Have you ever been in a situation where you were in a segregated part of a room and perhaps two co-workers came into the room, not realizing that you were there and started talking about you? Maybe you sat very still and listened to all they had to say, good or bad, and got the inside scoop on what they really think about you.
What if you could have specific insight into what others are saying about your business across all social media channels and the internet in general?
Sounds a little Agent 007ish doesn’t it?
No, this is not just fiction – it is one of the newest social media trends for 2019 called social listening. Social Mention as well as Sprout Social and Hootsuite, just to mention a few, are employing social listening tools to help you gain insight into what your target audience cares most about.
Of course, knowing what your target audience cares about, and perhaps what they think about your brand or other businesses that are in direct competition with you can help you plan your social media strategy or even plan a change in your overall business strategy.
Perhaps you are noticing how many social media platforms are making use of videos to get a message across. Our attention spans seem to be shorter and shorter, and the use of video can get the message out there to a viewer in a quick snack-sized clip. Take a look at http://cinemagraphs.com/, where the inventors, Kevin Burg, and Jamie Beck, of this new medium in photography called “cinemagraphs”, have created these small clips for many well-known and extremely successful brands.
You can even learn to create these cinemagraphs yourself. Hubspot offers a tutorial, as well as My Modern Met, offers many more examples of these types of clips and information on how to create your own. Another option is Flixel for creating cinemagraphs on the go.
With issues surrounding leaks of information through various social media platforms, the public has grown leerier with respect to the information they choose to share as well as trusting the information they find on social media. What this means is that marketers will need to concentrate more on establishing trust with their target audience, highlighting authenticity and humanity. And when looking to reveal a more human side of a brand it will come in the form of telling a story. Stories can inspire others and make the one sharing them more authentic and personal, and this will be true of brands marketing to their target audience in 2019.
Humans love a good story and your brand narrative is more important with the need to build trust with your target audience. By sharing the story of your brand, people are drawn in by authentic and unique narratives. Showing the face behind the brand is important. Rather than just using a logo to represent a brand, share the story of who your company is by introducing the people behind the scenes using real-life people for avatars and perhaps even sharing their story.
As we move ahead in the world of social media, we find the world is becoming more expectant of instant gratification. The days of sending an e-mail and then waiting for a response are rapidly being phased out by live chats. People want answers and responses – now! For many, the immediate response of customer service via Facebook messenger is more gratifying than a phone call to a receptionist. This should not be seen as a negative though, the more people reach out to you via an instant message, the more you can draw them into your Facebook page and have them interacting with your brand and sharing your brand with their connections. It is a win-win. If you don’t want to be monitoring your messenger account day and night a good idea to consider is using a chat-bot. While they can seem intimidating to start there is a lot of information on how to get everything set up here.
Not in the market for a big-budget of advertising? Get those who follow your brand working for you. Don’t worry, you won’t need to add them to your payroll! They will be working for free.
“How so?” you ask?
Word of mouth essentially. Now perhaps this took the wind out of your sails a little but wait. All this requires is a little effort on your part to get your current audience working with you and contributing. Using graphics of those wearing your brand or using your brand and getting people involved in the sharing with good use of hashtags and maybe even sporting a contest or two. This gets your audience engaged, talking about your products, and sharing with their connections. This creates social proof, trust, and promotion of your brand.
Want to know more about the latest trends and how they can benefit you? Contact us today.