As the world gets bigger, our inner circles are getting smaller. Social media has become a way for people to build communities beyond their city limits. High school classmates are able to keep tabs on each other through Instagram updates, while friends that move to new cities can stay in touch with a few texts every couple of weeks.
And with more people becoming adopters of these platforms, newsfeeds are getting inundated with so much noise. Tuning in to a variety of viewpoints, different perspectives and ideas is a luxury that we all have thanks to social media.
But it also comes at a cost. According to a recent study, those who spend more than two hours a day on social media are 25 percent more likely to categorize their mental health as poor or fair.
So what’s happening to users when all the chatter online becomes too much for them to bear?
They’re leaving, they’re taking breaks, and they are sizing down the number of people and brands in their network.
For the first time in a long time, we’re seeing more people delete old connections, unfollow accounts that no longer serve them, and become increasingly diligent about the information that they are absorbing online. This level of protection of time and space doesn’t just have big implications on how the world of communication is going to evolve in the new decade, but also has a big impact on the brands that have worked so hard to get in front of these consumers.
Gone are the days where brands can put money behind an average post and know that their audience will see it. With privacy and data regulations, in addition to heightened security around these users’ circles, the difficulty for brands to break through that wall of connection is only going to get more and more difficult.
There is a straightforward technique to guarantee that your brand appears in front of your audience. It doesn’t matter whether data regulations become so strict, or whether individuals are unfriending and unfollowing companies at an alarming rate.
The trick? Your brand needs to become a part of your consumer’s inner circle.
The 2010s fueled lazy marketing. It allowed brands to share content to anyone and everyone at a low cost and get massive impressions. But with new information from Facebook, Instagram, and other digital ad companies, we’re seeing that the metrics that were winning in the 2010s are not all they were cracked out to be with misrepresented data and bot impressions.
But what always worked, and will keep working, is creating a genuine connection with your audience.
Brands that are ready to become a part of their consumers’ inner circle can do a few things to solidify their spots before it’s too late.
Be brutally honest with yourself
Take a 30,000-foot view of your brand today. Are you doing a good job connecting with your consumer? Are you providing value to their daily lives? Are you serving them in the way that they wish to be served?
Seek to poke holes in what you’re doing today and map out what it is that your consumer really is wanting in their circle, and what your brand can offer to add value to their life.
Get disciplined with your resources
If you have not updated your workforce or communication practices in the last five years, you’re already behind the curve. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but you should be looking at the resources you have today, and align them with jobs and tasks that will serve the higher purpose of your communication goals tomorrow.
For example, are you still sending out the same style of newsletters from a marketing plan you put together in 2017? Are you still utilizing social media strategy that was created by someone that no longer works at the organization? Have you updated your website with new service lines for products, but you haven’t updated the communication channels where you’re promoting those innovations? Cut resources that are no longer serving your future business, and invest in new models that match the market today.
Build an action plan
Two years is approximately how long brands will have access to their customers before it will become increasingly difficult and costly to reach them. You’re racing against the clock. Now is the time to pivot and get serious about getting into that customer’s inner circle.
Create a timeline of what it will take for you to evolve your communication plan. Now that you know the resources that you have, you can be realistic about which resources you’ll need to invest in in the future, as well as when to bring on any partners or software to get where you want to be.
Ultimately, it’s about creating a human connection over a marketing one. The more that brands do to invest in building community and making their consumers feel seen, heard, and appreciated, the better off they will be, and the more likely your brand will be invited into that inner circle of theirs. And the time to start is today.
Ready to build a plan for your brand? Get in touch with Digital HQ to see how we can set your brand up for that inner circle with your consumers.
