1.
Ben Cecil, UPG Video www.UPGVideo.com
Aaron Strout, W2O Group www.W2OGroup.com
Kyle Flaherty, 21CT www.21CT.com
Lionel Menchaca, W2O Group www.W2OGroup.com
TIPS & BEST PRACTICES
from
“Don’t Let Your Brand Be The Drunk Uncle Of The Social Web”
A Panel Discussion at Innotech Austin 2013

2.
FIVE FUNDAMENTALS
Listening – the market
Influencers – the people
Language – the words
Content – the story
Distribution – the network
Aaron Strout

3.
There are ten areas of online influence –
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Key Areas of
Influence Brand X
Competitor
#1
Competitor
#2
Competitor
#3 SOC #1 SOC #2
X images X images X images X images x images x images
x
presentations
x presentations x presentations x presentations x presentations
x
presentations
x tweets
x tweets x tweets x tweets x tweets x tweets
x pages x pages x pages x pages x pages x pages
Answers
x questions x questions x questions x questions x questions x questions
Aaron Strout

4.
Influence Areas Trend Relevance
Audio
Favorite of sales force,
customers on the go
Podcasts of all types, plus audio tracks of video segments are an undefined area of online,
yet have growing utility
Blogs
>200MM; trend is to have
multiple blogs, multiple
languages
We should know the top influencers by topic who drive relevant share of voice. The
numbers of influencers are small, precision is key.
Data / Slides 90mm uniques at SlideShare A great location to share all public presentations.
Forums
The engine of conversations
online; often patient driven
Knowing who is driving conversation in forums is key. We should treat high volume
moderators with the same respect as we do with journalists.
Images
Is all content tagged to impact
natural search?
Companies often forget to tag all content in the 10 languages that reach 90% of the online
population.
Micro Blogging
An effective way to alert
influencers, help propel news
cycles
A great opportunity to build a network of influencers who want to share your news in real
time. Twitter is a prime example.
Search
Yes, Google is #1, but
YouTube is #2
We need to know the influencers on the first screen for our brand and key topics. We also
need to understand where people are taken when they search.
Social Networks
The communities that are
often our “first place” to go
online
Our day often starts and ends with Facebook or other social site
Video
Consumption habits are
starting to favor video vs. copy
There are over 50 video sites to analyze, which sometimes house ratings and reviews of our
products.
Wikis
Free online peer edited online
encyclopedia
Nearly every topic has a Wikipedia entry, which means it could be the first information a
consumer finds about any topic they are seeking information about.
TEN AREAS OF ONLINE INFLUENCE
Aaron Strout

5.
STORYTELLING EXERCISE
Great stories begin with a great storytelling process.
Below is an exercise that will help anyone tell better stories.
Purpose: What’s the main point of the story? Why should the viewer care? This
should be one sentence.
People: Who are the characters? How will you make us care about them? BTW,
it might not be a person. For example, your villain might be old technology.
Places: Where the story happens. Is the location relevant? Friendly? What will it
add to the story? Don’t settle.
Plot: Yes, every story has a plot. Doesn’t have to be “saving the world.” What’s
the journey or conflict? This is where stories go from good to great. This is where
you can make viewers feel involved. Choose 3 potential plots. Pick the best one.
Your story should have a beginning, middle, & end.
Key words: Brainstorm 4 or 5 key words or phrases that describe important aspects
of your story. List 20. Cut it down to 4 or 5. Which elements in your story speak to
each one? All key words must be represented in some way.
Ben Cecil

6.
EXAMPLES OF GREAT BRAND STORYTELLING
Peer 1 Hosting. During Hurricane Sandy, this New Jersey cloud provider’s building
began to flood. All of the server racks & equipment were about to be ruined,
taking down hundreds of client websites and stored data. Luckily all was saved, but
the brand wasn’t the hero. (video produced by UPG’s Stephen Mick)
(Take SlideShare Deck Fullscreen to Click Links) Click>>>>>
BreakingPoint (IXIA). A historic throughput test. It’s never been done. But you
can’t just point a camera at a server rack and say, “Watch this.” You need a story.
(video by UPG)
Click>>>>>
Expedia: These guys do a lot of video content but nothing like the “Find Yours”
campaign. A series of stories about being human. This one, in particular was the
most shared. Never mentions the brand(until endscreen graphics).
Click>>>>>
Ben Cecil

7.
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS: WHAT TO LOOK FOR
What They Are What They Are Not
Knowledgeable about the topic Paid spokesperson
Personable and warm Slick marketing or sales rep
Genuinely excited Forced to get in front of the camera
Someone you hadn’t thought of
initially (e.g. engineering,
development, customer support,
solutions architect)
The CEO
Actual employee, partner, customer Trained actor
Professional Nude (unless that is your business
model)
Kyle Flaherty

8.
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS: HOW TO HELP
What To Do What Not To Do
Prepare SMEs with briefing document
that includes goals and questions
Grab them at the last minute and start
taping
Manage the process the entire way
through
Leave them alone to their own
devices with no guidance
Start out small Film “Gone With the Wind” your first
time out
Measure impact and results to the
bottom line
Assume your video program is
benefitting the company
Share results with your SMEs to instill
value and future commitment
Pat them on the back and ignore then
the next time you run into each other
at the Kurig machine
Make them comfortable throughout Mock them from the back of the
room, including revealing horribly
personal secrets on camera
Kyle Flaherty

9.
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS: MYTH BUSTERS
Myth Truth
Big budget is the only way to make
this work
Handheld’s are magic if you find the
right SME and prepare fully
Results? Results? We can’t measure
results!
You can measure everything if you
set up the proper workflow and
analytic platform beforehand
We are too proprietary to share
anything on video
Sales enablement videos help close
deals, support videos help enhance
customer retention…don’t just think
external facing
Post-production value is critical Post-production value is the least of
your worries if you have great content
and SMEs
We need a really polished
spokesperson
You haven’t been listening, go back
to Fax Marketing
Kyle Flaherty

10.
Discussions
from Groups
Comment
Threads
Comment
Threads
Influencer
Blog Posts
Forum
Threads
Twitter
Conversations
Connected Content
Lionel Menchaca

11.
As you scale across your
employee base, individual
comments turn into hundreds
of external links back to your
corporate blog
Forum
Threads
• External discussions build + strengthen influencer relationships
• Bringing external conversations into your corporate blog make
each blog post more relevant, more compelling.
• Every external conversation is a direct (or indirect) link back to
your company site or blog, which strengthens SEO.
Connected Content
Lionel Menchaca

12.
About the Authors:
Ben Cecil began his career as a television news writer & producer and then quickly transitioned from
content to marketing and brand management. He served in this capacity for two local Austin media
affiliates totaling nearly ten years. For the last four years, as the Director of Marketing Strategies at
UPGVideo, Ben has helped brands large and small tell their stories with creative, results-driven video
campaigns. As a public speaker and blogger, Ben discusses his views on video strategy and storytelling.
@YoBenCecil
Kyle Flaherty has spent much of his career innovating and implementing analytics-driven
communications and lead generation programs. This includes proven social media and content
marketing programs that have helped establish high value industry communities. Previous to 21CT,
Kyle was the Senior Director of Marketing & Global Corporate Communications at IXIA (NASDAQ:
XXIA). He joined IXIA through the successful acquisition of BreakingPoint, a network security startup
headquartered in Austin, Texas.
Kyle is a frequent public speaker on the issues of analytics-driven content engagement and B2B social
marketing. @KyleFlaherty
Aaron Strout has nearly 20 years of social media, mobile, online marketing and advertising
experience, with a strong background in integrated marketing. Prior to joining W2O Group, Aaron
spent time as the CMO of social media agency, Powered Inc (now part of Dachis Group), VP of social
media at Mzinga and director of interactive financial services leader, Fidelity Investments. Aaron is
also the co-author of, Location Based Marketing for Dummies (Wiley). In addition to blogging regularly
for W2O Group, Aaron writes a monthly mobile/location-based marketing column on
MarketingLand.com. @AaronStrout
Lionel Menchaca serves as director of content engagement for W2O Group. In this role, he helps
clients of all sizes to develop content and engagement strategies so they can connect directly with
customers. He also works with teams of developers to build tools companies need to manage an
increasingly complex flow of content. Before W2O, Lionel worked at Dell for 18 years and was the
founder and chief blogger of Direct2Dell, Dell’s main corporate blog. Over the last 7 years,
Lionel authored hundreds of postson behalf of Dell. He helped expand it into several continues to
extend Dell’s global presence. Before the blog, Lionel was one of the main architects behind Dell’s blog
monitoring process begun in April 2006. @LionelGeek