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Social Media Success for Every Brand Book Summary

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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

    Sketchnote summary of social media success for every brand

    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

    1. create great content – It will get shared
    2. influencer marketing – team up with people who have an existing audience
    3. 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

    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.

    Pinterest

    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

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    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.

    Want a video guide?

    Sign up for the free course and follow a video walkthrough.

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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.

      1. 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.
      2. 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.
      3. 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.