With a sheer number of brands and businesses now utilising social media to connect with their audience, it’s important to go the extra mile to make your brand stand out. Why should your target audience follow you opposed to the thousands of others in your industry? And how are you going to build a relationship with your audience that’s strong enough to convince them to stick around when they do?
The key to a building and maintaining a strong customer relationship is trust, and while building trust over social media may initially seem like a difficult task, it is more than possible if you’re willing to put in the time and effort.
Ask yourself: who are the people behind this business? What goes on behind the scenes? What do our customers want to know from us? What content makes them tick? Dive deep and really think about how you can provide fresh, unique, and engaging content on social media to create more transparency for your audience. Below are five things you can start doing on your social media channels today to humanise your brand and in turn, build a community of loyal and engaged followers.
1. Engage with your community
If you were to only do just thing to help grow your brand on social media, it should be this - get to know your audience.
The more you connect with your followers, the more trust you will build with them and the more authentic your relationship will be.
Whether you’re a personal brand or an aesthetic clinic, ask yourself: how often are you replying to DMs and comments? Are you interacting with other accounts? Do you reply to other people’s Instagram stories?
If your answer isn’t “multiple times a day” then this is an area of your social media strategy that you should take a deeper look at. Spending hours a day replying to DMs and commenting on other people’s posts is unlikely to be manageable for many people – and that’s okay! Instead, spend 10 minutes here and there actively engaging with your followers and your target audience throughout the day and particularly, before and after you have posted on your own feed.
As you engage, your community will grow stronger, and when you have people who truly trust you and believe in what you’re saying, that’s when you’ll begin to see a real change in your growth.
2. Share your story
One of the best ways to humanise your brand on social media is by opening up with your audience.
Whether that’s by talking about the struggles of owning a business or your step-by-step skincare routine, when you’re honest and open with your audience, your followers will sense it.
When you make your followers feel like friends, they will feel natural sense of loyalty towards you and are more likely to share your content within their own community of followers.
The simple act of sharing can go a long way for your brand or business – so it’s worth putting effort into creating shareable content.
Monitor what your target audience is already sharing on social media to better understand what resonates with them. Similarly, you can easily track how many times your posts have been shared so you can see which content performs best.
3. Show appreciation
Showing appreciation and gratitude towards your audience can be really powerful when humanising your brand on social media. Share your business milestones – what have your achieved in the last month? How much has your business grown over the last six months? For those who have been following you for a while, it will be great for them to see your brand’s progression. Sharing your achievements and showing appreciation to those who have helped creates transparency and credibility. And, who knows where your business will be a year from now. Make your followers eager to stick around and find out!
4. There is value in the written word
Even though Instagram is designed to be a visual app, the words you share in your captions are just as important at the visuals – don’t underestimate how powerful Instagram captions can be when it comes to the performance of a post.
Writing authentic Instagram captions that are also interesting and engaging can be tough.
Pro-tip: Ditch the formalities and write your captions as though you’re writing a message to a friend. Formal does not equal professional – conversational is the new professional. Also, don’t be scared to write long captions – studies have shown that longer, more thoughtful captions are a great way to build connections with your audience and drive a higher level of engagement.
5. Show up and show your face
Showing your face on social media is the difference between a real, human connection and ‘just another brand’ in your audiences’ eyes. Studies show that Instagram posts with faces in get 38% more likes than those without. Why? Because people want to engage and buy from brands that they can relate to. The more your audience sees your face the more they’re likely to trust you and want to get to know you.
It’s not just about posting photos of yourself, but more importantly, it’s about providing great value whether in the form of inspiration, education, entertainment or storytelling. If you’re a business with a team behind it, showcase them. Think about what your audience really wants to know and create videos or quirky reels with members of your team and provide your audience with that valuable content. Show the behind-the-scenes of an event, or have an employee conduct a social media takeover. These all great ways to humanise your brand.