In this section, we cover:
- Why does your business need to be on social media?
- Connection
- Storytelling
- Engagement
- Brand Personality
- Who are you talking to?
Let’s dive in…
Why does your business need to be on Social Media?
These days, not having a social media presence can make customers think you’re not a serious business. Having at least a Facebook page, Instagram and twitter account are expected – much like having a website, phone number and email address. As well as increased credibility, having a social media presence also increases your discoverability.
Having access to your customer across social platforms also helps you gain valuable customer insights. You can get a lot of information for you potential customers just by watching what they post – who they are, what they’re like and perhaps most importantly, how they perceive your brand.
But aside from these reasons, did you know that in general, people need to experience your brand or see your product an average of 7 times before they will make a purchase? And people are also much more likely to purchase from you over your competitors, if they have a relationship with you. This has become known as the “know, like and trust factor” and is one of the key principles of successful marketing.
“All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, people they know, like and trust.”
Bob Burg
So how do you get people to know, like and trust you? Through connection and engagement (and good branding).
Connection
You need to connect with your customers, on more than just a surface “oh that’s a pretty picture” level.
Build trust through consistent branding – after all, your brand is a promise you make to your customers about the experience they are going to have each and every time they interact with your business.
If you put a little (or a lot) of yourself into your messaging and communications across all the touch-points where your potential customers interact with your brand, they get to know you a little better – they see you are a real person and will identify with you across various points.
“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”
Simon Sinek
Overall you want to engage with your audience to create a conversation and build your relationship with them. This is the reason your business is on social media, because these relationships will be what makes a customer choose to purchase from you over somebody else.
Storytelling
One of the most effective ways of connecting and engaging with your customers is through storytelling.
Storytelling is more than what you say with spoken or written words. It’s how you communicate your message and how you connect with your target audiences.
When you tell a story and express some sort of frustration or pain that you or another person has gone through, your audience might not relate to the specific event, but they will relate to the emotion that was triggered by that event.
Here is an example:
“I remember the last time my sister-in-law came around, we had a nice afternoon chatting and all the kids were playing nicely the whole time. But I noticed my gaze wander every now and again to my old couch that I’ve had since uni, with the faded cushions stained with milo, and I couldn’t help thinking about her lovely stylish home and feel envious of the beautiful designer cushions they always have displayed. But I could never afford anything like that. My house will never be stylish.”
Here we have a pain point – a problem for someone, that could be solved by you, if you happen to (let’s say) design and sell beautiful handmade cushion covers that are affordable for a person within a mid-income range.
If you start to think about your customers as real people with real pain points that your product can solve, you’ll begin to talk to them in an entirely new way. You’ll begin to really speak TO them and not AT them.
Instead of your caption being:
“Monoprint shell cushion, available now”
It could read something like:
“The grubby-finger-monster struck again this morning and I have friends coming around tonight for some kid-free wine-time – luckily our monoprint shell cushion covers are made from 100% washable fabric and I’ve just popped them into the dryer after a quick soak in the machine – I can’t wait to relax with the ladies later!”
The accompanying photo could be one with the cushion styled on a couch, or a “behind the scenes” photo of the cover freshly washed on the line, or one of your kitchen bench or coffee table with the wine glasses waiting to be filled!
I recently bought a clothes dryer after not having one for 9 years. I was thinking recently how easily an appliance company could have sold to me with storytelling:
“Imagine doing 3 whole loads of washing in one day from start to finish, and having the same sheets back on the bed that evening. No more leaving your favourite pants on the line for 2 weeks only to discover they’ve faded from being in the sun too long.”
And now that I’ve got the machine, a solar installation company could sell to me along a similar vein:
“You love the convenience of using your appliances to make life easier (and let’s face it – livable!), but you hate how much energy your household consumes each day. Solar will reduce your bills and be kind to the earth so you don’t have to worry when you’ve done 4 loads in one day.”
It’s all about telling a story that your customer can relate to and easily put themselves into the same situation.
Engagement
Studies are showing that the more engaged a business is with their audience, the more likely those audience members are to become customers.
“Overall, the researchers found that evidence of interactivity is more important to consumers than the belief that a company is reputable and credible.”
Business News Daily
So it’s not just a matter of having a one way conversation – it’s not good enough to push out content on a regular basis (be it inspirational, educational or entertaining) – you must actually interact with the consumer. This could be as simple as including a Call To Action (CTA) in the text accompanying the photo you post: “Do you do this, too? Tell me I’m not alone…” and being sure to answer any replies you get – don’t leave them hanging!
Building community via social media should be a priority for small businesses. Talk WITH your followers, not at them. Ask them questions, encourage discussion, share cool things that you come across online that relates to your industry but isn’t trying to sell them anything. Monitor all your accounts and answer each and every comment with something meaningful (not just an emoji – I am totally guilty of this 🎉🙈😂), and even better, see if you can ask a question back to promote more discussion and engagement. But don’t be fake. People can spot that from a thousand miles away.
“For a long time, the mantra was that social media could bring in new customers. In reality, social media is a community builder, and your biggest fans are your already-loyal customers. When small businesses treat social media as the new word-of-mouth community, the real return will follow.”
John Swanciger
If you can cultivate a community and really make people feel welcome and wanted and valued, even if you don’t purchase from you often (or at all!) they will still feel like they are part of something, and want to tell other people about you. This kind of person is gold to your brand, so treat them like it!
Your brand personality
Your brand “voice” will come across to your potential customer in the tone of your posts, and this, along with imagery and overall messaging, is what forms your brand personality.
You should be conveying a consistent tone across every touchpoint with your potential customers, and this includes over all social platforms (things you post but also any comments you leave on other people’s posts), your emails, your website, your product descriptions, your sales pages, you face-to-face interactions at markets… every experience your customer has with your brand.
“One of the biggest differentiators between Bark & Co and other pet brands is our voice and approach to talking about dogs on social and in the world. At Bark, we think that dogs are hilarious, bumbling, adorable little fart tornadoes, and this is obvious in everything from the hang tags on our products to everything we put on our social platforms.”
Stacie Grissom of Bark & Co
Getting your brand personality to be authentic is super easy when you just be YOU.
It’s especially helpful to know exactly what your brand personality is when you start hiring people to do things like schedule your Instagram posts or draft blog posts for you, or someone to handle customer support emails/calls, or run your market stall. Everyone working for your business needs to be on the same page so your brand stays consistent.
What personality traits do you want your business to have?
casual / friendly / sophisticated / academic / low-brow / funny / crass / adventurous / calm / sweet / blunt / provocative / quirky / vulnerable etc…
What personality traits do you NOT want your business to have?
Who are you talking to?
Knowing who you are talking to will immediately make knowing what to post to social media SO much easier. Know who your ideal customer is, create your customer persona, and talk to that person each and every time you write a caption to go along with an image across social media.
A good piece of advice I once received was to write your captions and posts as if you are talking to one of your good friends – this won’t work for everyone as it really depends on who your ideal customer is and what your brand personality is (mine is very casual), but I think if you keep this in mind when writing your communications (especially replying to customer frustrations!) it will help your customer be able to relate to you as a real person more easily.