This is a guest post by Sarah Robbins, Vice President, Customer – International at Khoros.

Social media has been crucial for marketers amidst the cost of living crisis as a third of consumers have turned to platforms like Instagram and TikTok to seek out advice and tips from their peers. It’s evident conversations are happening on these platforms and it’s led to brands adapting their marketing efforts to embrace the long-term effects of social media.

One of the key changes is the desire for immediacy. With over 56 million Britons using social media to quickly check the news or see their friends’ latest happenings, consumers now expect instant experiences in all parts of their life – this includes everything from advertising to customer service. Brands like Gymshark and Waitrose understood this and are now constantly front of mind for ‘immediate-experience’ hungry consumers.

For brands who aren’t digitally literate, this poses a big hoop to jump through. The expectation to provide urgent, immediate experiences can only be achieved by forging digital experiences on the same platforms which created this desire. Social media is one of the keys to unlocking the doors to a “get what you want, when you want it” experience.

The normalisation of instant gratification

One of the leading behavioural changes that have impacted the consumer-brand relationship since the pandemic has been the growing desire for instant gratification. Instant gratification is the urge to satisfy a craving immediately. This phenomenon was nurtured by the slow pace of life during the pandemic and the feeling that many had missed out key moments during this period.

As a result, consumers seek out faster and more convenient experiences in all aspects of their lives. From how they consume media and how they shop online to the speed at which they receive feedback. This cultural shift has impacted how multiple industries approach their production and delivery processes.

Ultimately, this culture of urgency has shaped the consumer demand for better brand experiences. This can be seen in the meteoric rise of rapid grocery delivery companies like Gopuff, Getir and Gorillas, as well as the general shift towards immediacy that we have seen across retail and on social media in recent years.

Mistrust in traditional media is driving peer-to-peer strategies

In an increasingly polarised society, consumers want to interact and communicate with like-minded people. As such, it’s important that brands are present in those communities by creating consistent customer experiences within social media.

The easiest way is to ensure brands are speaking their consumers’ language. Social media provides the platform not only rapidly to respond to consumer queries but also to join in dialogues that are important to them, establishing a trustworthy community.

The cultural shift consumers have experienced, where trust in traditional media is lost, means that consumers are placing more emphasis on everyone having a voice. Consumers would rather hear responses on a peer-to-peer level rather than receive a top-down institutional response – this ultimately shapes their preferred medium of interaction. For this reason, brands must embrace this change rather than run from it.

By responding to queries on social media openly rather than being rerouted through lengthy call centres, brands can remove unnecessary friction and help consumers feel heard. Social media can provide seamless experiences from product discovery to consumer queries.

In addition, each social media platform plays a unique role in fulfilling the niche requirements of consumers. Social media users want and expect different responses from brands across different platforms. For example, up to half of Twitter users expect a brand to respond to their tweet within three hours, and those that fail to meet this expectation risk losing customers. On TikTok, consumers want brands to teach them something or show how their product can benefit them.

The nuance between different platforms lies in the purpose, language, and tone of voice of the content. Not only does this boost customer satisfaction but it drives up retention rates as almost half of social media users are more likely to buy again and recommend a company to a friend if it provides them with a timely response.

Join the dialogue and speak your customers’ language

Brands need to join in with influencers, employee advocates, and consumers themselves to generate authentic connections and consumer-led content. Before doing so, It’s vital that brands live and breathe their consumers’ ecosystems to really grasp what’s being said. By

researching and listening intently to conversations and dialogues put forward by their audience, brands can take on the emergence of new channels to ensure they are present where their consumers are engaging.

The majority of social media marketers support this approach and say that building an active online community is crucial to establishing a successful social media strategy in the current landscape.

Managing consumer responses across social media channels can be a daunting challenge for brands stepping into the digital space. But with 66% of branded communities saying that their digital audience has led to increased loyalty, it is well worth the time and resources to focus on engaging with consumers effectively and building impactful communities.

Any brand interaction with a consumer is a vital one as it’s an opportunity to demonstrate the attention being paid to them. It’s evident consumers want brands to be snappy, consistent, and understanding in their interactions and the best way to achieve this at scale is through social media. Whether it’s helping a troubled consumer with a product delivery or wittily responding to comments about the brand, marketers who use social media to its fullest are future-proofing their brand.

This is a guest post by Sarah Robbins, Vice President, Customer – International at Khoros.

About Sarah

Sarah Robbins has over 17 years of experience in sales operations, customer success, and strategy. As Vice President, Customer – International, Sarah enables companies to create world-class customer engagement for EMEA-based brands. Before Khoros, Sarah led the strategic planning and execution of the new Corporates go-to-market division across the UK and Europe for Thomson Reuters.

With a proven history of top performance and leadership within global organisations, Sarah has extensive experience guiding Enterprise-level customers through digital transformations. An engaging, high-energy leader, Sarah is passionate about individual-level success and building inclusive and diverse teams to attain and retain best-in-class talent.

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