Building Brand Fans

I think it is safe to say that most companies or businesses have at least one social media account, if not more, to connect with its fans and promote its products and/or services. It is easy to create a social media account, but it takes a lot of work and strategies to make it work and make it visible and relatable to its audience.

There are many brands with millions of followers on social media. And there is a reason why they have such a strong following, they have fandoms. Such brands with strong fandoms include:

• Starbucks
• Coca-Cola
• Red Bull
• LEGO
• McDonalds 
• Nike Football

Yes, these are all big name brands, and the reason why they have a big following is because they have developed strategies to engage and build relationships with their audience, and ultimately creating a fandom. 

Ready to have a fandom for your brand? Here are some tips on ways to create brand fans.

Once a business has social media marketing strategies in place, the next thing that should be considered is building a relationship with its audience. Brands need to connect with the audience by building a persona and interacting with them by replying to comments and building conversations with them with that same brand persona or brand voice. This brand persona should stay consistent because it will make the brand more dependable and the audience or customers will trust the brand even more.

Business and companies should also be participating in friendvertising, which is essentially using social networks to build earned media and ultimately creating brand fans along the way.

When a business has a good amount of brand fans, it is easy to generate earned media. These brand fans are so loyal to the brand that it is easy and enjoyable for them to share, like, and just simply interact with the brand’s social media accounts. In short, earned media is basically the online word of mouth or it might be more appropriate to say word of mouse.  

Lets look at some Coca-Cola examples:

Coca-Cola is one of the world's most recognizable brands and a brand with the biggest social media following; they have a little over 99 million likes on their US Facebook page. Coca-Cola uses different tactics on their social media accounts, but they stay consistent, which is highly important. 

This simple Facebook post generated 2.7 thousand likes and 260 shares. This is easy earned media for Coca-Cola. 

The brand also has a lot of crowed sourced content. They have different campaigns where the audience gets the opportunity to participate and Coca-Cola shares this content. This is a great way of making their audience feel included and part of the brand experience. For example, their Share a Coke Campaign; this campaign allowed consumers to share pictures or videos of their Coca-Cola drinks with their names, friend's names, or family member's names. 

Coca-Cola is also great at interacting with its fans by replying to comments, questions, or concerns on social media. Even with its 3.2 million followers on Twitter, they respond to followers in a timely manner.

Not only is this great customer service, it is great customer engagement and interaction. It is a very easy way to make fans feel included. 

Coca-Cola is a great example of creating a relationship with its audience to create a fandom and loyal following.