CREATING EXCITEMENT FOR PUBLIC PROGRAMS THROUGH DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT

APPLIED HUMANITIES BOOTCAMP

KU HALL CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES

PRESENTER: JASON F. HARPER / @JASONFHARPER

DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN STRATEGY

PART 2

STEPS IN THE STRATEGY• Brand Vison

• Your brand and audience

• Challenge

• The story, the reason for engaging

• Content

• The fuel for conversation

• Community

• Interaction across channels

• Results

• What did it accomplish?

If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.

- David Ogilvy

CASE STUDY: ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE• Brand Vison: ALS

Research

• Challenge: Create peer-to-peer driven donations

• Content: User-generated video

• Community: Sharing and challenging over Facebook

• Result: $100M

• Why it worked?

CASE STUDY: ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE• Brand vision: ALS

Research

• Challenge: Create peer-to-peer driven donations

• Content: User-generated video

• Community: Sharing and challenging over Facebook

• Result: $100M

• Why it worked?

• They made it about you.

CASE STUDY: #EMOJISCIENCE• Brand/Vision: GE

Education

• Challenge: Educate and entertain people with science

• Content: 6-second science experiments inspired by Emoji

• Community: Vine

• Result: Accessibility, Goodwill for Brand

• Why did it work?

• Clever, catchy condensed idea

• Lets you show off your smarts

CASE STUDY: RAY BAN MOSAIC • Brand/Vision: Ray-

Ban Barcelona• Challenge: Promote

lifestyle brand at music festival

• Community: Instagram

• Result: 3,400 fans submitted photos, linking brand to target

• Why did it work?• Timely• Tangible• About you

CASE STUDY: BOOKETOLOGY• Brand/Vision: KC Library

Readers’ Services

• Challenge: Capitalize on March Madness with interactive contest

• Community: Integrated – Website, Facebook, Twitter

• Result: 1,000 fans voted, grew audience significantly

• Why did it work?

• Collaborative• Tied to shared values –

the books we love

KNOW YOUR BRAND’S VOICECharacter

• What kind of person would we be? Age, job, etc – be descriptive.

• What famous character or celeb?

Personality• How does this person

behave?• Ex. Warm, funny,

approachable• How are they regarded by

their peers?

Voice• How does this person talk? • What kind of language does

he/she use?• Ex. Academic, snarky, etc

Purpose• What does this person want

to accomplish?• What does he/she want

people to do?

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

PERSONA MESSAGE ACTION

• Who are they? (age, gender, geo, job)

• What is their problem or want?

• How can we fix their problem with content?

• Why should they care about us? (Credibility, Utility, Emotion)

• Where do they go for information and interaction? (blogs, newspaper, communities)

• What do we want them to do?

• How will we measure success?

EXAMPLE PERSONA: LONELY DAVE

• WHO are they?

• Dave the recent grad• 24 years old, history nerd

• WHAT is his problem / desire?

• Wants to meet people like him• HOW can we fix his problem with good

content?

• Hook him with stories• Show social opportunities (photos)

• WHY should they care about us?

• We have something for him• Liveliness, energy, people

• WHERE does he go for information?

• Twitter, Google, Amazon, niche blogs, Reddit• WHAT do we want him to do?

• Come to our program• Sign up for our email list

• HOW will we measure success?

• Attendance, signup, repeat visit, social follow, purchase membership

RESEARCH TIPS• Surveys

• Include in newsletter• Incentivize on social

• Interviews / Focus Groups

• Internal: own employees• External: loyal customers

• Online Research

• Google Analytics your website• Facebook Analytics, Ad Planner• Twitter stalk the big names• Twitter search relevant keywords• Online communities (elusive)• In-person groups, clubs (Meetup.com)

FRAMING THE CHALLENGE• Must be authentic to brand

• Relevant to audience

• Understandable in 70 characters

• Encourage and enable participation

• Built-in viral loop

• Have a purpose

CONTENT: BEST PRACTICES• Be authentic

• To your mission• Your audience

• Tell stories, don’t market

• Use lots of visuals

• Professional photos• Graphic design• Asset inventory

• Gear for participation

• It’s about them, not you• Ask questions• Include a link• Call to action

• Optimize content for platform

• Understand etiquette• Don’t tweet on Facebook• Handcraft all posts/no automation

EVALUATE CHANNELS/ASSETS• Asset Audit: Current / Desired

Channel Subscribers Frequency of Updates

Engagement Owner Responsiveness

Website #/Monthly Visitors

Weekly Clicks on stories

Who can post?

Blog comments

Email Subscribers Weekly Clicks on links Who builds/edits/sends

Replies to questions

Facebook Page

Likes 2-3/week Likes, Comments, Shares

Who manages/acts as brand?

Comments, Replies to DMs

Twitter Followers Daily Replies, Retweets Favorites

“ Brand replies

BUILD AN EDITORIAL CALENDARDate Channel Category Topic Author

##/## Blog News Article about grant received to expand collection

JH

##/## Tumblr Historic Archival photo of opening of Hannibal Bridge

MK

##/## Facebook Event Photo album from author event

HF

##/## Instagram Exhibit Photo from Aviation Exhibit

JL

SET GOALS & METRICS

• Impressions• Brand

recognition

Raise Awareness

• Likes/follows• Email signups• Website visits

Build Community

• Interactions/comments• Email opens• Event attendance

Drive Engageme

nt

• Donations• Memberships• Sales

ActionRule of Thumb: Set #s based on IRL data

REVIEW: STRATEGIC QUESTIONS

BRAND & AUDIENCE

CHALLENGE CONTENT COMMUNITY RESULTS

Who are we? Who is our audience? What do we want them to do?

What’s the story? Why should they engage? How does it help/inspire them?

What is the medium of conversation? How can we make it compelling through visuals, storytelling, etc? Who will create it?

What channels will we use? How can we leverage viral features to drive participation?

How will we measure success?

FINALLY: FEEL THE LOVE

THANKS, GUYS!

QUESTIONS?

JASONFHARPER@GMAIL.COM

TWITTER: @JASONFHARPER

Materials available at: bit.ly/HCBCsocial