Understand your audience: their preferences, the latest trends they are into, what they say about you and your products, what they like and dislike about competitors’ brands and products, what content they like and share the most, and so on. The key here isn’t to use your (potentially) outdated consumer personas; rather, gather real-time insights from rich social data, analyzing the latest social media conversations, reviews, and even photos (visual listening allows you to glean insights from images). Remember, in today’s fast-paced world, consumer preferences change much more quickly than one expects, so relying on focus groups and annual surveys is no longer the best approach. This might seem complicated, but try doing a quick search on Twitter using a variety of keywords and hashtags around your brand, and you will be surprised what golden nuggets you can uncover. Of course, if you are a large brand, you’ll have access to a set of more sophisticated tools to do your data mining and analysis. 3. Create stories that integrate all three: a. 【瘦肩針】BOTOX 瘦肩療程資訊 - Cutis Your DNA (your core beliefs and values) b. Consumers’ attitudes and your mutually shared passions c. Current cultural dynamics and the latest cultural phenomena 4. Choose the creative approach and relevant formats to tell your stories based on the above considerations. 5. Don’t just do it once (for example, for your big product launch), but build out the evergreen content calendar of stories that will continue to engage your communities and consumers at large in your conversations. Remember to try out new things and adapt with the times and consumer preference shifts. The Storytelling Framework™ Once you put together your strategy and identify your approach, you’ll be well equipped to create a storytelling framework for your brand. We have created this framework to help you think through the key questions that usually arise as you move from strategy to execution. You will have insights from your audit, a solid understanding of the performance of your current content, customer insights (what customers like, frequently asked questions, topics of interest, preferred platforms, and more), cultural shifts that might impact your storytelling strategies, and so on. Now you need to decide on each of the 13 elements of the storytelling framework (Figure 2.3). These will answer most of the questions that will arise during execution. The rest of the book is designed not only to walk you through all 13 elements but to provide tips, inspire ideas, and even offer words of caution where applicable.