Building your Brand Through Social Media
Your online persona can reflect your values and professional skills when you share content online. It doesn’t matter if you only use social media occasionally. What you create, share or react to becomes part of this public narrative.
You should put some effort and resources into your social media branding. According to most business and consumer marketers who know the statistics, social media is crucial to building a brand.
The number of active social media users has exceeded 3.8 billion, according to a 2020 report. This is quite remarkable considering the world’s 4.5 billion internet users.
More than 80% of consumers are likely to evaluate brands they follow on social media for solutions.
Branding was all about print media, broadcast ads, and newsletters back in the day. Still, it wasn’t until Facebook launched a little over a decade ago that companies began paying attention to it as a powerful tool for marketing.
There can be a lot of fluff and uncertainty around social media strategy. In this article, we conduct an in-depth analysis of social media and how you can go about building your brand.
What is Branding?
People conceive branding as creating attractive logos or sets of colors, and it’s so much more than a cover photo. Nor is it about spending lavishly on ads or creating clickbait content. Instead, you can think of a brand as how people perceive your product, business, or even you as a person.
Branding is about ensuring that people’s perception is the one you want them to have. So you need to shape how you want people to feel, even if you don’t actively promote your brand.
To build a brand, you have to take a consistent approach to every interaction you have with your customers.
How to Use Branding on Social Media
There’s no need to be active on every social media platform when taking on the branding on the web. Instead, learn which social media sites are most appropriate for your brand.
Most Facebook users are 18 to 44 years old, while most Instagram users are 18 and 24 years old. Therefore, it would be better for a company to use Facebook instead of Instagram if its target demographic is more aged.
You can use this information to identify which social networks are most important for reaching your goals by researching your target audience, building comprehensive personas, and building a comprehensive strategy.
Instead of chasing unattainable numbers, you should focus on creating consistent content and connecting with your audience. While it is crucial to have many followers, it won’t guarantee marketing success.
Building a decent following takes time and is not something you can do overnight. However, brand guidelines templates and good planning can go a long way towards defining your brand and its online presence.
Create a Strong Brand Identity
It is important to stay authentic to who you are and open up and show your real side.
If you’re an entrepreneur, post pictures of your daily life and routine for the day. If you’re an organization, share photos of your employees or events. It’s always good to put a face to a name or a brand.
Social media users crave authenticity. Brands get lost in the race to do better and end up turning into someone they are not. You cannot simply push out content, but you need to show your human side.
Hire Someone to Help You with Your Social Media
Building your brand on social media is more than just publishing posts and getting likes. If you want to be successful on social media, you need a sound strategy.
Hiring a social media assistant can help you not only get expert advice, but it will also free your time so you can focus on other essential tasks.
If you find hiring a full-time social media manager or an assistant expensive, you could look to other options like hiring a virtual social media assistant for your business.
Remote assistants are qualified and trained, and experienced in social media campaigns and can produce the same results as a full-time employee at a very lower cost.
Strategies to Gain Followers and Build a Strong Social Media Presence
Update Your Social Media Accounts
Decide what social media account(s) you will be focusing on, and delete any older accounts you are no longer using. Next, ensure you have complete and accurate information on the networks you plan to use. Then, you will direct traffic towards the networks that will showcase your work and yourself.
Brand building takes time, dedication, and dedication does not happen overnight. For example, as Brandchannel points out, Nike took 15 years to maintain a ‘360-degree delivery’ approach. By doing this, the brand was consistent throughout all products, advertising, and customer service.
Well-defined social media accounts make a lasting impression on your audience, and let them know you are here to make an impression.
2. Publish Engaging Content Regularly
Social media game is all about publishing content regularly and with consistency.
However, that does not mean you should churn out endless content. Instead, keep your media strategy on course by creating a content calendar and posting frequently.
You can see what kind of messages you’re sending if you have a documented strategy in place. By alternating promotional posts with content that adds value, you can maintain a balance. In addition, scheduling updates ahead of time allows you to save time.
It’s a good idea to post content daily, but you can skip a day or two if you don’t yet have quality content. Don’t share low-quality or overly promotional posts. Instead, share quality posts.
3. Take Advantage of Social Media Groups
To become an effective brand, a business has to connect with its industry community. You can achieve this by joining all the right groups and communities.
Find out what communities and groups are relevant to you and become a member. You can then share information and hear what your audience has to say.
It is a great opportunity for you to converse with your audience. Connect with your audience through the groups, not for marketing purposes.
4. Humanize Your Brand
Marketers usually follow the 80–20 rule, i.e., share 80% educational content with 20% promotional. And yes, it is essential to have a mix of content to generate sales. However, when your audience sees the human side of your brand, they’ll connect with it much easier and on a deeper level.
One of the most significant advantages of branding is showing your audience that you’re more than a business that wants to make money.
Consumers no longer want to see brands as big, faceless organizations. Instead, they want to see humans involved in the brand. It’s the best way to create trust and loyalty.
Don’t be distracted by jargon and corporate talk. You will find that your audience will be more eager to connect and engage if you ‘get real’ with them.
5. Use Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing. It includes affirmation and product/service advertisements by influencers, individuals, and organizations that have a perceived degree of awareness or social impact in their field.
Influencers are great at creating videos in the form of reels or Tik Tok to engage with your audience.
Producing fresh and engaging content might seem easy, but it might be quite the task for someone who isn’t an artist. Hiring an influencer can help you create content that your audience will love. In addition, you can use influencer marketing software to identify influencers who will suit your brand and create partnerships with them.
Final Note
Social media can be a great tool to increase your online presence, but as more brands jump on the bandwagon, marketing clutter can make it hard to compete. So be sure to use social media as a branding tool and effectively stand out and keep customers engaged and interested.
Author Bio
Crispino is a professional digital marketer, with a love for design, art, literature, and everything in between. Experienced in content writing he intends to captivate your imagination with his work. He dedicatedly takes care of social media management, blog strategy and editing, email marketing, content marketing, and community management in her current role at Wishup.co
