In a digitally-powered world, social media has grown from a space for connecting with your loved ones to being a major part of their everyday life. Social media is where all the news drops. It is no longer driven by conversations that start with ‘Hi’, ‘Hello’, ‘How are you?’, but rather, focused on the gratification of – ‘Like’, ‘Comment’, ‘Share.’
For brands, however, it is not just about being popular, but about engaging with the audience and making their presence felt. Social media is the platform to connect, create, and converse, to boost your brand (and ROI) both online and offline.
In this vast digital ecosystem, there is immense potential to build activity and engagement. Armed with a tool as powerful and omnipresent as social media, you can effectively focus on changing public perception of your brand, collecting personal feedback about new products, developing customer leads, and raising awareness among the audience.
Find Your Niche
There is no right or wrong when it comes to social media engagement. But it is imperative to check what works for your brand and what does not. From artsy images and witty memes to long texts, inspiring videos to influential posts, anything can tilt in your favour. However, amidst this ocean of choices, one thing that should remain constant is your brand identity.
Just uploading images or captions also does not do the work. Get creative! Engaging users in contests, polls, encouraging the audience to ask questions, and spotlighting customers are just some of the ways to get the audience to interact with your brand. Sparking up a quick conversation with your followers is a way to ensure engagement. The users the brand interacts with are more inclined to comment or follow future posts based on your one reply. You are not only creating engagement, but also customer loyalty, which manifests into word-of-mouth for your brand and/or services.
Interact With Your Target Audience
If you want the brand to reach the masses, then let users have a say in the decision-making process. When brands reflect those recommendations or suggestions, they connect with the audience and make them feel involved with the brand. Giving a shout-out to customers and sharing their stories on your social media network also does the deed!
If you truly want to engage on social media, then keep the audience privy to the craziness that goes behind the curtains. This kind of personalisation with the audience paves the way for personal relationships and builds a collective mojo that makes your tribe one-of-a-kind!
Focus on Building a Brand Persona
Considering the turbulent times that we are in, brands that voice out and reflect their thoughts in their products speak volumes. It is a popular sentiment that brands that don’t stand for something important stand for nothing.
For instance, Dove’s steady and impactful social message through the ‘Real Beauty’ campaign has struck a chord time and again. The brand highlighted the message that the beauty of real human values exceeds surface aesthetics. The ‘Courage is Beautiful’ campaign effectively honoured healthcare workers who have been working tirelessly throughout the Coronavirus pandemic.
Similarly, Nike’s recent ‘Play for the World’ campaign stressed the importance of social distancing during the ongoing pandemic. Despite already being well-established, these brands have continued engaging and sharing their ideologies on social media platforms. Their understanding and approach towards social media has been a big part of the marketing strategy.
In a nutshell, brands that continue to create content and optimise on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other relevant platforms have an edge over their counterparts who haven’t learnt the impact of social media.
Social media is an audience’s window into your brand. If you want your brand to remain relevant and users to remember you, find the best way to enhance your ideology through social media. At the end of the day, your brand’s social media must reflect and establish your brand’s name in the hearts and minds of your customers, thus pushing the envelope to be remembered above the parameters of - ‘Like’, ‘Comment’, ‘Share’.