Social Media Branding: Key Steps (Part II) - Birute Birgelyte

Social media are an essential medium for establishing a connection between brands and consumers. Many marketers recognize the importance of social media in building brand trust. It is estimated that there are at least 3.8 billion social media users worldwide. Having that in mind, creating a strong brand presence is a must for any company aiming to reach a broader audience and increase its sales. Although social media branding might seem overwhelming, having a clear plan of action can help achieve desired results. Here is the second part of the list of key social media branding steps posted last week:

Read Social Media Branding: Key Steps (Part I).

Step 6: Create share-worthy content. To promote your brand effectively on social media, you need to establish your position as a go-to source for appealing content in your industry. Attractive content determines brand success on social media: it should inspire users to click, engage and share the content they like within their social circles. The better content you create, the more attention you will get on social media, and the better you will establish your position in your target market.

Step 7: Have a consistent brand identity. One of the most common social media branding mistakes is having disconnected channels. Some social channels are actively used, while others are used too rarely. As a result, the channels do not strengthen each other’s impact, which in turn weakens the brand. To avoid this situation, you need to offer something slightly different on each of your channels. However, having distinct content does not mean that you cannot reuse it. You can do that, but still you need to change your content in some way. For example, you can create a GIF from a motion graphic and share it on another social media platform.

Step 8: Monitor your social media branding strategy. Social media branding is time-consuming: some social media marketers spend countless hours on establishing their digital presence. To achieve desired results, you need to know precisely how effective your work is. You need to monitor the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, the regularity of user responses, follower numbers, user reactions to posts, to name a few. You also need to keep track of keywords and hashtags that are trending in your industry. All of that will help ensure that your branding efforts will be adjusted to customer needs and the market situation.

Step 9: Be honest and transparent. It has been observed that honesty and transparency make brands more likeable. To achieve that, you need to let your customers get to know your brand and the people behind it. Try to humanize your brand by explaining how your company turns ideas into products or services, or what your employees do in their free time. To build transparency, share videos and images which show your brand from the perspective of its creators. Another option is to share behind-the-scenes content that is not too polished, which enables more authentic interaction with your brand, and thus strengthens your brand appeal.

Step 10: Make a call to action. Just like any marketing communications, social media marketing is more effective if it has a clear brand message and a call to action. For example, time-limited offers addressing the needs of a target audience or endorsements of causes that a target audience cares about are beneficial to brands. It is also important to take notice of differences of commercial intent on different social media platforms. For instance, you need to be aware that TikTok users seek entertainment, not being advertised to, or that Pinterest users may be actively searching for products so Pinterest is a good place for product promotion.