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The Passion Principle: The Secret to Creating Content and Marketing That Your Customers Will Love

PatagoniaSelling

Patagonia doesn’t market itself like your company does.  Patagonia spends almost no money on traditional advertising, and when it does, it typically does so in a way that makes its competitors shake their heads.  For example, a few years ago Patagonia ran an ad telling its customers not to buy its products.  Last year it sent a truck on a cross-country tour where seamstresses would not only repair your Patagonia clothing for free, they would repair any clothing, even if it was from a competitor.

Patagonia does everything it can to stop you from buying its products.  And its efforts have been a colossal failure.  The privately-held company is not only growing, it’s growing faster than its founder wants it to.

“I am faced with this ‘growth’ thing.  We could be a billion-dollar company in a few years, and it’s not something I ever wanted or even want.” – Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard

 

“I’m Fast, and There Ain’t Nothin’ You Can Do About It”

Consider this broadcast commercial from Nike that debuted last month:

This commercial breaks two long-accepted beliefs of what makes successful advertising:

1 – The belief that people don’t like commercials. There’s been an entire cottage industry pop up around helping consumers skip or avoid commercials. Yet this commercial from Nike had over three million views on YouTube within the first week.

2 – The belief that you have to sell something. This commercial never advertises a product or service, and there’s no call-to-action at any time to buy either. Strip out a few quick and almost subliminal appearances by the Nike Swoosh logo, and you would have no idea what company was responsible for this ad.

 

But something is being sold here.  Maybe it’s the dream that every child has when they play mini-midget or pee-wee football that one day they will be the next Peyton Manning or Julio Jones.  Maybe it’s the dream that a mother or father has for their child to see them one day become an NFL success.

Nike understands that every child has those dreams, and what it is selling is how its products can help make that dream a reality.

Nike’s marketing focus for this commercial isn’t its products, it’s what its customers are passionate about. That instantly makes its message more interesting and appealing to its audience.

 

“The Challenge of My Life Is…To Find Out How Far I Can Take It”

RedBull

And then there’s Red Bull.  Long heralded as the poster-child for successful content marketing, Red Bull does little to promote its actual product.  Instead, it promotes the activities its customers are passionate about.  Even to the point of sponsoring ‘extreme sporting’ events and teams, helping to push forward an entire industry.  Red Bull’s customers can see that the brand is just as devoted to the sports and events as they are, and this makes it easier for these customers to become more devoted to Red Bull as a result. Red Bull understands that it’s not about selling its energy drink, it’s about selling what happens after you drink it.

 

Most of us view marketing in the same context. As being boring, repetitive, and a nuisance to be avoided.  Yet in the hands of brands like Patagonia, Nike and Red Bull, marketing becomes something else entirely.  Interesting, engaging, and even inspirational.  Great marketing doesn’t sell a product or service, it inspires us to change ourselves, to even change the world.

Why the Disconnect?  What Are These Brands Doing Differently?  

One of the main reasons why I wanted to write Think Like a Rock Star was because I was enamored with how easily rock stars can create and cultivate fans.  And when I say ‘fans’, I am talking customers that literally are in love with their favorite rock star.  I wanted to write that book to determine if brands could create fans using the same methodology as rock stars.  I was thrilled and delighted to discover the exact process that rock stars use to create fans, and how brands can do the same.  It’s all in the book.

On the same note, for the last few months I’ve been fascinated with how brands like Patagonia, Red Bull, Nike and Pedigree simply create better marketing than most other brands.  I wanted to deconstruct what these brands are doing differently to determine if there’s a pattern and a process that your brand can use to improve its own marketing efforts.

Recall the AIDA model of measuring advertising effectiveness that we all learned in college.  The ‘A’ stands for Awareness.  It’s the starting point, a potential customer has to be aware before they can have Interest and the Desire to Act, ie purchase your product.

This is where most brands deviate from those that create truly effective marketing like Nike, Red Bull, Patagonia and Pedigree.  Most brands begin at the starting point of making sure that they make potential customers aware of its product.  They sell potential customers on what the product does, and use that as the basis for making the case for why you should buy it.

Brands like Red Bull, Nike, Patagonia and Pedigree do something radically different.  They don’t start by trying to make you aware of their products, instead they try to make you aware of how their products will fit into your life and make it better.  The focus isn’t their products, it’s your passions.

Patagonia isn’t selling clothing, it’s selling what you will do while wearing its clothing.

Red Bull isn’t selling an energy drink, it’s selling what happens after you drink it.

Nike isn’t selling shoes, it’s selling how you will be better at the sports you play while wearing its shoes.

Pedigree isn’t selling dog food, it’s selling happier and healthier dogs.

Pedigree

You don’t market your product, you market how your product fits into your customers’ lives.  Too many companies market their product and assume that the customer can make the connection for themselves as to how that product would be relevant to the customer.  Quite frankly, this is incredibly lazy and ineffective marketing.  The smart companies are the ones that understand their customers enough to understand their passions, what stirs their souls.  And they take this knowledge and create marketing messages that tap into these passions, and that make the connection for the customer between their passions, and the company’s product.

If you focus on the things that your customers are passionate about, by extension your customers will become more passionate about your brand.  The key is to market things that your customers are passionate about, that also relate to your product.  Nike promotes being active in sports because it sells the equipment you’ll need to perform those activities.  Pedigree promotes happier and healthier dogs because it sells the dog food that’s going to help your dog live a happier and healthier life.  But customers are more passionate about being active than they are about a running shoe.  They are more passionate about creating a better life for their golden retriever than they are about your dog food.  Nike and Pedigree understand this, so they focus on their customers’ passions first, and the connection between those passions and the product, second.

In fact, most brands prioritize its marketing communications in this order:

1 – Sell the product, what it does and why it works.

2 – Sell how the product fits into the customer’s life.

3 – Sell ideas, beliefs and causes that customers are passionate about, that also relate to the product.

Most brands focus almost all of their marketing efforts on #1, with a bit of #2, and almost none of #3.

But the brands that truly create memorable marketing communications flip the order:

1 – Sell ideas, beliefs and causes that customers are passionate about, that also relate to the product.

2 – Sell how the product fits into the customer’s life

3 – Sell the product, what it does and why it works.

There’s two important point to realize about both these approaches.  If you focus mostly on the product itself, many people will immediately tune your marketing messages out because you haven’t yet made the case to them for what your product is relevant to them.  Also, your message will immediately be classified as being a ‘marketing’ message, and most of us immediately ignore any message that we view as being ‘marketing’.

Second, if you focus instead on the ideas, beliefs and causes that your customers are passionate about, that instantly makes your ‘marketing’ message relevant to your customers.  You immediately perk their ears up and they will listen to what you have to say.  Also, you are creating that Desire to learn more about your product so your customers will be motivated to do their own research on your product.  And let’s be honest, we all want to support and advocate for companies we believe in.  If your brand shows me that it can connect with me around the ideas, causes and beliefs that I hold dear, I will feel better about doing business with your brand.

 

So what’s the formula?  What’s The Passion Principle for your brand?

First, you have to know your customers well enough to know who they are, and what’s important to them.  What you want to do is find the connections between your product, and your customer’s passions.  This isn’t always obvious, and typically requires research on the part of your brand.  For example, Fiskars didn’t realize how popular its orange-handle scissors were with its customers in the scrapbooking community until they started talking to those customers.  This knowledge caused the brand to shift its marketing focus away from the scissors (product), and instead focus on scrapbooking (customer’s passion).  By shifting its marketing to focus on the passion of its customers (scrapbooking), the brand became more interesting and relevant to its customers.  BTW, Fiskars just reported that net sales increased by 62% in Q3 for 2015.

So in order to create marketing and content that your customers will love, start by asking (and answering) these questions:

1 – What are our customers passionate about?

2 – What are they trying to accomplish?

3 – What problems do they need to solve?

4 – What roadblocks are in their way?

5 – How does our product relate to any or all of the previous points?

The fifth point is probably the most important because it’s not enough to simply understand what your customers are passionate about or what their problems are, you also need to understand how your product is the solution to that problem.  Otherwise, you’ll be focused on ideas, passions and beliefs that might be relevant to your customers, but that aren’t relevant to your product.  Which means your content and marketing won’t be as memorable or relevant to your customers.

Case in point: Name your 5 favorite Super Bowl commercials from last year.  It’s tough, isn’t it?  I bet you’re struggling to remember even one, aren’t you?  Yet every year we’ll see Super Bowl ads that make us laugh or tug at our heartstrings, but unless the message is relevant to the brand, it’s difficult to remember.

Now here’s another test: What brand did the ‘So God made a farmer…’ Super Bowl commercial from a couple of years ago?  I bet its easier for you to remember that Dodge was behind this commercial, right?  Why?  Because a Dodge truck fits into the life of a farmer.  It makes sense because farmers need trucks to get their work done, so there’s a connection there that works.

If the connection makes sense, then the content or marketing message will resonate and be more effective.  Remember, you don’t market your product, you market how your product fits into your customers’ lives.

Pic via Flickr user Sheila_Sund

Pic via Flickr user Kevin Cole

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Travel Agencies, CVBs Should Highlight Bloggers That Are Promoting Your Local Area

This is a great example of a local CVB (Convention and Visitor’s Bureau) promoting a blogger that took the time to promote that area’s attractions.  In essence, the blogger is promoting you, so you promote the blogger!  This only encourages local bloggers to do more to help spread the word about your local area and can help them become powerful promotional partners with you.

This can and should be done by all tourism departments, especially local CVBs that focus on promoting a local area.  You should actively research for any sites or bloggers that routinely promote local attractions and begin promoting any content they create that promotes your local attractions.  Another example would be property managers.  Years ago I worked with a client that had a national network of properties that they rented apartments at.  Part of the advice I gave them was to promote their local areas and show why people should want to move their and rent an apartment in that area.  And this included connecting with local bloggers that were promoting the area because these bloggers were doing the client’s job for them!

So part of your digital strategy if you are trying to promote your local area should be to connect with any bloggers that are helping you in your quest to attract people to that area.  Put the spotlight on these bloggers and thank them for helping you draw attention to your area.

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Companies Encouraging Employees to Use Social Media is Increasingly Popular Heading Into 2016

16034335445_0ba754b746_zA new article from eMarketer sheds light on how popular Social Employee Advocacy Programs are becoming.  These are programs where employees are encouraged to promote their brand via social media.  You can immediately see why it would be popular with many companies.

In crafting such programs, it is important for the company to also create guidelines for any employees that decide to participate.  These include such things as letting the employee know what type of behavior/conduct is expected, identifying themselves as representatives/employees of the brand when they create content that promotes it, etc.

Also, such programs should be offered as an option, not as being mandatory.  Just as you wouldn’t require every employee in your country to deal with customers directly in a retail setting, you shouldn’t ask all of them to do so online.  The last thing you want to do is make employees feel obligated to engage in a task that they don’t want.  Instead, you want to attract the employees that love your brand and who are already singing your praises online.  Their voice is authentic and their ability to attract others to your brand is far greater than the employees that feel ‘forced’ to participate in a program that they feel isn’t worth their time.

Pic via Flickr user MSLGroupGlobal

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Observation or Word of Mouth; Which is Better For Driving Sales?

Recently I came across an interesting article from the Harvard Business Review.  It was based on a study that suggests that customers are far more likely to buy what another customer buys by simply observing the purchase action vs hearing that customer say they buy the product (Word of Mouth):

“we found that observing other customers wasn’t only very common, it was also strikingly important in shaping consumers’ views of a brand: equally important as word-of-mouth recommendations for mobile handsets and soft drinks, and even more important than word of mouth for technology products and electrical goods. Overall, peer observation was equal in importance to the brand advertising on which companies spend billions.”

This does make sense, although I think there’s an important clarification to this idea that customer observation drives sales at a rate equal to or superior to verbal endorsement from that same customer (Word of Mouth).  Mere observation only works if the customer is undecided on which product to purchase.  For example, let’s say I am looking for a cake mix, and can’t decide if I want the one from Duncan Hines, or the one from Betty Crocker.  Both seem to be about the same as far as quality and price.  But if, while I am standing there trying to decide which cake mix to buy, a customer comes up and grabs the Duncan Hines mix, that might persuade me to buy the Duncan Hines mix.  If a second customer immediately came up and grabbed the Duncan Hines mix as well, that might cinch the sale for me.

On the other hand, let’s say I am a Duncan Hines fan.  I always buy their cake mix because it creates a very moist cake.  If my mind is already made up, then it really doesn’t matter how many customers I observe buying the Betty Crocker mix, I will still prefer the Duncan Hines cake mix, because I love how moist it is.  But let’s say my cousin comes by, and she notices I am buying the Duncan Hines cake mix.  If she says that I should try the Betty Crocker mix, I would be more open to considering that since she’s my cousin and I know and trust her.  If she added that I should buy the Better Crocker cake mix because it is more moist than the Duncan Hines cake mix, that might very well convince me to buy the Betty Crocker cake mix.

At any rate, regardless of which cake mix you like (or whether observation or Word of Mouth helped decide your purchase), it should be noted that this underlies the value of customer acquisition flowing through existing customers.  We are increasingly placing less trust in advertising that comes from brands, and more trust in messages that come from fellow customers. Even if those messages are shared via simple observation.

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Leveraging Social Media to Drive Greater Customer Insights

For the last 10 years, marketers have been trying to leverage social media as a sales channel.  It’s been a messy proposition at best, due to how people use these social tools.  Social media tools are used by people to create and share content about themselves.

But for smart companies, this creates an enormous sales opportunity.  The key isn’t to leverage social media as a sales channel, but to instead leverage social media as a listening channel that can better inform brands about who their customers are and what they want.  This has always been the case.  Granted, I’m no fan of how we are getting away from having truly social interactions with these tools and instead are becoming an army of social narcissists, but even that does create an opportunity for smart brands to learn more about their customers.  As customers are creating content about who they are and what they want, that content can be analyzed, and insights can be gained into those same customers and how to better market to them.

The great promise that social media offers for brands has never been about leveraging the tools as a way to sell directly to customers.  It’s always been about better understanding those customers so you can create more effective and efficient marketing…that increases sales.

Some companies have been proactively analyzing the content their customers create online and are adjusting their marketing to make it more inline with who their customers are and what they want.  The result are broadcast commercials like this from The North Face:

And this from Red Bull:

Notice in both commercials (both of which currently have over 7 Million views on YouTube), the product itself takes a secondary role to the customers themselves.  The North Face isn’t selling its clothing, it is selling the activities you engage in after you put on its clothing.  Red Bull isn’t selling an energy drink, it’s selling what you do after you drink it.  In both cases, the marketing isn’t about the product, it’s about the customers and the activities that they love engaging in.  This makes the marketing message more interesting and relevant to those customers.  And by extension, the brand bringing you that marketing becomes more interesting and relevant as a result.

This is the great promise of social media for brands: Gaining a better understanding of your customers.  By first investing the time to learn who your customers are and why they use these tools, you can then have an intelligent conversation with them that comes from a place of understanding, not ignorance.  Listen first, learn, adjust, and move forward with better marketing.  This is why I’ve always been so excited about social media from a business standpoint, the potential for better understanding customers and creating more interesting and relevant marketing communications as a result.  For decades, most marketing has devolved into nothing more than a nuisance and irritant.  This is to a great extent simply because the brands creating that marketing don’t understand their customers well enough to create an interesting marketing message for them.

Now, thanks to social media, companies finally have a way to get a better understanding of what their customers want and who they are on a grand scale.  Commercials like those above only begin to scratch the surface of what marketing could look like when it’s created from a customers’ point-of-view.

Listen. Engage. Improve.  Do those things in that order, and your marketing communications will become more effective, and the sales will come.  There’s never been a time to be more excited about the future of marketing than right now.

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You Build Loyalty After the Purchase, Not Before

One of the key themes I cover in Think Like A Rock Star is to discuss and explain why most rock stars can create loyal fans so much easily than most companies can.  There are many reasons why rock stars so easily cultivate fans, but perhaps the biggest reason why rock stars have more loyal customers than most companies do is because rock stars focus on rewarding existing behavior, while companies focus on offering incentives to change existing behavior.

Let me say that again: Most rock stars focus on rewarding the existing behavior of their fans, while most companies focus on offering incentives to change the existing behavior of potential customers.  This also speaks to a fundamental difference between who rock stars and companies market to.  Companies seek to acquire new customers, so they create marketing strategies that are designed to change existing customer behavior.  Price-based incentives are a big part of this, such as coupons, rebates, discounts on shipping, etc.

Rock stars seek to develop deeper relationships with their fans, and as part of this they seek to reward their fans for their existing behavior.  In 2010 Taylor Swift had a special 15-hour autograph signing for her fans.  Taylor signed for over 2,000 fans over the course of nearly 15 hours on June 13th, 2010, only stopping long enough in the middle of the day to perform a 90-minute acoustic set.  All for free.  Because Taylor wanted to reward her fans for supporting her.

Yet this approach is also very powerful for building loyalty because for the fan it validates why they love their favorite rock star.  On the flipside, when a company offers you a coupon for purchasing their product, you understand that they want your business.  While this does increase the chance that you will change your behavior the next time you need to purchase that particular product, it does not increase your chance of being loyal to that brand after the initial purchase.  Brands build loyalty by rewarding existing customers, not by trying to acquire new customers via incentives.  For example, if you are a long-term Dish or DirecTV customer, you may have been upset over the last few years to see some of the incentive packages that the competing brands are offering new customers to sign up with them.  Often, the packages are better and at a lower price than what existing customers have!  This tactic works for acquiring new customers but it not only does not build loyalty among existing customers, it can actually lower levels of loyalty among existing customers!

Let’s again review the Loyalty Graph.  Companies are focused on acquiring new customers, so they offer incentives to this group, trying to win their business.  The problem with this approach is that New Customers is the group that’s the largest, but that also has little to no loyalty to that particular brand.  This is especially problematic if your brand offers price-based incentives to this group, because if another brand offers a higher discount, it will probably win that customer’s business.

At the other end, rock stars are focused on connecting with their fans (brand advocates), and rewarding their existing behavior.  Rock stars don’t have to offer incentives to their fans to encourage them to generate new sales because their fans are already engaging in this behavior.  Their fans are already going out and encouraging new customers to become existing ones.

So for your brand, that means you have two ways you can attempt to acquire new customers: By marketing to them directly (and paying a lot of money to do so), or you can connect with your biggest fans and delight them, with the understanding that their efforts will lead to new customers.

If you want to build loyalty among your customers always remember: Loyalty is built by saying ‘Thank you!’ for existing behavior, not by offering coupons as incentives for new behavior.

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Patagonia’s Marketing Plan to Keep You From Buying Their Products

For Black Friday in 2011, Patagonia ran an interesting ‘Don’t Buy This Jacket’ ad in the New York Times.  The ad kicked off a campaign by Patagonia to attack ‘consumerism’ head-on, and the brand asked its customers to strongly consider whether or not it was necessary to buy a new piece of clothing, or if an existing article they already owned was still useful enough.  Additionally, Patagonia wanted customers to think about the idea of owning things that have a purpose versus just owning something because you wanted it.

Surprisingly, the campaign actually sparked sales growth for the brand, to the tune of a whopping 33% increase in 2012.  The campaign is part of a consistent message that Patagonia has delivered to its customers:    Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

Patagonia’s marketing works because it’s not focused on its products, but rather the ideals and beliefs that the company holds that its customers identify with.  I’ve written repeatedly about Patagonia’s marketing efforts and even included the brand as a prominent case study in Think Like a Rock Star.

And keep in mind when you read this that I don’t own a stitch of Patagonia clothing.  I just recognize amazing marketing when I see it, and want to celebrate it as such.

Another initiative Patagonia pushes is its Worn Wear program.  Patagonia will take your damaged clothing, and for a ‘reasonable’ fee, repair it for you.  The idea here is to extend the life of an existing garment versus buying a new one.

But this year, Patagonia is kicking it up another notch, and taking the Worn Wear program on the road, literally.  Throughout the year, a specially built Worn Wear wagon has been making its way across the country.  This vehicle is making stops and not only repairing Patagonia clothing for free, but other brands as well.  Additionally, Patagonia is teaching customers at every stop how to repair their own garments.

And if all this hasn’t thoroughly impressed the hell out of you, Patagonia has one more trick up its brand advocacy sleeve.  It has partnered with DIY repair site IFixIt to create a series of custom manuals and even a section for asking questions on how to repair and care for individual garments.

So this begs the question: If such customer-centric marketing and business processes work so well, why aren’t more companies copying what Patagonia is doing? There’s a couple of very important distinctions with Patagonia:

1 – Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, is an avid outdoorsman and very concerned about the environment.  That means there is literally buy-in from the top down for Patagonia’s marketing approach to focus on the passions of the customers over the products.  Because Patagonia’s founder shares the same passions as his brand’s customers.

2 – Patagonia is a private company.  In this PBS Newshour feature on Patagonia, PBS played a snippet of a talk that Chouinard gave where he explained that “The problem with a lot of public companies is that they’re forced to grow 15 percent a year. They’re forced to show profits every quarter.”  Chouinard’s implication is that by being private, Patagonia can pursue a marketing strategy that perhaps would be far more difficult or even unattainable if the company was public.

Regardless, the idea of focusing your marketing communications on the larger context that your brand lives in, works.  Apple does it.  Red Bull does it.  Patagonia does it.  More companies should be doing it.

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SEC Social Media Fan Experience: The Texas A&M Aggies and The Kentucky Wildcats

Welcome back to the 4th week of the SEC Social Media Fan Experience.  Each week leading up to the start of the college football season, I’ll be looking at how the SEC teams are leveraging social media to connect with their fans.  After today we’ll be over halfway through the SEC, with 2 more installments coming next Thursday, and then we’ll wrap up the SEC on September 1st and 3rd, as the season starts that night.  You can catch up on former entries in the SEC Social Media Fan Experience here.

Here’s the schedule for the series:

July 30th: The Florida Gators and The Vanderbilt Commodores

August 6th: The Tennessee Volunteers and The South Carolina Gamecocks

August 13th: The LSU Tigers and The Miss State Bulldogs

Today: The Texas A&M Aggies and The Kentucky Wildcats

August 27th: The Georgia Bulldogs and The Missouri Tigers

September 1st: The Auburn Tigers and The Arkansas Razorbacks

September 3rd: The Alabama Crimson Tide and The Ole Miss Rebels

How The Texas A&M Aggies Use Social Media to Connect With Their Football Fans

The Aggies, like most other SEC teams, has dedicated football social media accounts on The Big Three; Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  As we’ve been discussing, visual content: photos and videos, are a big hit with SEC fans, and most teams are smartly using Instagram to distribute visual content, then seeding that content through other main channels like Facebook and Twitter.  And the Aggies also have a YouTube account for the football program that’s giving a lot of video content around Fall camp, scrimmages, interviews with coaches, etc.  Fall camp is tailor made for diehard fans.  The average football fan may only follow his or her favorite team on Saturdays when they play, maybe they’ll read a few updates in the paper, but that’s about it.  But true Aggie fans want more access.  They want to delve into Fall camp, they want content that gives them daily updates on how each practice goes, which players are doing well, etc.  So the Aggies are doing a great job of giving their hardcore fans that Backstage Pass they want.

Now so far, there’s nothing earth-shattering about the social media mix that Texas A&M is utilizing.  It’s smart, but it’s also expected.  But the Aggies aren’t done.  Not only are they active on Periscope, it turns out the Aggies have been utilizing Periscope since at least March.  I would think that would have to make Texas A&M one of the first football programs in the country to utilize Periscope, and since they are in Texas I have to wonder if their social team found out about Periscope at SXSW.

Also, Texas A&M has a pretty cool smartphone app that does a nice job of being a sort of content dashboard for football fans:

AggiesApp

This is perfect for an Aggie fan as you have not only news but the latest social media content from Texas A&M right on your smartphone.  I do wish the app integrated Texas A&M’s Periscope feed, but that may not be possible with a smartphone app since Periscope is live-streamed content with a 24-hour lifespan.

But from a marketing/brand advocacy standpoint, consider this: What if your company had a smartphone app like this for your Brand Ambassador Program?  Perhaps the functionality could include options for you to create and share content directly with the brand, and also have options to contact the brand directly.  It would be possible to snap a photo of something happening in a retail location (good or bad) and share it directly with your brand contact.  Or your fans could even do an audio interview with a customer on the fly, then send you that video or audio content.  The possibilities are endless and a smartphone app for your brand ambassadors could be a wonderful idea.  Speaking of which, if you are involved in a brand ambassador program and the brand you work with utilizes a smartphone app for its ambassadors, please mention it in the comments!

Overall, I like what Texas A&M is doing with social media, they have a nice mix of content across several channels and I’m very impressed that they have been using Periscope for so long.  Plus the Aggie smartphone app is pretty cool, although to be fair I believe a few other SEC teams have similar apps.  Still, I think Texas A&M is probably making the best use of social media to give the fans the content they want than any of the SEC schools I’ve profiled so far, just ahead of Miss State and Tennessee.

How The Kentucky Wildcats Use Social Media to Connect With Their Football Fans

Once again, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube are the main social media workhorses for distributing content to fans.  One of the almost disadvantages that a team like UK has now that we’re halfway through examining how the SEC teams use social media, is that by now I’m not looking at how each team uses social media as much as I’m looking for how they are using social media better than the other schools.  I’m looking for something that stands out, like with A&M it was the long history of Periscope usage and the smartphone app.  Given that, I’m not seeing a lot of ‘wow’ in UK’s social media efforts for its football program.  Which isn’t a bad thing, the Wildcats seem to be utilizing all the main channels which is what you want to see.  I did think the Wildcats Instagram content was a bit weak, I would have liked to have seen a few more videos and photos that highlighted individual star players.  For reference, I thought Miss State has an amazing IG page.

One thing that I thought was interesting is that UK promotes Head Coach Mark Stoops as its Twitter account for the football program.  Interesting approach to have the head coach be the face of the football program on Twitter, but it does make some sense.  Also, I noticed on Facebook that UK was sharing content and pointing fans back to its main website for detailed practice updates.  I like this approach, South Carolina does the same thing.  It’s always a good idea to move fans off of social media channels you don’t own and point them back to site that your school DOES own.

Also, UK posts video updates to YouTube on a regular basis, I think this is smart as well.  While Periscope is the hot new tool and likely more popular with younger fans, it is live-streaming, which means it’s gone after 24 hours.  YouTube videos stay up, so it makes sense to utilize both as well as Instagram for video content.

So that’s it for this week’s look at how the Wildcats and the Aggies are leveraging social media to deliver content to their fans.  We’re getting closer to the end of this series, and closer to the start of the college football season!  Next Thursday we’ll wrap up the Eastern Division with a stop in Athens to see how the Georgia Bulldogs are using social media to connect with their fans, then swing west to Columbia, Missouri, for a closer look at the Missouri Tigers’ social media efforts.  See you then!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 36: Creating a Fan-Worthy Content Strategy

Welcome to the 36th episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show! This week I talk about the five considerations in creating a Fan-Damn-Tastic Content Strategy!

Before I get into the Show Notes, I wanted to say thank y’all for the continued support, last week’s episode on Creating Loyalty to Your Brand vs Your Offer had over 900 downloads in its first week!  I appreciate the support and it looks like August will set the monthly record for the most downloads of #FanDamnShow.  If your company would like to sponsor #FanDamnShow, here’s details including rates.

Show Notes:

1:15 – The difference between a content marketing strategy and a content strategy.

2:10 – Five considerations for creating a content strategy

2:30 – How much bandwidth do you have for content creation?

3:38 – What are your goals for the content you create?

4:59 – Plant your flag when it comes to the content you create, what do you want to be known for?

7:25 – What tools will you use to execute your content strategy?

9:40 – Create your content calendar

 

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again on Wednesday!

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SEC Social Media Fan Experience: The LSU Tigers and Miss State Bulldogs

Welcome back to the 3rd week of the SEC Social Media Fan Experience.  Each week leading up to the start of the college football season, I’ll be looking at how the SEC teams are leveraging social media to connect with their fans.  Two weeks ago we looked at how Florida and Vandy are using social media to connect with their fans, last week we looked at how Tennessee and South Carolina are doing this, and this week we’ll head to the West Division to take a closer look at how the LSU Tigers and Miss State Bulldogs leverage social media to connect with their fans.

How The LSU Tigers Use Social Media to Connect With Their Football Fans

It’s becoming quickly apparent that most SEC teams are focusing on The Big Three for connecting with fans; Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  LSU is no exception as they have a dedicated account on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for their football program.  Still a bit surprised that none of the SEC teams are jumping on the Ello bandwagon 🙂

Most SEC teams so far have been using their Instagram accounts to share the majority of their visual and video content, then seeding this content via Facebook and Twitter as well.  LSU is doing the same thing, though at a bit of a slower clip than I would have expected.  Right now there really needs to be a content push as we’re heading into Fall Camp, and at minimum daily updates on all channels.  LSU isn’t doing this, the last Facebook update is 2 days, the last Instagram update is 2 days ago and the last tweet is 2 days ago.  A great opportunity to create content is to share videos from Fall Camp.  The SEC teams typically start each practice with a ‘media viewing period’ of 20 minutes or so.  This would be a perfect time for to send a couple of students from the video production department down with a camera and shoot video for 15-20 mins.  Then go back and edit them down and you’ve got a ton of content available.  Ironically, this is exactly what pay sites do, they send a crew to the practices, they shoot videos and take pictures, then post this content on their site and charge subscribers typically anywhere from $5-10 a month to access the content.

LSU is doing some of this, here’s an Instagram video from 7 days ago shot during one of the practices:

The freshmen and selected veterans practice is underway in the indoor facility. ??

A video posted by LSU Football (@lsufootball) on

But there’s a big opportunity to create more content.  If I were working with LSU’s social media team, I would want to see at least one video like this from every practice.  Also, there’s an opportunity to focus on individual players that fans want to keep up with.  For example, running back Leonard Fournette is arguably the team’s best player, and a fan favorite.  It makes sense to create content and videos focused on LSU’s best and most popular players, because this is the content that fans want to see.  And there’s another potential benefit for LSU:  It could help kickstart a Heisman campaign.  A steady stream of video content showcasing how great Fournette is doing in practice would only build excitement for his season among fans, and that increased fan buzz could spill over into talk of Fournette winning the Heisman.  If enough fans start buzzing about Fournette being a Heisman contender, sites like ESPN could notice, and give him more exposure in their Heisman watches.  Just something to consider when these teams are thinking through their content strategies.

In addition to the Big Three, while checking the complete list of LSU’s social media channels, I noticed that most of LSU’s football coaching staff is also on Twitter.  And here’s a tip: Most coaches that use Twitter aren’t typically there to tweet, they are on Twitter so they can send and receive DMs from recruits.  It’s an NCAA violation for coaches to discuss recruits publicly before they sign their Letter of Intent with a school, so coaches use Twitter to talk to recruits privately.  However, that doesn’t mean that sometimes the coaches can’t have some fun, and who has more fun coaching than Les Miles?

How the Miss State Bulldogs Use Social Media to Connect With Their Fans

Once again, we have another SEC team that has dedicated social media accounts for the football program on the Big Three sites; Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  It looks like Miss State is putting out a healthy dose of content via these channels.  One thing I noticed was that as some other SEC schools have done, Miss State is turning to social media to drive ticket sales, as you see here with this Facebook update:

FBMSU

When I looked at MSU’s Instagram account, I noticed something very interesting.  They are creating a lot of content there, averaging about 3 updates a day on IG.  But many of their videos feature the athletes as the stars of the video, such as this one which uses the players to encourage fans to attend MSU games this Fall:

LB @iam_jtgray has a message for the Bulldog family. #HailState

A video posted by MSU Football (@hailstatefb) on

And this one from a recent MSU practice:

Another day to get better.

A video posted by MSU Football (@hailstatefb) on


I think it’s a great idea to use the players themselves in the videos, and MSU is the first school in this series to use this approach. I like it, and MSU fans will too.

And just when I thought that was about it for MSU’s social media usage, it turns out that the Bulldogs are also on Periscope!  Here’s a screenshot of a Scope from yesterday with the players after practice:

IMG_0581I have to say, so far Miss State and Tennessee are a bit ahead of the other SEC teams when it comes to creating engaging social media content for their fans.  I think Tennessee is a bit better at photos and visual content, while I like what MSU is doing with Instagram videos and Periscope a bit better (UT uses Periscope too).  I still think there’s opportunities for improvement with YouTube videos as well, so it will be interesting to see if any other schools can improve on what these schools have accomplished so far.  There’s still plenty of SEC heavy-hitters left, including Texas A&M, Georgia and the Alabama Crimson Tide, so it will be fun to see what’s in store as we close in on the start of the SEC season on September 3rd.

If you’re new to this series, here’s the schedule for every SEC school:

July 30th: The Florida Gators and The Vanderbilt Commodores

August 6th: The Tennessee Volunteers and The South Carolina Gamecocks

Today: The LSU Tigers and The Miss State Bulldogs

August 20th: The Texas A&M Aggies and The Kentucky Wildcats

August 27th: The Georgia Bulldogs and The Missouri Tigers

September 1st: The Auburn Tigers and The Arkansas Razorbacks

September 3rd: The Alabama Crimson Tide and The Ole Miss Rebels

 

See y’all next Thursday when we Gig Em Aggies and Go Big Blue Nation!

UPDATE: This comes from Kyle Niblett, the Social Media Coordinator for Miss State: