When thinking about relationships, it’s often the relationships we have with people that always come to mind. Being in a relationship with another person can derive huge happiness and a sense of identity. The relationships that most challenge us are the ones that provide the most rewards. Being in a romantic relationship is not defined by time or can’t be quantifiable. It’s about endurance (in a positive way) and focusing on providing the little things that matter which strengthens the bonds between people.
A long-term relationship or marriage is effectively an engagement. An engagement can be defined as having an ‘emotional involvement or commitment to each other’. This is hugely important if a relationship is to survive and blossom. You would never enter a relationship with anyone if you weren’t committed. A strong relationship is also fundamentally built upon emotion, trust, loyalty, understanding and listening.
From a Social Media Marketing point of view, relationships with your customers are crucial. Brands on Social Media are built upon creating a community. The foundation stone to building brand awareness on Social Media is engagement with your community and developing those relationships to grow long-term loyalty and value.
It’s important when you get to this point, you need to understand that Content in all aspects of marketing is what your customers feed off. Also remember engagement is not a one way process on Social Media, it’s imperative that you listen to the needs and wants of your community. This enables you to enact and develop content that will deliver successful marketing messages. An engaged community will help to create brand exposure. Remember Social Media Marketing is about marketing with your customers not marketing to them.
Like all relationships it important to keep in mind that you are in this for the long haul on Social Media. Central to this is focusing on creating quality relationships with your community. From a B2C point of view, you must always plan and look to the future and how new trends will impact on your customers. Being ahead of the curve and creating engaging content around this ensures that your brand generates a competitive advantage over your rivals.
What content types should your B2C Company focus on in its Social Media Marketing?
- Imagery – Visual rich images is one of the most engaging types of content on Social Media. Pictures should be used as a visual representation of your brand. Create images that engage people through emotion, creating excitement and also be thought provoking. Also use images to help educate your Social Media community. Your objective should be inspire your Social Media community to share your images therefore increasing brand reach.
- Videos – Videos should be utilised to give your Social Media community a deeper insight to your business. Create videos that opens your business and inspire your Social Media community to be part of your brand journey. Use videos to tell the story of your brand. Also use videos to demonstrate your expertise and educate your Social Media. Keep your videos short and to the point.
- User Generated Content – Motivating your community to provide their content on your Social Media channels demonstrates their love for your brand. It also provides content for your marketing strategy and assist long-term loyalty. User generated content is the strongest possible way to empower your Social Media community and help to build brand awareness in return. Ask your Social Media community to share images, videos etc. of how much your brand is part of their lives.
- Topical/Latest Trends – Always watch out for topical news or stories that are trending online. If it’s relevant to your brand, capture that moment by providing content where you give your opinion or insight into that topic. Use whatever is going on around you to your brands advantage, just make sure it’s relevant and engaging to your Social Media audience.
- Competitions – Rewarding people for their loyalty is a sure fire way of building engagement. Everyone wants to be loved and the best way to reward your Social Media community is by giving something away. Competitions will get people to engage, share your content and help build your Social Media community. Competitions can be used to raise awareness of a new product/service or to educate people about your brand or simply as part of a campaign that you’re running. You can also use competitions to raise awareness of any seasonal promotions e.g. in-store Christmas offers. Make your competitions exciting and encourage community participation on Social Media. The more your Social Media gets involved in a competition, the more it helps to build brand awareness.
If you are a B2C brand, your Social Media Marketing content should be not only be about engaging with people, it’s about a commitment to them. Brand success is achieved and sustained by demonstrating what differentiates you from the rest. This is further reinforced by understanding the relationships you develop with your community and what the brand means to them. Finally we don’t recommend getting on one knee and proposing to them!
To learn how New World Digital can help you build your brand on social media simply Contact Us or give us a call.
