6 Social Media Branding Strategies

Social media is integral to a marketing strategy, but there’s a considerable difference between an effective branding strategy and an ineffective one. It’s easy to get social media wrong and create content in a way that doesn’t resonate with the target market. In many cases, we see businesses creating content and writing posts for themselves rather than with a specific audience in mind.

In 2021, it’s more important than ever to generate a branding strategy for social media. How will you approach social media? What channels will you use? What are you trying to achieve? How will you achieve it? Below, we’ve laid out the strategies you need to implement to ensure a positive social media experience this year.

1. Know Your Customer

You may be tired of hearing it, but nothing in marketing works if you don’t have a strong understanding of your customers. Whether you’re investing in paid ads and social media, physical leaflets or a TV ad, knowledge of the customer underpins everything you do. Without customer understanding, you’re simply guessing, and decisions are unlikely to generate the results we desire.

There are many ways to learn about your customer including using the analytics from your website or existing social media channels, analyzing your existing customer base data, and assessing the demographics of those who value your service the most.

See Related: Market Research: How To Identify And Target Customer Personas

2. Create a Brand Persona and Lay the Foundation

What are you trying to achieve with social media? Don’t just create a Facebook account, for example, without knowing what you want to get out of it. We all want to make sales, but do you actually want to generate sales through social media or gain brand exposure? Do you want to use social media to generate leads and get people clicking through to your website?

Once you recognize your goals, it’s easier to think about the approach across the chosen social media channels. As we all know, consistency is critical with branding and it’s important to offer a similar voice and character regardless of whether you’re posting to Instagram or Twitter. For Millennials, six in ten don’t just want a consistent experience but they EXPECT it. With knowledge of your customer and goals, the next step is to create a persona and implement it everywhere (even on your website!).

See Related: Brand Building 101

3. Choose the Right Platforms

Here it is, one of the hardest parts of a branding strategy and where many people go wrong — choosing the right channels. In the United States, we have several options with new names continually making waves in the industry. Here’s a basic summary of the biggest five:

• Twitter — Used by nine in every ten businesses with 100 employees or more, Twitter is often a hub for customer service. These days, consumers prefer to Tweet businesses with a problem than send an email or phone a number. Therefore, Twitter is all about customer interactions and developing relationships.
• Pinterest — The benefit of Pinterest is that the vast majority of users have used the platform with purchase intentions; it’s a great option for making sales and sharing content.
• Facebook — Facebook has more females than males, but there are enough of both genders to make a branding strategy worthwhile. Nearly four in every five businesses using the platform have been able to generate leads. Above all else, it’s the flexibility of Facebook that leads to success. It’s possible to boost brand awareness, converse with customers, run competitions, create ad campaigns, and so much more.
• Instagram — Ideal for businesses with a younger audience, it’s thought that under 35s account for 90% of the user base. Though originally a place for sharing lifestyles, Instagram has developed into a key location for brands (most users follow at least one company). With visual content, Instagram allows businesses to engage and build relationships with customers. Features like Reels and Shopping are also improving the selling aspect of the platform.
• LinkedIn — Lastly, we have LinkedIn, a website seen as the best place for B2B advertising and reaching out to professionals. If you need to produce long-form content and want to establish the brand as a leader, LinkedIn is normally the place to go.

4. Find the Balance Between Humanizing and Automating

Automation has helped businesses to become more efficient with budgets and time, but there’s also a danger of over-automating and losing the personal touch that a modern business requires. Especially with posting, we’ve seen businesses endlessly share third-party content until the page becomes something seen a million times before. To really connect with your audience, you cannot forget to offer something unique and authentic.

Think about a traditional industry event you’ve been invited to where there’s a chance to network. Would you walk up to each person and immediately launch into a sales pitch? No, you’d start with a conversation and try to add some value to their experience. Just because you’re on social media, this doesn’t mean you act differently.

Don’t automate all posts and share the content of others; be creative and let your followers in behind the scenes from time to time. Show the world that real people are behind the brand. Consumers want to connect with people, not bots. By humanizing, there are more opportunities for consumers to connect.

We aren’t saying you shouldn’t automate simple tasks because this is especially valuable with ad optimization. However, the actual content you create should embody your personality, offer something new to followers, and bring a personal touch not available through automation. One top tip to humanize the brand on social media is to get involved in conversations. Why not join related groups, enter discussions, show your knowledge, and respond to comments?

5. Create an Approach for Each Channel

As much as we would like one, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach in any part of the marketing strategy. You can use the branding strategies of other businesses as a starting point, but personalize each element for your own audience, objectives, and goals. What’s more, there’s also not a one-size-fits-all approach for all social media platforms. These days, it’s not enough to post the same things across Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter each day.

When creating content for a platform, think about how you’ll generate the most engagement. For example, Instagram followers want stunning photography and filters. On the other hand, Facebook users are more receptive to long pieces of text. Meanwhile, Twitter users are happy when businesses limit Tweets to 140 characters and Snapchat provides an opportunity for short behind-the-scenes clips.

There are pros and cons to using each social media platform, and ways to generate engagement on each. If you fail to adhere to the general rules of each platform, posts won’t resonate, and you’ll waste resources. If this tailored approach seems daunting right now, there’s nothing wrong with starting on one platform at a time. From here, you’ll master the first platform and add a second whenever you’re ready.

6. Post Consistently (Use a Content Calendar)

As the sixth branding strategy, it shouldn’t be a surprise by now, but consistent posting is always appreciated by followers. Just like consistent blog posts, users need to know when new posts are likely. Often, businesses are hit with an urge to post and are extremely active for three days. Then, they lose all motivation and forget to post for three months. All this does is frustrate followers and lead them elsewhere.

Instead, you should post consistently to each platform and try not to abandon any particular audience. This is another reason to start with just one channel, especially for those with limited resources. If necessary, use a content calendar so that each channel (and audience) receives consistent content. Write down the content type, keywords, CTA, intended recipient, and other details for each post to keep track over time.

This is an important social media branding strategy for all businesses, but even more so for those who want to become a thought leader. When posting consistently, followers come to expect content from you when something big happens in the industry. The more reliable you are, the more credibility and authority you gain.

As before, pay attention to general posting etiquette and create an approach for each channel. For example, Twitter users will love multiple updates per day while LinkedIn users may only want one post per weekday; it’s more acceptable to post nothing on the weekends on LinkedIn than on Twitter.

Get Started with Social Media Branding Today

With these six social media branding strategies, you’ll attack your marketing this year with fresh impetus.

Bonus tip — Especially after 2020, communication with your customers is key. Remember to be honest, open, and transparent with COVID protocols, delivery times, and other processes.