Whose brand? YOUR Brand: The Next Media Company
- Amanda Bethany
- Oct 7, 2015
- 4 min read
Hello again, world!
Since I fail at blogging (seriously, haven't posted in weeks) I'm excited to have an assignment that requires me to get back into this. We'll see how long it lasts this time (no promises).
This semester for my graduate course Using Social and Digital Media we first read the book Your Brand: The Next Media Company by Michael Brito which I found to actually be incredibly interesting and relevant (I personally find course books to usually be hit or miss, so I was pumped about this).
In his book, Brito identifies how organizations can capitalize on the booming new media that surrounds us and develop a “social business strategy” to transform their brand into an all-encompassing media company. This strategy, depicted below, is incredibly thorough and requires buy in from all levels of employees within an organization, but is driven from the top-down by leadership. There are many stages, and Brito expertly walks readers through each step of the way, providing real life examples, success stories, and even some not-so-success stories.
A diagram of Brito's social business strategy, page 7
One of my key takeaways from Brito's book is the importance of adaptability, and the need for a brand to listen to and engage with its consumers and change their strategy to fit the needs at any given time. This can only be accomplished with a trained team that is monitoring the conversation, and responding quickly and appropriately.
Content development is integral in storytelling, and Brito brilliantly quotes Confucius:
"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."
I love this, because it shows how important it is for consumers to be able to engage directly with the brand and feel involved and part of the story. I would absolutely love to see our client, Aspen Brewing Company, heavily incorporate community engagement into any strategy that they develop. I think this could be accomplished on any and all of their social media platforms, perhaps even integrating this content into a “feed” on their website.
They currently run a blog, which they are great at updating frequently, however it lacks focus and a clear brand voice. Rather than posting about everything, such as upcoming events, new seasonal beers, taproom makeovers, media coverage and local identities, I think it would be great for them to develop a clear singular purpose for their blog. I love Burberry’s The Art of The Trench, which hones in on one specific product that they sell: The Trenchcoat.
The homepage of Burberry's Art of the Trench blog. Thank you, Brito, for introducing to me to what has become a new addiction and longing for something completely out of my budget.
Alternatively, if Aspen Brewing Company prefers to keep the broad content on their blog, I would recommend a complete revamp of the blog so it is more interactive and visually based. My favorite example of this from one of our readings (I can’t remember which one) is interestingly enough by Southwest Airlines. They incorporate many of the elements currently present in ABC’s blog, but the content is easier to navigate and is presented in a much more engaging way. I especially love Southwest’s “LUV Mail” section, which solely highlights feedback from their consumers, which relates back to the Confucius quote Brito incorporated into his book.
The homepage for BlogSouthwest.com. I don't even know what to look at first, but it's all awesome!
My favorite parts of this book were the vendor spotlights highlighted at the end of each chapter, complete with screenshots and in depth descpriptions of the various services provided. There are a few I'm going to be chatting with my team at work about because I think they could be extremely useful, especially considering how short staffed we are - Sprinklr, MutualMind, and Spredfast to name a few. I definitely think it would be helpful for my agency, East West Collaborative, to ask ABC if they currently use any services like this.
My one frustration with Brito is he didn't seem to take into account smaller organizations that don't have the budget or the bandwidth to develop such a large, comprehensive team to help implement his suggestions to make the transition to a media company. While I understand he has to limit his target audience (to prevent the book from not making sense or becoming a thousand pages), I would have loved to see recommendations intertwined throughout targeted to small organizations on how to accomplish some of these goals on a much smaller scale. Even within large organizations, sometimes the politics behind the scenes can prevent anything from being accomplished due to lack of support from leadership, so while I found this book incredibly useful and inspiring, I think I’m too low on the totem pole at my institution to really be able to implement anything. Definitely useful information to store for future use if I ever make my way higher up the food chain.
But first, let me take a #selfie - with the book of course!
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who works on a marketing team, or really anyone that is at all involved in storytelling for a brand (even if your brand is just YOU!). While there were many great points made throughout the entirebook, I love his focus on developing great content and ensuring that content is relevant to your target audience, because without powerful content, even the greatest strategy will fall flat. Even in my current role that has little ability to implement major changes, it is refreshing to read that my storytelling and involvement is important to the overall big picture, even if the executives may not have any idea who I am. We can all be brand ambassdors and tell a story if we want to. Good thing I have a lot of writing coming up at work for Radiothon, it will give me a chance to apply what I've learned (and we're hoping to develop a social media strategy for this event, baby steps!).
Now, hop off my blog, order Your Brand: The Next Media Company and start reading!! Can't wait to hear what you think!
<3 ab
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