Social media is the new ‘yellow pages’. Customers get information on brands and their products and services on social media platforms. For a small business, building your brand through social media can propel you from local to global.
Social media marketing (SMM) is the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter). The platforms are used to engage with customers, build brands, increase sales and drive website traffic.
So, what exactly is social media branding? Social media branding means using social media to show your brand’s identity, values, mission, and messages to people.
Let’s explore how you can use social media to build or increase your brand.
1. Build a Brand through Social Media by Choosing the Right Platform
There is an abundance of social media platforms. Facebook is the most used platform with 2,9 billion monthly active users. The platform is the best to use for branding because of its wide audience reach.
More than 200 million businesses use Facebook and its free tools to promote themselves. Of course, there are other platforms to consider such as TikTok. Choosing the right platform(s) means knowing your audience and what message you want to convey.
Each platform has criteria that it uses to decide which content to push. For example, Facebook prioritises engaging content that sparks conversations.
2. Build a Brand Identity through Social Media
There are 5,07 billion social media users in the world. So, you must build a social media brand that is strong and unique. Start by recognising your audience and creating messaging and content that aligns with them.
The first step is to recognise your audience and create messaging and content that aligns with them. Understand the audience demographic, and interests.
When building a brand identity, you need to tailor every message for the different platforms. For example, TikTok is a video-based platform so more suited for video content. On X (Twitter), it is better to use written content with images.
You must also find the right tone for your messaging. Recognise how you want your brand to come across. Is it friendly? Thought-provoking? Or more professional? You also need to develop brand elements such as colours, logo and design to increase your visibility.
Once you recognise how you want to come across, you will be able to tailor your messaging for your audience and your platforms. Ensure you are adding your tone of voice to content, and comments on social media.
For example, check out how NandosSA’s X (Twitter) account. The brand is known for interacting with the audience on social media and adjusting its content to match current trending topics and events.
3. Create a Content Strategy
Once you have figured out what your ‘voice’ and audience interests are, you can craft a comprehensive social media plan. In this plan, you will outline where you will post, how you will post, and when you will post.
The content strategy also helps you strategise your content format for each platform. Content formats are things like blogs, case studies, customer reviews, podcasts and your social media posts.
Switching from format to format can help you keep things fresh for your audience. However, be careful of switching around too much otherwise you might overwhelm your audience.
4. Monitor and Adjust to Build a Brand through Social Media
It is important to monitor and adjust your content consistently. This is important for your content strategy because it helps you create content that connects with your audience’s preferences.
Take notice of things like what type of posts get more engagement and comments. By constantly monitoring your social media progress, it helps you build content that works best for your brand.
These are just some of the things you need to focus on to build your brand through social media.
Here are a few tips to take your social media branding to the next level!
Stay Up to Date with Trends
To ensure your social media branding is strong, it’s important to stay afloat with trends. You have to understand the changes to the algorithms of each platform. For example, on X you are more likely to be visible if you have a large following.
Also, ensure you are up to date on developments regarding how each platform works. If you are using a newer platform, it’s important to know what features they will be adding etc.
Trends will also help you see how people are using social media. These insights could be related to interactions and how businesses come across on social media.
Be Unique
Social media platforms are congested. There are millions of businesses similar to yours so you need to stand out. By creating content that is unique and tells a story you will gain the attention of the public.
Try to focus on content that speaks about your business. This could be videos detailing how you started, or content around your employees.
Use Customer Content
If a product or service is great, customers will be likely to post about it on social media. This is called user-generated content (UGC). These testimonials can play a role in building your brand on social media and help you attract more customers.
Be Engaging
To build a successful brand through social media, you have to be engaging. When a customer enquiries about your products or services, you must answer them promptly. This helps build brand identity and customer loyalty.
You can also engage with customers by using your account to comment on current events or where relevant. Start by interacting with your customers and build from there to increase brand awareness.
Be Authentic and Human
These days it’s all about being authentic. With artificial intelligence (AI) growing, people are looking for more human-based content. Humanising your brand helps your customers make a more authentic connection with your business.
Building a brand through social media is part of your overall marketing strategy. It goes beyond just posting, it’s also about monitoring, improving and engaging.
Leverage social media to create a brand that reaches millions of people around the world.
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