Social media is a phenomenon that has swept the world in the last decade. With the rise of social media marketing, the way we research the brands we eventually buy from has changed completely — impacting the experience journey of a customer in multilayered ways that didn’t exist before.
A social media page is a baseline necessity for the credibility of your brand today. The moment someone lands on your feed, it becomes their first touchpoint with your brand. This is where the customer journey truly begins.
It’s extremely important to be able to communicate the voice of the brand in those few seconds. People use social media as initial research, and since they usually know exactly what they’re looking for, you have only one chance and a few seconds to catch their attention.
“If your feed looks old, poorly updated, and barely maintained, brand trust and value are written off in an instant. With the sheer number of market options that exist, there’s no space for uninspired, boring work.”
Platforms like Instagram and Twitter have evolved to integrate brands and their marketing strategies. They saw the initial wave of brand engagement online and, in a smart move, decided to capitalize on it. Today, any noteworthy campaign comes with its own hashtag (including #weddings), regardless of which industry it belongs to. Instagram feeds are carefully curated to convey the tone and feel of the brand at a quick glance.
The ability to DM the brand to ask questions is now the norm. Not needing a third party to tell the brand’s story is a tremendous advantage — as a consumer, you get the information right from the source: the brand’s verified page.
Hence, the positive quality of these interactions is paramount. Paying attention to customer queries and feedback is basic social media etiquette, and it’s imperative that brands get this right.
I follow a lot of brands, some of whose products aren’t even available where I live. So why do I pay attention to them? Because it’s fun — I like the way they present themselves. I’d even argue that these interactions matter more for brands with global ambitions: if they scale to new markets, they already have an established set of customers with whom they’ve built a relationship.
The Instagram Effect
When it comes to marketing and customer experience, Instagram is the bleeding edge of innovation. Brands invest millions in getting the right photographer, the right look, and social media managers to execute their vision — a necessity, because right off the bat you get a chance to tell a strong, well-curated, and sharp visual story.
The devil is in the details. The key is a cohesive grid that interlocks your feed together to visually tell the same story consistently, no matter how far back you scroll. The individual pictures need to work with the established grid so the general theme and feel of the brand remain unbroken, backed by captions for extra detail. This visual stimulation is integral to a brand’s communication journey.
However, the most important thing for a great experience is engaging in conversation with your followers. Instagram offers polls to gauge what the follower base prefers, tracks emoji reactions on stories, offers Instagram Live to showcase real-time events, and lets brands engage through the “ask me a question” tab and IGTV.
These interactions are worth their weight in gold — they keep you top of mind while getting followers to engage in the larger conversation you’re initiating. This matters because, when it comes to purchasing, people already have a standing relationship with brands whose work they’ve followed consistently. That familiarity enables an easy sell. Social media interactions also help brands understand the impact of their campaigns almost in real time — whether a launch succeeds or fails, you’ll know within hours.
Instagram recently introduced a feature that makes buying a product smoother than butter: tap a post, and a small bag icon appears showing the price. A potential customer doesn’t have to waste time searching for something as basic as the price — it’s convenient, smart, and gives easy access to essential information. Tap the icon, and it takes you straight to the brand’s website to buy instantly.
So to put it in perspective: I could be sitting in a train station, see someone carrying a bag, open the brand’s Insta page (which, let’s be honest, was probably already open), check the product, learn the price, and buy it right there — fuss-free and quickly, before I even get on my train. It’s a brilliant brand experience, and the seamlessness of the process is liberating. It saves the customer time and effort, and capitalizes on the instant gratification people crave when shopping.
The Twitter Effect
Twitter doesn’t have the kind of direct-buying innovation Instagram can boast of, but it’s still a solid, time-tested medium for direct communication — making it a preferred channel for customers to reach out to brands.
Sometimes brands banter with rivals for the world to see, or comment on general events around the globe. This makes it a great place to start a conversation, minus the distraction of anything else. People often reach out on Twitter for help, or even with ideas and opinions on what companies are doing.
Having that direct conversation with your customer base helps establish that connection, and lets customers know that brands value their opinion. It’s a smart move to use Twitter to share snippets of the brand’s humor, value systems, and core fundamentals — carefully crafting an opinion to share, and more importantly, hearing what the world has to say back, loud and clear.
The 360° Customer Experience
From a holistic brand perspective, it pays to invest in social media platforms. An argument can be made that just by having a strong presence across multiple channels, a brand can build a long-lasting relationship.
A brand’s values and opinions matter, but the experience of the brand is what matters most — and these platforms are perfectly positioned to provide a great one.
Invest in the experience, because these impressions can last a lifetime. It’s far easier to keep an old customer than win a new one, and with all the technology available today, it’s simply a matter of deciding to invest thought, time, and resources into building a great social media customer experience.