Strategy to Utilize "Popularity" to Increase Brand Awareness for MSMEs

Utilize currently popular content as a strategy to improve brand awareness is not a new method. This strategy is often used by many brand, especially brand new product, to make its product known to the public.

However, taking advantage of popular content is not guaranteed brand awareness the public will be something brand increase. The right strategy is needed so that the use of popular content can attract public attention and provide optimal results.

Use of Social Media for MSMEs and Formation of Popularity of Content on Social Media

The presence of social media has made it a distinct opportunity for business people. This is supported by data from a survey conducted by We Are Social and Hootsuite in 2021 regarding the number of social media users. The survey results show that the number of social media users in Indonesia has reached more than 132 million active usersf (MSME Empowerment Report, 2022). This high number makes social media a lucrative opportunity for business people, especially MSMEs, to reach more potential customers and increase brand awareness. Now, social media is not only used for networking, but also for buying and selling transactions that are mutually beneficial.

MSMEs are free to choose what social media to use for selling. Based on the results Populix survey In 2022, the social media that customers are most interested in shopping for is the TikTok Shop (46%), followed by WhatsApp, Facebook Shop and Instagram Shop. The survey also predicts Instagram Shop and TikTok Shop will be the two most popular digital platforms for shopping in the future.

Compared to other platforms, TikTok is a fairly new digital platform in Indonesia. However, the form of interactive short video content has succeeded in attracting public attention, especially the millennial generation and generation Z. This has made TikTok grow rapidly. The results of a survey conducted by DS/Innovate showed that 63,2% respondents use TikTok with 22,4% of them utilizing the TikTok Shop as a sales tool.

MSME Empowerment Report 2022, p. 52

In the MSME Empowerment Report 2022, the use of social media by MSME businesses is dominated by goals marketing, sales, and interactions with customers. Social media helps MSME actors to reach more potential customers, increase brand awareness, market products, increase sales, and monitor the performance of online marketing strategies at a low cost. For example, with promotional video content on TikTok, users can create promotional content by adapting content or sound popular to get the attention of the audience, as well as embed product links or TikTok Shop accounts in videos that will direct customers to make transactions immediately without having to switch applications. 

MSME Empowerment Report 2022, p. 48

Popular content is content that spreads quickly and manages to attract a lot of public attention. Popular content is created because social media has special characteristics, namely user-generated content, where all users are connected to each other through the content they share. It is supported with features re-share and repost where users can re-share content created by other users so that it will encourage the rapid spread of content and become popular. Therefore, many social media users are competing to produce content to increase popularity.

Study entitled Content Virality on Social Media mentioned that the virality of content on social media was also influenced by an influencer or buzzer. The large number of followers makes it as opinion leader that can influence followers. Simply re-sharing content on accounts that have many followers will also increase the popularity of content.

Therefore, popular content that is currently attracting a lot of public attention can be an opportunity for MSMEs to improve brand awareness and grab more customer attention. Of course, not all popular content can be utilized by MSMEs because not all popular content has a positive connotation.

Content Trends and Consumer Behavior 2023

Trends in content and consumer behavior always change over time, therefore MSMEs must keep abreast of content developments at all times. Snapcart shows trends in consumer shopping behavior through a survey entitled Trends in Online Shopping Behavior Welcome Ramadhan 2023. The survey results show that 98% of respondents choose to shop online to meet their Ramadan needs. In the same survey results, based on indicators Brand Use Most Often (BUMO), TikTok Shop (9%) is one of the most preferred online shopping platforms by respondents with free shipping being the main consideration for respondents in choosing an online shopping platform. 

In addition, the various features presented by each platform are increasingly attracting customers to shop online. Snapcart research showing Shopee Live (37%) as the most popular feature by respondents, followed by TikTok LIVE (30%), Shopee Video (23%) and Tokopedia Play (7%).

The existence of the LIVE Shopping feature as presented by TikTok also influences consumer shopping behavior. Through LIVE Shopping TikTok, sellers can provide detailed explanations regarding the products offered as well as interact proactively with consumers. That way, consumer confidence in a product will be formed.

The use of social media as a selling platform is of course inseparable from content. Some examples of popular content are mukbang content and the Squid Game series. MSMEs engaged in FnB can create mukbang content and work with them an influencer or food vlogger. 

Another example is Eatsambel trying to drive sales of their new product. Eatsambel takes advantage of the combined features of Video Shopping Ads (VSA) and LIVE Shopping Ads (LSA) on TikTok. The video content performs well as well as being used as advertising material for their Video Shopping Ads and LIVE session concepts. The style of content that seeks to entice audiences to "taste" the spicy sensation and delight of their products has succeeded in driving more audience to their TikTok Shop, exploring a wide range of products, and starting checkout (conversion). In addition, the growth of the Eatsambel community on TikTok can also become a strong customer base to drive business success in the future. 

How to Analyze Trends

The advantage of using social media as a business platform is the convenience through features analytics which is offered. Feature analytics allows MSMEs to carry out analysis by looking at the amount likes, shares, views, comment, impressions, reach, insight, and other indicators. Trend analysis is carried out to find out the conditions, movements, and trends of content on social media. That way MSMEs can find out what content is popular and much liked by the audience.

One of the social media, or rather a digital platform, which provides features analytics is TikTok. With a sizable user base and a wide age range, features analytics this makes it easier for MSMEs to analyze trends and determine the right strategy according to the characteristics of their target audience. 

Through the TikTok analytics feature, MSMEs can see the performance of each uploaded content, audience involvement in each content (likes, shares, comments), account and content growth, including analytics followers within a certain period of time. In fact, users can easily download analytic TikTok reports.

To carry out an analysis using the TikTok analytic feature, DailySocial summarizes it in an eBook entitled Complete Guide to Using TikTok Shop which can be downloaded easily.

Tips on Utilizing Trends to Grow Brand Awareness for MSMEs

For MSMEs, growing brand awareness in the minds of the public is a challenge in itself in the midst of existing limitations. Level brand awareness Good quality products will help MSME products stand out and stick in the minds of potential customers. The limitations and challenges faced by MSMEs make them have to implement creative strategies so that MSMEs can remain competitive. Therefore, it is not uncommon for MSMEs to take advantage of trends as a strategy for development brand awareness. Check out the following tips to optimize the utilization of trends to improve brand awareness.

Collaboration

Collaboration can be done by utilizing the services of a an influencer or so-called creatorto work together to create content. As you know, every an influencer or creators have their own unique characteristics in delivering their content and have a large number of followers, making it easier for them to spread content and reach and influence their followers.

Slip it A kind request and hashtag

In addition to creative content forms, use hashtag can also encourage the rapid dissemination of content. Therefore, awareness public will increase. In uploading content, MSMEs can take advantage hashtag popular, interesting, unique, or use tagline sebagai hashtag. This will make it easier for the audience to track content or campaigns that MSMEs share on social media. TikTok is a frequently used digital platform hashtag to raise the content/campaign/challenge which are made. SMEs can also use hashtag so that content can also appear in searches hashtag which is currently popular.

Also, try to give call to action at the end of the content so that the audience knows what to do after seeing your content. A kind request it doesn't have to be in the form of an invitation to buy a product, but it can also be in the form of a question that provokes the audience to comment so that interaction will be created between brand and consumers.

make Challenge

TikTok has features Duet which all users can use. MSMEs can take advantage of this feature to make challenges follow trending content and invite other users to collaborate to do challenges with features Duet. Feature Duet can also be used by brand with creators. With so name brand will become more and more known to the public.

Use sound if the content is in video form

Sound is one of the important elements if the content is in the form of a video. TikTok is an app that earns a lot sound popular. SMEs can take advantage sound/music in the TikTok music library to attract the attention of the audience to watch the content you create.

DS/Innovate through DailySocial in collaboration with TikTok conducted a survey regarding how digital technology can help MSMEs in developing their business. To find out how the developments and challenges of digitizing MSMEs, see more fully in the report entitled MSME Empowerment Report 2022!