The Power of Authenticity: Why Genuine Social Media Content Converts

The Power of Authenticity: Why Genuine Social Media Content Converts

Introduction

Did you know that 55% of people learn about new brands via social media, 79.7% make purchasing decisions based on social media ads and 90% buy from the brands they follow on social media?

In today’s digital age, social media has become an indispensable part of our day-to-day lives. The myriads of social media platforms enable the millions of active users who log in and engage on them daily to connect with their friends, family and even brands. These platforms also bestow users a dedicated space to express themselves and share their work with the world. Consequently, social media platforms have revolutionised how we connect, create, communicate and consume content. They have also evolved into the most powerful marketing tool for brands and businesses to reach, attract and connect with their target audience and drive conversions.

However, the limitless potential of social media marketing comes with a flip side: the saturation of ads and content on social media platforms makes it increasingly challenging for brands to capture and sustain the attention of their potential customers. This is where authenticity, a buzzword in social media marketing for quite some while, comes into play. Authentic and genuine content is the key to standing out and making a lasting impact, cutting through the noise and clutter on social media to establish trust, build credibility and convert followers into loyal customers.

In this blog, we will explore the concept of authenticity in social media content strategy, why authentic brand profiling is a game-changer and how genuine social media content invariably converts. We will also delve into various case studies, actionable tips for creating authentic content and how to strategise content as a social media content creator.

The Importance of Authenticity in Social Media Marketing

Authenticity is the quality of being genuine, real, and trustworthy. Essentially, authenticity means being actually and exactly what is claimed. In the context of social media, authenticity refers to the transparency and honesty demonstrated by individuals, brands and influencers in their online presence.

Brands that successfully and effectively exhibit authenticity on social media are characterised by content that –

• remains true to the brand’s voice and core values
• upholds a consistent and uniform messaging, tone and image across all channels and platforms
• initiates a strong emotional bond with the brand’s target audience
• differentiates the brand from its competitors with a distinctive identity and unique style
• resonates with the audience on a deeper level and increases engagement
• prioritises the needs, preferences, expectations and feedback of the consumers
• exhibits a purpose, cause or goal that goes beyond making money and profits
• truthfully communicates the brand’s practices and operations to the audience
• attests that the brand is reliable, trustworthy, responsible for its actions and willing to address any concerns/issues openly

As consumers become discerning about the content they consume, authenticity is grabbing more and more eyeballs. In recent years, the marketing landscape has witnessed a dramatic shift towards authenticity. Since social media platforms are inundated with directionless ads, insincere branding efforts and sponsored content contradictory to the brand identity, people crave more ‘real’ content that forges relatable experiences and meaningful connections with purpose-driven brands which ‘walk the talk’ rather than blatant sales pitches thrown in their faces as soon as they open their social media feeds.

Let’s have a look at a few statistics on consumer behaviour-

• As per a Paripost study, 66% of users give more importance to authenticity compared to quality when it comes to making a decision.
• A survey conducted by Stackla shows that 86% of consumers find authenticity the key factor when deciding which brands they want to like and support.
• 90% of millennials highly value the quality of authenticity when selecting the brands to engage with and purchase from.

These statistics further substantiate that consumers, especially the younger ones, including millennials and Gen Z, are much more likely to trust a brand they find transparent, real and organic over a brand that seems exaggerated, fake, incongruent and perfectly packaged to generate sales.

Authentic branding content strategy, therefore, is the best technique for enhancing the brand image, attracting followers, breeding meaningful engagement, fostering long-term relationships with the audience and boosting sales.

How Genuine Content Builds Trust and Credibility

Like every other successful relationship, trust forms the foundation of the buyer-seller relationship and a relationship between a brand and its audience. One of the key reasons why authenticity in social media content is paramount is because it inspires trust in a brand’s audience, converting them from mere followers to loyal customers. In fact, as a buyer, it is more important to trust a brand than like or love it. Given the competitive market and short attention spans of the present times, consumers must feel comfortable about trusting a brand even before clicking on its social media ad. Edelman Trust Barometer, a global survey measuring trust in institutions, has also shown that 81% of consumers must be able to trust the brand before making a brand purchase.

Authentic brands leverage social media to cultivate an image in the audience’s minds conducive to building trust and credibility. They create genuine content that makes people feel valued, understood and confident about their choices, encouraging a sense of loyalty. Such content can build trust by demonstrating transparency, honesty and vulnerability to convey that they are reliable and true to their values.

Examples of Authentic Social Media Content that Converts

The brand’s people find influential and remember for the longest time are always the ones that form an emotional connection with them. Authenticity enables the brands to humanise themselves so their audience can relate to them and forge a connection beyond a mere transaction. Users always appreciate and incline towards the businesses which share their authentic stories, experiences, values, processes, practices, behind-the-scenes glimpses, failures, shortcomings, challenges, struggles and moments of imperfection without any filters. With authentic content, brands can spark conversations, fuel engagement, highlight their expertise, address their customers’ concerns, feedback and pain points, and provide them with valuable and relevant information that raises awareness.

For example, a clothing brand with sustainability as its core value can create and share content showcasing its commitment to preserving the environment. This can include behind-the-scenes stories, founder’s notes, employees’ opinions or details about their eco-friendly manufacturing processes, ethical sourcing of materials, efforts to reduce waste and other environmental initiatives undertaken by the brand. This will help build trust and credibility with environmentally-conscious audiences.

In this era of influencer marketing, authenticity becomes all the more important, for a brand’s collaboration with influencers will be truly successful only if the content is genuine, the influencers believe in and use their products, and the audience perceives the content as honest, sincere and dependable.

User-generated content (UGC), like testimonials and customer experiences that bring out authentic stories from real consumers who have had positive involvement with a brand, is another form of authentic content that works best. By featuring honest stories and experiences of diverse individuals, brands can build inclusive and relatable communities that encourage brand loyalty in a wider audience. This UGC serves as social proof, demonstrating the authenticity of the brand and creating credibility that drives conversions from potential customers.

Remember – people are likelier to engage with content they can relate to and find personally meaningful. They also tend to frequently purchase from a brand whose narrative aligns with their values. This is the reason why brand positioning is important.

Tips for Creating Authentic Content on Social Media

Quite often, brands get so lost in social media content trends, social media content plan, content SEO and content strategy planning that they forget that the most important factor in marketing their brand on social media is being authentic.

Creating authentic content necessitates careful planning and meticulous execution. Here are a few content planning tips to ensure that, unlike most brands, you don’t go astray while content planning for social media and skillfully bring forth an authentic social media presence for your audience-

• Know your audience: The first step to authentic and strategic content creation is gaining a deep understanding of your target audience. Let’s admit it – it’s impossible to be truly authentic if you don’t know who the other party is. Study the needs, desires and pain points of your target audience so that you can tailor your content to resonate with them. Create a buyer persona or brand consumer profile for your brand and flesh it out as much as possible. Browse posts by people who match your personas and familiarise yourself with their tone, preferences, challenges, aspirations and personalities from the inside out. By doing this, you will be able to address their pain points, provide solutions, and offer relevant information and true value through your content. Remember, authenticity begins with truly knowing your audience and speaking their language.
• Develop a unique brand voice: To stand out, you must avoid imitating your competitors’ style and content at all costs. While creating your brand personality profile, develop a distinct and fresh voice that aligns with the brand’s values. Strive to create original content that speaks to your target audience most naturally. Keep the tone of content planning and writing as if you’re speaking to them as if they were right before you.
• Be transparent and true to your brand: Transparency and honesty lie at the core of authenticity. Be open and clear while sharing your brand’s values, missions, processes and stories with your audience. Through social media content, offer your audience insights into your business operations, accentuate your ethical practices and don’t shy away from tackling any concerns or challenges transparently. Ensure that your brand’s voice and personality shine through in your content so that your audience will connect with your brand profoundly.
  
• Embrace imperfection and vulnerability: Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t need to present a ‘perfect image’ of your brand on social media. You must be real for your followers to feel that you’re being real. Not only is it fine, but posting without filters and admitting to your challenges and struggles on social media will make your brand more relatable and take its authenticity to the next level. Authentic content like the chaotic behind-the-scenes of running a small business, cluttered desk, disorganised warehouse and the uncensored process of developing a new product or coming up with a marketing campaign will make your audience trust and remember your brand for a long time. It will also encourage them to embrace their imperfections and vulnerabilities, positively impacting their lives.
• Go beyond ‘selling’: If you keep pushing sales-pitch-like content all the time, it will alienate your audience and ruin the customer-friendly image of your brand. Balancing promotional and non-promotional content in your social media content plan is imperative. Ensure you consistently publish content to build a connection, raise awareness, provide value and educate the audience with honest intent and no ulterior motive to make a sale.
• Show real people: Incorporate and feature real customers, employees, partners or clients in your social media content to humanise your brand and make it relatable. This can include testimonials with authentic stories of your customers’ experiences, team members in milestone celebrations, conferences or team lunches and content like a day in the office. Do not script your video content excessively. Keep it natural and go with the flow. This will increase your conversions significantly.
• Make your audience feel heard: Pay attention to customer feedback and engage in conversations with followers to foster loyalty. Respond to comments, messages, and reviews timely and respectful . Own up to mistakes and apologise if necessary. Actively listen to your audience, ask questions and encourage conversations to substantiate that you genuinely care about your followers’ opinions, experiences, and concerns.

Social media content doesn’t need to be picture-perfect, immaculate or flawless. It just needs to be honest, sincere and thoughtful while representing the ethos of your brand authentically.

The Role of Storytelling in Authentic Social Media Marketing

Storytelling constitutes a powerful tool for creating a strong emotional connection with an audience and conveying your brand’s narrative in the most compelling, memorable and relatable manner. Authentic storytelling goes beyond promotion or advertising – it engages the audience on a deeper plane and leaves a lasting impression. By weaving narratives that strike a chord with their target audience’s shared experiences and aspirations, brands can evoke a range of emotions. These emotions inspire action, foster meaningful connections, elicit empathy, create a sense of community and ultimately drive conversions.

When crafting your brand’s story –

• Focus on the experiences, challenges, and successes that have shaped your brand’s journey
• Take into account your audience’s pain points, aspirations and values
• Incorporate your brand’s values, mission and purpose to ensure that the consumers would align themselves with the brand’s stories
• Stay genuine, relatable and consistent in your storytelling approach

Storytelling can be employed everywhere in strategic content marketing tactics across various content formats like blogs, videos, social media captions and user-generated content. Be it a story of your brand’s product transforming someone’s life, the inspiration behind starting your business or challenges you’ve faced, storytelling is the key to humanising your brand and bringing out authenticity.

Leveraging User-Generated Content for Authenticity

User-generated content (UGC) is a goldmine when creating authentic social media content. UGC refers to the content created by the brand’s customers or followers. UGC amplifies your brand’s authenticity and credibility by serving as social proof – it shows your potential customers that real people out there are enjoying and endorsing your products or services. It initiates a genuine connection with the audience, fosters a sense of community, increases engagement and displays that the brand values its customers.

Encouraging customers to share their experiences, reviews, testimonials and creative content featuring your brand humanises your marketing efforts, validates your brand’s authenticity through real-life experiences and boosts conversions. According to an Adweek study, UGC-based ads receive 4x higher click-through rates and a 50% drop in cost-per-click compared to average ads.

Here’s how you can leverage UGC effectively for your brand’s social media –

• Incentivise your customers to create content surrounding your brand and tag your page
• Run contests and create branded hashtags to capture the attention of more people and inspire them to submit their content
• Reshare UGC on all your social media platforms, website, or other marketing channels to show appreciation to your customers

The #ShareACoke campaign by Coca-Cola is a great example of a successful marketing campaign driven purely by user-generated content.

Measuring the Success of Authentic Social Media Campaigns

Evaluating the impact and effectiveness of an authentic social media campaign is as important as planning and implementing it. Similar to a content audit for social media, it entails monitoring and analysing key engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments and click-through rates to determine how well your content is resonating with the audience.

However, you must look beyond surface-level engagement and examine the meaningful indicators that reflect the efficacy of your authentic approach.

Let’s have a look at some metrics and methods you can consider to gauge the impact of authenticity on your social media posts –

• Engagement rate: Inspect the number of likes, comments and shares
• Sentiment analysis: Whether the sentiment of the comments and feedback received indicates a positive or negative perception of your brand
• Customer feedback: Actively seek feedback through surveys, polls and direct messages.
• Conversion rates: Track how many users take the intended/desired action.
• Brand advocacy: Calculate the number of brand advocates and loyal customers who endorse and promote your brand.
• Referral traffic: Estimate the referral traffic your social media generates for your website or landing pages.

You can use the insights obtained from these activities to adjust your strategies and consistently improve and optimise your brand’s social media content for conversions. Additionally, ensure you always monitor conversions and track sales attributed to the campaigns to understand their direct impact on the bottom line—Utilise analytics tools to measure the success of your authentic social media campaigns and make data-driven improvements.

The Potential Risks of Inauthentic Social Media Marketing

While authenticity can elevate your brand to unbelievable heights, inauthentic social media marketing practices can be detrimental and cause severe repercussions to your brand image. As a brand, you must always remember that the savvy social media users of the modern generation are swift as a hare in spotting inauthentic content. If the users sense that you’re being dishonest or attempting to deceive them, they will take no time to lose trust in your brand, leading to negative publicity and backlash.

Brands that try to portray an image that doesn’t align with their values and practices or resort to deceit, exaggerated claims, and misleading tactics invite the following risks –

• Loss of trust and credibility
• Disengagement of the audience and negative feedback
• Long-term relationships with your audience and customers are getting jeopardised
• Mass boycott and ‘getting cancelled.’
• Damaged brand image and reputation
• Legal and ethical concerns
• A decline in customer loyalty and deterioration of brand perception

To avoid these risks, it is essential to prioritise authenticity and ensure transparency in your social media marketing efforts. Always align your content with your brand values and strive to build genuine connections with your audience.

Case Studies of Brands that have Successfully Used Authenticity to Drive Conversions

There can be innumerable examples of brands that have successfully leveraged authenticity to drive conversions, create buzz and connect with their audience. Here are a couple of them –

• Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ Campaign: Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign transformed the brand from merely a soap company to a brand with a vision. By challenging the conventional standards and definition of beauty and incorporating the authentic stories of diverse and real women, this campaign resonated with women worldwide, garnered momentous attention and sparked meaningful conversions. It not only led to a significant increase in brand loyalty and sales but also enabled the brand to connect with its target audience on a deeper level and initiated a revolution of altering the conversation around beauty. Until now, Dove has aligned its marketing efforts with its mission statement to maintain its public perception as a brand that champions women’s empowerment and promotes body positivity.
• Gillette’s ‘The Best Men Can Be’ Campaign: The Gillette social media campaign titled ‘The Best Men Can Be’ sought to redefine the concept of manhood in the context of the #MeToo movement and shape the narrative around modern masculinity. It generated widespread attention and sparked intense global discussions on social media about social issues, gender roles, stereotypes and the need for change. By critiquing traditional masculinity that Gillette used to glorify once, this campaign showcased the brand’s commitment to social responsibility and its willingness to change and align itself with progressive values and cultural shifts. With the campaign’s success, the brand was able to deepen its connection with its target audience and drive conversations that had a lasting societal impact.

These case studies demonstrate how authenticity can drive conversions by creating genuine connections, fostering brand loyalty, and inspiring action. By embracing authenticity and understanding their target audience’s values and aspirations, these brands have successfully leveraged social media to establish meaningful customer relationships.

Conclusion: Embracing Authenticity in Your Social

Authenticity cannot be faked. Brands must understand their values, purpose, and target audience. Authenticity is not a one-time effort but an ongoing commitment. It demands ongoing communication across touchpoints.

A genuine social media content template is the key to creating a memorable and effective online presence for your brand or business. So, embrace authenticity in your social media marketing to attain loyal customers who believe in your brand and always advocate for your products or services.

Remember – being authentic in a world saturated with content converts followers into loyal customers. Brands that embrace and harness the power of authenticity will be the ones that thrive in the digital age.

 

Image source- freepik.com