How To Remain Authentic In An Over-Saturated Digital World
It’s no secret that 2020 is an extremely pivotal year. Real-life experiences have completely diminished for the time being, and it has never been more trendy or necessary to have an impactful persona online. Did you know that during 2020 the average U.S. adult spends up to 16 hours a day on digital media? That means a huge cultural shift is underway if you weren’t aware of it already. This is where the importance of design and authenticity comes into play. Any brand can have a logo, a website, and a social media presence, but only a good brand is able to tell an impactful story that not only touches its visitors but leaves a lasting impression.
First, let me give you some insights into my design background. I accidentally found myself falling into the role of a graphic designer in 2019. I was brought on as part of the Ideaison team and given the opportunity to fully design and control the social media and paid ad campaigns for the Ohio-based music festival, The Werk Out Festival. Now normally, this type of opportunity does not just fall in one’s lap, but looking back I was extremely lucky and also slightly terrified to be given this role with little to no design experience. I remember staying up countless hours of the night trying to teach myself how to create a cohesive brand to help tell the story of The Werk Out Festival, with not even as much as an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Looking back I wouldn’t change a thing, but looking forward, my dreams and aspirations have completely changed.
As of 2020, I have explored the design world in a much greater capacity, even changing my major and minor to reflect my newly found passion and creating my own freelance company on the side. With various design jobs under my belt such as social designs, pitch decks, website creations, posters, lineup graphics, and more, I find myself learning more and really starting to understand not only how important design is, but how important your brand’s voice is. With every brand shifting their focus to digital, my feeds are flooded with an array of different design styles and techniques that all emulate the same or similar goal, to increase engagement. But how do you increase engagement in an over-saturated digital world? Graphic design is one of them, but what is the ultimate key to success? Authenticity.
Genuine, by definition means authentic, which presents one of the biggest challenges itself that many brands face. How do you appear transparent? It’s simpler than one might think, just tell the truth. Whether that means voicing your opinion, your stance on certain issues going on in the world, topical issues in your professional field, relevant discussions within your company, projects you are working on, people you are working with, anything that lets your audience know that your brand is present, alive and woke (Gen-Z for alert to injustice in society) can make it or break it for your brand online.
This summer, the Ideaison team pulled off our first live stream event hosting 30+ diverse artists on the front page of Twitch. Retrospekt Fest was the first brand identity I built from the ground up, only one year after my experience at The Werk Out Festival 2019. Throughout my entire design process, one thing remained constant, our brand mission. Without faltering, Retrospekt Fest maintains its undeniable support for underrepresented artists in the music industry. Aligning ourselves with like-minded people, we were able to build a close-knit community of artists, fans, and creatives that shared the same passion for our mission as we do. We voiced and continue to voice these opinions on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram - keeping consistency across the board. While we’re building our second iteration and aiming to grow our festival online and off, we think the timing has never been more important to remain as authentic and supportive of our cause as ever. Our community is growing, and with live music events practically non-existent, we want to bring our supporters a sense of hope, staying positive about the state of the music industry while always remaining as informative as we can be.
So that’s the story of Retrospekt’s brand mission- but how can you apply it to your own brand? Like I mentioned, being genuine is one of the best ways to grow and reach your audience, mainly because it helps build your community with a strong ethos and shared interests. Yi He, the female CEO of Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto-currency tech platforms, looks at the importance of your community by focusing on interactions. “Personal connections with a community is vital to ensuring continued growth. That includes responding to issues and taking feedback into action (Source).” But it doesn’t stop there. Let’s drive into the specifics of how your brand can absolutely thrive on different social media platforms.
We have all heard of Twitter, whether you are an avid user or simply aware of our President’s favorite, informal way of communicating with the people, either way, there are some simple techniques to growing your Twitter account organically. Step one, tweet A LOT. Have a thought? Tweet it. Concerned about something happening on the news? Tweet it. Find a funny meme? Tweet it. It doesn’t stop there, the key to Twitter is interacting with your followers as much as you possibly can. Come across a video you find compelling? Retweet it, comment on it, share it with your friends. It’s merely a simple allusion to the golden rule, treat others twitter accounts as you would want yours to be treated. That works for Twitter for the time being, but what about the other social media platforms that are consuming that huge chunk of our day that most U.S. residents dedicate to digital media?
Instagram, a.k.a. The Gram, has a similar yet different equation for organic growth. First off, understanding your niche is key on Instagram. This means you must understand your competitors and stay up to date with what your audience is interested in and what they resonate with the most. Posting regularly and staying on top of what hashtags best fit your brand is the second step. Content. Content. Content. You can never have enough content. However, certain types of content thrive over others. For example, video content actually generates 59.3% clicks when compared to images, which only generate around 29.6%. This leads us to what seems like the most controversial social media platform to ever exist: TikTok.
TikTok has re-invented the definition of virality. For example, if you haven’t heard of Charli D'amelio, it’s time you look her up. Based on her recent brand deal with Dunkin Donuts, she was able to use her insane following to generate over 1.4 billion views for the Dunkin brand alone. The best part? It is all based on organic growth. Also, the majority of TikTok users are aged 13 to 18, so dismiss your typical marketing strategy, because this is a whole new playing field. Trends are your best friend. However, with a TikTok ban still on the horizon, we have to start thinking about other creative ways to implement video content, whether that means repurposing for Instagram Reels, Snapchat, Triller, there are so many platforms out there that thrive on the use of short video clips, you just have to look a little deeper.
2020 is such a pivotal year for digital marketing and 86% of consumers say authenticity is important when it comes to what brands they like and support. With the brands I design for, I plan on continuing to educate and inspire. People need positivity just as much as they need the truth. Social media is extremely over-saturated so it’s time you think outside-the-box. How can you stand out, what makes your brand unique? Are you funny, educational, inspirational - or all three? Find your voice, interact with your community, and most importantly be the most genuine version of yourself as reflected through your brand. No one says it better than the social media icon himself...
“There is the written word, there is the picture, and there is the video. And then there is what you say with those things, and who you target. When you get great at that everything changes.”
– Gary Vaynerchuk