Using Social Media For Brand Building
Social media branding is about consistently using the right methods to engage with your target audience on social media platforms. The aim or purpose is to boost brand awareness. By leveraging the power of social media branding, you can build a loyal network of fans who are not only loyal to your brand, but are also eager to buy from you.
The role of social media in brand building makes it easy for you to get more relevant people into your sales funnel, by giving them a reason to trust you. When your social branding is right, the rest of your sales process becomes more efficient.
There are four key areas to work on in order to build your brand with social media.
4 Key Areas To Build Your Brand With Social Media
1. Your Identity
In order to build your brand image on social media, you need to know your business. What defines your business and how is it different from your competitors? What does it seek to achieve? Who and how does it want to impress? The clearer you are about your brand’s identity, the easier it will be construct the right message.
2. Your Audience
A big part of social media branding is understanding and knowing your target audience. This
allows you to take an exact, customized approach with your marketing efforts, rather than a shot-in-the-dark approach.
If you want to identify with your audience, you need to understand their problems, wants and needs from their perspective.
3. Your Content
The type of content you share on social media determines how your brand is perceived by others, which is the reason why it’s important that you share the right kind of content. The content you post has the power to make or break your social media marketing campaign. So, sharing the appropriate content on each network should not be ignored.
4. Your Design
Visuals play a vitally important role in how your followers perceive your brand on social media, which is why aligning your brand design with your marketing goals is a step worth paying attention to. Remember, our brains tend to process visual content 60,000 times faster when compared to regular text.
FREE Checklist: Branding For Small Businesses4. Social Media Branding Myths to Avoid
Myth #1: Social Media Can Make Your Brand Popular Overnight
Many social media marketers are focused on getting their content to go viral on social media and get as many votes or likes as possible. Their aim is to become super-popular quickly. They want more and more people to know their brand, in little time.
This is a mistake. Regardless of how you view social media branding, it’s simply not possible to get hundreds of thousands of genuine followers in a few weeks. You also will not get an unrealistic number of likes or fans in only a few days.
Myth #2: Being on Every Network Is Crucial for Social Media Branding
Finding success with social media branding starts with your focus. If your focus is in the wrong direction, you may send an irrelevant message to your audience. Or worse, you may end up not reaching them at all.
The reality is, everyone has a limited amount of time to spend on social media, so be sure you use it wisely to ensure you’re generating a good return on your invested time.
Myth #3: You Need Thousands of Followers To Build Your Brand On Media
Building a big social media audience definitely has advantages. But is it really necessary to see great results? Do you really need a huge number of social media followers in order to grow your brand’s recognition?
The answer is an obvious no. As a business, your brand strategies in social media should always be to leverage social media to build a better connection with your customers and prospects.
Myth #4: Social Media Branding Is “Set and Forget”
You have to be consistently active on social media in order to showcase your brand’s professional side. The goal is to have people see you as a brand that cares by being responsive in every possible way. You’ll discover that both customers and prospects post on your social media accounts from time to time. This is your golden opportunity to show them that they matter by responding to their comments.
It doesn’t take much effort to interact with your social media fans, but it can make a positive impact on their lives. The indirect effect of being active on social media is that you’ll see more business coming in.
4 Social Media Branding Strategies That Work
1. Choose and Leverage the Most Appropriate Social Network
The type of social network you use can literally be the difference between success and failure on social media. Because the last thing you want is for people to see your brand as incapable or negative. Being active on the wrong social network will only generate poor results.
For example, if you’re a B2B business, then you may want to tap into the power of LinkedIn for building your brand. Why? Because LinkedIn has many business owners actively using it. But if your business is more on the B2C or C2C side, you may want to focus your efforts on Facebook or Pinterest.
2. Be Consistent with Your Messages
Your brand becomes more involved with your target audience when you regularly use visuals and text that match with your purpose. People on social media are used to identifying patterns or themes, so it always pays off when you are consistent in your efforts. The longer you do it; the better results you will see.
3. Post as Frequently as Possible
While being consistent with your content is important, it’s also critical that you post good content on a regular basis. How often people interact with your brand on social media has an impact on how much they connect to it.
As a business, the first step in building a strong, long-term relationship with your target audience is achieved by making a strong first impression. Remember, by posting regular, informative updates, you will manage to stay front and center in the mind of your social media audience.
4. Find Your Voice
Every brand has a personality that differentiates it from the others. This unique personality not only helps a brand connect with its target audience, but it also helps it build better relationships. However, if your brand’s personality isn’t reflected in your social media content, it will be very difficult to be heard. This is why you need to find and develop your voice on social media.
Whether it is posting an update on Facebook or a video on Instagram, it’s important that your message gets heard. Developing your voice won’t happen overnight. It will take a while to find it and get comfortable with it. But once you do, creating the right kind of content will become more practical and easier.
Free Checklist: How To Create Your Branding Strategy
Your brand is communicated through every single action your business takes. It’s communicated on your website, in your content, in marketing materials, in social media posts and with any interaction you have with a prospect or customer.
To discover more on how to build your brand with social media as well as other channels, download my free Branding Strategy Checklist that provides actional tips on how to reach your target prospects, provide a positively memorable experience related to what you have to offer and improve customer retention.
