Social media have a tremendous impact on business exposure and growth. 90% of marketers agree that marketing through social media platforms has increased their business exposure. 73% of marketers believe that social media have been “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business. 71% of consumers who have had a positive brand experience on social media are likely to recommend the brand within their social circles. These figures highlight the importance of having an effective branding strategy on social media. Here are some key steps to achieve that:
Step 1: Create your marketing personas. To resonate with audiences that use different social media platforms, you need to differentiate your marketing personas. If you use the same content across different platforms, you will not resonate well. To start with, map your customers with appropriate social media networks. For example, target millennials on Twitter and small business owners on Instagram. Once you have established your marketing personas per network, you can narrow down your content ideas or even adjust your brand voice.
Step 2: Develop a content strategy for each social media platform. Since every platform is different, you need to create different content for each platform. That does not mean that you cannot reuse the same content on different platforms. However, you need to adjust it. You also should remember that people engage more with visual content than text so you should try to create more visual content. Having a separate content strategy for each social media platform will help you better appeal to a diverse audience.
Step 3: Establish your brand voice. Popular social media accounts have distinct voices. Some accounts provide encouraging and motivational content, while others present content with humour and wit. To begin with, study how popular accounts communicate their messages to understand how to better reach your target audience. That will help you find your brand style and a distinct personality and reflect them in your content. You can also start with saving content that reflects the brand voice that you would like to have. The next step is to rewrite the chosen examples in the context of your own business activity.
Step 4: Engage with your followers. That will help you better understand what they want and create a sense of community. To achieve that, you need to always respond to your followers whenever they share your post or comment on it. If they have any questions, answer them. By doing so, you will show that you are truly listening to them. Also be prepared to address negative comments or concerns. You can also engage your followers by using trendy hashtags that they can repost. By actively interacting with them, you can encourage them to come back.
Step 5: Use the right hashtags. To better reach your target audience, you need to focus on using appropriate hashtags. To increase the reach of your content, first you need to research your hashtags well. You should not overload your post with hashtags but only use those that your audience is likely to search for. Also remember to monitor the search volumes of the hashtags that you use. If the search volume reaches millions, that means high competition, which is not beneficial to you. Try to find hashtags that provide more visibility and engagement for your brand, and use them more often, but remember not to overdo.
Read Social Media Branding: Key Steps (Part II).
References: Danielle Toledo, groovecommerce.com | Jenn Chen, sproutsocial.com | Chitra Bisht, makewebbetter.com | socialfresh.com | grin.co