Since the emergence of social media, brands are trying to engage and interact with their potential clients more personally. Still, social media branding is as critical as it is difficult, since 70 percent of all businesses use social media, according to a Clutch survey. The crowded space also means that it’s challenging to make your brand stand out. You need to be strategic so social media isn’t a waste of your valuable time and resources.
The fact that 42% of the world’s population uses social media makes it impossible to ignore social media when it comes to digital branding (Source: Khoros).
But why exactly do you need social media branding?
[1] Increase your brand awareness:
Brand awareness is the way in which consumers recognize and remember your business. Your brand image depends on the content that you share, smart contents allow your brand to be more recognizable and familiar. Showcase your business and increase your brand awareness to make it more credible, so that when new consumer wants to know more about you, they can go to your social media profile and get their required information.
Your social media page should establish that your brand is active and is regularly upgrading its products or services. Regular interaction with customers and answering their queries show that the business cares about customer satisfaction. Make yourself more visible by syndicating your content. Kindly check our 9 Tips To Building A Better Social Media Presence
[2] The active audience:
Social media platform users are always looking forward to new brands so that they can view the latest product launch without going somewhere physically, just to avoid the traffic load. Right after a new business launch, a lucrative offer or a dynamic event starts a trend of likes, and people are more attracted to visit a place based on how interested others are. Interesting, creative posts make them come back for more! You should therefore target your own required audience and ensure they always see your updates.
[3] Build brand loyalty with Social Media:
If you want customers to keep coming back to your brand, you have to connect with them in meaningful ways. Social media is the perfect place to build these relationships. It is important to have two-way communication with your audience. Not only should you display your products and services, but you should also answer queries and be a solution to the problems that your audience and overcome the challenges. This way you can make your audience dependent on your feedback and also win their heart with your valued feedback. Build a relationship based on trust and care through proactive tools like social media channels.
[4] Customer insight and understanding can improve your business:
What does your customer want from your industry? How much are they intending to spend? Which offers do they most respond to? Do they find your products classy, or too boring? Get personal feedback from your clients and you won’t have to wonder what are the strengths and weaknesses of your business! Through active social media engagement, you can obtain regular feedback to make smarter business decisions.
[5] Reduce costs and increase your profits:
Social media marketing is the most cost-effective way to advertise. By investing a small amount of time and money you can get significant access to clients. Since nowadays people are less into traditional print media, social media remain the top media platforms where people spend a good amount of time. With TV and radio, you have to consider the spike in prices during peak times to advertise.
How your business can leverage social media and establish a reputation for itself?
So many brands are on social media today trying to get the audience’s attention. Competition can get tough, and you have to manage your social media properly to stand out. Here are 5 strategies to build a digital brand that lasts:
1- Choosing the Right Social Media Platform for Your Business
You don’t have to be present on all social media platforms, but you do have to know what your company’s goals are, and what social media platforms can help you achieve them. For example, one study found that users have high overall dependence on Facebook and Instagram, with YouTube a close third.
However, there are many social media platforms to choose from, with more rising in the ranks of popularity each day, which can make it hard to choose the right ones. When you choose the most on-brand platforms, as opposed to making ad-hoc decisions about where to be active on social media, you avoid spreading yourself thin. Instead of a mediocre presence on several sites, you have a quality presence on just a few, or even just one.
2- With social media branding, you should focus on QUALITY over QUANTITY
Businesses and organizations use social media to get their brand in front of as many people as possible. But to do this, you need followers and subscribers. The mistake many businesses make with their social media marketing strategies is often over-delivering on posts and putting out content that is less than authentic to their brand.
Here are the highest trafficked platforms for businesses, with some basic demographics to guide your plan. Your goal here is to match up where your target audience lives, then focus on the 2 to 3 platforms that best align with your brand.
For each platform, there are many factors to consider|
Facebook With 22 percent of all business pages using paid ads, Facebook can feel like a pay-to-play platform according to the same Digital in 2018 report. You do need Facebook to create an Instagram profile, but consider how much time you want or need to spend marketing here. An excellent indicator can be looking at your competitors to see how active they are and how active their audience is. Are they getting likes, comments, and shares? Or simply posting with no response at all.
Instagram More often, Instagram works better for B2C businesses than B2B, since it is a visual-based platform with emphasis placed on curated images and videos. The only copy or text is in captions and in the limited bio space, which includes just one link. If your brand doesn’t have original visual content to share (images, high-quality branded graphics, videos), or doesn’t lend itself well to this format, Instagram might not be the best option for you.
Twitter is a powerful tool for customer service where there is a space that shows returns if you put in the effort. To see valuable growth you need to spend thoughtful time posting, commenting, and engaging with others. If you don’t have that kind of time on your hands, it will take longer to see growth, if you do at all.
LinkedIn It’s the ideal platform for B2B organizations to share industry-relevant content and thought leadership articles. It’s also a powerful recruiting and networking tool, so even B2C businesses might consider spending time here if actively hiring.
Pinterest is the best platform for creative content, (think: crafting, DIY design, weddings). Before committing to this platform, dive into some competitor research to ensure it makes sense for your vertical and space.
3- Plan your strategy based on your business goals
Social marketers usually say the greatest challenge is developing a strategy that supports your overall business goals. When developing your social media strategy, you need to connect it with your overall mission and business goals. Also, the more specific your plan is, the more effective it will be. Keep it concise. Don’t make it so lofty and broad that it’s unattainable or impossible to measure.
Start by creating quantifiable indicators that connect social media performance to your corporate goals. For instance, “earn 10% of leads from Facebook” or “increase organic traffic from Twitter by 15%.” Most importantly, don’t forget to consider whether social media is even necessary for your business.
4-Develop an Attention-Grabbing Profile
Social media is a crowded space, so your voice needs to be spot on to attract your audience and give them something to connect to. Whenever you’re posting online, make sure that you’re using your creativity to the best of your advantage for digital branding. Some examples include having a unique caption beneath the name of your brand. For example, you could include a description of your brand in an interesting way, like “Web design that makes you pause and makes it difficult to move on.” Many brands make the mistake of not including anything apart from the name of their brand. Here are a few points to remember:
- Keep a consistent brand image across all channels
Your brand’s meaning shouldn’t be unclear to a customer. Whether it’s Facebook or Instagram, the brand perception that your customers construct of your company should be constant. Achieving consistency for digital branding is simple. It can be done in ways like choosing a particular color scheme. Being consistent gives your brand identity of its own. - Seek inspiration from big brands
Take some ideas from the companies that have stand-out brands on social media. Notice their unique tactics and the different elements they focus on to make their social posts stand out from the crowd. - Using hashtags to promote yourself
When it comes to digital branding, hashtags are a crucial tool for communicating with your audience. Since these hashtags are the most trending ones on social media platforms, they will give your posts more visibility and help with digital branding.
5- Understand the Algorithms to Increase Brand Impressions
One frustrating aspect of social media management is the platform-specific, ever-changing algorithm. Be proactive and learn about how the algorithms work so that you can strive to increase the number of organic brand impressions. To take it one step further and keep up with the most recent news. This will allow you to keep track of when trends or algorithmic changes occur. Here are our favorites:
Buffer
Sprout Social
Hootsuite
Social Media Examiner
Social Media Today
You can also check these five straightforward steps to improving your social media branding:
Don’t forget to use the resources available to you to get around algorithm challenges. Most social media platforms and scheduling tools have similar insights you can use to make sure your brand is reaching your audience when they’re most active.
Social Media branding can feel overwhelming, but now you know the main ways through which your brand can be noticed online, you can start implementing them today and have a flawless digital branding strategy in place. Have you tried some of these digital branding strategies in the past? Let us know!
