Telling your company’s story

At his power sessions during LANDSCAPES 2017, Roger Phelps shared the ways STIHL aims to tell their company story across various outlets. Following his “STOR-EEE” approach (Story, Tell, Observe, Respond, Evaluated, Extend, Evolve,) Phelps stressed the importance of outlining a content plan for your business.

Story: “Create a content calendar to go by,” he said. “But leave some room for spontaneity.”

He suggested starting by paying attention to common industry hashtags, and joining in on those conversations. Once you’ve established an online presence to tell your story, you can begin to build positive brand awareness.

Tell: “Get involved in the community,” he said. “And talk about that involvement on your (social media) page.”

It’s not just about getting recognition for the good work your company does, it’s about your customers knowing what your company’s values are.

Observe: Phelps mentioned that a company can often get ideas of what kind of stories to tell by paying attention to the reaction from their audience. The comment section of a popular post may be full of ideas.

“We learned about Safety Month from the Facebook comments,” he said. “And that lead us to coming up with a plan for our dealers to give a discount on safety equipment for that month.”

Respond: Social media comment sections can often be the home of negative reviews or angry customers. But, Phelps encouraged businesses to turn those negative situations into a positive.

“You need to anticipate those negative reviews,” he said. “But you always need to flip it positive.”

He also recommended avoiding those typical stock responses. A more custom reply will generate a better reaction from the customer.

Evaluate: Evaluating progress is critical to improve your company’s online outreach. Pay attention to how well the stories you share are impacting your followers.

Extend: When you notice a particular post or topic doing well, use built-in promotion features of whatever platform you use. Engaging your customers even more will open more doors of opportunity to your company, he said.

Evolve: “Always do something fresh,” he said. Whether that’s revamping your web layout or changing the format of your email blasts, customers will notice the refreshed look of your pages.