Each Marketer seeks to build brand loyalty through social media for his product or service.
Can you imagine our happiness by the number of post’s share? or when people search for our brand using our hashtags?
The best-case scenario for us is when
- Finding our brand tagged and recommended
- Receiving user-generated content directly through our inbox.
In order to push our company’s towards success and growth and to turn this into a reality, we can use social media to build or strengthen our brand loyalty.
Have you heard about community management job?
Community manager’s job is about building brand loyalty through social media channels.
If you ask any moderator about building a loyal community on social media, he will tell you that you have to give and wait until you gain a return.
Loyalty is a worthy investment that needs patience because you are trying to get this tangible brand experience into life, by satisfying the emotions and needs of your customers.
So, Brand loyalty on social media is about brands showing their human side, their voice and taste.
You have to socialize with people to win their likes, comments, follow, shares, and compliments.
You also should be open to receive reviews and feedback, whether positive or negative.
People can remember feelings, it is our human nature and one of the ways through which we build our experiences.
Brand loyalty is stronger and unlike customer loyalty.
Customer loyalty is like a repeated pattern that they do to fulfill their physical needs.
It drives the customer to search for prices and not for a specific brand, he is tied to budget and his buying decision will be based on incentives, offers, multi-buy deals or reward programs.
Brand loyalty appears clearly in unconscious buying behavior and the decision is made due to “Blind Loyalty”.
If your brand delivers the emotional need to your customer, then you are the master in your industry market.
You can relate to this emotional connection, it is the same as the situations that stick to your memory when you were a student.
For example, you may forget your teacher or doctor’s name, but you can’t forget how he made you feel about yourself.
So, he has an identity and definite image, even if you can’t remember his name or figure out his face.
But when we talk about brand loyalty in any industry and at any time, we should mention the brand persona, its logo, slogan, and the overall image that each brand shows, to be able to meet customers and to add value to his life.
It is somehow similar to friendship goals, but brands have to under-promise and overachieve.
Brand Loyalty examples can be strongly revealed in our perception of “McDonald’s” slogan: “I’m loving it”, “Apple’s” logo, “Coca-Cola’s” excitement personality, and “Nike’s” respect and support messages to sportive people, despite their race, religion, nation or culture.
Those brands are not just caring about achieving their sales quota at the end of the year.
Loyalty influences and formulates brands’ success stories.
Loyal customers delay or forgo their purchase if your product is not available at the stores.
Do you remember the thousands of queues of “Apple” fans at stores when it released the iPhone x?
Those queues represent the true meaning of loyalty. They are bonded to many years of apple’s innovation and success in exceeding their expectations.
It elicits their sense of exclusivity, belonging and importance.
How do you know if you have loyal customers?
If they are loyal and don’t hear from you or stop receiving your newsletter, they will ask and search for your news.
The key value of any human, sustainable and friendly relationship is commitment.
Social media moves the roadblocks for you, it supports instant communication and connection, to deepen the brands and customers relationship.
Have you noticed the recent Facebook update that award the loyal fans by the badge “top fans“?
This is just one of the tricks through which it is trying to open your eyes, to consider the significant importance of loyal Facebook fans for your business.
In fact, you have to innovate and go above and beyond the normal in your social media moderation strategy.
It is obvious how social media channels itself especially Facebook, Instagram, and What’s app develop updates regularly, they succeed in making us loyal and so, they can stay ahead of the competition.
For instance, Facebook cares for all customers, those who use emojis in their daily chatting and marketers like us who use ads manager at their work.
Be a loyal brand to receive loyalty.
Online brand image depends on building brand loyalty in terms of building and maintaining engagement with your fans on social media.
Imagine that you have loyal fans who just inbox you to say good morning! They love to communicate to the person who talks to them from behind the scenes through social media, YOU!
People come back to you if you interact with them like a human who shows his personality and voice.
The stronger the brand presence and engagement on social media, the easier it is to build a community and have brand ambassadors.
So, instead of depending on social media influencers, you can have loyal fans who have the ultimate power, to boost your brand organically and spread awareness about your product or service among their connections.
How to build your loyal community on social media?
Social media is an opportunity to create a compelling story that your audience can become emotionally invested in, beyond their need for the product or service. Take consumers along for your brand’s journey and make the experience interactive so that they have a say and feel like they are a part of the brand’s success. —Rakia Reynolds, Skai Blue Media.
According to Hootsuite, digital consumers spend nearly 2.5 hours on social networks and social messaging every day.
You have to fuel your relationship with your fan who like your social media page as they are already interested in your brand and so, there is a potentiality to be your loyal fans.
1. Social Media helps you maintain a successful relationship with your niche, to turn them into lifetime customers.
2. If you have a loyal fan base, they will search for you using your hashtags.
3. People should be able to find you if they search for your brand name, product or service that you offer.
4. Your fans should hear or see your reactions to the trends that resonate with them.
You can’t ignore the fact that social media is irreplaceable.
For your customers and for you, it is one of your digital tools to socialize and have fun, and to get involved in social causes and news, according to your industry and persona.
5. Hashtags are part of the compelling story that you craft for your brand and should be a way to build consistency through your social media channels.
6. Increase your post engagement, by replying to your customers’ comments and review.
Because organic engagement affects your overall reach, it doesn’t just depend only on the high budget that you spend on your posts.
7. Social listening is a must for your business.
Brands hire community managers to monitor and listen to people who are talking about their brand.
Whether or not those people have tagged their brand in their posts, to reach and interact with those people who expect to be contacted.
Remember: People On Social Media expect a reply from your company within 30 minutes.
8. Social media moderation responsibilities are not limited to replying to people’s comments and messages, you can reach social causes or cases where you can make an impact on society.
Because of social media monitoring and through humans of New York page, “Pepsi” knew the story and the dream of the Egyptian kids who worked to help drivers in parking, it supported them to learn and announced that through their Facebook page.
Pepsi’s post about supporting those Egyptian kids.
9. Dedicate a specific Twitter page, to provide 24/7 customer support.
10. User-generated content is a power that formulates and deepens the roots of the relationship between brands and customers on social media.
Reward your fans who produce that content, to build loyal customers.
According to sprout social, 75% of people are likely to share a good brand interaction on social media.
“MacDonald’s” rewarded customer by giveaways through their app and promoted this campaign: play and win on February 2019 across their social media channels.
McDonald’s giveaways through its app.
11. Show your corporate social responsibility, such as the charitable work or environmental awareness and development campaigns or the social events that you have participated in through your social media channels.
12. Go live and make stories, they can go viral and reach more people who want to connect with you and hear your news.
13. Building your brand and community on social media is part of your online brand image.
Stick to your voice and personality, reflect them in the words and visuals that you use in every single post, comment, message across your social media channels.
Evaluate your social media sentiment, in order to retain your customers and fans.
“Actions speak louder than words”, this should be your attitude on social media.
Provide your fans with relevant and valuable content.
This content could be tips from thought leaders or influencers in your industry.
Show your family to your fans!
Highlight the healthy working environment in your company through social media, as a part of showing your passion and values.
Yes, your corporate social media accounts should be professional, but everyone loves a story, and the process of building a business is a real adventure. Letting people get a glimpse into your life and the passion you have for what you do can really pay off. Also, people like to know that they’re following a brand that has authenticity behind it, and personal passion is great evidence of that. —Adam Steele, The Magistrate
14. If your business targets millennials,
According to CrowdTwist, 43.5% of millennials use social media to share content about products and services they like.
Millennials would love to show their community how their brand reflects their thoughts, personality, and preferences.
Can you notice the difference between songs of the 60s, 90s generation songs and those produced in recent years?
This is close to the change in consumer behavior.
Real Case Studies:
KLM royal dutch airlines: Social Media in the sky
It has a team who is responsible to reply to average 180.000 messages each week.
It has one of the largest teams of social media moderators the world.
Due to the cancellation of one of its trips in 2010, people tried to reach “KLM” through their Twitter and Facebook pages.
They realized that they have to build a social media support team, to listen to customers, and solve their problems, to have loyal fans and customers over time.
KLM was the first airline company to reschedule a flight according to a customer request on twitter
It made customers feel free to tweet if they lose something, and KLM’s staff will bring it back to them.
They go beyond this support and innovate, as they understand people’s needs after they talk and engage with them.
KLM launched “meet and seat” application so customers can choose their seating partner.
It can be connected to their social media profiles and linked to their check-in information.
Razer: global gaming hardware manufacturing company.
In 2013, Razer’s company coupon that gives a 90% discount on all orders was released by mistake on the internet. As a result, it has received many orders.
Razer’s reaction to this situation was surprising, it decided to delight their customers and redeem this coupon.
And this was some of their customers’ reactions and replies.
Conclusion
A brand that has a strong fan base inspires people and got aspiration from following their mission, the “why” of their existence in the industry.
Loyalty is not simply about engagement metrics on social media channels.
There is a sense of caring that you should always transmit to customers, this could be by going the extra mile in your relationship, to delight your customers.