There are millions of brands in the world competing for the same audience on the different social media platforms. These brands vary from big multi-national companies to one-man businesses. Your brand definitely falls somewhere in between but the competition is stiff and with each passing day more brands are created making it more difficult for your brand to stand out from this sea of brands.
The questions that will arise next are what are you going to do? How will you create a brand with a unique image on social media? What do you need for your social media branding to be successful?
To help you answer these questions, this article discusses 7 tips to help your brand stand out on social media.
Know your brand’s core values, vision, and mission
An important part of brand building is having a number of brand core values, vision and mission statements. Then you build your brand around these values. It becomes much easier to choose the right strategy to market your brand when you know these major elements and are working around them.
Your mission statement is usually the path you take to achieve the vision of the brand. It is usually something simple most of the time but it explains who you are and what you do. Your vision statement is what you want to achieve. It focuses on how you want to build the brand and those things you want the brand to become or achieve in the future. While your core values are what you believe in that is driving your actions. These are the rules that you play by in other to achieve your vision and mission.
Once you have these basic elements thought out, it is easy for the employees to unite to achieve that goal which defines the brand.
Build a tone and voice for your brand
These are often overlooked, but really, the voice and tone that you use to pass your message on social media is something that will make your brand easily recognizable by prospects that see your posts regularly. You must ensure that your voice corresponds to the vision and mission statements of your brand. And you must be consistent at using the same voice.
Stephanie Schwab, in one essay service, provided a four-fold formula to help you find the right voice for your brand. The formula is based on your brand character, tone, language and purpose.
- Character: what would your brans be like if it were a person?
- Tone: what’s your brand’s general vibe like?
- Language: what are the words that you use in your social media conversation?
- Purpose: what is your intention for joining social media?
It’s also a good idea for you to have a social media guide for your brand. This guide will be the reference for anybody who’s speaking on social media on the company’s behalf.
Be unique
You cannot expect to stand out from the crowd if you are no different from the crowd. You cannot beat your competitor if you are trying to copy what they are doing. For one, copying them means they are ahead of you. In any case, you should not try to copy your competitors. You might offer very similar services and products but you are different brands, and you definitely do not have the same vision, mission and core statement.
Remember that your market strategies should be based on your brand’s core values, vision and mission and your voice should follow the same pattern. So, it really does not make sense to copy a brand when you have different ideas.
Be consistent
Consistency is key to success in any field. Building your brand will definitely not happen overnight. It will take a while and will require hard work, dedication, sacrifice and time. But consistently remaining on that path while it is hard is key to success.
Your brand should also be known for one thing. It is easier to recognize your brand when it is known for something, not when you are hopping and jumping into anything and everything.
You must also be consistent at communicating the same message from your brand over different aspects such as website and online adverts, sales and customer service, social media and content marketing, print, signage, and packaging. Once you keep your message consistent for so long, you’ll be building a brand with huge credibility.
The basis for building a strong brand has been established but you also have to know that not all social media platforms are right for your brand. So, as a brand, you must be able to identify which social media platform is right for you.
For instance, if your brand is a software brand, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook will be more ideal for your brand. But if you are in a visually-driven industry, the ideal social media platforms for you are Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest.
If you are not sure which of these platforms is more ideal for your brand, then carry out research on your common competitors on the different social media platforms. Check how many engagements they have. If their engagement is huge, then the platform might be the right one for your brand as well.
Build engagement with your audience
It is important that you do not just join social media to seek followers. It is up to you to actually build strong engagement and interaction with other people on social media. This will go a long way in boosting your brand reputation and popularity on the network.
Whenever it seems like your effort to build engagement with your audience is not enough, there are certain things that you can do to help boost your engagement, such as;
- Start a social media conversation with your target audience.
- Be involved in the current trends, discussions, and hashtags and relate them to your brand.
- Listen to your target audience.
- Promote the enthusiasts of your brand.
- Equip your team to handle different messages from social media platforms.
Connect with industry influencers
Reaching out to social media influencers and building a connection with them is one of the fastest ways to promote your brand on social media. This is because these influencers already have a large and loyal following and have earned the respect and trust of their followers overtime.
So, connecting with them, especially those in the same niche or industry as your brand, is an effective way to reach out to your target audience and get your message across without hassles. These influencers are also able to promote your brand among their followers and you can trust their loyal followers to reach out to you.
You should, however, note that a good influencer possesses more than just a large number of followers. They are also authentic and active and possess leadership characteristics. They are also experts in their field (preferably your niche) and are very engaging with their followers.
Conclusion
Transforming a small brand into a big player in the industry requires a lot to achieve and one of those is social media branding. Once your social media brand is successful, your brand will have more credibility and customers will trust your brand more.
It is important to then continue to maintain our brand reputation in line with your core values. Building a successful brand on social media might take a while, however, but with a clear goal in mind and consistency in pursuing it, you will definitely succeed.
Author’s Bio
Jane Evans is a blogger and writer, providing essay writing service, from York. She loves to travel and meet new people. She is interested in literature, modern art, computer games, and new technologies. Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.