From this presentation, attendees will take away: 1) The concept of story and the importance of effective digital storytelling not only for exposure, but for conversion 2) Why good storytelling is crucial in differentiating your offering, educating consumers and convincing them to act and purchase. 3) Specific social media storytelling strategies, platforms, and tools that enable exposure, engagement and brand advocacy. 4) How to leverage the power of engagement with bloggers as storytelling agents -- to help tell and share your story.

1. Engaging Content, Engaging Customers:
Storytelling, Social Media and Blogger
Cooperation
Daniel Noll & Audrey Scott, Uncornered Market
UncorneredMarket.com
facebook.com/UncorneredMarket
@umarket

3. Roadmap
! Storytelling: philosophy and
approach
! Social Media storytelling
techniques and tools
! Bloggers as storytelling agents
! Finding the right blogger
! Effective blogger cooperation
Tweetable? @uMarket #ITBBerlin #etravel

4. What Business Are We In?
! Travel business?
! Experience business?
! Inspiration business?
! Differentiation business?

5. Backdrop: Too many messages
Too
many
messages…!
! Prospect, 6000 messages. Japan photo
Your
average
prospec-ve
customer
is
enduring
more
than
6000
adver-sing
messages
every
day

6. Storytelling: Why?
! Cuts through noise  helps customers retain message
! Impressions  Depth of impression
! Commodity  Differentiator
! Goals:
! Plant the seed
! Change minds/Shift perception
! Story  Trust  Take action

7. Storytelling: What it is NOT
! A bullet list of sites, activites,
amenities, statistics
! A mass distribution press
release
! Fiction, making things up

8. What is Story?
! Story:
! An account, a telling of an
experience
! Does not need to be long form
! If experience is the new currency in
travel….
! then storytelling is your bank

9. Storytelling Components & Techniques
! Show, don’t tell
! Involve characters
! Crux and conflict
! Emotional connection
! Back story
! Multi-dimensional, taps multiple senses
! Communicates: what, but how and why

10. How do you use social media?
! Distribute information
! Answer questions/customer service
! Curate and share relevant articles
! Engage with the community
! All of the above?

11. Why use social media?

12. Social Media:
Changing Minds

13. Social Media Basics
! 83% trust family & friends for advice, 33% trust social
networks
! It’s social. Personal. Human to human.
! Two-way communication.
! Not just about numbers, but about engagement.

14. Ask Customers to Tell Your Story
! Why: People trust people
! Make it easy.
! Make it fun.
! Make it interactive.
! Make customers part of
your story.

15. Social Media Toolbox
! Do not link your Twitter & Facebook feeds!!
! Managing Twitter feeds: Tweetdeck / Hootsuite
! Following keywords/hashtags: Hashtracking.com or
Tweetreach.com
! Set up Twitter searches for your company & website

16. Leveraging Social Media Content

17. Storytelling Agents
! You can tell your own story…
! Or, you can enlist the help of agents
! Customers
! Traditional print
! Travel bloggers

18. Bloggers: Who, What, Why
! Storytellers
! Content creators
! Social media mavens
! Marketers
! Advocates
! Business people

19. Travel Lifecycle
Where do bloggers fit?

20. Why Are Bloggers Effective?
! Personal voice and tone
! Real experiences
“People don’t trust entities.
! Independent
People trust people.”
- Tim Ferriss, author of
! High trust
The 4-Hour Workweek
! Exposure: Immediate & Long Term
! Multi-platform, versatile
! Authority

22. Your Goals, Finding the Right Blogger
What are you are looking for to promote
your brand/product/service?
! Target audience/demographics
! Travel style
! Content style and tone
! Niche

23. Qualitative Factors
! Quality of content
! Engagement quality
! Trust of audience
! Other media outlets
! Professional footprint

24. A Look at Numbers: Where
to Find Them
! Unique Visitors
! Pageviews & time on page
! Demographics (country, gender,
age)
! RSS/newsletter
! Twitter/Facebook community

25. “Not everything that can be
counted counts, and not everything
that counts can be counted.”
- Albert Einstein

26. A Dose of Skepticism
! A pageview does not necessarily
equal an impression. Take a look at
amount of time spent on site.
! Beware of echo chambers. Are you
really reaching your target
audience?

27. Professional Travel Bloggers Association
http://travelbloggersassociation.com

28. TBEX Connect (Coming Soon)
http://tbexconnect.com

29. iambassador
http://iambassador.net

30. Face to Face

31. Working with Bloggers: Pre-Trip
! Itinerary and input
! Dimensions and experiences
! Plan early: excitement & audience involvement
! Set expectations of both parties

32. Working with Bloggers: During
! Tools: Internet, mobile data plan
! Give time/flexibility
! Two-way feedback/communication
! Co-promotion
! Have fun!

33. Co-Promotion of Content: Best Practices

34. Short-term / Immediate Benefits
! Digital storytelling
! Immediate exposure via social media
! Real-time interaction

35. Working with Bloggers: After
! Continue communications, develop relationship
! Offer information or help, if needed for stories
! Ask for report of activities and metrics
! Invite blogger to events – real and virtual
! Let blogger know of new campaigns that blogger can
participate in (e.g., photo competition, giveaways)

36. Long Term Benefits of Working with
Travel Bloggers
! Content: long life, SEO
! Varied: photo essays, videos, panoramas
! Other outlet coverage (articles, interviews)
! Destination ambassadors, evangelists
! Relationship!

37. Case Study: Additional Exposure

38. Measuring Results: Metrics
! Blog analytics
! Engagement
! Reach of Tweets
! Promo codes
! Click-throughs

39. NO BLUEPRINT FOR
BLOGGER COOPERATION
EXPERIMENT!

40. Upshot & Take-aways
! Story is a differentiator, go beyond the lists
! Build depth of impression
! Use social media as a storytelling platform
! Partner with bloggers as storytelling agents
! Select bloggers based on qualitative, not just quantitative data
! Build content with multiple lives
! This is a human exercise
! Have fun!

41. Thank You!
Let’s continue the conversation. Connect with us on:
! UncorneredMarket.com
! Twitter: @UMarket
! Facebook: /UncorneredMarket