Creating a Flywheel Effect with Content

At CultComms we talk a lot about how leveraging your content engine to create a flywheel effect between your community, content and opportunities to organically engage. My favorite example of this was this time last year when the Vertical Harvest Maine team (shoutout Lindsay deCsipkes!) partnered with multiple local disability rights organizations to put on a special Valentine’s Day screening of Patrice: the Movie (another shoutout to Space538, Disability Rights Maine, The Art Department Maine, Double House Arts Collective, the Portland Museum and Best Buddies Maine).

First, if you haven’t heard of Patrice and Garry, go on over to Hulu right now and check it out. It’s as heartwarming as the problem it seeks to solve is infuriating, when two people with disabilities, who want to get engaged but cannot, share their story. Marriage in their case means they’d likely lose their Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and health insurance due to what’s known as the marriage penalty. The documentary immediately lit up our internal channels as story and a cause that deeply resonated. Because Vertical Harvest practices customized employment and hires 40% of their team from the disability community, we spoke about it on a company-wide meeting. Building off that internal comms moment, the team in Maine amplified that energy by tapping into the local community and partnering to hold a special screening of the doc along with a virtual visit by Patrice & Garry themselves! Little Chair Printing did special edition shirts and stickers, community members did original art and Disability Rights Maine set up an advocacy letter writing table. By all accounts it was a rockin’ night in February amidst a snowstorm in Maine, but here’s why I love it as…

An engagement strategy for startups, smaller brands and non-profits

1# It Captured a Current Cultural Moment within Their Niche Community

Even if you’ve never heard of this issue, movie or moment - it’s an IYKYK topic to a key stakeholder group for the brand. It became a mission-aligned moment to not only to educate all their followers on a underrepresented issue, but stand in solidarity with their ride-or-dies.

#2 It Audience Borrowed

While there’s some overlap between these audiences, it also exposed each partner org to the members of the others every time they were all tagged in a social post and/or someone clicked through links on one newsletter to the websites of another. Finding ways to partner also means finding ways to organically connect to new followers already receptive to picking up some of whatever you’re putting down.

#3 It leveraged multiple touchpoints together

Promotion of the event, the physical place and space of gathering, fun cool custom swag for those who showed up, letter writing that connected with government leaders, a virtual component that stretched beyond those able to attend in person, the social posts and photos that followed and of course word of mouth from all those who attended and/or discovered the documentary and partner organizations through community engagement and discussion.

#4 It “yes and”-ed onto a powerful story

The heart of this moment is how Patrice the Movie made everyone feel. It’s a powerful story validated by the layers of experience our community recognized within ourselves, families and friends. It created a place to feel seen and that it was possible to contribute action and energy to the cause. I’m a firm believer there is nothing more powerful than a clear vision and a community motivated behind a cause and this is a great example of how to extend and create a sense of belonging within your community, even as a business or brand. When you find stories that resonate for something you care about, organize your communications and community efforts around it.

Connecting Across Channels

Newsletters connect to social posts, comments on social posts show up as customer quotes on websites and Go To Market materials, just like podcasts go up on YouTube, short clips to socials and all that gets linked in the newsletter. Every loop you can make around an anchor moment and message, boosts the opportunity for someone falling down their own search rabbit hold to find your organic content. It can be slow to get going, but once you do it’s powering audience acquisition for weeks and months, even years, to come.