Social media is clearly becoming the future of marketing. With the creation of stories, Snapchat and Instagram are ideal locations to gain brand awareness. Until recently, it didn’t really go beyond that though. This month Instagram has turned the tables. In it’s November 11 article, Digiday highlights the advantages of being able to link stories to outside points of purchase sites. According to Scott Linzer, vp of owned media at iCrossing, this new capability helps “make that journey from discovery to purchase seamless, and the sales will happen themselves.” Removing purchase barriers, however, may not always be a good idea if it is not managed well.
What are the drawbacks?
The main disadvantage of removing the barriers is the possibility of inadvertently creating negative brand authenticity. Social media, when used effectively, serves to promote customer relationships and brand loyalty. The various platform bridges the gap between the buyers and the sellers and, ideally, creates a community. Rushing a purchase, however, can be like rushing a romantic relationship. If you’re in it just for the one night stand, you will not get the advantages that come with a long term relationship. In today’s world, word of mouth improves a company’s trustworthiness and authenticity more than any ad or carefully crafted tweet by the company ever will. While the short term goal is to gain a purchase, the long-term goal should always be to create a multiplier effect and cultivate advocates. Getting the sale is no longer the final action, advocacy is. Once people believe in your brand, your marketing becomes centered on helping them promote your company. Airbnb is a prime example of a company using user-generated content to its advantage and, in fact, as it’s main marketing campaign.
How are Instagram Story links beneficial?
Instagram Story links provide marketers with better metrics. Instead of being various anonymous, sporadic individuals, marketers will now gain more insight into customer responses to marketing campaigns. What this means though isn’t that they will now be able to track users. Users will remain anonymous but marketers will get a clearer ROI. Before, an Instagram user might have seen a story posted by a company, closed out of the app and gone online to buy the product. Now, with click-through stories, marketers will be able to view the conversion rate from specific campaigns. If users have their social media accounts linked, they might even be able to view how customers are reacting to various campaigns on the different channels. Bringing more concrete measuring standards not only allows the company to better tailor their efforts to their target market but it also provides some metrics for success.
I believe that Instagram opening up and giving companies the possibility to link their stories is definitely a step in the right direction. Now, marketers have to be aware to balance their selling with their relationship building. With customer relationship management in mind, connecting with potential customers and making them lifelong believers should always be above selling them.