By Uwe Dreissigacker
Developing a strong brand for your business is crucial for its success. A well-developed brand not only speaks of the product or a good you provide, but of the overall business culture and the commitment you have to your consumer.
Social media is a great platform to use when wanting to create business exposure and begin molding a brand name for yourself. These outlets have an immense reach and can bring much needed consumer attention to you.
Now you may be asking how do you best utilize social media to help kickstart your branding? Well, I have listed the steps you should take to make your social media engagement a positive experience for you and your audience. Of course at the same time will also help create exposure and brand awareness.
1. Use Visual Branding
When trying to cultivate a brand for yourself, visuals and logos are one of the most important things. You may need to spend considerable amount of time developing a proper visual representation of your brand – the logo. Having great visuals representing your business is one of the key elements in establishing a brand for yourself. A small image you create will echo through the halls of all of the things your company stands for and represents.
Once you have settled on a proper logo design and color schemes, the motif needs to carry throughout all your social media outlets. Consistency comes into play when wanting to build a strong brand name for yourself. If the audience goes to one social media page, and to your website, they should always be greeted by the same logo. Avoid confusion and start creating logo association with your brand.
2. Develop and Stick with Your Voice
The personality of you and your brand should be reflected in the voice you choose to write with. Especially if you decide on writing lots of content and publishing it through social media, you need to hone in on the voice that will carry through again and again. You need to be aware of how your audience will react to the voice you have chosen. If you know what type of person you are trying to attract, you will have to tailor the tone of your writing accordingly.
It may take you some time to settle into a voice that works for you and reflects your business well. Don’t rush. Analyze user engagement with your social media content and see how well you perform. As time goes on, you may want to make slight adjustments accordingly.
3. Stick with Topic Consistency
Social media and branding should always be about consistency, and of course, the topics you choose are no different. When picking content topics and posts for your blogs or social media platforms, you should always go for the ones that compliment your theme and overall business message.
Let’s say you have a landscaping business, and you use social media to market your services. If you begin posting topics and links to videos about space travel or cooking, you will quickly begin losing the attention of your audience.
If you create content for social media, stick to relevant topics that correlate with your business and can relate back to you. The audience that you are trying to reach will be on your social media for a reason. Veering off topic too much will not only create confusion but also weaken your long term branding efforts.
4. Interact with Your Audience
Avoid being quiet and watching your social media platforms from the sidelines. Sure you can post content and share relevant information, but you need to get personal with your audience, too. Don’t just sit idly by focusing on content creation and re-sharing articles. Dedicate time to getting in touch with your consumer base. You need to always remember that staying in constant contact with the consumer is one of the best ways to build your reputation and positive brand perception.
Social media platforms give you an easy outlet for personal communication. You need to use this to your advantage as much as you can. People like dealing with companies that they can easily reach out to. It builds positive rapport that will go a long way. Use social media automation tools whenever you either want to re-share your old existing content or when you can’t personally be active due to different time zones or too much workload.
5. Bring Influencers Onboard
Building up a solid following on social media can be a time intensive endeavor, at least in the very beginning. If you are just starting your social media marketing, influencers may be something you might want to look into. Well-established influencers with a social media following can give you a major branding boost. If you find the right influencers that match up well with your business, they can help generate much needed exposure for you and your business.
Going down this route will save you considerable amount of resources. Who knows, maybe you can also foster a great relationship with your influencers and continue to collaborate on future marketing campaigns.
