Generally, consumers of today ask a lot more of brands than they once did. It’s not just a product or a service they are buying, it’s a set of values, it’s a culture, it’s a…. vibe. It’s not all about selling either, we’ve all closed our door on an unwanted salesman, and we’ve all pretended to be on the phone as a street-marketer touts his wares. It’s the same online, people will shut their door on you if you try to oversell.
Picture the scene, it’s a Friday, you’re at the pub. Everyone around you has a different personality and tone of voice that they use to gain your trust, make you like them and seem like a good person. It’s the same for organisations. You have to choose how your personality and beliefs are conveyed through communications. Just like the pub on a Friday, the online world is overcrowded with digital chatter, so your chat better rise above the noise!
The only real difference between socialising at the pub and communicating online is that the physical, human element is removed. Your job as an organisation is to sell, but you can’t do this without trust- and the main way to get your stakeholders to trust you is by showing them your face. Show them what happens behind the scenes, shout about your company culture. Let us see what you care about other than selling. What charities do you support? What beliefs do you align with? Keep it professional of course, but let the world see your softer side too. If people invest in your culture, they’ll invest in your products and services.
When we aren’t at the pub, the allies love to work out. And one of our favourite brands for workout attire is GymShark. GymShark Founder, Ben Francis, is an expert in using a human approach in his social strategy. Ben’s personal linkedin conveys humility, integrity and humanity through stories of his progress as a founder and his support for other young entrepreneurs. In one of our favourite posts, Ben shares a video that documents the journey of Gym Shark, focussing on how his company started from his bedroom. One idea, one man, one great brand. To this day, Gym Shark’s social strategy is focussed on the people who use their services, we trust them, so we trust GymShark. It’s really that simple.
Here’s some tips for humanising your social strategy.
- Audit your tone of voice
- Establish company culture and core values and consider how these values and cultures can be conveyed visually
- Use user-generated content to make your consumers visual too
- Transparency is key, the more you show, the more trust you will gain
- Make the team that make up your organisation visual
