PSA: Don’t forget to be “social” on social media.

Social media used to be the “new” thing that everyone needed to jump on, “make sure you have a social media page” would be the number one recommendation when starting your brand marketing communication strategy. Nowadays however, social media is second nature. My son, has a social media account and he’s 3!  To say, you need to have a social media presence as a company at this point in time would be superfluous. 

So yes, all or most companies have social media pages, whether they are on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, or Pinterest, really depends on their strategy and target audience. However, many companies forget the first thing, maybe the most important thing about social media: to be social.  Speaking to and engaging your audience can make such a positive impact on your brand and customers. I have seen companies fall prey to the ease of posting and forgetting all together that what they posts should engage their fans. The use of social media to promote a product or service comes off so pushy and inauthentic, especially if that’s all your company is using it for.

Let’s not forget, social media needs to be social. There are a few ways to go about this, the first method is hiring staff who will speak on behalf of your brand in a style that represents the brand image and voice, Netflix does this very well.  If you weren’t already aware, Netflix has multiple pages on Instagram all representing the different genres of film and television they stream. Visit their pages @netflixisajoke and @netflixfamily and you will see them engage with their followers pretty consistently, but here is the twist, they also engage with each other too.  It’s brilliant. 

Another way to engage and socialize with your followers and fans is to simply care.  Target seems to get this method right. On Target’s Facebook page, you can see how engaged they are with their customers, whether the posts or comments are negative or positive they always seem to be on the pulse of what is going on. 

It seems so simple, but companies who actually spend time listening to their customers are increasing their brand loyalty. This type of engagement shows that behind your brand there are real life people, I mean isn’t that why we are on social media in the first place, for the people.

Lastly, another method of engaging consumers on social media is to use it as a tool to position your brand. Trust and Will is a company I came across primarily because of the way it engaged its consumers on Facebook. As a company whose primary business purpose is to facilitate the creation of living trusts and wills online, the first thing that comes to mind would never be “funny”, but they are! They are so playful in the way they reply to comments that they smartly use their voice on social media to be more than just a boring company. They have strategically created a brand voice that is very different, in a good way, than what you would expect, all by engaging their audience.