What Wallace and Gromit can teach us about social media
Listening to Dan Efergan, Digital Director at Aardman Animation, speak on '10 things learned about multi platform' and the process that the digital arm of Aardman work through got me thinking about the parallels with how businesses can 'do' social media more effectively.
Much of Social media should be about telling stories too, it's not just limited to animation. Ok, so I'm not suggesting create the next hit claymation character and have it doing amusing things over all the online platforms that you reside in. But the essence of telling a story (in the loosest sense) across your social media platforms really is key.
I've taken Dan's 10 points, that they apply at Aardman Digital, and created parallels with elements that you can apply in your social media for your business.
1. Aardman: Start with the right people.
Social media application: Whether it's your team internally, specialists you work with or who you're communicating with. Knowing who they are, where they're coming from and what they respond to is key. Lots of businesses tend to just jump in with the operational side of things without stopping to think, who are we? who are we talking to? and who's involved in this? You might come up with (what you think is) the best social media campaign, are pleased as punch with it, roll it out and wonder why it flops with your audience. You then remember that you didn't actually include them at the early stages but just assumed what it was they wanted. The same is true of your team/business and people who are part of a project. Get folks involved at an early stage and it'll minimise pitfalls ahead (and save a lot of wasted time, resources and hair-loss along the way).
2. Aardman: Develop a common language.
Social media application: Make the process easier by putting it on a level that everyone can understand. Whether you're working with consultant specialists, developers, creatives, accounts etc agree a language you can all make sense of. If you're creating a custom facebook tab for your business and your developer's talking about 'iframes' but your PR manager has no idea what this means, help everyone to talk at the same level. It'll make it things run much more smoothly in the long run and help everyone to feel more a part of it.
3. Aardman: It starts with the world, the characters and the narrative.
Social media application: Ok, we're not all living in Little Big Planet world here with our businesses. Think wider about this for a minute though. Every business from a start up in a garage to a multi million pound company has 'a world'; the space the reside in, what it's like, where their brand fits, what they do, how they interact with customers, suppliers etc, an industry. Let's not think about this as something fluffy and cute -sure that works for Aardman as their primary market is kids- but find what's appropriate to your business. Your world goes beyond your physical space but you undoubtedly inhabit some kind of space that you can define and grow, most people just don't stop to consider it that often. The same applies with characters too.
What are the characteristics of your business 'world' and the characters in it that you can define. Once you've defined it, only then can you start to grow it, recognise that growth in the direction you want, then start to encourage people to be a part of it in your online spaces by communicating it. People associate with people, with tangible things they can understand and see how they fit together. If you can communicate what these characteristics are you've got a better chance of succeeding in your online spaces as users have got something they can buy into.
4. Aardman: Map the journey.
Social media application: You have a big whiteboard and chunky marker pen (you can chose the colour) poised at your fingertips ready to draw out your social media journey. What does it look like? I'm hoping that your answer will be lots of interconnected loops all crossing each platform. If it's not, you're potentially missing out on the juicy momentum that mutli platform social media can give your business. Have a map in place so that you know what's going to be shared through which channel - even if it just involves a couple of elements and is on the back of a beer mat.
5. Aardman: Use the right platform for the right reason.
Social media application: Not every bit of content should be the exact same message across all your social media channels. Yes, use as many channels as you can to spread your message but make sure it's appropriate to what you're doing. If users follow you on several platforms don't send them exactly the same message, it doesn't show that you're human, or care about them that much.
6. Aardman: Each platform should be an experience in it's own right.
Social media application: Rather than telling your entire story across all your platforms, where you run the risk that if people only engage with you through one channel you could lose them or they only get part of the story. Instead give a conclusion to each element then encourage users to explore more of your 'world' via your other platforms. Cross the loops to create an overall 'world' from stories that dot into it.
7. Aardman: Build strong compulsion jumps.
Social media application: Compulsion jumps or Call to Actions can be really effective in encouraging users to move over into your other platforms. It's hard work, but if you're obvious but not pushy, you can find that carrot that will incentivise them to follow you, from twitter to your facebook page, facebook to your blog etc.
8. Aardman: For mass appeal be obvious about the journey.
Social media application: With your Call to Actions be obvious what you want your users in your social community to do. Ask them, talk to them, be open with them rather than talk at them or sell to them, but above all make it obvious without being 'salesy' (really, no one wants to be sold at).
Dan also talked about 'cultural clues' which could be a fascinating concept in the social media world. An example, a phone number is said or appears on an episode of the Simpsons and if you called it it then gives you info or takes you somewhere else on to the next thing. So if we applied this to social media in a visual reference on your site you could have a skype name that has a message when it's called or a twitter hashtag that starts a whole new stream. There are so many creative ways you can encourage users to go from platform to platform.
9. Aardman: To progress we need to think shared experiences not digital marketing.
Social media application: Here's a sticking point where Dan and I would potentially have to have an arm wrestle across the table to see who comes out victorious. In Aardman's digital world this statement is more easily applied, so I agree where he's coming from with this. But in the real world I work with businesses whose primary purpose is to 'market' to their audience so it does need to have an element of marketing. Where the two meet, I think, is the approach of how you as a business goes about doing this marketing. Shouting your message as a one way conversation isn't the way to achieve it successfully (and so many businesses do do this!) but engagement with your community is. This is where the concept of creating shared experiences really does ring true. Social media is primarily about relationship marketing, not direct selling. These are people's social spaces so if you just sell to them they'll soon turn off to you. (though selling in social media does seem to be changing, but that'll be another post).
Instead if you can engage with them in a shared experience you've got a much better chance of getting and retaining your community. If a light bulb firm only ever broadcast about the newest filament technology chances are average joes (like me) will probably just go 'hmm, ok, so what' remember that other browser window that has a Darth Vader lego character on ebay ending in 3 minutes time and be gone. But what if that light bulb manufacturer had a facebook page that was centred around '101 ways to use a lightbulb' or some such. Now they can start to create a community that can contribute to, share, be part of and engage with - all under the umbrella of the business (subtle branding, urls info etc). People would be much more likely to share a link about a weird lightbulb artwork or post a photo of their light bulb salt and pepper shakers, therefore creating that engagement. The brand awareness and therefore marketing become a consequence of the relationship marketing and normally have better results than simply trying to engage people with your direct brand 'news'.
10. Aardman: Communities are great, but a great responsibility.
Social media application: If there's one bit to take away, this is it. The entry level to social media is fairly easy, creating a community more taxing, but being responsible for that community, whoa, that's top level stuff. Think carefully about what you want your social media community to do during and after, before you start creating one. Not only for you, but for them too. Don't leave them sobbing in the corner after you've whipped them up into a frenzy about what you're doing. Just imagine if you'd bought into this great concept, felt passionate about it then it just got abandoned.
Ok, so it's not actually Wallace & Gromit getting their cracker covered mits on a Facebook account (maybe in the next feature film, eh?) but Aardman Digital certainly can teach us a lot about how we can apply parallels to doing social media in business more effectively.
Are there other parallels that we can learn from creative processes to apply to social media for business?
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