Social Media Analysis, ‘Steeped’ in Creativity

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It was Dee Hock, founder of Visa, who observed that “the problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out.” As with most things in life, it is a challenge that is easily observed and hard to overcome in practice. How do we, as marketers, create something authentic that connects emotionally and resonates with an audience in a meaningful way?

Arguably one of the byproducts of social media, when done well, has been the ability for brands to make a more authentic and consequential connection to its audience. That in turn has changed how brands market— not just on social, but the campaigns, the messaging, the content, and the web experience to make an emotive impact.

There are four key pillars of brand equity and momentum that reflect the bottom line: differentiation, resonance, esteem, and knowledge. Differentiation and resonance contribute to brand strength, while esteem and knowledge contribute to brand stature. One could argue that brand strength is the gateway to brand stature. If prospective clients do not see your brand as unique or do not feel the reverberations of your brand, they may not endeavor to understand and furthermore, respect your brand.

This is the impetus for Social Tea.

It is not fresh advice, to speak to people on a human level, but it is a reminder of its importance. Anyone with a pulse on marketing today, will tell you that the efforts of a brand should be rooted in authenticity and personalization, and should focus on the why instead of the what. But how is this done?

In this fast-paced, get-it-done-yesterday business world, it is so hard to pause and make time for anything that doesn’t have a tangible deadline. How do we make time to be creative?

And, this is the impetus for Social Tea, a new podcast from IBM marketing designed to help marketers and creatives with an entrepreneurial spirit understand new trends and best practices.

Social Tea is a forum that my creative collaborator, Kyle Davy, and I have created, within IBM marketing, that focuses on two components: insight and inspiration. The two have a symbiotic relationship as sometimes one is influenced by the other and other times one is the result of the other.

For the insight portion of the discussion, we ask our in-house experts to share insight from the strategies they have built in their respective areas of influence. This can range from building a paid social strategy to creating a successful social media campaign to engage customers. For the inspiration portion of the discussion, we ask our marketers to share something that has recently stopped them in their tracks and made them pay attention. There are no constraints on what can be discussed in the inspiration portion – a news article, social post, commercial, artwork, etc. Because who is to say where the next wave of creativity will come from?

We have a collaborative space where our social practitioners can share in real-time the content that they find inspiring, and sometimes we draw from that space to find content that we would like to discuss during Social Tea. This was also a great way to source participants for the discussion. We leveraged our collaborative, productivity tools to find social practitioners that were as excited about the themes that we had identified as we were.

So, what can our Social Tea party guests expect? First, if you haven’t already noticed, a solid commitment to a theme. Secondly, reliable hosts: Kyle and I will host each episode, but we invite a rotating cast of best and brightest IBM social practitioners to join us to share their unique insight and discuss what inspires them. And finally, the freshest tea that we can steep: we like to keep content timely and relevant. You will see that reflected in our first two episodes released for public consumption: Taylor Swift Social Tea and Futbol Social Tea.

While we do work for IBM, the opinions and views that we share on Social Tea are entirely our own and do not reflect the views and opinions of the company as a whole. So, you can be sure that the Social Tea we serve up is 100% organic and authentic.

So, give it a listen, and if you like what you hear, subscribe. Our hope is that you will find this a useful tool for reframing how you think about your own work. We hope you find new and innovative ways of approaching your challenges. If you have any questions or topics that you would like to hear us discuss, leave a comment or review to let us know your thoughts. We hope you enjoy your new monthly brew, and we welcome to our social tea party.

The latest episode of Social Tea can be found on any podcasting platform, including Spotify.