The document provides an overview of branding and social content strategy. It discusses assessing the current media landscape, knowing the target audience, defining brand identity and mission, researching competitors, creating branded visual guidelines and a content funnel, categorizing content, planning social media ads and calendars, and maintaining a consistent brand voice across all content. The goal is to learn how to build a brand with strong social media presence and strategy.

1. Brand Design +
Social Content Strategy

2. John D. Saunders David J. Verjano
Meet the Team
Combined 15+ Years of Experience
Local, National, and International Clients
Contributed to:

3. Our Current Landscape
Simplified Breakdown on Branding
Defining a Social Content Strategy
Examples, Resources & Tools
Live Q&A Session
Today’s Agenda

4. Age of Traditional
(TV, Billboards,
Magazines, etc.)
Rise of the Internet
(AOL)
Age of Search
& Social
(Google, Facebook)
Explosion of
Content
More Content.
More Demand.

5. What’s Hot Right Now
Video Stories Live

6. WTF does this
even mean?
The media landscape is rapidly changing
Attention share is shifting toward social
Brands must stay fresh and relevant
Pro: More accessible and affordable
communications / marketing tools than
ever before
Con: You must create more content
than ever, against more competition
than ever

7. How does your brand fit?

8. Branding is not a logo.

9. Branding is a disciplined process to
build awareness and extend
customer loyalty.
Source: Designing Brand Identity, Alina Wheeler

10. Many brands don’t have a
social media issue.

11. They have a branding issue.

12. Today’s Goal:
Learn to build a brand
with social prowess.

13. The Branding
Process Social Content
Strategy

14. Know Your Audience Define Your Target Customer
Who? Competitors?
Where?
Why?
Sources of
Information?

15. Motivations
Go Deeper and SegmentKnow Your Audience
Interests Habits Values Opinions

16. Define Mission Statement
What do you hope to accomplish?
What is your ultimate goal?
What are your core beliefs?
What is your promise to the customer?
“Our vision is to be earth’s most customer
centric company; to build a place where
people can come to find and discover
anything they might want to buy online.”
Amazon.com’s Mission Statement

17. Scope Out the Competition
Use SEMRUSH Google Targeted Search Facebook “Pages to Watch”

18. SEMrush allows you to get insights into your
competitors' strategies in display advertising,
organic and paid search, and link building
Competitive Research Using SEMRush
1. Perform a Domain Search for Your Competitor
2. Take a Look at Top organic Keywords
3. Check Out Their Paid Search
4. Check Out Their Backlinks

19. What you should be looking for:
Google Targeted Search
1. Their First Page Results
2. The Social Media Platforms
that Are Indexed
3. The Articles that Show Up in
the First Few Pages
4. The Organization of Their Titles
+ Descriptions
Competitive Research

20. Pages to Watch helps you compare the
performance of your page and posts with
similar pages on Facebook
Pages to Watch (Facebook)
Metrics Include:
● the number of posts by page admins
● number of fan interactions
● leaderboard of the five top-performing
posts across all watched pages.
Competitive Research

21. Set the Tone
Define the tone and attitude that you
want to use for your brand.
Are you going for more of a fun, playful
brand?
Is your audience made up of c-level
execs, which may demand a more
serious tone?
Set Brand Identity Branding Essentials
Define Brand Story
What is the unique brand story you want to
tell the public?
Consider the different angles to take on
the story.
Make sure it always authentically reflects
your brand and resonates with your
audience.
Create Visual Guidelines
Create a central document/folder with
logo marks, branded assets, colors, etc.
that need to be used for content
creation.
● Frontify
● Google Drive
● Dropbox

22. Branding Overview
- Know Your Audience
- Defined Mission & Goals
- Scoped Out the Competition
- Set a Brand Identity

23. Create Content
Funnel
Social Content Strategy
Breakdown Content
Buckets
Outline Plan for
Social Ads
Setup Social Media
Content Calendar

24. Create a Content Funnel
1. Awareness - Brand Awareness, Exposure, Reach
2. Consideration - Website Traffic, Engagement, Email Opt-ins
3. Conversion - Make a Purchase, Attend Event, Hire You
4. Amplification - Brand Ambassadors, Word-of-Mouth, Reviews

25. Categorize your content into “buckets” based on
things like:
● Topics related to your business
● Benefits your brand offers
● Specials & promotions
● Recurring events
● Product-based content
Breakdown Content Buckets

26. Set minimum monthly budget
Determine how you will allocate your ad funds (percentage)
Plan for A/B testing (content, audience)
Outline Plan for Social Ads
Month 1
75% Brand Awareness
25% Consideration
Month 3
50% Brand Awareness
30% Consideration
20% Conversion
Month 2
60% Brand Awareness
30% Consideration
10% Conversion
Mock Example:

27. Collaborative Tools We Use:
● Google Slides
● Sprout Social
● Slack
● Evernote
Setup Social Content Calendar
Distribute content buckets accordingly
Create quarterly, monthly, and/or weekly schedule
Leave room for spontaneous content

28. “The drinking
buddy that’s as
weird as family.”
Lincoln’s
Beard
Brewing Co.

29. “The drinking buddy
that’s as weird as family.”
Lincoln’s Beard
Brewing Co.

30. Netflix Original: Narcos
Comment Example (HISEC Presentation)
Keeping the same attitude and voice...
Staying on message.

31. “A well-defined, easy-to-articulate
strategy makes everything intuitive.”
- Jamie Koval, VSA Partners

32. Final Notes
Define your brand
Align with social strategy
Plan with ad budget in mind
Provide the value your customers deserve

33. facebook.com/groups/levelupwebinar/
Join our
Facebook Group

34. Q&A