Join the AOS team to begin exploring the world of content strategy - and where stakeholder storytelling fits in to the plan.
Introduction to Content Strategy
Stakeholder Storytelling
Community Voices and Endorsements
Featuring:
Hugh Blanc
James O'Connor
Hosted by Julianne Neal
I said to somebody the other day. Content strategy is basically just like a business plan. People say "yes, content... but noise!" and the answer to that really is looking at your values and looking at what you really stand for and finding voices within your community of relevance that can support that message and can kind of echo it back and talk about their own life experiences and how you and your service or product has affected them and those life experiences, creating content and creating a story around it that's relevant that impacts you much more than just you know... content for content's sake or telling me about the product or service.
Gotcha, good morning guys - morning James, morning Hugh, it's so good to speak with both of you again today for our second episode of the podcast and we're going to be talking today about stakeholder storytelling and content strategy. Doesn't that sound exciting?
Yeah it does, if you work in the in the field we do!
So according to market muse, I will give you the strict definition from them. Content strategy is the ongoing process of transforming business objectives and goals into a plan that uses content as a primary means of achieving those goals. That's pretty wordy, right? So in your words, what is content strategy to you?
I wanted to firstly is take issue with that definition you read there because they used the term they were defining in the definition, which is like, you know, the number one rule. Don't do that. I'm just kidding, but we have to accept it the way we engage is as people is different than the way we used to engage. We went through a phase where we were struggling. People were adopting to the idea of we just need to create content. We need to constantly have new stuff coming to work with the algorithms and I think we've moved to the next step now where OK, we established that we understand the importance of content and now it comes back to sort of becoming more sophisticated and saying OK, it's not just about making sure I have something to post. It's about understanding what I'm going to post, towards what end and a sort of a business plan as James said, which I think he stole from Miranda... But having that that sort of business plan of of these things - creating this content, engaging with the with the public in a certain way in a certain way with the strategic end in mind.
The reason why we're still having this conversation now, why it's still important now, it's because it's 2021 and people are still doing content for content's sake and you can see it everyday you know, people just posting well it's Monday, what's my Monday meme? That's totally not the point. That's not what we're about. That's not what we're doing. We're about, you know, we might spend a little bit longer trying to identify who are the stakeholders and what can they bring to your story. Because we think that the results are far, far more impressive. Content is a funnel, you know that's the thing, it's just the first step in this huge funnel. Entertain everybody, trying to get everyone's attention, but it very quickly narrows down to be: "Oh well, that was fun. I've been entertained. But you know, this is not affecting me in any way, is not impacting me..." so you know I might engage with it, but what is the point for the brand? What's the point six months later, when they still haven't figured out what their values are and who they really want to talk to?
I said to somebody the other day. Content strategy is basically just like a business plan. People say "yes, content... but noise!" and the answer to that really is looking at your values and looking at what you really stand for and finding voices within your community of relevance that can support that message and can kind of echo it back and talk about their own life experiences and how you and your service or product has affected them and those life experiences, creating content and creating a story around it that's relevant that impacts you much more than just you know... content for content's sake or telling me about the product or service.
Gotcha, good morning guys - morning James, morning Hugh, it's so good to speak with both of you again today for our second episode of the podcast and we're going to be talking today about stakeholder storytelling and content strategy. Doesn't that sound exciting?
Yeah it does, if you work in the in the field we do!
So according to market muse, I will give you the strict definition from them. Content strategy is the ongoing process of transforming business objectives and goals into a plan that uses content as a primary means of achieving those goals. That's pretty wordy, right? So in your words, what is content strategy to you?
I wanted to firstly is take issue with that definition you read there because they used the term they were defining in the definition, which is like, you know, the number one rule. Don't do that. I'm just kidding, but we have to accept it the way we engage is as people is different than the way we used to engage. We went through a phase where we were struggling. People were adopting to the idea of we just need to create content. We need to constantly have new stuff coming to work with the algorithms and I think we've moved to the next step now where OK, we established that we understand the importance of content and now it comes back to sort of becoming more sophisticated and saying OK, it's not just about making sure I have something to post. It's about understanding what I'm going to post, towards what end and a sort of a business plan as James said, which I think he stole from Miranda... But having that that sort of business plan of of these things - creating this content, engaging with the with the public in a certain way in a certain way with the strategic end in mind.
The reason why we're still having this conversation now, why it's still important now, it's because it's 2021 and people are still doing content for content's sake and you can see it everyday you know, people just posting well it's Monday, what's my Monday meme? That's totally not the point. That's not what we're about. That's not what we're doing. We're about, you know, we might spend a little bit longer trying to identify who are the stakeholders and what can they bring to your story. Because we think that the results are far, far more impressive. Content is a funnel, you know that's the thing, it's just the first step in this huge funnel. Entertain everybody, trying to get everyone's attention, but it very quickly narrows down to be: "Oh well, that was fun. I've been entertained. But you know, this is not affecting me in any way, is not impacting me..." so you know I might engage with it, but what is the point for the brand? What's the point six months later, when they still haven't figured out what their values are and who they really want to talk to? So that's really why we focus so much on stakeholder stories, and we're doing it for engagement in the community so it was very specific - even even down to the name of this podcast and what we were trying to state, it's about the stakeholders and it's about getting them involved as much as possible.
Well, and it sounds to me like there's a lot of trust that you're building and a relationship with your audience.
I was just gonna say that - I was going to say that that's such an important thing too. I think because you have this swarm of information now and you have this, you know a huge market. It's a global market now. There's so much coming at you that how do you distinguish one from the next? And I could tell you I'm the greatest business and James could tell you he's the greatest business. And who do you believe? And This is why it's better to get that information from the mouth of the customers. The mouth of the community, the people peripheral. It's a reference. It's those testimonials and references like a job interview or whatever. What those references are about is character. Because the truth of the matter is that in a number of cases, what makes the difference between two companies? It's this hairline difference, and so character and and the idea of long term building longer term relationships. We also think more holistically now and so the idea of how how does doing business with this company impact. How does it impact on my community? How does it impact on on the economy? How does it impact on the things that are important to me? I think we've lived like that more now and I think that that has become more important thing. You know? What are the repercussions? What are those ripples to my actions to be doing things?
And I'm not saying it doesn't dominate everything, but people want to know. And they can make that informed decision. I think that stakeholder storytelling is a head above is because it's that trust factor that you were just mentioning and that idea of, you know, hearing from a third hand or second or third hand source as to what the real life experiences you know what is the reality of it? Because we you know we we hear all these amazing things about a company and then when you try to deal with their customer service or something, when you when you have a personality to go with it. OK, I get a sense of how these people operate. It's not just about what they offer.
You said something interesting. You mentioned the call centre or the support call when you call and get terrible service or whatever. I think that's that's worth mentioning because what you're doing when you do advertising is you're raising people's expectations. So you literally have a car, ad or whatever. You know someone's biting into this burger or they're driving a car or whatever. And their voice over is like you know... They write these things with the most emotional language. You know, this is without saying the best. You know that this is the best. OK, so when you buy the car, you have to call up to get, you know something repaired or whatever, and it's not the best. It's a complete 180 degree experience based on what they told you.
So if you didn't tell that lie in the first place and do all of that hard selling, you might actually be in a better situation.You know, because someone coming in to fix something in their vehicle or making a complaint, that's actually a good thing. That's actually the beginning of a relationship. That's not, you know, we still we did the advertising, we told the lie we got everyone to believe it was sold the vehicle. Or whatever now we're good. The worst way to do business because now someone else is going to come in and have a relationship with that customer. And that relationship, if they're smart and they know how to do content, that relationship will begin way before they make that purchase. Just because you will have started to appear in content that's relevant to them with the right message to them, and you know, so you're starting to have that conversation with them that might be about the values of the safety of the vehicle and how it's impacted people like you... That's a completely different proposition. Now if I buy that car and there's something wrong with it, when I take it back, I haven't been... I haven't gone down this road of like man, I feel I feel a bit like a fool. You know, for believing the lie in the first place. And now when I go to have that support, experience and maybe maybe I've got an attitude or whatever... See? Content fixes everything!
It's an interesting difference, right? Because you talk about the commercial and the truth of the matter is that's an advertising company coming up with something. Let's come up with an idea and sell an idea. As opposed to when you look at at something like stakeholder storytelling, it's like: "You want to tell people about your business?" Come as you are and let's let's discuss it, you know and let people meet you so it's a slightly more honest introduction. Not wanting to knock what anybody else is doing, but it is sort of a a slightly more honest introduction.
Yes, and you said it a little while ago and I wanted to jump on it then, but I think we jumped on like 5 things between that point at this point. But it was that you had to ask a series of questions and you said you go out into the community and you find the right people and you start to ask. the questions. And that there is the process. It's not, you know. I don't want people to think that, you know, content strategy for us (it is for some people) but I don't want people to think that for us it means, you know going in a room you know, maybe with me and you and Miranda and we're going to "Strategize", right? "Don't tell anybody what it is!" It all comes from the questions that you ask. What is the most powerful stuff that comes out of that and how it develops a context for the brand or the product or the service that we're talking about. That's in the editing. That's where we start to pull out what we want. But it's totally led by people's emotions and responses and their needs.
Well, both of you have mentioned community and community engagement and it sounds like that's always part of that process. Is there like a template you start with or is there a process or is it just all organically coming through?
Well, I think there is definitely a process that James is sort of developed, but within that process there's a lot of organic elements because you are, as he said, we don't go out force fitting words into people's mouths. So as a result you have to be open to responding to what people are going to say and you have to... You have to find the opportunities, look for the opportunities you know what I mean so that that has to be organic because yes, we can have a sense of what we're going to get, but even within that there's a certain free free flow to it. I think we have enough of a process that we can go into a situation saying that we know we can get what the customer wants. One of the great things I think is that sometimes it it you you get something else completely that you didn't expect and then you you can also be open to sort of pivot. You know 'cause you get something great that you didn't really expect, so it it kind of creates the environment for those lucky opportunities. But like I said, I think there's enough of a process for us to be able to go into a situation knowing that, yeah, OK, we know in terms of the initial research, initial decisions on who you're going to speak to. We don't tend to prep people. So the idea that but we do tend to have an idea that the reason we're going to them is because they. had an experience, you know?
It's a bit of a technique that we use when we get in the field when we're there, setting up or whatever... People are usually very keen to tell you their story and we kind of push back a little bit, asking random questions like the weather and stuff, because as Hugh says, you don't want to prep them too much and you don't want them to have this practice run on on their feelings because what happens is the second run has no feeling in it. It's the same exact information, but absolutely devoid of that first time, what we call the" discovery' and we're always talking about discovery.
You know you discover something and you share it. You're much more likely to share something that you've discovered. That's something that we we try to get all our clients to understand to appreciate that organic process, to appreciate how important it is to discover stuff when we're there and not to write the questions. Some people write, you know, they write the questions before and they send them to the the interview subjects that they're going to talk to. And they also include like "we'd like you to answer the following" sort of like literally tell him what to say and I feel like you know well if you go to that effort then let's make it really short and punchy and put it on a teleprompter and everybody just read what's there. That's the way to do it as well Right?
Yeah. Well, when it does flow organically... I remember when we were planning out interviews for filming The Edge and you were in South Carolina and we sort of set up the people we thought it would be great to talk to, but we had no idea what they were going to say. And so I think it was Caroline who came with something in her interview that tied the whole thing together and you're like wow, when that happens I mean. I had chills just thinking about it, so yeah.
In fact, we've had a few good experiences working with ad agencies who... sometimes we get a script and it's got all of that. Maybe it's even more scripted. It's a sixty second TV commercial, you know what we're talking about but the agency will write the script and and then at the bottom they'll say "don't use this!" Please come back with, you know what the people actually feel like. Well, that's that's at least a bit of an evolution in the right direction you know? We have a few experiences like that.
Why do you see video as being so important?
Well, it's the most "real" format we have. While people freak out about video I'm freaking out thinking about what the next thing. Because yeah, if you walk into a room full of holographic people, you know, and having a conversation with them that would be even more engaging, right? But the fact is video is that it is the best we've got right now. And it's not because it's not just video. When you watch video, you know you're hearing a conversation. You're hearing ambient noise or ambient sound that also telling its own story. You're seeing these cutaways while someone's voice is there. That's that's their own thing. There might be graphics on the screen, you know, salient points to drive things home that they weren't even said in the dialogue.
So you have this whole feature set, this whole, you know, as an artist, as a creator, video is where you want to be if you are a control freak or you like to to try lots of different things. For me it's about having the... you want the end result to be the most powerful? Well, you're going to want to control the dialogue and the sound and the light and the color, and you know... the whole experience for people in there. So that's that's why I think video is so powerful.
Are there any audience questions from our last episode?
A lot of people want to know what the process looks like because... they hear content strategy... they hear video storytelling, they hear what it can do, they see the product and they get scared because they see their face on it and that's usually like a huge roadblock to getting involved. And they they want to know what is the process, how? How do you get these moms and teachers and doctors and nurses and just whoever to go on camera and appear to be so comfortable and just doing their thing when every time I try to go on camera it's extremely difficult and you make all these mistakes and you say "um" a lot…
So what we have is a process that makes them feel super comfortable and focuses more on their journey rather than specific questions. You know, like it's not a quiz. We use a lot of really rich visual material to cover them up. At the end of the day, just put it in plain English where we're covering up themselves so they don't have to see their face all the time. And it makes it more interesting for everybody else as well. And at the end of it, they're like, oh wow, I'm super in my comfort zone here, because you're seeing and showing everyone what it's actually like. I don't feel like I was, you know, the center of everyone's attention for too long and it worked. It just works really well for them, so that's what we get asked most. What is the process? How do you get from, you know, agreeing to do this to the end result without having a nervous breakdown!
We make it a fun process and there's no correct answer. You're not going to get it wrong because there's no right answer. The right answer is just the truth, what was your experience? What do you feel? What do you think? It's not about getting it right. It's not a quiz. As James was saying that's the part that makes it interesting and it makes it somewhat different as well. It's because it's an organic process. We are engaged in this fresh discovery that James talked about. We are engaged in it more than perhaps if we had a script and we were like: "well run with that and we'll roll the camera..." but we'll be asleep in our mind. Counting sheep. We are paying attention because we were trying to discover along with them - that organic part of it. I actually think for me that's one of the exciting things about the job.
That reminds me. If folks are listening and want to ask a specific question about content marketing strategy or anything else, you can email us at podcast at the art of storytelling.com and we'll be more than happy to answer as best we can and be sure to subscribe because in the next few episodes we're going to be exploring the content gathering process Also, what it looks like when a simple video evolves into a full indie film release and the launch of iOS films plus. Plus, we have big news about the next version of the iOS content Cloud app.
You can learn about all of that at theartofstorytelling.com Until then, I'm Julianne Neil... Keep telling the stories that matter!