There are many ways for companies to strengthen a brand. Paid Ads, Pay-Per-Click, and SEO are some of them. Undeniably, social media is the best option for building a strong brand. It’s where you can get long-lasting results in the shortest time. Around 3.96 billion of the global population use social media today. That’s more than half of the people in the world.
For this reason, social networks are essential to building a brand. It’s the easiest way to connect with the target audiences. It’s also a place to develop a community of followers and generate leads. If you plan to create a social media marketing plan, these four strategies to build a strong brand through social media may help.
Create a Brand Logo and Name
Before brainstorming what you need for your own logo, you might want to think about your brand name first. Check out the following options to get inspiration on how to create the perfect brand name:
- It may be the founder or inventor’s name like Coco Chanel.
- The name may imply what you do like Southwest Airlines.
- It may be a description of the experience or image like Sprint.
- You can take a word out of context like Apple.
- You can make a new word like Google.
The key is to be creative enough to give a relevant brand name that rings a bell.
A logo serves as your brand identity. It distinguishes your social media posts from other companies. To help build a strong brand, a logo must be distinctive, memorable, relevant, scalable, and straightforward. Most companies use graphic design software to come up with a personalized logo. But if you do not have the resources to purchase an application software, you can search online to find where to make free logo design. Yes, it is possible and free apps do exist! Plus, they are easy to use at no cost.
After creating your brand logo and name, you’ll now have a north star for your marketing campaign. Use them as a guide to a consistent discovery of your brand. Any social media ads or content should align with your brand logo and name.
Connect with Your Target Audience at the Perfect Time
Five major platforms dominate social media marketing. These are:
- YouTube
Each one offers a unique benefit. Brands should identify which channel they best resonate with. To do so, start by making a page on each platform. Try building a community of followers through consistent posting. Analyze the posts that garnered better engagement, which means more comments, conversions, likes, and shares. Rank the platforms according to which brings the highest engagement. From there, you can decide which platform to focus on. It may be the top two or three on your list. To build a strong brand through social media, you have to post consistently. It also doesn’t stop posting content. You need to interact with them – acknowledge likes and reshares or reply to their comments.
Post a Mixture of Contents
Social media marketing follows the 50:30:20 rule. It means that half of your content should be curated contents shared from outside sources. Choose relevant content from reputable industry influencers. Don’t forget to give them due credit when sharing. These types of content provide value to your target audiences. At the same time, it’s a smart way of establishing a connection with industry colleagues. 30% of your social media post should be original content. It highlights the value a brand can offer. Aim to give answers to typical questions using a blog post. How-to-do’s or guides can suggest solutions to daily life problems. You may also want to entertain your audience by posting funny videos or memes. The remaining 20% should cover marketing. These may include ads, awards, promotions, reviews, and testimonials. They are times when you need to do some self-promotions. The 50:30:20 rule contradicts hard selling to build a strong brand in social media. It focuses on letting your contents sell for you.
There are many forms of content in social media. These may be:
- announcements;
- contests;
- images;
- infographics;
- Live streams;
- videos;
- written content such as articles, blogs, guides, etc.
It is essential to use a mixture of these content to maintain engagement. But sharing the appropriate type of content on each platform is very vital. For instance, videos are popular media on Facebook and Instagram today. But LinkedIn professionals may prefer infographics and blog posts instead. The challenge here is to have a consistent brand voice under a different style of posts that fits each unique community.
Boost Your Social Media Branding Through Visuals
The best way to build a strong brand in social media is to boost branding through visuals. First, the human brain processes images 60,000x faster than regular text. Second, most audiences use mobile devices where visuals can be more eye-catching than boring text layouts. Let your brand logo and name be the face of your business. Put them on your social media profile. Be consistent with the elements of your social media posts. Use the same color palette, fonts, and image style. Your audience can quickly identify the brand as they get familiar with your visual style in the long run. The easiest way to boost social media branding through visuals is to create templates for all kinds of posts in your graphic design app. Once you need to create a new post, you can simply use them and make small modifications.
To build a strong brand in social media, the key is to build communities. You can do this by converting viewers into followers. Keep them engaged using visual-rich content like photos and videos. At the same time, be consistent in using your brand logo and name. It helps in the discovery of your brand to increase your following.
Infographic created by Clover Network, a credit card processing company
