How can brand consistency increase customer loyalty in social media?

Brand consistency seems to be a very "trendy" expression and is often used in nowadays brand-management but it a very old "success principle". If there is a buzz-word which is often used to describe the purpose of brand-management, then it is mainly about "trust building" ... but trust isn't built by claiming trust (By saying "Trust me" you will achieve the opposite result) but by following a certain "way of doing" in a typical and then "collectively expected manner" ... how trust is being developed collectively can't be described by economic explanations as trust is a socio-psychological dynamic which follows clear mechanisms of strengthening or weakening alliances.

Sorry, but this is wrong as it is a perception of the brand from the inside, e.g. the management. But if a brand is strong then it might be still legally owned by a company but sociologically it is "owned" by its consumers. How? Based on EVERY perception a person is going to have by a brand (not only the logo, the design, pr or ads) a brand is developed in the mid of the people - a perception which might be correctly described by the term "Gestalt". Gestalt defines a notion and impression of different details which we automatically combine to a general perception - a feeling and expectation. In order to define the causes of this perception it is necessary to analyse and isolate the "performance structure" in every field of the brand.

A style guide is not a strategy. Neither is a persona or a story. Anyone who lumps them all together has missed the point of brand identity. It is precisely the confusion of strategy with tools that is massively damaging to marketing.

As Professor Ericchiello says: "Social media is just one channel“ for communicating a brand. In my opinion, the special challenges lie in who delivers the content. Is it the company, the brand or a brand ambassador? Credibility and authenticity can generate trust via social media channels, but they can also be quickly squandered. Precisely because spontaneous, unreflected communication is often expected. This can damage a brand.

Social media is just another channel of many others a brand has towards public. Trust is always a result of a certain behavior. How this behavior might be described accurately? Its trivial ... Maybe by stressing out that trust is developing if a brands behaves the way we expect it to behave. This means that trust is never developed "in one day" ... as expectations have to be formed by repeating experiences ... and it does mean that at a certain time our expectations have to be redeemed ... otherwise we are irritated. Brands have to relieve life not to complicate it. This means: It is crucial to stick even in Social Media to the collective expectations. Social Media isn't requiring different topics but content from the brands genetic code.

It is core to make a profound analysis of the genetic code of the brand (based on the typical performances in every field which can be noticed by the public since the beginning of the brands history --> not only marketing!). Knowing the success pattern of the brand is a key-indicator about the causes of collective expectations ... every development an innovation can be tested by checking if it consistent to the genetic code - or: You might asked how a general innovation must be "re-shaped" in order to fit to the success pattern of the brand. Make it typical TO YOUR brand - pure adaption will destroy trust. Self-similar adaption keeps a brand timeless.