Your guide to effectively using the ‘word of mouth’ online
With 77% of Singaporeans on social media, and majority relying on social networks to make purchasing decisions according to Gartner, the power of social media as part of your brand’s marketing strategy cannot be more evident.
In our status-driven society, young Singaporeans, who consist of more than half of social media users, do look up to influencers as opinion formers and role models. This has led to the increasing popularity of influencer marketing amongst brands.
However, it has also resulted in a very much saturated industry with a large pool of influencers promoting products and services.
Hence, it is crucial that brands know how to execute their influencer marketing strategies effectively in order to stay competitive.
According to a 2015 survey done by SheKnows Media, 86% of people prefer recommendations of product and service from everyday people, instead of high flyer individuals, seeing the former as more genuine.
These findings indeed highlight how it is important for brands to pick influencers who match their brand.
For an influencer to come off as untruthful, it simply shows that he/she is not a good representative for the brand. This could be due to reasons such as the influencer not being a good match for the brand or the poor value of content in one’s sponsored post. Consequently, making them unreliable and less trustworthy in the eyes of the online community.
Pick an influencer who matches your brand
At the recent PR Asia 2017 conference, a creative agency representative who works with social media influencers explained explained how there is no right or wrong way in how you choose to work with an influencer, but the strengths of each individual influencer need to be understood before embarking on the journey.
Therefore, instead of just looking for users with a large following on social media platforms, take time and scroll through influencers’ feeds/social media accounts to find out more about them when sourcing for potential representatives to promote your brand. From there, determine if their personalities and strength fit your brand.
Get to know your influencer
Take time to decide and know the user to see if they are a good match for your brand.
Singaporean Blogger, Jemimah James Wei, explains in an interview with Marketing Interactive that her best campaigns came from a combined effort from both herself and the client in its mechanics, execution and direction.
From this, it is also crucial that there is work chemistry between both influencer and the brand.
One way to do this is for brands to converse with potential influencers for their brand by asking them over to the office for a chat and such. It gives both parties a chance to work together to come up with an effective system to produce worthy content.
Include normal, everyday people too
Engaging normal everyday users is equally as important in your digital marketing strategy. Aside from looking up to influential figures, people also do value opinions of their own family and friends – who they also tend to trust more.
After all, promoting a product through online means stems from the old-fashioned ways of ‘word of mouth’ which can be done by everyone and anyone.
Moreover, it involves more people that translates into a higher amount of posts/hashtags that promote your product or service.
For instance, the #SG50 hashtag was heavily used by both brands and users in commemoration of the yearlong celebration of Singapore’s golden jubilee in 2015.
By July in that same year, the hashtag had over 220,000 mentions on Twitter and Facebook, and over 274,000 related Instagram posts according to Hootsuite.
This in itself, shows the power of involving all – influencers and regular users.
Engagement is key
A study done by Offerpop found that 71% of consumers are more likely to purchase an item based on social media referrals, especially with the use of User-generated content (UGC). UGC is a way that brands can engage with all users.
It allows your product or service to be featured on social media accounts of various users who are able to tag your brand or have a relevant hashtag/description in their caption.
Aside from UGC, Wall Contests and interactive posts (eg. asking users which of the brand products they like the most) are also a great idea to engage with consumers. It allows them to speak on behalf of your brand and gets people to talk about your brand too!
After all, interactions on social media no longer involve just 2 users, but an entire online community.
With that in mind, it is crucial that the product or service your brand is selling has to be good or at least match the characteristics and values you claim it to have.
Always keep it real and fresh, folks.
Reach out to us at hello@alto.sg for a free consultation. We’ll be glad to help you out![/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]