How Esquire Online Does Social Media

Consistently Reinterpreted

Having a known brand that has been around (and popular) for 80 years can present a marketer with some tricky situations in terms of brand representation. Add in evolving technology and social platforms and you have a recipe for a long-time-subscriber-alienating disaster.
Ben has taken this challenge on and found ways to maintain the brand across mediums (both online and in print) while adjusting to the vastly different audiences that exist side-by-side on social media. For him and Esquire.com, it’s about keeping the brand consistent but reinterpreting it for each audience, depending on their age, perspective, and chosen medium.
This sometimes means forgetting about click-throughs on Instagram and focusing solely on imagery. Or even connecting Snapchat Discoveries to 1,000+ word long-form content.
By letting the audience lead the manifestation of the brand on each individual channel, he maintains control over the core brand values. The end result is a flexible yet consistent presence that adapts to the needs and desires of variable audiences.

In This Episode

• How the right format can lead to long-form content on short-form social
• Why finding the right content for each platform means rethinking the necessity of click-through links
• How finding your voice in the crowded social marketplace means understanding what your brand personifies and how it looks to others first
• Why working your way to the top in social means reaching outside your focus area for additional learnings

Quotes From This Episode

“Brand is the most important thing.” —@benbosk

“We’re always trying to find new ways to inject the Esquire brand into a new audience or a new group of people that are having a conversation about something that maybe traditionally Esquire hasn’t spoken about but can have a perspective on in 2017.” —@benbosk

“We had to show that we’re going to bring something different to the table, and the way that we did that was through a two prong approach to editorial.” —@benbosk
In the age of social media, everybody wants everything in one bite. Share on X
“We’re paying homage to our roots as Esquire but showcasing the brand in a whole new way that it’s never been shown before via Snapchat.” —@benbosk
They're all readers. They're just in different places talking about different things. Share on X
“In the Facebook environment, sometimes it’s not about getting people elsewhere.” —@benbosk

Resources

• Ben Boskovich on Twitter: @benbosk
• Esquire on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Tumblr
• Dash Hudson