Large corporate brands with stratospheric advertising budgets and celebrity endorsements and paid influencers may not be accomplishing the goals they hope to achieve with consumers these days. In short… Brand Authenticity Matters!
Where does brand authenticity matter most?
For millennials, authenticity matters more than anything. This is where a real, authentic endorsement or recommendation from a friend or family member is trusted and believed, and the others are significantly discounted.
Stackla conducted a study surveying adults in the US, UK and Australia called the 2017 Consumer Content Report, to determine their level of trust around content.
In the survey, 60% of the Consumers find user-created content 3 times more authentic than content provided by big brands and corporations.
Authentic content equates to influential content. It shapes and changes behavior.
An excellent summary of this survey is written by Peter Cassiday that appears in Social Media today.
Social Flash Media’s Marketing Platform is used to help initiate, facilitate, foster, grow, track, and analyze earned social media by helping businesses have their happy customers “tell their story.” This goes by many names such as advocate-based marketing, influencer marketing, and endorsement-based marketing, all of which serve a large and critical part of earned social media for most companies and ultimately increasing brand authenticity.
The full survey, provided by Stackla, can be requested at:
https://stackla.com/go/2017-consumer-content-report-influence-in-digital-age/
Links to Additional Resources
Volume 1: Social Media – A Jargon Primer
Volume 2: Can Social Media Marketing be used to win New Customers?
Volume 3: The 5 Most Important Things to Know about Social Media Marketing
Volume 4: The Content Challenge for Social Media Marketing
Success Story: Sip & Paint Industry – with Social Flash Mobile App
Case Study: A Brewery and Restaurant – Oasis Brewery
Success Story: A Baseball Team – Round Rock Express