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C O N T E N T M A R K E T I N G &

S O C I A L B U S I N E S S O V E R V I E W

Presented by

TOPLINE BEST PRACTICES

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Lessons Learned: Excerpts From a Recent Study Conducted by ComBlu for Lithium Inc.

Big trend #1 is live storytelling that kluges video, live streaming and virtual reality with social sharing.

• Live experiences replicates the intimacy of F2F interaction and humanizes a brand in a way that images and recorded video alone cannot

Big trend #2: Collaboration and co-creation with influencers.

• According to Jay Baer, brands who win the content game will be the ones who don’t sell a product but instead sell how a product fits into the lives of its consumers

• Influencer stories demonstrate how the brand fits into a lifestyle: stories are told within the context of the influencers’ worlds and present the stories authentically

Engagement is the DNA of relationship building and content is its atomic center.

• High-performing brands worry less about traffic and reach, and more about the quality of time spent with the right audiences doing “stuff” that makes a difference

─ Storytelling and unique experiences are essential

─ Great storytelling is co-created, fun and ultimately inspires or shows new ways to do things. These stories introduce the unexpected.

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Lessons Learned: Excerpts From a Recent Study Conducted by ComBlu for Lithium Inc.

Megatrend: Personalized experiences

• Providing personalized experiences drives people deeper into the funnel and builds loyalty

• Achieving personalization on owned assets is a huge challenge and is even a bigger issue on “rented” channels like Twitter or Facebook

• As a result, most brands use their social channels as part of a paid strategy but fail to gather data from across channels to deliver content and experience on an individual level

• Building federated or universal profiles is just starting to emerge as a best practice

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Lessons Learned: Excerpts From a Recent Study Conducted by ComBlu for Lithium Inc.

Opportunities

Most brands do little to engage deeply. They are

stuck in a “broadcast” time warp where content

is pushed with little attempt to engage beyond

“post and go”.

Other brands exhibit a “launch and leave”

mentality by unwittingly creating social ghost

towns. After establishing social channels, they

post infrequently or sporadically.

Smart brands use their full social ecosystem to

aggregate and link to deeper community

content. This results in leveraging community

and social experiences and creating the ability to

engage in consumers’ platform of choice.

Effective content models include multiple missions for their content.

Educate: Teach or give tips

Support: Customer service or product help

Entertain: Humor or heart strings

Persuade: Forward a cause

Promote: Provide an offer (event, coupon or code, special deals, etc.)

Convert: Link to call to action or to an ecommerce landing page

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Approach

Discovery and Planning

Goal: Determine drivers of content strategy, identify delta between current and future state, and develop initial framework.

Stakeholder Workshop

Use output from Discovery to design a workshop for designated internal stakeholders. The goal of the workshop is to begin the process of aligning disparate stakeholders around a unified content strategy.

Deliverables Definition

Use workshop to define logical next steps and determine internal ownership of various deliverables.

Form a working team to drive progress.

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ComBlu’s Role

Conduct Discovery • Review background

• Create map of current state

• Conduct interviews to gain preliminary input on future state

• Define delta

• Design workshop

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ComBlu’s Role

Workshop

• Conduct workshop

• Facilitate agreement on a course of action

• Create action plan and recruit a team for further planning and execution

Deliverables Definition

• Plan next steps and create a roadmap for achieving key milestones

• Facilitate execution and collaboration

• Create a sourcing model for execution

• Determine how to socialize and educate sources on aspects of model

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Why ComBlu?

• Creating and executing integrated content, engagement and community strategies and roadmaps

• Developing content journeys for specific scenarios and personas to maximize experience across the entire content, digital, social and community ecosystem

• Implementing content marketing strategies aligned with business mission across the buyer’s journey

• Activating brands’ storytellers as post-purchase advocacy channel and introducing voice of the customer/UGC as part of the content mix

• Using social content to drive traffic and impact conversions

• Measuring the impact of content and community strategy on defined KPIs

Our content experience includes:

ComBlu is a premier content strategy and influencer marketing consultancy.

Our goal is to help organizations assess their operational and organizational readiness to scale content operations and to build a framework for realistic solutions.

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Some of the Brands We Have Worked With

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Final Word

• ComBlu’s approach is designed to facilitate discussion and help come to agreement on a plan of action

• We then help organizations leverage their internal resources in a “teach to fish” approach that guides and transfers knowledge

• We augment with expertise and resources as required

• The result? An efficient engagement that leaves the organization capable of acting independently without additional long-term commitment to another outside resource. Many clients then use us for a periodic check-in to level-set and track progress or to help explore enhancements and get to the next level.

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Contact us via phone or on the Web:

312-343-1849 Cell

Twitter.com/ComBlu

ComBlu.com

ComBlu Lumenatti Blog

Kevin Lynch

kylnch@comblu.com

Contact Us