I’m fresh back from another awesome year at SXSW Interactive. Many have opinions about SXSWi (see my post from three years ago here), but the reality is − no matter how crowded, how much you have to trek around (and potentially not get into sessions), and the self-important weblebrities running around − SXSWi is an extremely energetic experience that connects a diverse mix of people to thought, technology, creativity, and conversation that’s changing the world. This year, I’ve come home recharged, inspired and grateful that I get to experience events like this. I have A LOT of notes that I’ll be sharing here over the next few days. Hope some of you find it useful.

Visual Voice was a fantastic conversation about the proliferation of image-based social networks, like Instagram and Pinterest, and the proven strategies and tactics that connect brands and people to their respective audiences. Panelists Suzanne Schloot of Kate Spade, Natanya Anderson of Whole Foods Market, Pinterest maven and professional photographer, Bonnie Tsang and Jean Schneidnes of Neiman Marcus had a captive audience only frustrated by the fact that our fingers couldn’t move fast enough to capture all of their wisdom and experience. Here’s a breakdown by brand/speaker. Enjoy.

KATE SPADE 

Kate Spade’s social strategy is rooted in telling the story of the Kate Spade girl who is curious, playful, quick and strong through most of its social media channels, and image-driven Pinterest and Instagram are no exception, while YouTube and Vine as video social networks are a bit different for them.

• Kate Spades’s Pinterest and Instagram celebrate the Kate Spade girl through content that allows its fans to see themselves in its image and in most cases be an active participant through hashtags on Instagram and repins on Pinterest.
• Instagram hashtags are used to coordinate with a campaign or content theme (e.g.#livecolorfully on Instagram), encouraging users to upload images pertaining to the topic and include the hashtag. Promoting the hashtag is integral to people adopting and using it.
• Kate Spade not only pins its own content by repins a lot of content from credible sources on the web.
• Always verify the image and link source you are repining and credit it.
• YouTube is the hub for video content, which is well-produced branded video content used to tell stories related to product lines and seasonal campaigns. 
• Kate Spade videos are leveraged by PR to garner earned media coverage in social and traditional media.
• Video is often integrated into print campaigns to create a seamless media experience.
• Kate Spade saw the best performance and social sharing of video content when it launched an interactive video last summer that allowed users to “choose their own adventure.” The video, “The Year of Things We Love” tied to their 20^th anniversary campaign and allowed users to create their own experience based on the options given in the video: swan dive or cannon ball, swimsuit choice and if she was laying by the pool.
• While Vine is in its infancy, Kate Spade has been experimenting with its uses but hasn’t honed in on a final strategy just yet. Suzanne explained that it has been was helpful to showcase product that has more than one-dimension (or feature) that would otherwise be missed in an image. Check out an example here.

BONNIE TSANG

Darling photographer, Pinterest-user extraordinaire and seriously kind Bonnie Tsang was an early adopter of Pinterest, despite not really understanding its appeal right away. She’s done something right because she’s one of the platform’s most accomplished pinners with almost 8 million followers.

• How did she get on Pinterest? A friend who had early access to the platform encouraged her to get on and she started pinning old photos from 50s and 60s and named the board photography.
• How has her content evolved? She explained that this established her as an expert early on, which has been instrumental in her success. When asked how her content has evolved she explained that she pinned a lot of random things at first – nothing that really made sense. She acknowledged that she was developing as a person and finding her style and behavior on the platform in this process.
• What does she offer followers? A genuine and personable experience, which if you follow her is very true. You see things consistently through her artisitc eyes on both her Pinterest and Instgram.
• What kind of partnerships is she involved in? She creates two boards for Estee Lauder each month that represent a season or product line. For example, Estee Lauder is launching a Mad Men and Bonnie will create a board around this theme that includes a plethora of elements (design, fashion, beauty, etc.) including Estee Lauder product line, that represent Mad Men
• What determines if you’ll partner with a brand? “Their brand has to match my brand,” she said. “Estee Lauder fits because it’s feminine, mature, luxury and sophisticated.”
• Her 9-year-old daughter is on Pinterest, Vine and Instagram which is a mutually shared creative outlet that bonds them, however, she did say that her daughter is completely opposite from here in every way and she gets a kick out of it.

WHOLE FOODS MARKET

Whole Foods Market’s Natanya Anderson talks faster than I do, which if you know me is pretty darn fast. My fingers couldn’t absorb the awesomeness quickly enough.

• Whole Foods’ social strategy seeks to support the holistic lifestyle of its customers through social media.
• While Facebook and Twitter make up 4.3 million of WFM fans/followers, Pinterest has 110,000 followers but generates 15 times more value than Facebook and Twitter combined. Needless to say, they’re spending a lot of time on Pinterest these days.
• Whole Foods has 607 social media channels; 597 are based in stores (WHOA).
• “The local store is heart and soul of the brand, therefore they run social.” There’s a lot of leeway in stores to create content on behalf of the brand. This is operationalized by corporate and a work in progress (education, process and technology). They believe in working at the city level because “we’re part of the communities we’re in.”
• Every visual campaign should have a shared storytelling (co-creation element) component and a “give a darn factor.”
  
• “There’s a lot of informational visuals a.k.a. infographics that appeal to our communities so we leverage lifestyle, health and other information to make rich infographic visuals that resonate.” For example, their advocacy for bees is shared through the “Share the Buzz” board which blends infographics with images to spread the word.
• How does Whole Foods builds Pinterest boards? Whole Foods Pinterest is not product-centric, but a place to share its brand values and lifestyle.
  • “We’re Used to Reusing,” a Whole Foods value, is one of its most popular boards
  • “Go Go Gadgets” is also popular because they’ve identified that tech savvy people are a large piece of its audience, therefore content is created to speak to that on Pinterest
  • Active and healthy lifestyle content
  • User-generated content:
    • For every 1 thing we pin, we pin five things from other people (always make sure the image and link source is credible and give credit)
    • We bring experts to the table to help us pin; grow a collaborative group of people to curate information on our behalf
• Pinterest is integrated into campaigns by putting pin it buttons on site content and adding site widgets that draw attention to its content on Pinterest, such as quotes surrounding lifestyle or Whole Foods values.
• Instagram is a window into the local store experiences. In addition to product and store photos, Instagram is used to capture the community around the stores. Often, many employees are able to contribute.

NEIMAN MARCUS

“We’ve gone from a world of text and language to expressing emotion and communicating through images,” said Jean Scheidnes of Neiman Marcus. Certainly a truth for Neiman whose largest social platform is Instagram, which is why it was essential for Neiman Marcus to define its social voice, then define its visual voice and put tender loving care into its storytelling and content production.

• A three-person team handles all social media, and 41 PR people across its stores serve as ambassadors that send content to its social team. In order to create seamless execution, they educate internally to give editorial direction so ambassadors will send content that aligns with their strategies. Even their president is hip to the process and is responsible for this photo which he sent to the team from Paris Fashion Week.
• Content is centered around fashion, food, handbags and shoes (most popular)
• User-generated content is very powerful (use is similar to Kate Spade example), especially when used in a sweepstakes. Neiman recently did an Instagram sweepstakes where users had to tag a selfie (image of themselves) or a beauty product with #nmbeauty for a chance to win a prize. It has been the most engaged sweepstakes for any social contest to date.
• Pinterest contest launched today running through March 27 that offers pinners a $1,000 Neiman gift card to curate the best “Art of Fashion Collection” board. “Participants must share their e-mail address and board URL on the neimanmarcus.com submission page before entering. They also must pin the contest image and at least six other Art of Fashion images to qualify.” Visit WWD to learn more.

A lot of great takeaways here and happy to flush out anything in comments. It was a very lively session packed with awesome information and experience from people executing on a daily basis. For more, search the Twitter hashtag #visualvoice to see other tweets coming out of the event from others.