“This story starts a couple years ago. I was sitting in bed, reading, as I often do in the evenings. Probably a Vince Flynn or John Grisham novel, because all I really read is guilty-pleasure fiction. However, just one problem: the words on the page started getting blurry!

I was 45 and I had never had glasses. It was time to use some readers. I did this for a couple years until I’d had enough. The dreaded “”bifocals”” were calling my name.

Now again, I had never wore glasses before. And outside of a couple eye appointments to check my vision in the last few years, I had never even thought about my eyesight. Yeah, I know, I’ve been lucky.

But, as I started to think about where I’d go to get these bifocals, one brand popped to mind instantly: Warby Parker.

And why? Because I had seen them repeatedly over the years on social media.

Now, part of this is that Warby had become a classic case study around the power of social media. Back when they launched, they used social media to kick-start their brand. They became a “”social media darling”” in the eyes of us social media marketers.

They kept showing up in my feeds. I had followed them way back when on Instagram, so Warby content showed up in my feed there from time to time.

Friends would buy new frames at Warby every so often and talk about it on social. In particular, lots of people would use Warby’s AR tool to show how certain glasses looked on them and ask friends to tell them which frames they liked best.

So, over the years, merely through social content alone, I started to “”get to know”” Warby Parker–even if it was super passive.

I will note–most of the content and interactions I saw from Warby–or mentioning Warby–in my feeds was not sales-driven content. It wasn’t outwardly promoting the brand. It wasn’t talking about a sale on frames. It was mostly either branded content or friends talking about how much they loved their new Warby frames.

That’s worth mentioning because it’s not all that common.

Think about all the brands out there today that are almost constantly trying to sell you on social media. What percentage of brands do this? I’d argue north of 80%.

But Warby doesn’t really do that.

Oh sure, they sell from time to time. You can even shop for frames right on Insta. But, I would say most of their social content is designed to build trust. It’s helpful. Useful. Sometimes entertaining.

And that’s what’s kept them top of mind for me all those years.

And that’s what made me think of them when I needed those bifocals.

So, without even thinking twice, I went into my local store in Edina. I had an excellent in-store experience–the people there couldn’t be nicer or more helpful. And, I picked out some frames.

They arrived in a lovely, branded box a couple weeks later. And, after trying out the glasses for about a week, I went in yesterday to get them adjusted, per the recommendation of the sales associate who had helped me.

All in all, a wonderful experience.

And it started because Warby’s social media content made them top of mind with me, even though my first “”interaction”” with them on social was probably at least 9-10 years ago.

I think a lot of times when we’re thinking about the customer journey and social media, we tend to focus too much time on the sales. On driving leads. Which makes sense since, historically, that’s what marketing has been asked to do.

However, in this case, social wasn’t about the sale. It was about being top-of-mind for when I needed those frames. That had nothing to do with sales, and everything to do with trust.

So, as you think about how social fits in your customer journey, remember to think a lot more about that bigger piece of the funnel–awareness, interest, engagement.

Because that can play a much bigger role that you probably think.”