Whatsapp has decided to join the bandwagon of broadcast channels that Telegram has already started. The instant messaging application has not taken long to implement this trend that, already this summer, appeared as a novelty in another of the leading applications: Instagram.
Before going on to analyze how these channels can help to create community and brand humanization, let’s explain what they consist of. While Telegram started using this channel to disseminate news and current affairs, Whatsapp uses the channels to disseminate public messages to large audiences, thus allowing companies, celebrities or the media to have an ‘almost direct’ contact with their followers.
But why almost direct? Well, these channels are used in a unidirectional way, which means that the user cannot interact or respond to the medium that broadcasts it.To access them you only have to enter the word you want to know about in the search engine and the channel will appear. For example, if we do not want to miss anything about our favorite brand of clothing – adidas, for example, it will be enough to search for ‘David Guetta’ to subscribe to his channel and keep abreast of their news. And so on with other brands, platforms, among other interests.
Whatsapp and marketing
Although a priori it may seem a tool more intended for the media, Whatsapp channels can be a very useful way for the brand to contact directly with the user in an unconventional way. This communication channel can be the perfect excuse to create a feeling of belonging between the client and the company. The channels will allow companies to create personalized, attractive and captivating content to capture the attention of their audience. In addition, they allow the option to create surveys, which can be used by brands to gather opinions that will allow them to improve their services.
One of the points in favor of this new Whatsapp option is the respect for privacy, a matter that users value highly and that plays in favor of brands in terms of welfare policies. Even if we are within one of these channels, the administrator will never have access to our phone number and, in addition, they have the ability to block forwarding and screenshots thus promoting the feeling of exclusivity in front of the customer.
If you know how to take advantage of it, this would be a great opportunity to demonstrate that the relationship between brands and social networks are not just a mere channel for buying and selling. Using this channel to strengthen the relationship with the user, generate a sense of community from which the customer does not only see the company as a seller but comes to him for information, grow professionally and personally and strengthen a bond can be the best win to win that can be obtained from these channels.
