Create Stuff They’ve Just Gotta Read: How to Write for Social Networks - Paul Gillin, Godfrey FWD:B2B Conference

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Paul Gillin

Author, Social Marketing to the Business Customer

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@pgillin

CREATE STUFF THEY’VE JUST GOTTA READ: HOW TO WRITE FOR SOCIAL NETWORKS

mailto:[email protected]

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Don’t

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-10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Has low prices

Corporate social responsibility

Shapes direction of the market

Has global reach

Promotes diversity and equal opportunity

Promotes sustainability

Is a driver of innovation

Provides a broad product portfolio

Is a leader in its field

Fits well with my values

Has high level of specialist expertise

Acts responsibly across supply chain

Cares about dialogue with customers

B2B Market Messages and Customer Preferences

B2B messages

Customer preference

Failure to Communicate

Source: “How B2B companies talk past their

customers,” McKinsey & Co., October, 2013

“Honest and open

dialogue, which

customers considered

most important, was one

of the three themes not

emphasized at all by the

90 companies in our

sample.”

--McKinsey

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/how_b2b_companies_talk_past_their_customers

@pgillin@pgillin

Circular File

65%

70%

55%

59%

79%

63%

Much of the material is useless

Vendors give me too much material

Scan and throw away

How much do you agreewith the following statements about the content salespeople provide?”

IT execs Business execs

Source: “Valuable Message Development For B2B Marketing In The Context

Of Sales Enablement,” Forrester Research, September, 2015

https://www.forrester.com/Valuable+Message+Development+For+B2B+Marketing+In+The+Context+of+Sales+Enablement/fulltext/-/E-RES115328

https://www.forrester.com/Valuable+Message+Development+For+B2B+Marketing+In+The+Context+of+Sales+Enablement/fulltext/-/E-RES115328

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1. Know Your Audience

Who’s Your Reader?

Motivations

Fears

Passions

Goals

Self-Image

Needs

Desires

We don’t mean demographics. We mean:

You can’t communicate

effectively with an audience

you don’t know. Visualize

your reader.

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Psychographic Profile: Enterprise CIO

Position CIO, VP of IT or CTO

Motivations Recognition; organizational excellence; business success;

professional advancement

Demotivations Impulsiveness; indecisiveness; details; disobedience

Likes Technology; problem-solving; learning; teamwork

Dislikes Delay; politics; uncooperativeness; micro-management

Fears Letting down the organization; bad decisions; organizational failure;

employee turnover; public humiliation

What defines

accomplishment?

Leading a group toward a decision; public recognition; innovation;

resourceful problem-solving

Loyalty Generally low

Adjectives Proud; leader; determined; decisive; analytical; team player

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Think Like a Reader

Instead of Consider

Our Solution Your Problem

Reasons to Buy Options to Consider

Why We’re Better Why Customers Choose Us

What’s In It For Us What’s In It for You

Testimonial Spotlight long-time customers

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2. Know Yourself

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• Helpful?

• Funny?

• Professorial?

• Empathetic?

• Snarky?

• Unpredictable?

Your style should be

comfortable, consistent,

distinctive and personal

What’s Your Voice?

3. Read Cosmo

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The Fantastic Five

1. It’s All About You

2. Who Do You Want to Be?

3. Surprise and Delight

4. How Can I Help?

5. Tell Stories

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4. Think Different

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Vary Your Approach

Use a different medium

Imagine content in another form, such as a list, table,

first-person narrative, poem, song, conversation or FAQ.

Vary voice. Imagine how the message would be

communicated by your favorite humorist, novelist,

columnist.

Write from a diametrically opposite view; try to explain

your position.

Vary perspective. What would an inanimate object think?

A visitor from the past?

@pgillin@pgillin

1. Quiz: Test Your Privacy IQ

2. Skeptic: You Don’t Control Your Privacy Anymore

3. Explainer: The Privacy Debate in Plain English

4. Case Study: How One Person Got Control Over Privacy

5. Contrarian: Why Online Privacy Concerns Are Rubbish

6. Definitional: Common Privacy Terms Explained

7. How To: Five Ways to Strengthen Your Online Privacy

8. How NOT To: Five Ways to Screw Up Your Online Privacy

9. First Person: My Personal Privacy Horror Story

10. List: 10 Important Facts about Online Privacy

11. Comparison: How Privacy Protection Services Measure Up

12. FAQ: Your Privacy Questions Answered

13. Q&A: What One Expert Says About Privacy

14. Data: Roundup of Survey Data

15. ‘Man on the Street’: We Ask People Around the Office about Online Privacy

16. Outrageous: There’s No Such Thing as Online Privacy

17. Poetic: Online Privacy Haiku

18. Musical: The Ballad of Online Privacy

19. Historic: What Shakespeare Would Have Said

20. Humorous: Debate in the form of Abbott and Costello’s ‘Who’s On First?’

20 Ways to Tackle a Topic

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5. Write in Pictures

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Write in Pictures

65% of people are visual learners. Use words that create images.

Google Thesaurus, Thesaurus.com and Merriam-Webster Thesaurus are

among the many online tools you can use.

Word Instead

Drop Plunge, sink, cave in, tumble, slump, crash

Rise Swell, balloon, soar, climb, elevate

Get Seize, grab, snag, pluck, wrestle away

Tell Whisper, confide, intimate, shout, echo, cry out

Throw Hurl, toss, fling, underhand, flip, sling, shuffle

Enter Greet, introduce, bow, step into, bow

Take Grab, seize, grasp, purloin, clutch

Few Select, choice, elite, chosen, culled, singled out

http://googlethesaurus.com/

http://thesaurus.com/

http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus.htm

@pgillin@pgillin

Pictures in Practice

Excerpt and rewrite from an actual corporate case study:

Original

“Features such as smart phone notification and mature drill-through capabilities give the zoo quick access to key information. Through smart phone alerts, management can notify staff when VIP guests arrive at the zoo, or automatically send customized notifications to zoo members to make them aware of special promotions and events for them. The end result is a smarter operation and a more enjoyable experience for visitors.”

Rewrite

“Now the zoo can spot treasured guests early and give them the red carpet treatment. Staffers’ smart phones buzz when VIP guests arrive at the ticket window, enabling zookeepers to scramble to greet them. Guests can even program their phones to call out news of feeding time at the monkey house or a discount on T-shirts. Result: a smarter operation and more smiles on visitors’ faces.”

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6. Get to the Friggin’ Point

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Dump the Gobbledygook

Innovative

Leading

Committed

Cost-effective

Next-generation

Flexible

Robust

High-performance

Scalable

User-friendly

Easy-to-use

Optimized

Best-in-class

World-class

Industry-leading

Dedicated

Customer-focused

Strategic

Successful

Exceptional

Fascinating

Remarkable

Exceptional

Careful

Attentive

World-class

Fast-growing

Extensive

Comprehensive

Proven

Meet the needs of

Game-changing

Unprecedented

Optimized

Award-winning

Enterprise-ready

Trusted

Enhanced

Significant

Best

Most

Reliable

Tremendous

Stupendous

Ridiculous

Supercalifragilisticexpeal

idocious…

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What Did He Just Say?

“The tremendous growth trajectory of the Internet of Things, coupled with the massive demand for realtime interaction on mobile and the web, represents an incredible market opportunity,” said the CEO of some company I don’t remember. “We are thrilled to be working with this extraordinary group of investors who have deep expertise in a broad range of industries.”

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Red Flags

“Everybody knows that…”

“I don’t have to tell you that…”

“It’s common knowledge that…”

“We’ve all seen…”

“Conventional wisdom is…”

“I think you’ll be interested in…”

“I’m thrilled that…”

“Hardly a day passes that…

“I recently attended…”

“We’re all overloaded with…

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TAKEWORDS

OUT

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6. Write for the Platform

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Social Networks Have Personalities

http://www.quantcast.com/

http://www.quantcast.com/

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Same Message, Three Tellings

• “Meetings r people trying to figure out who'll

foolishly take responsibility for what happens next”

- @ThisIsSethsBlog #Inbound13

• Can you relate? Seth Godin at the Inbound 2013

conference says, “Meetings are people sitting

around trying to figure out who'll foolishly take

responsibility for what happens next.”

• Seth Godin at HubSpot’s #Inbound13 conference:

“Meetings are people sitting around trying to figure

out who'll foolishly take responsibility for what

happens next.” What’s your worst meeting

experience?

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Facebook is Fun

• Surprise, provoke, inquire

• Be upbeat; have fun

• Finish with a question mark

• Posts with images get 80%

better engagement

• Make images provocative or

self-explanatory

• Have personality; be informal

• But be relevant to your

business

Awards Customers

Customers Customers

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• Share news about your

business, industry, strategy,

managing and the workplace.

• Offer practical advice.

• Write clear, declarative

headlines and prose.

• Get to the point.

• Offer to connect.

• Ask for response: What would

you do?

• Curate discussions

LinkedIn is Efficient

@pgillin@pgillin

Best practices

Advance the

conversation

Add value

Tease (but

don’t deceive)

Recognize

Thank

Label

Twitter Rules

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Got Space?

LinkedIn: 2,000

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Paul Gillin

508-656-0734

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Twitter: @pgillin

mailto:[email protected]