A brand advocate is a customer who talks favorably about a brand or product, passing positive word-of-mouth messages about the brand to other people. Through social media, you can turn brand advocates into a huge and powerful marketing force for your company. But, you have to do it right.
It’s all about engage, just engage, no hustle.
What is a brand advocate?
Think of a brand advocate as a cheerleader for your brand. Except you aren’t paying them to do it. They are just such a huge fan of what you do, they go out and spread the good news about your business and make referrals.
Does every business need them?
Every business needs brand advocates if that business wishes to grow and thrive.
Brand advocacy is important because you and your company can only do so much to reach your customers. You can’t be everywhere at once, but with advocates your brand can.
Your brand is likely already in many places you aren’t aware of anyway. Hopefully customers have been out there recommending your business based on their stellar experience with your products and services.
If they aren’t, here are some steps you can take to help create a brand ambassador out of them.
Identify current brand advocates
The first step is to find those customers already referring you to other potential customers. Who has given you positive feedback?
Look at those customers that already love what you do and tell others about it. What similarities do they all have? Is there a common link between their experiences with your company?
Engage!
Engage with your customers. Don’t just push your products or services–talk to them. When someone leaves a comment on your social media pages, thank them, address them personally and try to connect with them somehow. When your company is tagged in a post, tweet, pin or picture, like or favorite and comment.
The more personal the engagement the bigger the impact on the customer. The bigger the impact, the more likely they are to advocate for your brand.
When a customer posts about your brand, share it! Be sure to thank them too.
Think about offering some sort of perk for referrals or for feedback. Give shout outs on social media and/or exclusive company merchandise that can’t be purchased elsewhere.
Social listening
Another way to engage with customers is to practice social listening.
Set up a google alert for your brand, create and follow company-specific hashtags, and watch what people are saying about you. Jump into the conversation when you can, many big brands do this successfully like Chipotle and Burger King.
There’s something very positive about getting a direct, non-automated, human comment from a company when a customer mentions them or their products. That positive experience will likely pave the way for that customer to become an advocate for your brand. Real in-person interaction shows genuine interest in and care for your customers, who they are and what they think. They return that interest and care for your brand.
Tap into your employees
Finally, one of the best places to find brand advocates are already intimately familiar with your business: your employees.
It makes a strong statement when a company’s employees aren’t fans of their brand, and, equally, it makes a strong statement when they are.
According to the 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer, employees of a company are perceived as more trustworthy and genuinely reflective of a brand than the company’s CEO.
Encourage employees to talk about their work; invest in their experience so you know it’s a positive one. Create a fun name for your employees so they can identify themselves. Google has Googlers, it’s fun to say you’re a Googler, and it’s easy to recognize their employees based on the name, which increases the reach of Google’s brand.
It’s all about quality
Quality always shines. If you put out quality, you’ll get it back in return. Social media and brand advocacy is the modern day word-of-mouth marketing. It is the holy grail that every brand wants to be a part of. If responses are fake or automated, customers know it and don’t advocate their experience with your brand.
Here at Posse Social Media we can fully manage your business’ social media accounts, including engagement with customers and brand growth. Contact us today to learn more about our social media management services and how we help you grow!