Thread by @jdaykin

Time to lift the lid? Can you ‘live tweet’ reading a 6 year old playbook you co-wrote and it not be the be the most boring thing ever? How could something written about social media 6 years ago possibly even be relevant eh?! #StorytellingAtScale

From a creative perspective we could almost stop right here... the biggest challenge in churning out content is that you don’t give yourself the time to make exceptional content that you’d actually want millions of people to see... like your TV ads. #StorytellingAtScale

This doesn’t seem... controversial? But we gave it a whole page because frankly all too often it still is 🤷‍♂️ #StorytellingAtScale

An integrated campaign that brings the same campaign idea (and distinctive assets ideally) to life but in a way that makes sense on social...? Sounds pretty obvious. This was the output of the first ever UK ‘Publishing Garage’ workshop with Facebook & Elvis. #StorytellingAtScale

Ahh yes, perhaps not award winning creativity but let’s acknowledge FB isn’t always the biggest/broadest brand building canvas... practical occasion based (category entry point even?) content and simple reminders or prompts play a big role. #StorytellingAtScale

Look, this isn’t rocket science is it folks... but yes, apply good brand & creative best practice to your social content too. #StorytellingAtScale

Did I mention I used to work on Oreo? I think I do say it in passing occasionally... but anyway, the Daily Twist was more a triumph of consistency (in content AND reach) than it was for inspiring a one off (but fun) Tweet. #StorytellingAtScale

Honestly we came to see that even this ‘reduced’ calendar was WAY too much content and nothing was getting maximised reach or wear in (let alone wear out) but yes is more is still a good take home. #StorytellingAtScale

Remember Facebook Apps? We were fighting those back then... we won that battle much more cleanly than the ongoing war against cheap tricks in social 😂 #StorytellingAtScale

Ooh, this is a glorious slide in which we named and shamed some of our own brands for the cheap tricks they were using!

Cute animals ✅
Desperate plea for engagement ✅
Forced engagement competitions ✅

#StorytellingAtScale

[This Slide Image Is Redacted 🤐]

Ahh media thinking... imagine approaching social media platforms as serious media channels with opportunities to drive continuity, increase reach, or allow smaller brands to activate?! #StorytellingAtScale

And the media money shot... things have evolved a bit but not a lot since then. NB - we’re not talking about a few hundred £ here and there, we’re talking about how we scale social to reach 50%+ of our total target consumers on a regular basis. AKA #StorytellingAtScale

Measuring social based on... reach, resonance & reaction? Not social metrics and engagement? 🤯 did we reach enough people? Did we make them think anything different? Did we make them do anything different? #StorytellingAtScale

Long time listeners... it won’t surprise you to learn I went hard against ‘engagement’ - rebranded as ‘digital actions’ to try and find a role for, but really clear it’s not about business value in itself, MAYBE about content testing (I’m less convinced now) #StorytellingAtScale

REALLY hard against engagement... there’s a whole splendid explaining why they are nonsense numbers. We went on to remove/ban active engagement metrics from central social media performance dashboards, and to try and stop agencies using it. #StorytellingAtScale

I liked this because it spoke to global inclusion and accessibility... lots more you can do in this space now. #StorytellingAtScale

All of that to conclude that marketing on social media channels is kinda like marketing elsewhere? With some media specific upsides and unique creative opportunities? Oh right. Also organic social was more or less banned (except for customer service/replies) #StorytellingAtScale

And we’re done. There are things that have evolved, new opportunities and even some more rigour... but IMHO you could follow all this and have a pretty strong social media approach, especially if you work out how it fits in with your other channels. 🤷‍♂️ #StorytellingAtScale