How to Seamlessly Incorporate Social Media into your Packaging

Social media has quickly risen to become the number one way that we communicate with our friends, family, and colleagues. The prevalence of social media in our every day lives has risen exponentially since 2004. As of 2021, there are approximately 3.78 billion global social media users; that is about half of the world’s population! 

The ease of smartphones means that we have access to any and all social media platforms via little apps at the tip of our fingers. More and more we are seeing companies develop solid social media strategies. The rationale behind the success of these marketing strategies is that approximately 54% of consumers use social media to research products they are interested in buying. Consumers are engaging with companies on social media, reading other customer comments, and seeing tagged photos of products that they are looking to purchase. 

When your packaging is unique, there is a higher likelihood that customers will snap and share a photo of your product. This is just free marketing driven by the consumer. People are also more likely to purchase a product if it is recommended by a friend. Thus the power of influencer marketing. While many influencers are paid for their posts, if there are a select few who gravitate towards your packaging or product, that is an incredibly powerful tool for exposure. 

Does your company have a social media presence? If the answer is no, stop everything you are doing and set up a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, or Tiktok! While the various social media platforms can feel overwhelming, do some research into what your target demographic uses most. For example, Facebook is the preferred platform of Baby Boomers, Instagram is prevalent among Millennials, and TikTok is the voice of Gen Z. 

When designing your packaging, use these helpful tips to lead customers to your social media pages: 

• Add social media icons and handles to your packaging 
• Start a unique hashtag that customer can use when sharing your product; while hashtags aren’t copyrighted, you want to make sure that another company isn’t already widely used. Check out the #shareacoke hashtag for some inspiration on how to use a unique hashtag to promote brand awareness and visibility 
• Start growing hashtag feeds by encouraging friends and family to share your product with the hashtag – try to include it in your general profile so that it is one of the first things a customer sees when they visit your page
• Monitor your hashtags, respond to people who post about you to create positive engagement
• Reply, like, respond, repost! Every bit of engagement on your page is a potential sale, therefore put in effort to respond positively to comments and DMs. Many customers also love seeing their photos reposted on a company’s page; try to do the occasional repost! It helps to build a relationship with customers 

Any questions? Feel free to drop us a line or a comment below 🙂

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