Social media advocacy is a great way to leverage the people who like you and/or are invested in your business's success, whether they are your customers, company employees, business partners, influencers, or other types of contacts.
Nielsen's 2021 Trust in Advertising study found that 89% of respondents trust recommendations from people they know. These recommendations are almost twice as likely to be acted upon.
Adopting a social media advocacy strategy allows you to turn your biggest fans into brand advocates: people who love your brand so much that they choose to voluntarily promote your products or services on their own social media channels.
While influencers are paid to create sponsored content, brand advocates simply demonstrate latvia phone number data overwhelming enthusiasm for your product or service and voluntarily sign up for your advocacy program. While many buyers rely on influencers' paid content, organic advocates carry significant weight.
You can leverage the social networks of your most loyal advocates by engaging with them. Overall, building meaningful relationships with your customers can be extremely rewarding.
What can brand advocates do for your business?
Social media is now one of the primary ways to research brands online, second only to search engines. Customers use social media at every stage of their purchasing journey. Posting a positive message from a brand advocate can help you stand out from the competition.
Brand advocates can help grow your business in several ways:
They leave positive reviews
Reviews from real users provide valuable information to potential customers. In fact, reviews are the third most important factor for shoppers considering an online purchase:
Chart showing the motivating factors behind online shopping
Source: Hootsuite Digital report
Encourage your brand advocates to leave positive reviews on your website – and make it easy for them to do so, for example, by creating a link for them to leave a review on Google and including it in your post-sale email.
Customers consider a mix of positive and negative reviews to be more trustworthy. Responding to comments will show them that your brand welcomes feedback from its buyers. Be sure to respond to all reviews, good or bad.
They create user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is original, brand-specific content created by customers and published on social media or other channels. It's a true signal of trust, taking your brand's authenticity to the next level. It has a significant impact on the final stages of the buyer's journey.
Brands like Starbucks are leveraging user-generated content to break up the rhythm of traditional marketing messages in their social media feeds:
User-generated content on Starbucks' Instagram account
Source: Starbucks on Instagram
Only four of these 12 recent posts on Starbucks' Instagram feed were funded by the brand. The other eight are user-generated content. They help create a sense of urgency that encourages customers to stop scrolling and treat themselves to one of the brand's new "treats."
They attract new users or customers
Seeing someone else's success can help new customers imagine their own. This is why success stories are extremely valuable for recruiting new customers or potential users.
Short-term accommodation giant Airbnb is building brand awareness through its Superhost ambassador program .
Superhosts are experienced users who have hosted at least 10 times in the past year, have a guest rating of at least 4.8, and a 90% response rate within 24 hours. They receive certain benefits and special recognition.
Superhost Ambassadors share their positive experiences to help new users understand the benefits of hosting. They offer mentorship and tools to help new hosts get started, while also receiving rewards for bringing new users to Airbnb.
- Board index
- All times are UTC
- Delete cookies
- Contact us