The document outlines 5 rules for real-time engagement on social media and online platforms. The rules are: follow the fundamentals of storytelling; use technology as an enabler for sharing stories and adding perspectives; create valuable, differentiating content that acts as currency; build an immersive community experience through quality content; and continuously analyze, refresh and repeat the cycle of creating new content. The goal is to deliver the right content to the right audience at the right time through the right channels.
Hi, I’m Michael De Monte, co-founder and CEO of ScribbleLive. ScribbleLive is the leading provider of real-time engagement management. We’ve been around for five years, enabling corporations, media companies and individual users to create, publish and syndicate content in real time. As leaders in the digital media industry, we employ the top tech engineers, developers and media personnel to create a best-in-class experience for our clients. That said, some of you may be asking – what is real-time engagement management, and how do you achieve it in today’s always-on, social era? Well, communications is constantly changing and forcing brands to adapt, but we can distill things down to a couple of simple rules we like to call the five rules of real-time engagement to help brands control their message and become their own media companies.
Despite the speed of social and real-time engagement, the core elements of building a narrative have not changed
Explanation: The Story Arc (Story Arc slide): every narrative begins with an initial activity and flurry of information followed by a valley where insight and perspective is generated. It is in the valleys that we see audience engagement in the form of social commenting, insights and opinions—and a collaborative narrative begins to emerge.Brands who devote time and effort to the iteration of content will create the most compelling stories; authoritative, relevant, engaging content will be the differentiating factor between weak and strong brand narratives You need to understand the personas of your audience and how they relate to your brand narrative so you can deliver the right content, to the right audience, in the right place, at the right time
GE – Example Audience engagement is dependent on the brand. Before developing a brand narrative, you need to understand your audience’s persona – Who do you need to reach, and why? Where is real-time engagement most important? How can you educate them? GE’s comms team is a great example of a business that makes room for creative execution around the ideation of content. They understand the inquisitive, intelligent persona of their audience which allows them to create unique, different content, and use it to tell a story about their brands.
Rule #2Technology is an Enabler Audiences consume content at the speed of the social. To meet the demands of an increasingly impatience audience, brands need to be always-on
Technology has armed everyone a platform for storytelling, and everyone can add value to the perspective of your narrative In short, technology allows audiences/customers to engage with and participate in your brand narrative
Pope Benedict vs. Pope Francis – Example Over the past decade, technology has changed the way audiences consume and interact with media. For example, in the picture on top, eight years ago when Pope Benedict was elected only one audience member had a mobile device in hand. However, during the election of Pope Francis in 2013 (the bottom image) the entire audience was filled with glowing mobile screens. The reality today is that audiences are using their devices to publish and work with content, and contribute and collaborate in the building of narratives.
Rule #3 Content is CurrencyWith the proliferation of communication channels, variety of devices and the two-way nature of dialogue, Content now plays an increasingly important role for a brand’s message
The way consumers communicate is changing the way we go to market, and how fast we go to market. As communicators, our job is to differentiate and rise above the noise.Quality, value-adding content allows us to rise above that noise. Moreover, it is vital we understand the persona of our audience. How, where and why do they consume content? What do they find valuable, and what do they most want to engage with?Directing your content to your audience’s persona will lead you to true engagement, allowing customers to spend more time on your site further building credibility.Credible content creates the opportunity to then syndicate and monetize content (i.e. Scribble Market) Whether you’re creating, curating or syndicating content, make sure your content is interesting; make it exciting and different because this is what will engage your audience Rich content encourages audience engagement:We are strongbelievers in the power of rich content, so much that we’ve partnered with Getty Images to provide clients with the best creative and editorial imagery to curate a rich, engaging visual narrativeBy creating a single, continuous feed of information communicators can reduce digital audience fragmentation to control and moderate the experience
Rule #4Community: An Immersive Experience
Quality content producers are orchestrators. And by that, I mean they provide a platform for audiences to engage, and lead and guide audiences through a narrative as they immerse themselves into itBuild a community and immerse them in the conversation – participative audiences are more engaged and interested, and therefore more valuable to you and to spreading your story. Leverage the power of the integration of social and combine technology and content marketing tools to bring your communities together
Rule #5: Rinse, Refresh, Repeat
Analyze, recalibrate and create a continuous cycle of valuable content Once you start building one content initiative on top of the other, you’ll see your content marketing strategies come to life
Let me take you through a recent example: The Apple 5C Product Launch
We recently announced record breaking user engagement of the live coverage of the recent Apple product launch. For tech media, an Apple event is one of the biggest news days of the year. During the event, we partnered with leading tech media companies CNET and Fast Company to reach Apple’s highly engaged audience. Following the progression of the story arc, these media companies were able to create and curate content during the event and provide real-time continuous coverage, from beginning to end. As you can imagine, Apple’s audience is equipped with the newest technology and platforms to engage in social communities. Technology enabled one million concurrent tech-savvy watchers to engage in the event narrative and tune in for the product announcements over the course of two hours. The coverage was syndicated on our platform by CNET and Fast Company, yielding significant user engagement. This showcases the power of in-demand, real-time content. In fact, the average viewer stayed on the page/ScribbleLive feed for 22 minutes and the real-time coverage was picked up by nearly 20 media outlets in North and South America, Asia and Europe. At it’s peak, we saw almost 1,000,000 concurrent viewers.CNET and Fast Company partnered with us because it allowed them to cover the event in a way that appealed to their unique audience; the continuous news feed was a way for them to differentiate themselves from competitors. Users were fully engaged with the Apple event coverage – the product announcement saw a total of 120 million user engagement minutes over the two hour period. During the Apple event CNET and Fast Company took different approaches to creating and curating content to create a single, continuous news feed. They were able to control the way they told the story, analyzing and recalibrating as the narrative progressed.
So, to wrap up, By taking advantage of the 5 Rules of Real Time Engagement, a brand can become a trusted authoritative voice within its community and engage audiences with the right content, in the right place, at the right time.