Social Media Marketing

BeReal Social Media App Growth and What It Means for Marketers

Learn why the BeReal social media app should be a part of your marketing strategy.

Being real and creating authentic content can forge deeper connections with customers, build strong brand loyalty, and create post-sale opportunities. In addition, customers are happy with their choice knowing they support genuine and authentic brands.

BeReal social media app is one such initiative to bring back authenticity to your social media posts.

With no vanity metrics (likes, shares), the app asks users to share one photo per day to show their followers what they are doing in real-time, with a focus on authenticity.

This blog talks more about the BeReal social media app and how brands can use it for marketing.

What is the BeReal social media app?

Launched in 2019, BeReal is a social media app that encourages users to share one unfiltered photo per day. The app is available for download on Android and iOS devices. Though launched in 2019, the app started gaining traction in 2020 and soon became one of the top social media apps with over 100 million downloads on the Play Store.

BeReal has 47.8 million monthly active users as of February, with 13 million people accessing the app daily – BusinessofApps

In the age of social media, where everything boils down to likes, shares, and followers, the BeReal app keeps it simple, with no likes or followers, making it more interesting and exciting.

Also Read: B2B Social Media Marketing Trends for 2023

How does the BeReal social media app work?

BeReal app will send Push Notification – ⚠Time to BeReal ⚠ to all users randomly each day. Users in the same time zone will receive notifications at the same time. Users then have 2 minutes to take a photo and share it with their followers.

The app also uses the front and rear cameras to click selfies showing what you are doing in real-time. People who click on selfies with beauty filters may not find it exciting since the app does not support photo editing features.

The reason for giving 2 minutes is that you have no time to plan, strategize or batch your content. You share whatever you’re doing when the notification comes in — which may be 10 AM one day and 6 PM the next.

BeReal social media app allows you to retake photos within the 2-minute window but remember that your followers will know the number of takes. You can still post if you miss the 2-minute deadline, but your BeReal gets tagged with “posted late.”

Most importantly, while there’s no ‘like’ option on the app, you can react to other posts using your RealMoji, or an emoji featuring your selfie mimicking an emoji reaction. With no filters or edit buttons, or the option to post videos, you only have to post in real time. The follower count is also not displayed in the app, and there are no ads.

How to use the BeReal social media app?

Looking forward to getting started with the BeReal social media app? Follow our step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Create an account

The first step is to create an account on BeReal social media marketing app. This app is available for both Android and iOS users. After downloading the app, enter your name, phone number, date of birth, and username.

Step 2: Sync your contacts

The next step is to sync your contacts to find and add contacts already using the app.

Step 3: Click the first photo on BeReal

BeReal asks you to take a photo as soon as you create an account. Click the notification and take your first photo within 2 minutes.

Step 4: Add captions and share

After adding captions, you can share your photo with everyone or your friends. Click Submit to post.

Step 5: It’s time to explore

After sharing your first BeReal, you can browse more photos in the discover section. Using the emoji on the bottom left, you can react to posts with selfies.

How B2B brands can use the BeReal social media app?

BeReal might not be the ideal platform for brand presence or advertising. However, more and more B2B companies are joining the platform and looking to take advantage of this new space. Many are now using the BeReal marketing to their advantage.

For example, B2B companies encourage employees to share their daily work experiences in an unfiltered way on BeReal. This gives the audience a behind-the-scenes look at how the company works.

Similarly, B2B companies can leverage influencer partnerships with BeReal users with a large following in their target audience. By working with these influencers, B2B companies can reach a wider audience and increase awareness of their brands, products, and services.

Most importantly, B2B brands can use the BeReal social media app for user-generated content. For example, B2B companies may ask their followers to share photos of themselves using their products and services at work and in their daily lives. This approach helps generate UGC that promotes the company’s brand and products.

GenZ seeks more than sales-worthy content. It’s where BeReal marketing allows B2B brands to show their true human side by focusing on real-authentic content.

Here are a few others ways in which B2B brands can use BeReal social media app:

Post a photo that captures the moment
Show what’s going on behind the scenes at a work meeting
Share photos that highlight the company culture or values
Run contests or promotions
Partner with BeReal influencers
Showcase company’s product or service
Promote upcoming events or make announcements
Show the logic or research behind a feature

These approaches seem like the best way to grow your brand’s audience on this highly fashionable platform.

Leverage BeReal social media app mechanics to present a more relaxed and friendly image of your business, show it from a different perspective and increase GenZ consumer loyalty.

To adopt the BeReal social media marketing app in your industry, you must develop a creative marketing strategy that aligns with the values of this platform, focuses on your work team, and builds genuine relationships with your followers.

What does BeReal’s growth mean for marketers?

When BeReal was launched it felt that the app was not suitable for marketing and public relations. But now, marketers are using BeReal marketing to raise awareness and generate excitement among younger customers. Marketers need to move beyond the old advertising model and stop presenting themselves as the ‘perfect’ brand.

So how can companies become BeReal?

1. Follow the timeline

Though the BeReal social media app allows brands to post after the “It’s time to BeReal” prompt, they should try limiting the situation. Why?. Because posting after 2 minutes means your BeReal gets tagged with ‘being late,’ and the community is more likely to call out your brand for not playing along. Your audience may find that the image has been edited or shared after some changes since it was not shared within 2 minutes – making it look less authentic.

2. Have a dedicated team

Make sure that your team understands the nature of the app, which is unsuitable for typical planning and scripting of marketing activities. BeReal for brands should mean the freedom to post in real-time without going through complicated approval processes.

3. Give consumers a reason to seek you out

Most consumers don’t know there are brands on BeReal, and it’s not easy to find them from the not so easy to navigate interface.

Popular cosmetics brand E.l.f Beauty launched a campaign to get people to discover the brand on BeReal by launching a giveaway. The cosmetics company offered free products to the first 150 accounts that followed E.l.f Beauty on BeReal. This attracted a ton of traffic to their account after the launch. The cosmetics brand also made a media push (press release) to draw attention to its BeReal marketing campaign, reaching its target number of users in just a few hours.

4. Keep users engaged

Post different activities that make the experience more interesting for your brand’s BeReal friends and keep them looking forward to future posts.

Glow Recipe and K Beauty-inspired skincare also used the platform to attract new followers with exclusive checkout codes. The brand created a post with a code to give the first ten users who used the code a free full-size product. This is a great way to increase brand loyalty and traffic to your store. This clever tactic helped them gain followers who are brand beauty enthusiasts and more views on their regular posts.

Should you try BeReal for brand marketing?

When Instagram launched, it started as just a photo-sharing app but has evolved into the highly staged and curated platform it is today.

Today the BeReal social media marketing app might not support filters and edits, which makes it unique and sets it apart from other major platforms like Instagram Stories and Snapchat Stories. Still, we have seen in the past that most platforms eventually lose the uniqueness their audiences crave.

The social media landscape constantly evolves, and platforms keep experimenting with UI, functionality, design, functionality, and more to stay relevant and engaging. BeReal social media marketing app may be the talk of the town now, but its transient nature may not be sufficient for long-term growth.

But again, marketers shouldn’t be afraid to take the plunge and start using BeReal for brands. What if the platform matures and grows into a major platform like TikTok did?

So start exploring the BeReal social media app today to stay relevant.
However, if you need help keeping your users engaged on the platform, or are not sure if your B2B company can use this platform, contact us today.

Shikha Arora

Hi! I am Shikha Arora, a social media expert, and content writer. I help small business owners scale their businesses via social media marketing and content marketing. My expertise in social media lies in Instagram and LinkedIn specifically. I also specialize in writing email copies, blogs and, e-books that drive leads & convert.