Sketchnote

Social Media Success for Every Brand Book Summary

December 29, 2020 by Chris Wilson Leave a Comment

Recently I read the book social media success for every brand, a social media marketing specific guide from Claire Diaz-Ortiz. This book is basically the social media part of building a storybrand. In fact, Claire wrote it in conjunction with Donald Miller and the whole Storybrand team.

My motivation was simple: my company is struggling with Social media, storybrand has some good ideas, perhaps this book will help? As it turns out, it has. Here are my key takeaways.

Table of Contents

Social Media Success for Every Brand Sketchnote Summary

The biggest social media mistake most companies make

The most common marketing mistake (including social media) is making your marketing about the company and not the customer or client.

This is one of the key ideas in Storybrand as well. The customer is the hero. You are the guide.

Changing your social media to focus on your customer, not the company is half the battle. This should be reflected in:

Your Bio: how do you help the customer?
Your posts: why does this matter to them?

Create a storybrand script for your company

One of the core steps Claire advises is to create a storybrand brand script. This is a story arc for your customer and how your company helps them achieve through their journey.

It gives you a map for a customer journey and the right language to communicate with them. The process of creating one is detailed in Donald Miller’s book Building A Story Brand.

Sharing different aspects of the storybrand script is a great way to connect with your customer base.

Build empathy

Post about your customer
Don’t post and ghost
Ask questions (and respond)

Focus on Engagement not expanding reach

Claire highlights a principle similar to a common business truism. Focus on engaging your current followers rather than getting new followers.

This runs counter to many marketing team directives but it is based on common sense. If your current followers are engaged, then that helps attract more followers. And if you focus on engagement, then you are more likely to get repeat sales.

It’s like the old idea that it costs five times as much to win a new customer, as to keep an existing one.

How to expand your social media reach

create great content – It will get shared
influencer marketing – team up with people who have an existing audience
paid advertising – advertise to spread your content.

The Deposit and Withdrawal principles

When posting, you should consider if you are depositing, or withdrawing. A deposit gives value to your follower, a withdrawal asks for something from your follower.

Some companies focus only on withdraws with repeated calls to buy. By focusing on giving value, you capitalize on the principle of reciprocity as made famous by Robert Cialdiani in Influence.

When you give something, people want to give back to you.

These deposits don’t have to be huge. Value can be as simple as some entertainment, or relevant information.

You can also make use of content created by other people and not just your company.

Examples of deposit content

Valuable and informative articles, podcasts, videos
Quotations
Statistics
Impactful images
Selfies that don’t suck

Example of withdraw content

Articles, podcasts and blog posts with calls to action
Impactful images
Selfies
videos
Statistics
testimonials

Planning a social media calendar

Planning a social media calendar requires an understanding of your company, your customer, where they are, and what is a realistic output.

A B2B business who sells high tech equipment will have a very different social media calendar to that of a boutique consumer lifestyle brand.

With a Storybrand brand script, you can identify where your customers can be found and prioritize which social networks you should focus on. It’s good to still experiment with other social networks as there can be exceptions.

Next, consider your company’s capacity and how much content you can realistically publish. This may also depend on your content marketing output.

This should give you a good idea about what amount of content you can start publishing. Next, you need to select a mix of deposits and withdraw type content that you can schedule into your plans.

The SHARE model

Story
How
Audience
Reach
Excellence

Story

Most social media marketing is brand a not direct marketing, so your goal is to take a prospective customer deeper into your story.

Use the Storybrand brand script and make sure your content is related to different aspects of the customer journey.

You don’t have to tell the whole story in one post.

How

How is all about the practical side of marketing.

Picking the right social media platforms to focus on
finding the right times to post
using a content scheduling tool

Audience

Social media (and all) marketing is all about your audience and not about you. You need to put them at the center of your messages.

Make sure your posts focus on your followers, not you. Cultivate empathy with your followers with effective communication and revealing the people behind the company.

Reach

Reach is all about expanding your network and connections.

The best way to achieve this is by focusing on the followers you already have instead of neglecting them.

Create great content, connect with influencers and use paid media to expand your reach further. Don’t rush things but look for a snow ball effect.

Excellence

Excellence is about achieving social media greatness.

Rather than sticking to ‘best practices” you should experiment and discover what works best for you.

Look for opportunities to connect with trending events (in principled ways),
be honest when you make a mistake,
look to delight your followers, especially grumpy customers.

Social network specific advice

Facebook

Facebook is the largest social network. In recent years, it has become more focused on the people you know, rather than the companies you follow. The limits of the newsfeed mean that you can’t just make a page anymore, instead you need a group.

Facebook (currently) likes groups and so shows more content that is posted in groups. This means you can share as a profile, then share it to your brand’s group. You can also use a group for discussion and connecting with your audience.

Paid ads also perform extremely well on Facebook. This is partially due to how limited organic reach is for profiles, but also their ability to appear native to the platform.

A final idea to explore is live video streams. Facebook likes to highlight these, and they have higher retention rates than pre-recorded content.

Instagram

Instagram is one of the most engaged social networks and users spend a lot of time in the app. Due to the limited ability to links off Instagram, it has a greater focus on storytelling and pictures.

Instagram has strong connections with B2C companies as it’s a great way to connect with your customers and show your products. But it also works for B2B as a way to help build connections and share your story.

Good use of hashtags and mentions helps grow your visibility. You can also use influencers to expand your reach.

High-quality and professional images do well, but so do lower-quality more authentic images from a smart phone. Don’t be afraid to break things up and try variations.

Twitter

Twitter is all about the latest and breaking news. You need to share the latest insights and new ideas.

One simple idea Claire shares is to find reports and new stories that are connected to your brand script. This could be the customer, their struggles, the cost of failure, the joys of success. Then share them with a short reference to your mission.

LinkedIn is a highly engaged professional network that focuses on both personal networking and text rather than images.

So instead of focusing on sending messages from your company profile, it’s better to get your employees blogging and writing long-form articles on LinkedIn. Other types of content can work well too.

The CEO of Pinterest described it as a place for your dreams and ambitions rather than where you are now. Creating boards that are about how a person or company could be in the future encourages them to dream and rePin.

YouTube

YouTube works really well alongside other networks. You can use it to share the story behind a campaign. You can then post it on other relevant networks.

The main point of social media success for every brand?

There’s a lot of advice in social media success for every brand; some practical, some strategical. Some of the most common mistakes are making your social media all about yourself and how great you are, and not the customer. This simple shift will probably bring the greatest benefit to your company.

How to Start Sketchnoting today

December 14, 2020 by Chris Wilson Leave a Comment

I struggled to start sketchnoting. Although I caught the idea immediately but putting pen to paper felt overwhelming. I don’t want you to suffer the same issue, so here is a simple guide to start sketchnoting today.

This could be a useful classroom activity to introduce sketchnotes to students.

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Table of Contents

What are sketchnotes?

Sketchnotes are a form of visual notetaking that includes both text and graphical elements such as icons, banners, dividers, multiple colors and layouts. They don’t tend to follow strict left to right, top to bottom organization but instead are more flexible in their layouts.

You can learn more about what Sketchnotes are and why you should use them in this post.

Why should I bother with Sketchnotes?

Visual note-taking, such as sketchnotes, helps engage with conference talks, lectures and lessons and remember more information. It’s no wonder students, teachers and average Joes have started using this note taking method in the classroom, at conferences and at home for study and personal reflection.

Read this post if you’d like to know more about the benefits of sketchnoting.

What should I start sketchnoting?

You can sketchnote anything you want. It can be a conference talk that is occurring live, a lesson in your classroom or notes on a book you’ve just read.

It can be information someone else has given you, or ideas and plans you are thinking through.

For your first sketchnote, I suggest you make a sketchnote selfie including information about yourself. This is a topic that you are bound to be familiar with and will have a unique element of yourself.

I can’t draw, can I still sketchnote?

Yes! you can! There are three reasons for this.

Sketchnotes are about “Ideas not art”, that means getting the idea down is more important than an accurate impression. As long as you can understand your notes, that’s okay. That means simple pictures are usually better than art.
Sketchnotes are personal and reflect the sketchnoter. Some sketchnoters use more text, others use more images. You can choose to use more text in your notes if you like.
Your drawing will improve as you practice more. The only way to improve is to start! So let’s start today.

For more on how to sketchnote even if you can’t draw, join this free short course.

7 steps to create your first sketchnote and start sketchnoting.

Now that we know the basics of Sketchnoting, it’s time to create your first sketchnote. These steps will help guide you through the process of creating your own sketchnote.

This approach is not the approach I would take for a sketchnoting a live event such as a class. It does, however, provide a useful intro to sketchnoting which will help you develop core skills. You can then apply skills these when making a live sketchnote.

You don’t have to follow my recommendations at each point. Their purpose is to give you an easy to implement idea for your first sketchnote.

1. Brainstorm your topic

Before you start creating your sketchnote selfie, think about the things you want to include. Write a plain list of items you can include such as your:

name
age
location
job or studies
hobbies and interests
favorite… (book, food, etc.)

At some point you’ll feel that you’ve got every idea down that you could include, don’t stop. Wait a few minutes longer and see if you can get a few extra ideas. Those extra ideas are often the most interesting items.

to start sketchnoting, think about what ideas you should include

2: Group your ideas together

Now, you have some ideas written down, it’s time to group them together. By identifying information that work well together, you’ll help yourself create an easy-to-understand layout.

You could write your list out again, this time with your information gathered into groups. Alternatively, you could add marks to the side to signify what belongs together.

3. Plan your Sketchnote layout

A good sketchnote layout can help arrange information clearly and tell a good story. Some sketchnoters seem to have a magical ability to group information together.

Most of us aren’t like that.

By grouping your information together, you may already have an idea about how you could layout your sketchnote. Alternatively, you could look at the most common sketchnote layouts and find one to use.

A selection of different sketchnote layouts

While you could choose any sketchnote layout, I’d recommend the radial layout for your first sketchnote.

It’s probably more familiar to you as it’s similar to mind maps. This style also works well for a selfie as all the information is about one central item — you.

4: Identify some icons you can include

One last step before we make the sketchnote. Identify some icons that you could draw for points on your sketchnote. For example, if you like photography, you could draw a camera.

Need inspiration for what to draw? Look at the Noun project

While you could just do a Google image search, I recommend using The noun project. This site contains simple icons that represent different ideas. It is a great tool to see an example of a simple drawing that represents and idea. You can use this to get drawing ideas.

5. Start your sketchnote: Add your title

Start by adding your title and an image of you. If you are going with a radial format, place yourself in the center.

Your portrait doesn’t need to be accurate. Focus on the main details like the overall shape of your face and distinct features. If it doesn’t look accurate, never mind, this is just your first time.

6. Mentally divide up your paper

With your layout in mind, imagine some dividing lines on your paper. Think about how much information you need to include in each area and plan space accordingly. Make sure there is a gap between different sections.

If you want, you can pencil in some lines to help plan your space. I recommend using pencil at first as you may get this wrong.

If you are making a digital sketchnote using an app like procreate, you can add a layer with some guidelines.

7. Fill in your information

Now start filling in your information. Use your groupings to direct what you include where. I suggest you start with the main points, and then expanding outward to the smaller points and details.

You can add banners with text to show groupings like “Favorites” for your favorite things, or “bio” for some biographical data.

Leave space between sections so you can see what belongs where.

8. Stand back and appreciate it

You’ve done it! Your first sketchnote! I promise the next will be easier.

What’s next?

Now you’ve defeated the first sketchnote, you can continue to grow and the best way is with regular practice.

If you’d like some more guidance on the fundamentals of sketchnoting, sign up to 7 days to start sketchnoting. This free course will get you exploring the different types of sketchnotes available.

4 Ways How To Get Sketchnote Ideas Faster

March 28, 2019 by Chris Wilson Leave a Comment

One of the challenges every sketchnotes faces is getting things down on the page in time. This “curse” is actually one of the blessings of sketchnoting as it means you have to analyze and make decisions over what to include and what to cut, which is a key part of what makes sketchnotes more memorable. This does, however, cause problems when key ideas quickly follow each other. If only there was a way to get sketchnote ideas faster.

Trying to get sketchnote ideas fast can be really stressful and while you’re thinking of the best idea to use, there can be a rush of information you aren’t picking up on.

Fortunately, it is possible to get quicker at sketchnoting and here are 4 ways you can get sketchnote ideas faster.

1) Don’t, leave space for later

The first trick is to leave space for later when you have more time. This could be after the event you are sketchnoting, or at a quieter moment when the information is less relevant (or the talk less interesting).

By leaving space you can come back when your mind has processed more information and doesn’t have the stress of requiring an idea NOW.

The only issues arise when you can’t remember WHAT you left space for. To prevent this possibility, I recommend leaving a short note or…

2. Get the basics, then fill the details.

A house is a square with a triangle on top, right? Well, you can add a lot of extra details after that.

doors
windows
chimneys
gutters
flowers out front
whatever!

All these details can be added later when you have more time. In addition to helping you remember what you wanted to sketchnote there, you also have the right amount of space taken so you won’t find yourself stuck with a small image later.

3. Practice

The second technique that really helps to come up with ideas is to practice. Practicing coming up with ideas will help you in two ways. Firstly, it gets you into the mindset of coming up with ideas regularly. Your brain starts to know where to look for ideas within your head.

Secondly, you get a bank of ideas that you can call upon when you need them. It’s easier to think of something the second time and even easier the third.

[p.s. looking for some practice activities? Check out 30 days of sketchnoting]

4. Have a search engine handy

If you really can’t think of an idea, then you can use someone else’s idea. You can search on Google (I usually add “icon” at the end of my search to get simpler images) or on a site like thenounproject which specialize in simple icons. This can help you get past the idea stage. If you make digital sketchnotes with an iPad Pro, you have safari off to the side, ready for when you need it.

How do you get sketchnote ideas faster?

Have you got any other tips or techniques to help you get sketchnote ideas faster? Share them in the comments below.

What Makes a Good Sketchnote?

November 19, 2018 by Chris Wilson Leave a Comment

Do you ever look with envy at those insanely beautiful sketchnotes online? Do you wish you could make as good sketchnote as them?

If you’re like me, then you weren’t the best artist at school then you may well feel frustrated at not being able to create as beautiful sketchnotes as other people’s. But as Mike Rhode often says, Sketchnotes are about Ideas not art. With that in mind, here are 7 criteria that make for a good sketchnote.

1. Focusing on the key points

If there’s one thing that helps sketchnotes, it’s to stop attempting to get everything down, and focusing on the key points instead.

It’s build into the nature of sketchnoting as it’s impossible to write every word and draw a picture for everypart. Instead you have to analyze and make decisions over what parts are the most important.

2. Clear structure

Having good structure makes a sketchnote much easier to follow and understand. There are various structures that Mike Rhode suggests in the Sketchnote Handbook and Sketchnote Workbook inlcuding

Linear (Book like)
Radial (mindmap)
Vertical (top to bottom)
Path (a journey)
Modular (broken up sections)
Skyscraper (column like)
Popcorn (ideas here, there, everywhere)

I started by simply flowing from top to bottom of a page, but adding a couple of other structures really took my sketchnoting to the next level. This better layout and organization made the Ideas in my sketch notes easier to follow.

4. Using Color, shape and lines to help focus attention

These three elements are great for directing your, and any other reader’s, attention. You can use one at a time or all three in combination.

There can, however, be issues when they are used erratically or with little thought. If you are using multiple colors and use a color twice then it suggests that there’s a connection between those items.

5. Legible

It’s okay to use text in sketchnotes, but illegible text can make that text pointless. In the heat of a moment, it can be difficult to write clearly, but successfully delivering information is the key factor in good sketchnotes.

Focus on getting the key information, or getting enough information so you can fill in the rest later.

6. Personality

Really good sketchnotes show your personality. They have the quirks of your style and preferences. Rather than just using a generic icon to represent an idea, they use something different which still clearly represents the idea.

7. Art Afterward

You don’t have to have good art in your sketchnote, but you can add it later. A great trick is to simply leave space for more complex ideas later. Or do the rough outline and then come back and add more details later.

Art should follow though as a great painting isn’t a good sketchnote. It is great, but not as a sketchnote. A great sketchnote preserves information in a meaningful way for you on paper, and in your head.

Have I missed anything?

Is there anything else that makes a great sketchnote? Maybe you disagree with me. Leave a comment with your idea below?

Ideas Then Art

November 3, 2018 by Chris Wilson Leave a Comment

I was in a Polish language class last week and so I was obviously sketchnoting my notes for the class. However, there was a problem I came across that I doubt I’m the first person to experience. There were too many things to record in a short space of time. I didn’t have time to get my spacing right as you can see below.

Now, with a conference it’s acceptable to miss some information and even with a class, you could choose to prioritize which words you focus on, remember and learn. However, I don’t get many classes and I wanted to make sure I got every word down, after all, this is one of my best chances to acquire new words during the week.

I remember Mike Rhode’s old mantra, Ideas not art and went for simple images that would capture those ideas for me to review later. But after the class, I realized I could polish up my Polish notes (pun intended) and so I would get my “art” after all. This made me think that it was really a case of Ideas, then art.

Ideas, then art

This isn’t really that much of a new idea. In the first book on Sketchnoting — the Sketchnote Handbook — Mike Rhode describes a “two-step” sketchnote approach, where you draft a version, perhaps in pencil first, and then you draw over that in pen or on a new piece of paper. This is basically the same idea with a minor adaption for the context of rapid information which is all important.

Of course, in this context, there was the added benefit that I got to revisit and revise my old notes and so I was better prepared for my class. So here’s my simple two-step approach

Step one: Get the idea.

The most important part here is to get something down which you can reference later. It doesn’t have to be a perfect idea but something identifiable.

Misspelling a word isn’t a problem,
Not having a picture isn’t a problem.
not having items organized neatly isn’t a problem

What is a problem, is not understanding what you wrote down.

Get the ideas down.

Step two: Organise and refine your art

The first draft can now be your reference point. You’re free to change the order, the picture you used, the spelling everything. For language vocabulary sketchnote I do have a couple of suggestions for organizing and laying out your sketch notes.

place synonyms or antonyms near each other and show the relationship
Don’t just write a word, write down an example sentence or describe the picture you sketched.

Not always the best approach

Usually, I don’t think a two-step solution is always the best approach to sketchnoting. In fact, the vast majority of the time I adopt a one-step, done and gone approach so that I have to focus more on what a person is saying and identifying the key points. However, with a lesson or other situation where you have a lot of information coming at once which you need to get it all, it isn’t a terrible idea to make temporary notes to refine later.

You also have revision built in, another bonus.

Sketchnote Weekly Food Plan

April 16, 2018 by Chris Wilson Leave a Comment

Every weekend my wife and I sit down and plan the food for the upcoming week. It’s an important but also fun little ritual that is more beneficial than just working out what we need to buy, it’s also about making sure we know what we both have going on during the week. We make a sketchnote weekly food plan.

The benefits of a sketchnoted weekly food plan

When we sit down to make a meal plan we have to consider a few different things. Are we going to be busy in the evening, are we coming back later from work, can one of us prepare something in the morning or do we need to prepare something the day before? To do this, we have to go over our calendars and our arrangements and desires for the week. It can have a big impact because we don’t want to eat comfort food late at night, and at the same time, we want to make sure we get enough food everyday.

The whole process doesn’t take too long, but afterwards we feel much better about the week coming up, know any appointments we have as well as knowing what we need to buy from the shops.

Our Sketchnote weekly food plan template

We started just writing things down, but recently I’ve tried to make a sketchnote a day, and I realised that our weekly food plan would work well for one. So I started to sketch it as a sketchnote. My template is really simple and I typically use Paper by 53 for it. A bar across the top for the days of the week (I usually try out some different lettering styles for each day) and then three sections, breakfast lunch and dinner. If we are in a rush, I just write the names of the food and use colours to show when we have left overs. If I have more time, then I’ll sketch the meal out.

Here’s an example.

Weekly food plan example

Give it a go.