Ask Yourself: Why Would Anyone on Social Care About Your Brand Story?

When was the last time you were casually perusing the biscuit aisle and thought to yourself… ‘wow, this is the big biscuit brand that has been made in the same factory for 60 years with the same head baker. That is so amazing... I must purchase these tasty, old biscuits right now’?

…Never. 

That has never happened. So why are you filling your always-on calendars with these stories? Your customer doesn’t care for them, and they don’t answer any of your client’s business objectives. You may as well just burn your client’s money. Go ahead, I’ll watch. 

It’s not 2005 anymore people, you don’t need to be flooding social with meaningless content just for content’s sake, all in the hope of getting a few extra likes to pop in the monthly report. 

No brand is an island. The people you are trying to reach are likely busy being bombarded by not only every other brand in your category, but pretty much every other brand full stop – especially if your target is anywhere between 25-40 (which, in 2018, is pretty much every brand in the world). 

Time for the truth bomb, buckle up.

Real consumers don’t really care about your brand story or those carefully crafted content pillars you poured over for months. That amazing heartfelt brand heritage? It’s going right over their heads. 

But all is not lost, there are four ways you can infinitely increase the chances of people giving a shit about your brand online. 

Consistency 

Say you’re a brand with six content pillars, chances are consumers may only see one or two of these posts. So, to one person you’re ‘the brand with a rich heritage’, then to another you’re ’the innovative one’, while the next person thinks of you as ‘the one with nice photos’. Which seems ok, right? Until the next post they see from you is something totally different, which completely confuses what you stand for as a brand. 

There’s a simple fix. Do one thing and do it bloody brilliantly. So whenever a consumer sees your content, they are under no illusion as to what you stand for. This goes for content, tone, and influencer partnerships – make sure they all ladder up to one grand purpose that encapsulates your brand.

Kickback

What are you offering your audience? Is it entertainment? Or maybe inspiration? It doesn’t really matter what it is, as long as it passes the ‘would I follow this account?’ test. It’s often much better to say nothing than waste time, energy, and budget on something that doesn’t actually move your brand forward. 

Stop reinventing the wheel

Sometimes it is just as simple as creating beautiful content. Not every post needs to be this insane trip into your brand’s inner-most thoughts. feelings and emotions. You need to find your niche, it could be getting influencers to create content for you, collaborating with artists, just being plain hilarious. Whatever it is, hone your craft and commit. No one likes a flake. 

Consumer Focus

It’s time to stop forcing your brand agenda on the people. Just because you think it’s a great story, take a second and put your consumer hat on. Chances are it won’t stick. Your energy would be much better spend conducting proper research into your consumer, with pen-portraits and social listening. Find out what really makes them tick. Are there questions they have that you can answer? Is there a new product that they’re dying to see? 

I bet there is. Give the people what they want and become an agile consumer-centric brand.

Charlotte Willcocks is social strategist at Impero