Technology advances have led to the emergence of social media as one of the most important platforms for advertising and social networking.
Social media allows you to reach large audiences within seconds of posting an ad, helping you to reduce your costs, spreading awareness about your brand and reaching out to your target audience through your ads.
The staggering number of online users suggests marketers should not miss out on the opportunity to market their brand on these digital platforms to reach the most significant number of consumers compared to print or television advertising.
What is branding?
Branding goes beyond a logo. It is what people think of you, your product, or your business.
A brand’s purpose is to elicit the perception that you want from people. If you don’t actively market your brand, your perception will still exist, or worse, it won’t exist at all. Therefore, it’s your responsibility to define how you want people to feel about your brand.
What do you want your brand to accomplish?
Defining your branding goals in advance will help you examine your success later on. Here are some examples of brand goals you can strive for:
- Awareness-building of your product or service
- Generating new business leads
- Increasing sales
Building a Brand Identity
The first step toward building your brand is defining it. With so many stories to choose from, the ones that stand out are the ones that instantly connect with us. Typically, elevator pitches simplify complex topics, so imagine you’re in an elevator trying to persuade someone to engage with your brand. To get started, answer the following questions:
- What is the name of your brand?
- What is the essence of your brand?
- What makes your brand unique?
If it took you more than 10 seconds to answer, try again. In social media, long-winded conversations are not welcome. So it would be best if you were direct and concise.
Rules of Social Media
Branding
Like everything else, social media branding has its own rules.
- The number of channels you’re on does not matter. You’re better off choosing one and doing it right. You can, of course, increase the number of platforms you are active on; however, ensure you don’t shrink your reach because you’re stretched too thin.
- A large following is not necessary. A following of 10 who buys your product is better than 1000 who don’t. Focus on quality, not quantity.
- Your presence on social media is determined by how often you post, so you are not seen if you do not post often.
Strategies to Improve Your Social Media Branding
With your brand established, aware of your goals, and familiar with the basics, here are five recommendations for building your brand through social media.
1.Be consistent across social media platforms
Consistency is key to social media branding. For example, having a specific style on your site (colours, fonts, and voice) but completely different on Facebook and LinkedIn can confuse your audience.
Regardless of where your audience is experiencing your brand, they expect the same experience. In social media, having a brand all over the place hurts your overall branding, brand recognition, engagement, and ultimately your sales.
Building a brand requires time and dedication, and a 360-degree approach. The 360-degree delivery concept refers to consistency across all products, advertising, customer service, and packaging.
Here are some tips to start your journey to a 360-degree delivery while ensuring you’re instantly recognizable by your audience:
- Making your profile reflect your brand’s colour palette
- As your profile picture, use a hero image or the logo associated with your brand
- Consistency with your voice, style, the topics you post about and even the frequency of your posts
2. Using your Logo and Colour Scheme
A logo’s design should reflect a brand’s philosophy for it to be successful. If someone doesn’t know what your brand is about, they can immediately understand your value proposition.
In some ways, a company logo is its face as it works as an identity for your company. When your social media pages all have the same logo, you make a lasting impression.
Furthermore, keeping your logo visible allows your users to easily distinguish your company’s posts from the posts of other marketers. You should, therefore, always include your brand’s logo and name when posting on social media.
Now that you’ve added your logo to your social media posts, it is time to enhance your posts even further by ensuring your posts reflect the same colours and fonts as those on your website. Your social media branding efforts must aim to achieve this type of brand recognition. For example, does the colour scheme of your social media page immediately stand out to anyone who visits it?
Eventually, your customers will notice the consistency of your posts and recognize you without even seeing your brand’s logo. Therefore, you should focus your social media branding efforts on achieving this level of brand recognition.
3. Know your tone of voice and brand writing style
A brand’s personality distinguishes it from the competition. As a result, brands can connect with their target audiences and build better relationships through this unique personality.
The problem is that if your brand’s personality doesn’t translate into your social media content, you won’t get your message across.
The process of developing your voice takes time. However, once you do so, creating the content becomes much more practical and effective.
It’s essential, however, to be consistent with your voice to build a lasting connection with your audience and make sure your brand is always at the forefront of their minds. Otherwise, that voice you’ve worked hard to create may seem forced, inauthentic and misleading.
Remember, your voice and writing style should help build your brand’s impression and convey your message effectively.
4. Humanize your speech
On social media, we often make the mistake of appearing as a faceless brand without any personality. The truth is, in the age of transparency, people want to know more about your company on a personal level.
Instead of corporate jargon, adopt a conversational approach. Don’t be afraid to use colloquial dialogue when responding to inquiries. In addition, brands will be more relatable if they portray themselves as a clever, genuine, and witty person.
However, displaying the human side of your brand to your audience means showcasing the faces behind your social media feeds, whether it’s office photos or snapshots of your team taking a break from their work.
5. Storytelling
Who doesn’t like a good story? And people are storytellers by nature. So when you tell someone a story, they are likely to turn the story into their own experiences and ideas, which can be a great way of gaining their attention. Likewise, people will find a brand or concept more appealing when told a story about it. So you can take it one step further engage your audience by involving them in a brand story.
In a nutshell
Branding is made more accessible with the help of social media. However, as more and more brands jump on the bandwagon, marketing clutter can make it hard to compete. So, ensure that you utilize social media marketing as a branding tool and stand out and engage customers effectively.