We scroll, we watch, we listen, we read, but which method helps us learn the most about the products and brands that we desire? Discovering brands organically used to be very simple, you’d see an advert on TV or walk into a store and see a handful of brands to choose from. Now there is an ever growing, increasingly competitive list of brands, all fighting for your attention.
The influencer effect
it comes to product and brand discovery, we love a review or recommendation. The best form of this for brands is through an influencer collaboration or endorsement. Influencers bring a real face to a brand and can give an open and honest review for their use case. Followers of that influencer are already hooked on the content they produce, so will likely be intrigued by your product. This tends to be how a lot of younger people discover new brands and products now, especially with many influencers and social media celebrities creating their own brands.
In UGC we trust
Much like an influencer endorsement, user generated content (UGC) puts a product in the hands of a real consumer who has liked the product so much that they want to post about it on their personal and private feed. The trust this builds in a product is something that brands struggle to create by themself. Of course you think your own products are great, but getting that seal of approval from the general public is the thumbs up that so many businesses strive for. Authenticity is the goal and UGC has that in abundance, creating a great amount of trust with your audience.
The ease of research
Social media platforms have become a bit of a search engine, with platforms like Pinterest built around showcasing products for certain occasions, themes, lifestyles, and genres. Other platforms like Instagram and TikTok have then also stepped into being a bit of a marketplace, with products easily available without having to leave the app. With customers using these platforms more and more to search for specific items, research is becoming easier, and the customer journey is becoming shorter. A customer can search for an item, look at the brand page, see the tagged images, click on a couple of influencer and organic UGC posts, and then click the item and purchase in one simple session.
Social media gives the ability to read live reviews of a product, see lifestyle shots from the brand and its fans, and use all of this as a trustworthy source to generate an opinion of a product. The only warning to brands is to make sure that your products are fit and ready to launch, because as soon as there is negative content online around your brand, it’s pretty hard to remove this and change the perception.
