Right in the Feels (or how to create content that gets shared) - Turing Festival 2016

@hannah_bo_banna
right in the feels
right
in the
feels
(or, how to create content that gets shared)
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
my team’s job is to make things
that journalists want to write about
& people want to share

@hannah_bo_banna
sometimes we nail it

@hannah_bo_banna
(nbed example & results)

@hannah_bo_banna
but it doesn’t always go down like that…

@hannah_bo_banna
31 facebook ‘likes’

@hannah_bo_banna
it’s incredibly difficult

@hannah_bo_banna
so why do we do it?

@hannah_bo_banna
from an SEO perspective we do it
to gain links, coverage
& social shares

@hannah_bo_banna
links from highly authoritative sites,
increase the authority of our clients’ sites

@hannah_bo_banna
over time this translates into
stronger organic rankings

@hannah_bo_banna
stronger organic rankings = more money
(for the vast majority of sites)

@hannah_bo_banna
but it’s not just about organic rankings

@hannah_bo_banna
coverage on high authority sites
builds trust & credibility,
and, over time
increases brand recognition

@hannah_bo_banna
social sharing of the content we create
offers similar benefits

@hannah_bo_banna
but it offers even more than that

@hannah_bo_banna
ultimately,
I do what I do
to help build meaningful brands

@hannah_bo_banna
we have a tendency to use
‘company’ & ‘brand’ interchangeably

@hannah_bo_banna
but they aren’t the same thing at all

@hannah_bo_banna
what does ‘brand’ actually mean?

@hannah_bo_banna
brand
to impress firmly; fix ineradicably; place indelibly

@hannah_bo_banna
a brand is not a brand
unless it leave a lasting impression

@hannah_bo_banna
& it needs to be a favourable impression

@hannah_bo_banna
I believe that companies need to build brands
that mean something to people

@hannah_bo_banna
content is a great place to play from that
perspective

@hannah_bo_banna
if you create content people love,
then by extension,
you’re creating a brand people love

@hannah_bo_banna
I am unapologetically passionate about this

@hannah_bo_banna
I want to do f*cking great work
good isn’t good enough
& ok is never ok

@hannah_bo_banna
but unhappily,
my work isn’t
always
f*cking great

@hannah_bo_banna
it appears I’m not alone,
I get a lot of emails like this:

@hannah_bo_banna
Hey Hannah!
We made this thinger, and we all think it’s great!
We’ve gone to 200 journalists, but no one’s picked it
up, and we’ve seen no social shares either.
Any idea where we’re going wrong?

@hannah_bo_banna
this next slide may sound mean
(but it’s meant with love)

@hannah_bo_banna
when people tell me their
piece isn’t working,
& I take a look,
I typically feel one (or more)
of these things
this is shallow
if I shared this it would say
nothing good about me
this is so ugly I think my eyes
might bleed
I don’t think this shows what
you’re claiming it shows
this is patronising
there’s nothing I can identify
with here
there’s nothing new or
different here
I’m confused – I don’t get it
this isn’t something I care about
this isn’t something I’ve ever
wondered
you’ve promised me something
but haven’t delivered
cool, but so what?

@hannah_bo_banna
for the sake of clarity,
I feel the same things when I look back on
some of my own pieces

@hannah_bo_banna
my work isn’t
always
f*cking great

@hannah_bo_banna
but if we want to get better at this
(and I do, desperately)

@hannah_bo_banna
then we really need to look at this stuff

@hannah_bo_banna
who in here has failed like me?

@hannah_bo_banna
who else wants to get better?

@hannah_bo_banna
ok, let’s start with the basics

@hannah_bo_banna
it can be useful to think about creative pieces in terms of 3 core components:
the content, the execution
& the hook

@hannah_bo_banna
here the content is data from the Forbes billionaires list

@hannah_bo_banna
here the content is a collection of images from the 1900s

@hannah_bo_banna
the execution is how we display the content

@hannah_bo_banna
here the execution is a series of graphs

@hannah_bo_banna
here we’ve overlaid the photos from the 1900s
on to google street view

@hannah_bo_banna
hook
something which captivates

@hannah_bo_banna
hooks are tricksy

@hannah_bo_banna
they aren’t immediately apparent

@hannah_bo_banna
which when you think about it,
is sort of the point

@hannah_bo_banna
if the fish could see the hook,
it wouldn’t bite

@hannah_bo_banna
often the hook isn’t the piece itself,
it’s what lies beneath

@hannah_bo_banna
it can be helpful to think of this in terms of
the explicit vs the implicit

@hannah_bo_banna
explicit = what the piece is or says

@hannah_bo_banna
implicit = why the piece resonates

@hannah_bo_banna
implicit = why the piece resonates
this is the hook!

@hannah_bo_banna
this is hard to explain in the abstract...

@hannah_bo_banna
explicitly, the piece depicts
two children playing with a
no ball games sign

@hannah_bo_banna
but what does the piece really communicate?

@hannah_bo_banna
implicitly, the piece depicts
how children are impacted by the urban
environments we’re creating

@hannah_bo_banna
or perhaps…

@hannah_bo_banna
implicitly, it’s a celebration of children’s
healthy disregard for authority
& obsessive regulation

@hannah_bo_banna
you might regard it as a call to arms…

@hannah_bo_banna
right in the feels

@hannah_bo_banna
feels
an intense emotional response, such as sadness, excitement or awe

@hannah_bo_banna
right in the feels
an indication that something has deeply affected you

@hannah_bo_banna
strong hooks provoke intense
emotional responses
(they get you right in the feels)

@hannah_bo_banna
ok, let’s shoot back to the previous examples

@hannah_bo_banna
explicit = fun facts & stats about billionaires

@hannah_bo_banna
implicit = there’s still time for me to make it

@hannah_bo_banna
explicit = old meets new

@hannah_bo_banna
implicit = the London we’re in danger of losing

@hannah_bo_banna
the three components
(content, execution & hook)
are not discrete units,
they work together

@hannah_bo_banna
in an ideal world, all 3 components
should be strong

@hannah_bo_banna
but interestingly,
a strong hook can make for a successful piece,
even if other components are weak

@hannah_bo_banna
(this is not a piece I created)

@hannah_bo_banna
this gained coverage on over 500 sites

@hannah_bo_banna
beer isn’t *quite* the reason,
here’s what I think is going on

@hannah_bo_banna
explicit = the beers people drink around the world

@hannah_bo_banna
implicit = how this maps to our personal preferences & world view

@hannah_bo_banna
when I first saw this piece…

@hannah_bo_banna
America - land of the free, & the home of the Bud Light drinker

@hannah_bo_banna
stuff like this
makes me suspect that
the hook is the most important component

@hannah_bo_banna
my most successful work
evoked intense emotional responses

@hannah_bo_banna
the work which failed
did not

@hannah_bo_banna
remember this?

@hannah_bo_banna
these issues are tough to deconstruct
because we don’t see creative pieces as component parts,
we see the whole

@hannah_bo_banna
however, I think that each issue can be tied back to problems with:
the content, the execution, the hook,
or a combination of the three

@hannah_bo_banna
issues with content (?)
this is shallow
might bleed
this is patronising
with here
different here
wondered
cool, but so what?

@hannah_bo_banna
issues with execution (?)
this is shallow
might bleed
this is patronising
with here
different here
wondered
cool, but so what?

@hannah_bo_banna
issues with the hook (?)
this is shallow
might bleed
this is patronising
with here
different here
wondered
cool, but so what?

@hannah_bo_banna
you’ll notice I keep coming back to
issues with the hook

@hannah_bo_banna
the hook = what the piece suggests or evokes

@hannah_bo_banna
the hook = why a piece resonates

@hannah_bo_banna
if you create something which doesn’t resonate,
people won’t feel anything

@hannah_bo_banna
when we don’t feel anything,
we don’t share, comment, or do anything,
we simply move on

@hannah_bo_banna
so I believe that finding a compelling hook
is paramount

@hannah_bo_banna
duh
that’s obvious

@hannah_bo_banna
no one sets out to create content
without a compelling hook

@hannah_bo_banna
so, where are we
going wrong?

@hannah_bo_banna
I don’t claim to have all the answers,
but I have identified what I think are 3 of our biggest problems

@hannah_bo_banna
problem one:
we rarely take the time to truly understand
our audience

@hannah_bo_banna
I’d like to tell you a story

@hannah_bo_bannamy friend @mattbeswick started out making apps on facebook

@hannah_bo_banna
‘snowball throw’ was the most
popular app he made
(this was c. 2008)

@hannah_bo_banna
the app let you throw a virtual snowball
at a friend on facebook

@hannah_bo_banna
within a week of launch
over 800,000 people
had thrown snowballs

@hannah_bo_banna
I asked Matt why
he thought the app was so popular

@hannah_bo_banna
“ummm, people like doing dumb sh*t on the internet?”

@hannah_bo_banna
throwing virtual snowballs
does sound pretty dumb

@hannah_bo_banna
but if that’s the case
why did 800,000 people throw them?

@hannah_bo_banna
*why*
do people do
(what essentially looks like)
dumb sh*t on the internet?

@hannah_bo_banna
what does throwing a virtual snowball mean?

@hannah_bo_banna
it is wickedly ambiguous…

@hannah_bo_banna
it could mean…
hi

@hannah_bo_banna
it could mean…
I’m thinking about you

@hannah_bo_banna
it could mean…
I’m thinking about sleeping with you

@hannah_bo_banna
throwing a virtual snowball at your Dad
means something different to
throwing a virtual snowball at that person you
met in a bar

@hannah_bo_banna
but no one can call you on it

@hannah_bo_banna
the way we use facebook
feeds into this

@hannah_bo_banna
in some contexts we favour transparency,
in others we favour ambiguity

@hannah_bo_banna
most of the things we do on facebook are
(to some extent) public

@hannah_bo_banna
but you don’t always want your intentions
to be that transparent

@hannah_bo_banna
which makes virtual snowballs a
pretty useful way to communicate

@hannah_bo_banna
it’s likely that people were throwing
virtual snowballs to:
flirt
or
reconnect (without actually reconnecting)
or
just say hi
(the list here could go on & on)

@hannah_bo_banna
plus, as throwing a virtual snowball back
is low-effort,
the potential for virality is high

@hannah_bo_banna
now all this might sound like
“people doing dumb sh*t on the internet”

@hannah_bo_banna
but I suspect we’re getting closer to the truth

@hannah_bo_banna
there’s an important lesson here

@hannah_bo_banna
“people like doing dumb sh*t on the internet”
shows an alarmingly shallow & dismissive
understanding of people’s motivations

@hannah_bo_banna
this sort of ‘thinking’ can cause you
big problems

@hannah_bo_banna
if you fail to understand
your audience,
you are in danger of creating
something that leaves them
feeling one of these things
this is shallow
might bleed
this is patronising
with here
different here
wondered
cool, but so what?

@hannah_bo_banna
if you fail to understand
the people you’re trying to engage with
you’re likely to fail to elicit the emotional
response you desire from them

@hannah_bo_banna
no emotional response = no action

@hannah_bo_banna
ok, let’s move on to problem two

@hannah_bo_banna
problem two:
we never quite got around to finding the hook

@hannah_bo_banna
sometimes you think you have a hook,
but what you actually have is a red herring

@hannah_bo_banna
red herring
something which is misleading or distracting

@hannah_bo_banna
red herrings might sound vaguely plausible,
but don’t bear scrutiny

@hannah_bo_banna
we’ve already encountered
a couple of red herrings today…

@hannah_bo_banna
here are a couple more red herrings
for your viewing pleasure

@hannah_bo_banna
“games get links,
people love games,
people love challenging their friends,
social proof,
blah-blah virality… something”

@hannah_bo_banna
a game is a format, not a hook

@hannah_bo_banna
if making a game = guaranteed success
then no game would ever fail

@hannah_bo_banna
games fail all the time
(as do quizzes & other similar formats)

@hannah_bo_banna
here’s another…

@hannah_bo_banna
people love music,
they’ll always share this stuff!

@hannah_bo_banna
music is a topic, not a hook

@hannah_bo_banna
if making a piece about music
= guaranteed success
then no piece about music would ever fail

@hannah_bo_banna
again, pieces about music fail all the time
(as do pieces about other popular topics)

@hannah_bo_banna
ok, let’s move on to problem three

@hannah_bo_banna
problem three:
we lose sight of the hook

@hannah_bo_banna
does any of this sound familiar?

@hannah_bo_banna
we spend days coming up with ideas

@hannah_bo_banna
the hook is front of mind

@hannah_bo_banna
we pitch the ideas

@hannah_bo_banna
then we wait some more

@hannah_bo_banna
we’ve half-forgotten what we pitched

@hannah_bo_banna
we finally hear back
the boss kinda likes this one idea,
but wants it tweaked a little

@hannah_bo_banna
we quickly agree to the tweak because
we want to get going
(we don’t fully consider how this might impact the hook)

@hannah_bo_banna
we get an idea signed off

@hannah_bo_banna
we rush headlong into production

@hannah_bo_banna
we spend 5 days pulling together the content

@hannah_bo_banna
the hook’s kinda there… kinda
(everything will probably be fine, right?)

@hannah_bo_banna
then 5 days on design

@hannah_bo_banna
ooh it’s looking lovely!

@hannah_bo_banna
then 10 days on build & QA

@hannah_bo_banna
shiny things that move
& do stuff!

@hannah_bo_banna
we get the thinger signed off
& we’re ready to start promoting it

@hannah_bo_banna
wait, what was the hook again?
(someone has to ferret out the pitch because no one can remember what it was)

@hannah_bo_banna
because hooks aren’t immediately apparent,
they are very easy to lose sight of

@hannah_bo_banna
you may get away with it

@hannah_bo_banna
but it’s more likely that you’ll
end up back here again:

@hannah_bo_banna
fortunately there is stuff we can do
to combat all these problems

@hannah_bo_banna
one
take the time
to understand your audience

@hannah_bo_banna
stalk your audience

@hannah_bo_banna
what are they interested in?

@hannah_bo_banna
what are they already sharing?

@hannah_bo_banna
who influences them?

@hannah_bo_banna
talk to your target audience
(or people who could be your target audience)

@hannah_bo_banna
got an idea?
sound people out

@hannah_bo_banna
you have two ears & one mouth
(talk less, listen more)

@hannah_bo_banna
but be careful what you ask

@hannah_bo_banna
we didn’t ask:
“should we do a grammar quiz?”

@hannah_bo_banna
we asked:
“what are your pet grammar peeves?”

@hannah_bo_banna
it was the longest email thread in
the company’s history

@hannah_bo_banna
with a reaction like that,
we figured we might be on to something…

@hannah_bo_banna
two
*really* think about the hook

@hannah_bo_banna
beware of red herrings

@hannah_bo_banna
if your hook sounds like this:

@hannah_bo_banna
people love [format]

@hannah_bo_banna
people love [topic]

@hannah_bo_banna
then you’re not quite there

@hannah_bo_banna
think like a journalist

@hannah_bo_banna
what does this mean?

@hannah_bo_banna
practice taking ideas apart
& putting them back together again

@hannah_bo_banna
review successful pieces:
try to figure out what worked & why

@hannah_bo_banna
read the coverage!

@hannah_bo_banna
read the comments!

@hannah_bo_banna
read what people said on social media!

@hannah_bo_banna
when it comes to the hook - ‘beer’ is rarely the answer

@hannah_bo_banna
don’t be lazy

@hannah_bo_banna
those tools we’re all so fond of can tell us
*what* was successful,
but not *why*

@hannah_bo_banna
knowing why is infinitely more useful

@hannah_bo_banna
three
keep the hook front of mind

@hannah_bo_banna
when you start working on that
next ‘thinger’

@hannah_bo_banna
focus on the hook

@hannah_bo_banna
right in the feels
make people feel something

@hannah_bo_banna
NOT one of these things!
this is shallow
might be bleeding
this is patronising
with here
different here
wondered
cool, but so what?

@hannah_bo_banna
revisit this throughout the process

@hannah_bo_banna
does this content make
people feel any of these
things?
this is shallow
might be bleeding
this is patronising
with here
different here
wondered
cool, but so what?

@hannah_bo_banna
if the answer is yes,
try to find a way to fix it

@hannah_bo_banna
you may not be able to solve all the issues

@hannah_bo_banna
but do the best that you can

@hannah_bo_banna
launch things!

@hannah_bo_banna
learn things!

@hannah_bo_banna
& seek to continually evolve & improve!

@hannah_bo_banna
good luck out there x

@hannah_bo_banna
Hannah Smith
Head of Creative
Verve Search
send questions and/or pictures of cats to: hannah@vervesearch.com
tweet things @hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
Big love to the team at Verve who helped me put this together.
Images:
feels: http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/531/319/99f.gif
nobody likes me: http://www.iheartthestreetart.com/street-2/#lightbox[group-26481]/39/
phone lovers: http://banksy.co.uk
no ball games: http://banksy.co.uk
disobedience: http://living-my-life-recklessly.tumblr.com/post/98684008648/it-is-through-disobedience-that-progress-has-been
beer map: http://vinepair.com/wine-blog/most-popular-beer-every-country-map/
don draper: http://www.bandt.com.au/media/here-are-some-of-don-drapers-best-put-downs
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Right in the Feels (or how to create content that gets shared) - Turing Festival 2016

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