The importance of humanising your brand online
If you told me you didn’t spend at least 10 minutes a day scrolling through Google, Instagram or Facebook, I wouldn’t believe you.
We all spend a lot of time online, looking at pretty images and soaking up quotes and captions from our favourite brands. But what makes a brand’s online presence so captivating that we choose to stop and read their Instagram posts and Facebook updates rather than scrolling on by?
What I have found with these brands is that there are human elements to their content, which makes it feel like you’re engaging with a real person. This is so important to keep your brand ticking in the digital world.
Let’s take a look at two of my favourite brands who have nailed that humanisation.
PEOPLE RELATE TO LIKE MINDED PEOPLE, LIKE FRANK
Have you ever read a blog that’s signed with ‘Anonymous’ or ‘Admin’?
What the? Who are they? Who am I engaging with?
Your brand character or persona needs to come into play to humanise your brand. Let the people know who they’re talking to!
My favourite example of this comes from Frank Body. Not only is ‘Frank’ the name of their brand and product, but Frank is also their brand persona.
All of their communications - marketing, social media, product packaging - is written from the persona of Frank - a cheeky friend who preaches self-love and skincare.
Frank Body has taken out any formalities in their social media by diving deeper into expressing Frank’s attitude.His cheekiness shows by calling viewers “babe” and telling them “to get dirty” with him. They also write in first person. This makes the audience feel like they’re talking to a friend, thus humanising the brand.
Hot tip: Imagine your brand to be a person...
How old are they? How do they look? How do they speak? This is a great way to start fleshing out your brand persona.
EXPRESSING YOUR PERSONALITY IS A ‘GO TO’
Brands have personalities in the same way people do. In a job interview you want to highlight your personality and showcase your skills to your employer, and the way you do this is through what you say and how you say it.
Your employer (generally) has never met you before, and this is the same way that brands need to approach their online profile. First-timers should be able to identify your personality through your choice of language and images.
One brand that does this beautifully is Go To Skincare.
Go To’s personality shines through in their choice of words. They come across as your well informed, beauty loving best friend. They are unapologetically passionate about simple beauty products and they want to inspire you to feel the same.
Go To are direct, witty and assuring that their product won’t “piss of your skin, but calm the heck out of it”.
This is called “tone of voice” and it is one of the best tools to express your personality and humanise your brand.
This is one of the hot tips I’ll be taking away with me – thanks Inka!
PEOPLE WANNA SEE PEOPLE
Whether you're posting on behalf of a product or a service, people want to see people!
Showcasing your team, or posting a person/influencer with your product is content we want to see.
We want to see ourselves in the brand and to connect with it.
Showing real people allows for your audience to relate to your brand better. It makes them feel as if they know you and your brand personally, establishing a much stronger relationship.
Go To is fantastic at this! If you follow them, I am sure you would have seen the gorgeous face of Zoe Foster-Blake on a post or IGTV with some words of wisdom or tutorials.
Viewers love this, at least I know I do!
It is so refreshing to see the brains behind the business talk about her passion!
Frank Body is also on target with their people posting. They post a lot of content from the people that actually buy and use their products - their audience!, which means they have used photos or videos that have been uploaded by their buyers.
The fact that they repost these images shows that they care about their community and want to share it with everyone.
Hot Tip: Show your people and make your audience feel like they want to be one of them!
Like Frank and Go To, we all want to be engaging and innovative with the content we produce, but there are those staple things that can change your profile from “eh” to “ah-mazing!”
Through what I’ve learnt whilst interning at Inka and my experience, those ‘staple things’ to include in your online strategy are to write with personality and talk as a human would. Think about who you are writing to... Chances are they’re humans. So why humanise your brand? To better connect with your human audience.
This post was written by Inka Intern Kate as part of our 12 week Intern Program. If you're interested in interning with us, keep an eye out for announcements on our social channels or apply today!