Time to lift the lid? Can you ‘live tweet’ reading a 6 year old playbook you co-wrote and it not be the be the most boring thing ever? How could something written about social media 6 years ago possibly even be relevant eh?! #StorytellingAtScale

From a creative perspective we could almost stop right here... the biggest challenge in churning out content is that you don’t give yourself the time to make exceptional content that you’d actually want millions of people to see... like your TV ads. #StorytellingAtScale
This doesn’t seem... controversial? But we gave it a whole page because frankly all too often it still is 🤷‍♂️ #StorytellingAtScale
An integrated campaign that brings the same campaign idea (and distinctive assets ideally) to life but in a way that makes sense on social...? Sounds pretty obvious. This was the output of the first ever UK ‘Publishing Garage’ workshop with Facebook & Elvis. #StorytellingAtScale
Ahh yes, perhaps not award winning creativity but let’s acknowledge FB isn’t always the biggest/broadest brand building canvas... practical occasion based (category entry point even?) content and simple reminders or prompts play a big role. #StorytellingAtScale
Look, this isn’t rocket science is it folks... but yes, apply good brand & creative best practice to your social content too. #StorytellingAtScale
Did I mention I used to work on Oreo? I think I do say it in passing occasionally... but anyway, the Daily Twist was more a triumph of consistency (in content AND reach) than it was for inspiring a one off (but fun) Tweet. #StorytellingAtScale
Honestly we came to see that even this ‘reduced’ calendar was WAY too much content and nothing was getting maximised reach or wear in (let alone wear out) but yes is more is still a good take home. #StorytellingAtScale
Remember Facebook Apps? We were fighting those back then... we won that battle much more cleanly than the ongoing war against cheap tricks in social 😂 #StorytellingAtScale
Ooh, this is a glorious slide in which we named and shamed some of our own brands for the cheap tricks they were using!

Cute animals ✅
Desperate plea for engagement ✅
Forced engagement competitions ✅

#StorytellingAtScale

[This Slide Image Is Redacted 🤐]
Ahh media thinking... imagine approaching social media platforms as serious media channels with opportunities to drive continuity, increase reach, or allow smaller brands to activate?! #StorytellingAtScale
And the media money shot... things have evolved a bit but not a lot since then. NB - we’re not talking about a few hundred £ here and there, we’re talking about how we scale social to reach 50%+ of our total target consumers on a regular basis. AKA #StorytellingAtScale
Measuring social based on... reach, resonance & reaction? Not social metrics and engagement? 🤯 did we reach enough people? Did we make them think anything different? Did we make them do anything different? #StorytellingAtScale
Long time listeners... it won’t surprise you to learn I went hard against ‘engagement’ - rebranded as ‘digital actions’ to try and find a role for, but really clear it’s not about business value in itself, MAYBE about content testing (I’m less convinced now) #StorytellingAtScale
REALLY hard against engagement... there’s a whole splendid explaining why they are nonsense numbers. We went on to remove/ban active engagement metrics from central social media performance dashboards, and to try and stop agencies using it. #StorytellingAtScale
I liked this because it spoke to global inclusion and accessibility... lots more you can do in this space now. #StorytellingAtScale
All of that to conclude that marketing on social media channels is kinda like marketing elsewhere? With some media specific upsides and unique creative opportunities? Oh right. Also organic social was more or less banned (except for customer service/replies) #StorytellingAtScale
And we’re done. There are things that have evolved, new opportunities and even some more rigour... but IMHO you could follow all this and have a pretty strong social media approach, especially if you work out how it fits in with your other channels. 🤷‍♂️ #StorytellingAtScale

More from Culture

OK. Chapter 7 of Book 4 of #WealthOfNations is tough going. It's long. It's serious. It's all about colonies.

We can take comfort, though, in knowing that the chapter #AdamSmith says is about colonies is, in fact, about colonies. (IV.vii) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets


Colonies were a vexed subject when #AdamSmith was writing, and they’re even more complicated now. So, before we even get to the tweeting, here’s a link to that thread on Smith and “savage nations.” (IV.vii) #WealthOfTweets


The reason for the ancient Greeks and Romans to settle colonies was straightforward: they didn’t have enough space for their growing populations. Their colonies were treated as “emancipated children”—connected but independent. (IV.vii.a.2) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

(Both these things are in contrast to the European colonies, as we'll see.) (IV.vii.a.2) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Ancient Greeks and Romans needed more space because the land was owned by an increasingly small number of citizens and farming and nearly all trades and arts were performed by slaves. It was hard for a poor freeman to improve his life. (IV.vii.a.3) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

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