Loading...

News this week that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is set to launch ‘Wikitribune,’ a neutral and high quality news service to counter the proliferation of ‘fake news’, highlights a general growing demand amongst consumers for trustworthy and authentic ‘voices’ in their digital meanderings.  For brands looking to connect with, and nurture a loyal customer base through social this principle of authenticity should definitely resonate.  

Brand Storytelling

In the context of brand storytelling, authenticity refers to how genuine and honest a brand is – talking like a straightforward person to convey a rational and consistent message that garners the trust of its potential audience.  This makes for a memorable brand. However, as with 24-7 news feeds, the sheer volume of digital platforms across which brands operate has led to a level of transparency previously unknown.  This creates challenges in an ‘always on’ culture of brand to customer relations. Indeed a brand’s messaging today is as much owned by its army of followers as it is by a marketing department.

As Robbie Baxter, author of The Membership Economy states, consumers:

“..relationship with organisations is shifting from ownership to access, from emphasising the transactional to the relational, and from the traditional one-way communication from the organisation to a multidirectional conversation..”  

People are becoming increasingly invested in brands that offer an emotive, fulfilling and authentic relationship. People no longer buy brands; they join them.

Our Ideas For Your Brand Messages

Four ways To Keep Your Brand Messaging Authentic:

  • Be consistent – Your brand message should resonate with your ideal customer.  Stay true to this voice across all social mediums to build trust and strengthen loyalty. Your brand evangalists will also then stay ‘on point’!
  • Be professional, and approachable – remember to talk like a regular human, adopt a conversational tone without being flippant.  Remember people like people they trust
  • Engage – Be timely and honest in your response to questions, queries or complaints .  Engaging in this way will make your customers feel valued and foster brand affinity
  • Be transparent – as well as being honest in your social engagement, allow user generated content across your platforms to give an authentic view of your brand and products.  Aim not to over-edit such content.

If you’d like to talk to us about your brand and how you can create an authentic voice, please get in touch. We’d love to help and can potentially offer you some free consultancy.

Comments(0)

Leave a Comment