Do you promote your business on social media?
Are you leveraging your brand potential to be seen online to attract attention with current and potential clients?
Marketing and selling are intense as ever, and it’s populating in social media. As a medium sized business, promoting yourself on social media is imperative. It garners interest in what you have to offer, and you can reach and target different groups efficiently in today’s ever-connected world. One thing for sure is that your competition is working their best to outshine you.
And the best way to market yourself on social media is through branding. Below, let’s look at the best ways to brand yourself — and some things to keep in mind.
The 2 Advantages an Effective Brand Offers
Branding done right offers two substantial advantages:
1. Brand Image. How is your brand viewed by your clients and by others at large? When they see or hear about your brand name, what sort of emotions arise? A great brand goes hand in hand with emotions such as trust and reliability.
2. Brand Awareness. Can people besides your clients recognise your brand? Can your current client base describe your brand? A great brand is one that’s instantly recognisable, everything from what you sell and what your specialities are will be better remembered.
And despite the advantages, medium sized companies hesitate in using social media to build their brand because of two main questions that linger in their thought.
“I know so little about social media… where do I even begin?”
Look at your business, and see where your target market lives. Determine which media platforms are best suited to reach your target customers. A catering service for business events would focus on networking using LinkedIn to search for businesses needing professional catering services, and showing off their menu selection on Pinterest.
“It’s a big investment isn’t it… Should I hire a professional media campaigner?
The short answer is no. Zetsy is a successful website that matches people with health professionals. Lloyd Price, COO and co-founder of Zetsy shares why you should take control early on.
In the early stages you are building trust and your online reputation so you want to be in control of the content, engagement and relationships being built across your social media channels.
As mentioned before, the two elements of what excellent brands accomplish are good areas to start on to build a brand that is memorable and impressive. Let’s revisit each and see what your business should be doing now for your brand.
Cranking up your brand awareness
Post to be familiar, not annoying. As you would expect, your business’ brand will be recognised the more you are visible. Posting content regularly is great for this, but one thing to be cautious about is to post too frequently that your quality suffers – this pushes away your followers.
Rule of thumb: See what works best for your audience. Post to keep your audience highly involved.
Imprint your name and logo to be remembered. From Twitter posts to images you upload, make sure your brand name and logo are visible.
What you post and any content you share should be linked to your logo and brand. Often, as a medium-sized company, you won’t be recognised online instantly. So frequently impress upon your viewers your brand name and logo to be remembered.
Share content that shares itself. Studies undertaken by eMarketer found that images have a higher likelihood of being shared.
Create content that is shareable by nature. Viewers that share your posts will help you promote your brand.
Share ‘you’ to define your brand image
Sharing your vision is what people will buy into. People buy into why you do what you do. Share your ‘why’ and beliefs to be authentic and unique.
Choose your voice. Expert or comedian? What voice relates best to your target audience? Picking a voice and being consistent will establish your unique voice and you will become familiar to your viewers.
Snapshot of your people. Whether it be employees or the boss, having a face will make your company and brand trustworthy. People trust people, not just brands. It will give a glimpse of your culture and connect on a personal level with your audience.
Below are things to keep in mind when writing posts.
Edit and reread what you write
Reread what you write. Everything you write affects how people perceive your brand. Edit carefully, as often your words are taken at face value and be purposeful with what words you choose.
Be consistent to be recognisable. An important component of a great brand is consistency. People will expect you to post on certain dates, and expect certain types of content. And when your audience finds consistency, trust continues.Key Tip: Updating and being consistent is different for each platform. On Twitter, Tweeting twice a day would be good for exposure. LinkedIn should be updated weekly, to pinpoint important changes to your services and industry.
Address, not react to, criticism.
It’s not uncommon for published content to be misinterpreted or even attacked with ulterior motives. And it can damage your brand if you’re not careful.
Take a few hours or breaths before responding to such comments. With time comes clarity.
You never know who might be reading your posts, so detach your personal feelings when you share content on social media.
Respond quickly to both fans and victims. Pizza Hut is great at addressing complaints on their Facebook page promptly. Your viewers and especially people that feel wronged by you need to be addressed quickly. Everyone expects you to react instantly, so speed is essential.
Social media platforms are great for building your brand image and presence. But it can substantially improve your returns if you added visuals to your overall social media strategy.
In the sequel to this article, we cover how you can integrate visuals to your brand.
What activities are you working to build your brand? Please share your story and join the conversation in the comments below.
