Evolution is inevitable. Social Media & branding has too evolved from a place for connecting to your childhood friends, to the goldmine it is for advertisers today. Though the myriad of opportunities is present, brands often fail to get their branding right. This is due to the ever-changing “Almighty Algorithm” of platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Brands will try using every trick they know just to get that loyal base of followers, with a steady engagement rate. More often than not, these campaigns don’t work on the scale you want them to.
Well, then our competition must be doing something differently, that’s for sure. True. Most of the bigger brands on social media have a few things in common. Let’s dive into what Branding Strategies they are.
The fundamentals when it comes to branding on social media include a consistent logo, bio, cover image, handle, and so on. The key is consistency across all platforms, it makes the process of a user locating and identifying with your brand effortless. Moreover, it sets a tone and voice for the entire being of your brand.
As a brand on social media, your job is to gather as many eyeballs as you can. Fortunately, humans are visual creatures and always have been. Aesthetic images and symmetry make our minds release that sweet dopamine. Post pictures and maintain your feed to demonstrate how much your brand values aesthetics. Ensure that you have a consistent style of colors and fonts reflected in your images, videos, and blog posts.
Creating good content doesn’t have to be a one-way street. Encourage your audience to post more photos or videos and tag you in them. By doing this, you directly increase your brand’s visibility. This also ensures more content without you having to actively create it. If that wasn’t enough, you’ll be able to build a loyal community who are genuinely interested in your brand.
Analyze the social media accounts of your competitors, and you can definitely learn a thing or two. A competitive analysis lets you understand what the competition is doing well (and not so well). Learning from your peers’ mistakes is always a good strategy. Track what the competition is sharing, the keywords that keep popping up, and what the audience thinks about them.
Irregular posting can immensely damage your brand, as social media branding revolves around your audience remembering and caring about you. Your posting frequency may depend upon your audience’s engagement and activity. Trial and error is the best course to find what your audience likes. However, an efficient posting schedule retains user attention while earning more followers.
If your organic engagement rates are low, then creating or joining groups and communities may be the best step. This’ll help generate buzz around your brand. This way you can reach users who are genuinely interested in your industry.
For instance, a sneaker company may create and moderate a group about sneaker designs, which is going to be filled with sneakerheads. This not only maintains the hype for the sneaker industry but also promotes the brand.
The most successful brands on social media have been patient and consistent, to say the very least. Increasing the awareness of your brand is a common goal. Actually executing the strategies is the difficult part. Besides, branding is not limited to logos anymore. It’s about the tone, the aesthetics, and most importantly about the target audience. As your brand grows on social media, you can measure the impact of a consistent tone, and shareable voice through your engagements, mentions, and share.
Most brands use techniques like surveys to learn about their brand’s relevance and learn what audience they are effectively reaching.
Most importantly, Have patience
Creating successful branding strategies is one of the hardest things to do. Elbow-grease aside, it’s mostly experimentation. Keep your cool and do not let the daily tasks like replying to comments and scheduling posts stray you from what you ultimately want your brand to look like.
