Having a Social Presence Isn't Enough. How Are Consumers Experiencing Your Brand With Augmented Reality? Content and marketing trends change, and so must your social tactics.
By Ron Sheth
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
While social media content is crucial for developing strong connections and brand awareness, you also need to remember that your audience wants to participate. If you're simply posting your content, you can't expect to see high amounts of engagement. You must start to seek out innovative ways for consumers to experience your brand.
Have you heard the term augmented reality?
Augmented reality (AR) is the practice of displaying digital information over people's real-time view of objects, people or spaces in the physical world. Innovative marketers and agencies are now leveraging new technologies like augmented reality to create immersive brand experiences, educate the consumer and enable their audiences to experience products in fascinating ways.
Even though this tends to be presented as a sort of futuristic tech, it has been around for a while. This incredibly powerful innovation is used to actually provide users with enriching experiences and be highly interactive throughout social media channels.
Related: In Future AR Tech, Expect More Blasts from the Past
What are the possibilities of augmented reality on social media?
If you spend any time at all on social media platforms like Snapchat or Instagram, you've undoubtedly seen your fair share of AR filters. They're the augmented reality experiences that let users apply computer-generated effects to their own faces and the world around them.
With the use of interactive content shaping social media, most channels are starting to explore AR integration. Being able to virtually try on a pair of sunglasses, lipstick or even a pair of shoes gives shoppers a better idea of how a product will work for them, which helps remove hesitations about purchasing. Lastly, combining your social media ads with AR could boost sales for ecommerce businesses drastically. As an example, dropping a virtual couch into your living room before purchasing would help visualize before buying and create a nicer user experience for consumers.
From a brand awareness standpoint, having your audience engage around an event, creating a branded face filter or having your business card come to life with AR is a great way to build brand loyalty and leads. From shares of amazing products that can feel more real than the real thing to a brand new experience of engaging events and initiatives, AR promises to make social media more interactive, 3D-oriented and fantastically shareable.
Related: AR and VR Will Lead the Way in a Post-Pandemic World
What are AR wearables?
In the future, 3D social media content will become increasingly popular, using AR and new tech hardware such as wearables to make it all happen. Many of the biggest tech companies in the world are investing vast amounts of time and money into new projects that could bring AR experiences from your phone screen to your face – think AR headsets, glasses or even contact lenses. These items are known as "wearables."
Wearables could add useful 3D information, like emails, directions, instructions or virtual holograms, into your visual field. You wouldn't need to look down at a screen or away from your loved ones, and instead control your futuristic glasses with simple taps, gestures or your voice. With more people likely to shift to work-from-home arrangements in the wake of Covid-19, this could become a key entry point for AR wearable technology, and slimmer AR display devices could help improve efficiencies and cost savings for companies.
As social media platforms evolve their features and new AR hardware is introduced to consumers, businesses should make new technologies, like augmented reality, an integral part of their social media marketing strategy.
Related: Here's Why AR and VR Strategy is a Must For Your Venture
