If you sell concrete for a living, you might be daunted by the idea of trying to introduce your product on social media channels. “It’s concrete,” you may be thinking to yourself, “there’s no way to engage with concrete.”
The truth is, if you have the resources to manage social media and create content, creatively building a story around your product is always possible.
Many brands and products have a Unique Selling Point that sets them apart. Even concrete can be beautiful, and can photograph well with an artistic eye. However, the USP of a product can also be found in a product’s history, like the craftsmanship that goes into a tinted, polished concrete floor, or the fact that a business has been in a family for three generations. A company’s mission statement is a good place to look for inspiration as to why a company was started, or what drives its founders to make a difference.
Maersk, the Danish shipping company, has managed to fill social media channels with a range of interesting content and user-generated photos of Maersk’s ships, as well as articles around events and launches. While “transport logistics” may not be the first thing you think of for engaging media, Maersk manages to create a large amount of buzz on social media. When Maersk’s Triple E ship docked in Copenhagen in September ‘13 with plenty of early social coverage and reserved places for onboard tours, social media channels were filled with check-ins and photographs of the massive ship by an excited general public.
In summary:
- If you have the resources to manage social media and create content, you can build a product’s social story
- Look for USPs to develop specific talking points
- Check the mission statement for inspiration about what drives a business
- Look for different approaches to include images or other types of media
- Use user-generated content when applicable
Looking at a product from a few different angles can be the best way to pull out an interesting, and possibly unexpected, social story.