How Can I Build Brand Loyalty With Social Media?

Do you want to learn how you can build brand loyalty with social media? Of course you do! Even for people who think that they have all aspects of business, social media and branding down pat, it never hurts to take a few minutes and possibly learn more.

So let’s get to it!

Why you need Brand Loyalty

Building brand loyalty is one of the best long-term investments most companies can make. You are establishing relationships with customers that go beyond simple sales. Those who become loyal to a brand typical act as advocates which will help increase brand recognition organically.

A passionate customer base is much more valuable than a non-passionate group of customers, even if the numbers of the latter are larger, because that loyalty tends to last longer and provide a greater reach over time than an apathetic group.

Building brand loyalty is a key aspect of many successful businesses business plan. It is less expensive to retain existing customers compared to acquiring new customers and those retained customers also help you acquire new customers through their word-of-mouth marketing and advocacy.

Why Social Media

So why is social media important for brand loyalty? Aside from it being a fantastic vehicle for brands to communicate and interact with their customers, a recent study showed that brands with an established social media presence have received a higher level of commitment from existing customers.

From a demographic perspective alone it makes perfect sense as to why social media is a great place to foster loyalty. The largest generation in US history was born between the early 1980’s and the early 2000’s and have grown-up with social media as part of their lives.

Millennial consumers are 80% more likely to use a brand again if they are pleased with their first purchase, according to one study. Those consumers are also more likely to attempt to engage with a brand via social media if they are happy, or unhappy, with them. Therefore social media offers a unique opportunity with this monster demographic to communicate with and influence customers.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, does our company Facebook page count? The answer is yes, but only if you have used it to craft an established social media presence for your brand. If you aren’t sure whether or not you have then most likely you haven’t.

Creating brand loyalty on Social Media

Hopefully we have convinced you why it is important; now let’s get to the how aspect.

Craft a Social Media Marketing Strategy – Creating a written strategy or plan is always the best way to start with any new endeavor as it has been proven time and time again that written strategies are clearer and more likely to be followed, thus becoming more effective. The goal here is to think about what value you can provide for your followers. Why should someone follow you? Social media is an excellent way for customers to connect that can’t be reflected on a website or even in a store.

Things like telling stories about how your company came to be, providing informative and useful blogs, spotlighting on key staff members, or quickly responding to questions or problems by providing customer service are all things people might want to follow you for. The occasional product update or sale coupon is also nice, but these feeds should not just be about sales all the time or people will tune you out.

Social Media as PR – Your business and brand can get involved in the world in some many ways. Social media is a great way to note community involvement, support on issues and even promoting your partners in their endeavors. If your company is taking part in a cancer walk, promote the event and your involvement. If you are invited to speak at an event look to promote and cross-promote it via social media. You can easily utilize your social media platforms for public relations, which not only help spread your brand by being included in conversation not directly about your business, but can also increase trust as it shows you are a valued part of the community.

Create a Brand Community – Rather than just going it alone, look for like-minded businesses to team up with. You can build a community around promotional partnerships, local charity work, or community involvement. Then from there you can encourage consumers to tag and post related to those various activities which help people engage with your company, even if it is through one of your partners in the community. This will help build a level of trust and awareness that will help all of the companies involved.

Reward Loyal Followers – People who become brand ambassadors for you on social media simply because they like you and your brand should be rewarded. Not only are you rewarding a loyal customer, which increases brand loyalty, but these are the people who will tell the most people about it via word-of-mouth marketing. There are numerous ways to do this such as featuring a customer, allowing them to write a guest post, providing loyalty coupons and more. This not only rewards them, but shows everyone that as a company you value your customers.

The bottom line is that you can and should build brand loyalty with social media and by doing so you can increase the ROI for each customer and gain valuable new customers in the process which is a win-win any way that you look at it.