What Do Customers Want From The Brands They Follow?

Social Media has become all of the digital marketing rage over the past couple of years - brands have built profiles on every available platform and are tickled pink when they see that their fan/follower numbers have gone up. Moreover, they are completely turned on by the fact that every time someone reacts to the content they publish, all their friends see it. Social Media is Word of Mouth marketing on steroids. This is precisely why, despite the fact that ROI is almost impossible to prove, brands around the world are investing so much of their time and money into social media marketing.

Now that they've set up their social profiles and have built up their fan base, what will brands offer their customers? Discounts, insider information, first dibs at products and services? That's what fans want right? Well that's at least what they say they want, but that's not always what they get. And so we enter the awkward phase of disconnect between brands and their consumers. Most would argue that brands should simply ask consumers what they're after and give it to them, but they often do, surveys are conducted all the time, and still this disconnect continues to exist, which begs the question - do customers even know what they're looking for?

In our current age of information overload people are in the habit of responding to marketing and information rather than seeking it out. I, for instance, might Like a brand on Facebook cause I saw a cool ad campaign they put together, as opposed to searching for their profile and Liking it that way. What does this mean for brands? It means that they should make the content they publish as relevant and interesting as possible. By keeping things current and fresh, brands have the opportunity to become a digital staple in the lives of their fans. No one is interested in only hearing about one of anything - one person, one brand, one subject. People like information about a lot of different things. Brands should start looking a bit outside of themselves. If they are a fashion brand, they could be posting photos from the latest shows they've been to, interviews with new designers and sharing promos with other brands. This is the type of information that fans will share with their friends.

If you want friends, fans and followers to stay faithful you have to entertain them, plain and simple.