Brand aid: Tips for company branding via social media

If you’re trying to establish a recognizable brand for your business, strategic use of social media can be a good way to go about it.

That’s especially true for small businesses with modest marketing budgets. Your social media branding campaign can be simple or extravagant depending on the extent of your resources, but either way, your posts should be crafted in ways that adhere to your guidelines about how you wish to be perceived by customers. How does that pay off? Among many other advantages, 71 percent of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others.

Assuming your primary goal is to achieve greater brand recognition, you might consider the following suggestions when tackling social media posts.

— Maintain a clear idea of what you want your brand to represent. On what features do you hope to capitalize? How will you differentiate yourself from competitors? Based on your product and target market, do you want your company identity to be sophisticated, fun, casual, or formal? At a minimum, choose a few keywords to guide your thoughts when crafting social media copy and choosing visuals.

— Keep those words in mind as you write your copy and select imagery, and eliminate any language or images that just don’t fit. When in doubt, aim for a likable, conversational tone and well-edited content that offers some value to viewers.  Social media post possibilities include tutorials; recommendations; reports on industry trends; overviews of company functions; commentary on current events; FAQs; profiles of clients or employees; surveys; contests; previews of coming events; descriptions/photos of new products; inspiring quotes; blogs; polls; news articles or humor. Visuals may include photos, illustrations, infographics or videos. As a rule of thumb, a third of your posts should build your brand via personal posts and responses, a third promote your business and a third provide visitors useful information or opinions related to your industry.

— Be consistent. The success of a branding campaign depends largely on your audience’s ability to recognize and respond to what you stand for. But do avoid boring your followers with overly repetitive posts.

— Be original. Instead of copying what bigger brands are doing, post info that can’t be found elsewhere and capitalize on your freedom to be unique and unencumbered by corporate regulations.

— Humanize your business, aiming to elicit emotion from the viewer when it makes sense. “When brands post content that makes people feel something, they’re more likely to want to pass that feeling along to their family and friends,” notes Michelle Krasniak on Social Media Examiner.

— Avoid wasting viewers’ time by avoiding the temptation to be overly wordy and providing links for those seeking additional info.

— Install widgets inviting readers to instantly share your content.
Keep in mind your audience is likely 18 to 34, the age group most likely to follow a brand via social networking.

— Facebook is the best social media venue for positioning a brand, says Statista research, though Instagram and Twitter are also effective when it comes to influencer marketing.

— A report earlier this year asked social media users what social media strategies make them more likely to buy; 48 percent appreciate vendor responsiveness, 46 percent point to promotions; 42 percent want educational content; 38 percent want interesting visuals; 36 percent want humor and 35 percent want exclusive content. If you wish to build reader trust in your brand, you must be prepared to respond to followers who list questions and concerns on your social media sites.

— The same report found 79 percent of millennials and 84 percent of other generations like it when company personality is reflected on Facebook; 51 percent of millennials and 35 percent of other generations said the same of Twitter.

Structuring and maintaining a branding campaign via social media definitely requires some time and planning, but need not be complicated if you think it through beforehand.

Custom Toll Free can show you how to use memorable numbers to optimize the impact of your social media campaign. Call us for more info at 1-800-Customize.