINE, ACTIVE AND ENGAGING YOUR CHANNELS ARE” MATT POTTER, HEAD OF CONTENT JOHN BROWN MEDIA GROUP

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ROBIN BARNES/CEDAR

Do you really like it?

Robin Barnes, Digital Director of Cedar, explains how social platforms are fighting to prove effectiveness

Robin Barnes Digital Director Cedar

The figures that underlie the growth and ubiquity of social media are irrefutable. Global internet users are spending on average nearly two hours per day on social platforms1, while Facebook recently announced that it reached a billion active users in a single day2. With the weight of such staggering figures behind it, how can social media not be the answer to marketers’ prayers?

Yet for all the feted accountability and measurability of digital media, social channels have struggled to demonstrate their efficacy to brands for some time.

Marketing Week journalist and commentator Mark Ritson has regularly argued for a corrective to the hype surrounding social media3, while in recent years the traditional marketing mix has been making a comeback, with the average UK consumer watching over 25 hours of TV a week in 20144.

Encouraging engagement When it comes to their offer to brands, the main social media platforms and their investors have played the long game. Over the last seven or eight years they have built their services; testing, learning and iterating to deliver

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platforms that build audiences. What they have been doing is constructing environments5 that encourage specific kinds of brand-friendly behaviours – it’s all about encouraging engagement.

But while spend on social media is set to grow 18% this year, persuading brands that social is ‘where your audience is’ is still not enough to win over the biggest of budgets. What brands want to see is a quantifiable return on their social investment, with evidence that page, post or UGC campaigns prompt a demonstrable change in attitude or behaviour.

And it’s here, in the world of research and analytics offerings, that we see social platforms increasingly stepping up to the plate.

Basic measurement This time last year, when Twitter and Instagram were launching their analytics offerings, all the main social media platforms offered their advertisers (and sometimes non-advertisers) some form of analytics package. These basic packages delivered the usual like/favourite plus reach and sharing data, and have become hygiene factors in the race to prove effectiveness.

Yet putting this basic data to good use isn’t always as simple as it seems. Such easy access to a veritable Niagara of numbers has led to an obsession with volume over impact, debates over the definition of reach (actual vs possible vs probable) and insight teams burdened with the Sisyphean task of deriving meaningful intelligence from the never-ending stream.

The basic data is useful, but better off in the hands of the community managers who can see in real-time what works and what doesn’t. For content creators, this kind of insight is a boon and allows everyone to constantly refine output. But to prove real effectiveness, the social media giants know that brands need more.

Moving it on Of course, what marketing directors want to know from

“WHAT BRANDS WANT TO SEE IS A QUANTIFIABLE RETURN ON THEIR SOCIAL INVESTMENT, WITH EVIDENCE THAT PAGE, POST OR UGC CAMPAIGNS PROMPT A DEMONSTRABLE CHANGE IN ATTITUDE” ROBIN BARNES DIGITAL DIRECTOR, CEDAR

ROBIN BARNES/CEDAR

their social media teams is how well their budget is supporting the organisation’s business objectives. This is where the platforms have moved beyond retweets and likes.

Twitter, for example, introduced ‘Transaction values’ and ‘Key conversion tags’ at the start of this year to help marketers gain more insight into ROI from Twitter campaigns6, and cites the example of LiveNation being able to track an 819% return on ad investment thanks to the analytics tools.

But it isn’t just about click-throughs.

For those campaigns where ecommerce tracking isn’t the core metric, Google offers its Brand Lift service (as a product for YouTube) which helps companies understand and optimise the impact of their digital campaigns with brand awareness, ad recall and brand interest7.

Combine this research offer with the advantage of having the biggest search engine in the world at your service means brands not only have access to data on organic searches related to their brand, but also a far better understanding of what the content made their viewers think or feel.

Howdy partner And it’s here, in a more holistic approach to measuring social effectiveness, that we see the big platforms starting to make headway, with the support of long-established media measurement outfits such as Nielsen.

Among its many measurement initiatives, Facebook has partnered with Nielsen to provide ad effectiveness studies, bundled with campaigns that reach a minimum

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HOW TO MEASURE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA 1. Social media generates mountains of data. Make sure there’s the right resource available to capture and convert this into knowledge.

2. Don’t let the availability of analytics platforms mean that other forms of data collection are neglected. Traditional qualitative market research such as focus groups, indepth interviews or ethnographic studies are still valuable.

3. Looking at the results of one aspect of a campaign isn’t an accurate measurement. Social is a channel that works in conjunction with other activities, so looking at it as one arm of a bigger marketing picture can be very productive.

spend threshold as a way of building the case for social ROI. Also, rather smartly, Facebook’s relationship with Nielsen has delivered a cross-platform study8 that shows how Facebook and TV advertising can work together to add an incremental audience of 20% to traditional mass-reach TV campaigns.

But it’s not just Facebook that’s been offering advertisers new ways to measure bang for buck. Twitter has also been partnering with Nielsen (since 20129) to gauge TV audience responses, with networks aiming to drive audience tune-in and advertisers looking to amplify brand messaging beyond TV10, using the social media platform as more of a listening tool (as opposed to promoting brand messaging) to gain valuable insights from their audiences.

In other evaluation activity, Twitter has worked with Nielsen to create the Nielsen Brand Effect for Twitter, a survey tool for advertisers to measure the impact of Twitter campaigns on message association as well as brand lift, brand favourability and purchase intent11.

In case it looks as though Nielsen has the whole social measurement market sewn up, we should highlight that for nearly three years, YouTube has been working with external partners such as Ipsos Media CT and Sterling Brands12 to look at the relationship between digital and in-store shopping, using it as proof for brands that digital (ie. video) can connect effectively with consumers in the retail sector13.

The result? This could be the beginning

of a real shift in how we see social. Maybe social media content is about more than reach and likes. Maybe it fuels brand bonding and propensity to purchase too.

And finally Though the debate around whether we can accurately measure the ROI of social has rumbled on for years, it’s evident that social has become an increasingly important part of the marketing mix. And as more paid media budget is pushed in the direction of social, so marketing teams have an ever-increasing need to prove its impact.

As we have seen, there’s clearly no shortage of tools to do this, but brands need to be smarter and more selective in their use. If we can, we need to move away from any knee-jerk tendency to quantify likes or shares and look beyond scale to more pertinent measures (soft or hard) of how social content supports your brand.

1 www.globalwebindex.net/hs-fs/hub/304927/file-2812772150-pdf/Reports/ GWI_Social_Summary_Report_Q1_2015.pdf?t=1441726540475&utm_ campaign=Trend+Reports&utm_source=hs_automation&utm_ medium=email&utm_content=17710638&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_ PK3zHV054pK97K8BtyZJ_3o_nbfgQ6dsuQjOt3XBOMFTBYKIE1e6YU-JrruAvHzyCXT hrbn0X59dtIIPuDcNWbnm3Zum1WOPpm_G9FHRt3qjRoKI&_hsmi=17710638 2 www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34090939 3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBvCnsxtNsI and https://www.marketingweek. com/2014/11/14/mark-ritson-marketers-are-in-denial-about-social-medias-real-value 4 www.barb.co.uk/trendspotting/data/trends-in-tv?_s=4 5 Either specific content-led tools like Facebook’s Instant Articles or, more subtly, the continual optimisation and tweaking of the user experience through AB testing or MVT in order to maximise time spent on the platform (eg. http://thenextweb.com/ facebook/2015/08/19/facebook-appears-to-be-testing-new-profile-pages-formobile-users/).

6 https://blog.twitter.com/2015/enhancements-to-conversion-tracking-for-web 7 www.thinkwithgoogle.com/products/brand-lift.html 8 http://insights.fb.com/2015/06/18/cross-platform-strategies/ 9 http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/17/nielsen-twitter-tv-rating/ 10 www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2015/nielsen-tv-twitter-tv-and-tvaudience-engagement.html 11 https://blog.twitter.com/2013/nielsen-brand-effect-for-twitter-how-promotedtweets-impact-brand-metrics 12 http://spotlight.ipsos-na.com/index.php/technology/what-google-discoveredabout-the-new-multi-screen-world/ 13 www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/how-digital-connects-shoppers-to-localstores.html

“AS MORE PAID MEDIA BUDGET IS PUSHED IN THE DIRECTION OF SOCIAL, SO MARKETING TEAMS HAVE AN EVERINCREASING NEED TO PROVE ITS IMPACT” ROBIN BARNES, DIGITAL DIRECTOR CEDAR

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D’ARCY DORAN/TCOLONDON

Superconnected D’Arcy Doran, TCOLondon’s Head of Content, gives a guide to working with the giants of social on YouTube

D’Arcy Doran Head of Content TCOLondon

A new breed of star has emerged from the social seas: the YouTuber. The likes of Pewdiepie, Zoella and Michelle Phan seemingly came from nowhere, suddenly boasting millions of subscribers, billions of views and a unique connection with audiences.

But look closely at the channel of any successful YouTuber — their homepages, bios, every video description — and you can see how they build their audiences by deftly conducting an orchestra of social platforms. Every video is part of journey through every platform imaginable – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, WhatsApp, and more – offering fans somewhere to go next.

To the uninitiated, the typical video by Pewdiepie, which typically features him yelling at the screen as he plays video games, can be overwhelming and puzzling.

There’s no narrative, plot or message. As he expands his content, he’s become the master of no-information tutorials and travel videos that don’t show the destination.

Yet his engagement is off the charts, with 39 million subscribers and 10 billion views. The secret of his and other YouTube stars’ success is that social is at its core.

A Pewdiepie video is hardly a video at all; it’s a chance to hang out with a crazy, entertaining neighbour.

Through our work with Google on the Engagement Project and with Maker Studios, we’ve had a front-row view of the rise of the YouTube star and have worked with

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more than a dozen YouTubers from different countries on different continents. So here are five things we’ve learnt about how brands can work with YouTubers while protecting that vital social engagement.

1. Loosen up and imagine “If you are a control freak, you’re not going to like the future,” said Yum! Brands CEO Greg Creed. The former CEO of Taco Bell was named by business innovation title Fast Company as one of the most creative people in business thanks to hits such as the Doritos Locos taco, the result of inviting 20-somethings to reinterpret the brand.

For someone used to TV spot-style branding, YouTube’s fast-cut mix of zaniness and innocence can be a shock, so plunge into the rabbit hole of YouTube to familiarise yourself with creators’ styles. It’s a chance to reimagine your brand in a completely new way. Pixar came up with Toy Story by asking the existential question: What do toys want? If your product were a character, what would it desire more than anything else?

2. Devise a creative framework The best brand collaborations with YouTubers are memorable. They offer the talent a chance to do something exciting and different, something more than they can do on their own. YouTubers live busy and complicated lives, and creating fresh new branded content ideas aren’t their top priority. A half-hearted product placement or name-check at the end of a video isn’t engaging for anyone, so inject some supercharged creativity to create a challenge that’s fun to both the YouTuber and their audience.

Finding the right creative framework was crucial when we teamed up with Maker Studios to create concepts for Google’s branded content series created with YouTubers.

We wanted Maker’s talent to genuinely have fun using their voices to do Google searches without feeling selfconscious. So we turned the world’s most popular search engine into a game: Google Duel. The YouTubers would

score points by getting Google to say a word without saying it themselves.

We designed the framework to provide a challenge that was unique, but one with an opening for the talent to make it their own by bringing in their obsessions, relationships and in-jokes, things that would entertain and reward their audience.

3. Keep it real YouTubers aren’t actors. Lines scripted in a boardroom are at best likely to fall flat and at worst threaten that very authenticity that makes a brand want to work with a given YouTuber. Our shoots with YouTubers are unscripted.

Together with the talent, we map out the territory that we want to cover but then let them loose to speak in their own voice. They know how to connect with their audience. And the social aspect of YouTube means their audience will quickly let them know if something seems off.

4. Invest in the edit “You have to spend the money in the editing room,” Spike Jonze recently told The Financial Times, reflecting on his experience crafting content with Vice. “You have to keep editing until it’s good.

Creatively, [the editing room] is where you find the story and where you make or break it. You have to feel it: this is good, this affects me.”

A YouTuber can leave their edits loose with gameplay videos or daily life vlogs running 20 minutes, but the average watch time for entertainment content on YouTube is about three and a half minutes. A great editor can distill

and compress 20 minutes of energy and personality into a highly shareable, nuclear-grade video that will appeal to the talent’s hardcore fan base but also have crossover appeal to people who are yet to discover the YouTuber.

5. Think social Unlike TV, a great native YouTube video is a social asset. The aim is to get people to share it, respond to it, maybe even make their own UGC version. Throughout the process, it’s crucial to think about the kind of engagement you want. How can you offer something the audience hasn’t seen before? How can you revisit – and repeat – the YouTuber’s greatest moments? How can you make the activity in the video easy to mimic?

At its best, YouTube is highly social — it’s about starting conversations.

“TO THE UNINITIATED, THE TYPICAL VIDEO

BY PEWDIEPIE CAN BE OVERWHELMING AND PUZZLING. YET HIS ENGAGEMENT IS OFF THE CHARTS, WITH 39 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS AND 10 BILLION VIEWS” D’ARCY DORAN, HEAD OF CONTENT TCOLONDON

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MICHAEL REEVES AND KATH HIPWELL/RED BEE

The Magnificent Seven Michael Reeves, Business Development Director, and Kath Hipwell, Head of Content Strategy at Red Bee look up from their tablets just long enough to provide an essential guide to cracking social video

Michael Reeves Business Development Director Red Bee

Kath Hipwell Head of Content Strategy Red Bee

Our ECD recently walked into a room at his mother in law’s house where his two teenage boys were sprawled across the sofa under a duvet – one with a tablet and one with a laptop.

“What are you doing?” he asked, by way of greeting.

“Watching telly,” they grunted in reply.

One was watching gaming footage on YouTube, the other looking at something on Facebook. And there, in one bite-sized anecdote, you have the perfect illustration of the increasing convergence of video and social media.

Video = social and social = video The young audiences of today and the buying public of tomorrow don’t just differentiate their entertainment by platform. For them, social is integrated into the viewing

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experience, whether that’s dual screening in front of the living room TV or watching videos in their social feeds on their smartphone. And almost all significant social media activity is now driven by video content. Here’s the proof: On Facebook (Source: Facebook) • Posts featuring video were up 75% YoY in June 2015.

• There are now 3.6 times more videos in the average Facebook user’s newsfeed.

• Video drives +148% more reach than images for brands.

On Twitter (Source: Twitter and socialbakers) • Tweets containing video of any sort (including links) have boosts of at least 28% against those without.

• Posting native videos directly onto Twitter instead of linking to third-party videos results in a 216% increase in engagement for brands.

Platforms that were originally conceived to be text-based are not only jumping on the video bandwagon but also driving it forwards. Not only has Twitter launched a native video function to play videos within the feed, it’s also purchased a streaming app, Periscope. This development shows the extent to which it believes video will be the future driver of the platform.

So if you want to build an audience in social channels or even reach and engage the followers you’ve already recruited, then video needs to be at the heart of your content strategy. Every communication challenge is now an opportunity to create social video.

How to create cracking social video At Red Bee we’ve worked with broadcasters as they’ve navigated TV’s transition from ‘box in the corner of the front room’ to its pivotal role at the heart of a multidimensional, multi-platform entertainment landscape.

Along the way we’ve picked up a few pointers on how to maximise the opportunities presented by social video. Here are a selected few:

1. Know your audience Social media gives us the opportunity to get to know our audience so much better. With detailed analytics provided by many of the platforms, we’re now able to tell where our audience lives, how old they are and what resonates with them. This data backdrop gives us a great starting point to create content tailored just for them.

So if the analytics show that you’re struggling to reach your audience, then hunt them down and start talking to them in their language, whether that’s English, Mandarin or Emoji. Channel 4 has launched a brilliant new Tumblr platform, which aims to repackage online news in a format more appealing to teens and young adults by presenting daily headlines from around the world as GIFs. And irrespective of demographics, who could resist such clickbait headlines as: ‘MANKINI BAN CUTS CRIME IN NEWQUAY’?

2. Harness the superfans By knowing your audience through each platform’s analytics, you can start to realise the importance of the most influential followers and sharers: the superfans.

Granted, it’s rare for many brands to have fans as committed as those of say, Apple or Ferrari, but other brands can make associations with events or celebrities and borrow superfans to do the legwork of sharing. Think about how ALS’s Ice Bucket Challenge mushroomed in 2014 after fans of David Beckham and Justin Bieber started doing the sharing.

3. Be entertaining or useful In simple terms, you can divide the content audiences want and need into two buckets: useful and entertaining.

Ideally you should have both, but at least one or the other. And if your content is neither of these things, there’s no reason for anyone to watch it. So please, please don’t make it.

An example of a brand creating social video purely to generate social discovery through humour is

“BY KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE THROUGH EACH PLATFORM’S ANALYTICS, YOU CAN START TO REALISE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FOLLOWERS AND SHARERS: THE SUPERFANS.” KATH HIPWELL, HEAD OF CONTENT STRATEGY, RED BEE

Halfords. They wanted to be discovered by a section of the cycling public far away from the lycra-clad hardcore MAMILS (Middle Aged Men In Lycra). So we created The Bike Whisperer, a new Halfords brand ambassador with some unconventional methods for getting bikes back on the road.

Over a series of films of varying lengths, The Bike

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 17

MICHAEL REEVES AND KATH HIPWELL/RED BEE

Whisperer (played by comedian Tony Law) interacted with a range of real-life Halfords customers in-store, ‘helping’ them with his uniquely spiritual approach to bike maintenance and sales advice. The films successfully showcased the brand’s dedication to customer service and introduced a more humorous tone for Halfords.

Because the spoof series had such broad comic appeal beyond the hardcore cycling community, one in two of the 800,000 views across the series was earned through social sharing. The series boosted subscriptions to the Halfords YouTube channel by 25% and YoY online sales were up 13.7% during the period.

4. Build a compelling storyworld The term ‘storyworld’ is being used increasingly in both academic and broadcasting circles to describe the fictional universe in which a transmedia narrative takes place. It encompasses mythology, characters, settings, events and backstories. Each medium within this multi-platform world contributes to the overall narrative or builds the environment in which that narrative takes place.

Brands can borrow techniques from broadcasters’ development of storyworlds such as creating immersive experiences and developing rich multi-dimensional characters – often with their own social feeds – to entice audiences to watch, engage and even create their own complementary social video.

5. Keep the story alive between series or campaigns Social is an important glue to connect ‘tent-pole’ content moments and build audience engagement between these releases. By doing this you can grow an increasingly engaged audience from a higher base rather than starting from scratch every time.

6. Be topically relevant and timely Broadcasters have long delivered the gold standard in reacting to events quickly through 24-hour news studios

18 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

and a legion of staff. Some big brands have sought to replicate their success through the use of newsrooms and permanent infrastructure of their own, and it’s this approach that’s led to some famous social media coups (see Oreo’s Super Bowl tweet).

Such high-profile marketing success stories have led many brands to think that to play in this arena they also need 24-hour newsroom set-ups. But that’s not the case.

The more cost-effective way is to plan your spontaneously reactive newsroom to be ready at times most relevant to your audience.

This is the approach we took for BBC Two’s The Choir, fronted by Gareth Malone. We wanted to amplify the excitement and sense of anticipation around the show, so while everyone was settling down to watch the first episode, we assembled a group of BBC singers and, as people took to Twitter to discuss the show, we were ready to join in the conversation chorally.

7. Play to your platform It’s important to flex your approach to content by platform both in terms of how people use the platforms and their peculiarities in time lengths, navigation and audio. On Facebook, for example, around half of people watch video with the sound off. Meanwhile on YouTube, audiences can click away after five seconds, so you only realistically have around three seconds to override the automatic instruction that passes from brain to finger to click on ‘Skip’.

With our work for Hyundai we needed to grab people’s attention very quickly with something visually arresting.

We did that by creating narrative dissonance, a gap in the story that audiences are compelled to fill by continuing to watch. The very first frame of one of the films shows a man flat out on the floor with the line ‘You’re going to prison’, which raised all sorts of questions that our brains want answering.

“IF YOU WANT TO BUILD AN AUDIENCE IN SOCIAL CHANNELS OR EVEN REACH AND ENGAGE THE FOLLOWERS YOU’VE ALREADY RECRUITED, THEN VIDEO NEEDS TO BE AT THE HEART OF YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY” MICHAEL REEVES, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, RED BEE

JAMIE TOWARD/MEC

Why content marketing and social media are the best of friends

Those who believe that social media doesn’t have a role in content marketing are starting from the wrong point argues Jamie Toward, Head of Content at MEC

Jamie Toward Head of Content MEC

As content marketing explodes, so its definitions multiply.

In a recent thought piece, industry doyen Joe Pulizzi defined content marketing as “a strategic marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action by changing or enhancing consumer behaviour.”

There are three key words here that constitute the foundations of content marketing: relevant, creating and distributing, and social media plays a crucial role in influencing and delivering them.

1. Relevant Social media provides a brilliant opportunity to listen to

20 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

what your brand audience passion points are. Using social listening tools, we can not only see what the people who are following our brand pages are thinking, sharing and actioning, but also what people like them are thinking, sharing and actioning.

The key point here is that we can see this happening in real time. At MEC, we used this immediacy to support the launch of the Mockingjay film premiere for Lionsgate.

Pre-prepared content templates were adapted for social distribution depending on where the social buzz was directing the overall launch story. Social listening and influencer identification tools allowed individual content pieces to be adapted for specific individuals based upon the intersection of what they were talking about and what the brand had to say.

But social listening doesn’t always have to be used in real time. Proximity to audience sentiment about the story a brand is telling is a massive benefit in developing editorial storylines for development, regardless of the frequency of release.

Ultimately, social media can provide the dialogue mechanism that allows content to feel relevant and contemporary, because it allows content marketers to know what really matters to their audience and how they feel. And that’s a powerful ingredient in effective content marketing.

2. Creating Social media can provide the opportunity to deliver in the creative stakes. At its best, social media will involve communities in the creation of stories and individual content assets. Where audiences have a passion for a brand and its story, they can become directly involved in the creation of content that really nails both the brand and its story.

A Facebook post from a Jaffa Cakes fan resulted in the brand ‘owning’ the last total eclipse across social media in the UK. The brand had to do nothing in terms of driving creativity or actual production – all that was required was

“SOCIAL MEDIA CAN PROVIDE THE DIALOGUE MECHANISM THAT ALLOWS CONTENT TO FEEL RELEVANT AND CONTEMPORARY. IT ALLOWS CONTENT MARKETERS TO KNOW WHAT REALLY MATTERS TO THEIR AUDIENCE AND HOW THEY FEEL” JAMIE TOWARD, HEAD OF CONTENT, MEC

JAMIE TOWARD/MEC

engagement and amplification.

The UGC market is also evolving fast. New market entrants such as Storyful provide a service where brands are able to license UGC based upon brand passion points.

UGC that’s trending in interaction amongst a brand’s audience and matches the brand’s story leitmotifs can be identified and shared through social channels, then licensed for publication in other content channels, up to and including TV. This new approach allows a brand to engage users in content creation beyond the usual bounds of their direct content fans.

Creative marketplaces such as Genero.tv, Wooshii, Vidsy and The Smalls also show how social can be used in content creation. These marketplaces, run on a social media/community basis, allow brands to brief creatives who have a passion for creating content – films, images, songs, packaging design, words – in the same way they would brief their creative agencies, making professional quality content more affordable and accessible for brands.

3. Distributing Perhaps the greatest contribution social media can make to content marketing is in the area of distribution. The days of using social platforms as organic distribution channels may have passed as there has been a precipitous drop in organic reach over the last few years. Research by Edgerank Checkers in 2014 suggested organic reach at 16% in February 2012, while recent Social@Ogilvy research suggests that pages of over 500,000 likes get less than 2% in 2014, meaning that organic reach gets penalised the higher your brand-page engagement.

However, the decline in organic reach doesn’t equal a decline in social distribution. In fact, the increased sophistication in the advertising and paid distribution products of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, among others, has made the social platforms indispensable as distribution partners.

The targeting and retargeting capabilities that social platforms have means that content can be served to a

22 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

bullseye target audience through either standard display units or, arguably more powerfully, native in-stream executions. The retargeting capability allows content marketers to sequence messaging over time so that a story can unfold for individual users based upon their action and interaction with a brand’s content.

We can target a video asset to a brand’s core audience then optimise for a subsequent video based on the type of people with the highest view durations. This paid distribution in social media platforms can prove invaluable in improving the effectiveness of any content marketing campaign.

Recent work on the Evian #Wimblewatch campaign demonstrated that Facebook’s video distribution capability was the most effective channel in achieving reach into the desired younger, tech-savvy audience.

Working with celebrities such as Maria Sharapova, Lee Mack and Larry Lamb, Evian reached over eight million people via Facebook for their Wimbledon activity.

21

CMA MEMBER SURVEY

KEY QUESTIONS, 21 ANSWERS YOU NEED TO KNOW 1.

HOW IMPORTANT IS SOCIAL TO CONTENT MARKETING?

2.

VERY IMPORTANT

YES

IMPORTANT

MAYBE

UNDECIDED

NO

ARE YOU PLANNING TO INCREASE THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MORE WITHIN YOUR CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY IN THE NEXT YEAR?

ANSWERED: 100 SKIPPED: 0

NOT VERY IMPORTANT ANSWERED: 99 SKIPPED: 1

Answer choices

Responses

Very important Important Undecided Not very important Total

68.69% 68 Yes 80% 80 29.29% 29 Maybe 14% 14 2.02% 2 No 6% 6 0% 0 Total 100% 100 100% 99

Answer choices

Responses

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 23

3.

IF YES TO THE PREVIOUS QUESTION, PLEASE INDICATE BY HOW MUCH

5.

GENERALLY SPEAKING, WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING PLATFORMS DO YOU THINK IS MOST INFLUENTIAL IN THE CONTENT MARKETING SPACE?

7.

10.

HAS THE GROWTH OF SOCIAL LED TO YOU FEELING LIKE YOU HAVE LOST CONTROL OF YOUR CONTENT MARKETING?

UP TO A 20% INCREASE

TWITTER

Yes

TWITTER

UP TO 50% INCREASE

INSTAGRAM

No

INSTAGRAM

UP TO 75% INCREASE

FACEBOOK

Maybe

UP TO 100% INCREASE...

Answer choices

Responses

Up to 20% increase Up to 50% increase Up to 75% increase Up to 100% increase year-on-year Total

41.86% 34 46.51% 40 6.98% 6 4.65% 4 100% 86

4.

FACEBOOK ANSWERED: 98 SKIPPED: 2

PINTEREST ANSWERED: 86 SKIPPED 14

WHAT IS THE MAIN PURPOSE OF SOCIAL IN CONTENT MARKETING?

AMPLIFICATION BRAND FAME BUILDING A FANBASE

LINKEDIN SNAPCHAT STORIFY

Responses

Twitter Instagram Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn Snapchat Storify Total

41.00% 41 8.00% 8 39.00% 39 1.00% 1 11.00% 11 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 100% 98

6.

CUSTOMER RETENTION CUSTOMER SERVICE

Negative

OTHER

Positive

Amplification Brand fame Building a fanbase Customer acquisition Customer retention Customer service Other Total

PINTEREST

Answer choices

Responses

Yes No Maybe

7.14% 7 SNAPCHAT 76.53% 75 16.33% 16

Total

100% 98

LINKEDIN

STORIFY

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA WITHIN CONTENT 8. DO THEMARKETING OUTWEIGH THE NEGATIVES? Yes No

ANSWERED: 99 SKIPPED: 1

Answer choices

Responses

Twitter Instagram Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn Snapchat Storify Total

34.34% 34 8.08% 8 54.55% 54 1.01% 1 2.02% 2 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 100% 99

Maybe

CUSTOMER ACQUISITION

Answer choices

ANSWERED: 100 SKIPPED: 0

Answer choices

WHICH SOCIAL PLATFORM DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST EFFECTIVE FOR B2C CONTENT MARKETING?

Responses

ANSWERED: 100 SKIPPED: 0

ANSWERED: 100 SKIPPED: 0

HAS THE GROWTH OF SOCIAL HAD A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE IMPACT ON CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGIES?

Answer choices

Responses

Yes No Maybe

85.00% 85 2.00% 2 13.00% 13

Total

100% 100

No effect at all

57.00% 57 5.00% 5 21.00% 21 Answer choices 6.00% 6 Negative 5.00% 5 Positive 2.00% 2 4.00% 4 No effect at all 100% 100 Total

WHICH SOCIAL PLATFORM DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST EFFECTIVE FOR B2B CONTENT MARKETING?

TWITTER INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK

ANSWERED: 100 SKIPPED: 0

Responses 7.00% 7 89.00% 89 4.00% 4 100% 100

CONSIDER SOCIAL MEDIA THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO ENSURE YOUR CONTENT MARKETING IS 9. DO YOU RUNNING IN REAL TIME? Yes No

Yes No Other Total

LINKEDIN

STORIFY

Other

Answer choices

PINTEREST

SNAPCHAT

ANSWERED: 98 SKIPPED: 2

24 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

11.

Answer choices

Twitter Instagram Facebook Responses Pinterest 72.45% 71 LinkedIn 12.24% 12 Snapchat 15.31% 15 Storify 100% 98 Total

Responses

ANSWERED: 100 SKIPPED: 0

31.00% 31 1.00% 1 1.00% 1 0.00% 0 67.00% 67 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 100% 100

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 25

12.

WHICH SOCIAL PLATFORM DO YOU FEEL IS THE MOST ECONOMICALLY VIABLE (LOWEST COST, HIGHEST ROI)?

SPEAKING, ARE BRANDS EXPERIMENTAL ENOUGH WITH THEIR SOCIAL USE IN CONTENT 14.GENERALLY MARKETING STRATEGIES?

17.

DO YOU CURRENTLY INVEST IN PAID SOCIAL MEDIA?

20.

TWITTER

YES

YES

YES

INSTAGRAM

NO

NO

NO

FACEBOOK

NOT SURE

MAYBE

LINKEDIN SNAPCHAT STORIFY ANSWERED:97 SKIPPED: 3

ANSWERED: 100 SKIPPED: 0

Responses

Answer choices

Responses

Answer choices

Responses

Yes No Not sure

11.00% 11 34.00% 34 55.00% 55

Yes No Maybe

57.00% 57 37.00% 37 6.00% 6

Yes No Maybe

17.17% 17 55.56% 55 27.27% 27

Total 100% 100

Responses

Twitter Instagram Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn Snapchat Storify Total

48.45% 47 4.12% 4 32.99% 32 2.06% 2 12.37% 12 YES 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 MAYBE 100% 97

15.

DO YOU NORMALLY OUTSOURCE YOUR SOCIAL WORK WITHIN CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGIES?

Total 100% 100

Total 100% 99

18.

21.

IF NOT, DO YOU PLAN TO IN THE NEXT SIX MONTHS?

YES

CONTENT AGENCY

NO

BRAND MARKETER

ANSWERED: 64 SKIPPED: 36

ANSWERED: 100 SKIPPED: 0

YES NO

Answer choices

Responses

Answer choices

Responses

Yes Maybe No

12.00% 12 12.00% 12 76.00% 76

Yes No Maybe

40.63% 26 26.56% 17 32.81% 21

Total 100% 100

Total 100% 64

16.

19.

Answer choices

Responses

Yes No Not sure

28.28% 28 CONSUMERS 29.29% 29 42.42% 42 CLIENT

WHO DO YOU BELIEVE HAS THE MOST CONTROL OVER DRIVING A SOCIAL CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY?

ADVERTISING AGENCY OTHER

NOT SURE ANSWERED: 99 SKIPPED: 1

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING DO YOU WORK FOR?

MEDIA AGENCY

MAYBE

NO

DO YOU BELIEVE IT IS POSSIBLE TO ACCURATELY MEASURE SOCIAL MEDIA’S ROI?

ANSWERED: 99 SKIPPED: 1

Answer choices

Answer choices

13.

MAYBE

ANSWERED: 100 SKIPPED: 0

PINTEREST

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT BRANDS ARE BEING AUTHENTIC ENOUGH ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

DO YOU PLAN TO INVEST MORE IN YOUR OWNED SOCIAL MEDIA?

ANSWERED:100 SKIPPED: 0

Answer choices

Responses

Content Agency Brand Marketer Media Agency Advertising Agency Other

48.00% 48 20.00% 20 11.00% 11 2.00% 2 19.00% 19

Total

100% 100

YES NO

Total 100% 99 MAYBE

AGENCY

ANSWERED: 99 SKIPPED: 1

OTHER

26 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

Answer choices

Responses

Consumer Client Agency Other

41.00% 41 31.00% 31 22.00% 22 6.00% 6

Total

100% 100

ANSWERED: 100 SKIPPED: 0

Answer choices

Responses

Yes No Maybe

74.75% 74 7.07% 7 18.18% 18

Total 100% 99

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 27

IRJA HOWIE/ENVERITAS

IRJA HOWIE/ENVERITAS

Social success starts with strategy Social media is at the heart of our instant culture, but it’s not a quick fix to content marketing. While the post may be instant, it will simply vanish like a drop in the ocean without good, old-fashioned planning says Irja Howie, Director of Content Strategy EMEA at EnVeritas

Irja Howie Director of Content Strategy EMEA EnVeritas

The digital space is cluttered, and getting more cluttered every day. In the next 24 hours, 4,000,000,000 items will be shared on Facebook, 499,860 posts will be published on WordPress, and 103,680 hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube1.

Any business that isn’t taking social media seriously should be very concerned about being left behind, since consumers are increasingly consuming, sharing and engaging in the virtual world. The solution however, isn’t to jump in head first without proper planning. Being on social media isn’t a destination in itself, it’s just the beginning of a journey.

Less is more If there’s one thing worse than not being on social media, it’s being inactive on social media. Opening an account on all the social media platforms available and adding

28 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

a mosaic of thumbnails on all corporate sites will do nothing for a business’s credibility. Instead, there’s a real risk of disengaging and even angering customers whose attempts to connect are met with silence.

Most people and businesses don’t have the resources to shine on every available platform. The key is to not worry about covering all bases. Instead you should choose the channel or channels that suit your industry and target audience best, and focus on those.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Google +, Pinterest, Snapchat – the list of channels available is growing and their dynamics ever-changing, which creates a scene that can appear intimidating. But, as with any marketing activity, it’s necessary to identify who your target audiences are, then consider the type of content you’re going to share to promote your brand.

With nearly 1.5 billion registered accounts2, Facebook is a safe bet and combines visual and editorial content well. But if teens and young adults are your target audience, you won’t find them where their parents are, so you should prioritise other channels such as Instagram and Snapchat for your marketing efforts. Twitter is also a good option, with a very large user base, which lends itself particularly well to both B2B and B2C engagement.

If you have a highly visual brand, Instagram is an ideal choice with its booming user base, or Pinterest, which is particularly good to target female shoppers; 69% of Pinterest users are female and Pinterest shoppers spend twice as much per order than Facebook shoppers, with an average per order of up to $1803.

Instagram for Raffles and Swissôtel hotels When Fairmont Raffles Hotels International decided in 2014 that the time was right to amplify their social media voice, Instagram was an obvious choice. Not only is the image-sharing channel rocketing in popularity4, but as a visual storytelling platform it’s a great fit for the hospitality industry. Blissful poolside images, appetite-whetting foodie snaps and inspiring shots of local sights are sure to

inspire any would-be holidaymakers as they plan their next destination.

The added bonus with Instagram is that in comparison to other social media channels, its 300 million users are the most inclined to use the platform to engage with brands and to shop5.

Interaction is a key element of the EnVeritas Group’s (EVG) strategy, with a focus on searching for user posts and connecting with them. It’s a great way to build a community of loyal fans, as well as achieving a domino-effect visibility as your comment reaches the user’s followers.

Amplification with personal interaction At best, social media marketing is a twoway conversation. Achieving engagement by receiving spontaneous likes and tags is great, but it’s far more effective to adopt a proactive give-and-take approach to creating relationships. So browse your followers’ profiles, commenting and liking their photos – they will appreciate noticing that there are human beings behind the brand and that the interest is mutual.

On top of the excellent restaurants, pools and facilities, customers also want to know that they will be looked after. Connecting with them personally when they ask questions or share their experiences is a great way to demonstrate a caring and interested customer service.

After responding to someone’s post, users will often mention and tag the brand in subsequent posts, publish more photos of the hotel and follow the brand, so hashtags are another great way to give Instagram posts the widest appeal.

69% OF PINTEREST

USERS ARE

FEMALE

PINTEREST SHOPPERS SPEND

TWICE AS MUCH

PER ORDER THAN FACEBOOK

SHOPPERS WITH AN

AVERAGE

$180

Corporate and location-specific hashtags are the obvious choice – #swissôtel or #singapore, for example – but this is also a great opportunity to throw in a bit of fun and creativity in a nod to Instagram’s predominantly under-30s audience.

Campaign results When EVG took over the accounts in August 2014, Raffles initially had 485 followers and Swissôtel had 544. By July 2015, Raffles had 2,969 and Swissôtel 1,822. The EVG strategy has more than tripled the followers for Swissôtel, while Raffles has grown to six times its previous number.

Likes have also improved. In August 2014, Swissôtel received 74 likes for the month and Raffles 99. At the end of July 2015, Swissôtel received 1,006 likes and Raffles 1,288. This is an increase of over 1,200% for both.

Users are also actively posting their own pictures, increasing the opportunities for engagement. The positive comments, follower increases for each channel and the increases of likes and comments demonstrate that we are developing a larger audience of brand ambassadors who will proactively spread the word about the brand.

SPEND

PER ORDER

1 www.slideshare.net/bradfrostweb/death-to-bullshit 2 www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networksranked-by-number-of-users 3 www.quicksprout.com/2014/09/05/what-social-mediaplatforms-are-best-suited-for-your-business/?display=wide 4 www.engagesciences.com/instagram-most-popular-socialnetwork 5 www.socialmediaexaminer.com/instagram-users-like-to-shop

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 29

SCOTT DRUMMOND AND KARLA COURTNEY/MEDIUM RARE

Under the influence The growth of influencer marketing represents a natural and welcome progression in the way that brands can use content to market to social audiences.

Scott Drummond, Digital Director, and Karla Courtney, Social Strategy Director of Medium Rare explore the power of individuals as brand storytellers

Scott Drummond Digital Director Medium Rare

Karla Courtney Social Strategy Director Medium Rare

relationship the influencer has developed with their audience and allows the influencer to express the brand messages in ways that are authentic and true to the influencer.

Influencer marketing is not…

Simply using an influencer as a talking head. A brand spokesperson regurgitating marketing copy is likely to make the influencer’s voice seem inauthentic and render them less influential within their community.

Simply trading off large audiences or finding the ‘one’ highly connected individual. Successful influencer marketing builds long-term relationships with many influencers and supports other marketing efforts that aim to engage everyday customers and deepen their relationship with the brand.

Not about turning influencers into customers. As Econsultancy puts it: “The value of an influencer to a brand is not their wallet, it’s their voice, as the power of peer-to-peer influence and word-of-mouth is now recognised as one of the single most impactful means of customer on-boarding.” 1

Firstly, a few definitions of influencer marketing:

When two trends converge Right now, influencer marketing is one of the biggest things to happen to social media, as two trends come together.

Influencer marketing is…

Identifying, targeting and engaging with specific individuals whose opinions are deemed to be influential within the wider target audience of the brand.

Most effective when brands develop long-term relationships with influencers based on shared understanding and values.

Most valuable for brands when the reputation of the influencer drives positive associations with the brand in the wider target audience.

Most effective when it shows respect for the

Trend 1 The erosion of audience trust and the increase in individual influence The number of people connecting together around interests in social media has grown steadily, and with it the desire of marketers to be involved in these peer-to-peer relationships. Marketers generally like to go where the eyeballs are, which is why for a lot of brands an increasing amount of marketing spend is going towards social.

Early on, Facebook gave brands a chance to try and connect with social audiences through their Pages

30 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

product. Many brands used these pages to try and connect with peers and develop a relationship with current and potential customers. But while a minority of brands built engaged and active pages, many started to treat the product like traditional broadcast media, pushing uninspiring marketing messaging into the newsfeeds.

Organic reach began declining.

So Facebook built more powerful targeting and paid media options. These gave brands the ability to pay to get into the newsfeeds of their audience, but as more brands paid to interrupt the newsfeeds of people, social audiences became increasingly irritated by the noisy brands that didn’t have anything relevant or exciting to share.

This has lead to wariness from many social audiences about brands on social platforms and a subsequent cautiousness from social platforms about how to monetise while not upsetting their audience. This sensitivity has been taken seriously by social platforms: Instagram has been rolling out ads to its platform in a very careful and controlled way2 and Snapchat appears to be so concerned with interrupting the experience of people connecting with their friends that its ad products are hosted in a separate space3.

This tension has led to a situation where the social audience is increasingly unreceptive to low-quality organic attempts to engage and to traditional forms of interruptive advertising in social platforms.

The stage is set for brands to think of better ways to engage the target audiences they want to reach.

#ACCESSALLASOS This is an exclusive hub created by the online fashion retailer, which is designed to make it as easy and attractive as possible for people to talk about ASOS online.

To manage this program, ASOS partnered with the influencer management technology platform Traackr. According to a case study from Traackr7 the program produced the following results in its first three months: 769 active brand advocates selected from 3,000 applicants 7,500+ positive brand mentions, including 200 blog posts 12m+ direct reach Mentions of ASOS rose 600% 800% growth in website traffic referrals

Trend 2 The rise of self-publishing giving individuals their own channels The social web has always given people the opportunity not just to consume online content but also to create and publish their own content to a potentially wide audience. Blogs were one of the first big talking points. They were initially dismissed, but soon bloggers emerged who could command the attention of brands with their sizable audiences4.

Then social and creator tools such as Twitter, YouTube and more recently Instagram allowed people to grow even larger audiences. Soon there were creators with audiences in the millions, who they could engage with at any frequency they like with original content. Crucial to the growth of many of these independent content producers is that they target a niche of content. So while videos of someone commentating on their own video gameplay doesn’t sound all that compelling, PewDiePie has nearly 39 million people who subscribe to his channel5.

Right now we find ourselves in a situation where people can easily seek out niche content that appeals to their specific interests and connect with its creators and others that care about that content. And, many more people are now also using lowor no-cost creative platforms such as Canva, Instagram, Vine and meme generators to generate their own content.

The content landscape is busier than ever, with independent content producers commanding huge audiences, individuals creating hyper-personal content for their

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 31

SCOTT DRUMMOND AND KARLA COURTNEY/MEDIUM RARE

“INFLUENCER MARKETING IS MOST VALUABLE FOR BRANDS WHEN THE REPUTATION OF THE INFLUENCER DRIVES POSITIVE ASSOCIATIONS WITH THE BRAND IN THE WIDER TARGET AUDIENCE” KARLA COURTNEY, SOCIAL STRATEGY DIRECTOR, MEDIUM RARE

friends, and mainstream publishers tailoring their content creation resources with social in mind.

In this highly competitive landscape, brands have a big job on their hands.

Why influencer marketing and why now?

Now more than ever, brands have to fight for the attention of their consumers.

Years of interruptive brand marketing in social channels have also made the target audience more inclined to tune out brand messaging. People’s trust in brands as purveyors of compelling stories has waned, and in its place publishers, friends and creators have become go-to sources of compelling human stories.

Content marketing is not at odds with strategic influencer marketing. Done well, brands are able to get their message across through the mouths of trusted content creators and build not just audience but also relevance, trust and engagement.

1 https://econsultancy.com/blog/66780-from-crm-to-irm-therise-of-social-influence 2 http://blog.business.instagram.com/post/112707530471/ carousel-ads

http://blog.business.instagram.com/post/120537653811/thenext-steps-for-ads-on-instagram-new-formats 3 “3V ads appear inside premium and curated contexts…” See more: https://www.snapchat.com/ads/ 4 eg. Robert Scoble https://twitter.com/scobleizer 5 www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/this-guymakes-millions-playing-video-games-on-youtube/284402/) 6 www.accessallasos.com/about/ 7 http://traackr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ AsosCaseStudy.pdf

QANTAS TRAVEL INSIDER Medium Rare was appointed as Qantas’s publishing partner in March 2015 and were given the task of relaunching Qantas. com/travelinsider. Our approach included recommissioning all web content and creating a new Instagram account based on showcasing the work of others.

The account regularly features users who tag us or use the hashtag #qftravelinsider.

Results The website achieved instant organic growth despite relaunching with all new content.

With social media, we gained 3,800 organic followers on the @qftravelinsider Instagram account after two and a half months.

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The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 33

KEVIN SUTHERLAND/SEVEN

Prepare to be spontaneous!

Kevin Sutherland, Strategy Director of Seven, outlines his manifesto for real-time, social content marketing

Kevin Sutherland, Strategy Director Seven

Revolution was in the air at the recent Social Media Week event in London. In his keynote speech, Dazed Media’s Will Hayward declared the era of content was over. It’s a good point and it’s great that the era of content is over, since the future of content marketing is much more interesting.

So what does the next phase of the revolution look like? Is the future of storytelling one based on algorithms?

Can you really put a value on the relative contribution of ‘art’ and ‘science’? Is content marketing even a discrete activity any more?

The future is bright We hear a lot about how it’s getting more difficult to reach, engage and influence people, but I’m not convinced that it is harder. Indeed, many changes could make it easier. We have access to more information to turn into insights that inspire ideas; we can target people personally and in real time, based on behaviour rather than demographics and derived assumptions; and we can see what’s working quickly.

The most significant change is in the relationship between the brand and the people who make up its

34 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

market and might become consumers of its products.

The italics are intentional as the words sound increasingly unnatural in relation to social media and content marketing.

What we are talking about is how best to get people to notice us, listen, learn something or simply be entertained, so that when they’re ready to search or buy, we have a better chance of being chosen.

The consumer is in control The original and best articulation of this change comes from history. The Cluetrain Manifesto was first published in 1999. Its central thesis was that “markets are conversations” and that the internet was unlike any media previously used for mass marketing.

The book pre-dates anything we would now called ‘social’ and makes no mention of content marketing, and yet its predictions have proven to be spot-on and relevant to both. As the authors said at the time: “A powerful global conversation has begun. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter – and getting smarter faster than most companies.”

So markets are conversations and the consumer is in control. This begs another question for brands who invest in content marketing: which agencies or partners should

“WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT IS HOW BEST TO GET PEOPLE TO NOTICE US” KEVIN SUTHERLAND, STRATEGY DIRECTOR, SEVEN

we be working with to deliver the best performance?

There’s no shortage of opinions on this. Media agencies have been quick to respond to the decline of their traditional revenue model and have started their own content marketing revolutions with real success. They are strong in data insight and programmatic media buying – essential for effective content distribution in general and real-time in particular. But few have much experience of content creation, and so have to attract or acquire the right kind of creative talent. Whether they can integrate this within their established cultures and move away from the interruption model of marketing communication fast enough remains to be seen.

The advertising and brand agencies are rich in creative expertise but although they now include ‘content’ in the majority of campaigns, they are still geared towards a brand-driven campaign cycle rather than real-time content marketing activity. The PR agencies have their view on who’s best, as do digital specialists and dedicated content agencies. Then there’s the media owners, with their native advertising and sponsored content divisions.

So who’s right? What’s the best approach?

The three-point manisfesto As part of Social Media Week we hosted three events at Seven. The final session, Content Marketing 3.0, went some way towards providing the answers. Speakers included digital and mobile strategy guru Simon Andrews of Addictive, PR and crisis comms expert Rajmeena Aujla, and Seven’s Lisa Moretti.

So in the spirit of revolution, here’s a handy, shareable, three-point manifesto for effective real-time content marketing: 1. Join together The future is about data, insight and creativity, not one or the other. The future of paid media may be programmatic, but the experiences we deliver via algorithm could be better and more rewarding. There’s a bigger win for

all concerned through active collaboration between specialists. Simon summed this up beautifully with what he calls Route 55. Inspired by the bus route that connects the developers of tech city with the creatives of Clerkenwell and Soho, he explained that future success will come when we all work together.

2. Show respect Many smart agency people say that content marketing is no different from any other form of marketing communication. But content marketing and social media are very different to traditional, interruptive media models. Content usually asks more from the audience than 30 seconds of attention, while social media is very much a personal environment. So let’s adopt the principles and practices of customer experience management – actively planning, managing and optimising all interactions between people and your brand for real-time content marketing, rather than the traditional marketing communication model.

3. Prepare to be spontaneous!

How do you get real-time content marketing right?

We’ve been asked so many times that we have developed a method and a process to help our clients. We start by identifying Demand Drivers that are based on a structured and methodical analysis of historical search, social and web analytics, plus the cultural trends relevant to our intended audience. This enables us to identify what people are likely to be interested in and talking about in the period ahead.

We then apply this insight to our Story Mapping framework, a nine-step thinking model that allows us to quickly evaluate whether a content idea is likely to deliver the performance the brand wants.

Of course, we also use real time tracking and data insight, but it’s this preparation, the hours or analysis, selection (and rejection) that allow our ideas to be relevant, useful and entertaining in real time.

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 35

SIMON BAKER/ITN PRODUCTIONS

If social is always on, so should your video Simon Baker, Head of Branded Content at ITN Productions explains why ‘little and often’ is the key to making social media central to your digital marketing success

Simon Baker Head of Branded Content ITN Productions

Brands like to binge on big campaigns, driving huge awareness for a limited period then frantically filling the gaps before the next campaign. This ‘hero’ content has huge value, but channels such as YouTube strongly recommend that ‘hub’ and ‘hygiene’ content is also used to sustain and build an audience on an ongoing basis. That’s why the ’little and often’ approach to digital marketing has been winning the spotlight.

To content publishers this is old hat, but for brands a world of opportunity and confusing terminology exists.

Whether you call it ‘real time’, ‘always on’ or a ‘newsroom approach’, the few brave brands who do adopt a publisher model will be rewarded with increased agility and increased return from their social channels.

A good example of an ‘appointment to view’ strategy was the YouTube campaign we produced for Airbnb.

36 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

The #mankind campaign was launched above the line on TV and our role was to answer the question ‘Is man kind?’ with a series of weekly bulletins showing good news stories from across the world. Social media reaction ranged from “We need more positive things like this” to the less restrained “Yaaasss kind news!! Thanks Airbnb”.

How ‘always on’ is always on?

Despite the term ‘newsroom’, many brands’ news is preplanned and based on a topical schedule planned weeks in advance. The difference is that they are ready to react when needed. The key for brands is planning to react to an event rather than being caught off guard. Topicality is key, but it doesn’t set you up to be the deliverer of news – after all, that’s not your job.

However, if you are set up for relevant topical stories, you can strike while the iron is hot. How much can topical news with a very short shelf life benefit brands? Google ‘Oakley Miners’ and you’ll see the product placement Oakley achieved when the Chilean miners came out of the mine in front of the World’s press. Oakley sent a few boxes of their premium sunglasses to the team rescue team, so that as the miners appeared from the ground in front of the world’s press, they had Oakley glasses on.

On Facebook you can more easily gauge how topical your content is to your specific audience because they are more likely to engage with it. For YouTube and LinkedIn, interaction can be slow at first, so you may need to use other tools. One is social listening software and another is an editorial board made up of external thought leaders and trend setters.

An investment bank we are working with want to target Independent Financial Advisors on LinkedIn, so they create a weekly bulletin that explores financial topics based on the insight from thought leaders well known in their industry. This is also an opportunity for the bank to set an agenda and position themselves alongside thought leaders who are outside of their company, which creates a more authentic and social approach.

Another advantage of taking the topical approach that publishers build their business on is that your media spend goes further. For Thomas Cook, the CLUB 18-30 TV YouTube channel we run sees a cost of 1p cost per view (CPV), whereas the category average for travel content on YouTube is 7p. This means we are getting a better return against our impressions than most travel content.

Separate the web from the social Let’s separate destination sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and your own websites from truly social sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Engagement and views on destination sites are driven by paid-for views sustained over a long period which, over a long time, build a subscriber base. They benefit further from search optimisation and views driven by other social sites.

The benefit of working with YouTube is that we can sustain longer view rates. A recent campaign for Thomas Cook had an average view rate of 20% of those who had seen the film advertised watching over 30 seconds, with 25% of those viewers going on to watch a full film. The average view duration for over 45 films in a three-month period was 1:20.

This works by creating a number of different content ‘strands’ and ensuring that you deliver fresh content at the same time each week. For Thomas Cook this happens on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5pm when we deliver a new film bringing the latest from across the network of resorts.

Do as you’re told Every social channel is built to reward you in different ways when you pay to promote your content. YouTube rewards consistent publishing of videos that are 1:30 long and optimised correctly for the channel. Think about spending £200-£400 per day for two to three days after posting a video. With topical content this can return upwards of 60,000 views.

Facebook is the new video champion, giving great

return for minimal spend on video. However you may need to capitalise on this quickly as they are likely to change their model. If you are not putting any spend on your video then all of these sites will oppress your content, with people who like your pages not being able to even see it, let alone a wider audience.

But place some spend and you will be amazed at the return on Facebook. The same content we use on YouTube is cut down to a shorter duration for Facebook, and from a base of 100,000 likes, each clip is regularly achieving upwards of 300,000 views and 300 comments – all for around half of what you pay on YouTube. The difference is that the average view time on Facebook is only 15 seconds, against YouTube’s 1:20. So use Facebook as a platform to use short taster clips that drive towards YouTube or your destination site.

Now is the time As more brands adopt always-on marketing across both B2B and B2C, those who move first are most likely to build their audience and take viewers away from those who are late to the party. A fast-turnaround, branded-content series becomes a truly digital format when your audience starts to associate themselves with the content.

If they are sharing the content and engaging with it properly, you will know you have succeeded. The ultimate benefit is the potential for low-cost content, authenticity through the use of your communities’ user-generated content, earned distribution and ultimately a consistent way to retain customers and acquire new ones.

“THE BRAVE WILL BE REWARDED” SIMON BAKER, HEAD OF BRANDED CONTENT ITN PRODUCTIONS

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 37

LAURA CRIMMONS/BRANDED 3

Search and rescue Laura Crimmons, Communications Director of Branded3, explains the importance of social activation and how it can give your brand the vital boost it needs

Laura Crimmons Communications Director Branded 3

The aim of most social content marketing campaigns is to drive traffic, though this is often done indirectly using content to improve search performance and visibility. One of the best ways to achieve this has always been link building, an activity that will be important for the foreseeable future. Content marketing allows us to generate natural links that will improve search performance, but social activation can be a huge help. In its simplest form, social activation is using social channels to help spread your content. This could be through paid promotion or natural sharing by your audience, driving traffic to your content from social platforms.

Social studies There have been many studies that suggest a correlation between the amount of social shares and engagement a piece of content (or website) receives, and its position in search results. Branded3 conducted a study in 2012 called Tweets vs Rankings that explored the impact of tweets on a site’s visibility, which found that URLs receiving over 7,500 tweets almost always ranked inside the top 5 results.

38 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

This is echoed in Moz’s Search Engine Ranking Factors 2015 study, which also found a strong correlation between a page’s number of social shares and its rankings.

If one of your objectives is to improve search rankings and visibility then these stats should be enough to take social activation seriously. There are also other benefits of using social activation as it can assist in generating links to the content, which will boost rankings even further.

Breaking the story By investing in social activation you can help the chances of your content being picked up by journalists and bloggers. Edelman’s 2015 Media Forecast found that over 75% of journalists are under pressure to think about a story’s potential to be shared. So being able to demonstrate that content is popular on social platforms will encourage journalists to cover it, meaning more eyes on your content and more links to improve search performance. The journalists listed five key criteria for a story to receive social shares: 1. Video/images 2. Brevity 3. Localisation 4. More use of human voice 5. Proximity to trending topics Choices choices There are a number of considerations when investing in social activation of content, the main one being effective selection of the most relevant social platforms.

Different types and themes of content will perform better on different platforms and it’s important to be aware of this when deciding where to invest your money.

To see measurable success in social activation you will need to invest in advertising on the relevant platforms.

Some of this will come down to common sense – we all know that quizzes and playful content will perform best on the likes of Facebook, whereas long-form B2B content

SEARCH ENGINE RANKING FACTORS 2015 (MOZ)

THREE STEPS TO SOCIAL SUCCESS

Facebook total count

1. Make it prominent Most people who view your content are lazy. If you don’t have sharing buttons and calls to action featured prominently then the content will not be shared. The overwhelming majority of consumers will not copy the URL over to the social platform of their choice then write their own message about why their followers/friends should visit the content themselves. So make sure you feature all the sharing buttons in a prominent place on the page – ideally twice, once at the top and once at the bottom.

Shares on Google+ Facebook share count Facebook like count Facebook comment count Shares on Twitter # of mentions of the full domain name (e.g. www.google.com) in FWE Shares on Pinterest # of mentions of the domain name in FWE (eg. Google) Facebook click count Shares on LinkedIn

2. Make it easy

Facebook comment box count 0

0.05

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is likely to perform best on LinkedIn. However in the ShareThis; 2015 Consumer Sharing Trends Report we can see other trends in terms of where different categories of content are shared most.

For example Sports content over-indexes on Twitter, whereas Health content performs best on Facebook and Beauty & Fitness performs best on Pinterest. Pinterest is also the top channel for Food & Drink, Home & Garden and shopping-related content, all significantly higher than Facebook and Twitter. It’s important to bear these trends in mind when considering where best to promote your content.

Not all forms of content will be created with the aim of generating hundreds or thousands of shares, but most content marketing pieces will have this as one of their aims, so well thought out social activation is key.

Think about it this way: if no one wants to share your content then what reason is there to create it in the first place? Content that’s shareable will see a higher ROI due to the amount of traffic and potential conversions that it receives.

When someone chooses to share your content, there’s a specific reason, which is likely to be one of the following: They found a particular stat interesting They liked a quote in an article They liked an image They want to boast about a score or outcome to their friends For any of the above it’s important to make it easy to share the individual aspect of the content that makes it shareable to that consumer. So if liked a particular stat within a quote, I want to click share and that stat is populated in the box.

3. Make it worth it One of the reasons people share content is to satisfy an emotional need, such as showing off their knowledge, showing how funny they are, or wanting to win something. So ensure it’s clear in your call to action what users will achieve by sharing.

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 39

DAN DAVEY/PROGRESSIVE CUSTOMER PUBLISHING

First past the post

Keeping the faith This lack of trust is echoed in the world of business. At the macro level, the majority of consumers in most countries don’t trust corporates. A whopping 80% of respondents to the 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer claimed to distrust business, government or both.

Social media is the ideal medium to build trust, This matters for businesses because, as Edelman’s explains Dan Davey, managing director of research shows, when we trust a company we’re 80% Progressive Customer Publishing more likely to likely to buy from it, 54% more likely to pay more for its goods or services, 68% more likely to recommend it and 40% more likely to defend it. Implicit in the research is the idea that greater communication Dan Davey with customers is at the heart of any successful campaign Managing director to rebuild trust, and observers are increasingly suggesting Progressive Customer Publishing that social media is the best way to do this.

While identifying the problem and diagnosing cures seems easy, business must beware of social quackery. For If you’ve picked up a newspaper or magazine, clicked on instance, a recent trend is to sweep aside considerations a website or engaged with social media recently, you’ll about B2B or B2C and repeat the mantra that what matters have noticed a shift in global politics. Across the world, most is person-to-person. This sounds insightful, but in mavericks and outsiders are upsetting well-oiled political practice it’s problematic. Should a large national bank machines. Trump, Corbyn, Sanders, Tsipras, they all have with corporate customers seek to gain trust by asking different politics but share a perceived authenticity. them to submit selfies on Because they are Facebook? Many people open about what balk at this idea because they stand for and when it comes to social, communicate these the medium has never ideas well, and have been so aligned with the been able to engage message. And the key multiple social channels message is trust. The effectively, they have relationship you expect engaged disaffected from a bank is different parts of the electorate. to the relationship you Whether a Twitterhave with a friend. Get first approach makes the comms platform for good politics wrong and customers is debatable, but it will question your confirms the low judgment. That’s a shaky ebb of public trust in DAN DAVEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR foundation for trust. mainstream politics.

PROGRESSIVE CUSTOMER PUBLISHING

“GREATER COMMUNICATION IS AT THE HEART OF ANY SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN TO REBUILD TRUST”

40 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

Beware the banter Another questionable mantra is “Find your audience and communicate with them there”. While you clearly shouldn’t waste time on a platform where your customers aren’t, follow this advice and you could become a gatecrasher. Just as nobody wants to be sold to over the sausages at a barbecue, companies that choose the wrong means of communication risk appearing uncouth.

The first test of social media for any company is to choose the right platform. This means not just knowing where your audience is, but knowing where your audience wants to be found.

The third widely held mistruth is to “Make things sharable”. Businesses must engage in social media with a view to being shared for the right reasons. Social media history is full of examples of businesses going viral for content they’d rather delete. Think back to 2011, when the Arab Spring landed on Egypt’s Tahrir Square. Naturally, fashion designer Kenneth Cole spotted the opportunity for some Twitter banter: “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo.

Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC”. Ouch.

Positive localism So how should companies build trust? One method is to focus on the local. Most of us are happy to dismiss professions or institutions (we distrust politicians, bankers, the media), but are more positive about particular local instances. The workings of democracy mean most people in an area should feel positive about their local MP, while business owners maintain trust in a local banking manager who understands their needs.

This positive localism presents an opportunity for institutions with networked sales operations or relationship managers on the front line. Whatever the public thinks about institutions, local business owners often get on well with local suppliers. Business owners report strong relationships with local bank managers while bemoaning the lack of credit in the banking system.

And this is where social can come into its own. It’s also where disruption of content technology and the socialisation of content are having an impact. Trust is built on relationships, which depend on regular conversations.

Meaningful conversations rely on having something worth talking about, which is why companies crave content.

The new content model Having seen disruption in sectors as diverse as taxis, mobile phones, financial services and green energy, the arrival of a wave of content technologies puts the content industry itself on the verge of its own disruptive ConTech revolution. The confluence of social media and new content marketing platforms (such as at PCP’s Content Cloud®) requires a shift in how agencies interact with clients. It requires smaller parcels of content, packaged and distributed more regularly. It requires virtual newsrooms and rolling content feeds.

There may be a place for a chunky magazine, but it’s now likely that by the time the magazine hits the doormat, the content will have already been stripped out, cut up and distributed via the most appropriate trusted social media platform. In such a world, where single blog posts can spawn Twitter trends, social media has become the premier way of promoting content.

If we were to draw a Venn diagram of this Social Media for the infographic generation, it would involve two Trust interlocking circles, one labelled social media, the other content. And in the Content overlap at the centre?

That’s where you’d find the word ‘trust’.

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 41

JULIUS DUNCAN/REMARKABLE CONTENT

The ultimate PR tool for content Using condoms, hobbits and the Men In Black, Julius Duncan, Executive Director of Remarkable Content, explains how social media is transforming the traditional PR industry

Julius Duncan Executive Director Remarkable Content

The press release is still the workhorse of public relations, but PR is an industry which can feel like a hangover from the days when the stroke of a red pen in a newsroom decided the fate of a campaign. Social media, digital and the internet has changed all that, with technology and platforms combining to make editors of us all.

But it’s a mistake to think that PR is on its deathbed.

The 2015 State of the Profession survey by the Chartered Institute of PR (CIPR) found that 55% of PR professionals are working more closely with the marketing department than two years ago, with 65% stating that they spend most or some of their time on social or digital media management.

The tactics and principles of PR are alive and kicking with the rise of content marketing because, despite their differences, their fundamentals are strikingly similar.

Same journey, different road Take the traditional three-stage treatment of the press release. Firstly, an underlying message dangles enticingly on a chosen news hook, then both are packaged together

42 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

into a single press release. Finally, the result is sold into the right media with the hope of being spotted by the target audience. The aim is to raise awareness of a brand, its product or a particular message. So far, so traditional.

Now let’s look at the phenomenon of the viral video.

This appears to be a completely different creature, free of the prejudices of the news editor and able to be shared and enjoyed without receiving the media’s stamp of approval. But the most successful examples of video are often creative pieces that don’t necessarily contain an inherent interest in themselves, instead taking inspiration from the world around them. So the same process is followed: a news hook is chosen to carry the message, the vehicle is created and the result is released.

Both processes have the same three elements: the tactic of the news hook packaged into an accessible form and sold into the audience. But it’s this final destination where content marketing and PR diverge. PR pushes its packaged-up product – the press release – to a set of gatekeepers who, with luck, disseminate the message through their publication to the readers and viewers.

But with social media, it’s a case of the content being sold to an army of editors, all with the power to share, like or engage and spread it wider. According to OFCOM’s 2015 Communications Market Report, more than seven in ten online adults now have a social networking profile.

Most won’t have the influence of a media outlet, but what these social editors lack in individual power they make up for in cumulative clout.

And so to condoms In February 2015, condom maker Trojan achieved a peak of Facebook post interactions, hitting more than 18,185 and tripling the 6,034 of the next highest in the previous 12 months. The factor that had aroused such interest was the release of the film version of 50 Shades Of Grey.

The sexual shock of both the novel and the film was enough to make headlines, and it was this story that Trojan embraced to raise its brand profile. By doing this,

7

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54.2M

JULIUS DUNCAN/REMARKABLE CONTENT

“THE TACTICS AND PRINCIPLES OF PR ARE ALIVE AND KICKING WITH THE RISE OF CONTENT MARKETING BECAUSE, DESPITE THEIR DIFFERENCES, THEIR FUNDAMENTALS ARE STRIKINGLY SIMILAR” JULIUS DUNCAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, REMARKABLE CONTENT

it provided solid evidence of the success that a traditional PR-style news hook can also generate in social media.

Using the same kind of forward planning practiced by the best PR agencies, Trojan prepared its social media content ready to share the limelight generated by 50 Shades. The vanguard of its campaign was a two-minute parody film in which a couple raise laughs through their failed efforts at imitating the racy spirit of the film.

The film was followed up by enlisting sex therapist and relationship expert Dr Sari Cooper to share tips on spicing up the bedroom, plus a coordinating hashtag for social media, #ShadesofTrojan.

The love triangle of news hook, package and audience gave Trojan a staggering amount of press, from USA Today and The New York Post to The Hollywood Reporter.

Flying Hobbits Taking to the skies next, and Air New Zealand has become a brand that wholly appreciates the power of creative, shareable content. In October 2014, it saw a peak of 104,557 interactions on Facebook and more than 12,000 mentions on Twitter from its release of The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made #airnzhobbit.

Using the news hook created around the release of the third and final film in The Hobbit Trilogy and capitalising on the package created by its sponsorship of the film, this four-minute inflight safety film has hit just shy of 15 million views on YouTube.

The formula is clearly working: in August this year Air New Zealand repeated the process, this time finding its news hook in the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Released in August 2015, The Men In Black Safety Defenders #AirNZSafetyVideo featured Martin Johnson, the All Blacks’ Richie McCaw and Dan Carter as MiB agents, with winger Israel Dagg rapping alongside Australian Idol winner Stan Walker, and American actor Rip Torn reprising his role as Zed, Chief of the MiB. In its first week of release, the video achieved over two million YouTube hits, tripling the average weekly views

for the brand and massively increasing the number of YouTube interactions.

But look at the social stats and the news coverage for the Air New Zealand films and it’s clear that their benefits are far greater than ensuring passengers look up as they buckle in and take notice of its safety procedures. Here is content designed to make headlines and create engagement both on- and offline, with press coverage going much further than the airline’s scheduled destinations.

The new face of PR While these are all social success stories, it would be wrong to suggest that traditional PR methods have no use in today’s hyper-social world. There are always times when the press release and pitch to the journalist, whether face to face or over the phone, are necessary.

But the days are gone when PRs would spot an upcoming or breaking news story relevant to their brand and only pick up the phone or send emails punting their brand’s spokespeople as available for comment. Today there is no need to wait for press interest to get the brand involved in the conversation.

Posting engaging, insightful and relevant content on owned media is a powerful way to attract the attention of traditional journalists, especially when combined with the influence of social editors.

Trojan and Air New Zealand data provided by social media analytics specialist Socialbakers www.socialbakers.com

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 45

STEVE SPONDER/HEADSTREAM

Marriage guidance Paid and organic social media are now life partners not just bedfellows, says Steve Sponder, managing director of content marketing agency Headstream

Steve Sponder Managing Director Headstream

The volume of content being produced is exploding at a phenomenal rate, with the amount of web-based content currently doubling every 1-2 years. Brands that once focused on simply talking at consumers with advertising are now busy transforming into publishers in their own right. The most successful are producing content that rivals publishing companies both in quality and quantity.

Many marketers have already made the shift to become publishers and invested in extending their owned content properties by creating ‘always on’ and snackable content to fuel their social network presence. But they now need to shift their focus once again to producing smaller quantities of relevant and valuable content, whilst being prepared to pay for this content to reach its intended audience.

Supply and demand Digging a little deeper, we find there are two factors currently at play with all social networks: supply and demand. We now have a situation where content supply is exploding at such a rate that competition for space in the

46 The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015

newsfeeds means that reach on Facebook is consequently flat or declining, regardless of changing algorithms that favour paid content.

Stats published by eMarketer show that the average organic reach for posts on Facebook is at 4.3% for retail brands, which is higher than other industries’ reviews.

Meanwhile, a recent report from Socialbakers cites engagement as low as 2.3% for photo content. Indeed, other networks such as Twitter are now showing a decline in reach, albeit not as rapidly as Facebook.

Content management platform Contently recently explored the potential for organic reach on social networks. They found that, according to Forrester research, if you are a brand with 100,000 followers on Facebook, your average post will be seen by just 2,600 people. A study by Komo also revealed that brands experience 5% CTR on average, which suggests that just 130 people would click on your content.

Investment reaps rewards The simple reality is that brands need to accept that paid social media is now an essential part of social media content marketing distribution, and that it’s time to start working on a paid social media strategy.

There are benefits to this additional content investment: Facebook’s ad platform for example is incredibly sophisticated. The wealth of audience data that that can be leveraged through the platform means you can increase content relevance and visibility to ensure you are maximising your spend.

Beyond Facebook and Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram all offer newly minted paid options for increasing your brand’s reach. While they may not offer the same reach as Facebook and Twitter, they can help achieve valuable visibility among different audiences.

Paid vs organic Unfortunately, marketers that cling on to the halcyon days of social media marketing, where communities

100,000 FOLLOWERS ON FACEBOOK YOUR AVERAGE POST WILL BE SEEN BY JUST

2,600

PEOPLE 285,932,254 ON AVERAGE BRANDS CAN EXPECT A

5% #SELFIE

CLICK-THROUGH RATE

THE AMOUNT OF WEB-BASED CONTENT AVAILABLE IS CURRENTLY DOUBLING EVERY 1-2 YEARS

are built quickly and with ease, and high visibility and engagement for organic content is still possible, are likely to be disappointed. Content seeded organically that can frequently achieve reach at scale amongst a target audience only exists for new platforms and early adopter territory – unless you have a viral hit on your hands!

The underlying message is that now more than ever in social media it’s extremely tough to get your content in front of your target audience when communicating your messages via organic methods alone. Even with a focus on quality, it’s likely that brands will still need to invest in paid social media to ensure that the content they are investing in is visible to the audiences that are most valuable to their businesses.

“MARKETERS NEED TO SHIFT THEIR FOCUS ONCE AGAIN TO PRODUCING SMALLER QUANTITIES OF RELEVANT AND VALUABLE CONTENT” STEVE SPONDER, MANAGING DIRECTOR HEADSTREAM

The Role of Social in Content Marketing 2015 47

CONTACT US The Content Marketing Association (CMA) 31-35 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TE Tel: 020 7492 1985 Email: info@the-cma.com www.the-cma.com @the_cma

PRODUCED FOR THE CMA BY JOHN BROWN MEDIA ART DIRECTOR: ANDREW COWAN EDITOR: SAM UPTON