Ever wondered why you prefer one brand to another? Indeed, you don’t follow just anyone on social media. Hitting the like or follow button is prompted by a number of things: the fact that you found the post interesting, the content evoked a certain emotion in you, you related to the message conveyed… It’s a question we’re sure everyone will have a different answer to.
How to build brand love on social media is a question that plagues many companies. And for good reason! Loved brands – those that put the customer first – grow three times faster than the industry average, according to research by Talkwalker and Hootsuite. To achieve this though you need to know the codes and expectations of consumers. You can’t just post anything you like. You need to think of your audience first.
Feel a little lost? Don’t worry, we’re here to guide you and help you understand how to get people to value your brand on social networks.
Building brand love – no small feat
As usual, let’s start with some figures. In a recent study, Talkwalker interviewed brands and consumers to better analyse their relationships on social networks. Are they on the same wavelength? Are they talking about the same things? Do they have similar desires? The results are not very reassuring.
According to the report, 33.1% of consumers and brands share the same conversations. However, 54.1% of companies are not included in discussions with their target customers. Lastly, 12.7% of conversations led by brands fail to resonate with their audience. What can we learn from these figures?
It’s clear that brands struggle to understand target consumers’ topics. Some of them don’t even take the time to listen and to be interested in the issues that drive them. On the consumer side, this is reflected in their post-lockdown desire to have quicker responses from brands and faster delivery. Customer satisfaction is more important than ever. This is still not very understood by companies. Between March 2020 and January 2022, reports of positive customer experiences on social networks fell by 17.5%.
Consumers now focus on specific aspects of a company. In a study conducted by Sprout, they shared the three things they look at carefully:
- customer service for 47% of them,
- commitment for 46% of them,
- transparency for 44% of them.
Even with this in mind, the gap between consumers and brands has been widening for several months, if not years. But there’s a solution! And we’ve got some ideas for you to win your target customers back over.
Enter influencer marketing
How can you ensure that you re-establish or build stronger links with the consumers you want to reach? Influencer marketing may be the key for brands if they want to work on their brand image and more. But you need to know how to use this tool properly.
While influencers are now seen as real public figures, we mustn’t forget that they’re basically ordinary consumers. They started on social networks, sharing product reviews without being paid for many years. Their goal was to inform their audience on the latest products. As they became better known, their views became increasingly respected. According to Rakuten, 80% of consumers have made a purchase following an influencer’s recommendation.
By collaborating with them, brands have the potential to quickly boost their visibility. But that’s not all. They also have the opportunity to better understand their customers’ expectations. Social media communities come in lots of different sizes. While the most followed influencers are considered real stars, others are thought of as friends whom we go to for product recommendations. This is called micro-influencing. These content creators have communities of fewer than 50,000 followers, or even much smaller, but have managed to gain their trust. They are people just like them, who have jobs and share their passions on social media.
By running campaigns with these content creators, brands speak directly to their target consumers. Take Immy Lucas or Sustainably_vegan for example. She is a young woman who is trying to lead a zero waste lifestyle. Brands that come to her for partnerships do so because part of her community might not have bought the product by themselves.
Product feedback thus allows the brand to understand what they liked, but also to see how their image and values are perceived. Influencers will focus on the aspects that may be of interest to target consumers.
Let’s take an example to make it easier to understand. Let’s say you’re a company offering eco-friendly toothbrushes and you send one to Immy. If she decides to focus more on the toothbrush head rather than the packaging, it’s probably because the former is more likely to engage the brand’s target audience. They must then use this information to derive their strategy and avoid expressing themselves on things that are far removed from their community.
Collaboration can also allow brands to win back the hearts of their target audience. A few years ago, Gucci reworked their image to better meet the expectations of young people: LGBTQ+ positioning, a focus on Instagram communication, etc.
Influencer marketing thus allows brands to gain credibility with a specific community, improve their brand image and win the sympathy of some of the content creators’ audience. Outside of collaborations, all the topics mentioned by the influencer or their followers should be taken into account if the company wishes to continue to keep close links with their community and new people.
How about you? Do you know why you follow brands on social networks?
Sources:
Talkwalker, Sprout, Talkwalker
