Ever since Facebook launched its new Timeline to Facebook Pages, brands have been trying to figure out how to use it to their advantage. The Timeline offers a new view of a brand’s history that Facebook users have yet to completely accept, so brands have to tread carefully.
However, finding the right ways to turn a feature that users don’t instantly accept, understand, or like into something that they love is what brands do best, so it seems like a great opportunity. At least that’s what Spotify saw when it turned its Facebook Page Timeline into an ongoing history of music.
Spotify sees the Facebook Timeline as a perfect story-telling device. Not only can brands tell their own stories using the Facebook Timeline, but people can join in by sharing their own stories, too. What better way to create an emotional connection with consumers and build a brand?
While Spotify’s Timeline is still a work in progress, a quick perusal gives you an idea of what it could become — a one-stop destination for everything and anything related to music history. Right now, Spotify is focusing on adding “huge historical landmarks” to its Facebook Timeline while keeping its Facebook content fresh with current music news. Adding an interactive crowdsourcing element to its Facebook Timeline, Spotify is asking visitors to share dates in music history that they think are significant but still missing from the timeline.
The lesson to learn from Spotify’s Facebook Timeline is simple. As new tools are launched and features are added, don’t just think about all the new content you need to create to build your brand presence. Instead, think about how you can repurpose existing content and couple it with fresh content to build a branded experience that adds value to consumers’ lives. Spotify is doing it by repurposing content from the pages of music history, and you can do it, too. That’s one of the key lessons I discuss in Content Marketing for Dummies, and it applies to both online and offline marketing as well as traditional marketing tactics and new media marketing tactics. Don’t be afraid to get creative!
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
