How Social Media Impacts Every Part of Your Business

Social media can undeniably impact modern business strategy powerfully, especially when it comes to companies interacting with their customers. Before social media, we thought of advertising as billboards or magazines, which didn’t allow for the immediate consumer response like social media does. Social media has affected businesses, ranging from customer engagement to product development. Professionals highlight that social media’s influence on society is as fundamental as gravity’s pull on Earth. It has evolved from a mere luxury to an essential pillar of modern business. It is crucial for brands to harness what social media has to offer.

Customer Engagement and Brand Awareness

Today, businesses have unprecedented access to their target audience thanks to social media. Whether it be LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or X (formerly Twitter), these apps allow companies to contact their consumers directly. This access has opened new doors for things like brand loyalty, addressing concerns, sharing updates, and showcasing new products straight to the customer’s phone screen. The key to letting these facets improve your business is utilizing them authentically. Gone are the days of faceless corporations; today’s consumers crave genuine interactions with brands, which is simpler than you think. By humanizing your company’s online presence, you can create meaningful connections with your audience. It takes creativity and originality.

An excellent example is the skincare and beauty brand “Glossier.” Part of the brand’s rise to fame was because it used real people and customers in its advertisements to showcase its products. They didn’t use beauty models with professional lighting or airbrushed technology like many competitors in the industry. This image gave them the reputation of being “real and down to earth,” making them more authentic, likable, and profitable. Other forms of “realness” can include sharing behind-the-scenes content or even humorous posts to allow audiences to feel like they have a closer affiliation with the brand.

Influencer Marketing

One of the most significant developments in the social media marketing landscape has been the rise of influencer partnerships. These collaborations leverage the trust and following that influencers have already built with their audiences. It’s a modern form of word-of-mouth marketing. Consumers grow to trust influencers like their friends- they believe their testimonies. Influencer marketing can take many forms, from sponsored posts to product reviews or long-term brand ambassadorships. The key is to find influencers whose values and audience align with your brand. These partnerships can significantly boost brand awareness and credibility and drive direct sales when done right.

An example would be an influencer, Sarah, who gives her followers a unique discount code, “SARAHFIT20,” for 20% off their first FitFlex purchase. Sarah’s posts reach 400,000 followers, and 40,000 users visit FitFlex’s website using Sarah’s custom link. 4,000 people use the discount code to make a purchase. If the average order value is $80, the total sales generated is $320,000. This partnership drives immediate sales and increases brand awareness and credibility for FitFlex among Sarah’s engaged fitness-focused audience. New customers unlocked.

In contrast, the 2023 collaboration of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light proved a different outcome regarding influencer partnerships. This collaboration angered the far-right conservatives so much that they decided to boycott the brand. Two weeks later, their sales were down by 17%. Their parent company (BUD) fell 20% because of investor fears. To anticipate such outcomes, Wall Street investors and analysts must monitor successful and problematic trends.

Refining Product Development

Valuable insights can be gained from social media and directly inform your product development process. Customer feedback, both positive and negative, highlights areas for improvement and can inspire new features. Some companies even use social media polls or surveys to gauge interest in potential new products before committing to full-scale development.

This can be super helpful in creating products that better meet customer needs and foster a sense of involvement among your audience. Many consumers now prefer to reach out to brands via social media rather than traditional channels like phone or email. When customers feel their voices are heard and valued, it strengthens their connection to your brand. Listen to them; social media makes it easy.

However, careful management is required to address potentially harmful situations in a public setting. By handling customer service issues effectively on social media, you can turn potentially harmful experiences into positive ones, demonstrating your company’s responsiveness and dedication to customer care. Doing this will give your brand a great look and help it gain respect.

Recruitment and Employer Branding

Beyond customer-facing applications, social media is crucial in recruitment and employer branding. Platforms like LinkedIn are obvious choices for professional networking and job postings, but even more casual platforms can be leveraged to showcase your company culture and attract top talent.

By sharing content that highlights your workplace environment, employee success stories, and company values, you will build a strong employer brand that attracts like-minded individuals to your organization.

Measuring ROI and Performance

One of the most significant advantages of social media marketing is the ability to measure and analyze performance in real-time. Unlike traditional marketing channels, social media provides detailed metrics on engagement, reach, conversions, and more.

This wealth of data allows businesses to continuously refine their strategies, allocate resources more effectively, and demonstrate the ROI of their social media efforts. By setting clear goals and KPIs, you can track your progress and make data-driven decisions to improve your social media performance over time.

Bright Age

Partnering with a dedicated agency like Bright Age Creative can make a significant difference. With our specialized expertise and up-to-date knowledge of platform algorithms, trends, and best practices, Bright Age can help businesses harness social media’s full potential.

From developing a comprehensive social media strategy tailored to your unique business goals to creating engaging content, managing influencer partnerships, and analyzing performance metrics, Bright Age offers the tools and insights needed to elevate your social media presence. Our team can help you cut through the noise, reach your target audience more effectively, and translate social media engagement into tangible business results.

The Importance of Monitoring and Responding on Social Media

Social media revolves around engaging and interacting with your audience, where simply being present on social media platforms is no longer enough to stand out against other brands and creators. To build authentic relationships with your followers, establishing a community of individuals who feel heard, seen, cared about, and ultimately connected to your brand is essential. Therefore, when customers share inquiries, complaints, or compliments through comments on your posts, it is crucial to respond promptly to express appreciation for their business and demonstrate attentiveness, a reason for the existence of a community management agency, which can assist in your social engagement efforts.

According to The Sprout Social Index™ 2023, 51% of consumers surveyed say that the most memorable brands on social media are those that respond to customers, and 68% of customers follow brands on social media to stay informed about new products and services. This information highlights the importance of monitoring and responding to comments on social media for long-term brand success.

But, as we all know, the world of social media is full of bots, trolls, and irrelevant opinions/comments, so we must understand how to engage with audiences on diverse social platforms and, specifically, how to address different types of comments in unique situations. In this article, we will guide you in the different approaches to handling a range of social media comments and offer our tips on the most optimal ways to respond.

Positive Comments

Positive comments can be anything from a simple “thank you” to an in-depth product or service review. Because consumers take the time to show you their appreciation, responding to these messages and reciprocating the gratitude is essential. When crafting your response to positive comments, be sure to use a sincere tone, thank the individual for their feedback, and personalize each message so each person feels directly spoken to, which can further their connection to your brand. For example, the ticket vendor BigStub uses an effective community management strategy to respond to comments promptly and enthusiastically. Below is an example of how BigStub addressed a positive comment on Facebook, but this practice can be seen across all of the brand’s social accounts. Ultimately, your response demonstrates to consumers that you value their business and feedback, fostering trust and a sense of community.

Neutral Comments

When it comes to neutral comments, it is often easy for them to go unnoticed, but responding to them is as important as addressing positive or negative feedback. The most significant advantage of responding to neutral comments is that it shows your audience you are available whenever they need you to be. Additionally, it allows you to engage in a casual conversation with your audience, which helps to personify your brand and further build consumer relationships that can foster brand loyalty. Check out the Instagram activities of Galaxy Theatres below, for instance. In this example, the brand responded to a neutral customer inquiry with a detailed, eager response that opened up the floor for further conversation. Thus, it would be silly to miss out on a similar opportunity to engage with your audience in a fun, relatively low-stakes manner. Consider working with a community management agency to guide your response strategy.

Negative Comments

As a brand, it’s crucial not only to listen to negative comments but also to respond to them appropriately. Negative comments can look like a range of issues surrounding the product or service, including customer care experiences. Before heading straight for the keyboard to defend your brand, remember to approach your response with delicacy, understanding, and empathy to avoid fueling an existing fire. A dissatisfied customer can leave the conversation feeling content and attended to by demonstrating respect for their opinion in your response. As for negative comments that take the form of offensive remarks and hate speech, it is essential to clarify your brand’s boundaries for this behavior and address it as unacceptable. You can take additional measures like blocking and reporting the social media account to the platform. Suppose your brand receives social media comments related to a crisis. In that case, you should have an established crisis communication plan to handle the situation best, and a community management agency can assist you with this. Overall, properly monitoring negative comments on social media helps you steer clear of any subsequent harm to your brand’s reputation, correctly identify serious or timely situations, and uphold strong brand values and a positive online community.

Analyzing All Comments

Many tests and tools exist to provide valuable brand insights derived from all of your social media comments. A social media sentiment analysis considers the emotions and opinions of those talking about your brand online, which is beneficial for identifying and addressing negative comments before they escalate. On top of that, conversation analytics uses AI and machine learning to find patterns and form reports derived from customer conversations. There are many social listening techniques worth exploring to keep your brand ahead of the conversation, and a community management agency can support you in gathering valuable insights from your data. 

A well-executed plan for engaging with social media comments helps you establish your brand, gain loyalty, and connect with the right audience. Improve your brand reputation and skillfully navigate potentially harmful situations by adopting the abovementioned strategies and practices.

Social Listening – What is it & How is it Useful

Social media has become an essential part of modern marketing, a valuable tool for brands to directly engage with consumers and gain insight from what people are saying in the digital landscape. However, the power that these platforms hold is only beneficial when paired with an understanding of how to analyze, interpret, and report their performance. One way to do this is through a process called social listening, also known as social media listening. Social listening is a process of tracking and analyzing conversations, discussions, and mentions of a brand or product across various social media platforms and online sources.

social-listening-media

There are many components of social listening that give brands data-driven insight from real-time public opinion, allowing them to stay informed and consistently a part of the digital conversation. Here are some key aspects of social listening and ways that it can be used to develop a well-rounded marketing strategy!

1. Data Collection: First and foremost, social listening begins with the collection of data from a wide range of online sources like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Yelp, and many more. This data includes anything from text-based content like posts, comments, and reviews, to multimedia content such as images and videos. Automated tools and software are often used to continuously monitor social media platforms and online sources for things such as keywords, hashtags, brand mentions, or other related topics. In short, these online conversations are translatable into valuable business insights.

social-listening-data-collection

2. A Proactive Approach: You may already be aware of social media monitoring, which tracks specific brand mentions across platforms and is useful for quickly responding to negative feedback online. While this tool is functional as an extension of customer support and is crucial for brands, it is a highly reactive strategy, functions on the micro level, and doesn’t paint a large picture when developing a marketing strategy. With social listening, brands take the initiative in online reputation management by understanding how customers are perceiving not only their business, but also their competitors and industry as a whole. The data can be aggregated into a proactive marketing strategy, allowing brands to identify gaps and opportunities that help position them ahead of competition.

  1. Give People What They Want: An important use of social media listening is that it helps brands understand what their audience wants and expects from them. For example, a coffee brand may notice a surge in conversations around cold brew coffee during the summer months. They could then use this information to develop a targeted marketing campaign surrounding their cold brew offerings, and execute it during this season when consumers’ buying journeys are more likely to be influenced. Brands can also gain insights from social listening through customer feedback, whether it be positive or negative, and can make any necessary adjustments to improve the happiness of their audience. It’s safe to say that social listening and customer care go hand in hand.

  1. Trend Identification: Trends, trends, trends. Finding patterns in digital conversations can not only give brands insight into what’s working for their audience and what’s not, but also insight into how their competitors and industry are performing. Social listening is not limited to monitoring one brand or topic of interest, as it should be used when conducting market research to track competitors’ mentions and activities in the digital landscape as well. This aspect of listening provides an opportunity for brands to develop relationships with potential customers who are already engaged in the industry. Additionally, social listening can identify industry trends before they are even considered trends, allowing brands a chance to adapt their messaging and offerings early-on. One aspect of trend identification is influencer identification, which allows business and individuals to pinpoint relevant influencers and opinion leaders in their industry. By listening to keywords and trending conversations in real-time, brands can boost their name through collaborations with influencers that customers trust and are actively keeping up with.

5. Product & Content Development: Listening to customer discussions and feedback is a great way for brands to gain inspiration for new ideas and improvements of existing offerings. For example, in response to the consumer trend of “Netflix and chill,” Netflix created a video demonstrating how consumers can make their own socks for when they are streaming the platform. This is just one example of how brands can leverage social listening for content creation that is relevant and engages with the audience.

With more than 82% of marketing professionals viewing social listening as a key element in strategic planning, it is essential that brands use it to their advantage. Social listening is a valuable tool for brands to stay connected with their audience, understand market dynamics, manage their reputation, publish engaging content, and make data-driven decisions to drive business success. It provides a direct line of communication with customers and allows brands to adapt and evolve in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

Unlocking the Power of User-Generated Content: How Companies Can Reap the Benefits

In the digital age, where social media and online communities dominate, user-generated content (UGC) has emerged as an incredibly powerful tool for companies and our content creation agency. 

UGC refers to content of all kinds – such as photos, videos, reviews, testimonials, social media posts, and podcasts – created by consumers rather than the company itself. This content can be harnessed by businesses to their advantage in numerous ways, yielding the following benefits for one’s brand.

  1. Authenticity and Credibility:

User-generated content possesses a unique characteristic that sets it apart from traditional marketing efforts – authenticity. 

According to the Nielsen Consumer Trust Index, 92% of consumers trust organic, user-generated content (UGC) more than they trust traditional advertising. Content created by their peers rather than slick, branded advertising is much more appealing. When consumers see real people using and enjoying a product or service, it enhances the brand’s credibility. This credibility fosters a sense of trust and transparency, which can lead to increased brand loyalty and repeat business.

Content Creation Agency - User Generated Content
  1.  Boosting Engagement:

UGC is a goldmine for boosting engagement on various digital platforms. Social media, in particular, thrives on user-generated content. Without users posting about their lives on the daily, social media would have little to no content on its platforms. So, when customers share their experiences, stories, and opinions, it sparks conversations and interactions among their social circles. As a result, businesses witness an uptick in likes, comments, and shares, expanding their reach organically. 

  1. Cost-Effective Marketing:

Leveraging user-generated content is a cost-effective alternative to traditional marketing campaigns. Brands can run UGC campaigns and contests to encourage customers to create content. This generates a stream of marketing materials without breaking the bank!  Additionally, sharing UGC on a company’s website and social media platforms requires little to no expense, making it an efficient way to market and include your community.

  1. Understanding Your Target Audience:

User-generated content provides invaluable insights into the preferences and behaviors of your target audience. Understanding what resonates most with your customers can be aided with content analysis. A content creation agency can take this data and use it to inform future marketing strategies, product improvements, and even new product development. It’s important to keep tracking this valuable information to hone in on your  target audience and perfect what they are looking for.

  1. Expanding Reach and Visibility:

When customers share UGC on their social media profiles, it exposes the brand to a wider audience. This enables companies to tap into new demographics and locations that might have otherwise been challenging to reach through traditional marketing methods. UGC also acts as a “digital word-of-mouth marketing” that exponentially expands the brand’s visibility. Comparing your new audience reach to your target audience is valuable, letting you see where gaps in your marketing strategy could be.

  1.  Creating Emotional Connections:

User-generated content often carries emotional weight. Customers share their experiences, stories, and memories associated with a brand, making it personal and relatable. These emotional connections foster a sense of community and loyalty among customers, encouraging them to become brand advocates.

Content Creation Agency - Brand Advocates Pyramid

  1. Inspiring Creativity:

Running UGC campaigns or challenges can ignite creativity among customers. When users are encouraged to create content related to the brand, they may come up with unique and innovative ideas that the company can then leverage in its marketing efforts. This symbiotic relationship between businesses and their customers encourages a continuous cycle of creativity and engagement.

  1.  Building Your Community:

User-generated content fosters a sense of community around your brand. Paired with the consistency you can get by utilizing a content creation agency, customers who actively engage with a brand through UGC campaigns or social media interactions become part of this community of like-minded individuals. This community-driven approach reinforces brand loyalty and encourages users to share their experiences more frequently.

In Conclusion:

Embracing user-generated content is a very powerful strategy for businesses in the digital landscape. By leveraging the authenticity, credibility, and content created by their customers, companies can boost engagement, expand their reach, and build a loyal community around their brand. The cost-effectiveness of UGC campaigns makes it great for businesses of all sizes. In today’s competitive market, harnessing the power of user-generated content has become a necessity for companies seeking to thrive and succeed. If you are looking to improve your user generated content, Bright Age can help! Connect with us to learn more about how we can help you develop a strategy to best utilize UGC on your social media platforms.

How to Use Social Media for Market Research

Customers are one of the most important indicators that measure the success of a business. In order to understand what customers want and for them to buy into your business over competitors, it’s necessary to engage in comprehensive market research. Market research is compiling information about consumer preferences and needs. As technology continues to flourish and social media is at the forefront of marketing strategy, social media has become the primary and best place to conduct market research. 

Rather than pouring money into traditional market research consisting of focus groups and annual surveys, social media market research is cost-effective and opens up more valuable real-time data. This data provides diverse customer, competitor, and industry analysis. However, because social media is filled with so many insights, it’s important as a marketer to know what specific research you should focus on. 

Here is a list of 6 different insights that are essential for a business to know and how to use social media market research to find them.

  1. Customer preferences and wants

Social Media allows businesses the opportunity to connect with customers on a more personable level. Using different platforms like Instagram and Twitter, you can communicate and understand the preferences of your target audience through comments, public polls, subtweets, etc. This information can help you understand what customers like and dislike. Depending on your company’s product, you can learn about popular colors, flavors, scents, and much more. Utilizing these preferences, make changes to future products because it can benefit both your customer and your company.

social media market research - target audience

  1. Industry emerging trends

There are always new and upcoming trends, topics, and products floating around on various social platforms. Understanding and staying on top of these emerging trends can help your business gain views and traction on your different accounts. Not only can it open up new opportunities for people to see your product, but it also allows your target audience to feel connected to your brand and feel that you understand their interests. For example, if Gen Z is your primary target audience, uploading content to trending sounds on TikTok will be the most beneficial platform to utilize.

social media market research - competitor research

  1. Competitor analysis

Your competitors are also staying up to date with trends and interacting with customers. It is necessary to monitor your competitors’ social platforms so that you have an understanding of their marketing and content strategies. This opens up the opportunity to pick apart their strengths, weaknesses, and most importantly help you restructure your marketing strategy accordingly. If a competitor is doing something that customers enjoy, it might be time to reassess some tactics to have customers click on your profile instead. 

  1. Target audience demographics

Various social media platforms offer insights into the demographics of its users. Use social media to find out the typical age, gender, and interests of people in your market. Grasping a greater understanding of your target audience will allow for you to make more articulate and tailored content for the niche target group. Location of target audience is also important. If a large sector of your audience is based in Los Angeles, implementing a pop-up shop of products could spread word of your business.

  1. Influencer partnerships

Once you have an understanding of your target audience, take a look at what type of influencers they follow. Influencer partnerships are a great way to raise reach and engagement levels for a business. Look at various influencers that match your brand values and have them create content that resonates with your audience. For example, a new makeup brand that markets to Gen Z could utilize a partnership with a beauty TikTok influencer because that platform reaches their target audience. Then, reviews of the products spread across TikTok which reach a larger audience ultimately. 

  1. Existing customer reviews for future product development 

One amazing aspect of social media is that people are allowed to freely speak their minds. This opens up the opportunity to read into what consumers are saying about your business. Gathering data on various opinions, feedback, and reviews can aid in redesigning existing issues with products, as well as creating new products customers would buy into.

Social media is the most valuable way to conduct market research. Insights are up-to-date and constantly changing allowing companies to have a deeper understanding of what their customers want in a product. Whether it be looking at target audience demographics, industry emerging trends, or customer preferences, they are all important insights that can aid in the success of your business.

How to Protect Your Brand’s Reputation on Social Media

Social media is a fantastic way to promote your brand and to connect with your community. It is one of the more prominent ways for your audience to understand how your brand is perceived. But with the rise of social media branding, there are many things to look out for when posting and interacting online. To help you understand the ins and outs, here are a few ways you can protect your social media brand reputation.

Create Guidelines

Having specific brand guidelines for you and your employees to follow when posting can help avoid any confusion or problems that might arise. These rules and guidelines can include, but are not limited to:

  • Consistency – Keeping up your brand’s reputation is all about staying consistent. Whether that be in the style and design of postings, the brand voice and tone (ie. captions on posts, blog writings, brand announcements), or even the timing of posts and interactions.
  • Engaging with your audience – When attempting to engage with your following, always use official brand accounts. Along with consistency, these engagements should coincide with the way your brand’s voice and tone come across.
  • Having a social media team – There should only be a select few employees with access to the information of the brand’s accounts. This guideline helps to assure that your accounts are in good hands and no posts go unsupervised.

Keep Up to Date

Staying up to date with trends and controversies can help your brand to increase engagement and to stay out of trouble. One wrong comment can cause a major catastrophe when it comes to the internet. Always research and educate yourself and your team members on the latest happenings. Better to be safe than sorry!

Monitor and Connect with Your Community

Checking your insights for data can be extremely beneficial in understanding what your audience responds to best. If one topic receives more interactions than another, sit down with your team and compare the two to understand why that is and how you can implement the successful traits in later postings. Responding and connecting with your community can give valuable feedback in moving forward and building trust with your audience.

Responding to Crisis

Even some of the most well-known brands have had slip ups on their social accounts, knowing how to manage and deal with these problems is key to protecting your brand’s reputation. Finding social listening tools, or partnering with a social media agency team equipped for online reputation management, can notify you when you receive negative feedback and be extremely helpful in catching the problem early and to respond in a timely manner. Once a problem has arisen, the first step is to delete the post and to always release a sincere public apology. Never try to delete and ignore the issue!

Social media branding is a great tool for any company! It can seem overwhelming when first understanding how to correctly and safely manage the accounts but having a base level knowledge of where to start can boost your confidence immensely. Doing your research and following these simple steps and ideas can help your brand stay in the loop and keep up a good reputation.

Request a consultation with Bright Age to get the help you need today! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and Twitter to get insight updates.

How to Use Demographics in Your Social Media Advertising Strategy

People using apps at social media advertising agency

Social media has quickly become the best way to advertise a business. It gives you the chance to connect with people all around the world through the internet from the comfort of your home, office, or anywhere. The most successful businesses understand advertising on social media is all about strategy, and as a leading social media advertising agency, we know marketing a business online can be a bit overwhelming. There are quite a few social media platforms these days such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter—and each of these platforms cater to different demographics of people. For a business to succeed in social media advertising, understanding how to specifically use each of these platforms to reach specific demographics of people is key in developing a winning advertising strategy.

Facebook

Facebook display at social media advertising agency

If your business is thinking of using Facebook as one of the social media platforms to reach your desired audience, you’re in luck. With over 2.7 billion active monthly users on the site, there is a good chance your business will become recognized by the demographics of people you’re trying to reach. When thinking about using Facebook to advertise your business, keep in mind that most of the platform’s users are young (24-34 years old) and male (56%).

As a social media advertising agency, we recommend advertising universally across multiple social media platforms. However, if your target audience fits this demographic of people as mentioned above, it would be best to put more time and effort into the content your business posts on Facebook. By creating quality, eye-catching content specifically for your Facebook audience, you will be putting your business on a path to advertising success.

Instagram

Instagram app on iPhone for social media advertising agency

Instagram is one of the most widely used social media platforms to date, and for good reason. This photo sharing platform currently has over 1 billion monthly active users, making it a fierce leader in the social media industry. If your business is trying to target a younger demographic, specifically 24–34-year-old women, Instagram is the platform to use. 

Instagram has a lot to offer, making it the ideal platform for businesses to capitalize on if they are trying to reach an audience of young users. This platform is constantly pumping out new features such as Reels which are short 15-second video clips that users can post to their Stories to share with their followers. Because Instagram is known as a photo-sharing platform, businesses are given the chance to visually capture the attention of their desired audiences. If reaching a younger demographic of consumers is one of your advertising goals, make sure your business is putting out its best content on Instagram.

Twitter

People using Twitter at social media advertising agency

If your business is specifically trying to reach an audience of older adults, Twitter is the place to be. 30–49-year-old males make up the majority of the platform (68%) while females are currently only making up 32% of the platform. There is over 187 million daily active users, meaning that your business has the possibility of reaching a wide audience if you promote your brand well with intriguing, eye-catching content.

Another interesting fact about Twitter’s demographics are that 42% of users on the platform hold a degree. This is higher than the 31% of total Americans who have a college degree, so advertising on Twitter could be the perfect strategy if you are aiming to reach an audience of highly educated professionals. It is important to keep in mind, however, that Twitter is used as a news source for many users and may be one of the harder platforms to successfully advertise on. On the other hand, if your business wants to reach a demographic of college-educated adults, it doesn’t hurt to try it out because Twitter could end up being a great source of visibility for your brand.

In summary, it’s extremely important to understand your target audience if you want to successfully advertise on social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter each have their own particular set of users, giving businesses the chance to capitalize on the platform they feel will help them achieve their advertising goals. Social media experts here at Bright Age, a top-of-the-line social media advertising agency, work with consumer demographics daily. We take the time to understand each of our clients’ desired audiences and we create quality content we know will reach the demographics that will help them rise to success. Feel free to contact us to learn more!

How to Use Social Media to Establish Your Brand’s Presence

Social media is one of the main ways in which people communicate, interact, and research. There is an endless amount of information on social media, whether it be pictures of family and friends or business updates regarding sales, giveaways, or new products. A business can use social media strategy to increase their brand awareness due to the amount of their audience that are already on social media. By using these social platforms, your brand is more likely to grow due to follower engagement and activity.

Applications open and showing the different platforms of social media

According to Sprout Social, 56% of marketers’ social media strategy is used to understand their target audience. This connects to the fact that identifying and researching your target audience is the greatest challenge for social markets. Connecting and finding your target audience is something that all companies struggle with, yet it is imperative that the connection between company and customer happens. Without the knowledge of your target audience, how else are you supposed to market and sell products that they are going to like? Using social media is a great tool to see who your audience is and what they like to see. 

 

Building a brand on social media takes time and strategy. When creating an account, whether it is on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, one must realize that suddenly gaining millions of followers does not always happen. If you have an established brand outside of social media that is known, people will recognize you on their platform of choice and start to follow. This creates a domino affect. Once someone follows you, your account may pop up in their followers’ recommended accounts. By gaining followers, you reach a bigger community that your followers are connected in. However, when creating a brand to start a new business, one must be very patient in the process. The most important social media strategy to remember when establishing your brand is to interact, engage, and observe. 

Person with an iphone showing the data coming out of the phone

Interacting with followers on social media will create a connection. The more your followers feel as though your brand will listen to them and care about how they feel about your products, the more they will want to buy your products. These can be little tasks such as liking their comments on Instagram or responding to their complaints in Facebook Messenger. 

 

Engaging followers is the next step. Having a post with a good amount of likes, comments, and shares will make others want to follow you, therefore expanding your brand. For instance, high levels of engagement could occur if your brand does a giveaway that includes rules of tagging friends in comments or posting the giveaway on their story. This would engage your followers in your post and expand your account to many others at the same time. 

Visual representation of the data you can get displayed on a table

Observing the data from each post as well as follower activity will show you what to post and what not to post. Successful businesses know what kind of posts their followers like and how to use that knowledge to expand their brand. For example, a company posts a photo that does not have much to do with the company, maybe it is a holiday or a motivational post, and the post does not get much activity. Then the company posts explaining a new product and that post is flooded with likes, comments, and shares. By gathering information on the two different posts, companies can see what their audience likes and how to grow from that. 

 

Using social media to establish your brand may be one of the best ways to do so. A social media strategy not only creates a community with your followers but gives you important data from their responses. This way, your brand is able to grow in size and quality. If you are struggling to expand your brand, Bright Age Digital Creative Agency can guide your company toward brand success through multiple social media platforms.  

clip art of data coming out of an iphone

 

Benefit of Having a Social Media Presence Across Multiple Platforms

With billions of people in the world, it is impossible to assume that everyone is on the same social media platform.  Social media marketing is an amazing tool that many companies are using in order to reach and expand their audience. But is one social platform enough? In order to effectively market any brand, product, or company, one must utilize the ever-growing list of social media platforms that are out there. A social media marketing agency can help you determine how to maximize the use of each social channel for your business.

Social media marketing agency showcases popular social media apps on iPad

Having an audience is part of what makes a business successful. In order to include and grow your audience, your business should be accessible to their preferred social media everyone has a different preference for social media, it is more effective to expand to a handful of platforms, rather than to only have one. This also establishes a connection and forms a community in the platform itself. For example, all of those that follow your company on Facebook will be able to connect together, form groups, and spread the word of your company on that platform. People will often use social media to further communicate with the company as well.

Customer reviews and experiences with a company are extremely important. They are what controls the reputation of a company. When someone experiences something negative, most of the time they go right to the social media page of the company and write out their bad experience for everyone to see. Customer care through social media will not only give the company a chance to respond to those comments but also will  make the customer feel more connected to the company. This is easier for the customer when the business is easily accessible to them and when the social media site used has a direct message option. If a customer is upset and is not able to find a way to voice their concerns, they may be swayed to look for another company to use. If your competitor is more active on social media platforms, upset customers may flock to them instead.

social media marketing agency uses product reviews on laptop to show examples

Odds are that your competitor is using multiple social media marketing platforms. According to Statista, in 2017, 90% of businesses were marketing their companies using social media.By expanding to other outlets online, you are just as accessible, if not more, as your opponents. By looking up another company, you can see what platforms they use and do not use. By using the same platforms as your competitors, you expand your network community and give your targeted audience a variety of companies to choose from.

Social media marketing agency shows personal Facebook profile on laptop and phone

Before putting your business on every social media platform out there, it is more effective to look at what audience you want to reach and then what social media they prefer. This means to see the top three or four used social media platforms for your targeting demographic and use them to advertise your company. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are just a few of the leading social media platforms that businesses use for marketing.

The ways in which you post are just as important as being on the platform itself. Prosperous companies consistently post a range of quality content. Consistent posting does not mean to post sporadically. It means to have a routine in which you post so your followers can expect when the next promotion or giveaway is posted. In addition to consistent posts, the quality of the posts has just as much importance. The posts that are created should have something to do with the company, products, or audience they are promoting and connecting. A range of content is included in the quality of the content. If you are always posting the same thing, viewers tend to get bored. A range of different photos, videos, and interesting events will create a more interesting page for the viewer. For example, Galaxy Theatres’ Instagram posts are movie-related happenings such as trailers, memes, and actors or theatre promotions such as movie ticket giveaways or special discounts.

social media marketing agency manages Galaxy Theatres Instagram profile and postsRecently, the world has been forced to remain inside, giving people even more time to be online. Simple tasks, such as grocery shopping, can now be done with apps. Over a short period of time, we have moved as online as we can. Although social media marketing began years ago, it is now almost required that a company be functioning online. This includes services, consultations, and advertisements. By changing to a more internet-dominated world, social media marketing is imperative for a company to flourish. A company will only get a full audience scope, high content levels, and future growth if it maintains multiple social media platforms. If you are looking for a way to expand your followings, a social media marketing agency, such as Bright Age, can take your business to the next level when it comes to social media engagement. Connect with Bright Age and watch your audience and company grow!

The Importance of Speeding up Your Social Media Response Time

Often times, brands don’t take into account the importance of responding to potential and existing customers is on social media. People will ask questions, express their concerns, or comment on something pertaining to a brand, and they expect to receive a response in a reasonable amount of time. Whether this be by responding to public comments, answering direct messages, or operating support services from a live chat box, customers’ overall satisfaction increases when they are responded to in a timely manner.

Having a quick response time is an important factor in social media community management. With nearly 249.7 million active users on social media in the United States alone, online communication plays a huge rule with how consumers engage with brands. That number is expected to increase to 257.4 million by the year 2023, which makes social media response time even more crucial when it comes to keeping customers satisfied in a competitive market.

What Consumers Expect from Brands

Consumers typically have high expectations for the brands they choose to interact with. How quickly a brand responds to the consumer can sometimes make all the difference when it comes to customer loyalty. When reaching out to a brand on social media, 79% of consumers expect a response in the first 24 hours. On top of that, 40% of those consumers expect a response within 1 hour. The expectations consumers have for businesses to engage with them is clearly high and responding to a customer’s interaction can make all the difference.

social media community management by a professional woman on laptop

How to Speed up Responses

In a competitive market, brands responding to customers at their own convenience simply will not cut it anymore. A customer can easily move on to the next brand in the industry if their attempt at an interaction goes unanswered for longer than they are willing to wait. There are a few ways to speed up response times and create successful social media community management.

Constant Social Media Monitoring

The best way to ensure a quick response time is to always be available online for customers to reach out. Bright Age ensures a 24/7 Customer Care system to make sure every customer gets their questions, comments, or concerns responded to as quickly as possible. Every customer gets a personalized response in a timely manner that is constructed to satisfy the customer and build the brands reputation. A constant social media monitoring strategy is the key to ensuring no customer gets ignored.

social media community management done by man with headphones

Being Available Across a Variety of Platforms

Every customer is a unique and valuable individual, and many prefer to engage with brands across varying platforms. If a company consistently monitored their social media in only one online location, it is possible that many customer responses would go unanswered which would negatively impact the brand’s reputation. Not responding to customers in a timely manner, or at all, shows that the brand does not care enough about their customers to make their concerns a top priority. A brand with excellent social media community management will be responding to customers on not only all platforms the brand is on, but also via email, phone calls, and possibly live chat boxes. This gives customers the ability to choose which way to reach out is the most convenient for them and ensures that customer loyalty is highly valued by that brand.

social media community management shown with phone apps

Responding to Negative Comments

It is incredibly important to have a quick response to negative comments because it shows that the customer’s experience is a top priority for the brand. GoodRx responded appropriately to a customer’s comment on a Facebook post who had an unpleasant experience with GoodRx.

social media community management shown with GoodRx comment example

GoodRx’s quick and apologetic response ensured that the customer is well respected and valued by the brand. Although the customer had an unpleasant experience, GoodRx maintained its brand reputation with this customer by showing their support.

A brand’s social media response time shows a customer how much they are cared for. Brands with the quickest response time have greater customer loyalty and better brand reputation. Bright Age ensures efficient social media community management to set brands up with an excellent customer service system to maintain customer loyalty and satisfaction.