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Valdorcia in Tuscany

 Topic 1: Social Listening

I am a documentary junky and absolutely love National Geographic so I was not surprised to find that they have 51.4 Million Followers on Instagram @natgeo. National Geographic released their first issue back in 1888. From this day forward, they have adhered to their “believe in the power of science, exploration and storytelling to change the world.” 

As I looked thru National Geographic’s Instagram I noticed posts all relate to a picture posted by @gabrielegalembertiphoto of Valdorcia in Tuscany. People typically share their thoughts about the pictures posted, the vast majority of them being positive in nature.  Comments include one-word adjectives such as “cool”, “nice”, “wonderful” and “memories” or simply positive emojis.  Positive feedback like this is probably what most would expect, while in many cases the people posting photos are not professionals and are submitted altruistically.
  
More creative posts attempt to interject humor.  One such post said, “Where is the curvature of the earth at I knew the Earth was flat”.  I can appreciate the National Geographic allowing such tongue-in-cheek humor.  If there is one organization that knows that the world is not flat it is an entity that that gathered pictures from all over the world.

Some posts are judgmental, not of the picture or caption but rather that National Geographic posted the submission.  One commenter replied, “This is the best picture National Geographic can put of Tuscany??? Disappointed”.  To National Geographic’s credit, they do permit followers to voice their discontent. 
       
National Geographic business model consists of two types of customers.  You have people who pay for magazines and/or programming.  You also have customers who are the companies who pay for advertising.  The organization itself is also split into two entities.  Their for-profit businesses include print and digital magazine as well as cable channels.  While their non-profit operations consist of the National Geographic Society.  All their for-profit businesses operate to generate income to support operating expenses as well as grant money allocated for social research.   Income is generated through ad sales for all their for-profit businesses.  The primary challenge is to not only fund operations but to also select advertisers that meet their standards while maintaining their image as one of the most identified brands in the world.  Brand strength is incredibly important.  As a result, they must vet all Instagram submissions to make sure that they do not depreciate brand value. By maintaining a high brand standard they can request a premium price from their advertisers.  At the same time, they also need a platform, such as Instagram, that allows their consumer to feel engaged or even as an active participant.  This is accomplished through the submission of photos and the individual recognition that comes with platform publication.    

As brand manager, I would make sure all prospective advertisers were in alignment with our company’s mission, vision and value proposition.  There would have to be some relevance between the service or product they provide to our reading/viewing audience.  The customer would have to understand the value our brand cache provides and be willing to compensate for it.  

When addressing our reading/viewing customers the argument would be similar.  Postings via Instagram, for example, would also have to align with mission, vision and value proposition because the strength of the brand is tied directly to the quality of the content. 

 P.S. Interested in seeing the evolution of National Geographic magazine covers? 

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