Socialseal Strategy Readiness

SocialSeal Strategy Readiness

Overview

Creative production can require brand foundations that are not yet available. This skill diagnoses only the foundations needed for the requested creative task. Routine group reads, account metrics, supplied-video analysis, and exports do not require this readiness check. Guiding means teaching the concept and proposing a concrete, SocialSeal-backed way to define it, not asking "please input your personas."

Use this guidance when missing strategy affects requested creative production. See references/strategy-foundations.md for the concept definitions and derivation methods, references/evidence-and-confidence.md for how to talk about what the data can and cannot prove, and references/creative-production-gates.md when this readiness check precedes a large creative task.

When to Use

• A request assumes personas, pillars, brand voice, or goals that may not exist.
• A new brand/workspace with no clear strategy.
• Before creative production when required brand facts are missing.

Readiness diagnosis

Assess two halves and report each as ready / partial / missing.

Strategy foundations

• Target personas: named viewers with a job-to-be-done and hesitations, not just demographics.
• Content pillars: 3-5 durable themes, each tied to real tracked search demand.
• Brand voice: tone, point of view, and hard constraints (claims to avoid).
• Brand utility bank: products/services actually offered, exclusions, real tips, itineraries, routes, timings, prices, proof, and facts needing confirmation.
• Goal / measurement intent: which pillars/keywords, market, and platform to improve, with a baseline.

SocialSeal setup

• working access mode:
  • hosted connector MCP tools are available (socialseal_list_workspaces succeeds), or
  • developer CLI/local MCP authentication works (socialseal whoami or MCP workspace discovery succeeds), or
  • file mode has enough SocialSeal CSV/JSON exports for the requested analysis
• correct workspace selected
• clean tracking groups (one platform, one market/language, one intent) covering the priority pillars
• groups have items, a baseline run, and exports that produce rows (or a known empty reason)

Guided workflow

1. Diagnose. State what exists, what is partial, and what is missing across both halves. Use what the user said plus any SocialSeal access (list workspaces/groups, inspect exports).
   • If SocialSeal tools are not initially visible, use the host's tool search/discovery facilities before diagnosing missing access. Only give setup guidance when discovery or an actual connection state confirms it. Do not dead-end on missing tools.
   • If the connector cannot be connected, continue in file mode if the user can provide SocialSeal exports. Mark live setup actions as unavailable in file mode.
   • If local developer MCP/CLI auth fails, complete device login first. Do not ask for payment during first setup; new users start free.
2. Explain the gap. For each missing foundation, give a one or two sentence plain-language explanation of what it is and why it matters. Do not assume the term is understood.
3. Propose a SocialSeal-backed way to define it. Concretely:
   • Personas: run a search journey on the category, read which questions/jobs surface, cluster keywords, and propose 2-4 personas grounded in real search behavior for the user to confirm.
   • Pillars: cluster the tracked keyword set and surfaced content into 3-5 candidate pillars relevant to the user's brand and product USPs, each validated for search demand and a presence gap.
   • Brand voice: ask for existing guidelines; if none, draft a short voice note from how the brand talks on their website and in existing social videos, or from high-surfacing creator tone in the category, then confirm.
   • Brand utility bank: inspect approved project materials, product/service pages, itineraries, call notes, existing content, and asset metadata. Draft a table of useful facts with source and status (confirmed, needs confirmation, out of scope). Ask the user to correct or select, not to write the bank from scratch.
   • Goals: pick priority pillars/keywords and capture the current measured discoverability/SOV baseline so movement is checkable.
4. Offer, do not demand. Present the proposal and ask the user to confirm or adjust. If they already have a foundation, capture it and move on.
5. Route. Hand off to the right skill: socialseal-workspace-setup and socialseal-tracking-group-design for setup gaps; socialseal-opportunity-analysis to turn readiness into opportunities; the production chain once foundations hold.

Output

• a short readiness report: each foundation and setup item marked ready / partial / missing
• for each gap: a one-line explanation and a proposed SocialSeal-backed way to define it
• a confirmed or draft set of personas, pillars, voice note, brand utility bank, and goal where the user engaged
• the recommended next skill and why

Do / Don't

Do:

• explain every unfamiliar concept in plain language before asking about it
• propose to produce missing foundations with SocialSeal research, then confirm with the user
• ground proposed personas/pillars in real surfaced search behavior, not invention
• treat exclusions and claim confidence as hard constraints; demand does not override what the brand actually offers
• be honest that proposed personas/pillars are hypotheses to validate (see references/evidence-and-confidence.md)

Don't:

• ask the user to "input personas/pillars" with no explanation or help
• invent personas or pillars with no search evidence and present them as fact
• block all progress on one missing input when you can guide the user to it
• skip the setup half; a strategy with no clean tracking groups cannot be measured

Verification Checklist

• Both halves (strategy foundations + SocialSeal setup) were diagnosed.
• A brand utility bank captures useful material, exclusions, sources, and facts needing confirmation.
• Every missing foundation got a plain-language explanation.
• Each gap has a concrete, SocialSeal-backed proposal, not just a request for input.
• Proposed foundations are labeled as hypotheses to confirm.
• A specific next skill was recommended.