Recent figures for Ireland show there is €49m euro a year spent on social advertising, 2.5m Irish Facebook users, and of which 30% fancy a social media holiday… with that in mind, Brand Love should be a big concern for brand owners, consider it a Tinder for brands, where consumers hold the power to swipe left or right—depending on how you choose to engage with them.
At the most recent Marketing Society Breakfast, Director of Digital at MediaWorks, Emer Lawn spoke about creating brand love through social, her easy to follow, “7 Rules for Friendship”; were designed to showcase to Irish brand owners that connecting with people online isn’t too different to the traditional offline versions; if you want to your consumers to swipe right, follow these rules:
#1 You must know and love yourself first
Like any true friendship, it is based off of honesty and trust, for brands the same applies—a clear brand proposition should be followed in order to give your followers reason to swipe right.
Trust and honesty are important, especially since social media allows brands permission to access a very personal space for consumers. This sometimes can feel intrusive, and if a brand doesn’t offer a genuine reason for the consumer, then why they wouldn’t swipe left.
#2 Enjoy getting to know your friends
Nobody likes a poor trier, the best type of friends are those who remember the little things that make a difference. The same is true for brands. Using data like Facebook Insights to understand what your followers like and don’t like will mean your content will be more relevant to them—giving them less of a reason to unfriend you.
#3 Bring something to the table
Don’t be the boring one whatever you do! Irish consumers receive on average 330 commercial messages a day—don’t let yours get lost amongst the clutter. Stand out or consumers will scroll past!
#4 Be present in the moment
In other words, don’t be that friend who pops in and out every now and again. Agile brands that are great at real time include Tayto, Paddy Power and Glenisk. Their content is relevant to their audience, and conversation worthy.
#5 Quality over quantity
It is easy to get caught up in the numbers, we all do it, however as Emer clearly pointed out—numbers are not the be all and end all. Online metrics will allow you to determine the quality of your audience, use this to identify influencers.
#6 Be friends in real life
Don’t spend all of your time online, start engaging with your audience real time. Have an offline event, and people will bring the conversation online. McDonalds did a great job of this with their McMór launch, where they invited key influencers to be the first to try the burger in an unbranded setting –the online results were phenomenal.
#7 Friends usually have the craic!
Finally, a point which sums up all the other rules, have a bit of fun and give your audience something to talk about!
