Converse Is an All-Star on Facebook

This post is part of the Killer Facebook Pages Series, which highlights the top brand pages on Facebook and provides tips on how to emulate their successes.

Last year, Converse’s Chief Marketing Officer Geoff Cottrill said they were “doing nothing” on Facebook.

A year later, Converse has more than 30.5 million likes and the #2 spot for top brands on Facebook.

The Content Strategist caught up with Geoff Cottrill to see what’s next for Converse’s content strategy.

The Content Strategist: What is Converse’s stance on content creation and curation by brands?

Geoff Cottrill:  Our content philosophy is built on driving meaningful relationships that are true to our core values, spark creativity and inspire advocacy.

Whether it’s about showcasing a musician that has just recorded at Converse Rubber Tracks in Brooklyn, a showcase we put on at SXSW, a street art exhibit in Beijing or a Three Artists. One Song collaboration – we focus on developing stories that are compelling for our consumers.

TCS: What has changed (or remained the same) since last year in how the Facebook page is managed?

Cottrill:  First, I think we need to recognize that people are today’s “new media.” They are advocates for the things they love and have an easy, quick, and effective way of spreading the word about what they love. Social media is driven by people and they are ultimately in control of the messages they send as well as the ones they choose to receive.

Brands are now forced to recognize that people are the media channels and the experiences they have with your brand are often what gets communicated to others. It is important that our message be relevant. We’ve seen the advocacy model work in a powerful way.

We’ve never once asked to join our Facebook page, or to “like” us. Yet, we now have over 30 million fans on Facebook. We believe this growth has come as a result of a few things.

First, our brand has stood for creativity for many years and creative people all over the world have made this brand what it is today. Second, we try very hard to celebrate our consumers and not tell them what to do (or what to buy).

If you respect your consumers and provide them with good stories or experiences they become advocates on your behalf. This brand belongs to the people who wear it.

TCS: Converse is the #2 brand page on Facebook – what’s next?

Cottrill:  We are going to continue our focus on celebrating our audience and not ourselves, try to be useful to our consumers along the way, continue to create our own platforms like Converse Rubber Tracks, and do all we can to help bring cultures of people together via experiences both on-line and off-line.

We’ll also continue to evolve our social media strategy as the platforms continue to expand and as new ones emerge.

Our role as marketers is changing every day. We now have a massive network of people around the world who want to hear from us. With a global network of consumers as big as ours in place we will continue our shift away from traditional means of brand communications to new and innovative ones.

We now have the ability to create our own content programming on a much shorter time line than normal broadcast methods. This is pretty exciting to us.

TCS: Any tips for content marketers who want to emulate Converse’s success?

Cottrill:  Keep it simple and be clear on who you are. Remember that your consumers are part of the equation when it comes to storytelling. Engage with them and put them in charge sometimes and let them take your brand into places you may not have thought of before. Act as a welcomed party guest. Be interesting, think creatively, think globally. Believe in what you are saying, and take a step back to listen and watch.