It’s Time to Get Real: 4 Easy Tips for Authentic Social Media Marketing
Would you swap out your receptionist for a robot? Your front desk staff for a welcome sign? For the same reason you want your business to have a human face on these fronts, you should want that for your social media marketing. In fact, 90% of consumers rate authenticity as important when choosing brands to support.
We are not dropping our scoop on the floor by suggesting you shouldn’t use professional social media marketing for fear of losing authenticity. Rather, we are suggesting you create your social media yourself using these tips only if you are truly passionate about social media. If not, liaise with an award-winning social media firm like iScreamSocialMedia, while implementing some of these pearls to save your team and you time, and grow your results.
Here are 4 ways to ditch the “corporate” look and bring authenticity to your social media whether you invest in elite social media support or DIY.
1. Focus on Social Media Marketing Engagement
You know those types of friends who forget to text you back, or don’t respond for days later? Are you that friend? Don’t be (in your personal or professional life)! Your followers want to know that you’re a real person who actually cares about them. If they take the time to comment, make sure to respond promptly – within a couple hours at most – and try to boost engagement by striking up a conversation. Ask them a question to dive in deeper. Not only will you build genuine relationships that drive sales, but the more comments you have on a post and the faster you respond, the more the social algorithm will work in your favor. Don’t have highly trained superstars who can reply that quickly, or not worth your time? Contact us.
2. Develop Content from Outside the Office
Your life outside the office is an important element to your social media. Your followers can get to know you better and connect with you based on shared interests. It’s a way to build meaningful rapport before you even meet your customers.
Decide from a branding perspective what you deem appropriate. Last year’s trip to Napa Valley? Photos of your kids? A night out with the team? A throwback from high school? Your best guitar riffs? Once you decide on this, you can sprinkle in the occasional post unrelated to work and you’ll likely find these types of posts draw greater engagement.
3. Lose the Stock Photography
If you do nothing else for your social media, stop using stock photography or authentic photos that look like stock photos. Most of your followers have been drowned in 100s of daily advertisements for years. Their subconscious minds can spot stock photography from a lightyear away and it tells them 1) you don’t care enough to create a real post for that topic, or 2) you have someone else creating your social media for you (though you may have an external team, it shouldn’t be obvious — content should seem local, but those who wish to profit tend to use professional firms if, again, they do not love investing hours, daily, into their social media feeds). While the occasional use of carefully selected stock photography is fine, great emphasis should be placed on “carefully selected.”
4. Get Loco with Local Content
Whatever you are about to use stock photography for, you can likely create yourself in a more authentic way. If you’re worried about quality, almost any newer smart phone will suffice, and we have some great tips to take the images from good to great. If you can invest a few hundred dollars, a proper lens and superb Nikon or Canon are a cost-effective upgrade. But guess what? Even if it doesn’t always look professional, that could be a good thing, especially for the Gen Z and Millennial crowd, who enjoy more real and raw content.
The reality is the majority of the posts our fabulous team create here at iScream are video-based as TikTok, Instagram, Stories, Snapchat and even Facebook and LinkedIn favor video over photographic content. Why? It comes back to authenticity. Do you get to know your friends best through photo albums or a conversation? Both can be useful, but live communication is more engaging to most.
Instead of choosing a stock photo of a model to put next to your latest product, take a photo of yourself or a staff member with it — or better yet, a descriptive video showing how it works. Q&A videos are another great way to involve your audience and get some information out there about your products/services. And of course, testimonials from happy clients/customers are another great resource.