https://vimeo.com/217999052
Duration: 5:52 minutes – full transcript below.
ClifBar.com is a different kind of company… “the kind of place we want to work, that makes the kind of food we’d like to eat, and it strives for a healthier, more sustainable world”.
The Idaho company recognizes the value that the team members bring, not only in the work they do, but in the stories they share and publish on their website. It’s a fantastic example of how staff or team members can be a major source of quality content. In this video, Ken and Kristina take a closer look.
You can check out the latest ClifBar stories at http://www.clifbar.com/our-stories
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Transcript
Ken:
Ken: I found this great story on the New York Times about Clif Bar. That’s a company that I know you know a little bit about.
Kristina: A little bit, almost to the point of obsession, yeah.
Ken: Now again, their website blew me away with the stories that are there.
Kristina: It’s a beautiful website and they regularly share stories of their employees, sometimes their consumers. They have a whole section dedicated to just sharing stories where the Clif Bar, the brand, is just kind of an afterthought. And it’s fantastic. I think all businesses should be doing this, I really do.
Ken: What I have picked out from there was this story here about two brothers, they happen to be twin brothers. It tells the story of how they both work together in the company. And again it’s fabulous because it’s talking about their life, just talking through their words and yet it makes a very compelling story. And I think that is another great example for anybody that thinks they might be working in a boring company. The fact is if there are people there, there are always interesting stories. And I just love this, this beautifully brought out, beautifully told and again beautifully photographed.
Kristina: It really is. And the thing that really stuck me about this one, the more I thought about it after reading it was that clearly they are really interesting people. Their relationship is interesting. I mean the fact that they live together, I mean I love my brother and sister but there’s no way in our adult years that we could live with each other and each other’s families. Just not gonna happen. They’re very interesting guys but the message here that I think is kind of inherent, maybe not blatant but important is that they are interesting and they do have a lot going on in their lives because Clif Bar is a brand that enables them to have a good work-life balance. And those are kind of companies that I think so many of us want to do business with. Especially right now you hear about people just working themselves almost to death and a lot of times that ideology supported by a company. Reading this story and just seeing an example of these two brothers who work the night shift by the way so it will be very easy for them to feel that they don’t have the work life balance. They have a lot going on. They both love their lives, they clearly love their jobs and I think that’s a big point that I don’t think people are missing because this was written so well. But I don’t know that it’s jumping out in a sense that it looks like it was a press piece. It was really a human interest piece. And I just loved it. The more I think about it, the more I get from it which is just an outstanding thing to accomplish with a piece of journalism.
Ken: Yeah, I think you’ve hit on it there. And that you really like the article because these things are interesting to read. So as a reader it caught my attention, it caught your attention. These sorts of things that make a connection with perhaps casual browsers and can suck them in to the company, they want to know more and buy the products. I think it’s that openness in telling stories that is just fantastic.
Kristina: I agree. I could have spent all day reading the stories that they share on their site and it is a brand that I love and I am going to continue to check and look back. Again you’ve got to think about it from a marketing perspective. Someone like me loved that story, I want to read more, I’m going to continue to go to their website and check it out. And that’s just a great, natural, marketing strategy that you can only get through these kinds of human interest stories in my opinion.
Ken: And I think for link builders or content marketers, as we approach this, there are a couple of really important lessons to learn here. Just by absorbing what these people have done. First, the entrepreneurial story and the obvious question to ask is “What’s interesting about my life, about how I got here?” And again there is always something interesting like that. But having the confidence to look at yourself and dig out your story and then tell your story this is perfect, got that coverage from BBC and I think that’s fantastic. The second one is to be aware of who is working in your company. Chat the people, get to know their lives, what they are doing and stories like these will emerge. There’s never a shortage of such stories. So I think these two example and our very quick overview of that, I hope it gives people inspiration. It really should give people lots of inspiration because it’s just there to pick up, to read and be inspired by.
Kristina: And these are big companies. And if they have time to do it and are making it a priority, anyone can do it, any of us.
Ken: Yeah, excellent. Kristina thank you so much.