In this day & age, when a new “trend” goes viral on social media every single day, it is tough to keep up. Not just in terms of knowledge, but also in understanding whether these trends are relevant to your business? As a result, many brands indulge in any and every trend, which doesn’t really add any value to their communication or audience experience.
In fact, harping on every social media trend sometimes even results in backlash. A number of brands that in a bid to create trending content, congratulated PV Sindhu for her Olympic win, resulting in the athlete suing numerous brands for using her name and other collaterals without permission.
Social media trends or moment marketing as many call it – work only when that trend or moment fit your brand’s story. They add value to your communication and serve a purpose for your audience. For example, the beverage brand Storia, leveraging the ‘Love Storya’ trend that started when the song Kesariya from the film Brahmastra went viral – was a collaboration that made sense. Storia as a brand managed to give its audience a chuckle by making the Kesariya moment a part of their brand story.
Brand Storytelling + Social Media Trends
But how do we combine brand storytelling with social media trends? It’s honestly not that hard. Let’s start with the obvious – first, define your brand story. In fact, here’s a simple way to use storytelling in marketing:
- Summarize your origin story – Where, Why, What, Who, When How – it’s important to answer all these questions while explaining where your brand & service originated from
- Make sure to mark your characters – Maybe the founder who has been the face of the brand or a mascot who is consistently in your communication or even your audience. Like every story, it’s important your brand story has interesting characters.
- Emphasize the conflict: What is the challenge or problem that your brand or service solves? Any problem that your brand helps solve, becomes the story conflict – a conflict that you consistently overcome.
- Be human: Avoid using jargons in your story. The purpose of the story is not just to sell, it is to connect.
- Stay authentic: Any story is impactful and relatable only if it’s authentic. Stay to your roots and truths, the rest will work itself out.
A hot chocolate brand, Tiggle, has been communicating its brand story well – not only is it on its website and social media but is also shared with end consumers as a part of every delivery. Their founder is an important character in their brand story.
Now comes the next question, how to identify if a social media trend fits your brand’s story? Here are a few questions you can ask:
- Is the trend relevant to your product/service? While India winning a match in T20 is a great moment of joy, it might not be relevant to your brand or audience.
- If it is, what is the best way to leverage it? For example, a T20 match is relevant to a FoodTech brand or a snacking brand. Thus, if a trend fits your brand, the next step would be to zero down on the format of your communication – a creative, a reel, a banner ad? Where will your audience interact with this kind of communication the most & which is the quickest to turnaround – these two markers will help find the right platform.
- Measure the impact: You might have managed to create a relevant, entertaining, quick piece of communication for a social media trend but has it worked? Track the performance of the piece and basis the result redefine and re-tune your moment marketing strategy going forward.
A storytelling marketing strategy can go a long way, when done in the right manner and with consistency. Statistics have time and again shown how the new-age consumers relate to a brand that they resonate with, brands who have the same values as they do, and brands they can trust. A brand story help you achieve all these things and more.
Trends change everyday, stories are evergreen.
