5 Smart Strategies for Social Media Branding
There’s no denying that social media is one of the most powerful tools for getting your brand out into the world. These platforms give us the opportunity to publish incredible content, make connections, and so much more.
And when you’ve taken things a step further by using social media branding tactics, you can effectively stand out from the crowd. After all, that’s pretty important when you consider there are tons of people on social media and tricky algorithms making it more difficult to get your content noticed.
But what’s the deal with social media branding? In this article, you’ll learn why it’s so important to effectively brand yourself on social media. Plus, there are a few branding strategies you can implement.
Why Branding on Social Media is Crucial
We know it’s important to develop a social media strategy. It helps us choose the right platforms to use, while also ensuring we’re publishing content that serves a purpose. However, our strategies need to include more than just a content calendar. It also needs to cover how we’re going to show up as a brand on social media. Here’s why:
- It makes you more recognizable. Have you ever seen a post on social media and immediately known who shared it without looking at their social media handle? That’s because this person has created a consistent look and feel for their posts, ensuring they’re easily recognizable when scrolling. It’s a great way to grab attention since people take notice of their favorite creators.
- It’ll differentiate you from competitors. It’s more important than ever to find ways to stand out. The last thing you want is to blend in and get lost in the crowd, especially in a saturated market. A strong brand that appeals to your target audience is going to attract all the right people your way.
- And it boosts credibility. When you have an established brand, people will view you as an expert in your field. They’ll see you as a reliable, trustworthy source of information. When they know they can count on you, they’ll be more inclined to consume your content and purchase your products and services.
5 Smart Strategies for Social Media Branding
To help you create strong social media branding, here are five strategies to implement:
1. Know Your Brand Identity
Your brand’s identity is the secret sauce that’s going to set you apart from your competitors. It’s what’s going to encourage someone to do business with you instead of them. And to determine your brand’s identity, you need to know what you’re all about.
What’s your brand’s mission, what are your values, and what kind of personality do you want your brand to have? You even want to consider what makes you unique so you can stand out. All of this can be communicated through the content you share on social media.
2. Create Consistency Across All Channels
Odds are, you’re using quite a few different social media platforms as part of your online presence. But is there a consistent look and feel across all of your profiles? If not, there should be and luckily, this is a pretty easy fix.
First and foremost, it’s best to have the same social media handle everywhere. Sometimes this isn’t possible, but if it is, make it happen. This way, you don’t have to worry about it being difficult for someone to find you. Nor will they accidentally tag the wrong account.
You’ll also want to use the same profile image on all platforms so it’ll be easy for people to recognize you. You can even repurpose your bio if you’d like! Other than that, consider the content you’re sharing and make sure your brand imagery (colors, fonts, etc) and voice are consistent everywhere so it doesn’t create any confusion for your followers. Conducting an audit of your accounts will help with this!
3. Develop a Marketing Persona
An important element of social media branding is knowing who your content is for. And the best way to do that is to develop a marketing persona (or a buyer persona). Doing this prompts you to get clear on the demographics of your target audience, as well as their interests and pain points. Knowing this information means you can develop a brand presence that resonates with them on a much deeper level.
You can create imagery that will grab their attention. You’re able to write content that appeals to their needs. You’ll even tweak your brand voices according to who your target audience is. This is how you get someone to go from being a stranger to a follower and ultimately to a paying customer… You serve them in the best way you know how. And you simply can’t do that if you don’t know who you’re developing content and offerings for.
4. Create Shareable Content
If you’re not regularly putting amazing content out into the world, it’s going to be pretty tough to grow your social media presence. That’s why you want to take the last three strategies mentioned and use them to create shareable content that will resonate with your target audience. After all, a huge piece of the social media branding puzzle is showing up and being of service. And you do that through the content you share.
Publish social media content that will establish you as a go-to resource in your industry. Show off your expertise and position yourself as a thought leader. That’s going to magnetize people to your brand and encourage them to share and engage with your content.
5. Establish Relationships with Others
You can implement all of these social media branding tips, but if you’re not being social and establishing connections with people, you’re missing out. Social media is much more effective when you prioritize relationship-building because you never know when your networking might pay off. One conversation could help you discover a new friend or a paying customer.
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