What Are Social Media Followers?
Social media followers are users who follow a brand, organization, or individual on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and Snapchat. The more followers a brand has, the more likely it is that they will be seen by their target audience.
When it comes to establishing brand loyalty and building a long-term relationship with customers, creating a strong base of followers is a crucial step. Brands who leverage their followers correctly can increase their brand visibility and engagement, improve customer retention, and even drive customer acquisition.
What Is A Brand Advocate?
A brand advocate is a loyal customer or supporter of a brand who takes it upon themselves to promote the product or services to their contacts and network. Brand advocates are an invaluable asset to businesses, as they not only promote the brand’s offerings but can also provide valuable customer feedback.
Brand advocates are passionate about the brand’s mission, values and products or services. They will often post about the brand’s offering on their personal social media accounts or send out recommendations to their network. Often, brand advocates will reach out to the brand directly to offer their insights and feedbac k.
How To Turn Social Media Followers Into Brand Advocates
Turning a brand’s social media followers into brand advocates requires both effort and creativity, but if done correctly, it can be one of the most powerful tactics for gaining and retaining customers. Here are 5 tips for turning social media followers into brand advocates:
1. Connect With Your Followers
The first step to turning social media followers into brand advocates is to create a genuine connection with them. Brands should take the time to understand their followers’ needs and interests, and use this information to engage them in meaningful conversations.
Not only will this help to build relationships with followers, but it will also help brands to understand how to tailor content and offers to suit their followers’ wants and desires. Brands should strive to create an engaged and loyal following who will be willing to advocate for their products or services.
2. Showcase Your Brand’s Personality
Social media is an excellent platform for brands to show their distinct personality and values. By showcasing their core values and mission, brands can resonate with their followers on a deeper level, and make them feel connected to the brand and its mission.
Brands should strive to share content that is consistent with their mission and values, and that resonates with their followers. Quality content is key to earning followers’ trust, and can be the difference between gaining a loyal brand advocate and a passive social media follower.
3. Provide Quality Content
Creating content that resonates with followers is essential for turning social media followers into brand advocates. Quality content allows followers to engage with the brand on a deeper level, and helps to build trust in the brand.
Content can span many topics, but it should always be useful and relevant to followers’ needs. This can include product reviews, how-to guides, educational content, and more. Brands should strive to provide content that is both interesting and informative, to create an engaged and loyal following.
4. Share User-Generated Content
One of the most powerful methods for turning followers into advocates is to recognize and share their user-generated content (UGC). Sharing UGC allows brands to showcase their fans, who become ambassadors for their brand, and encourages others to create content as well.
Sharing UGC sends fans the message that the brand values their opinions and experiences, and gives them a sense of ownership over the brand as well. UGC is also cost effective and allows brands to create content quickly and efficiently.
5. Reward Loyal Fans
Rewarding fans for their loyalty is one of the best ways to turn followers into brand advocates. By offering incentives such as discounts, coupons, loyalty points, and more, brands can encourage fans to spread the word about the brand.
Brands should also strive to recognize fans who are most active and vocal about their love for the brand. While physical incentives are always effective, simple acknowledgments such as shout-outs or thank yous can go a long way as well.
Conclusion
Social media followers are an invaluable asset to brands, and turning them into brand advocates is an essential step in gaining leverage and driving growth. By creating personal connections, showcasing brand personality, providing quality content, sharing user generated content and rewarding loyal fans, brands can successfully turn their social media followers into powerful brand advocates.