Branding Bees: Social Pollination and Content Harvesting

If we compare brands to plants and flowers, then marketing and communications can be likened to honeybees. In order to frame this analogy a bit more, we must first understand how bees work before explaining how it relates to marketing.

Bees are pollinators, which means they travel from plant to plant for nectar while collecting plant pollen on their legs and sharing it with other plants, which in turn helps them grow. After collecting the nectar, the bees travel back to the hive and process the nectar into honey through an intricate process and with a team of specialist bees.

Now let’s put this analogy into context – marketing (bees) takes brand essence (nectar) with the end goal of turning the essence into actionable content (honey), while also sharing ideas and messages (pollen) across the industry landscape (other flowers).

To further elaborate on the analogy, bees have different jobs just like marketers do. These jobs range from worker bees to fanning bees, all of which contribute to the end goal of honey much like there are public relations specialists and graphic designers in the marketing process. The brand essence consists of thought leadership, CSR initiatives, products and services, and many other aspects that marketers can use to create and harvest original content, just like bees turning nectar into honey. Then there is the idea of social pollination, which can be boiled down into residually sharing components of the brand with the public through channels, like social media, with original ideas that contribute to thought leadership and industry trends.

At HCK2 Partners, we thrive by being busy bees, and love every second in this ‘honey’ making process and sharing through social pollination. We invite you to reach out to us and see how we can sweeten your brand with our services. And the best part about our HCK2 hive – no stingers allowed!