Busi­ness­es can com­mu­ni­cate their brand to con­sumers in var­i­ous ways, but some meth­ods are more effec­tive than others.

In 2016, dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing over­took tele­vi­sion as the most pop­u­lar adver­tis­ing medi­um, and things con­tin­ue to evolve to this day.

Busi­ness­es today can choose between TV ads, paid social media ads, email mar­ket­ing cam­paigns, SEO efforts, spon­sored prod­uct place­ment, and of course, good old-fash­ioned billboards.

Among these numer­ous options lies a less con­spic­u­ous mar­ket­ing method – social media brand­ing.

Social media brand­ing dif­fers from paid adverts appear­ing on Face­book or Insta­gram. It is a brand per­sona shared with the world. It’s a reg­u­lar source of con­tent and infor­ma­tion, an archive of sto­ries and images, a liv­ing and breath­ing account that is acces­si­ble to all.

Social media brand­ing involves busi­ness­es cre­at­ing one or more social media accounts to rep­re­sent them online. Although it needs financ­ing, hav­ing brand­ed social media accounts is stur­dier than paid adver­tis­ing meth­ods and can inte­grate much more into the online lives of consumers.

Plus, social media brand­ing can be high­ly lucra­tive. In fact, “con­sumers who engage with com­pa­nies over social media spend 20% to 40% more mon­ey with those com­pa­nies than oth­er cus­tomers.” This means that the peo­ple who fol­low the social media accounts of busi­ness­es are some of their most valu­able leads.

To help you gain access to your most valu­able leads, you’ll need to get your brand out there on social media. Our arti­cle will dis­cuss how you can do this effec­tive­ly on a range of plat­forms and high­light the main stick­ing points that cause brands to fail.

How to build a brand on social media

Let’s dive into the key steps you’ll need to take if you want to build your brand with social media.

Develop a brand persona

The first thing you’ll need to do is define your brand per­sona – even before you start cre­at­ing con­tent. Think about what val­ues and traits your brand rep­re­sents and how you want your audi­ence to per­ceive your brand.

To cen­tralise your ideas, you could cre­ate a brand per­sona doc­u­ment that out­lines your brand’s per­son­al­i­ty, tone of voice, and visu­al style. Then, you’ll have some­thing to return to when­ev­er brain­storm­ing new con­cepts for posts or campaigns.

When draw­ing up your brand per­sona, make sure you con­sid­er the following:

• Its mis­sion state­ment and intentions
• The design and imagery that rep­re­sents it best
• Its pre­ferred font style
• Its most like­ly mes­sag­ing style
• The types of con­tent that suit its personality
• Its area of exper­tise (niche)
• How the brand per­sona will inter­act with its leads

These point­ers will help shape your defined per­sona, as well as the con­tent you choose to cre­ate and publish.

Start creating

Once you know the kinds of con­tent you’re going to pub­lish, you can start cre­at­ing and plan­ning. We rec­om­mend cre­at­ing a con­tent cal­en­dar to keep things organ­ised, espe­cial­ly if you want your social media out­put to coor­di­nate with a pre-exist­ing email campaign.

Trends are vital to social media use, so it’s a good idea to stay on top of what’s pop­u­lar. If there’s a viral Tik­Tok song or sound, use it in your shorts! Or respond to cur­rent world events with wit­ty or emo­tion­al posts.

It’s like­ly that you’ll need to out­source the help of tools or oth­er pro­fes­sion­als when cre­at­ing high-qual­i­ty con­tent for your social media account/s. For instance, using a tool like Can­va can open up numer­ous doors for design pos­si­bil­i­ties and video­g­ra­phers can offer their exper­tise in cre­at­ing shorts about your prod­ucts, ser­vices, or indus­try knowl­edge. Though these are expens­es, the val­ue of high-qual­i­ty con­tent can­not be underestimated.

Depend­ing on the nature of your busi­ness, the best social media plat­form for it will vary. Since not all social media plat­forms are cre­at­ed equal, they won’t all be suit­able for your brand. We’ll go into fur­ther detail about this issue lat­er in the arti­cle, but it’s essen­tial that you choose one that your tar­get audi­ence uses the most, and there­fore the con­tent you share will have the most impact.

Build a community

Build­ing a com­mu­ni­ty around your brand will be essen­tial for cre­at­ing a loy­al fol­low­ing and build­ing brand aware­ness. This can be achieved through social media engage­ment itself, as well as con­tests, col­lab­o­ra­tions, shar­ing, and online groups.

It’s not uncom­mon for small or local busi­ness­es to join online com­mu­ni­ties and groups (at both the glob­al and local lev­els) to pro­mote their prod­ucts and ser­vices. You could even cre­ate your own online group ded­i­cat­ed to the dis­cus­sion of your prod­ucts on Face­book or Reddit.

Col­lab­o­ra­tions with influ­encers can be extreme­ly ben­e­fi­cial, espe­cial­ly if the influ­encer’s main demo­graph­ic is the same as yours. Just be sure to vet them first to reduce the risk of con­flict of inter­est or rep­u­ta­tion damage.

A sense of com­mu­ni­ty can be fos­tered by your con­tent itself when it invites dis­cus­sion, ques­tions, and inter­ac­tion – but you’ll have to make sure you’re responsive.

Track your performance

As with any cam­paign or com­pa­ny project, ana­lyt­ics are vital. And social media efforts are no exception.

Make sure you set up your Google Ana­lyt­ics (or pre­ferred tool) to keep track of per­for­mance data and check it reg­u­lar­ly in case you spot any irreg­u­lar­i­ties or sig­nif­i­cant dips. An ana­lyt­ics tool will be extreme­ly help­ful if you’re man­ag­ing accounts on more than one social media plat­form, as the data from the dif­fer­ent chan­nels is all in one place.

Oth­er­wise, you can eas­i­ly check your per­for­mance on your cho­sen plat­for­m’s native insights page.

As always, there’s no point in keep­ing an eye on per­for­mance data if you aren’t going to do any­thing about it. If your engage­ment rate is ever low­er than it should be (or low­er than you want it), take action!

Social media platforms are not made equal

As men­tioned above, the social media plat­form you choose for your busi­ness account will depend on the nature of your com­pa­ny. The range out there offers dif­fer­ent ben­e­fits to com­pa­nies, and these should be con­sid­ered before too much time or mon­ey is invested.

So, here’s what you should know:

Facebook

Face­book is the largest social media plat­form, with over 2.9 bil­lion active users.

It’s a great plat­form for busi­ness­es that want to build a strong online pres­ence and con­nect with cus­tomers through shar­ing a vari­ety of con­tent for­mats because it allows for text, images, and video posts, as well as live streams.

Suc­cess­ful­ly build­ing a brand on Face­book will require cre­at­ing high­ly engag­ing con­tent due to its pop­u­lar­i­ty and com­pet­i­tive nature. Plus, you’ll need to use fea­tures like Face­book Groups and Face­book Ads to reach your tar­get audience.

The demo­graph­ic for Face­book is very broad and essen­tial­ly encom­pass­es all groups except for young teenagers.

Instagram

Insta­gram is a visu­al plat­form that’s ide­al for busi­ness­es that have strong visu­al identities.

It has over 1.22 bil­lion active users, 70% of which are under 34 years old.

Insta­gram is all about shar­ing visu­al­ly appeal­ing con­tent, so busi­ness­es that want to build a brand on this plat­form should focus on cre­at­ing high-qual­i­ty images and videos. Hash­tags are also an impor­tant part of Insta­gram, so brands should make sure to use them to reach a wider audience.

Anoth­er grow­ing aspect of Insta­gram con­tent is the infor­ma­tive type. If your busi­ness has a niche exper­tise, it will like­ly have a seg­ment of Insta­gram users who are inter­est­ed in learn­ing about it.

Twitter

Twit­ter is a plat­form that’s all about real-time conversations.

It has over 556 mil­lion active users and is pop­u­lar among jour­nal­ists, politi­cians, and celebrities.

Busi­ness­es that want to build a brand on Twit­ter should focus on cre­at­ing engag­ing and share­able con­tent that’s rel­e­vant to cur­rent events and trend­ing top­ics. Twit­ter also has a rep­u­ta­tion for being a great plat­form for cus­tomer ser­vice, so make sure to respond to cus­tomer inquiries and feed­back in a time­ly man­ner if you want your brand to do well.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a pro­fes­sion­al net­work­ing plat­form that’s great for B2B businesses.

It has over 900 mil­lion active users and is par­tic­u­lar­ly pop­u­lar among busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als and job seekers.

Build­ing a brand on LinkedIn involves cre­at­ing a strong pro­file that high­lights your com­pa­ny’s exper­tise and shar­ing Thought Lead­er­ship con­tent that’s rel­e­vant to your indus­try. LinkedIn is

also a great plat­form for build­ing rela­tion­ships and con­nect­ing with oth­er busi­ness­es and pro­fes­sion­als in your industry.

TikTok

Tik­Tok is a rel­a­tive­ly new social media plat­form that’s all about short-form video content.

It has over 1 bil­lion active month­ly users and is par­tic­u­lar­ly pop­u­lar among younger audi­ences (ages 15–25).

Build­ing a brand on Tik­Tok involves cre­at­ing fun and engag­ing videos that res­onate with your tar­get audi­ence, join­ing in on cur­rent trends, and shar­ing infor­ma­tive “hacks.”

Tik­Tok is all about authen­tic­i­ty and cre­ativ­i­ty, so busi­ness­es that want to build a brand on this plat­form should focus on cre­at­ing con­tent that’s unique and memorable.

Which platform is best for your business?

Clear­ly, each social media plat­form has its own demo­graph­ic and, there­fore, won’t be ide­al for every busi­ness. When in doubt, make sure you choose the one that your tar­get audi­ence likes the best and remem­ber you can always man­age accounts on mul­ti­ple plat­forms if you want to.

If you choose to build your brand with mul­ti­ple social media plat­forms at the same time, you might be inter­est­ed in the top­ic of con­tent repur­pos­ing to make the most of your cre­ative efforts.

When is the right time for businesses to start using social media?

Despite the numer­ous ben­e­fits of build­ing a brand on social media, it’s not right for every busi­ness. Read on to learn where your com­pa­ny stands:

Now

Some view social media as an essen­tial part of mod­ern mar­ket­ing. With bil­lions of peo­ple using social media every day, it’s clear­ly brim­ming with poten­tial rewards for any busi­ness’s mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy. By build­ing a strong brand­ed account on social media, busi­ness­es can reach this broad audi­ence and engage with these poten­tial cus­tomers in mean­ing­ful ways.

Some believe it’s impor­tant for busi­ness­es to cre­ate social media strate­gies ear­ly because of the time it takes to estab­lish a strong pres­ence and build a loy­al following.

Arguably, busi­ness­es that wait too long to start build­ing a brand on social media may find them­selves play­ing catch-up to their com­peti­tors who have already estab­lished a strong presence.

Later

Despite the rea­sons list­ed above, not every busi­ness is in a posi­tion to launch a social media strat­e­gy right away.

If a busi­ness is cur­rent­ly lack­ing invest­ment or its funds are still tied up in an ongo­ing project, it’s like­ly best to wait until it can afford to launch a social media brand­ing campaign.

Plus, if a busi­ness is already see­ing pos­i­tive results from oth­er meth­ods (e.g., email mar­ket­ing), it might not want to fun­nel off funds towards a new project.

Nev­er­the­less, the pow­er of social media can­not be under­es­ti­mat­ed, and these busi­ness­es should plan to cre­ate a brand­ed social media account as soon as possible.

Never

While social media can be a valu­able tool for many busi­ness­es, it’s not nec­es­sar­i­ly a one-size-fits-all solu­tion. Depend­ing on the nature of the busi­ness and its tar­get audi­ence, social media may not be the best way to build a brand.

For exam­ple, if a busi­ness oper­ates in the B2B space, email mar­ket­ing, net­work­ing, and attend­ing indus­try events may be more effec­tive than a social media strategy.

Sim­i­lar­ly, if a busi­ness is focused on serv­ing a spe­cif­ic local area, social media may not be the most effec­tive way to reach a tar­get audi­ence. Instead, the busi­ness could be bet­ter suit­ed to local adver­tis­ing, net­work­ing, and com­mu­ni­ty events.

There’s no harm in cre­at­ing an account for online vis­i­bil­i­ty and pro­vid­ing a cus­tomer con­tact point, but these busi­ness­es should not invest lots of resources into a social media strat­e­gy or expect dra­mat­i­cal­ly pos­i­tive results.

Top tips and best practices for brands on social media

1. When launch­ing a new brand­ing cam­paign, delete any old accounts your com­pa­ny might have. You might also want to comb through old brand con­tent and delete any­thing that no longer fits with your cur­rent brand vision (whether it’s low qual­i­ty or ‘ques­tion­able’)

2. Make sure all online com­pa­ny infor­ma­tion is cor­rect, com­plete, and acces­si­ble. Cus­tomers won’t favour your brand if they can’t get in touch.

3. If you’ve already got a good pres­ence on one plat­form or a well-estab­lished mail­ing list, you can import your con­tacts to increase your new accoun­t’s reach.

4. To earn the monop­oly on a spe­cif­ic top­ic, pub­lish Thought Lead­er­ship. Make sure you choose some­thing you’re a true expert in and make the con­tent high­ly engaging.

5. Share your posts through email or oth­er social media plat­forms to dri­ve engage­ment across channels.

6. Use tools and apps (such as Can­va, Hoot­suite, and Buffer) to help with your social media campaigns.

7. Use a mix of text, images, videos, and info­graph­ics to cre­ate con­tent that informs, enter­tains, and inspires your audi­ence. Most of all, a vari­ety will keep them from get­ting bored with your account.

8. Always post reg­u­lar­ly, and make sure your con­tent is con­sis­tent in terms of tone, style, and messaging.

9. Don’t just push out con­tent – engage with your audi­ence as well. Respond to com­ments, answer ques­tions, and acknowl­edge feedback.

10. Iden­ti­fy influ­encers who align with your brand val­ues and col­lab­o­rate with them to cre­ate con­tent that engages their followers.

If you’d like help build­ing your brand with social media, our team at pur­ple­plan­et would love to help. Reach out or click the but­ton below to learn more about our services.

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