Behavioral
Storytelling
Social Content Strategy
Michael Leis
@mleis
ml@michaelleis.com
blog.michaelleis.com
@mleis
What We’re Covering Today
Brand Strategy Brand Purpose
Brand Setting
Heuristics
Personas / Segmentation
Research, Platform Prioritization
Playbook
Content Strategy Campaign Structure
Participation Framework
Creative Strategy Content writing and design
Intelligence Key Performance Indicators
Action-oriented Metrics
Download
With a Tweet
Share a new perspective on social
with your colleagues and friends!
Visit
http://bit.ly/dlscstrat
@mleis
Two Gurus of Social Content Strategy
Shakespeare
Constant Comms
Aristotle
Integrated Campaigns
@mleis
Integrated Campaigns
Aristotle
Poetics
Every story has a
beginning, middle and end
Act 1 Act 2
Conflict
TV: Misunderstanding, Disappointment
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Conflict
Soap Operas: Slow Progress,
Heightened Conflict
Act 1 Act 2 Act 3
Conflict
Movies: Hope and Achievement
@mleis
When Did Marketing
Forget About Storytelling?
The Surprise Party
Launch Sustain Buzz
Two Popular Models:
The Movie Premiere
Tease Launch
@mleis
Classic Narrative Arc
Act 1 Act 2 Act 3
Introduce the
characters
What’s their goal?
How will they achieve it?
False solution
Conflict and
clues
What stands in our hero’s
path to achievement? How
do we reveal that path?
Resolution
Someone dies
Achievement or
disappointment
@mleis
Make the Audience The Hero
Act 3
Resolution
The hero achieves
Climax
Launch or purchase
End
The desired
behavioral outcome
@mleis
Surprise Guest!
Jakob Nielsen
@mleis
The Participation Inequality Law
1%of people will create and drive mass awareness
9%will rate, comment, and share
90%will watch the 10% and mimic that behavior
@mleis
Behavioral Story Structure
1% 9% 90%
Invite
Enable influencers to create
within brand guidelines
Reward
Create opportunities for
voting, comments
Celebrate
Launch Event
Amplify and reflect
positive behaviors with
generated content
@mleis
Invite
@mleis
Reward
@mleis
Celebrate
TIMES SQUARESUNSET STRIP
@mleis
Tactical Mapping
1% 9% 90%
Invite
Enable influencers to create
within brand guidelines
Reward
Create opportunities for
voting, comments
Celebrate
Amplify and reflect
positive behaviors with
generated content
Midnight
launch
event
Blogger
outreach
Tweet-off
RT contest
Tweet-off
Winner
Facebook
sponsored event
invites
Exclusive content
QR scan
Posts in
Times Square
and sunset
strip
Augmented reality:
posts on cups
Follow the
truck to the
winner
Promoted
Trend
@mleis
Results
• Broke Twitter Campaign Engagement Record
• Increased Facebook Fan Acquisition Velocity 207%
• Positive sentiment from 74% to 95%
• Most absurd stat: 12,793% increase in product conversation
@mleis
The Constant Comms Team
Dinner
Account Director
Writer
Community
Manager
Community
Manager
Strategist
Analyst
Producer
@mleis
Followers Know What You Sell
Shakespeare
The play’s the thing
“Social media is people
having conversations
to make decisions.”
-Not Shakespeare
The Job Of Brands In
Social:
To facilitate conversations between people
by writing and designing for them
@mleis
Who is Your Audience?
Look at their profiles, identify patterns in content
@mleis
Identity Components
@mleis
Identity Components
How they want
to be perceived
@mleis
Identity Components
How they want
to be perceived
Who they are
@mleis
Identity Components
How they want
to be perceived
Who they are
How they interact
@mleis
Participation Mix
Report/Ask
Reply
Reflect
Curate
Share
Planned editorial covering the beat of the brand, designed to
spark conversation.
Responding to people and facilitating longer conversation
(not customer service).
Waving at the Jumbotron! RT, share from the community (fan
of the day/week) to itself. Shape writing and conversation
based on audience patterns.
You know more about the audience than they know about
themselves. What data and content can you collect and cull
on their behalf to help them?
Give back what you find out about the audience through the
above mix.
@mleis
Effective Content Patterns
@mleis
Reflection
@mleis
Facilitation, Representation
@mleis
How We Make Digital Friends
Social Networks Social Bookmarks
Finding people with common
personality traits and strengthening
friendships with content
Finding / curating content and
finding / strengthening friendships
through personality similarities
@mleis
These people don’t necessarily know each other
Brands help everyone
through curation
And gain valuable insights about
the kinds of content people use to
represent their best selves to the
friends that help them make
purchase decisions.
@mleis
Participation Priority
and Workflow
Yammer
Reporting/
Sharing
Monitor/
Reply
Traditional
Curating
Google
Reader
CampaignsEvents
Pinterest
Twitter
Facebook
Wikipedia
YouTube
Forums
Constant
Daily
A
s
Needed
Blogs
Sponsorship
@mleis
Building The Calendar
• How does your audience represent themselves?
What do they like to talk about?
• What should happen at the end of the month,
each week?
• What major milestones or holidays need to be
celebrated with your audience?
• What have you curated in metrics or content that
you can share?
• You should have to edit down from here.
Thank You!
Questions?
@mleis
ml@michaelleis.com

Behavioral Storytelling: Social Content Strategy