When you think of Coca-Cola, you probably think of a lot more than just a brown, fizzy drink (soda, pop, Coke, whatever you call it where you’re from). Instead, you think of their branding — you know, a vintage Santa drinking out of a glass bottle, the polar bear family, “I’d like to give the world a Coke” type of stuff.
These are all stories Coca-Cola has told over the years — and they’ve got a lot of them. But now, they’re taking an even more proactive approach to telling them. That’s what The Coca-Cola Journey, their dynamic online magazine, is all about — serving as a hub for the stories Coca-Cola wants to tell.
According to Ashley Callahan, Coke’s manager of digital communications and social media, there’s a lot that goes into creating and sharing them. She explains how it works in her presentation at SocialMedia.org‘s BlogWell conference:
- Why have a content hub? The Coca-Cola Journey site is not only a sustainable marketing tool, it’s also their secret PR weapon. Having their own media outlet has given Coca-Cola the power to defend itself against false information quickly and in their own words instead of going through a someone else.
- The compelling content checklist: Every story on The Coca-Cola Journey site has to pass what they call “the water cooler test,” plus answer these questions: Why should I care? Is it surprising? Does it have universal appeal?
- Your customers will tell you what they want: You just have to know where to look. For Coca-Cola, they were surprised to find the majority of searches made on their site were for food recipes. So they listened and created an entire category dedicated to food made with their products — and it’s now their most popular page.
Watch the video below to see Ashley’s full presentation. You can find her slides here.
If you like this presentation, see more great social media case studies like it live at SocialMedia.org’s Brands-Only Summit, Dec. 9 to 11 in Orlando.