7 Archetypes for Social Media Engagement

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1 7 Archetypes for Social Media Engagement idmlo.co By Bryan Merica

2 Introduction 2 Where do you start with a social media strategy? The answer to this question might appear obvious: you d probably say that you begin by creating your profile on Facebook, on Google+, on Twitter, and other channels; but the truth is that before you even enter the first line of your bio or upload the first profile photo, you have to spend some time contemplating your organization s identity. Because social media platforms make it so easy to fill in their profile templates, you can get the mistaken impression that creating your online persona is as simple as answering a questionnaire. The truth is, however, that creating and maintaining your social media persona is far more like starting each day with a blank white canvas in front of you and a paintbrush in your hand. Even if you were magically granted extraordinary artistic skills, how would you begin to portray your identity? You shouldn t even go near the profile-building pages of those social media channels until you ve developed a vision of who you are and found your online voice. We ve developed a great tool to help our clients do this: Seven Archetypes for Social Media Engagement. These seven brand personalities make use of different strengths to engage audiences, and as you read through you ll feel some familiarity with one or more of them:

3 The Analyst

4 The Analyst 4 The Analyst generates new information, sometimes using very technical methods, and in so doing becomes a change agent. Nate Silver s unique ability to take poll analysis to a new science has permanently changed election forecasting. If your organization, personal You ll want to establish yourself as an expert in your field and post interesting new links on social media channels that lead back to your own web content. profile, or company is all about bringing new information to the table, the Analyst is your archetype. You ll want to establish yourself as an expert in your field and post interesting new links on social media channels that lead back to your own web content. Furthermore, you ll want to join circles and groups in your field, establish Google Authorship, and make sure your publications or presentations are well integrated into your social media identity.

5 The Reporter

6 The Reporter 6...the reporter is a communicator, someone who physically goes out and experiences events in the larger world and writes about them. Similar to the Analyst, the Reporter creates new content, but that content is not the result of extensive analysis or testing. Instead, the Reporter is a communicator, someone who physically goes out and experiences events in the larger world and writes about them. Christiane Amanpour is one of journalism s titans, moving across the global political stages as a correspondent, and at the same time making abundant use of Facebook and Twitter. With over 750,000 Twitter followers and 193,000 Facebook Likes, she s able to step beyond her role as ABC s Global Affairs Anchor and provide personal insight to her social media followers. Her skilled use of social media, even while she has a prominent role in classical broadcast journalism, indicates the way in which individuals now move beyond their employer when they create their personal brand. The

7 The Reporter 7 connections that Amanpour makes via social networks will only add to her viewership and to ABC s prominence. Her independent establishment of an identity is a net plus for her employer.

8 The Curator

9 The Curator 9 In the ever-growing tidal flood of information, curators fill a crucial role. Maria Popova, who curates a site and newsletter of interestingness called Brain Pickings, has made a case for curation as a new form of authorship. This premise is controversial, but The process of curation naturally gathers users, as you will be offering links across the net to a wide range of activities, thoughts, and locations. the fact remains that her site sees more visitors than The New York Review of Books and she now has bylines for WiredUK and The Atlantic (not to mention 365,000 Twitter followers). Curation may well be part of what you and your organization offer online, and (like Brain Pickings) you may be able to provide a truly fresh window by sifting out the jewels from the gigantic rock pile of the online world. The process of curation naturally gathers users, as you will be offering links across the net to a wide range of activities, thoughts, and locations.

10 The Advertiser

11 The Advertiser 11 It s about your logo being recognizable worldwide and (the ultimate mark of super-success) your product name becoming part of the English language. This archetype is all about the pure science of getting your brand in front of practically everyone. It s about your logo being recognizable worldwide and (the ultimate mark of super-success) your product name becoming part of the English language. NBC made a major advertising push on Facebook to drive engagement around their coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games. Intuit targets its business customers aggressively on the social network where they spend a good portion of their time: LinkedIn. The interesting thing about these brands, though, is the fact that we aren t aware of being constantly subjected to their advertising. What we focus on are the services they offer, and their brand names are linked in our minds to our own daily activities. If you see yourself as embracing the Advertiser archetype, keep in mind the first step is tying your name to a service that people find valuable.

12 The Mobilizer

13 The Mobilizer 13 While individuals can initially get the social activism ball rolling all by themselves, it is organizational sites such as Change.org and Causes.com which are carrying activism to a whole new level of These missiondriven action platforms enable individuals to join forces for creating change. effectiveness. These mission-driven action platforms enable individuals to join forces for creating change. Other types of activism are exemplified by Kickstarter and Indie-Go-Go, which leverage individual contributions to allow non-mainstream projects to sidestep institutional roadblocks. If your business or online archetype is that of the Mobilizer, you may consider setting up an official campaign through one of these established action sites. They have special provisions for sponsoring non-profit organizations in partnership roles, an example of how the internet can be used as a social change channel.

14 The Entertainer

15 The Entertainer 15 By making it fun to engage with you, and by offering material that provides pure enjoyment, you ll stimulate users to share your links and want to keep on coming back for more. Jon Stewart is a great example of today s entertainer: he uses humor to convey important facts and commentary on real events. While he makes no claims to being anything other than an entertainer indeed, he embraces that role he has ended up being America s most trusted newscaster (according to a Time Magazine poll.) As he states, Jokes don t work when they re lies, and so the drive to be a good entertainer is unified with his intent to say something true. His Daily Show Twitter account has 1,695,000 followers, and his Facebook page has 3.8 million Likes. His tweets range from the deadly serious to the sheerly goofy, and the vast audience consumes them all hungrily.

16 The Entertainer 16 You are on the web for a serious reason, whether that reason is promoting your candidacy, your vision, or your services and products. By making it fun to engage with you, and by offering material that provides pure enjoyment, you ll stimulate users to share your links and want to keep coming back for more.

17 The Engager

18 The Engager 18 While all forms of social media communication are a type of engagement, the Engager archetype is unique. He or she makes a fulltime career out of engaging with their audience. Nobody personifies this archetype more vividly than Dan Savage. He began his career answering reader questions as a sex-advice columnist for a print publication, and has continued his countless conversations through To be an engager, you have to come into the social arena with a powerful agenda, and then deliver it with a persuasive tone that catches people s sense of outrage, or need, or hope. You have to emotionally connect with them. online blogging, podcasting, his own MTV show, personal appearances at colleges, and writing several books. His It Gets Better YouTube campaign, created to give hope to gay and lesbian teens who felt isolated, spread so virally that within months President Obama had added his own video to the

19 The Engager 19 burgeoning thousands in the campaign. Dan Savage has his own distinctive voice, using his signature blend of dark humor, satire, outrage and loving kindness to make legions of followers fall in love with him. If you resonate with the archetype of the Engager, think in terms of expanding through all media channels with your own strong expression of what you believe. To be an engager, you have to come into the social arena with a powerful agenda, and then deliver it with a persuasive tone that catches people s sense of outrage, need, or hope. You have to emotionally connect with them.

20 Putting it All Together

21 Putting it all together 21 So, which is the right archetype for your organization? We ve developed a few planning tools that allow our clients to select the best archetype (or in some cases multiple archetypes) that will work for them. For example, the following framework casts the archetypes into two key dimensions: Content Originality and Audience Engagement. Depending on your organization s comfort and ability to create new content and engage directly with audiences, one or more of these archetypes may be the right one for you. High Analyst Reporter Content Originality Advertiser Entertainer Mobilizer Engager Curator Low Audience Engagement High

22 Put it all together 22 Selecting the archetype is just the first step. Once you ve set your initial online identity in place, each post, tweet, and conversation you publish needs to convey your chosen persona in a consistent tone. But don t worry; our team of digital strategists have great tools to help you with that as well.

23 23 IDMLOCO brings together some of California s most strategic and creative thinkers to serve a diverse client list spanning professional and collegiate athletics, healthcare organizations, brands and businesses, and government agencies. The team s capabilities include custom web development, digital advertising, social media monitoring and engagement, mobile app development and content creation. IDMLOCO s real value, though, lies in its decade of experience tying these components together to achieve measurable sales, fundraising and communications goals.

24 24 Bryan Merica Co-Founder & Partner, IDMLOCO Before starting IDMLOCO, Merica was a Senior Strategist at the enterprise software firm, PeopleSoft. He also founded and worked with several startups in the early days of the dot-com era. Merica started his career in management consulting, working with international consulting firms Deloitte and Price Waterhouse.

25 25 Merica graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of the Pacific. Merica is extensively quoted and published on matters related to digital public relations and public affairs, including: Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Campaigns & Elections Magazine, Silicon Valley Business Journal and Sacramento Bee. Merica is an active board member with WEAVE, a non-profit provider of crisis intervention services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Merica also serves on the board of CapitolWeekly.com, a stalwart California news organization covering political and state government matters across the state and beyond.

26 Digital Strategy and Execution idmlo.co