What Makes Your Brand Unique?

 

Just as consumers have become accustomed to flipping the channel any time a commercial airs, we now swipe or scroll past a brand that we perceive to be advertising to us.

As such, it's more important than ever to speak like a human rather than a brand that is selling something.

That's not marketing.

That's being present in someone's life.

It isn't something that you can automate.

Most brand marketers that I meet want to have the biggest Instagram account in their industry.

You don't need thousands or millions to succeed in this game.

But you do need people who care enough about your company to tell their friends about you.

It's no different from network marketing or multi-level marketing.

My immediate answer to her wasn't in the form of a plan to engage 30 million followers, because I know for a fact that would be impossible.

Even then, these remaining 300,000 people, on average, are not seeing the brand's content much less engaging with it because the brand is always in hyper-sales mode.

As a brand, they would have to spend massive amounts of cash to reclaim the desired reach she was seeking.

I suggested that she should utilize my company, to focus on engaging 0.1 percent of their total community to identify who is of influence and who cares about the brand.

But even with that smaller group, only about 1 percent can realistically be expected to not just see the content but actively engage with it.

That's 300 people, not 30 million.

If I were to put 300 people in a room right now, you wouldn't be able to speak to 300 people in an hour and carry meaningful dialogue.

It's just not possible.

Every decade there is a change of the guard in technology, there is a new medium by which we grow and scale and monetize and reach masses.

To profit and benefit you need to be aware of where the current is headed.

The only numbers game that is in play here is who is a qualified follower versus another random vanity metric.

I like it when my colleagues doubt the power of social media because they aren't getting the engagement that they want on social media.

It means there's more market share waiting to be consumed by those who do get it.

It's not hard, and it's not rocket science, but there is a science behind it, which is what I'm here to teach you.

Everything is easy if you understand the systems and where the current is headed.

I'm here to give you the guide that's going to keep you in business or a job.

It's all about embracing new-school tools with old-school rules.

Historically, relationships were formed over drinks and golf.

Marketing, as we know it, is dead.

Until then you are just swimming in a giant digital ocean hoping to find your way.

Why am I on social media?

What platforms are my customers on?

What is my competition doing well versus what I am doing well?

What do I want to see as a consumer from the brands I follow?

What value can my brand give my audience?

What purpose does my content serve?

What is my current advertising spend?

Who is influential to my brand?

Remember, social media is a business strategy that should align with your overall goals and objectives.

In the film, Tom Hanks's character is involved in a plane crash over the Pacific Ocean during a storm.

As the sole survivor of the flight, Hanks's character washes ashore on a deserted island where he's left for dead as he has no contact with anyone.

Although Hanks's character learns how to survive on the island where he remains for years, he becomes lonely as he doesn't have anyone to engage with besides an imaginary character named Wilson portrayed by a volleyball.

Unless you're crushing it on social media, your brand is like Tom Hanks's character in the movie Cast Away.

From an awareness standpoint, you are isolated and speaking aloud in a noisy digital ocean, where hardly anyone is paying attention.

Today most brands are speaking to themselves whenever they post content.

Few people are genuinely paying attention, hence why engagement numbers appear to be significantly disproportionate to the number of followers a brand seems to have.

Now, post-pandemic, it's louder and thus more challenging to capture the attention of a consumer who is quickly scrolling through their newsfeed in between Zoom meetings.

From virtual conferences and office work to remote learning, more aspects of people's daily social and professional lives have permanently moved online.

Let's not leave streaming services such as Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon Prime too far behind, as these mediums also contribute to diverting consumers' attention toward their platforms.

As I sat in the audience and listened to Mark Zuckerberg, what stood out to me the most was the company's plans to bring Wi-Fi to communities around the world that didn't have internet access.

Can they replace my cellular phone provider, too, if my iPhone has a permanent internet connection allowing me to use WhatsApp or Messenger for phone calls and text messaging?

More importantly, can they have unlimited, 24/7 access to what I am talking about to others and searching online, and use this data to serve me custom ads?

Imagine when the world that we live in today allows you to go online not as yourself but rather as an avatar, which you design to your liking.

Do you think marketing on Twitter is challenging right now?

One day you'll be marketing to people's avatars in a virtual world.

The lines between reality and virtual reality are becoming increasingly blurred.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but I do look at life through an objective lens and always feel that there's more than what meets the eye.

Many marketers and people who use social media in their business fall into the trap of only thinking about right now.

How am I going to meet my sales numbers?

How am I going to get more engagement?

These short-term questions are obviously important and understandable for anyone who's trying to grow their business.

The answer lies in part in harnessing what makes your brand unique.

In the digital ocean of social media, you need a way to stand out, because there are so many brands as well as individuals on social media today contributing to the overload of content.

We are all competing against each other for consumers' limited amount of time and attention.

Adding to the challenge of standing out is the difficulty of standing the test of time.

And if you don't immediately get engagement on your posts, it's as good as you never posting at all.