For those who aren’t aware, a digital campfire refers to a small community of people communicating with each other. It seems very much like people gathered around a campfire, but the keyword here is digital. Hence, these people share their experiences and exchange messages online. Examples of digital campfires can be found in Facebook groups, WhatsApp chats, Close Friends on Instagram, Slack communities, etc.
The reason these digital campfires are becoming popular is that more and more people are veering away from social media platforms to private messaging. Users don’t want to share experiences worldwide, they’re perfectly okay with doing so with smaller groups of people.
Businesses and Digital Campfires
But what has the digital campfire got to do with online businesses and brands? How will the digital campfires benefit them?
Businesses can use the digital campfire to their benefit. They can use chatbots to interact with their customers outside working hours and to mimic real-life conversations. Much like how Comcast internet subscribers can reach out to the Comcast chatbots for any queries regarding their service. This helps Comcast to maintain relationships with its customers.
Other methods can be;
Artificial Intelligence. Large-scale companies like Google and Amazon are making use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to try and mimic hum conversations. The Google products downloaded on smartphones are listening in to conversations and watching every move to predict what the user’s buying preference is like.
Since businesses are mostly focused on providing an experience that is highly personal to each individual, personalization is also something they are interested in working towards. This ensures that users will receive ads only for things that they want. Hence, the chatbots and AR technology are adapting to a user’s every move and want along with filtering out anything that is irrelevant to him.
Influencers and Digital Campfires. Brands also reach out to influencers for promoting their products and services. They can encourage influencers to create awareness about their products or services in digital campfires. That could take time to cultivate, but it is well worth it in the longer run.
For instance, Sprite is using influencers to reach out to customers and start a discussion on touchy issues like loneliness. They set up Reddit forums and positioned each influencer in each forum. Sprite wanted to work with influencers that have personal experiences with the issues that are being discussed in these digital campfires. As a result, it created brand awareness for Sprite.
Shared Experience Campfires. As the name suggests, these are forums where users communicate about shared experiences. It can either be private or public rooms and shared interests can be anything such as games.
Take Twitch and Fortnite. Fortnite is a multiplayer online game with a huge following and 8 million users are online at any given time. Twitch, on the other hand, is a live broadcasting platform with users who are mostly gamers.
The Right Digital Campfire for your Brand
Although there are multiple digital campfires available on the internet, not all of them can work for your brand. As already discussed above, if your brand is targeting gamers, the best option would be to set up camp on Twitch. Reddit might also be a good option for scouring online gamers, but Facebook, Instagram, etc. might not work for your brand.
Hence, you need to identify which community and what part of their culture aligns with your brand image. Next, you can determine what kind of shared online experiences these users are looking for. When narrowed down, you can work towards forming relationships with them by interacting on a frequent basis. This will ensure that users are becoming aware of your online brand.
Final Thoughts
The future of the digital campfire seems positive and glowing since more and more brands are working towards focusing their energy on personalized messages and groups. Many social media platforms have already made a switch toward digital campfires. Brands just need to utilize this feature on social media platforms.
Digital campfires are gradually becoming faster means of online communication, hence, to stay ahead of the competition, brands and businesses need to make sure that they are not missing out on anything.
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