Social Media Branding: How to Do It Right

In today’s digitalized world, competition is getting fiercer and fiercer. Everybody, including businesses, is online. Brands are continuing to include social media in their marketing strategy – and for a good reason. Social media allows brands to interact with their audience, build brand loyalty, and access cost-effective marketing.

But as your competitors strengthen their social media, you need to come up with clever ways to help your brand stand out.

However, building a strong, branded social media presence is not an easy task. Branding is more than just the company logo, the font you use on your site, or the products and services you offer. It’s the philosophy you embrace and the customer experience you provide. A brand is a feeling that a company evokes in customers.

And when it comes to online businesses, branding is no different.

Social Media Branding Strategies

The following 4 social media branding strategies will help you build a recognizable brand and, as a result, gain followers and win new customers.

#1. Make Sure Your Messaging is Consistent

Consistency is at the core of social media branding and it should begin right after you join a social network. Of course, you first need to find out what kind of content resonates with your target audience but once you figure that out, consistency will help enhance your brand message.

Start by optimizing your profile bio making sure it encapsulates your main message. Mention the benefits of using your services/products and don’t forget to include relevant keywords to make it easier for people to find your account. Finally, provide another means of contact for more serious inquiries.

Post regularly. Frequent posting will help you keep users’ attention while potentially earning more followers. However, this doesn’t mean that you should flood their social media feeds with content. Follow your audience engagement and activity to figure out the best posting times and optimal posting frequency.

Take advantage of visual content. Images can be a powerful tool to convey your brand’s message and encapsulate your identity. Your visuals should reflect what you stand for, as well as the topics your target market is interested in.

Establish a common posting tone that includes jargon and phrases relevant to your target audience. This will make your brand easily-recognizable and help you build an authentic relationship with your target market. Once you find your tone, make sure to use it consistently in order to stay on top of customers’ minds. Otherwise, you’re risking sounding disingenuous and forced.

#2. Engage Continuously

Continuous engagement with followers allows you to establish strong relationships, demonstrate your company’s values, and remain at the top of consumers’ minds.

You can engage your target audience by sharing your own original content, as well as user-generated content, or running social media contests.

You should also make sure to respond to users’ questions and comments as this is a great way to build an image of a helpful and friendly company.

Consider creating communities and groups or participating in them. This will help you engage target audiences and generate some buzz around your content.

Chats are another way to directly engage your target audience. Use a hashtag to connect with prospects as well as other businesses. This kind of direct conversation allows you to show your expertise and build brand reputation.

You can also offer perks to strengthen brand image. For instance, you can send a private message to new followers that contains a coupon. Make sure it also contains your brand colors, logo, and general info, encouraging them to visit your site or store.

#3. Leverage Influencers

Once you have built a solid social media following, influencer marketing should be your logical next step in building brand recognition.

Nearly 50% of consumers claim that they depend on influencer recommendations on social media to inform their purchasing decision, so why not piggyback on influencers’ power to reach out to their customers?

Start by identifying suitable influencers. If you’re a small or medium-sized company, using micro influencers (people who have between 1k and 100k followers) might be the best way to build brand recognition. Follow target influencers on their main social channels, interact with their updates, and share their content.

Once you have built a relationship with an influencer that matches your brand, pitch a campaign that builds your brand’s image and, at the same time, benefits the influencer.

After your influencer agrees, give them all the essential information, including materials and other resources. Make it as easy on them as possible, but make sure to allow them the room to be creative in their own voice.

Unless the content is time-sensitive, you could keep re-sharing it even after the campaign is over. Post it on your website, blog, and other social media platforms. You can even send it out to your email subscribers.

#4. Never Stop Analyzing

In order to make sure that your methods are working, you need to analyze your branding efforts on a regular basis. Without any performance insights, you might end up wasting your budget and time on efforts that don’t produce the desired results.

On the other hand, having all the data available will help you tweak and improve your social media branding strategy in order to establish your brand identity faster.

Enact a social media monitoring strategy to make sure you don’t miss any opportunities. You can monitor company-related keywords to start a conversation, or track industry keywords to find new engagement opportunities. Besides branding, this is also beneficial for public relations as it provides an opportunity to answer questions and solve problems, emphasizing your brand’s positive characteristics.

Final Thoughts

You should know by now that branding is no longer limited to logos and colors. It’s about your voice, your imagery, and even your target audience. Business owners and marketers need to make sure that their marketing activities, ranging from collaborations with influencers to tracking results, help them establish a brand identity.

That being said, social media branding does require some patience, but these 4 basic strategies will set you on the path for improving your brand online.