Inbound Innovation in Content Marketing: Brand Stories in Social

Media

Yue Gao

1,*

, Yiwen Yang

and Siyang Yu

Environmental Management, University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K.

Tourism Development and Management, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, U.S.A.

The Attached Middle School to Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China

Keywords: Social Media, Content Marketing, Brand Perception, User Engagement.

Abstract: The generation of social media platforms has amplified the content marketing spectrum to encompass a greater

variety of innovative strategies. Nonetheless, branding strategies must emphasize how they can stand out in a

sea of competing platforms and similar products. This paper discusses the major ideas and difficulties

surrounding content marketing and the capacity of social media to influence brand perception. Through social

media, brands can establish deeper emotional connections with consumers and convey the core values of the

brand. Furthermore, social media has added the aspect of more user interactions and engagement with

consumers. Because of that, innovation is constant, and its purpose is to stay on track with the changes in the

market and consumer demand. This paper proposes the following suggestions: enterprises need to grasp the

spirit of open innovation and good management models, providing target groups with a good shopping

experience and practical value.

1 INTRODUCTION

Being creative is the essence of all marketing

subfields, including content marketing. Some-how

keeping up a brand's intrinsic creativity while

introducing innovations and how to chase prey on

social media or the web already raises important

questions that need to be addressed in content

marketing. Today, in a data-driven world, content

marketing has turned into a vital strategy for brands

wanting to reach their target audiences and establish

fairly durable connec-tions with them. The

emergence of multimedia platforms has shifted the

paradigm of content marketing by social networks

given that they provide a chance to gain an

unprecedented level of depth in consumer

relationships. Social media advertising gives brands

the ability to com-municate through the art of

storytelling by infusing emotional resonance,

imparting brand values, as well as influencing the

perceptions of consumers. Nike is a globally

renowned brand with social media as one of its tools

for creating essence as well as showcasing brand

values and building loyalty through interaction and

emotional engagement with consumers. Teach-ing

the challenges and best opportunities of social media

also makes it possible to develop the methods and

strategies with which to succeed in these areas of

marketing. Thus, nowadays, brands face not only the

new requirements from the new generation of

reformers (where in-novation and technology

development are the main drivers), but they also have

to deal with the opportunities and challenges

presented to them. Consequently, digitalization and

the spread of social media also make consumers more

informed through these sources, which in turn brings

the necessity of telling brand stories on social media

to connect with modern con-sumers. Spreading brand

stories in social media in itself serves to build as well

as strengthen public perception about the brand. An

exhilarating story can make the industry remember

the brand as well as its particular competitive position.

Taking this into consideration, transform-ing

communication methods and integrating diverse

communication channels and forms within the

content marketing context can help brands to better

narrate stories, spread culture, and promote the very

development of brands on social media, which is the

foundation of en-terprise development.

Gao, Y., Yang, Y. and Yu, S.

Inbound Innovation in Content Marketing: Brand Stories in Social Media.

DOI: 10.5220/0013996600004916

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2025), pages 595-600

ISBN: 978-989-758-778-8

595

2 KEY POINTS AND

DIFFICULTIES OF CONTENT

MARKETING

With the advent of the digital era, people's sources of

information have become increasingly diverse, and

the personalized characteristics of consumer behavior

have gradually become prominent. How to utilize

social media to disseminate brand connotations and

effectively tell brand stories are important

considerations in brand content marketing.

2.1 Definition and Characteristics of

Content Marketing

Unlike traditional marketing, which focuses on

product promotion and sales, content market-ing

involves creating, publishing, and sharing valuable

brand content to attract, retain, and convert target

audiences into loyal customers and brand advocates. It

emphasizes audience-centeredness, providing

valuable information and services to establish trust

and emotional connections between the brand and its

audience. The characteristics of content marketing are

as follows:

Firstly, content marketing possesses strong value-

driven characteristics. The core of content marketing

lies in providing valuable content, which is not merely

about the features and func-tions of products, but more

about solving consumers' problems and meeting their

needs and interests. Valuable content can help

enterprises establish trust, making consumers more

will-ing to interact with the brand.

Secondly, content marketing precisely grasps the

audience orientation. Content marketing centers

around the audience or potential audience, deeply

understanding their needs, interests, and consumer

behavior habits, and customizing content that aligns

with their preferences to achieve precise and widely-

covered marketing. Content marketing strategies

should be cus-tomer-centric, considering the 3C--

customer role, customer journey, and customer touch-

points, thereby providing customers with more

personalized content and services, enhancing

customer loyalty to the brand, and promoting the long-

term development of the brand (Lu & Krowinska,

2024).

Thirdly, the forms of content marketing are

diverse. Content marketing encompasses vari-ous

forms, including but not limited to articles, videos,

images, audio, social media posts, etc., with a focus on

dissemination through online media to adapt to the

media usage habits of au-diences in the digital era.

Fourth, data analysis and optimization.

Consumption of content leaves digital traces - data

that users consciously or unconsciously leave behind

(or "give") (Krowinska, et al., 2024). Brands can

analyze data trends and optimize subsequent

marketing directions through content audits -

marketers should set clear goals, extract data from

audit results, and select key data as indicators to

measure and evaluate content performance. Based on

the above data, a required data analysis report can be

generated to provide justification and benchmarks for

later optimi-zation analysis.

2.2 Key Points and Difficulties of

Content Marketing

2.2.1 Originality and Innovation of Content

Narration

In content marketing, the originality and innovation of

content narratives are crucial for at-tracting audience

attention. Content creation has become a core

component of almost all in-dustries capable of

utilizing digital marketing. Generally speaking,

content narration focuses on three perspectives: brand

attributes, inspiration, and self-identity (Zhou et al.,

2021). Tell-ing a unique story that is exclusive to the

brand itself is the fundamental foundation of con-tent

narration. If the emotions conveyed and resonances

expressed in brand stories and experi-ences can evoke

strong resonance and positive emotional feedback

from the majority of the audience, then it is a

successful content narration. It is worth noting that

brand narrative con-tent cannot use mass templates--

borrowing and plagiarism, as most consumers can

hardly tol-erate the appropriation of brand culture.

In this digital era of information explosion, people

can access countless pieces of infor-mation in a short

period, and innovation is a crucial means to attract

audience attention. New expressions, themes, and

perspectives can all inspire brands to create unique

and attractive marketing works.

2.2.2 Focusing on Audience Needs and

Interest Points

Marketing concepts are often generated by combining

two or more ideas into a "novel/original output"

(Terho, 2022). These ideas must be imaginative, new

to the world, refined, personally relevant to the target

audience, and marketing-focused (Titus, 2018). In the

digital era, with an explosion of information, standing

out amidst the vast amount of content has become a

major challenge for content marketing. The

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proliferation of digital content-sharing services

enables users to independently decide what content,

time, and platform to watch, posing a challenge to

marketers and forcing them to create more

personalized content to meet diverse needs.

Furthermore, as the digital marketing landscape

continues to evolve and new platforms emerge, each

with unique features and distinct audiences, a piece of

marketing content that performs well on one social

media platform may not fare as well on another. This

underscores the necessity for marketers to tailor their

content to different digital channels.

2.2.3 Balancing the Relationship Between

Content and Commercial Promotion

The essence of content marketing lies in providing

valuable content, rather than mere com-mercial

promotion. However, in practical operations, brands

often face the challenge of bal-ancing the relationship

between content and commercial promotion. On one

hand, brands need to ensure the independence and

artistic quality of marketing content, avoiding

excessive commercialization and content stereotyping.

On the other hand, brands need to maximize the

display of the actual value of their products and attract

sufficient purchasing power, while also reflecting the

brand's storytelling. This balancing skill requires

brands to possess profound market insight, innovative

content creativity, and precise audience targeting

ability, to stand out in fierce market competition.

2.2.4 Evaluation and Quantification of

Content Marketing Effectiveness

The evaluation and quantification of the effectiveness

of content marketing is another major challenge. Due

to the often lagging and indirect nature of content

marketing's effects, it is dif-ficult to measure directly

through indicators such as sales data. Therefore,

enterprises need to establish a scientific evaluation

system that comprehensively utilizes indicators such

as web-site traffic, social media engagement, brand

awareness, and user satisfaction to evaluate the

effectiveness of content marketing and adjust

optimization strategies accordingly.

3 THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

IN SHAPING BRAND

CONNOTATION

In the digital era, social media has evolved to be one

of the main tools for brands in commu-nication and

shaping. Nowadays, brands no longer limit

themselves to traditional advertising methods but find

a direct interaction platform with their consumers

through social media, which helps build and

disseminate brand image and value. Along with

conventional channels, social media allows brands to

highlight their essence. And not only that, it brings

out the emotional attachment and engagement

between brands and consumers.

3.1 Building Brand Stories and

Emotional Connections

The central concept behind brand storytelling is that

a brand can touch consumers' emotional needs deeply

and create its compelling uniqueness. On social

media, brands can tell their sto-ries via diverse

formats like images, videos, and texts, which can be

shared by users. Such a kind of interactivity and

participation makes storytelling all the more

promising as well as at-tractive. Nike is a brand that

tells rich tales of the human experience in connection

with the brand. As an example, Nike weaved the

personal journeys of athletes (e.g., Klein) in line with

the brand values of "courage" and "transcending

limits" to reach a worldwide discourse around "Just

Do It" and "Dream Crazy" campaigns (Fournier &

Avery, 2011).

Social media allows Nike to narrate the stories to

consumers through advertisements but al-so use

platforms like Instagram and Twitter to have

dialogues with consumers. While echoes of User

Generated Content (UGC) and stories from

consumers involved in the collaborative process

strengthen the brand linkage, the brand enhances the

emotional connection. The use of hashtags like

#JustDoIt and #NikeRunning on Instagram allows

consumers to post their sports adventures and their

testimonies of progress without borders. This instills

strong emo-tional bonds globally.

Retailers use this technique not just for promotion

but for brands to have a well-established image

mingled with daily consumer lives and to feel the

imperishable part of it. Through sport, Nike

exemplifies how even ordinary people can achieve

extraordinary feats and develop a strong emotional

connection with the brand that leads to greater

confidence and loyalty.

3.2 Shaping Brand Image and Value

Recognition

The influence of social media is major in the editing

of brand image. Undoubtedly, social me-dia takes the

Inbound Innovation in Content Marketing: Brand Stories in Social Media

597

form of a window for brands to let consumers peek

through at the way they want them to perceive

themselves. What is more, it also gives consumers a

lead space to convey their thoughts about the brand.

With the bi-directional information flow on social

media, brands build consistency in their image

through timely content updates and customer feed-

back, thus enhancing brand value recognition, among

other things (Wood, 2000).

This maintenance of a brand image depends on the

visual craftsmanship (e.g., logos, prod-uct design, and

so on) together with a brand's essential values and

spirit. Thus, Apple's social media presence is in

harmony with its brand image, being minimalist,

inventive, and high-end, which leads to a clear target

for its brands. This brand positioning is the result of a

wide-spread network of social platforms, which is

characterized not by a straightforward advertising

promotion but by an engaging communication

process that is mutually developed by consum-ers and

brands (Zhang & Kim, 2017).

When devising their strategies for branding social

value identity, some social media brands turn their

attention to consumer communication opportunities.

Consumers do not only re-ceive brand identity. They

are also directly involved in the conversation and

become thinkers through talking, liking, sharing, and

other means to express their identification and

support (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016). This

participatory spirit transforms merchandise into a

kind of "different than life" state and gives a genuine

feeling of belonging, which fuses consumers and

brands.

Take, for example, Starbucks. It regularly

presents topics like sustainability, social responsi-

bility, and public welfare projects on its account,

which further confirms the brand's image of

ecological responsibility (Kotler & Keller, 2016).

These shared values make them feel as if they are not

only supporting a coffee brand. Still, different from

other brands, this one has re-sponsibility and impact

orientation. Thus, the category of what the company

limits to social media is not only product awareness

but also consumer confidence in the brand's worth.

3.3 Enhancing Interaction and User

Engagement

Unlike any other digital marketing platform, social

media stands out with its interactivity. Consumers

directly connect with brands through two-way

conversations. Modern social media has

fundamentally changed the outlook of brands from

being one-sided subjects of infor-mation transmission

to active participants in the conversation with the

consumer. These types of interactions not only

provide valuable insight for brands to identify and

predict customer needs in real-time but also allow

continual adaptation of their marketing strategies,

which lowers the risk of losing ground in competition

(Wood, 2000).

Brands raise interest in UGC and make the

interaction not only about mere communication

between consumers and brands but also about UGC

transmission and exchange. On several social media

platforms, users are encouraged to share their

experiences, write reviews, and post photos of the

products they use and/or consume; these are ways

through which stronger user engagement is created

(Zhang & Kim, 2017). Through the incorporation of

events or challenges into the social media pages, Nike

gets people to post their athletic videos and feats to

establish a collaborative partnership with customers.

This participation feeling creates a close bond

between the brand and its market, wherein the

consumer views themselves as a team member

planning the brand story.

Furthermore, social media communities provide

instant feedback that inspires brands to keep their

target audiences up-to-date. Such feedback is

important for adapting branding cam-paigns and

content creation, which increases the chances of

brand communication being suc-cessful (Kotler &

Keller, 2016). Observing Z-cut campaigns on social

media channels, a brand can gather in-depth

information to identify consumer preferences and the

corresponding ad-vertisements, thus making

strategies for upcoming promotions.

Social media acts as a laboratory for analyzing

attitudes and behaviors. Various analytics arise as

brands swiftly gather extensive consumer

information. By unknown methods, brands adeptly

understand how different strategies function.

Consequently, they can more accurately tailor their

brand strategies and become successful competitors.

4 SUGGESTIONS FOR BRANDS

TO EFFECTIVELY TELL

THEIR BRAND STORIES ON

SOCIAL MEDIA

Nowadays, more and more brands have joined the

ranks of those who disseminate their own culture on

social media. Social media has brought convenience

to the dissemination of brand culture, but at the same

time, how to truly disseminate the brand's own culture

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has become a question that every brand will ponder

over. Brands need to think about how they can

compare and stand out among numerous platforms

and similar products in related industries.

4.1 Deepening the Connection Between

the Brand and Consumers

4.1.1 Be Targeted

In the current era of high traffic, an increasing number

of social media platforms are emerg-ing, each with

distinct communication methods and target audiences.

Therefore, if a brand wishes to maximize its

promotional impact, it should post targeted marketing

content on vari-ous platforms.

Taking Xiaohongshu as an example, it is a social

media platform that combines video and image-text

formats. By comparing users' preferences and

browsing dwell time through big da-ta, Xiaohongshu

calculates the most likely similar content that users

are interested in and pushes it to them, thus creating a

harmonious content ecosystem. It should be noted

that cre-ators provide a comment section under each

note for other users to exchange views, making

browsing notes a social way. Under the influence of

social mode, the wording of content mar-keting

becomes softened, enhancing users' desire to

purchase products. While conveying brand stories, it

can also increase the popularity of the brand at that

time. In summary, light social interaction, high

quality, and strong ornamental notes are likely to

stand out in Xiaohongshu and become excellent

content marketing (Liu, 2024).

Therefore, brands must be clear about the

consumption level of their products within the current

product chain, and then use different methods to

attract users at that level. Taking Xiaohongshu as an

example, only when users click on the notes posted

by the brand can they potentially purchase the

company's products. In short, brands should focus on

analyzing the target audiences and groups of different

platforms, as well as the information presentation

characteristics of the platforms. By combining the

characteristics of the brand, they can de-sign and

present corresponding content to target groups.

4.1.2 Maintain Originality

With the rapid development of the internet era, the

speed of information transmission is get-ting faster

and faster. Homogenized information transmission

cannot serve as a marketing tool for a company

striving for growth, and such an approach can also

limit the company's devel-opment space within the

industry. Therefore, it is particularly important to find

ways for a brand to stand out among the mainstream.

This requires not only the right timing but also the

brand's belief in adhering to its original aspirations

and continuously innovating and evolving.

For brands, the most crucial task is to capture the

attention of the general consumer audi-ence and

stimulate their purchasing desire, thereby increasing

the likelihood of them purchas-ing products.

However, when browsing social media, consumers do

not want to be disturbed by various similar brand

cultures and advertising messages. Most of the time,

the general pub-lic pursues niche interests. This

psychological characteristic makes them want to see

some-thing novel and distinctive, including the

brands they may encounter. If the marketing con-tent

of this brand is loved by the target audience and

unique within the same industry, they may

recommend the brand to their acquaintances. By

combining audience preferences and striving for

innovation and uniqueness, the dissemination of

brand culture will become faster and more

convenient, and the company's reputation will also

increase accordingly.

4.2 Diversification of Communication

Forms

4.2.1 Infotainment

With the continuous development of the economy,

people's desire for entertainment has be-come

increasingly strong. Entertainment has gradually

become a significant part of today's so-ciety.

Moreover, entertainment is not limited to the

entertainment industry. Almost any field can be

seamlessly integrated with entertainment, which

makes people more willing to explore new things,

including those they may not ordinarily be inclined to

engage with (Wu, 2005).

The characteristic of entertainment-oriented

advertising lies in its strong entertainment col-or and

function while disseminating advertising

information. Therefore, to spread brand cul-ture,

making the information that the brand wants to

convey as entertaining as possible is un-doubtedly a

more likely way for the audience to accept the brand

culture.

4.2.2 Conduct UGC Activities

UGC is an internet term that has emerged in recent

years, referring to User Generated Con-tent. Before

Inbound Innovation in Content Marketing: Brand Stories in Social Media

599

UGC became popular among most brands, companies

typically relied on their op-erational accounts to

publish content related to their products. Most people

who do not active-ly follow brand promotions on

social media, would simply scroll past, and carefully

designed cultural promotions may not have much

effect. The emergence of UGC has solved most of

these troubles for brands. Unlike promoting one's

own company's account, there is no need to worry

about platform restrictions on the account's activity

leading to a lack of viewers. Each blogger introduces

products in different ways; some use reason, some use

emotion, and some combine the two by using

emotional language. Emotional language is the ability

to fuse user language and product language

perceptually, touching the inner feelings of the target

audi-ence (Chen, 2024). Plus, bloggers have a fixed

fan base who will watch the content posted by the

bloggers. In summary, content marketing through the

UGC model is a low-risk, high-return marketing

method for brands.

5 CONCLUSION

In summary, the focus of content marketing lies in

creating valuable brand content to attract and convert

target audiences. The challenges include ensuring the

originality and innovation of content narration,

making brand content stand out in an era of

information explosion; fo-cusing on audience needs

and interests to achieve personalized and unique

marketing; closely linking content with commercial

promotion to avoid excessive commercialization

affecting the promotion of brand connotation; and

evaluating and quantifying the effectiveness of con-

tent marketing to establish a scientific evaluation

system. These challenges require brands to possess

profound insight and innovation capabilities.

Through social media, brands can estab-lish deeper

emotional connections with consumers, convey the

core values of the brand, and shape a unique brand

image. In addition, the interactivity and user

engagement of social me-dia further enhance the two-

way communication between brands and consumers,

helping brands maintain vitality in the market and

increase consumer loyalty. In this era, brands need to

continuously innovate in promotional marketing

methods to cater to public demand and market

changes. Under the continuous competition and

interaction of products within the same category, the

enterprises behind them will also become more

vigorous. In this era, enter-prises need to grasp the

spirit of open innovation and good management

models, providing target groups with a good shopping

experience and practical value.

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTION

All the authors contributed equally and their names

were listed in alphabetical order.

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