How do you utilise nostalgia on your social platforms to boost social media engagement?
Everyone loves a throwback. Whether it’s an old photo, a film or tv theme song, or a particular food or drink that brings back memories of your grandma’s kitchen, nostalgia as a whole brings us joy and comfort like a warm blanket on a cold day.
The why
Nostalgia marketing brings people together and brings joy from “the good ol’ days.” As we all get older we tend to look back at memories that represent good times, and these generally allude to warm fuzzy feelings in the pit of your stomach. The beauty of this is twofold. You get to tap into an emotional response from your consumers which can be powerful especially if they start to associate you with the thing that brings them this warm fuzzy feeling. It’s an experience you can’t manufacture but with this emotional response grows loyalty. The second is that you can market to a wide range of people, all based on (essentially) what year group they were born into.
The how
So how exactly do you achieve this? We’ve come up with 5 ways you can use nostalgia in your social media strategy and across your website to help boost customer engagement.
Share your story
This doesn’t mean give away your personal life story (unless it’s fundamental to who you are as a business) but it does mean sharing stories or memories from your company throughout the years. How has your brand developed throughout the decades and what stories can be shared that are relevant to your message today? As an Estate Agent, this could be your longest reigning employee or a story on how you’ve come to be in the location you have. Take a look back through the archives and maybe dig out any old photos of the building!
Verbal and visual cues
Using the new to mimic the old can be an effective way for you to capture interest. With socials giving the facility to create photos, videos, and sound appear they were captured years ago, you could post using these built-in functions, such as sepia filters.
Related: Why your digital marketing should be human >>
The old, reborn
Celebrating the newest trends is great and definitely should be respected when marketing, but putting a fresh new stamp on something that’s already been done can also be an effective way to boost your engagement. To use this within the property industry you could take a well-known advert from yesteryear, and add your own spin and brand. This is also a great way of inspiring an ‘I REMEMBER THAT ADVERT!’ response, creating buzz and discussion around your posts.
Tug on the heart strings
You can use familiarity to get and hold the attention of your customers. This can be anything from an anniversary of a snack your local area is famous for, or a particular item that’s manufactured nearby. Using your socials for this is really great too, for example, polls and opinion responses can get people tagging friends and family creating engagement through the feelings of fond nostalgia for the local area.
Local history
Use the history of the local area by getting in touch with your local history societies. They should be able to provide pictures and information perfect for displaying stories from the local history of a favourite place in your area, to an event that takes place every year. This will create a connection with your readers (especially if they are locals who know the area and have lived there a long time) which builds a relationship with the consumers who are looking at your page.
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Katie Gillingham
Katie is a Freelance Copywriter living in rural Dorset with her daft old Labrador. She first started writing content for the property industry back in 2015, and loves nothing more than bringing brand voices to life!
