With a clearly defined brand voice in place, the easiest way to continue to build trust and loyalty amongst your customers is by pulling back the curtain on the inner workings of your day-to-day operations through social media transparency.
It’s important to first differentiate between being authentic versus transparent. Being authentic is utilizing your brand voice to be consistent and approachable when engaging with your customers on social media.
Social media transparency builds on the authentic nature of your brand by sharing your company’s values and practices in an open and honest manner. Being transparent not only builds trust and loyalty with your current customers but also helps to inform and empower potential customers to make better buying decisions by providing information they need in an accessible and easily digestible way.
Balance Is Key
Transparency is about finding the balance between corporate speak and over-sharing. It’s important to set the boundaries with what you are comfortable sharing as a company and align that message in a way that stays true to your brand voice.
The information you do share with your social audience should be clear and consistent, set in a professional and polished tone. Help educate your customer on the inner workings of your company in a thoughtful way.
Patagonia has long been a leader in creating high-quality products that have a clean environmental footprint. They take their mission one step further on their social channels by educating their customers about environmental issues important to them and leading the way to inspire their fans to easily take action in implementing positive change.
Make Your Brand More Personal
Show them a typical day in your office, introduce them to your company and the people who they interact with—for example your customer service and social media teams.
Don’t be afraid to put a face to your brand. Everlane has extended their ‘radical transparency’ brand message to Snapchat by introducing the people behind their social team. With each Snap they are working to convert fans into customers by sharing information regarding their factories and pricing structure, while simultaneously encouraging their customers to ask them the tough questions.
Know Your Audience
Before posting to any of your social channels think of your audience’s reaction. What interests them? Is it a Facebook Live Q&A about your latest product? Or a behind-the-scenes Snapchat tour of the production process of your goods from the factory to the floor.
Your audience is social savvy and smart. Be sure to invest in your audience by providing information that not just entertains but also informs. The goal is to produce authentic and transparent social content that helps to build an enduring relationship with your customer.
Listen
One of the best benefits of social media is the immediate feedback your followers will give you.
Be open and honest with your customers, then listen to their reactions. By creating and maintaining a consistent open dialogue with your fans they will provide invaluable insight. Be sure to respond to all comments, good and bad. By acknowledging that you are listening to both their praise and concerns is a huge opportunity to leave a positive lasting impression on a customer.
Publically Acknowledge Mistakes
Customer service is key. Again, go out of your way to respond to every comment your receive. One of the greatest benefits of social media is the ability to right a wrong publically and immediately. Each interaction with customers should be laying the foundation for brand affinity and loyalty.
Don’t be quick to hit the delete button on negative comments, instead use that as an opportunity to do the right thing and make the customer not only happy but leave a lasting impression with the hope of creating a customer for life.
Pull back the curtain on your company’s values and practices to extend the relationship you have with your customer and build trust. Social media transparency provides a unique opportunity to create a genuine and long lasting relationship with your customers.
Contact the Filament team today to ensure your brand is creating authentic and transparent social content every day.
