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What makes people follow a brand? Personality?
Published May 16, 2024 · 10 views on YouTube
Why do people follow a brand on social media?
People follow brands that have a personality behind them, not brands that just post product shots. In this clip, the discussion points to Duolingo and GoPro as examples of brands whose social content reflects a clear character or point of view, which is what makes audiences want to follow along.
What makes Duolingo’s social content work?
Duolingo is cited as a prime example of a brand with personality on TikTok, described as content people should go check out for how it resonates with an audience. The brand’s presence is treated as proof that a company account can behave like a character people want to follow, rather than a feed of announcements.
What makes GoPro’s social content work?
GoPro’s content is described as experiential: viewers watch someone jump out of a plane and get their point of view, which speaks directly to a risk-taker audience that gets a high from that kind of moment. The example is used to show how a brand’s content can be built around the feeling of its product being used, not the product itself sitting still.
Why doesn’t a plain product photo work anymore?
A flatlay of a product is called out directly as something that “doesn’t work anymore.” The conversation frames 2024 social strategy as needing to move past static product shots toward showing the product in use and showing how it’s made, which is what gives a brand personality that people can follow.
Full video transcript
It’s interesting you say nobody wants to follow a brand, but there are some brands that people follow. The brands that people follow tend to have personalities behind them that people are resonating with.
100%. Duolingo is a perfect example. If you guys aren’t following Duolingo on TikTok, pull it up right now and go check it out. They’re such a prime example. Same thing, it’s almost like — oh, I’m going to forget the name of that brand — what are those little tiny cameras that you put on like your helmet, your GoPro? Yes, your GoPro. Right, so their content is really experiential. You’re watching someone jump out of a plane and you’re getting their POV. Right, super experiential, so it’s like really driven toward that risk taker, right, that person that gets the high of jumping out of the plane.
So they all have personality in some way, like you said. It’s not some boring, you know, like here’s a flatlay of our product. That stuff doesn’t work anymore, and we have to really embrace the new game of 2024 of social, which is not a flatlay. It’s like, you know, using the product and showing people using that product, and showing me how it’s made. Right, like what are the things that make it different.
Yeah, I can definitely think of some other brands if we want to go into some case study ideas, but like right now social media is making a lot of brands.