Trust is an essential ingredient in a thriving social media presence. Your followers need to see you as a reliable source of truth before they’ll consider working with you or buying from you.
So, how can you foster trust with your social media followers? It starts here: humanizing your social media presence. The stats say it all: a recent report found that 72% of consumers feel a deeper connection to a brand when they see employees sharing information about it online.
Nobody knows this better than Jarrah Brailey, Founder of Sydney-based digital marketing agency, Jampacked Agency. For over five years, Jarrah and her team have been helping service-based and e-commerce businesses succeed with humanized digital marketing (from social media management to SEO and paid ads management).
Rather than leading with cold, sales-driven messaging, Jampacked Agency harnesses the power of humanized storytelling to build trust, drive engagement and inspire action from users on social media.
And the stats speak for themselves: Jarrah and her team have helped their client Turia Pitt grow her TikTok following from 0-37k in under 12 months, producing multiple pieces of viral content (such as this epic Duet video which has generated over 2.3 million views and counting).
Over on their own socials, Jampacked Agency has produced a number of relatable, time-sensitive Reels that put the agency’s team front-and-centre to humanize the brand (such as a recent ‘This or That: Agency Edition’ Reel, which has over earned 170k views and counting).
We sat down with Jarrah to learn exactly why humanizing social media content is so powerful for brands and her top expert tips for building a thriving, engaged social media presence.
Why should you humanize your social media content as a brand or business?
Whether you’re an e-commerce brand or a service-based local business, you’re likely up against a stack of competitors. You’re looking to do everything you can to stand out and be seen as the top choice with potential customers. Luckily, humanizing your content on social media can help you do just that.
As Jarrah explains, “If you know the team who are packing your orders and the people behind a business, you’re more likely to choose that brand.”
A key part of humanizing your social media content is crafting a compelling story about your business or brand. And here’s why prioritizing this matters: we’re 22 times more likely to remember something when it’s presented as a story, according to Forbes.
Humanizing your content is what differentiates your business, particularly in a competitive industry or market. That means tapping into what makes your brand unique, including your values, your team and even your founder’s story.
By humanizing your social media content, you can:
- Build a memorable brand identity that followers can emotionally connect with
- Tap into shared human experiences to foster brand authenticity and credibility
- Foster a pipeline of potential customers and clients to drive conversions at scale
Three practical ways to humanize your brand on social media
Ready to revamp your social media presence and unlock a competitive advantage by humanizing your content? Here are Jarrah’s top three tips for brands to add a human touch to their social media marketing strategy.
Tip 1. Give your brand a face on social media
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This Reel from Jampacked Agency spotlights one of their key clients, Turia Pitt, and how they’ve created engaging personal branding content that puts her face front-and-centre.
When was the last time you jumped in front of the camera to speak about the story behind your business? Have you ever given your team the reigns to your Instagram Stories for the day? What about sharing what happens during your team-building events?
By showing the people and faces behind your business, you can begin to build an emotional connection with your audience (even before they’re ready to shop your latest products or book your services).
This powerful brand awareness tactic is all about priming your followers to connect with and trust your business and your team.
“Try sharing user-generated style videos that show people interacting with your services or products and the people behind your business. Plus, I always encourage founders to put their faces on social media – no one can tell the story of your business better than you!” explains Jarrah.
Tip 2. Nail your brand voice
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This behind-the-scenes Reel from Beginning Boutique shows the team trying on a best-selling dress in every size, gaining over 114k views. This illustrates the power of bringing customers on the journey of designing or building your products.
Next up, it’s time to cultivate a memorable tone of voice in every single post you share on social media (and beyond).
Your brand voice should reflect your brand positioning, your values and the ideal audience you’re looking to attract. When done well, a unique brand voice helps your content to stand out to potential customers and develop an emotional connection with your community.
As Jarrah explains, “Your brand voice needs to be strong, distinctive and rolled out consistently across all touchpoints, from your website to your social media and beyond. It’s what’s going to create trust between you and your customers, allowing people to connect with you in a way that doesn’t just feel like a transaction.”
Tip 3. Take your community behind the scenes
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This behind-the-scenes Reel from Beginning Boutique shows the team trying on a best-selling dress in every size, gaining over 114k views. This illustrates the power of bringing customers on the journey of designing or building your products.
Last but not least is Jarrah’s favorite tip: taking your audience behind the scenes on social media.
Candid, authentic behind-the-scenes (BTS) content offers a relatable glimpse into your brand. Rather than relying on shiny studio photography or polished graphic tiles, BTS content helps to bridge the gap between you and your audience.
“I literally film everything in my day, whether I’m sitting down working on my laptop or picking up coffee from a cafe. Filming these little aspects of my routine provides a bank of BTS content that can get my face onto social media in an easy, sustainable way,” tells Jarrah.
With a bank of B-roll BTS footage, you can simply add a voiceover or text overlays sharing tips, lessons or advice for your audience. This is the secret to crafting engaging, humanized content on social media.
Best practice tips for crafting authentic social media content
After crafting social media content for brands of all sizes, Jarrah knows what it takes to build a humanized, authentic presence online.
Along with filming BTS content, a key tactic Jarrah recommends is using voiceovers to share knowledge and expertise with your audience. Take this example from her client Turia Pitt: the team would film Turia’s daily life and add in voiceovers sharing her expert running tips, generating a strong organic response from her audience of avid runners.
Showing up authentically on social media means developing a posting schedule you can stick to for the long-term. One of Jarrah’s favorite tips is to strategically repurpose content across platforms to extract as much value as possible from every single video or static post.
With Plann’s cross-posting feature, Jarrah and her team can effortlessly reshare the same piece of content across multiple platforms (all while making sure it’s optimized for each channel).
Finally, Jarrah recommends business owners draw on data to inform their decision-making on social media. Her team are a big fan of Plann’s advanced analytics, which provide handy visualizations and in-depth reporting on what content is performing best.
Want to learn more about Jarrah Brailey and Jampacked Agency? Stay in touch with Jampacked on Instagram to discover how to craft a humanized presence through social media and digital marketing.
