SearchLove London | Hannah Smith, Existential Crisis Management
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Transcript of SearchLove London | Hannah Smith, Existential Crisis Management
@hannah_bo_banna
Existential Crisis Management
Hannah SmithContent Strategist, Distilled
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
seo is *not* dead
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but seo is constantly evolving
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ranking 1st doesn’t mean what it used to
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this is the fold
BBC rank 1st
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it’s not just informational queries either
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this is the fold
SkyScanner rank 1st
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google are even targeting some companies’ branded terms
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MoneySuperMarket’s organic listing is
above the fold - but Google are being very
aggressive
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you used to be able to build an amazing business just by being great at seo
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in the future that’s unlikely to be enough
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as a consequence, seos are being asked to do
different things
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get us links!
clients of yesteryear
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get us press coverage, social shares,
& exposure [links] on sites our target audience reads
clients today
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so whilst clients might not explicitly ask us to help them build a brand
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many of the things we do today look a lot like brand building
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that’s why I’m giving this presentation today
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but it’s a big ask
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because,brand apathy is rife
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“In Europe and the US, consumers would not care if 92% of brands ceased to exist”
source: http://dis.tl/brand-apathy
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that means consumers would only miss 8% of brands
source: http://dis.tl/brand-apathy
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building a brand is *really* tough
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particularly on ‘seo’ retainer budgets
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but you know what?
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challenge accepted
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but where do I start?
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first up - what the hell is a brand?
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we have a tendency to use ‘company’ & ‘brand’ interchangeably
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but what does ‘brand’ actually mean?
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brand to impress firmly; fix ineradicably; place indelibly
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therefore...
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a brand is not a brand unless it leaves a lasting impression
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& it needs to be a favourable impression
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companies need to build brands that mean something to people
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so I need to build meaningful brands
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that sounds really f*cking hard!
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existential crisis (for a company)
when a company struggles to find a way for their brand to be meaningful for consumers
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existential crisis management (I think this is my job)
help companies find a way to make their brands meaningful for consumers
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how on earth do I do that?
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you can learn a lot by deconstructing the success of others
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so I started studying what ‘meaningful’ brands do
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I uncovered 3 core principles
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some meaningful brands do all 3
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some meaningful brands do just 1 or 2
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I’ll deal with them each in turn
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1. ‘meaningful’ brands find opportunities to delight consumers
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most people’s interactions with brands suck
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great interactions stand out & are shared
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this is how @smartcarusa responded when someone inferred that a single bird dropping
would total one of their vehicles
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the takeaway here is not: ‘make more sh*tty infographics’
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I don’t think the infographic out of context would have yielded any sort of return
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the takeaway here is:‘going the extra mile to respond in a novel way can
yield out-sized returns’
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& this doesn’t need to be a resource-heavy activity
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this is how @DunkinDonuts responded to a customer who asked if their
coffee syrups were available on the black market
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the team at Dunkin’Donuts have a library of images
they use to delight their customers
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this is how @ArgosHelpers responded to a customer who asked when
PS4s would be back in stock
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the takeaway here is not:‘people love brands who use slang’
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the takeaway here is:‘if you can speak the same language
without being condescending you’ll go far’
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this is how @TescoMobile responded to a customer who claimed their network
was a ‘turn off’
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whoa!that is *really* close to the line
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the takeaway here is not:‘be a dick to people who are dicks to you’
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the takeaway here is:‘a well-judged, ‘cheeky’ response can travel’
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to do this you need a deep understanding of your audience
what can you get away with? what’s funny & what’s just rude?
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be mindful - there is a line...
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but it’s not just interactions that delight
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sometimes just being nimble delights consumers
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the takeaway here is not:‘you need a bit of luck’
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the takeaway here is:‘be ready, willing & able to take advantage of
opportunities as & when they arise’
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if @Arbys hadn’t tweeted thatsomeone else probably would have
& they wouldn’t have benefitted
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so, we’ve covered off principle 1:‘meaningful brands find opportunities to delight
consumers’
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2. ‘meaningful’ brands give people the ability to define themselves to others
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this is a little tougher to parse -let me talk you through it
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have you ever thought about why you share what you share on social media?
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why did I tweet this?
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I didn’t think about it too much at the time
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but I’ve thought about it some more since
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I’m embarrassed to admit that I posted that because I was on my own & bored
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...it worked like a charm
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yay!
with twitter fwends
you need never be bored
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fortunately I don’t just share stuff like that,I also share stuff like this:
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because I want people to think I read hbr.org
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because I want people to think I’m smart
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because I want people to think I have an excellent sense of humour
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because I want people to know where I stand on important issues
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I share things to shape other people’s impressions of me
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on social media I have two modes:cries for help (oh the shame!)
&defining myself to others
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it’s not just me, we all do this
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but not necessarily consciously
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68% said they share things via social mediato give people a better sense of
who they are & what they care about
source: http://dis.tl/psych-of-sharing
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this is an excellent place for brands to play
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brands can give people the ability to define themselves to others...
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I don’t *necessarily* mean stuff that literally defines people:
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brands can also help people define themselves to othersby creating things people will
‘look good’ sharing
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the takeaway is not:‘do stuff on vine’
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the takeaway is not:‘#f*ckyeah science’
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the takeaway is:‘create something tangentially related to your
brand, that people will look good sharing’
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in a similar vein ‘meaningful’ brands create commercials
that don’t feel like commercials
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these are things people ‘look good’ sharing
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touching?awkward?
@hannah_bo_bannahttp://dis.tl/wren-kiss
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my desire was to create something that was interesting to people
beyond a fashion angle...
Melissa Coker ~ Wren
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[it’s] an interesting film that exists on its own, rather than something that feels
like a commercial…
Melissa Coker ~ Wren
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it definitely got people talking
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92m YouTube views& coverage from over 1300 sites
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but this isn’t just a video content play
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when oreo turned 100, they created100 pieces of content
over 100 days
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the campaign got over 1m facebook ‘likes’&
thousands of pieces of press coverage
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this highly topical content put thecookie the centre of people’s conversations
without being self-serving
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speaking of being self-serving,here’s what not to do
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45 days worth of planning went into this tweet
@hannah_bo_bannasource: http://dis.tl/erm-wtf
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yuck
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I’m really not sure what the thinking behind this was
@hannah_bo_bannasource: http://dis.tl/erm-wtf
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it just looks like a commercial...
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the only people who will ‘look good’ sharing this are people who wish to prove
their social media expertiseby ridiculing others who don’t get it
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I’m guessing this wasn’t the intention
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so, we’ve covered off
principle 1:‘meaningful brands find opportunities to delight consumers’
& principle 2:
‘meaningful brands give people the ability to define themselves to others’
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still with me?
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3. ‘meaningful’ brands stand for something above & beyond their products or services
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this is tricky to explain in the abstract so I’m going to shoot straight to the examples
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BrewDog’s values are pulled from punk subculture, they are anti-establishment &
believe in individual freedom
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so when Dead Pony Club ale was ‘banned’ because the phrase:
"rip it up down empty streets"was printed on the label...
http://dis.tl/sorry-not-sorry
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& Mark wasn’t the only one who loved their response
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but it’s not just about sweary press releases
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when you embrace values like that, your creative looks like this:
@hannah_bo_bannahttp://dis.tl/nike-greatness
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to be clear - that is exceptional creative
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& it’s powerful becausenike aren’t talking about how their trainers
enhance your performance
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they’re talking about celebrating everyone’s athletic endeavours
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standing for something beyond your products & services is most potent
when it could cost you
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when Mozilla got a new CEO,OKCupid showed this message to Firefox users:
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why should you do this?
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the takeaway from this is not:‘align your brand with a cause & win the internet’
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the takeaway is:‘taking a bold stance on a relevant issue,
even if it could actually hurt your business can create a lasting impression’
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so here’s where we’re at:
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principle 1:‘meaningful brands find opportunities to delight consumers’
principle 2:
‘meaningful brands give people the ability to define themselves to others’
principle 3:‘meaningful brands stand for something above & beyond their
products & services’
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how has this shaped the way I work today?
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overarchingly it’s made me much more mindful of what we’re doing
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but much of this I can’t affect right now
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sadly, to date, no one’s offered me several million to create them an ad like Nike’s
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this is the place we play most frequently at the moment
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principle 2:‘meaningful brands give people the ability to define themselves
to others’
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396k visits 354 LRDs 19,4k facebook ‘likes’ 6.5k tweets
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we made this to appeal to people working in the creative industry
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we think people shared this because it:made them look smart
and/or
made them look interested & interestingand/or
made them look literary
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360k visits 54 LRDs 50k facebook ‘likes’ 1.6k tweets
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we made this to appeal to people who love reading
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we think people shared it because it enabled them to share this love of reading
oh, & maybe brag, just a little
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2m visits 961 LRDs 102k facebook ‘likes’ 4.4k tweets
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we made this to appeal to music fans(& music journalists)
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we think people shared it because it allowed them to express their opinions
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so we’re trying to create things that people ‘look good’ sharing
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& we’re seeing success with that approach
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but more importantly
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we’re taking the time to try to understand the brands we work with better
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so our creative work is better aligned with the brand’s values
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& it’s opening doors for us
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we’re getting access to people higher up in the organisations we work with
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& we’re able to do better work as a result
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this industry is filled with incredible talent
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you are bright, passionate & hard-working
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you are curious
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you take stuff apart to figure out how it works
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you build stuff for fun
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you thrive on being outside of your comfort zone
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build a brand on shoe-string?
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challenge accepted
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good luck out there x
@hannah_bo_banna@hannah_bo_banna
Hannah SmithContent Strategist, Distilled caffeine addict; book worm; would really like a unicorn...
send cat pictures or questions to:
@hannah_bo_banna
moar stuff!
how to produce content people will sharehttp://dis.tl/MJ-share
how to produce better content ideashttp://dis.tl/MJ-idea
lessons in virality from axl rosehttp://dis.tl/HS-axl
@hannah_bo_banna
credits
barney - http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw7a6htwhy1qif1s5o1_500.pngquote - http://www.dumpaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/the-best-feeling-is-doing-what-people-say-you-can-not-do-motivational-quotes.jpgpharrell - http://www.ibtimes.com/arbys-blasts-pharrells-grammys-hat-twitter-can-we-have-our-hat-back-1548140if you have a body - http://www.swimbikerunningonempty.com/1/post/2012/12/five-things-friday.html
Big love to to the wonderful Distilled folks who helped me put this together:Beverley Reinemann, Duncan Morris, Jess Champion, Lynsey Little, Mark Johnstone, Paddy Moogan, Phil Nottingham, Rich Westenra, & Will Critchlow