What do you usually see when you’re scrolling down your social feed? What makes you stop to hit that “like” button or leave a comment?Social media has dramatically changed the landscape of how brands interact with consumers. Even though social media platforms are constantly evolving, one thing remains constant:
long gone are the days of one-sided conversations, folks want social interaction! Here is some of the most up-to-date information on how to effectively get noticed, stop the scroll, and connect with your audience.
Let’s Get Emotional
In the Administrative Sciences Journal, Monica Gomez-Suarez, an expert within Finance and Marketing, investigated the relationship between emotional attachment, brand love, and customer engagement. A key takeaway from her study explains that brands should generate content that ignites positive emotions and long-term feelings within their audience. By doing this consistently you’ll be able to create an emotional bond with your audience which increases the probability of them translating into loyal consumers.
Let’s be honest, because I know I’m not the only one—I don’t have time to waste on things that don’t bring me joy. After dealing with the real-world during the day, I turn to social media for pleasant distractions. Over the years of making my likes and dislikes known, my feed has become an individualized spread of things that make me happy. As a growing brand, you want to produce content that will consistently get you on the personalized feeds of your target audience!
Researchers Christina qweruiop GiaKoumaki and Areti Krepapa from the Psychology and Marketing Journal, explored this emotional bond further within luxury brands. Not surprisingly, they noticed that content that was visually inspiring and emotional were more likely to create and preserve engagement.
Look at Maniology, a nail stamping company that motivates women to embrace their creativity and express themselves through nail art. In the post above, they elicit positive emotions within their followers by grabbing their attention, instilling a sense of awe at the artwork created with nail stamps, and inspiring women to embrace adventure and unleash their own creativity.
Add Value and Benefits to Followers
Gomez-Suarez’s research also suggests that aligning with the values of your audience, strengthens the attachment and emotional bonds that are developed. If your brand relates to the values and beliefs of your target audience this will solidify the emotional bond that has already been formed, and they’ll start to align themselves with your brand and share it with their social circles.
A brand that does a fantastic job of relating their product to their audience’s core values and beliefs is Rothy’s. Their mission is to reduce the amount of waste produced by the apparel industry and create products made from recycled materials. This is a mission that many can get behind and are excited to share these comfy, sustainable shoes with their social networks.
If your brand doesn’t have an awesome sustainable mission or product, no worries! You can add value and benefits through your interactions. In the Journal of Business Research, Paul Harrigan and a team of researchers also investigated consumer brand engagement. They specifically studied how organizations can develop stronger connections with their followers and increase the likelihood of them continuing to interact and visit their websites and social pages. The gist of his research is, every person weighs the pros and cons of continuing to interact with brands on social media. If your brand is providing something of value to them, they’ll continue to engage and interact. On the flipside if you’re not providing any social or emotional benefit, engagement is likely to decrease. It’s important to recognize that you are building a lasting rapport with your audience—and it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Basically, I like to think of consumer brand engagement like developing a friendship. You chat every now and again, and you realize this person is funny and you really enjoy your conversations with them. The casual chat then evolves to meeting for casual drinks where you learn that you both love cooking, running, and living a sustainable lifestyle. You soon realize they’re just as cool as you thought, and you think it would be a great idea to invite them to your weekend movie night with all your friends, they’ll fit right in! However, the new friendship isn’t going to sustain itself, it requires both parties to actively participate. Look at the above screenshot, beyond their products, Rothy’s talks to their consumer audience as if they are a friend which adds value to the consumer experience. This also helps to solidify the emotional bond and increases positive social interactions which will increase their overall engagement levels.
Publish User Generated Content
Giakoumaki and Krepapa determined that content that is created and posted by a brand’s customers and influencers has a much further reach, and also invites more engagement than a typical brand post. These types of posts appeal more to a brand’s audience because by seeing how other people use the product, they can more easily envision themselves using the product as well.
Harrigan also explains that stories are a main strategy for developing brand content, and one of the most effective ways to tell your narrative is by simply sharing consumer stories on social media.
It’s also valuable to consider that with the increasing number of bogus products and brands are creeping their way into our feeds, it is becoming more difficult to differentiate the good from the bad. We’ve all been burned once or twice by seemingly amazing products only to be disappointed when they arrive, which is why it’s challenging to establish consumer brand trust. Harrigan, also mentions that consumer brand stories are helpful in highlighting positive customer experiences and providing your audience with a pathway for establishing new positive interactions and engagement with your brand.
Passion Planner does a great job with consumer engagement. They host a #plannercrushwednesday where they showcase a consumer photo for the week. You’ll notice in the above post that they provide some encouragement which is strengthening the emotional bond while also providing value to their audience. I think it’s unique that they refer to their audience as Pashfam, because once you commit to a Passion Planner, you’re a part of the family. They’ve marketed this term to their advantage and created #pashfam for users to share how they’re using their planner. The screenshot above is the optimal example, someone posted using #pashfam and simply shared what their day looks like with the planner. Now here’s the gold, you’ll notice that in the comments people are curious about the product and the consumer raves about how much she loves it and is able to organically make a recommendation to others.
With every post that you’re creating I want you to think about whether this is going to help build that friendship with your audience. Does the content you’re about to post appeal to their emotions, does it add a value or benefit, or does this display a positive consumer experience? If not, you might want to rethink your strategy.
Which tips are you going to implement within your social media content? Do you have any additional tips or suggestions? Let me know in the comments below. If you liked this post, please share!
The Social Media Enthusiast 