Social media has become a very powerful tool in the world of business. It has opened up a lot of doors for smaller companies to start competing on the same level as some of these top ranking fortune 500 companies. A lot of these doors, which a mere 5 years ago would have otherwise not been accessible if not for social media. With the such little barriers to entry that are involved with social media almost any company can use it to their advantage. However, not only has social media been a huge benefit for companies, but it is also allowing customers to connect with businesses in a whole new way. One thing social media has changed in the realm of business is the increasing amount of brand awareness companies can achieve with such little to almost no costs. This is extremely important for smaller companies to get their name out there and start driving potential consumers to their products or services. Today I want to talk about how social media can help your company achieve a higher brand awareness and look at some examples and ideas you can use to achieve such possibilities.
The first step to achieving a higher sense of brand awareness is asking yourself “what problems am I or my company experiencing with marketing our brand?” Let’s take a look at a infographic done by NEXT Marketing Agency Inc.
According to this infographic 43% of companies are finding that they have little to no market place distinction what so ever. This means all the efforts these companies are putting in to making themselves known like Facebook posts, Twitter updates, Instagram pics, or what ever it might be; isn’t sticking with consumers. They just aren’t remembering what they read or who they read about. So your job as a marketer is to start garbing the attention of your target audience. Use things that might entice them to either read more, participate into a conversation or better yet consume your product/service. Let’s take Starbucks for example. One thing they are doing to attract customers and gaining brand awareness at the same time is through a new program called “Tweet A Coffee” . Tweet-a-coffee is a new way to send $5 Starbucks egifts to twitter friends and followers. This promotion is attractive to consumers and it is a great way to be remembered. Something of this nature finds a way to burn itself into peoples minds and the next time you go out for a cup a coffee you get that voice in the back of your head saying “Hey, why not go to Starbucks?” This is just one example though, you don’t always have to take it to this extreme. The main thing to remember as a marketer is to make sure to be memorable. Use well crafted wording that is not just easy to remember, but also is intriguing and gets people talking.
The next step or process of increasing brand awareness ties back into what I talked about in a previous post “Consumer Insight: Understanding the Wants and Needs of Your Target Market” and that is understanding your consumers and why they are connecting the way they are. Here is a graph I found over at Barnraisersllc.com in a post about building brands.
This graph shows what motivated consumers to “like” a certain brand on Facebook. This is helpful information for marketers because it provides insight about your consumers and what they are motivated by. Back to the Starbucks example, they obviously saw great results from their promotions because according to this graph 40% of consumers associate with brands because they are looking to receive discounts and promotions. So if Starbucks is giving them what they want of course they are going to stay loyal to their brand. Other than just loyalty, consumer insight also helps give you knowledge about what attracts consumers to your brand so you can grow your online identity. Sir Francis Bacon had it right when he said “Knowledge is the key to success.”
Now that we have be memorable, understand consumer behavior, next let’s move into enhancing your business identity. With this massive movement towards “going green”, we have seen a lot of companies changing their image to focus on being environmentally friendly and socially responsible. This is highly do to the impact a companies image has on the awareness consumers have about their brand.
Level Up Your Social Identity 