Brand to Brand Reactive Marketing on Social Media. Should you be doing it?

Reactive marketing is ever-more popular, with marketing and social media managers making great use of brand-to-brand reactions to increase awareness, channel growth and to stay in the limelight.

But should you be jumping on the bandwagon and reacting to other brands? In this article, we take a look at when it is right for a brand to react to other brands content.

Recently Weetabix created some content that caused social media to have a meltdown. Sharing the very unusual combination of beans on the popular cereal biscuits provoked curiosity, opinions and comments, which in turn went viral.

Due to the viral nature and absurd combination, other brands got involved and shared their piece of mind in the form of puns, jokes and comments, while reflecting their own brand.

As you can see from the above images, the tweet got the attention of many huge brands that joined in with the banter.

Is Brand to brand reactive marketing right for your brand?

Although in the above example we see very serious brands such as the NHS joining with a joke, sometimes it's not always right to do so and whether you should get involved may depend on a few things.

Brand personality

Your brands' personality runs through the whole scope of your business from your marketing, down to how employees interact on a daily basis. The idea is to keep your brand consistent in order to capture a share of the market and grow your business.

Before you quickly join in with the hype, although you may have a great, hilarious response, be sure to know if the type of post would fall in-line with your brand and if it could have a negative impact on your brand.

It helps if your brands' social media personality is already fun and playful as it provides suitable a gateway to join in.

It is known for brands to break out of their usual personality to join-in with viral content, however, there are no "rules" here, just advice to think before you post.

Brand association

Again, although there aren't any rules, brand association may be something to consider before you post right away.

You might be able to better take advantage of viral content if your brand can associate itself with the scenario and other brands. For example, if you're a confectionary company and Cadbury's made a post that went viral - it might be a good time to get involved so some of that attention is drawn your way and possibly some customers.

If the brands don't associate with your business, you could try connecting your brand with the post in some way, as we have seen in the above example. Tinder is a dating app that has no connection to cereal, but their tweet "Trust us, this is not a match" connects their brand with the content.

It could be that the poster is a brand that you do not want to associate your brand with, therefore it's best to leave it.

Goals & Objectives

Always consider your brands' goals and objectives as this will help with your decision to take action.

Your goal may be to become the most professional service with-in your niche, thus making witty jokes and comments may not help you achieve this, regardless of the attention you may receive.

Overview

To round-up, be sure to check if the post is relevant enough for you to engage with, or you are able to connect your brand in some way, all while keeping in mind your personality, goals and objectives.