04 May The Value of Engagement
A note from one of our staff…
If your goals are to; increase brand awareness, convert customers to your website, be on the first page of a search engine, build relationships and retention with consumers… engagement is an incredibly important KPI.
If you’re a young professional in marketing or advertising, you’ve probably been asked by either a client or employer, “how do we increase our social media following?”. The first few times I was approached with this question I felt mistakenly typecast as an expert in all things digital and social.
… And where to find the best avocado on toast in Sydney.
At the time, my understanding of how businesses utilise social media was two pronged:
- A customer service tool
- A means of increasing brand awareness through ‘influencers’.
After being thrown into the deep end where I was building strategies for brands on my first day, I’ve come to appreciate the varying forms of inbound marketing and pull tactics. And that the best way to measure a strategy’s effectiveness is through engagement. Not vanity metrics. i.e. amount of followers.
Not surprisingly, fan growth is a top priority for many brands and businesses. However, that fan base is redundant unless they are interacting with the content. Engagement has a direct compounding affect on overall visibility, retention and organic growth. Instead of concerning themselves with the amount of followers there are, their focus should be on what percentage of their following is actually involved and ensuring their content increases customer value.
This is achieved when the overall UX is considered. Producing varying forms of content specific to the desired audience and offering IRL tangible experiences fosters a loyal community and maintains brand relevance. To maintain relevance content needs to be meaningful, in line with the brand ethos and make the viewer feel as though they are a part of a like-minded community. In digital marketing the action of selling a product or service comes second to building audience relationships. Once a relationship is established it’s much easier to incentivise the individual to take the action your brand desires.
A great example of where engagement and customer value was achieved was when Blink Republic partnered with Suncorp at the Brisbane International. Using our Insta Banner product, fans chose from generic A2 banners or created their own unique Insta Banners. These were instantly printed and fans were given the option to share their banners on their social channels. Over the eight days the event ran, Blink Republic generated 9,947 pieces of printable content on recycled paper for fans to use in an engaging way with the event. A total of 3,456 images were shared instantly using Blink Republic’s instant social sharing technology and this generated 137,169 organic impressions that were directly linked to both the Suncorp and Brisbane International brands. The reason for the activations success is because content specific to the target audience was generated. Doing this builds user retention, reaches other like-minded viewers and increases loyal followers not only for the brands social channels, but the brand as a whole.
As much as you want to sell your product, your content shouldn’t. Your content is primarily communicating the brand identity rather than just the products it sells. Make people laugh and capture their interest. Be a brand that is also a friend. Share content, not products. Remember that people are emotional and want to be entertained. If you achieve this, people will engage and your following will increase exponentially.
