Spending Social Capital On Social Media

Everyone knows that building relationships with consumers helps a brand to thrive. Connecting with a customer on what the brand stands for, how reliable the brand is, and how the company cares about them as a customer are all ways to keep them coming back for more. These personal relationships are indispensable as word-of-mouth marketing continues to be a top sales driver.

There are two parts to sparking word-of-mouth marketing conversations: first, your company, brand, or product must stand out in a consumer’s mind. Then, mentioning it in a conversation needs to make them look smart, helpful, or sophisticated to their social circle. If you can help a customer build their reputation, or social capital, when they bring up your goods or services, you enter a mutually beneficial relationship where your brand receives free, focused advertising.

But, with the advent of social media, the way that customers are chatting has changed. Social currency, the oldest exchangeable asset, migrated to social media platforms the moment they caught on. The adage, “If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” has turned into, “If you click my link, I’ll click yours.” Now, established businesses that don’t move their focus to online chatter, by either creating an in-house task force or hiring a professional digital marketing agency, are losing customers to startups who understand the importance of speaking the client’s language, when and where they speak it.

The Social Capital Exchange

Social currency doesn’t change hands in face-to-face business attire meetings, it bullets from screen to screen, spurred on by a small series of button presses. The exchange of likes, reactions, comments, shares, and subscriptions construct the busy digital marketplace that more and more businesses operate in each year. All of these actions initiate, confirm, and renew the interpersonal relationships that our online society thrives on. However, some of the more senior partners of the business may still be asking how does a picture, a few typed words, or a short video turn into a paying client?

Think about how you navigate the Internet. I bet you start with content that you identify with: a photo of your faraway family, an article about a breakthrough in your industry, or a news report about something in your hometown. Something about the content strikes a note with you on a personal or even emotional level. You somehow have a direct relationship to what is being presented and you are almost obligated to click, like, and share it.

Now imagine that you’re thinking about purchasing a new computer. You’re going to do some research before making this large purchase. You might check and compare the specs, prices, and reviews online, but even more often you’ll turn to your friends, family, and colleagues to find the perfect fit. The Harris Poll and Ambassador’s report from 2017 that found that 82% of Americans look to their social circles for advice before making a purchase. You may not even have to speak to anyone to find the recommendations you’re looking for because your friends are already liking and sharing posts and links to products they favor. As a business, you want to be publishing this kind of content, but how do you come up with it?

Minting Your Social Cash

In his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Jonah Berger explains why we feel compelled to interact with some content (digital or otherwise) and turn up our noses at other posts. “People share things that make them look good to others,” says Berger, “they use social currency to achieve desired positive impressions among their families, friends, and colleagues.” He explains that there are three product traits or strategies to help consumers pass your brand along in conversations: inner remarkability, game mechanics, and exclusivity.

Leveraging these strategies will look different from brand to brand and product to product. As you find combinations that work, you should notice an increase in your profit margin. Sure, it’s not a one-for-one exchange rate where you make a dollar for every interaction you generate, but it is an indispensible part of the user-brand experience.

Inner Remarkability

To be remarkable, you don’t need an extraordinary product. Even the most mundane, everyday, commonplace object has something noteworthy about it that can be polished up and put in the spotlight. It’s often just a matter of looking at your product or brand from a new perspective. Berger uses Snapple’s use of impressive facts under their lids to better illustrate this strategy.

Game Mechanics

Everyone loves a good competition. When you win, you get bragging rights, and when the next game starts, you’ve got to defend your title. Berger points out that airline loyalty programs do a great job using game mechanics because not only do customers return to gather more miles, they’re posting about their flights and showing off those extra perks they’ve “won” all over social media.

Exclusivity

From fun and nerdy collectors to the highest-end fashionistas, there’s no better way to get a product to fly off the shelves than by marking it “limited edition”. By making something exclusive, you make it all the more desirable. But exclusivity doesn’t just mean having a limited quantity. Restricting access to certain content makes being “on the inside” a sort of status symbol that your clients are sure to talk about!

Conclusions on Social Capital

While there isn’t a cut-and-dry formula to building a brand’s social bank account, there are professionals that can manage your social “money” and invest it in the ever-changing digital marketplace. They will know not to make your brand sound too needy or “spammy” with “Like, Share, and Comment this!!” posts. They will help you identify a strong and steady brand voice. Just remember that whether you outsource the job or complete it in house, these relationships are real to your customers and only work with the same attention, give-and-take, and interest that allow even more personal relationships rely on.

Moncur is a branding + digital agency. Leveraging our specialized expertise in strategic messaging, branding, advanced technology website development and integrated digital marketing, we help large B2B companies brand, market and sell what they do online. Learn more at www.thinkmoncur.com.