When one thinks of customer engagement on social media, most marketing executives would agree that discounts and sales are the posts most likely to get noticed, right? Maybe not. A new study says that “offer” posts are not as powerful as they once were. Instead, in 2019, more than two-thirds of consumers surveyed said they engage with posts that are entertaining. This is a change from last year, when 67% of consumers said they were likely to engage with posts with discounts and offers.
Why are sales posts losing steam? Surprisingly, the change is not due to losing trust in companies, but rather because of ad overload. 58% of the respondents reported too many ads overall. Log on to Facebook or Instagram and one can see why. So, how does a brand become more entertaining?
BE AUTHENTIC
80% of consumers say that it’s authenticity that motivates them to follow a brand and well, being “salesy” is not all that real. A great way to be authentic is to let enthusiasts speak for themselves in user-generated content. California swimsuit brand Cupshe encourages its community of real women (853K followers) to tag a photo of themselves enjoying their swimwear in real life on social media and this strategy fuels their Instagram feed. Similarly, red hot athleisure brand, Outdoor Voices, encourages it’s 362K followers to tag them in their athletic wear when they are out #doingthings. A benefit of social tagging is that users’ friends see these user-generated tags and can find more about the brand themselves. In just under 5 years, Outdoor Voices has gone from e-commerce only to eight permanent stores in the US and raised an additional $34 million in funding last year on a mission to beat out established brands like Lululemon and Under Armour.
Outdoor Voices followers #doingthings
USE VIDEO AND GIFS
From Snapchat to Facebook to Instagram and YouTube, social video is a must for brands who want to be noticed. Videos achieve more than 1,200% of shares, more than text and images combined and especially with 18-33 year-olds. It’s a powerful ROI for converting customers and encouraging sales. One brand doing this right is mens’ swimwear brand, Chubbies. Their low-budget Instagram video of an employee punching a dummy with a paper cutout Tom Cruise head has 42K views. And, the good news is, no longer do brands have to invest in full scale Hollywood productions to create effective video content. There are a myriad of resources for creating social media-friendly content. Online freelance video producers, animators and writers are aplenty on sites like Fiverr, Upwork and Freelancer.com.
Chubbies has fun with their posts
HAVE FUN
Casper mattresses started out as an online-only mattress shop and has grown it’s business by 100 million each year since it began operating in 2015. The company has expanded into brick and mortar stores and retailers like Target and Amazon and now sells additional products like pillows, sheets, glow lamps and even dog beds. What are they doing right on social? Their viral videos of customers “unboxing” their mattress shipments have thousands of views, their company website makes fun of it’s own tweets and harried office workers can book time for an afternoon snooze in the company’s roaming napmobile, the Dreamery. The company doesn’t take itself too seriously and that is attractive to consumers.
Even more serious brands can benefit from these strategies to build more entertaining social media campaigns. Experiment and then let Beckon be the single source for measuring your return on investment. Dive in deeper here.
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