Social Media Strategies From

SCRATCH

BRANDING

The better you understand your audience, the more you help them.

The more you help them, the more you both thrive. ​

[The front page of a syllabus for Crushing Imposter Syndrome. Below a picture of whimsically-shaped soap bubbles, it poses the questions, "What does being 'powerfully vulnerable' even mean? What could be powerful about feeling exposed and undefended?"]
[A photo of a dog messily and unsuccessfully trying to gobble the spray from a hose, with the caption: "BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO SUCK AT SOMETHING NEW." The dog pic itself is by Jack Geoghegan, via Pexels.]
A photo of the text, "You aren't out of spoons to run your life and get your work done because you're 'not good enough.' You're out of them because other people are using your spoons for their own benefit." The quote is attributed to "Mark Twain, I guess."
The goal: create insightful, shareable images, educating people about recovery from imposter syndrome. This one, a Facebook post that says "When you can truly love the things about yourself that make you feel most vulnerable, you become invincible," achieved a 22% reach engagement rate organically.

Case Study:
Teach Your Brand to Speak

This self-help brand, designed to teach people how to overcome imposter syndrome, sounded like a great idea to everyone who heard about it. The challenge was to avoid the trap of “many fans, no customers.”

I began by drawing up user personas and relatable brand voices, and tested them by approaching 75 target users.

The message architecture:
• casual language and vivid, relatable anecdotes;
• big pictures made up of bite-sized insights;
• optimistic, encouraging, and confident.

In this meme, this brand is definitely “the sisterfriend.”

[A screenshot of a Tumblr post with 238 thousand notes that says, "the momfriend (is very gentle and comforting, carefully and calmly helps you work out the root of the issue, gives you lots of space and the affection you need) the sisterfriend (pushes you over [and says]) alright nerd what do i need to beat up for you? a boy? your feelings? do you need me to punch your feelings?"

Thanks to researching and deeply understanding the prospective customer, I was able to hit very high engagement rates from the beginning, both paid and organic.

Successes:

• Bounce rate of only 23% on the landing page.
• 29% click rate in emails; 50% click-to-open-rate.
16% reach engagement rate on blog posts (the ratio of users engaged to users reached; 2% is considered high).

The new description of the album "Francesco Mancini: Concerti da Camera." "Eighteenth-century Naples was the heart of the Italian Baroque. The variety and virtuosity of these pieces capture the excitement of that musical hotbed of innovation. In these pieces, Mancini draws freely from solo concerti, concerti grossi, opera, and church music, saluting past styles and anticipating future trends. His Sonata in B-Flat Major evokes the frothy, comic fun that his successor Pergosi would eventually become known for. His gracious, slow movements are reminiscent of Handel. The recorder is featured in several of the concerti. This is a wonderful choice for the powerful ensemble, putting Judith Linsenberg's lovely and lyrical performances front and center. Other performers come into their own power in Durante's concerto and Scarlatti's sinfonia. Each piece is powered by the rich and sonorous continuo of skilled instrumentation that ties the whole album together. As one fan remarks, "The Durante piece is reminiscent of Vivaldi in a harmonically wry mood." You'll find plenty of fun and beauty in these delightful adventures by the talented ensemble."

Case Study:
the stradivarius of UI/UX

Musica Pacifica, a top-tier baroque ensemble, had a hard time tooting their own horn. Talking about themselves seemed like boasting, and their largely older fan base wasn’t engaging with them much online.

I simplified navigation by asking, “what are our target users looking for, and where do they look for it first?” Then, I made the site accessible for customers with vision challenges, especially focusing on alt text and mobile optimization.

The shop page was a particular focus of this redesign. I used plugins to simplify and pre-fill as much information as possible, and to keep customers on the site throughout the checkout process.

Then I added a ton of the details that classical fans crave, like instruments, reviews, samples, and track listings, and created short, detailed descriptions of what made each album special. Restructuring and redesigning their website to better showcase their music resulted in a 7x increase in sales year-over-year. 

And crafting intriguing, well-researched content that resonated with their demographic resulted in an average newsletter open rate of 44%, in an industry with a 19% average.

Copywriting and Design HIGHLIGHTS

Research Highlights

In Health Equity

Thanks in part to the efforts of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, health equity for gay people has greatly improved. 

This has paid dividends in everything from mental health to overall income.

Unfortunately, most people don’t know that the bi community still faces outcomes as bad as those of the trans community. 

I designed the infographics here to bring the healthcare community up to speed on decades of minority stress research all at once. I presented these at the GLMA 2021 Nursing Summit, as well as the First Annual Bisexual+ Research Conference. 

These graphics can also be split up and used separately to educate people on a specific topic, such as sexual violence or mental health.

About Dani Aidan Stone

Ever since I taught myself to read at the age of 2, words have been the air I breathe. Ever since my dad got me my first email account, through his work, in 1990, the internet has been my home.

As a teenager, I worked as a community manager for AOL. After college, I worked in UX testing and digital branding for Ask.com.

Because I essentially grew up online, I have experience with every aspect of online spaces, from obscure niche message boards to Facebook ad optimization.

I’ve spent the past 15 years using these passions to help all of you share yours with more people. My focus is on innovative practices, highly tailored to each brand.

What challenges is your business facing? Where do you want to grow? Drop me a line for a free consultation over email.