The Importance of Social Media for Branding Purposes

Standing out can sometimes be a challenge, but it’s essential for each business to have its own image — hence the purpose of branding. And in the era of constant connectivity, there’s no greater tool than social media to help establish why your business is relevant, important and unique.

The only problem is figuring out how you need to use it (as well as how you shouldn’t use it). Start by considering what sort of public image you want to project to your customers and potential customers. Then it’s a matter of engaging with them to keep them interested in what you have to offer.

What is the Purpose of Branding?

You might have heard the word “branding” used in the business world a lot, but what does it really mean?

Your brand is the identity of your business. It’s how people recognize you. In some cases, it’s simple marketing tactics like a logo and a slogan — how many people will recognize Nike simply by its swoosh logo and its slogan “Just Do It”? Don’t think that branding is just for large corporations. It’s important for businesses of every size, all the way down to mom-and-pop shops.

A brand is also about what products you have to offer, what lifestyle you cater to, or what mission you want to achieve. A brand is about culture. When you picture your products or services being used, what sort of culture is it a part of?

All of these elements will set you apart from your competition and make you memorable in the eye of the consumer. Smart businesses understand what makes them different from others and why their customers gravitate toward them. Then they build their marketing strategies around those concepts.

How Does Social Media Help with Branding?

Social media is important for branding because it’s all about presentation and communication. But the full picture is much more complicated, as there is a right way and a wrong way depending on your brand.

Most importantly, remember that social media is not about shameless plugs. Sure, your ultimate goal with social media — as with any marketing — is to sell your products and services. But if your Facebook posts are constantly saying, “Buy this,” or telling people, “Pay for that,” your followers are going to get very tired of you really quickly. You will also fail to give people an understanding of your brand.

Think of social media as a way of making your followers feel as if they are a part of your business culture. To do this, start by considering all components that people associate with your brand: Do you have a designated spokesperson or mascot? If you have a recurring character who represents your brand, people will start to recognize them.

How about colors, images or a certain aesthetic? Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram tend to be based on imagery and having a consistent look to your images will let people know what sort of culture is associated with your business.

When considering what makes your brand, we encourage you to consider your core values. Your core values will often set you apart from competitors.  Knowing this and using it when posting and commenting is an important part of your social media strategy.

Social media becomes even more powerful when you use it to monitor what your competitors are doing and what your followers want. If you follow others in your industry, you can keep tabs on what they’re doing that you’re not, what seems to excite their followers, and what sort of values they promote. Don’t copy what they’re doing (after all, the purpose of branding is to establish what makes you unique) but take inspiration and motivation.

When you’re trying to determine who your followers (i.e. customers) are, social media can offer some perspective. Tools such as Facebook Insights will let you know what percentage of your followers are male or female, what age they are, what city they live in and so forth. You will also see what they care about by how they engage with your posts with likes and comments.

Because social media is, well, social, your goal should be to interact with your followers. Ask questions. Answer questions. Generate conversation. All of this will help your followers feel as if they know you, thus inspiring brand loyalty.

So How Do I Start?

Determine what social media platform works best for what you do. 

Each one of your social media accounts should reflect your brand, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to use all social media platforms equally. Some platforms won’t be the right fit for you.

If you’re a fashion retailer, you will have a better opportunity showing what you do by posting photos to Instagram or Pinterest than by tweeting about them. However, you can still use Twitter to share occasional updates on sales and specials. Similarly, if you’re a financial adviser, you won’t have as much visual content to share on Instagram, but you could put out frequent blogs posts and newsletters via Twitter.

From the get-go, make sure your profile is complete on each platform and consistent across all of them so people recognize you. Have your logo as your profile picture, and be sure your cover photo reflects what you do, incorporating your color palette or aesthetics that are true to your brand. Fill out your bio so followers have a succinct idea of what you have to offer, and include any related handles or hashtags.

Be sure to decide what sort of voice you want your posts to have. 

In many cases, social media warrants a casual and personable tone. However, this might not be appropriate for all industries. Healthcare, finance, education and fashion will all have a very different personality to their social media presence.

For an example, think of the fast food chains that have garnered a reputation for having playful, tongue-in-cheek Twitter personalities that offer gentle jabs at the people who engage with them. People find this amusing, are more inclined to follow, and remember the brand when it’s time to eat. However, this sort of tone wouldn’t be appropriate for, say, an early childhood development center.

If multiple people are using your account, try to create a style guide for social media use so contributors know how you’re presenting yourself. If you’re a restaurant, maybe you want to refer to your patrons as “guests” instead of “customers” to make people feel more taken care of. If you’re a financial adviser, you might want to avoid fragmented sentences or slang because these feel casual and conversational when you actually want to sound more formal.

Don’t be in a rush to build your following too quickly. 

Follow sprees on platforms like Instagram and Twitter can end up garnering you followers who are not really interested in what you have to offer. Instead, you should build your following organically by engaging with people, appealing to your ideal customer and showing them what they have to offer.

It’s also important to provide consistent, regular content, and be diligent about watching your page. If people comment, reply to them. If people ask a question, try to answer it if you can. It’s a way of showing them your business really cares about its customers.

If you need help establishing your brand identity and getting it out there to followers, Ann’s Social Media & Marketing can help. Email ann@annmarkets.com today to get started.