When you hear the word “Nike”, what comes to your mind? For me, it’s sports. For you, it may be shoes. For others, it may mean winter wear, kits, and inclusivity.
That’s the power of branding.
In this article, I’d be sharing social media branding tips to help you build your brand on social media, reach your target customers, build a community and create a
Branding is more than just your business logo or symbol. It is the perception that your customers have of your brand or business. It is a collection of those strategies that sets you apart from your competitors.
If you have a brand logo, it increases your brand’s recognizability. If you have a colour palette, it increases your brand’s consistency. If you have a brand font, it increases your brand’s cohesiveness. If you have a brand logo, colour palette and font, it increases your brand’s recognizability, consistency and cohesiveness.
Why do you need to build your brand on social media?
Building your brand on social media can help you reach your target audience. People spend loads of time on social media, your target audience inclusive. You can have the best service to offer, but without your target audience knowing about you, you won’t be making any sales.
Social media provides a direct channel for you to engage with your customers. With this interactive channel, you can listen to feedback and build a good relationship brand-customer relationship.
Conducting market research is made easy with social media. You can gather insights into your audience’s interests, behaviours and preferences.
Best Social Media Branding Tips
1. Create Your Brand Identity
First social media branding tip- Think of your brand as a person. What characteristics, emotions, and traits would best describe it? Is your brand playful, professional, serious, or casual? Defining your brand’s personality helps you maintain consistency in your messaging and interactions.
Start by identifying the core purpose and values of your brand. What do you stand for? What are your principles and beliefs? Your brand’s values should align with the interests and beliefs of your target audience. If you can provide answers to what you stand for, your principles and beliefs, you are definitely on the right path to creating a consistent brand identity.
Create a concise and compelling mission statement that encapsulates your brand’s purpose and the problem it aims to solve.
2. Choose the Right Platforms for your brand
When it comes to social media marketing, we can agree that there are loads of social media platforms to choose from. Choosing the right social media platforms for your brand is a critical decision that can significantly impact your online presence and marketing effectiveness.
To do this, you have to leverage the platforms that align with your brand’s target audience, content type, and marketing goals. Each social media platform caters to specific demographics and user behaviours, making it essential to make informed choices.
For instance, if your target audience is more visually oriented, platforms like Instagram or Pinterest may be more suitable. On the other hand, if your brand offers B2B services, LinkedIn could be a better fit.
By understanding your audience and the pros and cons of each platform, you can optimize your resources and efforts to engage with the right people and tailor your content to their preferences, ultimately driving better brand recognition and engagement.
Note: You do not have to be on every platform; it’s better to excel on a few platforms that align with your brand’s goals rather than spreading yourself too thin across all social media channels.
3. Create Compelling Content
Knowing how to create quality content for your social media channels is essential for engaging your audience, building brand loyalty, and achieving your marketing objectives.
Your content should be informative, entertaining, and valuable to your target audience. It should align with your brand identity, message, and values. To ensure your content is of high quality, consider the following factors:
Understand your audience’s preferences and needs. Tailor your content to address their pain points and interests, keeping in mind the specific demographics, behaviours, and preferences of your followers.
Use various content formats such as well-written articles, eye-catching images, engaging videos, and informative infographics to cater to different types of content consumers.
4. Leverage the Use of Hashtags
Quick exercise: Head over to any social media of your choice and search for #socialmediamarketing. You’d realise that various post comes up with the hashtag you search.
Using hashtags wisely on social media is essential to increase the discoverability of your content and engage with a broader audience. Hashtags serve as a way to categorize and organize content, allowing users to find posts related to their interests.
Research relevant and trending hashtags within your niche or industry. Tools like Hashtagify or trends on social media platforms can help you identify popular hashtags.
Choose a mix of broad and specific hashtags. Broad ones like #Marketing or #Travel can reach a wide audience, while specific ones like #DigitalMarketingTips or #Holidaytouristcenter can target a particular segment.
Create your own branded hashtags. These are unique to your brand and can help foster a community of loyal followers. Encourage your audience to use them in their posts.
Consider the readability of your captions. Long, cluttered captions with too many hashtags can put your audience off. Place your hashtags strategically within or at the end of the caption to maintain a clean and organized appearance.
5. Learn from your Competitors
Learning from competitors on social media can be a valuable strategy for improving your own brand’s performance and staying competitive in the digital landscape. Here’s how you can effectively learn from your competitors:
Start by identifying who your main competitors are in the social media space. Look at brands and individuals in your industry or niche who are performing well. Analyse their strategies, content, and audience engagement.
Examine the type of content your competitors are sharing. Are they using videos, images, or blog posts? What topics are they covering, and how are they presenting the information? Look for trends in their content strategies and identify what resonates with their audience.
Investigate the hashtags and keywords your competitors are using. Are there any trends or recurring themes that are working well for them?
Don’t just focus on your competitors’ successes; also learn from their mistakes. Identify instances where their social media strategies may have fallen short, and avoid making similar errors.
Use what you learn as inspiration, but always strive to stand out in your own way.
6. Monitor Trends
Monitoring trends on social media is a crucial aspect of staying relevant and competitive in the digital landscape. It involves keeping a close eye on the latest developments, shifts in user behaviour, and emerging trends within your industry or niche. To effectively monitor trends for your brand, consider the following strategies:
There are various tools and platforms that can help you track trending topics and keywords on social media. Tools like Google Trends, Twitter Trends, and social media listening platforms can provide insights into what’s currently capturing people’s attention.
Actively engage in social listening, which involves monitoring conversations and mentions related to your brand and industry. Social listening tools can help you track what people are saying about your brand and the broader industry landscape.
Utilize the analytics provided by social media platforms to identify trends in engagement, reach, and user behaviour. Pay attention to metrics such as the performance of specific content types, hashtags, and posting times.
Once you’ve identified relevant trends, consider participating in discussions, sharing content, or creating posts that align with those trends. This can help increase your brand’s visibility and relevance.
Social media platforms are constantly introducing new features and content formats. Experiment with these formats, such as Stories, live streaming, or short videos, to see what resonates with your audience and aligns with current trends.
Summary
While there are loads of social media branding tips out there, these are just a few to get you started to building your brand on social media.
Building your brand on social media can help you reach your target audience and more. This enables your brand to generate more reach and create awareness of what you do as a business or service.
